Below is the short explanation of my review for those short on time:
Synopsis:
This is a ten-year-detailed biography book about the career of the male Korean idol group, BTS, with direct quotes from their experiences of their music and career. This version of the book is in English language and is translated from the original book written in the Korean language.
Reasons to read it:
Reasons not to read it:
The lesson learned from this book:
Note: The above link is a affiliate link to Amazon.com
Wehaiyo’s Book Recommendations:
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A few weeks ago, I have been seeing the official BTS book at Target, Amazon, and even my local library. Even though I am not a deep BTS fan, I was curious. The book is 496 pages long with each chapter about 50 to 100 pages long. I had to ask myself again as a K-pop fan: Why am I not a BTS fan? The Korean male group, BTS, has been all over the USA in recent years. I was happy for them, yet I do not consider myself an ARMY (dedicated fans of BTS), but a casual listener who appreciated some of their work. I do not take offense every time I tell somebody unfamiliar with K-pop music that BTS is the first name that they think of when I mention K-pop. A lot of people assume that just because I love K-pop, I am automatically a fan of BTS, which I am, but not at the level of being part of the fandom and collecting all of their albums. I do have a BTS album that I bought only because it was on clearance at Target. I can't tell you which one it is unless I go specifically check for it though I have a feeling I know which album. One of my co-workers wished my last journey to Korea to be "smooth like butter." However, I must admit that after reading this book, my appreciation of BTS has risen. I wish that there were other books about other artists as well because reading the book could potential turn me into a fan or at least, in this case, a fan who has a lot of respect for BTS. This is a review of the book and also my personal journey with BTS. I am a K-pop fan from the second generation onwards, but I do have my passing experiences with BTS.
The book begins with portrait photos of each member with a whitish grey background and white clothing. Each member has three photos: one standard photo looking straight ahead, one photo with a pose, and one photo with their eyes closed It signals to me that the members of BTS were ready to bear telling their true feelings and personal stories about their lives, only that it wasn't totally the case. The book mostly referred to their thoughts about their career and not really about their personal lives too much. The book does not even mention the member's birthdays. Therefore, this book is not about gossips or the personal lives of the members. Even though I know about BTS, the group, I still struggle to figure out the names of the members so the portrait shots are helpful to give a bare bones introduction. By the end of the book, I felt confident that I can recognize each member of BTS.
The book has seven chapters, divided by a certain period in BTS's life, and in a chronological fashion, which helps me understand the history. The QR codes in the book especially helped me appreciate what the book was describing by leading me into website links, audio files from Soundcloud, and Youtube videos. Because of this interactive experience, the book took me three or four times as long to read through and experience all the content. I admit, I fell asleep many times while watching almost an hour long video. However, I have never read a book this way with QR codes and I think this could be the future way of reading books.
I will break down what I think are the highlights of each chapter.
Chapter 1: Seoul
I like this chapter because it explained the personal lives of the members as trainees before they became BTS. This is probably my favorite chapter of the entire book because it describes their personality and their personal experiences. This chapter focuses on how the BTS members joined Big Hit Entertainment company (now known as Hybe Corporation) and how they first arrived at the dorm. RM (the book does not normally use his old stage name, Rap Monster, so I will do the same to refer to RM by his current name) and Suga were already living in the dorm, but the book began with j-hope arriving at Big Hit Entertainment.
RM was from Ilsan and interestingly, I went to Ilsan Lake Park during the summer time. It was way too hot and the heat was intense. Suga and V were from Daegu. Jung Kook and Jimin were from Busan. Jin was from Gwacheon and j-hope was from Gwangju. It seems to be fate that these boys came together from all over the South Korea to become Big Hit's next male idol group.
At the time, Big Hit was a small company and pretty insignificant in the k-pop industry. The book stresses this fact until BTS became undeniably successful. An interesting fact was that 2AM, mainly a ballad group, was co-managed by JYP and Big Hit entertainment. I never knew that fact, but maybe it should not be a surprise to me when founders Park Jin Young (JYP) who founded JYP Entertainment and (Hitman) Bang Si-Hyuk who founded Big Hit entertainment were friends and former roommates.
