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At the time, Toffler was running MTV, the most popular music cable network in the world, when a few pop groups emerged from what he calls “the Orlando school,” a euphemism for “The All-New Mickey Mouse Club,” a popular and influential show on The Disney Channel. The success of BTS and Blackpink reminds entertainment executive Van Toffler of the rise of NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “The opening product line is very much celebrating the Blackpink fan, and we’ve seen tremendous success.” Jazwares is in discussions for another toy line but declined to disclose any details.
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“We see a lot of opportunity with Blackpink, and we’re just getting started,” Deen said. Bet too late, and your competitors will beat you to it.Įarlier this year, Jazwares released a new line of toys based on the four members of Blackpink. Bet on a trend too early, and nobody buys the toys. It’s a field in which the key to success is timing. In just the past few years, Jazwares has created toy lines based on the popular YouTube channels Cocomelon and Blippi, on a Pokemon game and on Ultimate Fighting Championship. Jazwares has a habit of spotting trends early and turning them into top sellers. was enough to convince Kelly Deen, the vice president of global brand marketing for Jazwares LLC, a Florida-based toy company, that the time was right to bet on K-Pop as a new global phenomenon. In the past few months, the group has released collaborations with Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and Cardi B-three of the biggest pop stars in the world.īlackpink’s growing support in the U.S. this year because of the pandemic, promotion for their first full-length album started in the spring with an appearance on Lady Gaga’s new album. Though the group can’t return to the U.S. The band received strong reviews from the local press and further boosted their global fandom with a tour of Europe. last year, building a promotional tour around a performance at Coachella, the largest music festival in North America. Last year, Red Velvet, Oh My Girl, Sunmi and Tiffany Young toured the U.S.īut it’s Blackpink, whose members speak English, Thai, Korean, Mandarin and Japanese, that broke through first. The band’s success has inspired many other Korean acts to try and be the next BTS.
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and Europe, and hosted late-night shows in English. The group has also sold out venues across the U.S. in just 21 months-the fastest of any group since The Beatles. That all changed with BTS, the seven-person boy group from Seoul that scored four #1 albums in the U.S. But the groups never sustained a large following outside of Asia. “K-Pop has really broken into mainstream culture.”Īsian pop groups have been traveling to the West for a couple of decades now, dating back to Japan’s Arashi and South Korea’s Big Bang. “Language doesn’t seem to be a barrier in today’s world,” said Erlich, who is now Spotify’s co-head of music. The U.S., Brazil and Mexico are three of the six biggest markets on Spotify for Blackpink’s new single, “Lovesick Girls.” At the same time, BTS has more Spotify listeners in the U.S.
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Prior to the internet, overseas bands had to tour, or rely on radio play and TV appearances to develop a fanbase in the U.S., the world’s largest music market, or in Western Europe, which is home to several major markets.īut social media, paired with global distribution from YouTube and Spotify, has enabled K-Pop bands to develop followings all over the world with minimal touring.
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