BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member South Korean boy band formed by Big Hit Entertainment. They debuted on June 12, 2013 with the song "No More Dream" from their first album 2 Cool 4 Skool. They won several New Artist of the Year awards for the track, including at the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards. The band continued to rise to widespread prominence with their subsequent albums Dark & Wild (2014), The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 (2015) and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever (2016), with the latter two entering the U.S. Billboard 200. The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever went on to win the Album of the Year award at the 2016 Melon Music Awards.


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Their second full album, Wings (2016) peaked at number 26 on the Billboard 200, which marked the highest chart ranking for a K-pop album ever. In their native South Korea, Wings became the best selling album in the Gaon Album Chart history at the time. The album went on to sell more than 1.5 million copies, making it BTS' first "million seller", and the group was subsequently awarded Artist of the Year at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards. The group's next release, Love Yourself: Her (2017), debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, marking the highest rank for an Asian artist in history. The group also managed to debut on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time with the album's title track, "DNA", which entered at number 85 and peaked at number 67. The album sold over 1.2 million copies on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart in its first month, reclaiming its title as the best selling album in the chart's history and becoming the biggest selling Korean album by month in 16 years, coming second to G.o.d's album in 2001. BTS was awarded the Mnet Asian Music Award for Artist of the Year for the second year in a row in 2017. Since their debut, they have sold an estimated 5 million albums worldwide.

Known for their large social media presence, BTS were listed by Forbes as the most retweeted artist on Twitter in March 2016. Following that, Twitter launched its first ever K-pop Twitter emoji featuring BTS. In 2017, BTS broke the Guinness World Record for most Twitter engagements for a music group. Also in 2017, BTS won a Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist. In June 2017, Time magazine named the band one of the 25 most influential people on the internet. BTS' achievements have also led the group to be ranked number five on Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list for 2017, a list ranking South Korea's most powerful and influential celebrities.


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2010–2014: Debut and moderate success

Auditions for a possible boyband were held in 2010 and 2011 by Big Hit Entertainment, though the lineup went through several changes before it was finalized with Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook in 2012. Six months prior to their debut, they began to gain attention for their presence on various social media websites, as well as song covers on YouTube and SoundCloud.

The group's debut single album 2 Cool 4 Skool, the first installment to their "school trilogy" series, was released simultaneously with its lead single "No More Dream" on June 12, 2013. Though the album was a top 5 hit on the Gaon Album Chart and sold over 105,000 copies, "No More Dream" and the subsequent single "We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2" were not major hits. 2 Cool 4 Skool was later re-recorded in Japanese and released that April, marking their official entrance into the country's music industry, supported by the Japanese-language edition of "No More Dream" as its official single. The second entrance to the "school trilogy" was the extended play O!RUL8,2? (2013), released that September, peaking at number 4 on the Gaon Chart and selling over 120,000 copies. Similarly, the singles "N.O" and "Attack on Bangtan" (Korean: 진격의 방탄; Revised Romanization: Jingyeogui Bangtan) failed to chart high. That same month, BTS starred in their own variety show, SBS-MTV's Rookie King Channel Bangtan, which was based on a fake broadcast station, "Channel Bangtan", through which members parodied variety shows such as VJ Special Forces and MasterChef Korea. At the end of the year, BTS was recognized with several New Artist of the Year awards, including the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards. The last act to their "school trilogy", Skool Luv Affair (2014), was supported by the singles "Boy in Luv" (Korean: 상남자; RR: Sang-namja) and "Just One Day" (Korean: 하루만; RR: Haruman). The album topped the Gaon Chart and also peaked at number three on Billboard's World Albums Chart, selling in excess of almost 200,000 copies. That June, BTS participated as judges for a K-pop cover dance competition in the Bridge to Korea festival in Russia, an event that aimed to promote tourism between the two countries, where they also performed on stage in front of 10,000 spectators.[41] In August, group also attended KCON in Los Angeles. That same month, they released their first Korean studio album, Dark & Wild (2014), which peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Chart and sold over 200,000 copies.[ It was supported by two singles: "Danger" and "War of Hormone" (Korean: 호르몬 전쟁, RR: Horeumon Jeonjaeng).

2015–2016: Mainstream breakthrough and commercial success


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Bangtan Boys at KCON France 2016 in Paris on June 2, 2016.

At the beginning of 2015, BTS toured Japan for the first time with the Wake Up: Open Your Eyes tour, performing to 25,000 fans. They also held their second solo concert in Korea, BTS Live Trilogy – Episode 1: BTS Begins. Their EP The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 (2015) was released that March and was included in Fuse's list of "27 Best Albums of 2015 So Far", the only Korean album listed that year. The lead single "I Need U" was a top five hit in the South Korea and won first place on SBS MTV's The Show, their first ever. Although the second single, "Dope (Korean: 쩔어; RR: Jjeoreo)", peaked at number 44, its music video became BTS' first to accrued over 100 million views on YouTube. "Dope" later peaked at number three on Billboard's World Digital Chart. The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 have sold over 300,000 copies since its release.

