EXO Is Filling U.S. Arenas, And Still Has Time to Perfect Its Craft
When it comes to the traditional benchmarks of being a successful pop artist today—high album sales and big tours—very few K-pop artists can claim success in the American market. But after the completion of the North American leg of their EXO'luXion world tour, EXO can declare all-out victory.
The boy band nearly sold out New York's massive Prudential Center at the end of last month, marking only the third Korean act to come close to filing the East Coast arena—not even the four superstar acts could do that for the inaugural KCON New York. This comes after landing two albums on the Billboard 200 chart (2014's Overdose and last year's Exodus, the latter which earned the largest first-week sales ever for a K-pop album ever), a chart one rarely sees Korean acts crash.
EXO was already huge in Asia (they've scored No. 1 hits in Korea, Japan and China), but that type of success certainly does not guarantee a U.S. crossover. What EXO has managed to accomplish, however, is much more impressive than one chart-topping single.
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