Top 16 Things You Didn’t Know About BTS

Today we’re going to talk about not 1, not 2 but 7 guys that took the world by storm with their music. Yes, you were waiting for it and we are finally doing it. We’re going to talk about BTS, the South Korean K-pop boy band. They debuted in 2013 and ever since they’ve won several awards for their music. They continue 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 released 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 huge success for them. But they sold over 105,000 copies and went on to re-record 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 part of their trilogy did the best. As it sold over 200,000 copies and reached third place in the Billboard world albums chart. They also released a Japanese album “Wake Up” which did pretty well and sold 28,000 copies. BTS actually stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which means bulletproof Boy Scouts. So, let’s dive in and see what the hype is about in this boy band. Here we go.

1: Forbes Listed BTS as The Most Retweeted Artist In 2016

This boy band is very popular in Asia and on the web, but it looks like more people are picking upon them. Even the giant Forbes notice they have potential and included them in their most retweeted list in 2016. This was all part of Twitter’s 10-year anniversary and to be BTS, a band that debuted 5 years ago is already making history on the platform. According to Twitter statistics, BTS was the only Korean group or artist listed in the categories of most retweeted artists with the most mentions, with 5393500 retweets. BTS was the number one most retweeted artist. The band is well known for keeping in touch with their fans constantly and for having a very strong social presence. Apparently, Asians tweet more than Americans, interesting.

2: BTS Do All the Work: Music, Lyrics, and Choreography

BTS managed to become so popular and gain such a massive fanbase in a relatively short amount of time. How did they do it and why are they so famous? Well if you ask the fans they’ll tell you exactly why? 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 a lot about social problems. Fans actually say their music and choreography is artistic and addictive. At first, their early style of music had a lot of hip-hop influences and later they went on to pursue rock music and R & B. which you can see in Boy in Love or Danger. On their album Wings, they did a number of solo songs that incorporated many different genres like gospel, in mama neon soul, and stigma or piano rap in First Love.

3: BTS Change 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 a number of agencies, but he chose Big Hit in the end.

Rap Monster is known to be more of a temperamental side but he’s also the leader of the group. He’s actually the most fluent in English out of all the guys. The youngest of the band is Jungkook and together they really make a solid band. This is a big band because typically you don’t see 7-member bands anymore, but it seems to work perfectly well for them.

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4: BTS Are the First and Only K-Pop Band to Debut Their Second Album at Number 1 in The Billboard 200 Top

These guys are the hottest boy band in town right now. We have to admit it’s been a while since we’ve seen a successful boy band. There were hardly any other bands since Tokyo Hotel but let’s move on. Since their debut in 2013, they won several awards and gained even more popularity. They even released songs in Japanese and now Japan loves them too. Who would have thought? 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. These guys might take on America very soon, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

5: BTS Grossed Over $22 Billion in 2017

When talking about one of the most well-known K-pop boy bands we need to take a look at the numbers and how much these 7 guys actually make with their music. We’re expecting some big figure, but this actually wowed us. 2017 was a record-breaking year for the band. As they got a huge number of awards for their music and literally everyone was talking about them. Their label Big Hit Entertainment said that their profit from 2017 raised to $22.9 Billion and this is mainly due to BTS sales.

Their “Love Yourself” sold over 1.49 million copies and easily became the number 1 bestselling Korean album of 2017. The Wings World Tour sold around 550000 tickets which makes up $86 Million in sales for the band’s label. To think that in 2007 Big Hit Entertainment was very close to being bankrupt. It seems like a fantasy for them. This goes to show that being so close to failure brings out the best or the worst in people. This time it was clearly the best as Big Hit Entertainment managed to give us BTS.

6: The Road to Success Took Some Sacrificing

The road to success might seem easy for us standing here and watching but for the BTS members who had to work through the process it wasn’t so easy. Actually, 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.

RM recalls the memory of him and V eating ice cream on the street when they saw a black car coming towards them. They were so scared it was people from their company, they hid their ice creams in their pockets. It turned out it actually was staff from their company and they went by not noticing the ice creams. Imagine how much pressure the boys had on them if they felt like they needed to hide a simple ice cream from their company. But everything has a cost and sometimes it’s worth it.

7: BTS 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 actually said that 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, the plastic surgery industry is booming in the country. So, it depends on the audience.

Plastic surgery addicts or not the 7 guys seem to be doing quite well overseas. In an interview with a plastic surgeon, he gave his opinion regarding the overuse of plastic surgery by the BTS members. He said the guys have had interventions but it’s nothing major. 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 US, it’s always up for debate and a lot of judgment comes from the public.

8: BTS Received Multiple Death Threats

Well, being worldwide famous seems like fun and joy. Sometimes being known and recognized by millions of people gets tricky and even dangerous. BTS received a number of death threats during their, Red Bullet tour in the US. The speculation was that this was due to the statement RM made during an interview saying when I first saw V and 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’ve been received another death threat that claims that they would kill RM at their concert in Mexico. Being loved by so many fans comes along with a lot of hate from others as well. Jimin was threatened before on Twitter and also on a social network called Curious Cat. Being a K-pop superstar is definitely not easy especially when strangers want to kill you constantly.