The company behind BTS, K-pop’s biggest act, is going public

FOR THE past couple of years, the biggest news in the world of K-pop has been decidedly unpleasant. A scandal centred on “Burning Sun”, a glitzy nightclub in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, saw several male K-pop stars and industry executives accused last year of sexual abuse, procuring sex for business partners, drug-peddling and bribery. Later in the year two female idols committed suicide in the space of a few weeks. Both had been subject to misogynistic abuse for years.

But the industry’s biggest stars seem untouched by its seedy side. BTS, the world’s most successful K-pop group and the biggest boy band on the planet, has found global success by selling something close to the opposite of the machismo and aloofness that are usually required from K-pop idols. The seven 20-something men present themselves as down-to-earth, frank about the pressures and downsides of fame, socially engaged and aware of their own shortcomings. When fans got upset about a set of sexist lyrics a few years ago, the member who wrote them apologised for his ignorance and vowed to “study more” to avoid such lapses in future (he has since been spotted reading a feminist novel). And when American fans asked the group to support the Black Lives Matter protests this year, they promptly did.