One Direction’s Creator Faces Backlash for Dismissing BTS’s Success

Simon Cowell is known as a businessman, reality TV star, and record label owner. He has judged numerous famous competitions such as “Pop Idol”, “American Idol”, “The X Factor”, and “Britain’s Got Talent”. Notably, Simon Cowell was instrumental in the success of One Direction, signing the five boys to a £2 million contract with his label. Soon after, One Direction achieved phenomenal success, breaking numerous records and selling 70 million records worldwide by April 2020.

One Direction’s success is undoubtedly a source of pride for Simon Cowell. Recently, he announced his plans to find a new boy band to succeed One Direction, stating that every generation deserves a superstar boy band.

Additionally, Simon reveals that he doesn’t think there’s been any music group as successful as One Direction in the past 14 years.

However, while One Direction’s achievements are undeniable, Simon’s statements have irritated many, especially K-pop fans. They believe he intentionally overlooks the success of Korean groups, most notably BTS. Some have even recalled Simon’s response to BTS’s rise when he expressed a desire to create a “UKpop” group to compete with K-pop.

Fans’ frustration is understandable, given that BTS has broken many of One Direction’s records, including the number of followers on Instagram and Twitter. Musically, BTS has broken YouTube’s 24-hour view records for boy groups and frequently topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Although the two groups operated in different times, with One Direction facing some limitations at their debut, Simon’s comments are said to have underestimated BTS and other K-pop groups. Besides BTS, other K-pop groups like BLACKPINK, TWICE, NewJeans, Stray Kids, and SEVENTEEN have also achieved international success.

Below are some comments from netizens regarding Simon’s statement:

• I’m not a BTS fan, but this man dares to say no group has been as successful as One Direction while BTS is still standing strong?
• In 2019, he also wanted to create a group to overthrow BTS, but look at how that turned out.
• BTS is the most streamed group on Spotify, the best-selling group of this century, the most awarded group of all time, the most viewed group on YouTube, with six #1s on the Hot 100 in 14 months. I can go on.
• Simon clearly disregards and denies all the success that K-pop has achieved.

Source: K14