Why BTS-today's success story-are incredible yet real

• Published date: 30 August 2020
• Publication title: Philippines Daily Inquirer

BTS-are these boys, now grown men, for real?

Their first all-English single 'Dynamite,' meant as pandemic-mood-lifter (disco!), got 10 million YouTube views in 20 minutes upon its release on Aug. 21, or 100 million views in a little more than 24 hours-breaking YouTube records and becoming the fastest song in history to reach that mark (more than 200 million views as of this writing).

Their seventh anniversary virtual concert 'Bang Bang Con' last June 14 drew an online global audience of over 700,000, raising $24 million in ticket sales (Rolling Stone) for an hour-and-40-minute show.

Strange as it may be, BTS went from prepandemic strength to pandemic strength.

The other day, author Paulo Coelho tweeted: 'To all those who are always criticizing @BTS_twt, the most important band in the world: Please watch a few videos: I am sure you gonna change your mind.'

They have broken perhaps all music records to be broken, including that of the Beatles (more than three top-of-the-charts in Billboard in a year).

This year, Harvard Business academics published a case study about the BTS phenomenon-'Big Hit Entertainment and Blockbuster Band BTS: K-Pop Goes Global.'

Their agency, Big Hit Entertainment (BH), once the underdog of K-pop, is expected to do its IPO (initial public offering), and according to digital publication Fast Company, has surpassed Apple in the 2020 Top 50 list of Innovative Companies, landing No.4 (after Snap, Microsoft, Tesla), after it released its apps, Weverse and Weverse shop, in effect jumping over Twitter, YouTube and other streaming apps.

In truth, BTS have gone beyond K-pop to becoming a global force, thanks to their digital rule over tens of millions of fans worldwide. Their songs' English subtitles apparently were no barrier at all. 'I can't believe my twins are singing in Korean,' a Filipino businessman told me. 'And they buy merch in Weverse, no fake merchandise for them.'

Even nonfans watch BTS on YouTube making the rounds of-and shaking up-talk shows in the United States and London, from James Corden to Jimmy Fallon, with an unprecedented performance at New York's Grand Central Station (stopping city commute briefly).

One funny behind-the-scene clip caught Jungkook (JK)-BTS' multitalented youngest member with the ravenous appetite who enjoys American burgers and hotdogs- telling the other members which talk show served the best hot dog sandwich backstage.

BTS also addressed the United Nations about their generation's need to 'love yourself, speak yourself' (lifted from their 2018 world tour title). With the Obamas, who are said to be fans, BTS became the finale of this year's virtual graduation, Dear Class 2020, on YouTube.

BTS capture the zeitgeist of the era-by being so raw and honest. -DIGITAL ART BY NATASHA RINGOR

Armys

Their fandom, aptly called the Army, numbers tens of millions (@BTS_twt alone has 28.2 million followers on Twitter), from here to Estonia, across age demographics-a K-pop base whose unity was shown when it contributed $1 million dollars to Black Lives Matter to match the $1-million BTS donation, and its collective brawn made evident when, reports claimed, it spooked Trump's rally in Atlanta (they bought online tickets and didn't show up).

They have filled Olympic-size stadiums in America, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Seoul, the crowds numbering as big as 80,000 a night-for three-night performances sometimes. It is said that when they performed at Citi Field in New York, the subway system had to extend its hours to accommodate after-concert commuters.

Yet it's not their success in music and entertainment alone that made us sit up. It's how these boys have taught us about the perplexing world of digital and how to use its limitless possibilities. And thanks to COVID-19, there seems hardly any other world now.

I tell friends in marketing and communication that if they want to crack the digital world, they should study BTS, the hands-down rulers of the digital era, and how they can command a global digital audience-beyond their music.

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