Exactly 10 years ago, on June 13, 2013, a band of seven hopeful Korean teenagers entered the global music scene with their first song ‘No More Dream’.
Fast forward 10 years, their group BTS is one of the most successful K-pop boy bands the world has known. BTS has painted the world purple.
Why purple you ask? The ARMYs (BTS fans) will tell you that purple is the colour of BTS. It is why Twitter is full of Purple Heart emojis today, with all the top hashtags worldwide celebrating their 10th anniversary.
“I purple you” is a phrase very dear to the K-pop band and their fans. It was first coined by BTS member Kim Taehyung during a fan club event in November 2016. Before wrapping up their performance, Taehyung told fans, "I purple you," just as rays of purple lights flooded the hall.
Taehyung, whose stage name is V, explained the colour purple was a hue of love. "Do you know what purple means? Purple is the last colour of the rainbow. Purple means I will trust and love you for a long time… I just made it up," he said.
Seoul goes purple
This is also the reason prominent South Korean landmarks such as Seoul City Hall and Namsan Tower are lit in purple, as dozens of fans from France, Mexico and elsewhere have reached South Korea to be a part of the celebrations called ‘BTS Festa’.
The festivities are expected to hit the top note on Saturday, when BTS leader RM is expected to meet fans - followed by fireworks near the Han River.
BTS' message to fans
For the band’s 10th anniversary, its singers Jin, J-Hope, RM, and Jimin took to social media to share touching messages for their fans.
“It’s a really special thing to be enchanted by certain words,” RM wrote in his message, according to a translation on allkpop.com. “Until a noun becomes a pronoun; when BTS becomes BTS and when ARMY becomes ARMY… There was a lot of rain and wind, and also love. We built our own world that no one could possibly understand. Thanks to the ARMYs and so many people who helped us, I was able to experience something special that I won’t be able to experience again....”
Meanwhile, Jimin wrote about the unwavering dedication of BTS fans.
“I’ve told you ARMYs a few times already, it’s not easy to support and love someone and give them strength for no particular reason. That is why I am able to understand how happy we are. You, who made us feel this way, should feel overflowing happiness and receive love. You must. Understand? ARMY, whom I am always thankful to and love, let’s be happy for a long long time.”
Jin and J-Hope, who are currently serving in the South Korean military shared note via WeVerse, an online K-pop fans community and the BTS Twitter account.
Jin’s message read: “Hello, I'm Jin. Thanks to our ARMYs, we're celebrating our 10th anniversary. There's a saying that mountains and rivers change in 10 years. It's amazing that the love between BTS and ARMY doesn't change. I also want to give you some contents for the 10th anniversary… I'm just sad that I can't be with you. I should have filmed more contents before I joined the army... I don't know how to express my apologies.
“As far as I know, the remaining members are working hard on the 10th anniversary contents... With 365 days left in the military and a year left, I'll go to the company and see you through Weverse Live instead of going home as soon as I'm discharged. Of course, it's early so I can stay home and come back, but I won't make any plans and I'll be with you on the 11th anniversary. I'm so happy to say this at least haha. Thank you so much for being with us for our 10th anniversary and I hope you stay with us until our bodies can perform on stage. ARMY heart BTS. ARMY ♡ BTS”
And, J-Hope wrote: “ARMYs, you’re all doing well, right? About now, I’m probably in an extremely nervous state with my military discipline! In a sort of ‘scheduled text message’ vibe… To comfort all of you going through this Hobi-less time, I will send my greetings through letters on special days like this, even though it’s short.”
On June 12, the youngest member Jungkook also held a live interaction on Weverse, in which he told the Armys that they always need to be safe.
How BTS was formed
The band was put together by producer and songwriter Bang Si-hyuk and his K-pop label, Big Hit Entertainment.
When Si-hyuk started Big Hit, in 2005, he wanted to make K-pop idols who would be managed differently, unlike the usual and strict rules of the music and entertainment industry. His artists would have more freedom to express themselves. They would both write their own music and interact directly with fans. It was this concept of freedom that made BTS the most popular South Korean boy band in the world and Si-hyuk a millionaire.
According to a web article by The New Yorker, an American weekly magazine: “Bang initially envisioned BTS as a smaller hip-hop group. He began with Kim Namjoon, or RM (formerly Rap Monster), preternaturally confident and a fluent English speaker. Then came Min Yoongi, or Suga, who’d gained renown for making beats in his provincial home town, and Jung Hoseok, or J-hope, a hip-hop dancer who would lean into his sunny moniker. From this three-member rap line, Bang kept growing the band, adding singers and visuals, meaning lookers. Kim Seokjin, or Jin, the oldest member, born in 1992, had perfect lips and thespian ambitions. Jeon Jung Kook, the youngest, or maknae, had proved his all-around talent on the show ‘Superstar K.’ Kim Taehyung, or V, had a tender voice and sultry eyes, while Park Jimin was a competitive dancer of implacable sweetness.”
