#like yes i would LOVE to see kpop artists being nominated and winning a big award like that

[ppulverse]

not to be negative but life will become so much more beautiful when kpop agencies finally accept that the academy doesn't give 2 flying fucks about kpop and stop trying to please the american market only bc they hope they can get their groups/idols to win a grammy

[angrykpoprants]

Bts paved the way for kpop idc what anyone says no one cared about kpop until BTS

I beg to differ, maybe for the late 2010′s and performing at award shows but not for kpop as a whole. However, this is always going to be a topic that always going to be two sided. And I full on respect your opinion, because I can see where its coming from. 

I’ve always felt like kpop was just a sub genre like a lot of other music, while its not mainstream and US artist will always have the upperhand in their home country kpop has a large enough following in the US, its just like that time were J-rock and J-pop was huge… btw does anyone remember Puffy AmiYumi?

I think the reason as to why it really looks like they were the ones who paved the way for kpop is because of the social media and fandom culture we have now, from 2005-2014 social media culture wasn’t like what it is today, I’m not even talking about fan interaction either, because I feel like there was way more fan interaction on twitter from the B.A.P members. 

Lets see the timeline of kpop/korean artist making headlines in America 

2005

Rain made headlines for being the first ever Korean artist to perform outside of Asia. He was also the first Korean artist to perform in the US, and let alone do a 2 hour concert. It’s one of the biggest Korean concert that was held in NYC. It even featured Pi Diddy, Omarion, and JoJo Levesque. This was the initial foot print that the hallyu wave had outside of Asia 

2006

Rain made headlines for because Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, to that Stephen Colbert invited him on his show and they did a parody of Way to Avoid the sun. 

The year that MTV made a special channel on American TV soley for kpop called MTVk

2007

Rain also again gained more american attention for being listed in People’s most beautiful people in the world

2008 

Bi Rain and Joon Park both were in Speed Racer, that was a big achievement for Korean Singers… just simply being able to graze the big screen. Rain more so than Joon got a good amount of attention, he even got some American interviews 

2009

Rain and Lee Joon were in Ninja Assassin. Rain made major headlines for again not only being in an American movie but this time actually staring in the movie and about how much training he did just for the movie. 

This was also the same year Korean actor Lee Byun hyun had his US debut 

GD at the time also got some attention after the alleged plagiarism between Heartbreaker and Right Round when Flo Rida performed with him

Wonder Girls made their American debut 

Wonder Girls were the opening act for the Jonas Brothers making the Jonas brothers one of the first American artist to work with a kpop group

BoA’s eat you up was released and played everywhere 

2010

Rain again made American attention by not only being nominated for an American award show but also winning MTV’s Movie Awards Biggest Badass Star beating Angelina Jolie, Chris Pine, Channing Tatum, and Sam Worthington 

Will.I.Am started to work with 2ne1 

2011

Bigbang gain global attention and celebrity clout after being the first kpop group nominated, attending and winning Best Global act at the MTV EMA’s beating Britney Spears in the process 

2012

Fantastic Baby went viral, reaction videos were popping up left and right. Fantastic Baby even played in some stores and I believe some radio stations 

Fantastic Baby was featured Glee 

SNSD had their American debut 

Wonder Girls made a American movie and JYP was featured in it (i know.. its cheesy)

This is the year of B.A.P’s debut where their debut album made it into the the World Album Chart at number 10 which was extremely rare at the time considering they didn’t even have a kpop section yet. 

Bigbang was on the Grammy’s front page twice 

Bigbang’s Alive world tour was the only full on sold out Kpop concert at the time, selling out not only in NA but SA and Europe, and were forced to add extra dates because the demand was extremely high, not to mention celebrities were showing up left and right to their tour stops 

This year was also Psy’s year which did bring attention to kpop and YG ent… regardless if Gangnam Style is a joke or not

The first Kcon was created 

GD also got international attention by showing up at PFW12

2013

B.A.P and Psy were featured on Grammy’s “Best of 2012″ making B.A.P the only kpop group on that page 

B.A.P’s first world tour for their US dates sold out in about an hour

Little Mix decided to join in on the Hallyu wave by doing a Korean version of Wings 

Will and Jaden smith met up with YG fam and Jay Park which brought attention to kpop beings that Jay wrote a song for their movie 

Will.I.Am and 2ne1′s collab was released

Anna Kendrick also wanted to get in on the Hallyu wave action by meeting up with f(x)

B.A.P performed in time square generating so much attention 

The year that Billboard gave themselves a kpop section because of the major Hallyu wave giving credit to B.A.P, 2ne1, and Bigbang for helping that chart exists 

Justin Bieber asked GD to feature at his concert in Seoul and proceed to tweet and IG about him 

Paris Hilton talked about GD being her favorite Korean artist

Paris Hilton tweeted about hanging out with GD 

Barbara Palvin talked about GD 

Choi Siwon went to the Met Gala 

Super Junior was invited to Oxford to talk about how they helped start the hallyu wave and the kpop attention in the US 

2014

Skrilex released his song featuring CL and GD 

B.A.P did a nickelodeon shout out 

I think this was the year that Exo got a lot of American attention too, but im not sure because im not an Exo-L

GD got attention just for showing up at Coachella 

CL signed with School Boy 

I am the Best was featured in a microsoft commercial 

2015

Emma Stone professed her love for kpop on American TV 

Fantastic Baby was featured in the Pitch Perfect trailer 

I am the Best was featured in a microsoft commercial again

Hyukoh’s Come and Goes gained international attention

2016

Far East Movement worked with Chanyeol and Loco

Jaden Smith tweeted about GD being is inspiration

Baauer released a song featuring GD  

Lil Yachty did his Bigbang tribute and has been know to be a fanboy of bigbang for a while

Epik High was the first Kpop group to perform at Coachella 

CL performed on James Corden 

I am the Best was featured in a microsoft commercial again

Hello Bitches was in a T-Moble commercial 

GD got international attention for being chosen as Channels ambassador 

2017

President Obama talked about the Hallyu wave and gave credit to shinee 

Tablo, Rain, and Kim Taehee were invited to the Grammys 

Jaden Smith tweeted about GD’s album 

Jay Park signed with Roc Nation 

DNCE talked about wanting to work with GD 

GD got international attention for is world tour 

2018

I am the Best was featured in a Kia commercial 

Hyukoh’s Citizen Cane was chosen to be in the Animoji comercial 

Hyukoh x Beats by Dre

Hyukoh was interviewed by Beats1

Taeyang got international attention for just getting married 

I would go more into detail by just tweeting about kpop but thats too much work to look for, kpop is a fad and it comes and goes. I kind of like what Hyukoh said about the whole Hallyu Wave/BTS thing they said “I think it’s really interesting and it’s fun to watch. Because of it, I think in some aspects were are benefitting from it, that’s really great. But nothing is forever, there will be some point when K-pop won’t be as popular. But because we’re not K-pop, I hope we stay popular even when K-pop is not.“

BTS did not start the hallyu wave, nor did they pave they way. They were just the first to walk on that new path which then inspired more to do the same and they were the first to win fandom based awards.

No matter what this will always be a topic is where some OG and new kpop fans clash, so yes, BTS is helping the Hallyu wave but they didn’t create the fad. I think the real Hallyu wave starter is Rain