Working on my BTS blog has been a very pleasing experience for me because I have been able to share what I love about BTS. I would look forward to the times where I would have a new post to make because I genuinely love talking about BTS and it was a place where I could share my thoughts on something I love. This project has been an overall very interesting experience because under no circumstance did I think that I would be able to write create a blog about BTS for a class assignment and then receive a grade for it. It was also a fun experience because I was able to go on Twitter to look for information on BTS and do what I do on a daily basis anyways, but now I get graded for it
When writing my posts, I tried to incorporate the things I love about them and I hope that whoever read through my blog was able to learn at least one thing about BTS. There is so much more I wish I could have written about and would like to share about them. There are so many things that have been able to catch people’s attention. If I could, I would go on forever about how special of a group they are but I think I have written about the basic information needed to get to know them.
What I really wanted to gain out of this blog was to share that listening to foreign music, especially k-pop, shouldn’t be seen as such a weird thing. Music has no language and everyone has their own little thing that they like. I hope that anybody who read this came out with more of an open mind to people who like to listen to k-pop and maybe even look into these k-pop artists.
BTS will continue to grow popular and continue to gain fans across the world at rapid rates. Their popularity is at all time high and they will continue to gain more fans as more people begin to accept their music. Although they have immense popularity, not all good things last forever. In Korea, there is a mandatory military service that every Korean male citizen must experience by the age of 30.
There will obviously be a hiatus for the band while the members serve the mandatory military service but I think BTS has a very long way to go. It is very common for Korean male idols to return to their groups even after their two years of military service is up. They recently renewed their contract with BigHit Entertainment for another seven years but ultimately, it will be up to the group if they wish to return, work on their solo projects, or go their own ways.
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As of now, I will continue to support BTS and enjoy the music while they are together. I have always enjoyed the energy and connection that comes with being a fan of a group. I have made many friends and met different people of different ages, genders, and race along the way. Music connects people and I will gladly continue to be a part of something that unites people together.
BTS has paved the way for many k-pop artists in the American music scene and I think k-pop is becoming more accepted into the music industry. As a result of the growing popularity, I believe more people will begin to listen to k-pop and foreign music in general which will allow more groups to enter the American market. BTS has made history in the music industry and the future generations to come will definitely learn about them.
As surprising as it may sound, k-pop is a very popular genre of music all around the world. BTS is one of the most popular k-pop groups and has gained immense popularity internationally. They are about to start their stadium world tour Speak Yourself beginning from the United States to Brazil, London, Paris, and then ending in Japan.
The fans in Korea, K-army, would be considered the most lucky fans because BTS always hold events in Korea from fan signs to holding mini concerts and going to award shows. There are many opportunities like these for the fans in Korea to meet them and see them often. Although there are more opportunities for K-army’s to attend, it is not an easy process as the tickets to get into their mini concerts are sold through the lottery system.
In order to attend a fan sign, it is also a lottery system but it depends on how many albums they buy. Every album a fan buys is an additional entry therefore tickets usually go to fans that buy many albums. At the end of the day it comes down to luck because there was once a fan who won a ticket for the fan sign by only buying one album. However, most of the time the fans who buy over 600 albums end up having the chance to attend the fan signs.
As BTS’s lyrics are in Korean, it can be difficult for non speaking Korean fans to sing along to every word of the songs they perform. However, fans in Brazil managed to be one of the loudest crowds and would even dance along with the choreography. Brazilian fans were able to sing along to almost every word of their songs throughout the concert and even managed to keep up with the rappers.
Fans across the world in bigger venues, with more people, have not been able to top the Brazilian fan chants. BTS have commented time and time again about Brazil being one of their favorite places to perform because the fans really know how to cheer them on. They will finally be going to back Brazil after two years for their stadium tour and even the fans are excited to see how much louder the Brazilian fans will be.
BTS creates so much content for their fans and among their content, they have created an alternate universe which they call Bangtan Universe. For the past 4 years, their company BigHit, has been working on a storyline using the BTS members with different stories. BigHit has never really explicitly explained the storyline and they have left the fans to make up theories and ideas of what is happening in Bangtan Universe. They release music videos, notes, and short films to tell the story but the content can be sort of confusing and vague, leaving the fans to make a wide range of theories. I was honestly so confused with the storyline because there are two hours worth of videos to connect as well as putting the different notes that can be found in their albums together.
I NEED U was the beginning of the Bangtan Universe storyline
Euphoria was a short video released to explain the storyline.
Earlier this year, a web toon called Save Me was released and made it easier for anyone to understand the Bangtan Universe. The story line became easier to understand and all the videos began to make sense. Bangtan’s Universe story line begins with the boys meeting each other in the high school detention room. From then on their friendship grows stronger but they experience many hardships that make their lives difficult. As they leave high school they part ways and things start to go downhill.
