{"id":162591,"date":"2026-03-25T11:19:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/?p=162591"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:19:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T18:19:47","slug":"joshua-minsoo-kim-of-pitchfork-sparks-backlash-following-his-bts-review-of-arirang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/joshua-minsoo-kim-of-pitchfork-sparks-backlash-following-his-bts-review-of-arirang\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Minsoo Kim of Pitchfork sparks backlash following his BTS review of ARIRANG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Discussion around <strong>BTS\u2019s ARIRANG<\/strong> continued to grow after a music critic of <strong>Pitchfork<\/strong>, <strong>Joshua Minsoo Kim<\/strong>, made a comment that made ARMY (that is the name BTS fans have) angry. Initially, the critic posted his review of the album on March 23, 2026, giving it a 5.3 out of 10. As the critique gained traction, many fans reacted with frustration and took to Kim\u2019s X account to confront him about what they perceived as a low score. Following the initial online controversy, the critic said on March 24 that he had been fired from Pitchfork and claimed the outlet believed BTS\u2019s ARIRANG should have received an even lower score.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-162600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BTS-ARIRANG-Pitchfork-score-860x484.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The review and his posts continued to gain attention, with many users reacting and interacting with the news that he had been dismissed from the outlet. However, Kim later said that the post was meant to be a joke, but by then the discussion had already become much bigger. As fans debated the review, past Pitchfork ratings for major artists also started circulating again. Michael Jackson\u2019s Xscape was mentioned with a 4.1 rating, while Taylor Swift\u2019s The Life of a Showgirl was noted at 5.9. These comparisons prompted ARMYs to question whether the rating of ARIRANG was fair.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\">\n        <blockquote hcb-fetch-image-from=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/misterminsoo\/status\/1974180559011316199?s=20\" class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">One of the editors of this website asked me to write a review for a BTS member\u2019s album and once I told them that it would be negative (after I heard the promo and didn\u2019t like it) he said, \u201cif you don\u2019t love it you can just sort of describe it in a neutral way.\u201d Zero integrity. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jKsk8WQJgb\">https:\/\/t.co\/jKsk8WQJgb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joshua Minsoo Kim (@misterminsoo) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/misterminsoo\/status\/1974180559011316199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">October 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n        <\/figure>\n        \n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The backlash also revived an older conversation from October 2025, when Kim said an editor from Rolling Stone asked him to write a review for a BTS member\u2019s solo album. When he responded that his write-up for the album would be negative, the editor told him to make it in a \u201cneutral tone.\u201d That remark surfaced under a Rolling Stone post connected to Taylor Swift\u2019s latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, which the outlet rated a 5 out of 5 album. Because of that history, many users linked the new controversy to broader concerns about editorial standards. Despite these online controversies, BTS released ARIRANG on March 20, 2026, marking the group\u2019s first full return in four years after all seven members completed their military service in South Korea. The album contains 14 tracks, with \u201cSWIM\u201d leading the rollout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discussion around BTS\u2019s ARIRANG continued to grow after a music critic of Pitchfork, Joshua Minsoo Kim, made a comment that made ARMY (that is the name BTS fans have) angry. Initially, the critic posted his review of the album on March 23, 2026, giving it a 5.3 out of 10. As the critique gained traction, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":162601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2264,16,7],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-162591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-kpop","category-news","tag-bts"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162603,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162591\/revisions\/162603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicmundial.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}