Beethoven was deeply respected, so much so that people traveled great distances to consult him- like Rossini who had such a traumatic time with his first opera that he traveled hundreds of miles to talk to Beethoven about whether or not he should continue with opera or try something else. Beethoven told him to stick with opera- and Rossini did, for which we should all be deeply grateful.

I could not imagine anyone wanting to travel great distances to discuss such serious matters with BTS (although they all seem to be very intelligent). Unless. of course, it was my favorite niece.

I would say that the audience for Kairos is different from the audience for Penthouse- both shows are great but in different ways. Ratings measure the size of the audience which is not a true measure of quality- although a show with extremely low ratings is probably not that good. MR. QUEEN is actually getting very high ratings yet has less than 35% of the audience for HOMEMADE LOVE STORY. Is HOMEMADE LOVE STORY that much better? Not at all, MR. QUEEN is much better in terms of quality. Only one network still does weekend family dramas and right now the weekender being broadcast is HOMEMADE LOVE STORY: The audience share is simply what happens when someone holds a monopoly.

My point is that ratings are not irrelevant but that they are an incomplete measure of a show.

@oldawyer Your description of Rossini's meeting with Beethoven is a bit different from what appears to be Rossini's own account: http://www.classicalmusicguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=13858

Every composer has had their struggles. Its not like BTS released their song and boom, they became one of the most famous, popular Band in the world landing a billboard number 1. They hustled for the longest time under a new company, not the big 3. The fact is Beethoven was popular, highly respected in 19th century when the music he made was one of the popular genre. You can't just compare BTS who cater to a whole different generation of listeners to Bethoven who is well dead, was deaf in later parts of his life, was eccentric and particular about the music he made aka liked to pick his battles wisely and from a whole different era...by the way, it may not make it to pop music charts but classical music is neither dead nor is Bethoven's music unpopular. His music has stood the test of time. So, its still not a good example. And I am not dragging Kairos in the middle of this, its ridiculous to even equate Bethoven's music to the show. I merely pointed out that the comparison didn't sound well in terms of the point you tried to make.

One more thing, classical music actually does need an educated listener...no shade to pop/rap/hiphop genre but it is what it is. Every piece is different when different person plays it, and hence its sort of no longer holds the popularity. Its easy listening to a song playing on like same fundamental four chords. But you need to listen, learn, hear and be able to differential nuances of chords, notes when you hear classical. I can't imagine the tiktok loving world we live in to take time to develop that hence its also one reason of classical being not the most popular genre anymore. Patience, focus isn't what sells these days. I love both genre but it took me far more years to understand and truly appreciate classical then it did with modern music genres.

@gem28 If you read my comments again you'll find that I made no comparison whatsoever between Beethoven and BTS in terms of quality. My point was almost entirely about numbers. The OP said Kairos cannot be a great show because a relatively small number of people watched it. I was simply arguing that you can't equate numbers with greatness/quality, based on the following example: in the present day, Beethoven's music is still regarded as great even though relatively few people listen to it.

I only mentioned Penthouse and BTS because it follows from the OP's point that Kairos is inferior to Penthouse. My point, on the other hand, is that whatever the relative popularity of various dramas, films, pieces of music, etc, there is no direct correlation to quality. Personally I much prefer Beethoven to BTS, but as I mentioned above, of course BTS is much more popular than Beethoven, and there are many good reasons why they are: they belong in the field of popular music, aimed at the masses; the songs are catchy; the members are amazing performers; etc.

I see your point about Beethoven being very different from BTS. As someone who thinks that Beethoven is among the greatest and most innovative of composers, I totally agree that it requires more effort to truly appreciate his music. But sometimes music is just music; classical music has been known to get into the pop charts; and BTS's songs are actually pretty complex and IMO thoughtfully composed.

Also, as I also mentioned earlier, Beethoven's career was not exactly smooth-sailing. You might want to have a look at the link I provided in my reply to OldLawyer's comment. Also, I was thinking of his late piano sonatas and string quartets, which were not only criticised during his lifetime, but failed to gain acceptance till quite a while after his death.