BTS's Butter and Olivia Rodrigo's debut album, Sour released on Friday, May 21st. Both broke US and international records.
As the clock struck midnight on May 21, many artists dropped new music, including a single from the globally popular Korean boyband, BTS, and a debut album from 2021’s breakout pop star, Olivia Rodrigo.
After only an hour, the top ten trends on Twitter in the U.S. were filled up by Tweets about just these two artists- Rodrigo’s album, Sour, ranked 3rd while the other top trends related to members of BTS and their single, “Butter”.
Although both releases are categorized as pop, they could not be more different. “Butter”, according to Teen Vogue, is “a retro, synth-heavy ‘80s pop track that opens with a hard bass line” making it impossible to not dance when listening to it.
Meanwhile Sour channels a different decade and leans more to the 90’s pop music with notes of the punk and alternative genres. The album is made up of 11 songs, each of which tell the tale of “heartbreak, coming of age, and the unstable landscape of Gen Z’s social media upbringing”.
Livies and ARMY, Rodrigo and BTS’ fanbase names respectively, showed their support on social media and began streaming on various platforms including Youtube, Spotify and Apple Music.
Senior Sulphia Iqbal said, “I like both artists, but seeing the toxicity between fandoms on social media whenever comebacks happen is disheartening. Some fans are only focused on making sure their favorite artist is on top, but that just makes people feel like they should only support one artist to beat records and that takes away from the fun of music.”
People’s summer jam may be savoury like “Butter”, Sour like Rodrigo’s album or even a combination of both, but one thing is certain: both BTS and Olivia Rodrigo have already broken countless records and with the support of their fans, they’re sure to break more with their new releases.