‘The Jimin Effect‘ is a phrase coined by the media to refer to Jimin’s immense impact or influence owing to his unparalleled popularity on a global scale. For example, whenever he makes a public appearance, his clothing items and any accessories he is wearing usually end up going out of stock in a matter of hours [read here and here for examples]. This effect has spilt over into other sectors such as food, where his liking of some Korean dishes has resulted in the food items shooting up in popularity on the international market, thereby increasing sales significantly [read here and here for examples]. When in a public gathering, the media tends to pay special attention to him as well [read here], just as any media reports on BTS or K-pop also tend to highlight him by using his images or footage [read here for an example]. He has also become highly influential in the field of arts [refer here and here]. ‘The Jimin Effect’ is felt everywhere, whether he is directly involved in the sector or not.
The most recent case has been in music, whereby a song he recommended to fans immediately exploded in popularity and became the #1 viral hit on the charts despite being a 4-year-old song. Being the BTS member whose solo songs have been recognized as having the most steady popularity globally, as reported by K-media, fans are always eager to also listen to the kind of music that Jimin listens to. Therefore, when he recommends or just mentions a song, fans will waste no time giving a listen to the song.
On July 7, Jimin posted a screenshot of the song ‘Okinawa‘ on the Weverse community platform. The song was sung by a South Korean indie duo that debuted in 2017. Naturally, many fans got curious about the song and searched it up to listen to it.
Just over a week later, Real Sound, a Japanese music and film online media outlet, published an article detailing the impact that Jimin’s post had on the song.
The outlet stated that the song rose to the top of the viral hits on Spotify Japan for three consecutive days, beginning from the 11th to the 13th.
92914 "Okinawa" viral hit No. 1 thanks to the "BTS JIMIN effect," a pleasant song with the gentle atmosphere of Okinawa vacuum packed into it. pic.twitter.com/7Vo2JgTUMH
— Slow (@JIMIN_Morocco) July 19, 2022
