The summer of 2020 seemed to be a disappointment for many, but, for BTS fans, it was revolutionising. With the release of Dynamite on the 21st of August, the sensation of K-pop went worldwide with multiple records being smashed with this award-winning song, which was produced entirely in English.
First, some background knowledge on BTS to put some context into their achievements. BTS is a Korean pop group consisting of seven members that go by the stage names of Jin, Jungkook, RM, V, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin and Jungkook, all coming together from different backgrounds to form this group. Within the group, they are split into the groups known as lines based on different elements such as age or position in the group. The most well-known lines are the rap line, consisting of J-Hope, Suga and RM, the dance line, consisting of J-Hope, Jungkook, V and Jimin, the vocal line of V, Jungkook, Jin and Jimin, the Hyung line (oldest members of the group), consisting of Jin, Suga, J-Hope and RM, and the Maknae line (youngest members of the group) consisting of Jimin, V and Jungkook.
Is their popularity any surprise though with their talents and personalities? Not only can they produce incredible music, they also all excel in their own skills. One of the most notable would be RM and how he is fluent in English, which he revealed he taught himself through watching the programme Friends multiple times, alternating between the English and Korean, so he often acts as a translator or spokesperson for BTS when in American or British interviews. Jungkook is also nicknamed ‘The Golden Maknae’ due to him being the youngest and showing his excel in multiple talents such as singing, dancing and sport. Together, the group put so much effort into their music for their fans and shows, shown through stunning music videos, skilled dances and how they put their all into every show, leading to exhaustion, as well as producing their own solo music.
“I’m drawn to BTS by their personalities. They are very charismatic, and they care about their fans a lot,” said Lucy Thomas, who has been a fan of BTS since early 2018. “They also put a lot of effort into their music and performances lyrically and production wise; not many other artists can match what they do.” This element of having a personal role within the music and drawing fans in with their personalities individually plays a key role in the success of the Korean group.
Whilst K-pop may not be everyone’s cup of tea, its definitely a rising music genre. Across the world, popularity follows them in the form of their fanbase, which is known as ARMY. Since their debut in 2013 under the South Korean music label Big Hit Entertainment, BTS have produced 19 albums, with their latest being BE released in November 2020, along with solo mixtapes by the members. They have also done five concert tours, three of them being worldwide, as well as performances and taking part on popular talk shows such as The Late Late Show with James Cordon, with the video of them taking part in carpool karaoke having over 56 million views as of time of writing. Success has definitely hit for BTS, with their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour of 2019 making them the top-grossing touring group of the year, grossing $116.6 million for the tour alone and over 976k tickets being sold.
The release of Dynamite in the summer of 2020 was an explosion of success for BTS, the song having positive and upbeat vibes to it; exactly what we needed this difficult year. There was a lot of hype around the release due to it being produced entirely in English for a star, and members of ARMY wanted to break the YouTube record of the most viewed music video in 24 hours to thank BTS for their commitment to their music. Its safe to say that they smashed this record as well as many others. Within two hours, it had surpassed 20 million views, had over 3 million live viewers on the releasing stream, achieving a record breaking 101.1 million views by the day was out, smashing the previous record set by Black Pink of How You Like That having 86.3 million views. Currently, it has reached over 618 million views. Not only this, but it achieved 7,778,950 streams within 24 hours on Spotify, reaching number 1 on Spotify’s daily Global Top 50 chart. This is incredibly significant for the K-pop industry as it is the first song to debut on top position on the chart by a Korean artist, still being the only one.
If this wasn’t enough, BTS performed Dynamite at the MTV Video Music Awards whilst picking up 4 awards themselves. They picked up the best group, best pop, best K-pop, and best choreography awards, winning all of the categories they were nominated for with their song ON. This shows how their effort that they put into their music is not wasted in the slightest and are still the only K-pop group to win the Top Duo/Group Billboard awards.
It is clear to see that K-pop is a sensation that is taking over worldwide, BTS being one of the main groups pulling in new fans. It will be interesting to see how the release of their latest album BE plays out, with members playing a key role in the production of it, such as Jungkook taking a director position in the music video for Life Goes On, which was released November 20th 2020. I think its safe to say we can expect to hear more from BTS in the future.
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