의해 Marian Liu, CNN

Updated 0019 GMT (0819 HKT) May 23, 2017

K-pop group 방탄소년단 accepts 상단, 맨 위로 Social Artist onstage during the 2017 Billboard 음악 Awards at T-Mobile Arena on May 21, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

(CNN) The name 방탄소년단 may not be familiar to the majority of Americans, but that didn't stop the South Korean boy band from making history Sunday night, when they became the first K-pop group to clinch a Billboard 음악 Award.
Beating out US favorites Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Shawn Mendes, 방탄소년단 scooped the 상단, 맨 위로 Social Artist award at a lavish ceremony in the T-Mobile Arena in downtown Las Vegas.
"We still cannot believe that we're standing here on this stage at the Billboard 음악 Awards," said 방탄소년단 member Kim Nam-joon, known to 팬 as "Rap Monster," onstage. "It is so great to see all the artists we admire, and we feel honored to be in this category with all these great artists right in front of us."

BTS's group award follows South Korean trailblazer PSY, who became the first K-pop solo artist to win at the Billboard 음악 Awards back in 2014, for 상단, 맨 위로 Streaming Song, "Gangnam Style."
방탄소년단 fans, known as the "A.R.M.Y." (Adorable Representative M.C's for Youth") voted for the award on Twitter and on the awards website, using the hashtag #BTSBBMAS 더 많이 than 300 million times.

"BTS was one of the first groups to fully embrace social media and completely open themselves up to fans," said CEO of Koreaboo, Flowsion Shekar, a 인기 content platform specializing in K-pop with a reach of over 50 million.
"International 팬 were able to really relate to them and feel like they truly knew the members individually. Most rookie groups are held tightly behind closed doors and everything is filtered 또는 sanitized before it's shown to the public."
The seven-member band debuted in 2013 with a contemporary K-pop sound that fuses hip-hop, electronica and rock.
They currently 상단, 맨 위로 the Billboard Social 50, spending 31 weeks on the chart. They are now on a sold-out world tour, with US concerts this past March and April in Newark, Chicago and Anaheim. Their 다음 stops are in Australia and Japan.