Vox' article in depth analysis on why Kpop has a hard time with US-Airplay

 Vox's article interviews Radio hosts, experts and explains why Kpop still has not penetrated US Radio Airplay community, even with the recent success of BTS on billboard. (Note airplay plays a part in Billboard 100 besides sales and streaming)

The reasons include such as korean language (not friendly to US audience compared to Spanish counter part for example), radio has stereotypes for what is a US hit song, required "adult" image while K-pop and boy bands are largely perceived to be for teens, still think Kpop is a one hit wonder, very risk-intolerance so wait and see if they can become household names and will be here for a long run, 

They focused mainly on BTS and how BTS has a hard time, but compared to BTS, other top Kpop artist on Spotify 2020 is only a tiny fraction when it comes to US radio (Top Picture)

(It is actually a surprise to me that SKZ is the highest in this list after BTS & BP w/o any US promo or English song, like I dont expect them to even play SKZ songs at all)

They then listed out 3 "success" cases in the past year: BTS, Loona & Jackson wang.

BTS: built fanbase gradually, then when the right time comes, have a US company promoting the songs and this brings the success. 

Loona: built fame deliberately, Loona’s management company, Blockberry Creative, spent months marketing the band’s all-English song “Star” in Los Angeles.

The strategy paid off when fans flooded iHeartRadio’s popular Saturday night live request hour, #MostRequestedLive, ensuring that the song received regular radio play for weeks. Loona has garnered 6,300 plays across 103 radio stations within the past year, with “Star” reaching #31 on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart, all without help from a major US distributor. Blockberry Creative is a boutique label, but its success with “Star” indicates that distribution effort and strategy go a long way — and that fan efforts alone aren’t always enough.

“The biggest explanation of what gets radio plays and what doesn’t still usually involves whether a label has actively promoted a song to radio,” ...“It doesn’t guarantee a hit, but it usually guarantees a hearing.”

Jackson: Jackson Wang performed his new all-English single “LMLY” on The Late Late Show With James Corden. Wang’s media campaign also featured interviews with US media outlets like GQ and Esquire — which may have helped him sidestep the music’s “for teens only” stigma. “LMLY” has since spent eight weeks on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart and has been played 3,800 times across 99 US stations.

(So the key here is making friends and networking with US radio hosts, guys)