BTS tops nat’l survey on best recording artists of 2018

SEOUL, Dec. 18 (Yonhap) — Global K-pop sensation BTS has topped a national survey on the best music acts of the year.

Gallup Korea announced Tuesday that the seven-member boy band earned 24.4 percent of support in a survey on South Korea’s top recording artists for 2018.

Gallup polled 4,200 South Koreans between the ages of 13 and 59 from July 4-22, Sept. 7-27 and Nov. 7-30. It has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points, with a confidence level of 95 percent. Participants were asked to pick their three favorite artists.

This file photo provided by CJ ENM shows BTS on stage during the Mnet Asian Music Awards at AsiaWorld Arena in Hong Kong on Dec. 14, 2018, after winning the Artist of the Year honors. (Yonhap)

Girl group TWICE ranked second in the survey at 11 percent, followed by female singer-songwriter IU at 10.2 percent.

In 2018 alone, BTS had two albums debut at the top of the Billboard 200: “Love Yourself: Tear” in May and “Love Yourself: Answer” in September. BTS is the first K-pop act to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s main albums chart.

“Fake Love,” a gold single off “Love Yourself: Tear,” peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group’s recent albums have spawned several other platinum and gold singles that topped Billboard’s world singles chart.

BLACKPINK’s mega-hit single “DDU-DU DDU-DU” was voted the best song of the year in the same poll with 5 percent of support. BTS had the next two songs, with “Idol” at 4.4 percent and “Fake Love” at 4.1 percent.