K-pop has been taking over the world like nothing before. Despite none of the lyrics being in English so the majority of the world’s population not having any clue what these people are talking about, the catchy tunes and stunning visuals have managed to turn the genre into a border-crossing phenomenon.
There’s a lot of elements to K-pop, but it mostly draws from classic pop music tropes combined with some dance and rap influences. Because why not, right? One of the biggest K-pop bands right now is BTS. Let’s get to know them!
Bangtan Sonyeondan
That’s what BTS stands for, in case you were wondering. It means “bulletproof boy scouts”, which I guess isn’t the worst thing to name your band. Naturally, they abbreviated it so the English-speaking fans could still know what to call them. Oh, that clever marketing!
They Release Trilogies
Much like Lord of the Rings, but with a lot less at stake, BTS has been known to release EPs in trilogy form. They’ve had EP themes around the life and hardship of students, as well as a trilogy about the life of young adults. It’s not exactly Dark Side of the Moon, but then again – what is?
They Have Insane Fans
First of all, they call themselves the BTS ARMY. Yes, that’s all in caps. Despite being so aggressively named, all their fans really seem to do is heavily vote for them on whatever online contest pops up and artificially increase the YouTube views. There’s no actual combat training involved, as far as we know.
They Don’t Just Do K-Pop
More specifically, Suga and Rap Monster have actually released solo hip hop mixtapes and albums. The themes on them are usually slightly darker and mature than what BTS is known for, so I guess it’s a nice change of pace from the regular material.
They Produce Their Own Songs
Well, at least some of the members do. All seven of them get some cowriting credits here and there, but two of them – Suga and Rap Monster – have been known to produce a lot of the songs themselves or at least help their regular producers Pdogg and Slow Rabbit (yes, these are all actual names) get that signature BTS sound.
They Make K-Pop History
With K-pop growing more and more popular every day and BTS being one of the big names in the genre, their record sales haven’t suffered one bit. They’re one of the first K-pop acts to actually chart overseas, even reaching the number 19 spot in Canada, along with releasing the best sold K-pop album on the US market.
They Have Their Own Emoji
What better news to end this article than the fact that BTS has their own emoji? Apparently they’re so active on social media (and even won the Golden Tweet, which I didn’t know was a thing) that Twitter decided to give them their very own bulletproof-vest logo emoji. That’s cool.
