When South Korean pop megastars BTS announced they would focus on their solo careers, they did so with very careful words. “Not that we’re relaxing! We just live apart for a while, “Suga said in the middle of an emotional one-hour conversation posted on YouTube on Tuesday. “I hope you see this as a healthy plan,” Jay-Hope added seriously. “It’s something we all need.”
No wonder BTS – also known as Bangtan Sonyeondan, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts in Korean – were nervous about revealing their next steps. Following their announcement, it was reported that the group’s agency shares had lost market value by as much as $ 1.7 billion (£ 1.4 billion). And more than that, they have the emotions of their deeply passionate global fan base, the BTS Army, to fight – as well as the weight of a nation’s expectations on its shoulders.
In the last two years, the idea of BTS has almost grown beyond the seven members themselves. Breaking so many records that the Guinness World Records tweeted yesterday, “We’ll miss you BTS,” the band was the first Grammy-nominated K-pop band to be the first to rank a predominantly Korean single at №1 in the United States and won $ 33.3 million from just four concerts in Los Angeles last year. Their success in the West is just the tip of the iceberg: BTS has also won four major categories at the Mnet Asian Music Awards for three consecutive years.
Beyond their glittering trophy room (now open to the public at the Hybe Insight Museum in Seoul), the BTS have become South Korean figures on the world stage. They spoke to the UN General Assembly in 2021 after traveling there with diplomatic passports, and visited the White House earlier this month to discuss with President Biden the inclusion and representation of Asia and the rise of hate crimes against Asia. . According to a 2018 report, the seven men cost more than $ 3.4 billion to the South Korean economy.
But since the debut of BTS in 2013, they have achieved too much. Despite the humble origins of their label and the K-pop industry, then dominated by the Big Three music agencies, BTS stands out from its peers with ferocious performances, a warm but rebellious spirit and a deep-seated love of underground-supported music. hop the accreditations of several of their members. They won their first major award in 2015 for the bitterly romantic pop song I Need U and began a steady rise to industry dominance with introspective, philosophical lyrics and the ability to turn their hip-hop beginnings into a number of global pop genres. On June 10, the band released the anthology album Proof, a three-disc epic that covers their singles, which topped the charts, as well as raw, tenderly young early demos.
Drive determined BTS and it is clear that this change in circumstances is not a small decision. Watching RM, Jin, Suga, Jay-Hope, Jimin, Vi and Jungkook present everything with the candid and sometimes tearful honesty of the table in their once-shared apartment means realizing how hard they have borne expectations. Even more astonishing is their willingness to open this decision to inevitable public scrutiny.
I had something to say then, but I just lacked the skills. Now I don’t know what to say Suga
RM, the band’s leader, was candid in his assessment of an industry that doesn’t allow such thinking easily: “I started music and became BTS because I had a message for the world. But at one point I wasn’t sure what kind of group we were [any more] and for me it was a big job that I didn’t know about. “
Apparently disappointed, he continued: “I’ve always thought that BTS is different from other bands, but the problem with K-pop is that they don’t give you time to mature. You have to keep making music, keep doing something. After getting up in the morning and putting on make-up, there is no time left for growth. We’ve lost our way right now and I just want to take some time to think. “
Fans have also learned that this change is coming a long time ago. Jungkook has revealed that their album Map of the Soul: 7, released in 2020, is intended to mark the end of the band’s “first chapter”. This recording, with its often brutal assessment of the band’s connection to music and fame, along with seven solo pieces that dissect each member’s personal journey, had to end with a lengthy world tour and, of course, open the door to this focus on artists as personalities. “This moment should have come earlier, but I guess we kept it. We have to do it now, “he said emphatically.
A BTS fan takes a selfie before a concert in Las Vegas. Photo: David Becker / Getty Images
However, the fact that he was “detained” is understandable. In the lull of this canceled tour, due to Covid-19, BTS chose to release a solo single to lift the spirits of their fans – as well as their own. Dynamite, a sweet disco-pop song and their first all-English single, earned them the number one in the United States and their first Grammy nomination. Fair enough, BTS and their agency felt the need to take advantage of this sudden rise to the top echelons of pop, although RM now defines it as the moment he began to lose track of the band’s direction.
Shuga reassures: “But when we look back at the last nine years, almost nothing went according to plan. We have to live doing what we want to do – we will all die in the end! ” But the rapper also admitted to recent struggles in writing lyrics, thinking: “Then [in the group’s earlier years] I had something to say, but I just lacked the skills, now I don’t know what to say. “
Around the dinner table, each of the seven members begins to describe – hesitantly first, then confidently – that they are all working on separate albums. Jay-Hope, a rapper and dancer with an effervescent stage presence, will release his in July, before his first solo title, set in Lollapalooza – another broken record as he is the first Asian artist to head a long-running Chicago festival. Gene, the band’s oldest member and once ambitious actor, shines as he describes spending his newfound free time playing games and promising to work on new songs, but will probably be the last to release them. “I hope it’s all right,” he teases as RM intervenes, “You’re going to be the grand finale!”
V, a singer with a grim baritone and a penchant for dusty jazz bars, speaks seriously when describing his hopes for “a chance to show my music to the world, not just music – I wanted to show things that have been inside me for a long time.” Jungkook, an experienced R&B singer and the youngest of seven, is just as serious in his promise that: “I will do my best and become a better version of us, I firmly believe that.”
Suga, who is already a sought-after producer, jokes that his prices are prohibitively expensive after his collaboration at the top of the charts with k-pop royalties Psy, but is quick to offer help to other members – especially Jimin, ballet dancer and distinctive an emotional vocalist who is visibly excited about the procedures. “We can’t tell you everything directly,” he told the camera, “and it’s very sad and difficult at times. If you accept our words as they are, it would be great. ” The other members chant “Don’t cry!” As he gently sheds a tear.
RM, the last speaker, summed up: “The seven of us set out on a common goal with everything we have. I want BTS to last a long time, but [for that to happen] I think I have to keep what I am. What I know for sure is that we are BTS and we managed to get here thanks to you. I always want to be RTS on BTS. ” All this, he shows the weeping members, “is for the future before us.”
As they stand toast, BTS Army around the world is turning to social media to reassure the group: BTS have run far enough and – as their recent single says – the best is yet to come.
Add Comment