Photo credit: Pexels
A K pop band in the White House? Yes you read that write. On Tuesday 31st May, the boy band appeared at the White House press briefing on Tuesday and met with President Biden as part of a visit aimed at discussing Asian inclusion and representation and addressing anti-Asian hate crimes and disinformation.
Each member spoke at the press briefing with Jungkook saying "We are still surprised that music created by South Korean artists reaches so many people around the world, transcending language and cultural barriers. We believe music is always an amazing and wonderful unifier of all things."
This moment was truly a historic one as crimes against the against Asian Americans rose by more than 300% last year, according to the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism, as Donald Trump continues to encourage Americans to blame China for the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden last year signed a bipartisan bill geared at addressing the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes into law.
BTS are hugely popular in the US and they have made history by being the first K pop group to perform on a major US award show in 2017 for the Billboard Music Awards. Globally, they've had Guinness World Records for gaining one million Tiktok followers in record time: 3 hours and 31 minutes to be precise.
By having one of the biggest Asian bands in the world come to the White House a symbol of great power it truly shows that times are changing.
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