The Creator of One Direction Faces Backlash for Dismissing the Success of BTS

Simon Cowell is renowned for his roles as a businessman, reality TV personality, and record label executive. He has served as a judge on several well-known competitions including “Pop Idol”, “American Idol”, “The X Factor”, and “Britain’s Got Talent”. Notably, Simon Cowell played a pivotal role in the rise of One Direction, signing the group to a £2 million deal with his label. This decision proved to be a major success as One Direction went on to break multiple records and sell 70 million records globally as of April 2020.

Simon Cowell takes great pride in One Direction’s success. In a recent announcement, he revealed his intentions to discover a new boy band that will follow in the footsteps of One Direction, emphasizing that each generation deserves a phenomenal boy band.

Furthermore, Simon discloses that he firmly believes no other music group has achieved the same level of success as One Direction within the last 14 years.

Despite One Direction’s undeniable achievements, Simon’s statements have sparked irritation among many, particularly K-pop fans. They feel that he purposely ignores the accomplishments of Korean groups, particularly BTS. Some have even brought up Simon’s past remark about wanting to form a “UKpop”group in response to BTS’s popularity.

It is understandable that fans may feel frustrated, considering that BTS has surpassed One Direction in various achievements such as having the most followers on Instagram and Twitter. In terms of music, BTS has also set records on YouTube, breaking the 24-hour view record for boy groups, and consistently ranking high on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Despite operating in different eras and facing initial limitations at their debut, One Direction and BTS have both achieved international success. However, Simon’s comments are believed to have underestimated not only BTS, but also other successful K-pop groups such as BLACKPINK, TWICE, NewJeans, Stray Kids, and SEVENTEEN.

Here are a few remarks from online users in response to Simon’s statement:

Despite not being a BTS fan, I find it surprising that someone would claim that no group has achieved the same level of success as One Direction, especially when BTS continues to thrive.
In 2019, he had also aimed to form a group in order to overthrow BTS, but as we can see, that plan did not succeed.
BTS has achieved impressive milestones, including being the most streamed group on Spotify, the best-selling group of the century, the most awarded group of all time, and the most viewed group on YouTube. In just 14 months, they have also earned six #1s on the Hot 100. The list goes on and on.
Despite the success that K-pop has achieved, Simon blatantly disregards and denies it.

Reference: K14