I think the Beatles comparison is more about the screaming female fans than anything else. To be fair, though, let's not forget that the Beatles debuted with a song titled "I Want to Hold Your Hand". They had a lot of those teeny bopper type songs in the beginning. It was only after they got more popular that they were free to produce music with more substance and meaning (although there is plenty of symbolism and weird stuff in their music, too). And their impact was really more about aesthetics in the beginning (that long hair that was taboo before the Beatles made it cool). The politics came later and then, like you said, Lennon took it too far and had to be killed. And those topics, while pretty normal in the US, are still kind of taboo in S. Korea -- so they are a little bit more "rebellious" by S. Korean standards. But musically, there isn't much of a comparison. They could, in theory, end up growing musically -- but considering how tightly run the K-pop industry is, I don't really think that is a possibility. I think BTS are becoming popular to push the gender neutral/gender fluid concept. Just like the Beatles brought us long hair -- BTS seems to be the ones who will usher in make-up for men, and not just gay men or MtF transgender individuals. I bet the cosmetic companies are salivating at the idea of opening up a largely untouched market. And then there is the decidedly feminine fashion. I once noticed a tag in V's shirt on a video and recognized the brand. At first, I thought "wow, I didn't know they had a men's line". But, I looked it up and they don't. The weird part is that this brand isn't young and hip -- it is geared towards older women (I know because I'm an older woman and still some of that brand looks too "grandma" for me). And my first reaction to BTS (when my daughter showed me photos of them) was surprise that they wore so much makeup. And how feminine they looked. I actually looked for the adam's apple because I wasn't sure that they were really boys. So, that is what I first noticed about them -- the gender bending look of the group.