It is very cringey, to watch, almost humiliating for them. Their publicists are desperate to make them appear everywhere, because Stephen Colbert is a left wing political talk show host with a more intellectual target audience, not a very appropriate place for a boyband. The comparison to Beatles has been done since they first appeared in America which is very cringey. They are not comparable, not the same genre, image, contribution or quality of music or political involvement. I don’t listen tot the Beatles myself, but credit should be given where it is due. Beatles music may seem bland now, but at its time it was part of a revolutionary music movement that inspired a lot of other rock and roll bands that people live today such as Queen, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, U2 even Linkin Park list is endless. BTS is kpop, regardless of what their fans might think, it is manufactured pop music with some rapping, with heavy use of recycled material, EDM and autotuned voices that blend into one another. The messages about depression, self acceptance, loving myself etc are not unique, in fact they are heavily used in music industry. I mean Justin Beiber has a song with the exact same title that was released before them. Billie Eilish is poster girl for glamourizing depression.
John Lennon on the other hand was a controversial figure with messages that went against the establishment at the time, there is a reason they killed him. Regardless lf wether or not we agree with those messages, we can’t deny that fact. Same with Tupac, hiphop may seem to be about bitches, drugs, sex and gucci nowadays, but back in the 90s it revolved around social injustices and the struggles of people (mainly lower class). Tupac has a lot of songs around these themes. Some time after he rose to fame he wanted to release an album with the title ”killuminati” and needless to say shortly after he was killed under odd circumstances. The higher ups don’t want artists to go against the establishment or send profound messages that affect the listener. Mainstream music nowadays is all about dumbing down the masses, hence why is widely sucks.