The Global Music Network: Is BTS the Bridge?
Korean pop boy band BTS is known as the K-pop artist to transcend language barriers and become an international sensation overseas. In a March 2020 article by the Wall Street Journal, “Seven Reasons Why South Korea’s BTS Is an American Phenomenon,” the author of the article dubs BTS as an American “success story,” being the first of the K-pop genre to “top the U.S. album chart” and “perform at the Grammys.” BTS has collaborated with several American musicians and is a large contributor to recognition for Korean music in the United States.
In other words, the WSJ article implies that cultural music genres evolved simultaneously, but separately, and BTS and American recognition connected these two industries. If we look at all musicians as a network, then the American and Korean music industries were separate giant components (each consisting of their own artists), and BTS bridged the two, thus creating one giant component.
However, this relationship does not serve as a bridge according to the network definition because:
1. BTS’s tie to the American music industry is strong.
As established earlier, BTS has collaborated with several American artists and has met them at award shows. Therefore, BTS has strong ties with American musicians. Naturally, BTS also has strong ties to other K-pop artists because they belong to the same genre. Because of the strong triadic closure property, weak ties may form between BTS’s strong ties. This has proven to be true as more Western and Korean artists began to work together. BTS actually serves as a node that is deeply embedded in the network, as opposed to a bridge.
2. The two industries were already connected through neighbors.
Additionally, even before BTS came to fame, it was common for Korean companies to hire American songwriters to write their music. Instead of direct collaborations, the K-pop artist would be connected to a Korean producer, the Korean producer would be connected to an American company who would be connected to their employee to write music for Korean songs, who was previous connections with other American artists they’ve worked with. Though this is not a direct collaboration between artists, they have still been part of the same giant component.
Though the WSJ gave BTS immense praise for paving the way for other Korean artists, the more accurate way to describe the relationship between these two connected components and BTS’s role in the global music network is that there initially could have been a local bridge between BTS and the American music industry. The tie strengthened, and as a result of the triadic closure property, BTS became a deeply embedded node in the global music network, sharing many neighbors between industries.