Bangtan Sonyeondan, more commonly known by international fans as BTS, are a seven member south korean boy-band. They debuted in 2013 with a small company called BigHit based in Seoul and started off small in their idol careers.
 

Typically, in Korea, music groups are pretty industrialised with groups inorganically forming through auditions in which numerous rookies are scouted and put into a group as a certain type of talent, like a dancer, singer or visual. After training for numerous months, often years, members are removed, replaced or added till the group forms a good bond and a concept that is marketable.
 

BTS were originally conceptualised as a rap-based, hip-hop boy band and the scouting process took around 2 years before the 7 members were confirmed to be a part of Bangtan. The vocal line consists of four members: Jin, Jimin, V and Jungkook and the rap line consists of J-hope, Suga and RM, with RM being the leader of BTS.
 

All of the rap line have written and produced their own solo mixtapes which delve into their personal opinions on personal and social issues and showcases their style and perspective as individual artists. The vocal line has also produced covers of popular Korean and Western songs, with Jungkook being the most active in producing said covers.
















 

When BTS first started out, they debuted with a hip-hop/R&B/rap concept. Their name, Bangtan Sonyeondan, literally means Bulletproof Boyscouts. This was proposed as their name as BTS would block out stereotypes, criticisms, and expectations that society aim on adolescents like bullets and protect the values and ideals of today’s youth.
 

Though their music style has noticeably grown with their own identities over the past 5 years, this mantra to support the youth in giving them a voice through their lyrics. When BTS first started out, the members hid the majority of their personalities and tried to live as the image of rebellious youth idols. This was met with the deeper, meaningful issues their lyrics discussed to do with the schooling system, societies pressure on the youth to over-work and the compromise youths often make in sacrificing their ambitions for previous generations pride. Those lyrics were sung and spoken with passion and honesty but their image still felt somewhat artificial due to their hidden character. Now their image and actions speak just as loud as their words. They have become more comfortable in their own skin and want their fans to know they are human too and assuring they will always represent the things that actually matter.

 

Over the years, BTS have truly become a global phenomenon with fans all over the world showing their support and selling out shows everywhere, including their 2016 Wings tour which sold out in over 13 countries.

BTS have been brand ambassadors for many companies ranging from Lotte Duty Free to Global Ambassadors for Puma, with their own range of clothing called Puma Turin. BTS have also kick-started charity campaigns and continued to keep a close relationship with their ever-growing fanbase, the ARMY. One of their most recent ongoing charitable endeavours is a campaign with UNICEF called Love Yourself, inspired by their album series Love Yourself in which BTS and their company, Big Hit Entertainment, pledge 500 million KRW (just under $447,400 as of Oct. 31 rates) to UNICEF will also donate 3% of the Love Yourself series’ physical album sales income. All the income from sales of official goods related to the LOVE MYSELF campaign and additional donations to UNICEF will also be put towards #ENDViolence.

 

The boyband travelled to America in 2017 for the 45th American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards and performed DNA as their first Live televised US debut for the AMAs. BTS went on to win the Top Social Artist award at the BBMAs, breaking Justin Bieber's 6-year streak with the award by gaining over 300 million votes from their fans. Their trip to America also saw them performing on almost all American Entertainment shows including: The Ellen Show, James Corden’s Late Late Show, On Air with Ryan Seacrest and they even performed at Times Square in New York for Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve.














 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even if you thought you didn’t know BTS, you probably do know one of their more recent and popular songs, Mic Drop Remix with Steve Aoki which went absolutely viral.
 

BTS is the first Korean group to warrant RIAA distinction, and the second Korean act after Psy, whose “Gangnam Style” went five times multi-platinum in 2013.
 

Mic Drop reached over 1 million Shazams and was performed at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Even John Cena, an admitted celebrity ARMY, danced to it for the Nickelodeon Kids choice awards. BTS also hold the record as most RT music artist and most engaged artist.

Their album, Love Yourself: Her, was the best-selling physical album in South Korea in 2017 and the highest-ever record by a Korean group on the Billboard 200, where it peaked at No. 7.
 

BTS even break their own records with J-hope’s solo mixtape “Hope World” beating BTS’ “Love Yourself – Her” with LY being no.1 in 73 countries whilst Hope World was no.1 in 75 countries not to mention J-hope’s track “Daydream” reached 1million likes after 1hr44m, 10 million views in 16hrs and received over 2,055,875 likes within 24hrs breaking another 2 BTS held records.














 

This was only to be smashed again when the first track of Love Yourself - Tear was released with Singularity, performed by V, receiving 1 million likes in 1hr29mins, 10 million views in 15hrs and 2 million likes in 18hrs48mins making it the second fasted Korean MV to reach 2mill likes under 24hrs only being second to aforementioned Daydream by J-hope (DNA holds third place with 3 days, and Mic Drop with fourth - less than 24hrs).

BTS’ ARMY also recently broke a Guinness world record through BBMAs voting in which BTS has the most used hashtag in 24hrs with over 46million votes.
 

With BTS breaking world records near enough daily, and that is no exaggeration, American stars are very vocal about wanting to collaborate with them, with the likes of Shawn Mendes, Chainsmokers and many other artists taking interest in them.

 

RM has often said “Language isn’t a barrier when it comes to music, right?” and all the members like to share their diverse music taste as they listen to all kinds of music ranging in genre, language, lyrical theme and tone.

With this being said, BTS have released multiple Japanese albums and have featured more English lyrics in their songs, even adding in English verses in their Steve Aoki remix of Mic Drop. This is due to English being a very popular, cool language in Korea with many k-pop groups trying to feature English lyrics in their songs.
 

RM is fluent in English (with an IQ of 148) and encourages Big Hit writers and his fellow band mates to use English correctly when writing and producing their songs so it provides meaning and is not used as a gimmick.

Most, if not all, Korean music groups, tend to learn Japanese in their trainee days as Japanese songs are more profitable than Korean songs. The music entertainment market is shockingly poor with artists putting lots of money and effort into albums and videos to see a fraction of that money back in sales never mind profit. However, in Japan, music sales are more manageable and a lot of music groups profits are made from Japanese music releases, merchandise and TV shows, which of course they often create/participate in Korean/Japanese versions to increase profit and spread their audience.

 

One thing that drive BTS fans crazy is the Bangtan Universe. This is a concept that spreads throughout the majority, if not all, of BTS’ albums. The fictional story features an alternate timeline in which all the members live rather unfortunate lives that are somehow linked with one another. The story is told through song lyrics, music videos, “The Notes” (a part of the album’s mini book) and numerous social media posts and is still being told, arguably rewritten if you believe some theories. The story is quite honestly unclear and a lot is left to the ARMY to unpick and create theories on what the story means. With links to intricate literature, science and philosophy, the BU is a masterful form of story-telling where nothing is coincidence and somethings existence (or lack of) can influence the BU story dramatically and keeps ARMYs awake at night.

 

BTS released a short YouTube Red series called Burn the Stage which documents their experience on the yearlong Wings tour and shows the life of the idols almost completely unfiltered. It’s something quite brave for a Korean idol group to do, especially since idols are held in such high esteem, but they clarify and assure at the start of the series they wanted to honestly record their experiences for their fans to be transparent and honest in their work and lifestyle.