The BTS ARMY is waging war on music industry publication Billboard and the Seoul-based journalist it commissioned to interview BTS.
In the feature, which was published online Thursday, Jeyup S. Kwaak brought up allegations of chart manipulation including “mass buying” campaigns by ARMY.
“BTS fans use PayPal to pool money from ARMY around the globe and make the purchases that will count toward U.S. sales,” wrote Kwaak. “Some ARMY organizers then offer to reimburse other fans for purchases. The source of those funds remains unclear, and some BTS fans have expressed concern about revealing more about their methods.”
Kwaak suggested these efforts have given a significant boost to BTS, which tends to have lower streaming and radio airplay numbers.
Asked about chart manipulation, RM told Kwaak: “It’s a fair question. But if there is a conversation inside Billboard about what being No. 1 should represent, then it’s up to them to change the rules and make streaming weigh more on the ranking. Slamming us or our fans for getting to No. 1 with physical sales and downloads, I don’t know if that’s right ... It just feels like we’re easy targets because we’re a boy band, a K-pop act, and we have this high fan loyalty.”
Shin Young-Jae, president of BTS label Big Hit Music, denied involvement in mass buying campaigns. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually had the ability to mastermind such a thing?,” he said.
Billboard noted that it looks for suspicious chart activity and that sales funded by an act or its reps would not be counted.
As RM said, it was a fair question – but ARMY disagreed and social media lit up with the hashtag “#BillboardApologizeToBTS.”
There were threats of violence (“Jeyup S. Kwaak, better sleep with one eye open tonight coz we're coming for you, mf,” “whoever Jeyup S. Kwaak is, count your days”) and plenty of insults (“total trash,” “s**tty”) and calls for boycotts (“Do not click on the article link, do not buy the magazine, do not interact with Billboard account via Twitter, do not give them the attention they are begging for it”).
Billboard has not responded to the fury. On Facebook, Kwaak shared: “I am getting a lot of hate – even death threats – from some fans for addressing a number of controversies, and to a certain extent I get your wrath. But I hope readers see that the piece isn’t trying to attack the band.”