‘I’m wrong, but ‘Butter’ is bad,’ says Tom Breihan, who claims BTS and ARMY ruin the charts

June 8, 2021Last Updated: June 8, 2021

2 minutes read

After much criticism from fans and public opinion, Tom Breihan, who criticized BTS and fans for making the charts useless, spoke up and admitted his mistake, but only partially.

BTS once again made history when bringing ‘Butter’ to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Many people congratulated the group for this achievement. But many people are sarcastic and think that they still do not deserve it.

Last week, the site Stereogum caused controversy right from the title:. ‘BTS and their fandom ARMY are making pop charts useless’. The author of the article, Tom Breihan, criticized the success of ‘Butter’ as absurd and unacceptable. However, after much criticism from the fandom and especially from journalists in the same industry, Tom Breihan recently admitted his mistake, but only half of it!

This article immediately met with fierce criticism from the fandom ARMY. Besides, there are journalists and industry experts who also voiced opposition to Tom Breihan’s views. However, the most explosive is still the Forbes article written by Bryan Rolli with the title; ‘BTS aren’t ruining the Billboard charts. They were already broken.’

And it seems that the Forbes article published on June 4 really worked. After a period of silence in the face of all criticism, the author of the original controversial article, Tom Breihan, has finally spoken out on Twitter. Surprisingly, this person admitted that he had wrong views and also praised BTS for doing a good job. However, if you read it carefully, netizens realize that Tom Breihan only admits he is partially wrong and still has an uncomfortable attitude with the success of ‘Butter’.

Watch BTS’s ‘Butter’ here:

At the beginning of his response, Breihan appeared to acknowledge the headline that Forbes wrote was correct. Accordingly, it is not BTS and ARMY that destroy the rationality of pop music charts, but inherently, the charts have had many problems and inadequacies over the past decades.

This person added: “The difference with BTS is that it’s the fans doing the manipulation, not the labels. I don’t really understand that impulse, but in an atomized age, that’s what’s driving popularity. BTS has the most mobilized, devoted fan army, and that’s why they’re winning”

Despite admitting that BTS had an impressive win and did not destroy Billboard, Breihan still firmly maintained that ‘Butter’ was a… bad song. He also said that he received many responses from BTS fans. However, he also respected their enthusiasm. He thought it was difficult for any record label to “produce” such a loyal fan base.

Breihan admitted he was wrong because he wasn’t in a position to decide whether a song deserved to hit No.1 Hot 100 or not. However, he also included his personal feelings when he felt that his favorite songs did not have the opportunity to do that (to the top of the Billboard chart). However, he realized that having a solid fan base like BTS is also a very important factor.

In conclusion, Tom Breihan said he will not participate in the controversy anymore. He didn’t apologize for his post. However, he admitted he was wrong and briefly said BTS did well with their record anyway.

In fact, Tom Breihan’s responses were of course unable to assuage the outrage of the ARMY fandom. They said that this journalist clearly still holds his point. Some fans think that Tom Breihan only had to write these words because he received so much criticism from fans and from the Forbes article.

And while Tom Breihan posted tweets about the controversy (but continued to cause controversy), BTS continued to stay at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 2 weeks in a row.