Jungkook is highly appreciated by both domestic and international media. NME even identified the youngest member of BTS as the new generation “pop king”.
BTS ‘s Jungkook participated in the audition program SuperStar K3 when he was in middle school. He did not make it to the final round, but he received business cards from 7 entertainment companies, including BIGHIT MUSIC.
Despite his young age, Jungkook is recognized as an excellent singer and dancer and holds the position of main vocal of BTS, and at the same time received the title “golden maknae”.
Jungkook syndrome globally
According to Korean media, Jungkook is creating “Jungkook syndrome” in the global pop music market with the songs in his first solo album Golden.
Jungkook is reaping many achievements from many different rankings. The title song Standing Next to You entered the Hot 100 chart at number 5 on the US Billboard.
The song also topped the Global 200 and Global charts (excluding the US). This achievement is based on streaming and sales in more than 200 countries/regions around the world.
On the Daily Top Song Global chart of the world’s largest music streaming platform Spotify, 7 other songs in the new album, including Hate You, Yes or No and Please Don’t Change (feat. DJ Snake)… appear one after another with high rankings.
That shows the music-loving public’s acceptance of the debut product of the youngest member of BTS.
Jungkook achieved a lot of success with the album Golden.
Previously, Jungkook ‘s (BTS) album was written by critic Han Sung Hyun on the IZM website that it had no personal color. Instead, this product is more oriented towards commercial elements.
“This is an album that demonstrates the emptiness of the title ‘pop star’ in an era where Kpop has transcended borders and established itself as a comprehensive genre,” the critic gave a negative review of album on IZM.
However, despite mixed opinions from experts, the product still achieved countless achievements to prove how the audience received this album.
The album Golden debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and number three on the UK Official Chart. It is even more meaningful when Jungkook achieved these achievements while Taylor Swift’s album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) swept major charts around the world.
The secret to success despite debates about product quality
Music experts point out that the first reason Jungkook was able to penetrate the American music market is that all the songs on the album are written in English, according to Herald Corp.
Jungkook said in an interview: “When preparing to enter the foreign music market, we decided that all the songs in this album will be produced in English.”
The power of “English songs” was confirmed through a report by Luminate – a global music market analysis company – published in August.
When analyzing the top 10,000 most listened to songs on American music platforms in the first half of this year by language, English took the overwhelming lead with 88.3%. Followed by Spanish and Korean songs ranked 3rd.
Although ranked third, Korean accounts for a very low percentage of 0.9%, even when Kpop has become globally popular. Therefore, singing in English is an important reason why the Korean male solo singer’s album achieved unprecedented success in the global music market.
Jungkook always attracts audiences from appearance to performance skills.
Additionally, it cannot be overlooked that Golden has a “pop department store-like structure.” This album contains 11 songs from a variety of musical genres, including UK garage, Afropop, acoustic pop and electronic dance. This breaks down genre barriers within the album.
USA Today gave a positive review of the album: “Jungkook has successfully combined many different genres such as R&B, EDM, Disco funk and pop ballad into Golden”.
Consequence of Sound – an American music media agency – praised Jungkook’s talent in perfectly using the characteristics of each genre. “He knows how to use his voice. That is the greatest ‘musical instrument’.”
Jungkook recorded 4 to 5 songs in the album in a week. This is possible through impeccable song interpretation, ability to adapt vocals to the genre, and versatility.
The album production team said: “Jungkook’s natural talent and perfectionist tendencies have raised Golden’s level of perfection.”
Herald Corp pointed out the album has trendy, high-quality music that reaches listeners’ tastes. Thanks to that, the songs in the album were played a total of nearly 40 million times on the day of release on Spotify, setting a new record for the most streams in a day among albums by Korean solo artists.
In addition, the media’s assessment of Jungkook’s appeal as a male solo singer has received a huge response from fans. Recently, the presence of male solo singers in the pop music market has been negligible.
Looking at the top songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 from last year until now, we can see that female artists like Beyoncé , Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Doja Cat stand out the most.
In terms of genre, country, hip-hop and R&B are still trends. Jungkook appeared in a situation where no other dance singer could dominate the stage with an overwhelming performance. Therefore, the youngest member of BTS has satisfied the public’s thirst for “pop star”.
Immediately after releasing the new album, Jungkook appeared on NBC’s famous talk show The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and TODAY’s CitiConcert Series.
Here, he showed stable and high-quality live performances, worthy of an idol with 10 years of experience. Herald Corp newspaper even called this “the legendary stage of a new pop star”.
Writing about Jungkook, NME commented: “Every decade has a ‘pop king’. But there is still no male solo star successful enough in the 2020s. Jungkook has proven he is more than capable of carrying out that mission with Golden. The 2020s have finally found the ‘king of pop’ and Golden has secured him the throne.”
NME mentioned Justin Timberlake – who dominated the political scene in the 2000s, and Justin Bieber – who represented the 2010s. NME added: “A new pop king is about to ascend the throne”, referring to Jungkook.
Jungkook has been successful in the North American market by using several strategies, but the biggest factor is his singing skills, including his quality live performances.
