Década de 2020

The 2020s are the decade in which BTS’s international visibility became durable rather than episodic, and Jungkook emerged as one of the group’s most recognizable representatives. What initially looked like another brief viral ascent instead became a sustained transformation of global pop culture, with BTS repeatedly finding ways to push their symbolic “stone” uphill after expectations of decline. The decade therefore joins musical expansion to questions of national prestige, cultural translation, fan labor, and the pressures placed on Korean male celebrities.

From Korean Hip-Hop Roots to Global Pop

The decade’s most visible breakthrough was “Dynamite,” released in August 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sung entirely in English, the bright disco, funk, and bubblegum-pop track became the first song by a Korean group to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned BTS its first Grammy nomination. Its video translated familiar American images—diners, sugar-covered doughnuts, palm trees, blue skies, and white clouds—into a polished performance by a Korean group, while Jungkook’s sip of milk recalled the visual language of the 1990s “Got Milk?” campaign. The result became the image of BTS most readily available in popular Western imagination.

That image concealed the group’s earlier identity. “No More Dream,” their 2013 debut single, was a confrontational cry of youthful rebellion dominated by rap, with Jungkook, despite being the main vocalist, also rapping. The contrast between that hip-hop-idol beginning and the sunny English-language pop of “Dynamite” reflects the wider history of K-pop, whose music and choreography combine hip hop with electronic music, pop, and dance. The decade thus did not erase BTS’s origins; it placed those origins inside a much larger global circulation of sound and image.

The cultural background of that circulation reaches back to American military and media influence in South Korea. The American Forces Korean Network broadcast continuously at a time when Korean television ended its programming early, bringing American films, music, and music-video aesthetics into Korean homes. Michael Jackson’s videos, including “Billie Jean,” “Thriller,” and “Smooth Criminal,” influenced later Korean performers; Jungkook would reference Jackson’s influence in “Standing Next to You” in the 2020s. The decade’s global success was consequently neither a simple import of American pop nor an isolated Korean invention, but a recontextualization of circulating musical forms.

Pandemic Success and Public Meaning

The pandemic made “Permission to Dance” a defining song of the period. Alongside “Dynamite” and “Butter,” it formed a trilogy of entirely English-language singles designed to bring joy during the health crisis. Co-written for BTS by Ed Sheeran, its video celebrated essential workers and ended with people removing their masks to reveal their smiles. For audiences isolated and confined at home, seven performers dancing and singing offered comfort, connection, and an accessible emotional ritual. The group’s timing mattered: people who had previously ignored Billboard rankings or music awards encountered BTS through the particular needs of the pandemic.

BTS’s scale was already measurable by 2021. The group had surpassed 11 billion streams on Melon, a record on the Korean online music platform. “Permission to Dance,” “Dynamite,” and “Butter” reached numbers five, two, and one, respectively, on the United States Billboard charts, while five other BTS tracks debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 during that year. “Dynamite” became the first K-pop song nominated for a Grammy Award. RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook watched the nomination announcement together and appeared shocked and delighted when BTS was shown beside Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber, and Taylor Swift.

The decade also made the group’s Korean identity more politically useful and more difficult to manage. After the 1997 financial crisis, the South Korean government invested heavily in pop culture and entertainment through the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, treating K-pop as cultural soft power. By 2012, a consultative committee had been established to support the expanding Korean Wave with hundreds of millions of dollars. BTS became national representatives whose visibility could shape perceptions of South Korea abroad, even as international exposure expanded the members’ own ideas beyond the domestic cultural bubble.

In 2020, BTS’s public commitments extended beyond promotional statements. The group donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement, and the international ARMY matched the amount within 25 hours. SUGA explained that the group opposed racism and violence and understood prejudice as something no one should have to endure. The decade therefore positioned BTS between commercial celebrity and civic representation: their popularity generated national prestige, but their public actions also tied that prestige to claims about justice and solidarity.

The State, the Nation, and the World

In 2018, BTS was invited to the United Nations to support UNICEF’s global education and development campaign after launching the “Love Myself” campaign with the organization the previous year and partnering with its program to end violence against children. During the pandemic, President Moon Jae-in brought the group to the United Nations General Assembly, where each member received a red diplomatic passport and a certificate naming them special presidential envoys for future generations and culture. They performed “Permission to Dance” in the General Assembly Hall, encouraged vaccination, and addressed young people facing difficulty during the crisis.

Jungkook’s appearance in the recorded address was notably restrained. Seated in black, with silver earrings visible, he spoke calmly and firmly about uncertainty and the continued purpose of using the group’s voices to give people strength. The moment condensed the decade’s tension: a pop idol was asked to stand for the nation, yet his authority depended on an apparently simple, direct, and humble manner rather than on formal political power.