So, after many auditions and years of music and dance practice, Si-hyuk finally introduced the world to BTS or Bangtan Sonyeondan (Korean: ‘Bulletproof Boy Scouts’ or ‘Bangtan Boys’).
The young band did something that was very unusual for a K-pop group at the time. They started to speak and sing openly of the struggles of youth. Not only did this strike a chord with youngsters in South Korea, but youth around the world started relating to the songs.
Today, they have millions of young fans around the world, who are very active on social media.
Social media phenomenon
In 2022, BTS become the first group in Instagram history to surpass 70 million followers. Today, the band’s official Instagram account has 73.5 million followers.
According to brandwatch.com, a data analysing website, there were 12.98 million unique authors mentioning BTS online between January 1 2020 and December 31 2022.
“Over the last 10 years (January 2013 and December 31 2022) – there were close to 2 billion mentions of BTS. That’s an average of 547,945 mentions daily – aka a lot of social conversation. And 36.96 million unique authors initiated conversations about BTS on Twitter.”
BTS, a national treasure
As a brand, BTS is extremely valuable. According to Brandwatch, data suggests that the band brings over $3.9 billion (Dh14.3 billion) to the South Korean economy each year.
The Hyundai Research institute found that about 800,000 visitors visit South Korea because of BTS every year. Which means that the septet could generate an economic value of $39 billion (Dh143 billion) over the next decade!
Breaking world records
Apart from several music awards, BTS achievements include several Guinness World Records. According to a 2022 article on billboard.com: “They hold more than 25 titles under their belts — including a number of records on Billboard's charts”.
The band’s members were inducted into the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame in September 2021.
A Timeline of The Group’s Biggest Career Moments
June 13, 2013: Debut with the 2 Cool 4 Skool album, featuring their first single, No More Dream.
September 11, 2013: Release of second album O!RUL8,2?
November 13, 2013: Recognised as Best New Artist at South Korea’s Melon Music Awards, their first major award. They won several similar awards throughout the 2013-2014 award season.
February 12, 2014: Release of Skool Luv Affair, the group’s first album to appear on the World Album chart, hitting No. 3.
March 29, 2014: First fanclub concert in Seoul.
July 14, 2014: ‘Show & Prove’ concert in Los Angeles, their first Stateside show.
July 27, 2014: Fan meeting in Berlin, their first European show.
August 19, 2014: Release of album ‘Dark & Wild’.
November 13, 2014: Performs in Kobe as part of their Live Trilogy Episode II: The Red Bullet Tour. It is their first Asian concert outside of South Korea.
December 24, 2014: Releases Wake Up, their first Japanese album.
April 29, 2015: The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 1 starts off a new era for BTS. It debuts on the Heatseekers Albums chart at No. 6.
May 5, 2015: ‘I Need U’ wins on The Show, marking BTS’ first time taking first place on one of South Korea’s weekly music shows.
November 30, 2015: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 is released. It was the group’s first album to debut on the Billboard 200, at No. 171.
May 2, 2016: Release of The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever. It peaked on the Billboard 200 at No. 107.
September 7, 2016: Release of second Japanese album Youth. It debuts at No. 1 on the Oricon chart.
October 10, 2016: Release Wings. It lands at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, the highest-charting K-pop album at the time. The act broke their own record with Love Yourself: Her last year.
October 29, 2016: Week in which BTS top the Social 50 chart for the first time.
November 20, 2016: Wins album of the year at South Korea’s Melon Music awards for Young Forever, their first time being recognised for the honor. Throughout the 2016 and 2017 South Korean award show seasons, they received numerous accolades.
February 13, 2017: Release of Wings’ extended version, You Never Walk Alone. The single ‘Spring Day’ appears on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at No. 15.
February 18, 2017: The Wings Tour kicks off in Seoul. It runs through Dec. 10 and includes 40 shows in total.
March 11, 2017: Wings tour heads to Chile for first of four South American concerts, two there and another two in Brazil.
March 17, 2017: BTS performs in Mexico City at KCON (annual global K-culture convention) in Mexico.
March 19, 2017: Wale and RM release the collaboration ‘Change’.
May 21, 2017: The band appears at the Billboard Music Awards, where they receive the top social artist award.
