Global music magazine Rolling Stone described BLACKPINK as “the biggest K-pop group in history”—only to face strong backlash from BTS fans and ultimately revise the phrase.
On November 7th, Rolling Stone published an article analyzing why BLACKPINK members failed to receive a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. In the piece, the magazine referred to BLACKPINK as “(without a doubt) the biggest K-pop group in history, and has been for years.”
The statement immediately drew intense criticism from BTS fans, who pointed to objective metrics such as album sales, awards, and chart performance to dispute the claim.
As the controversy spread online, the Rolling Stone editorial team revised the description roughly six hours later, changing it to “the biggest K-pop girl group.”
BLACKPINK fans also defended the group, citing their YouTube streaming numbers and recent achievements—highlighting in particular that their new song ‘JUMP’ has charted the longest on Spotify’s global chart among all K-pop group releases in 2025.
Meanwhile, according to recently released YouTube Music global streaming data, Rosé ranked No. 1 among all K-pop artists over the past 12 months with 4.14 billion views—marking the first time in history a solo K-pop artist has reached such a milestone.
By group ranking, BLACKPINK, NewJeans, and BTS placed first, second, and third respectively, while 5th-generation group BABYMONSTER showed strong performance across both YouTube and Spotify.
This incident underscores how the growing global presence of K-pop has made even a single phrase in foreign media a flashpoint for fandom debate.
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