Jin is given the opportunity to go back in time to save them from their mistakes and hardships but every time he fails he has to start the day over. The web toon has 16 episodes and is honestly kind of violent. The web toon connects the notes, music videos, and short films together to reveal the actual events of the story line. The web toon finale left the fans in shock because it ended with a plot twist and left them asking more questions.
“Seven boys. Best friends. Their fates intertwined through the good times together, but also the tough times, as they have gone their separate ways and suffered greatly as a result. When all is almost lost for these boys, one is given a special chance to go back in time and help his friends fix the mistakes that led them down this path. He’ll do anything to save them, but can he? Or is he too late?” – Save Me
Along with the web toon, they released a book full of all the notes that have been released over the past four years. The notes are basically journal dates that the boys write about. They are usually significant events that affect their stories and the misfortunes that they are experiencing in the alternate universe.
For as long as BTS began to become successful in Korea, they came to face a lot of hate and mistreatment from the K-Pop community. BTS were the underdogs of the Korean music industry and were not expected to even become successful in Korea, nevertheless, the United States. A lot of people think that BTS had a smooth path to fame but that really isn’t the case. BTS were mistreated by Korean music shows and were hated by other K-pop groups’ fandom’s.
There were a few K-pop fandoms that began to feel threatened because BTS’s success that they began to call out at every little thing the members would do. BTS were accused of plagiarizing their favorite group’s concepts, hair colors, poses and anti’s even trended plagiarism boys at number one on twitter. Enough became enough and their company BigHit decided that they would take action towards rumors that could harm BTS.
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One of the biggest arguments that the K-pop community has with BTS fans is over who paved the way for the success of K-pop in the United States. K-pop fans have a misconception that the reason why BTS was given a chance to be successful is because of groups like Girls’ Generation, Big Bang, PSY, and the Wonder Girls who had began to promote in the U.S. around the late 2000’s. Even though their desire to stay relevant in the United States was unsuccessful, their fans claim they are the reason for K-pop’s recognition around the world.
The truth is BTS is the group who paved the way for K-pop to be popular in the United States. BTS were the first K-pop group to gain recognition with American music awards when they were nominated and won a Billboard Music Award. Because of this, more people were becoming aware of K-pop as music and not a joke. Even a member of the girl group Wonder Girls claimed that it is because of BTS that K-pop is global. At the end of the day, BTS paved the way.
The creation of BTS started off when CEO Bang Shi-Hyuk discovered and recruited Kim Namjoon, aka RM, in 2010. Namjoon started writing music and rapping at a very young age and while he had an IQ of 148, he followed his dream to make music. After three years of training under BigHit, he finally debuted under BTS. RM was chosen to be the leader of the group and has been an active figure in leading BTS to success. He is the only member of the group who can fluently speak English, therefore is usually the one who speaks during American interviews. Fun Fact: He learned to speak English by watching the sitcom Friends at a young age.
Namjoon has been an active member of the group since the beginning of their debut. He has written over 175 published songs since 2013 and even has two of his own mixtapes. His first mixtape, RM, was released in 2015 and his second mixtape, mono, was released in 2018. Although all the members have worked hard for their success, RM played a big role in the success of BTS because of the music he has created. Many people say that they began listening to BTS because of the lyrics of their music, which RM has written a lot of.
‘forever rain’ is a song from his mixtape mono
Throughout Namjoon’s career with BTS, he has created music to comfort people from the pressures they face. He has become an inspiration to many people because of what he has achieved and because of the motivational advice he gives to the fans. There have been many times where the song he has written has made me think about how I could better myself as a person.
Jin
Kim Seokjin
Kim Seok-jin, or Jin is the oldest member, at 26, and is a vocalist and visual of the group. Fun Fact: Jin is currently enrolled in graduate school even though his schedule with BTS is busy.
‘Epiphany’ is Jin’s solo song from the BTS Love Yourself Answer album
Suga
Min Yoongi
Min Yoongi, aka Suga aka Agust D, is the second oldest, at 26, is a rapper of the group, writes lyrics, and also has produced many BTS songs. Fun Fact: Suga has a mixtape called Agust D, which is the initials of his hometown Daegu, DT, and Suga spelled backwards.
‘give it to me’ is from his mixtape Agust D
J-Hope
Jung Hoseok
Jung Ho-seok or J-Hope, is a rapper and main dancer of the group at age 25. He has also written songs for the group and has even released a mixtape called Hope World in 2018. Fun Fact: J-Hope was an underground street dancer in his hometown.
