On the afternoon of the 13th, K-pop supergroup “BIGBANG” took the stage at the United States’ largest music festival, Coachella. However, recently there have been rumors that they turned down invitations for interviews from multiple Western media outlets, leading fans to joke, “They really are too lazy to break into the U.S.”
For K-pop artists, successfully “breaking into” the West and gaining a foothold in Europe and America is seen as a badge of honor, something fans take great pride in. Although BIGBANG is a K-pop supergroup of 20 years’ standing and is extremely popular even among Western audiences, they have not put in as much effort in the West as other Korean groups. Some K-pop groups try to accept interviews with major, influential Western media outlets, or appear on well-known talk shows and morning programs for promotion and publicity. But BIGBANG is an exception—almost none of these things have they done, making their appearance at Coachella especially precious.
Recently, a screenshot has been spreading rapidly on X (formerly Twitter), in which someone claiming to be a writer for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Rolling Stone, and Huffpost revealed, “BIGBANG is the only K-pop act that has refused my interview request. Usually, I’m the one rejecting K-pop interviews. I once invited GD for an interview as a New York Times journalist, but was also rejected. So I guess he’s actually rejected me twice.”
Though the authenticity of this post has not been confirmed, it has already sparked discussions among some media outlets and netizens, who have commented, “Honestly, they’re just too lazy to break into the West,” “While all the other K-pop groups are trying to break into Europe and America, Europe and America are chasing after GD,” and “This is what being a true king looks like.”
Source: Liberty Times Entertainment