[Courtesy of Billboard]
South Korean boy group BTS (also known as The Bangtan Boys) has won the Shorty Awards for influencing social media with its music, the boys' agency said Monday. Shorty Awards honors the best of influencers, brands and organizations on social media.
The seven-member group was selected as the top artist group in the awards' music category for the first time as an Asian artist group on Sunday. BTS has gained popularity over social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram during the last few years and is now one of the iconic boy groups in the K-pop scene.
BTS saw an especially successful year in 2016, with its album "WINGS", released in October. The album's title track "Blood, Sweat & Tears" was immediately listed on the top of Apple's iTunes chart in 97 countries and was ranked the 26th on the Billboard 200 chart as the first South Korean group.
The boys' popularity was boosted to a phenomenal level when an album "You Never Walk Alone" was released in February this year, the album's title song "Not Today" being viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube in less than a day of its release. The record was the fastest 10 million mark broken by a South Korean artist or a group.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
