The Globalization of Masculinities: Why BTS Has Succeeded in America
Owen Wendell-Braly
Professor Dochterman
Writ 150
10/24/2021
Object: BTS
Prompt: What does the fact that this cultural object translates well to your home country — or fails to do so — say about the globalization of culture?
BTS, or “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which directly translates to “bulletproof boy scouts”, is a Korean boy band made up of 7 members notable for their countless hit songs in America and across the world. Naturally, they were not always a global sensation. All 7 members were hand picked by an agency in Korea and soon debuted in 2013 as a k-pop idol group — with their first album being called “2 COOL 4 SCHOOL”. It was not until 2015 that BTS really took off in the United States following the release of a new album which included their hit single “I NEED U”. Ever since then, BTS have grown exponentially and are currently one of the highest grossing bands in the world. Since 2017 the group are accountable for five #1 hits on the US chart, eight top 10 hits and 22 songs in total on the Hot 100. Apart from a few short lived success stories, BTS are unique in that they are the first k-pop group to find long term success in the American market. The reason as to why this is true, however, is left to debate.
Some say BTS has succeeded in the United States simply because their music is good. I believe, however, that the primary reason BTS has been able to achieve lasting popularity in America is because the globalization of ideas surrounding male masculinity has changed the way we view men in the US. This shift has allowed bands such as BTS — whose stars portray a softer version of male masculinity — to finally be able to join mainstream culture and subsequently succeed in the American market as well.
The idea of masculinity and what it means to be a “real man” in America has restricted or stopped the success of many artists in the past. Other K-pop bands such as H.O.T., or American artists like Adam Lambert or Lance Bass of N’SYNC, saw their careers take massive hits when questions came out about their masculinity. These cases were prime examples of what the American market used to be like. Essentially, be manly in a conventional way or be gone!
So why is this? You may be wondering why America is like this — or perhaps why it ever was? Why have men — from the time they were little boys — so often been taught to not be soft, to suppress their emotions and to not act girly. Why is pink a girl’s color and blue a boys, and why is crying a portrayal of femininity and weakness? The psychology of American masculinity and the history of its cultures show why this became the case in our society. America — once a Frontier country (at least from the perspectives of the non-natives), in a way was a “Wild-West” type of place where the stronger men survived and the weaker died. Much of this masculine identity — survival of the fittest — has since survived in the United States; where the conventionally manly and “strong” are superior, and those who are not so much, are worse.
In simplest terms — be tough, do not cry and at all costs do not display yourself in a way that goes against the conventions of what we know to be manly. These ideas — the conventions of masculinity in America and what it means to be a real man — are what have held bands like BTS back in the past. What society deems to be masculine in South Korea, or anywhere else in the East, is very different from what society sees as masculine in America.
These contrasting cultural values, however, have grown less polarizing to one another in recent years. The current interconnectedness of the world as a result of technology and the world wide web, have allowed for contrasting ideas and opinions to cross borders easily, reaching our younger generations and eventually the mainstream as well. What was once seen as foreign and crazy in South Korea is now seen as acceptable and cool in many parts of America. Being a man does not mean one thing anymore — rather, the bounds of true masculinity are very broad. You can wear pink and be many; wear nail polish and be manly, or in BTS’s case you can even dye your hair pink and still be a man! This is significant because these values and what our society accepts to be ok today are exactly what has allowed BTS to thrive in the states. Though one could define BTS as a feminine group because their hair is often dyed or sometimes their clothes resemble something closer to what a typical girl might wear than a man, their ability to own their culture and push the boundaries of masculinity in America is what has caught on with the younger generation. This is the result of the globalization of ideas surrounding masculinity and what it means for men to be cool.
In contrast, k-pop bands and artists of the past who portrayed softer versions of masculinity often found short term success in the American market but were unable to sustain it over an extended period of time. I believe the primary reason for this is the fact that the culture of America was still many years away from reaching the point of where k-pop and its unconventional masculinity would be accepted. Thus, I believe that if BTS were to have tried the American market back in the 90s, their ability to stick around would have been no different than the groups before them.
What is different now, though, and how do we know that the American audience loves k-pop that much? A journal of men’s studies centered around K-pop bands masculinities, states that “An emerging question is what makes K-pop male bands able to draw such intensive and extensive attention from fans all over the world who have varied cultural, language, and/or religious backgrounds? K-pop male bands’ ability to display various forms of masculinity has been cited as one of the key ingredients to their global success…K-pop researchers have highlighted that this global spread of K-pop is a novel transnational phenomenon that shifts a direction of globalization influences from so-called cultural periphery (non-Western world) to a cultural center (i.e., Western world).” In simpler terms I take this to mean that through the expression of their masculinity and the globalization of the ideas surrounding it, K-pop is now able to succeed as it is part of the mainstream or “cultural center” as the essay states.
In conclusion, while multiple masculinities in the East have been socially acceptable for quite some time; in America, although they exist, unconventional forms of masculinity have long been looked down upon due to American gender norms having to adhere to far stricter distinctions between female/male and feminine/masculine. In recent years, however, the globalization of ideas surrounding masculinity has pushed American norms in such a way that our younger generations are far more accepting of different forms of masculinity and as a result, foreign bands such as BTS are able to break into America’s mainstream. This, above all else, is why BTS has been able to succeed in America and why so many K-pop bands before them were not.
