The South Korean K-pop band BTS debuted in 2013, and ever since, they’ve won several awards for their music and continued to rise and be recognized all around the world.
In the beginning, the group went through some changes before coming to the final version that was revealed in 2012 with Suga, Jin, RM, J-Hope, Jimin, Jungkook, and V. They debuted the first part of their School trilogy series, which wasn’t a massive success for them. Still, they sold over 105,000 copies and went on to rerecord their music in Japan as well.
The second part of their trilogy performed better and sold over 120,000 copies. They finally got some recognition and several New artist awards. The last piece in their trilogy did the best, as it sold over 200,000 copies and reached third place in the Billboard World Albums chart.
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BTS also released a Japanese album “Wake up,” which did very good and sold 28,000 copies. BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which means “Bulletproof Boy Scouts.”
Here are the top 15 things you probably didn’t know about BTS.
1. Forbes listed them as the most-retweeted artist in 2016
This boyband is very popular in Asia and on the web, but it looks like more people are picking upon them. Even the Forbes noticed they have potential and included them in their most retweeted list in 2016. This was all part of Twitter’s 10th anniversary, and according to their statistics, BTS was the only Korean group or artist listed in the categories of most retweeted artists with the most mentions. With more than 5 million retweets, BTS was the number one most retweeted artist. The band is well known for keeping in touch with their fans regularly and for having a substantial presence.
2. They do all the work: music, lyrics and choreography
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BTS managed to become famous and gain such a massive fan base in a relatively short amount of time. They are an authentic K-pop group that managed to bring fresh vibes to the industry with their take on music. The boys write and produce most of their music, which helps them send the message they want to their audience. Also, they sing about society’s problems. Fans say their music and choreography are artistic and addictive.
At first, their early style and music had a lot of hip-hop influences, and later they went on to pursue rock music and R&B, which can be seen in “Boy with love” or “Danger”. On their album “Wings”, they did a number of solo songs that incorporated many different genres like gospel in “Mama”, the neon soul in “Stigma” or piano rap in “First love”.
3. BTS changed the band members and roles a few times
The original band lineup went through a few changes before the final establishment of the group. Before the 2013 debut, Jin was a filmography student at Konkuk University. Rap Monster was performing as a rapper and had some informal track releases. Suga was also an underground rapper in Daegu. J-Hope was participating in underground dance battles and was part of a dance team called “Neuron”. Jimin was a top student at the Busan High School of Arts in the modern dance section. V was attending South Korea art school, and JungKook was already being cast by several agencies, but he chose Big Hit in the end.
Rap Monster is known to be more of the temperamental side, but he’s also the leader of the group. He’ is the most fluent in English out of all the band members. The youngest of the band is JungKook.
4. They are the first and only K-pop band to debut their second album at number one in the Billboard 200 Top
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Since their debut in 2013, they won several awards and gained even more popularity. BTS also released songs in Japanese. Another great achievement for the band was the fact their second album landed directly on the Billboard Top 200 at number 26. The same album went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies making it BTS’s first million-seller and international success.
5. BTS grossed over $22 billion in 2017
2017 was a record-breaking year for the band, as they got a considerable number of awards for their music, and almost everyone was talking about them. Their label “Big Hit Entertainment” said that their profit from 2017 raised to 22.9 billion dollars, and this is mainly due to BTS sales. Their “Love yourself: Her” E.P. sold over 1.4 million copies and quickly became the number one best-selling Korean album of 2017. Similar to that, the “Wings” world tour sold around 550,000 tickets, which makes up 86 million dollars in sales for the band’s label. It is interesting that in 2007 “Big Hit Entertainment” has almost bankrupted.
6. The road to success took some sacrificing
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During the trainee days, they had a highly restrictive diet. They weren’t allowed to eat food that was high in calories as they had to maintain their figure. R.M.R.M. recalled a memory of him and V eating ice cream on the street when they saw a black car coming towards them. Two of them were so scared it was people from their company, they hid their ice creams in their pockets. It turned out it was staff from their company and they went by, not noticing the ice creams.
7. They are criticized for having plastic surgery and wearing makeup
As the band is growing in popularity all over the world, they get different reactions from different audiences. American fans are raising questions regarding the plastic surgery history of the band members, and the fact they’re wearing excessive amounts of makeup. One fan said after the Billboard Music Awards that they could barely move their faces during their speech. In South Korea, K-pop artists are well known for having a number of plastic surgeries, and actually, this industry is booming in the country.