Sleepy of the hip-hop duo group, Untouchable, was interested in RM's work, and recommended RM to Pdogg, a Korean producer, composer, and lyricist for Big Hit. That was how RM joined Big Hit Entertainment. All the male trainees at Big Hit were rappers or hip-hop fanatics as the book describes it. From what I read in the book, RM and Suga were the main rappers of the group and the two members/trainees who studied and breathed rap the most. j-hope, Jimin, and V had prior dance experience. Jung Kook came from the "Superstar K3" auditions as a performer, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do at the time and had a lot of options. Jin thought that he would be an actor. Ultimately, j-hope was also considered a rapper/hip-hop expert and the other four members, V, Jin, Jimin, and Jung Kook, were considered part of the vocal group. Jung Kook was ultimately inspired by RM and RM's talent and RM was the reason why Jung Kook wanted to be part of Big Hit and BTS.
Both V and Jimin were scammed by the cab driver, who charged them 38,000 won (around $38) for a short cab ride to Big Hit Entertainment as their first trip to the company. Honestly, I would have been scammed too even in today's world as my husband told me that there were premium taxis.
My initial thought from reading early K-pop news articles in general that BTS couldn't dance at all and they worked hard to improve their dancing skills was that I knew they were a hardworking group of guys, but this book goes into depth on how hardworking they were in the past decade.
Jin was also the cook of the group, making meals when j-hope was only "eating to live" according to the book. I thought that was sad and it is not uncommon to hear about k-pop trainees leading a grueling life for the mere chance of debuting with an entertainment company.
From what the book describes, it seems Big Hit's previous girl group, Glam, were not very successful, which led Big Hit to stake everything on BTS as it seems the company might go bankrupt and it was their last chance for success. BTS indirectly knew they would debut when the majority of the thirty trainees were let go, especially to make space for the dance practice rooms.
I learned what Kalgunmu or "razor-sharp group dancing" meant. BTS had to practice repetitively until they mastered Kalgunmu and under Bang Si-Hyuk's direction, every angle and pose of their dance must be perfect. At the time, Kalgunmu dance was very popular (and still is in my opinion), even though BTS is more of a rap and hip-hop type group in which we expect them to act more like a YG Entertainment artist on stage with swag more than choreographed dance. BTS ended up in the overperformance category when they did some acrobatic moves where Jung Kook lifts Jimin up to do his scissor kicks on the backs of the rest of the BTS members for "No More Dream."
Unfortunately, I initially came to know the "No More Dream" song not through BTS, but through the idol reality survival competition show, "Produce X 101" in 2019. Only one of the contestants assigned to the song, Kim Hyun Bin, knew about this song and became the leader of the group to perform "No More Dream." At that time, I felt as though I discovered a hidden treasure song from BTS. This scene from Produce X 101 and trainee Kim Hyun Bin is etched into my mind forever. After reading the book, I realized BTS worked a thousand times as hard to put together that perfect Kalgunmu performance, which makes the "P.T.S." produce X 101 team look like nothing as the team only had a week to practice it. It was a shame that I did not pay attention to or "slept on" BTS at the time.
Chapter 2: Why We Exist
BTS debut on June 12th, 2013 without much public enthusiasm. Some thought "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" was a ridiculous name. I personally thought it was creative and endearing because I have such a pure image of boy scouts. SM Entertainment, one of the top three Korean Entertainment companies, debut their newest male group, Exo, earlier in the year, so that already meant the competition was tough. V was Big Hit's secret trainee, who was only revealed at a later moment prior to BTS' debut while other members were already known to the public for months.
