[Newsen] Golden Disc: The Meaning of BTS's first Album of the Year Award, a non-SM artist in 10 years

Group BTS (RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin, Jungkook) has achieved another meaningful feat. They have won their first 'Golden Disc' Daesang trophy in 5 years since their debut.

On the afternoon of January 11th, the '32nd Golden Disc' Album category awards ceremony was held at KINTEX in Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. On this day, BTS won the Daesang as well as the Bonsang at the Music category awards ceremony held on the afternoon of the 10th, making it a double crown. If you include the Bonsang they won at the music awards ceremony held on the afternoon of the 10th for 'Spring Day', the title track of 'WINGS Side Story: YOU NEVER WALK ALONE' released in February, they have now lifted a total of 3 trophies.

What's noteworthy is that they won awards in both the digital and album categories, an unusual feat. Most artists who have previously won the Golden Disc Awards have only won the main prize in one of the two categories. Because boy groups, with their relatively strong fan bases, tend to dominate album sales compared to solo artists or girl groups, the grand prizes in the album categories at most music awards ceremonies, including the Golden Disc Awards, have typically gone to boy groups. Conversely, the digital music awards have been more widely garnered by solo artists and groups with both mainstream appeal than boy groups. However, this year, BTS, like the popular girl group TWICE, won both the digital and album awards, proving once again that they are a top-tier artist with both a strong fandom and mainstream appeal.

Even just looking at BTS's track record since the Golden Disc Awards, it's easy to see the distinct, step-by-step growth that has characterized them. Having officially debuted in the music industry in June 2013 with "2 COOL 4 SKOOL," they won the Rookie of the Year award at the "28th Golden Disc Awards" in 2014, and went on to win the Bonsang award for four consecutive years from 2015 to 2018. This year, which marks their fifth anniversary since their debut, they won the "Artist of the Year" award, one of the grand prizes, at the "2017 MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards)" on December 1st, the "Best Song of the Year" award, one of the grand prizes, at the "2017 Melon Music Awards (MMA)" on December 2nd, and then went on to win the "Golden Disc Album Daesang" award, marking the peak of their upward trend. It is also

noteworthy that this is the first time in 10 years that a non-SM Entertainment artist has won the grand prize at the "Golden Disc Awards." Since SJ Wannabe won the Daesang Award for Album at the 22nd Golden Disc Awards in 2007, all singers who have won the Daesang Award over the past nine years, from TVXQ in 2008, to Super Junior in 2009, Girls' Generation in 2010, Super Junior in 2011-2012, and EXO in 2013-2016, have been under SM Entertainment. This is also proof that SM artists have maintained an unrivaled streak with their unrivaled fandom. Earlier, at the music awards ceremony held the day before, IU also garnered attention by taking home the Daesang trophy for the first time in 11 years as a female soloist.

Although it is unusual, the general opinion is that it was a fair and undeniable award result. According to the 'Golden Disc' chart that tallied the sales of albums released from December 2016 to November 2017 based on the Gaon Chart as of the end of December 2017, BTS's mini-album LOVE YOURSELF 承 'Her' released in September of last year took the highest score with sales of 1,493,443 copies. With this album, BTS became the first group in 16 years since g.o.d's 4th full-length album 'Chapter 4' (1,441,209 copies, Recording Industry Association of Korea) to become a million seller (selling over 1 million copies with a single album) based on a single album, not just repackaged albums. Second place went to EXO, who sold 1,085,094 copies of their fourth regular album "THE WAR."

Regarding this, the Golden Disc Awards explained, "We only evaluated albums that included six new songs, excluding intros, outros, instrumental tracks, and other versions of songs from the same album. In cases where a singer released multiple albums, we only evaluated the representative album with the highest sales." This award

cannot be dismissed as simply meaning albums sold a lot. In addition to album sales, which accounted for 80% of the total score, 20% of the scores were determined and combined through expert evaluation, adding to the fairness and persuasiveness.

In fact, BTS broke a new record for a K-pop singer by ranking 7th on Billboard 200, Billboard's main album chart, over the past year, and entered Billboard's main music chart, Hot 100, for the first time in 4 years since their debut with their title song "DNA," ranking 67th, becoming the first K-pop singer to occupy both main charts at the same time.

Not only were these record-breaking numbers remarkable, but their activities in the US were also noteworthy. In May of last year, they won the "Top Social Artist" award at the "2017 Billboard Music Awards" held in Las Vegas, USA, beating out world-renowned musicians such as Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Following that, they were officially invited as performers at the "2017 American Music Awards (AMAs)" held in Los Angeles, USA in November of that year, where they performed "DNA" live and received favorable reviews. In addition, while staying in the US to attend the 'AMAs', they appeared on ABC's 'Jimmy Kimmel Live', NBC's 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show', and CBS's 'The Late Late Show with James Corden' in succession, taking over the three major US broadcasting companies' flagship talk shows. Since they have demonstrated strong influence both domestically and internationally based on high-quality music and performances, it is only natural that they gained the upper hand during the rigorous judging process. The

'Golden Disc' side said, "BTS was overwhelmingly positive in the judges' scores. The judging panel, consisting of 30 pop music experts including the Golden Disc Executive Committee, music program PDs, radio PDs, music critics, domestic music distributors, and music reporters, gave BTS the highest score of 290 out of 300. EXO came in second with 211 points.“BTS also received the highest score with a total of 26 votes in the subjective questions written by the 30 judges,” he said, adding, “We will maintain a judging system that flexibly reflects trends and flows while maintaining the principle of fairness.”

The BTS members were the first to accept the award and express their gratitude to their fans, ARMY. They then expressed their gratitude to their families and Big Hit Entertainment officials, their eyes welling up with tears. RM began, saying, "This award has become a precious light for us. I dedicate this honor to ARMY." Jimin added, "So many unbelievable things happened last year. We were able to come this far because of producer Bang Si-hyuk, our managers, the staff, our members, and most of all, ARMY who have always supported and loved us. I don't know how far we will go, but I want to be with you forever. We will work hard to create wonderful memories starting today." J-Hope shared, "Receiving this grand award here makes the records and accomplishments we made in 2017 really come alive. I will not receive this award vaguely, but rather, I will accept it with gratitude, pride, and honor as an award given to us for creating the best album BTS has ever made and an amazing album. Thank you."

Source: Newsen