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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781641253161 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2019 |
| Sold by: | INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 192 |
| File size: | 12 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 12 - 18 Years |
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CHAPTER 1
No False Idols
If you haven't heard of BTS, maybe you've been asleep for the last few years ... or hiding under a rock ... or without a reliable Internet connection. If any of those scenarios apply to you, then consider this a formal introduction. The seven-member band known alternately as BTS or the Bangtan Boys is nothing short of a global phenomenon. And after years of making noise in their native South Korea, Japan, and beyond, the group is finally poised to make their biggest leap yet into the American mainstream.
They have had seven songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 singles list (two of them in the top 10), have debuted three consecutive albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and have held the top spot on Billboard's Social 50 chart for all but nine weeks in the past three years. They've graced the cover of Billboard magazine (actually, seven of them — one cover for each of BTS's seven members), Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and even Time. In June 2018 they became the first group who doesn't record primarily in English to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top 100 Artists chart as the top-selling artist in the U.S. What's more, they have a devoted legion of fans who earned them the Top Social Artist award at the Billboard Music Awards for three years running, besting the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Shawn Mendes. And yet despite all that, they're still not yet a household name.
While chart performance and media recognition are all fine and good, they don't tell anywhere near the full story of BTS. Having already broken the mold in the hugely successful genre of K-pop, BTS is the first legitimate crossover success in the States. Why? Their unique brand of socially conscious pop/hip-hop music, slick choreography, and unprecedented fan engagement has set them apart from the rest of their contemporaries. Their self-dubbed "ARMY" of fans is a force to be reckoned with.
Formed in 2013, BTS (aka the Bangtan Boys, Bangtan Sonyeondan, the Bulletproof Boy Scouts, and the more recent moniker Beyond the Scene) is a seven-man group consisting of rappers RM, Suga, and J-Hope and vocalists Jin, V, Jimin, and Jungkook. Together, the multitalented Bangtan Boys have seamlessly blended their skills to create a unique K-pop group. Focusing on issues beyond the typical dance-pop offerings, BTS struck an immediate chord with fans.
Let's get one thing straight first: BTS is no fly-by-night operation. They are nothing less than international superstars. Since making their debut in 2013, they've been absolutely killing it in their native South Korea — they're the bestselling musical group in the country and have won South Korea's top artist prize for the last three years running. (They've also hit No. 1 in 73 other countries, thank you very much.)
They've won seemingly every award in South Korea, and have nabbed Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards, and dozens of other awards in the U.S. and internationally. They even snagged their first Grammy nomination in 2019.
They're the most sought-after pitchmen in South Korea — the face of several brands, including Puma, Hyundai, LG Electronics, and even Coca-Cola, for which they represented South Korea at the 2018 World Cup, perhaps the world's biggest advertising stage.
More important, they're fearless activists and agents of change (Rolling Stone called them "K-pop's biggest taboo breakers"), whose music fearlessly tackles an array of social issues. They're global ambassadors for UNICEF and have even addressed the United Nations General Assembly.
BTS mania is so widespread that it's been compared to the likes of Beatlemania. (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert even paid homage to the Fab Four when BTS recently performed in Colbert's Ed Sullivan Theater dressed in slim-cut black suits like the Beatles wore on their American TV debut 55 years earlier on the very same stage.) The band is riding an unprecedented wave of success around the world, and that wave is just now crashing on American shores. So if you aren't already certified ARMY, get prepared to become a new recruit!
CHAPTER 2"Hallyu" 101
To best appreciate what BTS has achieved, a little context might be helpful. So first, a little history. To the outside observer, K-pop looks like a sugarcoated confection, a frenetic collection of beats, catchy hooks, super-sharp dancing, and kaleidoscopic visuals performed by impossibly attractive singers and entertainers. But to dismiss it as a cotton-candy version of pop music would be way off the mark. Not only is K-pop wide-ranging in its musical styles and onstage product, it's serious business. Big business.
In fact, it is nearly impossible to overestimate the power of K-pop. The multibillion-dollar industry (that's right, billion with a B) is one of South Korea's biggest exports, and a huge contributor to the country's bottom line. Those eye-popping numbers are pretty impressive for a country with a population of only 51 million. (Compare that to the U.S.'s 326 million people.) In fact, South Korea "is the world's eighth-largest market for recorded music by revenue, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry," Bloomberg reports. What's more, that's bigger than India (whose own entertainment industry is well-known worldwide) and even China. (And for those of you doing the math, India and China are the two most populous countries in the world, with more than 1.3 billion citizens apiece.)
