BTS, the Korean K Pop dynamos, have set a record at least for the recent modern past.
Sony Music says BTS’s single “Butter,” currently number 1 or 2 everywhere, represents the first time an international group has debuted single on every Top 40 station at once.
That’s probably partially true. In the 60s there was no measurement of the top 40 the way there is today. The Beatles, an international group, commanded the top 40 in 1964 and 1965. In one week they held the top 5 spots on the charts and many other positions. There wasn’t a station in the US that wasn’t playing their music all day, every day.
But let’s say since 1990 or even 1980, BTS now has this distinction. “Butter” is hot and it’s melting over everything. It’s a perfect top 40 pop hit, full of pep and utterly unmemorable. But the BTS machine has been building to this moment, so we’ll let them have it.
