Surely ARMYs cannot forget the painful defeat of the fandom with Like Crazy after setting a record for Jimin - becoming the first кσяєαn solo artist to have a No.1 song on the Billboard chart. Not being able to even break into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 the following week left ARMYs in ̾s̾h̾o̾c̾k.

The incident at that time also created a great controversy when ARMYs accused Billboard of sabotaging BTS's achievements by changing the law. The fandom even made the topic trending by pointing out how disrespectful Billboard is to the group and Jimin.

So the truth of the story at that time was that Billboard intentionally made Like Crazy unable to maintain the achievement? A Western article exposed the whole truth behind this story and ARMYs totally agree with it:

In March, Jimin debuted as a solo artist with the release of the new album FACE. Along with a number of other great songs, the title track "Like Crazy" quickly reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 within its first week of release. However, the second week after that, Like Crazy couldn't even break into the top 10 even though it still held high positions on other charts, including the global charts. In the face of this dramatic drop in performance, ARMYs noticed some big discrepancies in the Billboard sales for Jimin.

According to one website, the song sold about 120,000 copies, but Forbes released figures (the source of sales information for the Billboard music charts) that said it sold less than 15,000 copies. It left fans unsurprisingly wondering where the other 100,000 had gone.

ARMYs quickly noticed that Billboard seemed to have changed the rules when it came to artist ratings and found it odd that it happened as soon as Jimin released his album. Therefore, fans accuse Billboard of intentionally doing these things to sabotage BTS' unbeaten streak on Western charts.

Until now, this controversy is still mentioned and ARMYs still have not cooled down. Meanwhile, a Western newspaper pointed out Billboard's tricks in disrespecting the achievements that ARMYs and BTS strive to build.

It mentions that: "The U.S. wants to prioritize what is theirs. But at what point does that sort of gatekeeping cross the line from national pride to foreign prejudice? These types of questions have never been seriously contemplated until BTS shifted the scale so completely, they could no longer be ignored....

Billboard seems to be convinced fans are finding loopholes in the charts’ rules to take their favorite artists all the way to the top, as they all but implied in a cover story published in 2021, BTS’ success story is nothing if not organic. In fact, we can theorize that the reason their fanbase will go above and beyond for them is thanks to their underdog factor, both for coming from a virtually bankrupt company back in 2013 and for how, even after becoming the world’s biggest boy band, the West still treats them like outsiders. The argument for the K-Pop industry’s very particular way of handling the parasocial relationship between fan and artist can also be made, but then one must ask why BTS is the only group to achieve their level of fame."

Despite this objection, the newspaper also mentioned that ARMYs always try to know how to create achievements worthy of the efforts of their idol, BTS. "Still, with no radio play, with streaming also being heavily filtered, and a steeper hill to climb when it came to the only card they had left — sales — ARMY still continued to send BTS to the top of the charts..."

Then, they explained all around the story of sabotaging: "Whether Billboard is targetting K-Pop acts, the fact is that, from the artists in the top 10 of the chart dated April 8, only Jimin didn’t make it to the following week’s podium. The reason for this is that the only way to achieve longevity within the Billboard Hot 100 chart, at this point, is through airplay. K-Pop fans have constantly found a way around this hurdle, but ever since Billboard ruled out bulk purchases, it’s been virtually impossible for a song to remain in the top 10 for long. Before that, BTS’ “Butter” was number one for ten weeks. That will likely never happen again unless the band suddenly receives backing from radios.

Now, one might argue that these changes reflect a given song’s total auďïệnce more accurately, since, after purchasing a song once, thus being allowed to listen to it as many times as they’d like, the customer wouldn’t have a real reason to purchase it again. That’s fair. But when you really think about it, does airplay accurately reflect how many people actually want or choose to listen to a track?

Fans affected have argued that not only can radio air time be manipulated through unlawful strategies like payola, whereby labels will bribe radios to play their artists’ songs, but also that radio essentially represents pαssive listening, rather than a conscious choice to consume a song. Furthermore, if radios continuously refuse to play songs not in the English language, then can fans really be blamed for finding another way to give their favorite artists success in the charts?

...Is mαss buying a song really much worse than force-feeding radio auďïệnces the same song over and over, because you’re being paid to? Which is more organic at the end of the day? A fanbase mobilizing and showing their strength in numbers, or executives buying their way into their songs’ success?

Obviously, this doesn’t apply to every popular song, but it’s a call for Billboard to be consistent in its guidelines that are constantly changed under the guise of making their charts more accurate to reality. Yet, only foreign artists seem to be affected by this, since they will never be able to rely on the radio. Radio stations and music executives hold the money and, thus, the power. K-Pop, and BTS in particular, have challenged the paradigm by achieving success without needing either, solely advancing through the sheer focus and dedication of their fans. Fans also argue that sales seem to generally favor artists more than streams and radio play, which increase the label’s profit, but do little in the way of getting artists paid for their music.

It’s also interesting to note how these mαssive changes to Billboard rules took so long to be instated, and how they seem to align with the growth of BTS’ success, almost as if one triggered the other. Another example of this is Billboard getting rid of its Top Social Artists chart after BTS held the top stop consecutively for five years.

While accusing Billboard of intentionally sabotaging BTS might be reactionary, there’s definitely a deeper conversation to be had here about how ẗệŕŕïḟïệď a̾m̾e̾r̾i̾c̾a seems to be of any cultural movement that might challenge its hegemony...."

Nothing is more accurate than this information! Obviously, even when BTS is famous and recognized in the world, there are still many Western forces who want to remove their influence in the world. After all, it is also due to jealousy and envy of the terrible successes of BTS and ARMY.