Without the backing of a top three agency in Korea, BTS's beginnings were humble. They maintained a blog and constantly released teasers and other organic content. While BTS looked up to a popular hip-hop, dance, electronica group such as Big Bang, some people accused them of trying to ride off of Big Bang's success. RM, Suga, and j-hope were already lyricists from the start of their first album, "2 COOL 4 SKOOL."
j-hope strained his leg during his "We are bulletproof PT.2" performance due to the need to put on a perfect performance. This was followed by the other members having their own special moments on stage, which awed the audience. If I am reading this correctly, their career should have gone well with these performances alone. BTS' performance ended up attracting a lot of attention and intrigue. Then, there was the famous "one row" of a dozen fans who came to watch BTS' live debut. Normally, having many fans attend a live music show performance is a indicator of the artist or artist group's clout in the industry, but BTS is forever grateful to those one row of fans.
I was sad to read that backstage in the green room, BTS had no industry contacts or peers in their network and had a hard time networking with everyone else. It is definitely not the case in today's world where new artists are doing dance challenges with other senior groups or artists and mingling a lot.
BTS won all the rookie artist awards except for MAMA. At that time, the group, SHINee, from SM Entertainment won artist of the year at the MMA (Melon Music Awards). Meanwhile, Exo had six albums in the top 10. BTS was clearly the underdogs of the boy groups.
That same year, BTS also released their follow-up album, O!RUL8,2?. I never knew what that title meant until I read the book. The title means, "Oh, are you late too?"
"Paldo Gangsan" was an interesting song on their album that combines Korean dialects into one song, raps about their hometowns with j-hope rapping from Gwangju, Suga from Daegu, and RM from Ilsan in the Gyeonggi province. Suga wanted BTS to become the bridge between idol and hip-hop music. Ironically, I find a lot of their recent works very much pop-oriented and catered to the American public.
The most interesting part of this chapter was regarding the diss that RM and Suga experienced on the podcast, "Kim Bong-hyun's Hip-Hop Invitational" show where rapper B-Free directly dissed them several times for being idols and not true rappers. I remember from watching the Youtube video about RM and Suga being made fun of for being idols who wear make-up to perform. It was sad to know that the Korean public is against celebrities becoming idols in general. The public is critical (and still very critical) about how idols look and act. RM and Suga gave mature responses and that showed what types of people they really are and what they hoped to accomplish. I think this is the difference between Korea and the USA. USA rappers would have escalated the situation with retorts, maybe physical altercations, and even worse if guns and violence are involved. RM and Suga peacefully stated their opinions and nobody was physically hurt at least and mentally, it was a different story. I am sure B-Free will never live this moment down.
"Skool Luv Affair" was released as BTS's third album. Their "Boy in Luv" song was met with a positive reaction. I also did not appreciate this song until it was featured in a idol reality survival competition show, Produce 101 Season 2 in 2017. At that time, I was closely following the Nu'est members in this competition show and Baekho aka Kang Dong-Ho from Nu'est gave this song its true title, "상남자" (Sang Namja), which has the meaning of a "real" man. This song is really about a boy trying to act tough in front of a girl. Not only did Baekho act the part, he was also notably musically aware that his competition was singing or doubling the bridge part, "지금 달려갈 거야" (I'm going to run to you now) with three singers instead of two singers and called them out for it. Because of this show, I came to appreciate the Boy in Luv song of BTS.
After reading about "Just One Day," I listened to the song and was hooked on this song ever since. This song could easily be one of my favorite BTS songs and it is a short song or at least it feels like a short song. I have to listen to it on repeat for several times before I am satisfied. I normally do not listen to songs on repeat. It seems to be BTS' most romantic song.
I thought it was also exciting how the book described the 2014 MAMA awards in which BTS strived to exceed Block B, another hip-hop idol group, in popularity. How funny to realize that former member of Block B, Zico, and his self-owned agency, KOZ Entertainment is under the Hybe umbrella of companies right now. On the surface, both groups had a collaborative stage, but in reality, the viewers would compare the two groups and ultimately one of the groups would be crowned better than the other group and ultimately, as the book says, one of the groups would become the "next generation of K-pop."
I can't imagine that BTS was mocked for not being first place or ignored because they were not winners at music shows. BTS took this experience as a lesson learned and vowed to do better so that nobody would look down on them. I think it is this very attitude that is the foundation for success. They cannot become complacent and they aimed to rise above any challenges that they faced. Before going up on stage, RM would tell his members not to get excited as they are "nothing special."