In one interview, a plastic surgeon gave his opinion regarding the overuse of plastic surgery by the BTS members. He said the guys had had interventions, but it’s nothing major and it doesn’t mean they are now addicted to getting interventions. It’s also a matter of cultural appropriation, as in Korea, people don’t think much before getting something done, whereas in the U.S.U.S. it’s always up for debate and a lot of judgment comes from the public.
8. BTS members received multiple death threats
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BTS received several death threats during the “Red Bullet” tour in the U.S.U.S. The speculation was that this was due to the statement R.M.R.M. made during an interview saying: “When I first saw V & J-Hope, I couldn’t see them because they were too black.” He was then categorized as a racist, and the death threats became too much in New York when they finally had to cancel all the fan events.
They then received another death threat that claimed they would kill R.M.R.M. at their concert in Mexico. Jimin was threatened before on Twitter and also on a social network called “Curious Cat”.
9. Most of their E.P.’s come in trilogies
It is essential to be original and have certain things that will make people recognize you. BTS knew this, and they brought in something new – trilogy albums. Their discography so far consists of some full-length albums and two other trilogies. In their first trilogy “2 Cool 4 Skool”, 2013 “O!RUL8,2?” and 2014’s “Skool Luv Affair” they had songs that were on the more aggressive side and related to students and their lives. As they grew, so did their fan base, and the music they released. Their second E.P. trilogy “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life” part 1, 2 and the prologue appealed to young adults. Therefore they featured more nuanced sounds and meanings and different approaches to music more experimental.
10. They are rich and they look great in designer clothes
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Being one of the successful K-pop groups in the world pays off. Being on the top of every list in winning the 2018 Best world performer at the Asian Music Awards is something to be acknowledged. Their net worth is also quite shocking, as it is estimated to be around 40 million dollars in 2018.
They took the U.S.U.S. Music Awards by storm last year in their Saint Laurent suits. These guys love to wear designer clothes and expensive jewelry. Their entire wardrobe for the DNA music video was over 32,000 dollars. BTS members mostly wear Gucci, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta.
11. BTS is nominated for South Korea’s Order of cultural merit
One of the most prestigious awards of BTS’s career would be the Order of cultural merit South Korea might offer to BTS. The Order of cultural merit, awarded by the president of Korea, is offered to those who have done outstanding Meritus services in the fields of culture and art in the interest of promoting the national culture and national development.
12. They were sold out in New York’s Citi Field concert
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BTS recently sold out their first show on New York’s City field in a matter of minutes. The tickets were available starting at 4:00 p.m., and by 5:06, the venue officially confirmed on Twitter they had sold out. Citi Field can hold approximately 42,000 people and sell out officially makes the seven guys superstars in the U.S.U.S. as well. This is the first time a Korean group has sold out a stadium show in the U.S.U.S. The lucky fans that managed to grab a ticket they also received a CD copy of their album “Love Yourself: Answer”.
13. Their fanbase is huge and they have a name for it
It is called the BTS army, and it is enormous. They quickly gained a lot of fans throughout 2015 and also managed actually to grow their fanbase with 116,582 members and that was the biggest number of fans for a Fancafe that year.
14. They got their own Twitter emoji
#BTS has its own Twitter emoji! 5 countries with the most amount of tweets will get their own special video message! pic.twitter.com/px85Ud8RDW
— BTS_official (@bts_bighit) May 13, 2016
BTS received one from Twitter. The emoji was created when the band was trying to determine which is their biggest and most dedicated fanbase. Their fans could use many hashtags along with an image of the BTS logo as a result of their search. It was determined that Russian, Turkish and Brazilian fans used their emoji and hashtag the most and therefore gained the title of the biggest BTS fan.
Furthermore, Guinness World Records gave the band some earned recognition in their 2018 edition for having the most significant number of Twitter engagements in the world for a music group. In 2017 they were retweeted over half a billion times worldwide.
15. BTS was not nominated for the 2018 VMA’s
This K-pop band was ranked number one with their album” Love yourself” had sold-out concerts and plenty of media attention, but MTV didn’t think they deserved a nomination. After the event, a lot of their fans took to social media to express their disappointment because the band wasn’t nominated for “Best Choreography” or “Best album”.
