Bangtan Boys Love: Who BTS?

Who BTS (Bangtan Boys)

Bangtan Boys ( Hangul : 방탄 소년단 ; RR : Bangtan Sonyeondan ), also known as BTS , is a seven-member South Korean boy group formed by Big Hit Entertainment . The name of the band, Bangtan Sonyeondan, is
a combination of "방탄" which means bulletproof and "소년단" which means boy scouts . [2] They debuted on June 13, 2013 with the song "No More Dream" from their first album , 2 Cool 2 Skool .

BTS has won several "New Artist of the Year" awards, including those at the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disk Awards , and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards . A year after their debut, they received major Bonsang awards for Dark & Wild and The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 1 .

History

Pre-debut

Bangtan Boys 'first members were recruited through Big Hit ' s "Hit it" auditions in 2010 and 2011. It was a nationwide audition where people were recruited from their local provinces, like Jimin and Jungkook from Busan and V and Suga from Daegu . Jungkook was casted by Big Hit after leaving the Superstar K3 auditions in 7th grade. He trained with Movement Lifestyle in LA during the summer of 2012. Jimin attended the Busan High School of Arts and studied in the modern dance department. He was recruited through a private audition. Before his audition, Jin had been a film student arts. Rap Monster was already performing as an underground rapper and had informally released several tracks, including a collaboration with Zico . He had previously used the stage name "Runch Randa." J-Hope was part of street dance team Neuron before he was a trainee and won prizes in dance festivals in Gwangju . He later enrolled in the Korea Arts School. [2] [3] J-hope was also featured as a rapper for Jokwon 's "Animal". [4] The group's personal Twitter account was created in 2011, which they used to keep in contact with their fans before debut. [5]

2013-2014: Debut with 2 Cool 4 Skool , Dark & Wild , and Wake Up

The first album of BTS's "school trilogy" series and their debut single album, 2 Cool 4 Skool , was released on June 12, 2013 with the lead single "No More Dream". [1] [6] The music video was released the day before. On July 9, 2013, the group announced their official fanclub name: ARMY, which stands for Adorable Representative MC for Youth. [7] Three months after their debut, BTS announced their comeback with a second part of the "school trilogy". On September 11, Bangtan Boys released their first mini-album, O! RUL8,2? . They promoted their song 'N.O', releasing its music video on September 10. [8]

On December 9, 2013, Suga was diagnosed with appendicitis while promoting with the group in Japan. He was flown back to Korea to receive surgery and was therefore unable to participate in the 2014 Idol Star Athletics Championships as well as SBS Gayo Daejun and MBC Gayo Daejejeun year-end performances with his fellow members. [9] [10]

Bangtan Boys in 2014 performing at Mnet M! Countdown

The third part of the "school trilogy", their second mini-album Skool Luv Affair was released on February 12, 2014. [11] [12] Bangtan Boys promoted the album's title track "Boy in Luv", releasing its music video on February 11. [13] BTS came back with "Just One Day" with its music video released on April 6. [14] The band's debut Japanese album, 2 Cool 4 Skool , was released on April 23; their first single was a Japanese version of "No More Dream". [15]

On June 14, the BTS took part in the Bridge to Korea Festival in Russia, an event that aimed to promote tourism between the two countries. There, they became judges of a k-pop cover dance competition and later performed on stage in front of 10,000 spectators. [16] The group also attended icon in Los Angeles alongside Girls' Generation and other artists on August 10, 2014. [17 ]

On August 19, BTS released their music video for their comeback single, "Danger" from their first full album, Dark & Wild which sold over 109.098 copies. They made a comeback with "War of Hormone", a track from Dark & Wild . Its music video was released on October 21, 2014. [18] BTS continued to promote in Japan, releasing their first Japanese studio album, Wake Up , an album on December 24. This included not only Japanese versions of their songs, but also their first Japanese original tracks: "Wake Up" and "The Stars". [19]