Their fourth album, "Dark & Wild" did not do so well in sales. Unfortunately, BTS was staking their career on this album. I didn't think any of the songs struck me as a favorite.
I thought it was interesting that the book wrote that the most awaited content from fans of K-pop idols were:
1) New album promotions2) Concerts
3) Variety Shows
The chapter ends with some exciting drama regarding Bobby, a member of the group, iKon, who released his song "GUARD UP AND BOUNCE" and "Come Here" where Rap Monster was targeted as one of the rappers that Bobby dissed. This was especially dramatic because Bobby's diss track was released a day before the MAMA stage in 2014 where BTS was already busy preparing for the show.
BTS prepared an explosive stage to their song, "Danger" with numerous back-up dancers, j-hope's knee-pounding landing, Jimin's shirt tearing apart due to his "sheer willpower and determination" as the book describes, and finally RM's response to Bobby's diss track. Reading about this moment in the book was exciting and I felt that I did not need to watch the video to see it happen.
Chapter 3: Love, Hate, Army
This chapter focuses on their "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life" series whereas the previous three albums were referred to as the "School trilogy" series.
Strangely, despite having some success, BTS found themselves still in uncertainty and success was not yet attainable. Suga tirelessly began working on their next album. After all, every other album was deemed a failure so far.
Within "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1" album, I found more songs that I really loved: "I NEED U" and "Dope."
The original "I NEED U" music video had scenes depicting violence and emotional trauma, which the book states is unheard of at the time of K-pop and could have been career suicide for BTS. Personally, I love the typical dance or upbeat tracks from artists, but it made me appreciate the different approach that Big Hit took for BTS' career. I always forget that the "U" is spelled" "U" and not "You."
This song also had great meaning for me when Jungwon's team performed this song on their "I-land" idol reality survival competition show in 2020.
If BTS didn't start having a music show win, it is unlikely that they would be invited back to perform again on a music show. The stakes were high. Also, this was not described in in the book that winning first place is a huge indication that the artist or group has "made it" and advertisement revenue for the artist or group would rise substantially in general.
BTS' fanbase grew so much that the song became a huge hit and their first hit. Opportunities were opening up for BTS.
The title of their song "Dope," known as jjeoleo in Korean had an interesting meaning. Jjeoleo is commonly known to mean something like "awesome," but for this song, BTS used it to mean "to stink with sweat" according to the book. I thought that was very interesting, but the music itself with the intense music and saxophone going crazy in the chorus part was a huge highlight for me. This song is also one of my top BTS song favorites. The song was also meant to describe BTS as the underdogs of the K-pop industry.
The "V live" application became popular and a great tool for BTS to become closer to their fans. Personally, I am not a big fan of V lives in general as I never have the time to sit and watch idols for that long and also clicking on the buttons to support them is a pain in my fingers. To this day, I don't normally watch V lives, but I'm sure a good soul will highlight the important parts for me.
The book descries what "checks" and "BUMP" (Bring Up My Post) means for anti-fans. In checks, anti-fans will fact check and bring up negative information to shame the artists. Anti-fans would bring up past issues and make topic controversial again by bringing those old comments back to the top of the screen, making them relevant again. Seriously, anti-fans have way too much time on their hands. If they had that kind of time, they can help me write up articles on my blog instead and channel their energy for good though I read somewhere in psychology that it is easier for a human to hate than to love because hate is easily executable while people can hesitate to love.
In the next album, "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2," I am definitely interested in "Butterfly" though this song highlights BTS's uncertainty about their success. I always thought the song brought hope like Mariah Carey's song, "Butterfly." However, I obviously did not pay attention to the meaning of the lyrics. This song was also performed by Lee Heeseung and Lee Geon Woo in "I-Land." I should have known the meaning because they performed it in a sad way.
I learned what a "topliner" means, which is a person who writes the central melody and key lyrics. Bang Si-Hyuk is such a person. We can learn industry terms from reading this book. The book did not generally cover the process of how Bang Si-Hyuk helped with all the BTS songs. That would have been interesting to know.
