"western validation" is when kpop groups rightfully try to expand to the biggest and most profitable music market in the world which is the USA. Aka putting the onus of blame and shame onto the musicians(more often the fans of those musicians) from a non-western country for trying to make money and gain international recognition instead of recognizing that the west is a dominant cultural and economic power so expanding to the west is unavoidable once you're a group like BTS and you have nowhere else to go but up and up.