May 26, 2017: Wings tour in Sydney.
September 18, 2017: Release of Love Yourself: Her. It becomes the highest-charting Korean album ever on the Billboard 200 albums chart when it hits No. 7; it is the only K-pop album to have broken into the top 10.
October 2, 2017: ‘DNA’ peaks at No. 67 on the Hot 100, the highest-ever K-pop song at the time.
October 31, 2017: Unicef Korea launches Love Myself campaign in collaboration with BTS and Big Hit Entertainment.
November 15, 2017: Band appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live, one of several television show appearances the act makes throughout November while Stateside for the AMAs.
November 19, 2017: Performs DNA at the AMAs, the first time a K-pop group has performed during a major US award show.
November 24, 2017: ‘Mic Drop (Remix)’ produced by Steve Aoki and featuring Desiigner is released. It debuts at No. 28 on the Hot 100 chart, and is currently the group’s highest ranking song on the chart.
December 5, 2017: Twitter announces that BTS was the most tweeted-about celebrity of the year.
December 11, 2017: Appears at No. 10 on the Billboard Year-End Artists chart.
February 12, 2018: ‘DNA’ and ‘Mic Drop (Remix)’ are certified Gold by Recording Industry Association of America, the first songs by a Korean group to be recognised as such.
February 27, 2018: A video of Jungkook singing Park Won’s ‘All of My Life’ is posted to the band’s Twitter account. It goes on to become one of Twitter’s most-liked tweets with over 1.16 million likes.
April 4, 2018: Release of Face Yourself. The Japanese album breaks into the Billboard 200 at No. 43, and was recently certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan.
May 18, 2018: Planned release of Love Yourself: Tear, the group’s third LP (Long Play).
May 20, 2018: First performance of BTS at the Billboard Music Awards. They are nominated in the top social artist category for the second year.
September 24, 2018: BTS became the first K-pop group to speak at the United Nations (UN).
February, 2019: BTS became the first Korean act to present an award at the Grammys. The next year, it attended as a performer.
April, 2019: BTS topped UK's Official Chart as the first South Korean singer and became the first group since the Beatles to top the Billboard 200 three times in less than a year.
August, 2020: BTS makes history with its first English song ‘Dynamite’ hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – a first for a K-pop song.
March 15, 2021: BTS gets its first Grammy nomination – the first ever for a K-pop act.
May 21, 2021: The video for its single ‘Butter’ garnered 20 million views in under an hour, with the song debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
July, 2021: By this point, BTS was its own competition. Its new song ‘Permission to Dance’ knocked ‘Butter’ off the top spot with release, the second time in Billboard’s history of such an instance. ‘Butter’ reclaimed the top spot the next week, and topped the chart for a record-setting 10 nonconsecutive weeks.
September, 2021: BTS made its second visit to the UN headquarters in New York as special presidential envoys. Accompanying the South Korean president to the UN General Assembly, the group gave a speech on overcoming the challenges of the pandemic.
October, 2021: BTS held their first in-person concert in two years at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles. Over 200,000 fans showed up to the four sold-out shows.
November 21, 2021: The band was named the artist of the year at the AMAs, becoming the first Asian boy band to win a top prize at an American music awards.
May, 2022: At the invitation of US President Joe Biden, the seven members visited Washington and gave a speech on the issue of hate crimes and racism against Asians.
June, 2022: After releasing the anthology album ‘Proof’, the members officially announced a hiatus for group activities to focus on their individual careers and lives for some time.
October, 2022: The group’s agency officially announced that the seven members would enlist in the military in order. The eldest member Jin enlisted first from BTS in December.
October, 2022: BTS came together onstage for the last time at a free concert to promote Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo. Their next reunion is expected to come after 2025, when all members are done their military service.
2023: A year of solo journeys for BTS members
This year BTS members are continuing on their individual journeys.
Jimin's first solo album ‘Face’ came out in March, and its lead track ‘Like Crazy’ won him a No. 1 spot on the Billboard singles chart, the first for a Korean solo artist.
Suga followed with ‘D-Day’ in April and a world tour that began in May with sold-out shows.
J-Hope enlisted for military service in April. And, Jungkook is expected to drop his first solo album in July.
On June 9, the band dropped a new digital single, ‘Take Two’, the first official song under its name in around a year. The song is a gift for fans in celebration of the band's 10th anniversary, the agency explained.
This year, in celebration of its decade-long career, the group turned ‘BTS Festa’ into a citywide festival in Seoul under the slogan, ‘BTS Presents Everywhere’.