In the special album, "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever," we have the previous music from the past two albums and also the iconic song, "Burning Up (FIRE)" or ""불타오르네 (Fire)"" and "Save ME," which are really good songs. Of course, these songs are also covered in "I-land" as well. I am familiar with these songs due to idol reality survival competition shows. After Rain, one of the show's guest judges in Part 1 of I-land shows how he raps the first line of "Fire," the first line is forever in my head: "When I wake up in my room (room)."
Chapter Four: Inside Out
This chapter highlights BTS' next albums, "Wings" and "You Never Walk Alone."
It was amazing to see how V was juggling his acting job in the drama, "Hwarang: The Poet Warrior Youth" and his music job simultaneously. It didn't seem easy and it looks like V himself wasn't satisfied with his work when it was done under so much pressure. At this point in time, BTS experienced continuous struggle as they try to stay alive in the music industry. Therefore, there was little time to waste as they prepare new music and V's acting career.
In the album, "Wings," I enjoyed the songs "Lie" and "Blood Sweat & Tears." BTS interestingly wanted "Blood Sweat & Tears" to be ambiguous and play characters who are neither good or bad. There is also the element of sex appeal in this song, which eventually became a global sensation, spawning a world tour for BTS including the Americas. I remember thinking this was a great vampire song and kept thinking that BTS was singing "money, money, money" when they really meant to sing "원해 많이 많이 많이 많이" (Weon hae mani mani, mani mani) meaning to "want it/you a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot."
In the song, "Lie," Jimin was going through a lot of emotional turmoil to bring out such an interesting and striking song which took two weeks to record and re-record to perfect it according to the book. When Enhypen's Niki performed this dance, I was blown away by this song and thus realized this song is very unique. It has elements of evilness and the feeling of being trapped and helpless. The chorus tries to go into a major chords, but then falls back to the minor chords to signify evil. The song is also so short. I have to listen to it multiple times to be satisfied.
V's "Stigma" song was also worth mentioning as I realized that V actually has a great deep voice and he used falsetto that was ad-libbed to perfect his song.
BTS started working on a lot of solo work, but still under the name of BTS. The letters B, T, and S became a common search term on the internet to represent BTS more than their other aliases (방탄소년단/Bangtan Sonyeondan/Bulletproof Boy Scouts/Bangtan Boys). BTS never expected to have fans all over the world when they haven't released any music in a foreign language.
Even as they were winning awards left and right, anti-fans continued cyber attacks whenever they won and award or had a concert, which is unfortunate. I never understood why people go through great lengths to hate somebody. From what I read, it seems every time BTS attended the MAMA awards, their performances were legendary and much talked about by the viewers. Unfortunately, I slept through BTS.
In the "You never walk alone" special album, I personally started paying attention to BTS when they released this song, "Spring Day." I remember the song sounding so sad every time I heard the song. I had no idea that fans had a theory that the song was about the Sewol Ferry incident that happened in April 2014. BTS left it open for interpretation, but I think that is what it was meant to be. Originally, RM wrote the lyrics as a message to his friends who he is no longer in contact with or has left his circle of life. It was sadder to read that Suga attempted to reconnect with one of his long lost friends and made efforts to contact this friend, but they would never meet again (at least that we know of from the book). I remember this was one of the two songs that took my attention away from the Produce 101, Season 2 show (with the other song being "Can't Cry" by Seventeen. The song is so sad like a farewell.
Chapter 5: A Flight That Never Lands
This chapter will go over the "Love Yourself" series and BTS' soaring popularity.
I remember when BTS won "Top Social Artist" at the Billboard Music Awards. I was actually puzzled when it happened because I had no idea how popular BTS was abroad, but also happy that a Korean music group penetrated the American music market. At this point of the book, BTS continuously won awards, left and right. I would have thought it would be a happy ending from hereon. However, BTS had internal struggles. The drama could almost be a movie, but it was also their lives.
