BTS , also known as the Bangtan Boys , is a seven-member
South Korean boy band formed by Big Hit Entertainment . They debuted on June 12, 2013 with the song "No More Dream" from their first album 2 Cool 4 Skool . They won several New Artist of the Year awards for the track, including at the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards . The band continued to rise to widespread prominence with their subsequent albums
Dark & Wild (2014), The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 (2015) and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever (2016), with the latter two entering the U.S. Billboard 200. [3]
The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever went on to win the Album of the Year award at the 2016 Melon Music Awards. [4]
BTS
BTS at SBS Gayo Daejeon on December 25, 2017.
From left to right: V, Suga, Jin, Jungkook, RM , Jimin, & J-Hope.
Background information
Also known as
Bangtan Boys Bulletproof Boy Scouts
Beyond The Scene Bangtan Sonyeondan
Origin
Seoul , South Korea
Genres
K-pop hip hop pop electronica rock [1]
R&B EDM
Years active
2013–present
Labels
Big Hit Entertainment
Pony Canyon (2014–2017 in Japan)
Def Jam Japan (Japan, 2017–present) [2]
Website
Members
Jin
Suga
J-Hope
RM
Jimin
V
Jungkook
BTS
Korean name
Hangul
방탄소년단
Hanja
防彈少年團
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization
Bangtan Sonyeondan
McCune–Reischauer
Pangt'an Sonyǒndan
Japanese name
Kanji
防弾少年団
Hiragana
ぼうだんしょうねんだん
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn
Bōdan Shōnendan
Kunrei-shiki
Bôdan Syônendan
Their second full album, Wings (2016), [5] peaked at number 26 on the Billboard 200, which marked the highest chart ranking for a K-pop album ever. [6] In their native South Korea, Wings became the best selling album in the Gaon Album Chart history at the time. [7] The album went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies, making it BTS' first "million seller", [8] and the group was subsequently awarded Artist of the Year at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards . [9] The group's next release, Love Yourself: Her (2017), [10] debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, marking the highest rank for an Asian artist in history. [11] The group also managed to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with the album's title track, "DNA", which entered at number 85 and peaked at number 67. [12] The album sold over 1.2 million copies on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart in its first month, reclaiming its title as the best selling album in the chart's history and becoming the biggest selling Korean album by month in 16 years, coming second to G.o.d 's album in 2001. [13] BTS was awarded the Mnet Asian Music Award for Artist of the Year for the second year in a row in 2017.
[14] Since their debut, they have sold an estimated 5 million albums worldwide. [15]
Known for their large social media presence, BTS were listed by Forbes as the most retweeted artist on Twitter in March 2016. [16] Following that, Twitter launched its first ever K-pop Twitter emoji featuring BTS. [17] In 2017, BTS broke the
Guinness World Record for most Twitter engagements for a music group. [18] Also in 2017, BTS won a Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist. [19] In June 2017, Time magazine named the band one of the 25 most influential people on the internet. [20] BTS' achievements have also led the group to be ranked number five on Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list for 2017, a list ranking South Korea's most powerful and influential celebrities. [21]
Name
The group's name BTS is an acronym for the Korean expression Bangtan Sonyeondan ( Hangul : 방탄소년단; Hanja:
防彈少年團 ), literally meaning "Bulletproof Boy Scouts". In Japan, they are known as Bōdan Shōnendan (防弾少年団), which translates to the same. On July 2017, BTS announced that in addition to being known as Bangtan Sonyeondan or Bulletproof Boy Scouts, the acronym would also stand for "Beyond The Scene" as part of their new brand identity. [22]
History
2010–2014: Debut and moderate success
BTS in 2014 performing at Mnet
M! Countdown .