‘Daydream’ is from his mixtape Hope World
Jimin
Park Jimin
Park Jimin or Jimin, is a vocalist and dancer in the the group. He is a part of the maknae line (younger member) at age 23. Fun Fact: Jimin studied contemporary dance so he is very flexible and elegant when he dances.
‘Serendipity’ is Jimin’s solo song from the Love Yourself Her BTS album
V
Kim Taehyung
Kim Tae-hyung or V, is a vocalist of the group and is the second youngest member of the group at 23. Fun Fact: V ranked 1st place in The 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2017.
‘Singularity’ is V’s solo song from the BTS album Love Yourself Tear
Jungkook
Jeon Jeongguk
Jeon Jeongguk or Jungkook, is the main vocalist and dancer of the group. He is the youngest member of the group at 21. Fun Fact: Jungkook moved out to Seoul and began living and training with BTS at the age of 14.
‘Euphoria’ is Jungkook’s solo song on the Love Yourself Answer album
The road of success for BTS was not a smooth or easy ride for the seven members, as they faced many obstacles throughout their early career. 방탄소년단 (Bulletproof Boy Scouts) or BTS debuted on June 13, 2013 under BigHit Entertainment who at the time was a small, almost bankrupt, entertainment company.
BTS began to form around 2010 when BigHit CEO Bang Shi-Hyuk had heard about a 16 year old boy named Kim Namjoon (RM), who was an underground artist at the time. The CEO was very impressed and recruited him as a trainee in the company. From then on, the CEO had intentions of creating a hip hop group and recruited underground rapper Min Yoongi (Suga) and street dancer Jung Hoseok (J-Hope) as trainees. As the next year came by, CEO Bang decided to instead form an idol group and added main vocalist Jeon Jeongguk (Jungkook), Kim Seokjin (Jin), Kim Taehyung (V), and Park Ji Min (Jimin).
The members trained to become idols with many hours a day spent in dance practice and vocal lessons on the daily for about three to two years. The members lived together in a one bedroom dorm that the company provided for them. The company was struggling with finances and the members began to question whether they would ever be able to debut. One of the members, J-Hope had enough and decided to leave but quickly returned because he trusted the company and believed in the members.
They were finally able to debut on June 13, 2013 with the song “No More Dream”. They caught the public’s eye because they made music about the overwhelming pressures placed on teens by Korea’s society. Because BTS came from a small company, they did not have money or many connections with the music industry and were cut off from many music shows. They were mistreated by many MC’s in variety shows and were never really taken seriously. It wasn’t until 2015 that they finally began receiving more recognition by music programs because of their fans. Social media allowed BTS to really connect and respond to their fans in a way that has never really been done before by other artists. They constantly updated on Twitter or Youtube and would go live on the VLive app.
“SEA” is a song BTS wrote about their early struggles.
As their fandom grew, so did their success in Korea and around the world. In 2016, they won their first Daesang Award at the MMA’s which is the equivalent to an award for Artist of the Year at the Grammy’s. In 2017, they were invited to the Billboard Music Award where they received more exposure in the United States and suddenly they blew up. Their fame in America continues to grow and has paved the way for more K-Pop artists to share their music in America too.
I would have never imagined myself as a person who would listen to BTS or k-pop in general. The only knowledge I had on k-pop was Psy’s “Gangnam Style” which was everywhere from the news to the radio and my classroom during elementary school. My immediate impression on k-pop was that it would all sound like Gangnam Style so I had quickly decided that I would never willingly listen to it. That is until I saw BTS on my TV screen at the Billboard Music Awards in 2017. I was very curious to learn about who these seven Korean men that had won a Billboard Music Award and why they were so popular.
BTS win Top Social Artist at the BBMA’s in 2017
At the time, one of my closest friends was secretly a BTS fan and was very eager to introduce her favorite group to me when I asked about who they were. I was shocked to see and hear about how large their fanbase was when I had never in the many hours I have spent on social media heard of them until that very day. Their presence on social media is really difficult to miss because their fanbase called “ARMY” always have something BTS related trending. My friend started off by showing me their music videos and I grew very amazed with the dance performances and aesthetics of their videos. As I read through the lyrics of their songs, their music began to standout to me and I felt as if they were too talented to be real. Not many western artists do it like them anymore with the choreography and the visuals.
First music video I watched
When I went home that night, I searched up more BTS videos and completely fell in love with their personalities. It may be difficult for some people to enjoy BTS because they may not speak Korean. However, BTS is now very popular in the United States and many of their works are translated to English by their company or the fans. It was really easy to learn more about them and their music. At the end of the day, people should not be so quick to judge or disregard music from a different language without giving it a try because you might just enjoy it.
A Guide to BTS 