BTS thought about quitting since they were so overworked and overwhelmed. They had no days off and they were exhausted according to Jin in the book. Imagine the book ending right at this point if BTS decided to call it quits. I am a little bit bewildered because I thought this type of lifestyle of creating music, touring, creating content, and winning awards was the goal for BTS. It sounds crazy to think that they would think about quitting. Most people would have just taking a vacation to recharge if a burnout is imminent. BTS also cannot go anywhere without being recognized at this point. They also have a lot of pressure to act perfect in public and not step out of line.
In "Love Yourself: Her'," there isn't any song that stood out for me. I knew DNA was a popular song, but that song never stuck with me. Basically every song BTS produces that has any indication of being a romantic song, is about their love for their fanbase, ARMY. That is probably fine, but for me, I rather live in a fantasy instead where I imagine a love story between two people and not a love story between an artist and their fans. Interestingly, BTS said the original melody of the song, "DNA," was bad and Bang Si-Hyuk had to rewrite the melody to improve it. This was a good example story of Bang Si-Hyuk as a topliner.
Jimin's "Intro : Serendipity" song is beautiful. I came to appreciate Jimin's voice in his solo works. He has such a great soprano voice. First, it was the "Lie" song and now this beautiful "Intro: Serendipity" song.
BTS was invited to the American Music Awards in 2017 and that was also another defining moment for them to be recognized in the United States of America. BTS was so lucky that they have a relatively good English speaker in the group: RM. I think if all members couldn't speak English fluently, the group's global power would potentially diminish due to people's lack of interest and understanding of what they do. In fact, I am amazed at how there are so many BTS fans listening to BTS rap tracks when I am not sure if they know what the lyrics mean or at least the fans would have to get a translation of it and even the translation is not enough for them to completely understand the connotation of the words and phrases. j-hope had a lot of anxiety not knowing English and he took it hard according to the book. I understand that feeling as I would love to be fluent in Korean, but I don't memorize words and phrases that easily. I have to really understand the words, the connotation and its meaning for me to feel confident. Even though RM spoke English fluently, he had pressure to not speak out of line and cause tensions or misunderstandings between the two countries of USA and Korea. This sounds like it is a UN job on top of an artist job.
I enjoyed reading about BTS dark moments of depression that they went through as this is the side of artists that the public does not get to see and even BTS themselves wanted the public to see the positive side of them rather than the dark side of them, though we still get to hear these moments in their music.
Amazingly, BTS's original contract was five years and they extended their contract to a longer period of seven years with Big Hit Entertainment, which is not the normal industry practice. On the other hand, BTS seems loyal to Big Hit and Big Hit gave them the opportunity to grow and expand to limitless heights. I would not think that is crazy, though having a longer contract benefits the company and not the artist, but if there is a deep trust between the two parties, I can only hope that there would be no big relationship dynamic changes and it could be a great cooperation between BTS and Big Hit Entertainment. BTS also believes that there is no BTS if at least one of the members left the group. A loss of a member would mean that BTS would disband rather than carry on without a member. There is a big sense of loyalty at every level. Sang namja (상남자), right?
BTS' next album, "Love Yourself: Tear'" was almost not made because of the pressures of their career, contract renewals, and their frustrations due to fame. I wonder if that is the reason why they put a tear in the title. Thankfully, songs like "Fake Love" and "Intro : Singularity" entered the world.
Surprisingly, the song, "Fake Love," was about BTS' unsure feelings of what they were showing their ARMY fans. Yikes. I guess, when I think about it, a fan's relationship with their idol can never be that of true love anyways. I'm fine with that. I don't have to marry my idols in real life. There is also that sense of intimacy, which is one way of course from an idol to his/her fans. However, BTS really meant that they didn't know if they were staying true to their fans and that worried them so it's not a romantic meaning, but just a doubt that they had within themselves to live up to their fan's expectations.
V singing "Into: Singularity" sounded very relaxing. However, I checked into the lyrics and it does not sound like a good thing at all. The lyrics are dark.
