On October 17, the internet broke when Big Hit, the company of the K-pop juggernaut BTS, announced their plans for military enlistment. Since 2013, the group has gained worldwide attention through its music, talents, their personalities, and dancing. BTS achieved outstanding achievements such as Grammy nominations, won in US-based awards such as Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Awards, and to date, had 66 Daesangs (Grand Prize) among Korean award-giving bodies.
Apart from their musical influence, the group had the opportunity to speak in front of the United Nations as Korea’s Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generations and Culture, and worked with UNICEF for the Love Yourself Speak Yourself campaign. They were invited to the White House to address Asian hate crimes and discrimination. Their massive influence through music and inspiring love messages marked them as the most prominent musical group in this digital age.
A fandom called the BTS Army is estimated at 40 million or more worldwide. They can be described as the most organized and largest fandom, with records of high engagement through social media and fan engagement platforms.
Let us look at how influential BTS has been so far in 2022.
1. Release of Artist-Made Collection
In January of this year, BTS released the Artist-Made Collection, a set of merchandise designed and made by its members. The merchandise sold off quickly, making the ARMY demand more production. Allkpop reported that BTS’ Jimin Artist Made Collection, With You Hoody and Red Carved earrings, became the first to sell out for the second time minutes after restocking. Jimin is consistently number one in South Korea’s Brand Reputation Ranking.
2. Permission to Dance Concert Las Vegas
BTS held a four-day concert at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The show was attended in-concert, live play, and online. According to Touring Data, the group recorded the #2 highest-grossing Boxscore report of all-time in the US, with $35.9 million in with only four Las Vegas shows only behind Bruce Springsteen’s concert but with 10 shows at Giants Stadium in 2003.
3. Proof Album
Proof is the first anthology of BTS, a three-CD album that contains songs from their rookie year to the present. It peaked at Number 1 at Billboard top 200 and in various countries in Europe and Asia. Proof came with a compact and standard versions and a collectors edition. Apart from the curated songs from previous albums, Proof also featured three new songs, Yet to Come, For Youth, and Run BTS. Also, the third CD is composed of unreleased demo songs.
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4. Weverse live of Jungkook and Jin
Kpop artist-fan engagement is through a platform called, Vlive or, recently, Weverse Live. Jungkook’s live during his birthday on September 1 is the fastest to reach 10 million viewers. On the other hand, Kim Seokjin’s live streaming of the game, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, lasted three hours and had 11.3 million views on the Weverse platform.
5. Jhope’s JITB
BTS Jhope released a solo album, Jack in the Box, showing a different and darker side of BTS’s sunshine dance leader. Alongside this solo album is Jhope’s headlined the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago, USA on August this year. According to Bandwagon Asia, Jhope’s stage had more than 150,000 attendance and 14,5 million streaming views worldwide.
6. V as fashion influencer; RM as art patron
BTS Member V proved himself as a fashion icon when he was invited by Celine’s creative director, Hedi Slimane, along with actor park Bogum and Blackpink Member Lisa, to appear in the Celine Fashion Week in Paris, France. V’s posts on the Celine event on his Instagram gained more than 13 million hearts out of his 57 million followers. BTS RM on the other hand, is one of the art world’s biggest and youngest influencers. His art influence gave boost to South Korean artists. His Instagram account, with more than 38 million followers is filled with museums visits and artworks posts.
7. JK’s Left and Right, Bad Decisions, Psy, Crush, Sexy Nukim
Collaboration with artists from the United States, Charlie Puth, Ben Blanco and Snoop Dog and Korean artists Psy, Crush, and Sexy Nukim proved that BTS was not on hiatus but actively making music with various artists. BTS Suga’s collaboration with Psy That That has more than 375 million views to date.
8. Festa Dinner Group Break announcement
One of the more powerful moves by BTS is taking a break during the peak of their career. After the very successful series of Permission to Dance concerts and the record-breaking Proof album launch, they announced they needed to push for personal pursuits. The group has been doing things together for the last 10 years and now wanted to prioritize individual activities. That said, BTS still has group activities such as their variety show Run BTS and promotions for brand endorsements and online games such as In the Seom.
9. Yet to Come in Busan Concert
The City of Busan in South Korea is bidding for the World Expo 2030. Amidst the group break, BTS held a large concert for the bid of the City of Busan in the Expo. The free show had more than 50,000 attendees onsite, with around 10,000 for live play and 50 million online viewers. With the demand for 50 million, the Weverse, Naver, and Zepeto servers had difficulty streaming. BTS turned the whole city to Borahae land, with the color purple everywhere, together with their hospitality industry. ARMYs from all over the world went to Busan to witness the concert and the different activities highlighting BTS and Busan, South Korea.
10. Military enlistment
On October 17, Big Hit announced that BTS would push for their military enlistment. Instead of following the postponement of military service until December 2022, BTS Jin opted to apply for the standard enlistment procedures on October 30. Other members, Suga, RM, Jhope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, will enlist on their own time until they reconvene in 2025. Jin promised to give a lot of content and release his new song, The Astronaut, another collaboration with the power band Coldplay.
The BTS Army will eagerly await the boys to return in 2025.