BTS performed at the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards red carpet event and had a collaboration stage with Block B during the awards show. [20] BTS then held their first concert tour, 2014 BTS Live Trilogy - Episode II: The Red Bullet , throughout October , November, and December. They toured Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia. [21]

2015-present: The Most Beautiful Moment In Life Pt 1 & 2

From February 10 to 19, BTS Japan kicked off their first tour, Wake Up: Open Your Eyes . They toured Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Fukuoka, and performed for 25,000 fans. [22] On March 20, members Rap Monster released his first mixtape: RM , releasing three music videos for tracks: "Awakening (각성)", "Do you ", and" Joke (농담) ". [23] On March 28, BTS held their second solo concert in Korea, BTS Live Trilogy - Episode 1: Begins BTS . [24]

The group's first EP, The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 1 ( 화양연화 pt.1), was released on April 29, 2015. [25] It was listed in June by Fuse as one of the "27 Best Albums of 2015 So far "and was the only Korean listed album that year. [26] on May 5, 2015, their title track" I Need U "won first place on SBS MTV 's the Show , which marked their first win since their debut. [ 27] Signal Entertainment announced that The Most Beautiful Moment In Life Pt.1 had sold over 180,000 copies since its release. [28]

On June 4, 2015, BTS released their fourth Japanese single, "For You", to celebrate their first anniversary of their Japanese debut, [29] with its music video released on the same day. The single climbed to the top on Oricon 's daily chart, selling 42.611 copies within its first day. [30] On June 23, BTS released their music video for their follow-up single, "Dope", receiving 1,000,000 views in less than 15 hours. [31] "Dope" rose to its peak at number 3 on Billboard 's World Digital Chart despite being released two months earlier. [32]

The group's world tour, 2015 Live Trilogy Episode II: The Red Bullet , continued with stops in Brazil, Latin America, Australia, the US, and ended in Hong Kong on August 29. [33] BTS was a part of the 2015 Summer Sonic Festival tour in Japan, performing on August 15 at Tokyo's QVC Marine Field and on the 16th in Osaka. [34] [35]

On September 8, it was announced that BTS would have a comeback with the second part of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life album on November 30. They also held a three-day concert tour, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: On Stage from November 27 to 29, where they showcased their title track, "Run". [36] [37] On October 19, it was announced that the BTS would be the new brand ambassador for sports brand Puma . [38] [39] [40] the group released the Japanese version of "I Need U" as their fifth Japanese single on December 8. [41]

In January 2016, Nexon announced that they will be releasing character avatars based on the members for their RPG game, Elsword . [42]

Artistry and musical influences

Image and musical style

The group has a versatile image ranging from a tougher, bad boy to a more youthful image. They focus mainly on the hip hop genre while also appealing to youth. MTV 's Corynn Smith stated that BTS has incorporated hip hop beats as well as rock-inspired elements for their singles "Danger" and "Boy in Luv". [43 ] BTS has been called the " K-pop 's Social Conscious" by Jeff Benjamin from Fuse , who noted that the group has found "a way to speak honestly about topics they deem important, even in a conservative society." [44]

Lyrics

Through their many releases, BTS has tackled school bullying, the pursuit of happiness and rejecting society ideals in its lyrics. [44] During an interview with Cuvism Magazine , it is stated that their name, "Bangtan Boys", means "to block out the world's bullets ", which reflects the group's desire to write music about society's oppression as well as lyrics that may relate to the youth. J-hope states: "I think we get a lot [of inspiration] from our daily lives. There are lots of things we could write about even here, and we get lots of inspiration while going to the practice room and while we're eating. We tend to write about small things. We have a song called "좋아요" (Like) and it's about someone checking their ex-girlfriend's SNS account and pretending to be cool about pressing the like button. Like this song, we write lyrics about small things. "

BTS plays an active role producing their music, with all members participating in the composition and lyric-writing of their songs. [45]