"The new king of pop is getting ready to take the throne. (A new pop king prepares to take his throne)"

NME (New Musical Express), a renowned British music critic with a tradition of 71 years since its foundation, introduced BTS Jungkook's first solo album "GOLDEN" earlier this month.

As NME predicted, Jungkook is creating a "Jungkook Syndrome" in the global pop market with songs from "GOLDEN."

First of all, there is a rich harvest on various charts. The title song "Standing Next to You" entered the main song chart "Hot 100" on the latest U.S. Billboard chart (November 18), which was released on the 14th (Korean time). It ranked first in "Global 200" and "Global (excluding the United States)," which ranks streaming and sales in more than 200 countries/regions around the world.

On the "Daily Top Song Global" chart of Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform, on the 3rd, seven other songs from the new album, including "Hate You," "Yes or No," and "Please Don't Change (feat. DJ Snake), also succeeded in charting. This means that the global mainstream market is responding to the new album itself. "GOLDEN" ranked second on Billboard's main album chart "Billboard 200" and entered the album chart of the UK's official chart released on the 11th. It is all the more valuable in that Taylor Swift's new song "1989 (Taylor's Version)" is a success that swept major global charts.

Music experts point out that Jungkook filled the entire album in English as the first reason why he was able to penetrate the U.S. music market. In fact, Jungkook said in an interview, "As we have prepared for the overseas music market, this album contains all English songs."

An interim report released in August by Luminate, a global music market analysis company, confirms the power of "Songs in English." In the first half of this year, English ranks overwhelmingly first with 88.3% when analyzing the top 10,000 songs that have been played the most on the U.S. music platform by language. Spanish and Korean songs are then ranked second and third. As K-pop gained global popularity, Korean songs ranked third, but the proportion is insignificant at 0.9%. This is why Korean solo singers' albums have made unprecedented achievements in the global music market, citing "overcoming language barriers through full English lyrics" as a winning move.

The success of "GOLDEN" is also a composition like a "pop music department store." The album is filled with 11 tracks, including UK garage, Afropop, acoustic pop, and electronic dance. In other words, he has broken down the barriers of genre within the album. USA Today commented, "Jungkook successfully melted various genres such as R&B, EDM, disco funk, and pop ballad into 'GOLDEN'." "He knows how to use his voice, the greatest 'instrument,'" said Consequence of Sound, an American music media outlet, praising his talent for fully utilizing the characteristics of each genre.

Jungkook recorded four to five songs from "GOLDEN" in a week. This was possible because of the perfect interpretation of the song, voice control for the genre, and flexibility to reflect immediate feedback. The production team said, "Jungkook's natural talents and perfectionist tendencies have raised the completeness of 'GOLDEN'."

High-quality and trendy music approached listeners with a variety of tastes without any sense of alienation, and songs from "GOLDEN" were played a total of 39,653,740 times during the day of release based on Spotify, setting a new record for streaming on the chart entry day among Korean solo singers.

On top of that, Jungkook's charm as a male solo artist has drawn full responses from fans. Recently, male solo dance singers are not very popular in the pop market. If you look at the songs that ranked No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 from last year to the present, female musicians such as Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Doja Cat stand out. In terms of genre, country, traditionally strong hip-hop, and R&B, led by Morgan Wallen, who topped the list 16 times this year, were popular. Jungkook took the mound in the absence of a dance singer who dominated the stage with overwhelming performances to relieve the public's thirst for "pop stars."

Shortly after the release of the new album, Jungkook appeared on NBC's popular talk show "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" and "TODAY's City Concert Series" one after another, showing stable live and high-quality performances. In the entertainment industry, it was evaluated as "a stage that shows 10 years of experience" and "a legendary stage of a new pop star." In particular, the "Fallon Show" performance was highly popular, ranking first in YouTube's worldwide trend on the 7th.

NME said, "There was a 'King of Pop' every 10 years, but there were no big male solo stars yet in the 2020s. Jungkook proved that he would be able to do more than that mission with "GOLDEN". The 2020s finally found the 'King of Pop', and 'GOLDEN' will be more than guaranteeing him a throne," he said, introducing Jungkook as a new 'King of Pop' following Justin Timberlake, who dominated the 2000s, and Justin Bieber, who represented the 2010s.