BTS: Taking the World by Storm with Epic Music & Performances - Essay Sample

Introduction

Indeed, BTS has taken over the whole world with the sweet and memorable melodies, perfect composition and production of epic. BTS is a K-Pop music group from South Korea, which means the “Bulletproof Boy Scouts.” Currently, this music genre has millions of fans worldwide, which fills the stage whenever they perform. This music K-Pop group has been satisfying its global fans with their memorable performances, including late extraordinary performance in the Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam (Aisyah and Aznur). Again, K-pop is the short form of the 'Korean Pop,' and it originated in 1996 after the South Korean business person Lee Soo identified a market gap in the Korean music industry. He began manufacturing South Korean music as an export item. Later on, he started an entertainment firm before joining the market with two other competing organizations.

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Historical Background of the K-Pop Music Genre and BTS Music Group

The K-Pop music group was created after the big three entertainment organizations developed an achievement formula. They composed music bands consisting of boys and girls in a factory-like way. At the teenage, most talented youths were chosen and then trained thoroughly for an extended period. Once they have passed the training, they are allowed to perform and earn a living through K-Pop music like idols (Jääskeläinen & Petra). Generally, the most beautiful and magical words in the K-Pop music include perfection, video clips, music, performance, and images of the idols, which are highly displayed during the show performance. Overall, K-Pop sells a typical musical dream to the world (Nessa & Aqila, Anggraini). Moreover, K-Pop sounds differently from other genres as it is commonly known for catchy sounds that fans cannot easily forget.

Concerning the BTS, the biggest K-Pop music group, it was formed in 2013 by various young idols like RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, the V, Jungkook and Jin. BTS music group has a great concept that youths should stop stereotypes, criticism, and expectations that are usually fired at children like bullets (Aisyah and Aznur). Their main objective involves protecting the values as well as the ideals of the youths. Interestingly, BTS music group was not founded by any of the big three entertainment organizations, but originated from the independent music label called ‘BigHit.’ They have struggled to be successful and to remain relevant in the music industry for an extended period.

Generally, BTS' musical origin depends on hip hop; however, its sound has become more poppy as well as mainstream over a long period. Furthermore, BTS global success began in 2016, when they officially launched their then-new album entitled Wings (Nessa & Aqila Anggraini). Statistically, its Wings album broke all the musical records of the K-Pop group in the United States music chart Billboard 200. In the following year, it again broke its previous record when it launched Love Yourself: Her album (Aisyah and Aznur). This particular album became more successful as it was ranked 7th position in the US music charts and sold out about 1.5 million physical copies. And as a result, BTS became the best selling K-Pop musical album across the globe.

Application of Merriam’s Model in BTS Music Success

Typically, BTS has applied Merriam's model in their musical journey, which has made them successful over a long period by being a global brand. The music group usually involves three models of studying ethnomusicology, as propped by Alan Merriam, centring on the study of the music in a cultural setting (Jääskeläinen & Petra). First, they always include South Korean culture in their dancing style and lyrical part of the music to show their cultural beliefs and origin as far as culture is concerned. The BTS group considers Merriam's model by studying music in three different analytical levels: Conceptualization regarding music, their behaviours toward the music, and the analysis of music sounds. This particular model has enhanced their self-respect and ethical behaviour for the musical career, leading to more success.

Analysis of BTS ‘Love Yourself: Her’ Musical Video and Campaign

In 2017, the BTS music group launched an official music video of their celebrated song entitled, Love Yourself: Her, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHdK5U2hf4o). In this album, BTS narrates a story concerning being madly in love, a foreseeable fall apart, as well a secret about self-love (Nessa & Aqila Anggraini). This music collection, Love Yourself: Her, mainly centered on the aspect of loving one another. Through vocalist Jimin in his lyrics, he believes fate unified them with his Love, which the “blue penicillin” saves them (Aisyah and Aznur). Generally, the message is very clear from this album that a love which is based on changing or maybe hiding your true-self cannot be fulfilling as well as will prematurely dismantle. This aspect means that before you can truly love someone else, you must love yourself first. Concerning BTS album: Love Yourself: Her, 2017 Campaign, it started to create public awareness of the effects of violence against the children and young adults in the world. Consequently, in mid-2018, they were invited to illustrate this campaign during the United Nations meeting. During this presentation, they delivered a great speech where their central theme involved; “true love begins with first loving myself.” Hence, through this campaign, they gained a massive following in their fan base pages on various social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and many others (Jääskeläinen & Petra). This success has made them create a pool of online fan base called the BTS Fan Army, which has enabled them to prospers in the music industry.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is evident that BTS has become music group as far as K-Pop genre music is concerned as it enjoys global achievements through its memorable performances and message-oriented songs. Similarly, through their campaigns, they have consistently advocated for the rights of the young generations by sponsoring various awareness campaigns on the effects of violence against youths. Hence, this makes it a global musical brand that has a huge fan base.

Works Cited

Aisyah, Aznur. "Korean-English language translational action of K-pop social media content: A case study on Bangtan Sonyeondan’s (BTS) official Twitter." 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® 23.3 (2017).

Jääskeläinen, Petra. "Brand VS Brand: Global Marketing Analysis on two of K-pop groups, NCT and BTS." (2019).

Nessa, Aqila Anggraini. Conversational Implicature Analysis of K-pop Group BTS, as seen on the RUN BTS Reality Show. Diss. Universitas Andalas, 2019.