--I apologize in advance, because I know this is neither an imagine nor a scenario, but I came across this interesting little opinion, and I just couldn’t let it go by. (And yes, before anyone points it out, I am aware that this opinion was sent into an “unpopular kpop opinions” blog, so it is meant to be polarizing and inflammatory and attention-grabby, but hear me out.)  

Music is important to me. My life has been spent studying music and I am one of those perhaps naive people who honestly believes that music can save the world, because music isn’t just important to me. Music is important to humanity. Quite simply, the music you need finds you at the time you need it.  Aside from all of the medical and scientific studies that have shown music’s impact on the mind and body, it is a truth universally acknowledged that music is an integral part of our being. When we speak, it’s music. The way our hearts beat is a rhythm. Music is a part of us. It touches us and heals us in a way very few other things can. 

Which is yet another reason I wanted to speak my piece here. If the original opinion-er has truly never had an emotional reaction to a BTS song, I genuinely pity them---but it simply means that it isn’t yet their season with BTS. However, to ignorantly assume that this means *no one* has had a strong emotional connection to the music is a step too far. 

Yes, people are drawn into a song by the way it “generally sounds and flows”---that is the point of music, is it not? But what OP is missing here, is that the affinity for the “sound and flow” of a song is a part of the emotional reaction. It feels good. It reaches some part of you that clicks in some way. Sometimes it makes you want to cry. Sometimes it makes you want to take on the world. And sometimes, it just makes you happy. Happy is an emotion. Happiness is an emotional reaction. When you nod your head along to a song, that’s an expression of happiness---an emotional reaction. The thing is, music affects every person differently. What is important to you may not be important to another person. You can hear a song and have it strike you to your core; someone else may hear nothing but pleasant sound. Even “repetitive” songs. Even “poppy” ones. Even “generic” ones. The idea that someone thinks they can determine a song’s (or artist’s) value for the rest of the world simply due to their own opinion is quite distasteful and ignorant. 

As is the implication that international music fans are unable to have an emotional connection with the music because they “don’t understand the underlying meaning.” This is just......🤦🏻‍♀️Is the implied opposite of this opinion that you must be innately able to understand every underlying message of a song in your native language? Because, believe me, I have been speaking English from birth and I’m still not sure what the “underlying meaning” of Who Let the Dogs Out is? This is why music is important---because you don’t have to speak the language in order to feel that connection. Because there doesn’t have to be “a language” in order to feel that connection. There are no words in classical music. Most operas are in Italian. Film score is typically wordless. Are you really suggesting that such music is unable to reach a person’s soul because it must have plain/familiar language to be understood? 

The first time I heard “First Love” from the Wings album, I was driving home during one of the most difficult years of my life so far and I started sobbing. 15 seconds into “Epiphany” (Love Yourself: Answer) I knew what it was about, what it meant, what it was. From the end of my first listen to “Make It Right” (Map of the Soul: Persona) I immediately craved another listen, hooked on the way it made me feel. The very first time I heard “Euphoria” (Love Yourself: Answer) in its abbreviated form in the Love Yourself: Wonder video, I knew it was precious to me, that it was something meant for me, that it touches my soul and reaches me in a way I will never be able to explain. All of this happened without knowing the language, without being told the “underlying meaning.” Now, I know these are just my experiences---but that is precisely my point. Music is there for each person to experience in their own individual way. For anyone to assume that it is meaningless or generic based on their own experience is the epitome of narrow-mindedness.

Finally, I have to disagree with the main sentiment of OP’s point. BTS’ international success seems more likely to be an indication of their ability to connect emotionally, across language and cultural barriers, rather than a sign of their “generic, repetitive sound.”  Music is individual---but at the same time, it is also blessedly universal. Because for every person who feels something different, there is another who feels the same. It is because BTS’ music has the power to connect, to mean something, to make you feel something, that they have gained such attention worldwide. A simple, generic, poppy drivel would not achieve the lasting success and loyalty that BTS and their music have garnered.