So how did Korean culture become so pervasive? Let's rewind to the mid-20th century. In the aftermath of the Korean War, the country's ruler, President Park Chung-hee, supported strict cultural conservatism. (This included such "standards" as enforcing short haircuts on men and modest hemlines on women's clothing.) Additionally, the government controlled the media, so all radio and television programming was under its purview. The end result in music was an especially bland mixture of inoffensive, by-the-numbers pop music alongside traditional Korean music, known as trot (short for foxtrot).
When South Korea became the so-called Sixth Republic in 1987, becoming a liberal democracy, things started to relax a little bit. One of the most popular television formats in South Korea at that time (and still today) was the musical competition show. Forebears to Western programs such as American Idol and The X Factor, Korea's weekly music shows — such as Inkigayo and Music Bank — were nothing less than appointment television. (And in a country where 99 percent of homes had a TV by the late 1980s, that's saying something.) Audiences were hugely invested in the outcomes.
Enter Seo Taiji and Boys. On April 11, 1992, the trio performed on the MBC network's weekly talent show. The song they performed, "Nan Arayo" ("I Know"), contained a lot of elements that would have been familiar to Americans at that time but were wholly unfamiliar to local Korean audiences. The song was seemingly influenced by the new jack swing style popularized in the early 1990s by groups Bell Biv DeVoe and Bobby Brown, among others. The unusual performance rocked the panel — but not in a good way. Seo Taiji and Boys received the lowest possible rating from the judges. The band didn't win the competition, or even the day, but they did something far more lasting. They lit the spark that ignited the K-pop explosion. Their performance had a profound influence on musicians who began to expand their sound beyond the predictable, staid formula popular in South Korea at the time. Unequivocally, this 1992 performance is considered to be the official beginning of K-pop as we know it today.
When the Asian financial crisis swept across the continent in 1997, South Korea appeared to be on the brink of bankruptcy. New president Kim Daejung made a bold move in 1998, investing heavily in South Korea's entertainment industry as a means of saving the country from collapse.
The gambit worked. Korean music became popular in China as soon as it hit the airwaves there. And when Korean shows landed on Japanese television screens, viewers couldn't get enough. International audiences' obsession with Korean entertainers had an enormous ripple effect, and the craze for all things Korean became all-encompassing.
They call it hallyu — the Korean Wave — and it describes the influence of Korean culture on consumers. It encompasses not just music but television and movies, business, fashion, beauty, and even cuisine. (It sounds outlandish, but it's not inaccurate to say that the international rise in popularity of K-pop and Korean television (K-drama) has created opportunities for people around the world to buy Samsung phones and pick up kimchi at their local grocery stores.) The term hallyu was initially coined by Chinese journalists looking to describe the immense effect Korean culture exhibited on Chinese pop culture. The word was subsequently adopted by the South Korean government as a badge of honor and a tool for promoting both industry and tourism.
The wave of hallyu grew stronger and stronger. But despite K-pop's giant popularity in Japan, China, and places as far-flung as Brazil, Australia, and Mexico, the music still had not seen a major breakthrough in the U.S. (Except for outlier Psy, whose 2012 smash "Gangnam Style" was a record-breaking commercial success but is now relegated to a footnote at best, a novelty song at worst.)
Until now, that is. And it's fitting that the reigning kings of K-pop, BTS, are the ones to break into the American market. For one thing, their fan base is young, energetic, and millions strong. The group has collaborated with hugely successful American artists, from the Chainsmokers to Nicki Minaj to Halsey ... with even more collaborations in the works. And unlike many K-pop performers, their music and lyrics dig a little deeper. It's pop music with a message, something that really connects with listeners.
And though Columbia Records distributes their music in North America, they have no plans of releasing an all–English language album with the label. "If we sing suddenly in full English, and change all these other things, then that's not BTS," RM told Entertainment Weekly. And it's their authenticity that has set them apart from their K-pop peers. (More on that later.) Of the seven members, only RM speaks fluent English, though the remaining six are learning English and Japanese to better communicate with their biggest fan groups overseas. Given their massive success worldwide, it's safe to say that their music has a distinct universality. "Even if there is a language barrier, once the music starts, people react pretty much the same wherever we go," Suga told Time. "It feels like the music really brings us together." Jimin echoed the sentiment in 2019, once again shutting down rumors of an English-language effort: "Even if the [Korean] language is difficult, we hope people understand the passion in our songs," Jimin said.
In the wake of their unprecedented success, the members of BTS have become the official poster boys of the Korean Wave. Case in point: in 2018 BTS became the first-ever idol group to be nominated for the prestigious Korean Popular Culture & Arts Award, recognized for their contributions to music but also for the huge impact they've had on the country's economy and tourism industry. They are South Korea's official tourism ambassadors, and according to a study done by the Hyundai Research Institute, 1 in 13 tourists to South Korea said they visited because of BTS.