In the final series of "Love Yourself" comes the final repackage album of "Love Yourself: Answer." I believe that I own this album. I always heard of the song, "Euphoria" on social media and wondered where this song comes from and now I know that this song was sung by Jung Kook. I have heard this song being featured in Instagram videos a lot. He apparently excelled in his singing skills for this song according to the book.
For this album, j-hope started the dance challenge as a promotional tool for their title song, "Idol." Before this, fans never took part of dance challenges that have become normal and expected for song promotion in today's K-pop world.
Chapter 6: The World of BTS
This chapter covers the "Map of the Soul" album series. BTS seemed to be transcending into deep philosophical thought.
BTS' album "Map of the Soul: Persona" crashed the Melon (music streaming service) servers. At this point, fans are camping out just to see BTS and BTS began to be compared to the level of Beatles stardom, which is wild. I didn't know stadium tours for BTS were so exhausting because the stage is so big.
Because of their exhausting schedules, BTS finally took a month-long break in August 2019. Since they decided to take a break, the "Map of the Soul" series went from a trilogy of albums to just a duology of albums. In this case, time really trumped the money that they could have been earning but I would say that I would not have it any other way. Mental health and rest are very important in life. However, BTS are workaholics and some of the members like Jin and j-hope didn't feel entirely comfortable with a break. The biggest takeaway was also for BTS to have a different perspective of life. The change in environment helped Suga slightly ease of his feeling of needing perfection in his work. j-hope went to work on a new album during his break. So much for a break! Work was "relaxing" for him. This reminded me of the "Fresh of the Boat" TV show quote, "Work is a vacation from poverty."
What struck me about Suga was when he mentioned that besides music, he would like to be a licensed psychological therapist who can help similar artists like him. Imagine the stories he would hear if that really happened. That thought also showed me a huge indication of the type of person that Suga is because I am also very similar to him. I always aim to help others and I can't imagine my life without this type of attitude. This is the reason why I started so many blogs.
Chapter 7: We Are
We go into the COVID era of BTS where they had to promote their songs, "Dynamite" and "Butter" remotely, but still managing to gain more fans. BTS sorely missed their fans and the feeling of being back on the stage overwhelmed them. BTS is lucky that their career still thrived through the pandemic. The music industry took a hit during COVID times.
The song, "Dynamite," was only created due to the pandemic to cheer up everybody affected by self-isolation and possible illness. If not for the pandemic, BTS would have continued their linked song series by creating a song that would answer their early song, "No More Dream" to perhaps, "Dream." Also, "Dynamite" is BTS' first English song and they worried whether they can pull it off. Recently, I saw a headline where Bang Si-Hyuk wanted to remove the "Korean" word from "K-pop" to just "pop" as this type of music is for the American pop audience anyway. I feel like K-pop music is morphing with every year and sometimes too fast for my taste.
I found it funny that the young Jimin in his trainee days asked RM how he can get charisma. As per the book, RM replied that RM did not know either. I guess you have to get it through natural experience.
During the entire period of "Dynamite," "Butter," and "Permission to Dance," I was still a bit oblivious to who BTS was and why fans are so obsessed with them. I wasn't obsessed with these songs and in a way, the songs were being played everywhere so I wasn't too thrilled to hear it repetitively.
Amazingly, in 2021, BTS went from debuting in America at the American Music Awards to winning "Artist of the Year" at the American Music Awards. This is really unheard of from a foreign group who was also invited to give speeches at the United Nations.
Honestly, didn't understand why people thought BTS should be exempt from the Korean military service, but now after reading their book, I understand that they made huge contributions to the world. The topic is probably too late to discuss as BTS members are either in the army or going to the army soon for their mandatory service. The book didn't mention the fact that BTS announced that they will be doing solo projects from 2023 while each member goes to do their mandatory military service. It could be that maybe the book was already in print and couldn't include recent information as BTS is still history in the making.
This book really opened my eyes to who BTS was/is, their music, and their history. I appreciated learning so many new things from reading the translated version of the book in English. There were times in which I questioned the translations, but in the end, I think I understood the overall meaning. This book only covered a decade so I wonder if a second book will be published ten years later to cover the second decade. If so, I will also be willing to review it for you.