That June, BTS released their fourth Japanese single, "For You", to celebrate the first anniversary of their Japanese debut, with its music video released on the same day. The single climbed to the top on Oricon's daily chart, selling over 42,000 copies within its first day. They also commenced their 2015 Live Trilogy Episode: The Red Bullet world tour, and participated in the Summer Sonic Festival tour in Japan. During their three-day The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: On Stage tour, the group performed the new song "Run", the lead single for the EPThe Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2 (2015). The album topped the Gaon and Billboard World Albums Charts and remained atop the latter for multiple weeks, making BTS the first K-pop act to achieve that feat. At the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards, they received the Best World Performer in recognition of their international fanbase.


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The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1 and Part 2 were later combined into the Young Forever (2016) edition, and supported by three singles: the top forty hit "Epilogue: Young Forever", the top 10 hit "Fire" (Korean: 불타오르네; RR: Bultaoreune), and top twenty hit "Save Me". A two-day concert at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul was held in May to support the album, followed by their Asia tour, which sold 144,000 concert tickets. The group also headlined KCON in both Los Angeles and New York in June and July, both to sold out audiences. Young Forever later won Album of the Year at the year-end Melon Music Awards, becoming the group's first major grand prize (daesang).

On September 7, 2016, BTS released their second Japanese studio album Youth, selling over 44,000 copies on its first day of release, ranking number one in Japan. Japanese editions of "I Need U" and "Run" were released as singles. Pre-orders for the group's second Korean studio album, Wings (2016), accumulated over 500,000 copies within the first week, entering the U.K. Official Albums Charts at number 62, making history as the first Korean act to do so, as well as number 26 on the Billboard 200 chart with 16,000 units, becoming the highest charting and best selling K-pop album. They also became first K-pop act to log three entries on the Billboard 200, with Wings becoming the first K-pop album to spend more than one week on the chart. They also topped the World Albums Chart, World Digital Songs Chart and Social 50 Chart for the week of October 29.The lead single "Blood Sweat & Tears" achieved "all-kill" in South Korea, becoming their first number one hit on the Gaon Chart. Its music video gained over 6 million views within 24 hours, breaking the previous record on YouTube for the highest number of views on a K-pop group music video within 24 hours.[79] They later won Artist of the Year at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards, becoming the first artist whose not from the "Big 3" entertainment company (SM, YG and JYP) to do so.


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2017–present: Worldwide recognition

In early 2017, BTS embarked on their Live Trilogy Episode III: The Wings Tour. That February, pre-orders for the repackaged of Wings, retitled You Never Walk Alone, reached over 700,000 copies. The lead single "Spring Day" (Korean: 봄날; RR: Bomnal) topped eight of the major South Korean online music charts, crashing Melon's digital chart due to traffic, in addition to Gaon. It also entered the US Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at number 15 with "zero promotions". The music video also reached over 9 million views within 24 hours, breaking "Blood, Sweat, and Tears"'s record. A week later, the music video for their second single "Not Today" overtook "Spring Day"'s record with 10 million views. Similarly, "Spring Day" became the fastest K-pop group music video to reach 20 million views, achieving the feat in less than four days; "Not Today" bested it in less than three.

BTS at the Golden Disc Awards on January 14, 2017.

Their fifth EP, Love Yourself: Her (2017), was released that September[88] and featured music from The Chainsmokers' Andrew Taggart for the song "Best of Me." The lead single "DNA" peaked at number 2 on the Gaon Chart, while its music video reached over 20 million views on YouTube, becoming one of the most viewed K-pop music videos within the first 24 hours. "DNA" also became the group's first entrance on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 85, becoming the first K-pop boy band to do so and the second Korean act with a Korean-language song. When "DNA" rose to 67, it became the highest-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 for a K-pop group, beating Wonder Girls' previous record of 76. A remix for their song, "Mic Drop", by Steve Aoki and Desiigner was released as the second single, peaking at number 23 in South Korea and number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first top 40 entry for a K-pop group on the chart. "DNA" and "Mic Drop" were later released as a triple-A side single in Japan with the new song "Crystal Snow,” selling over 260,000 copies on its first day, topping the Oricon Daily Chart and making it the highest-selling single from a K-pop artist within a week. It went on to exceed 300,000 points on the Oricon Weekly Single Chart within the next six days, topping the list with 365,096 points thus making BTS the first foreign (non-Japanese) artist to ever achieve this.


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In November, the group became the first K-pop group to perform at the American Music Awards. They won their second Artist of the Year at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards, becoming the first act to win the award two years in a row. "Spring Day" later won Best Song of the Year at the Melon Music Awards. On the 12th of December, the group revealed they would be performing on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve to welcome the new year, making them the first kpop group to be part of the shows lineup. They also made their Japanese TV music show debut on TV Asahi's Japan Music Station Super Live on December 22, and two days later, they were revealed to be the most tweeted about celebrity in 2017, being "liked or retweeted over half a billion times (502 million)" worldwide.

BTS's first Japanese studio album, Wake Up (2014), was released in December, peaking at number 3 on the Oricon Albums Chart and selling 25,000 copies. Along with re-recorded Japanese versions of older songs, it also contained the original tracks "Wake Up" and "The Stars". Their first concert tour, 2014 BTS Live Trilogy – Episode II: The Red Bullet, was held from October to December.- Wikipedia