Hallyu is indeed big business, both at home and abroad, and BTS is by far its biggest commodity.
CHAPTER 3The Fantasy Factory
Seo Taiji and Boys might not have received immediate acclaim for their innovation, but no one could say they didn't get attention. Their 1992 performance was something completely and utterly new, and it polarized audiences, who had never before seen a mash-up of Korean and American music. They were sharply criticized by some who objected to their use of hip-hop beats and rhythms (now the stock in trade of K-pop). They also committed such unforgivable sins as sporting dreadlocked hair and wearing bleached and ripped jeans.
Despite such trespasses, the song "Nan Arayo" ultimately became a huge hit at home — it reigned for 17 weeks as the No. 1 song in the country — and Seo Taiji and Boys established themselves as a massive idol group. They rode a tidal wave of success in the following four years, all the while experimenting with a wide range of musical genres, from hip-hop and rap styles popular over the American airwaves at that time to the softer, sweeter R&B balladeering of U.S. artists such as K-Ci & JoJo and Babyface.
The reason why Seo Taiji and Boys are considered the first K-pop band is that they literally blew up the system. Before then, most Korean pop music was wildly similar. By creating a new sound, they opened the door for other artists to find their own. Today, Korean groups are extremely open to experimentation and changing their sound, mashing up different influences. Which is why fans don't really consider K-pop to be a genre of music because there's no one identifiable sound. Instead, it's all about the full experience: the music, the live performance, the videos, the variety/competition shows, and the physical packaging of the musical product.
"Rather than approach K-pop as a genre, a better approach would be 'integrated content,'" Suga told a Grammy Museum audience in 2019. "K-pop includes not just the music but the clothes, the makeup, the choreography. ... All these elements I think sort of amalgamate together in a visual and auditory content package. That I think sets it apart from other music or maybe other genres."
Before Seo Taiji and Boys, music was ostensibly minted by the broadcasting companies, who promoted their own on-air products. But this group wrote, produced, and choreographed everything on their own. And because of their success, they upended the status quo. With it, a new studio production company system was born.
When the band broke up in 1996, one of the "Boys" — Yang Hyun-suk — joined the production fray, founding YG Entertainment. (The YG comes from his nickname, Yang-gun.) The YG agency is one of the so-called "Big Three" entertainment companies in South Korea, along with JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment (which were also founded by former musicians). Together they dominate the musical landscape in Korea and produce the lion's share of K-pop music, and their reach is enormous.
Ask any K-pop fan, and they could tell you about each label's hallmarks. Listeners are loyal to their chosen label, much as sports fans stay true to their team's colors. Since its inception in 1995, SM has been the leader of the pack. Home to hundreds of artists, it's known for its performance-oriented focus (meaning big visuals, sharp choreography, and catchy, danceable tunes). JYP is known for its polished trainee program and diverse class of recruits, turning out some of the most well-rounded musicians of the bunch. YG, like its founder, produces artists who tend to push musical boundaries and who possess an edgier look than their competitors.
Rather than focusing on grooming a select number of artists for long-term success, these companies churn out a multitude of acts, a seemingly revolving door for bands. The metrics for success are simply different in the K-pop system, where a band's shelf life may only be two years. This span is dictated by a couple things: First, the emphasis on youth. Since image is an essential component of the K-pop look, many artists age out of the system quickly. And for boy groups, things are also complicated by age in another way. All male citizens in South Korea must serve two years in the military, entering a draft at age 18.
Performers start early, auditioning as young as 9 or 10 years old. Foreign language fluency is prized in trainees, and native English speakers are a sought-after commodity. Once individuals are recruited by an agency and signed to long-term contracts, their formal training begins. Children are schooled during the day — a curriculum that includes a heavy dose of foreign language training, particularly Chinese, Japanese, and English. Then, once the school day is over, students start their music training — singing, dancing, and even media training. This is not for the faint of heart; a typical day begins early in the morning and stretches until 8:00 or 9:00 pm, before students return to their dormitories to complete their day's homework.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Big Books of BTS"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Katy Sprinkel.
Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1. No False Idols,
2. "Hallyu" 101,
3. The Fantasy Factory,
4. Making the Band,
5. An Army Unites,
6. The Magnificent Seven,
7. Behind the Music,
8. 10 Moments That Made BTS,
9. Dollars and Sense,
10. Speak Yourself,
11. K-pop: A Glossary of Terms,