Auditions for a possible boyband were held in 2010 and 2011 by Big Hit Entertainment, though the lineup went through several changes before it was finalized with Jin, Suga , J-Hope, RM , Jimin, V, and Jungkook in 2012. Six months prior to their debut, they began to gain attention for their presence on various social media websites, as well as song covers on
YouTube and SoundCloud . [23][24]
The group's debut single album 2 Cool 4 Skool , the first installment to their "school trilogy" series, was released simultaneously with its lead single "No More Dream" on June 12, 2013. [25][26] Though the album was a top 5 hit on the
Gaon Album Chart and sold over 105,000 copies, [27][28] "No More Dream" and the subsequent single "We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2" were not major hits. [29][30] 2 Cool 4 Skool was later re-recorded in Japanese and released that April, marking their official entrance into the country's music industry, [31] supported by the Japanese-language edition of "No More Dream" as its official single. [32] The second entrance to the "school trilogy" was the extended play O!RUL8,2? (2013), released that September, peaking at number 4 on the Gaon Chart and selling over 120,000 copies. [33][34] Similarly, the singles "N.O" and "Attack on Bangtan" ( Korean : 진격의 방탄;
Revised Romanization : Jingyeogui Bangtan ) failed to chart high. That same month, BTS starred in their own variety show, SBS-MTV 's Rookie King Channel Bangtan, which was based on a fake broadcast station, "Channel Bangtan", through which members parodied variety shows such as VJ Special Forces and MasterChef Korea . At the end of the year, BTS was recognized with several New Artist of the Year awards, including the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards . The last act to their "school trilogy", Skool Luv Affair (2014), [35] was supported by the singles "Boy in Luv" (Korean: 상남자; RR:
Sang-namja ) and "Just One Day" (Korean: 하루만; RR:
Haruman ). [36][37] The album topped the Gaon Chart and also peaked at number three on Billboard's World Albums Chart,
[38][39] selling in excess of almost 200,000 copies. [40] That June, BTS participated as judges for a K-pop cover dance competition in the Bridge to Korea festival in Russia, an event that aimed to promote tourism between the two countries, where they also performed on stage in front of 10,000 spectators. [41] In August, group also attended KCON in Los Angeles. [42] That same month, they released their first Korean studio album, Dark & Wild (2014), which peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Chart and sold over 200,000 copies.
[43][44] It was supported by two singles: "Danger" and "War of Hormone" (Korean: 호르몬 전쟁, RR: Horeumon Jeonjaeng ).
[45]
BTS's first Japanese studio album, Wake Up (2014), was released in December, peaking at number 3 on the Oricon Albums Chart and selling 25,000 copies. [46][47] Along with re-recorded Japanese versions of older songs, it also contained the original tracks "Wake Up" and "The Stars". [48] Their first concert tour, 2014 BTS Live Trilogy – Episode II: The Red Bullet, was held from October to December. [49]
2015–2016: Mainstream breakthrough and commercial success
Bangtan Boys at KCON France 2016 in Paris on June 2, 2016.
At the beginning of 2015, BTS toured Japan for the first time with the Wake Up: Open Your Eyes tour, performing to 25,000 fans. [50] They also held their second solo concert in Korea, BTS Live Trilogy – Episode 1: BTS Begins. [51] Their EP The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 (2015) was released that March [52] and was included in Fuse's list of "27 Best Albums of 2015 So Far", the only Korean album listed that year. [53] The lead single "I Need U" was a top five hit in the South Korea [54] and won first place on SBS MTV's The Show , their first ever. [55] Although the second single, "Dope (Korean: 쩔어; RR: Jjeoreo )", peaked at number 44, [56] its music video became BTS' first to accrued over 100 million views on YouTube. [57] "Dope" later peaked at number three on Billboard's World Digital Chart. [58] The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 have sold over 300,000 copies since its release. [59]
That June, BTS released their fourth Japanese single, "For You", to celebrate the first anniversary of their Japanese debut, with its music video released on the same day. The single climbed to the top on Oricon 's daily chart, selling over 42,000 copies within its first day. [60] They also commenced their 2015 Live Trilogy Episode: The Red Bullet world tour, [49] and participated in the Summer Sonic Festival tour in Japan.
[61][62] During their three-day The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: On Stage tour, the group performed the new song "Run",
[63] the lead single for the EPThe Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 (2015). The album topped the Gaon and Billboard
World Albums Charts and remained atop the latter for multiple weeks, making BTS the first K-pop act to achieve that feat. [64][65] At the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards , they received the Best World Performer in recognition of their international fanbase.
The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 and Part 2 were later combined into the Young Forever (2016) edition, and supported by three singles: the top forty hit "Epilogue: Young Forever", the top 10 hit "Fire" (Korean: 불타오르네; RR:
Bultaoreune ), and top twenty hit "Save Me". [66] A two-day concert at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul was held in May to support the album, [67] followed by their Asia tour, which sold 144,000 concert tickets. [68] The group also headlined KCON in both Los Angeles and New York in June and July, both to sold out audiences. [69] Young Forever later won Album of the Year at the year-end Melon Music Awards , becoming the group's first major grand prize ( daesang ). [4]
On September 7, 2016, BTS released their second Japanese studio album Youth , selling over 44,000 copies on its first day of release, ranking number one in Japan . [70] Japanese editions of "I Need U" and "Run" were released as singles.
[71][72] Pre-orders for the group's second Ko