That national role existed within a society highly sensitive to fairness, status, and collective obligation. South Korea’s competitive social order extends from education and employment into K-pop, where BTS had to establish itself outside the dominant Big Three companies: SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. Big Hit Entertainment, founded by Bang Si-hyuk in 2005, entered the field with fewer financial resources, established relationships, and media connections than those older companies. By the 2020s, however, BTS’s success was estimated to have generated $32.6 billion for the South Korean economy. Around 800,000 foreign tourists reportedly visited the country each year because of the group, spending an estimated five trillion won, or more than $3 billion, and Korea Post issued commemorative stamps in 2023 that sold approximately 1.5 million units.

The decade also brought the unavoidable question of military service. South Korean men are generally required to serve, and public suspicion surrounds celebrities who appear to receive special treatment. The possibility of exemption was especially sensitive for BTS because the group’s image as a national source of pride could have suffered if its members were perceived as avoiding a shared obligation. Military service thus placed a structural limit on the careers of male idols at the very moment when Jungkook’s international potential was expanding.

ARMY as a Global Infrastructure

ARMY, the fandom name established in July 2013 as an acronym for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth, became one of the decade’s decisive forces. The fandom’s importance lay not only in affection for BTS but in its unusually international composition and its ability to promote a group originally oriented toward East Asian audiences on a global scale. International ARMY organized across Twitter, Discord, Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube, TikTok, and whatever new platform emerged, turning online circulation into a system of translation, advocacy, discovery, and collective memory.

In 2020, ARMY joined other K-pop fandoms to oppose white supremacy and anti-Black racism online. Fans flooded the hashtag #WhiteLivesMatter with K-pop fancams and reaction gifs, overwhelming harmful propaganda. The activity demonstrated that fandom could act as a distributed political network rather than merely a consumer audience. It also extended BTS’s own social commitments, particularly after the group’s donation to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.

The relationship between Jungkook and ARMY was simultaneously intimate and commercial. Jungkook’s affection for the fandom was presented as genuine, and the group understood that sustained fan effort had helped carry them from obscurity to global success. Yet the industry also encouraged forms of attachment that could become unhealthy. A casual listener buying an album or adding a few songs to a playlist could not match the economic and emotional investment of a fan purchasing more than twenty albums to collect photo cards and obtain a chance to meet an idol at a fan event. The decade’s global success therefore depended on a relationship that was caring, participatory, and profitable at once.

Jungkook’s informal broadcasts showed how that relationship could operate outside conventional performance. He sometimes sang or cooked for viewers and once fell asleep during a livestream while six million people watched for 45 minutes. On television, he described the incident as embarrassing, while acknowledging that ARMY had enjoyed its unexpectedness. Such moments blurred the boundary between idol labor and private behavior, making ordinariness itself part of the public bond.

Jungkook’s Position at the Decade’s Edge

By the 2020s, Jungkook was repeatedly treated as the BTS member most likely to sustain a major solo career. The comparison had begun after BTS’s 2017 appearance at the American Music Awards, when he was likened to Justin Timberlake and Harry Styles as a potential star. In 2022, Charlie Puth invited him to feature on “Left and Right”; the same year, FIFA invited him to perform “Dreamers” at the opening ceremony of the World Cup in Qatar. In 2023, Calvin Klein named him a global ambassador. These invitations converted vocal visibility, stage presence, and international recognition into commercial and institutional capital.

The groundwork for “Seven” was laid during the group’s official pause. Andrew Watt and Cirkut were completing the song while Jungkook settled into a period of rest. The track had originally been written for Justin Bieber, had been completed more than a year before its release, and drew on the British garage sound then in circulation. Watt played it for Scooter Braun, who had become CEO of HYBE America after HYBE acquired Ithaca Holdings in 2021. Braun, responsible for the artist-and-repertoire side of Jungkook’s solo career, heard the song and connected it to him, with Watt later saying that Braun believed Jungkook could make it the most successful song in the world.

This transition did not cancel Jungkook’s attachment to BTS. The group’s decade of global success rested on a found-family dynamic in which all seven members retained distinct fandoms and contributed uniquely to the collective achievement. Jungkook’s prominence could therefore be understood as an extension of BTS’s accumulated cultural, emotional, and institutional capital rather than as a rejection of the group. The 2020s end with that tension unresolved but productive: the decade made Jungkook a global solo prospect precisely because BTS had built the world in which his voice could travel.