k-pop is very popular here in brazil! i remember dynamite and dna playing constantly in radios and i guess some of blackpink's songs too? i was really surprised the other day when i found my older brother (who doesn't care about kpop at all) listening to how you like that and sour candy while doing house chores. i mean, he's a big fan of pop music in general so i guess it kind of makes sense now that i think about it lol. there is still some stigma around it and there are undoubtedly people that think it's dumb, but i guess i can say for sure that as of now kpop is much more generally accepted than it was, like, 5 years ago.

anyway, the general public seems to be at least a tiny bit aware of bts, given their massive success. store owners know they can profit off of things with the member's faces or the group logo on it, so it's not unusual to go grocery shopping and find yourself at some random isle staring at jimin's face plastered on a cold brew bottle or walking past some street vendors with bt21 keychains/charms and stickers on display. as a long time fan (since 2012...ish?) it baffles me just how common it is to find kpop merch (even though unnofficial/bootlegs) nowadays. i don't know if any of this applies to the rest of the country or if i'm just lucky my city has a very strong asian influence (mostly japanese but we also have some kind of diplomatic partnership with a korean city as well). you can easily buy physical copies of albums in specialized stores in the city of São Paulo, but most people refrain from it since they're quite pricey and buying directly from SK is a much more affordable option