BTS and the Business of Optimism
As I write this article, BTS have just released the leading single from their second full-length album for the year. The single is called ‘Life Goes On’, and it “echoes, in a low voice, the comforting message that in the face of unexpected turns, Life Goes On…”. Most of the song, like most of their music, is in Korean. But the three English words are designed to be the slogan for 2020.
Since its premiere about an hour ago, the video has gathered close to 12 million views, but that’s not new news for multi-record setting pop phenomenon. Their previous single, Dynamite, holds the record for the highest number of YouTube viewers for a video premier at 3 million live concurrent views.
The Beatles of the YouTube age
BTS is a K-Pop boy band from South Korea that has topped global charts with their music, as well as mobilised an ARMY of followers (some 48 million according to one ‘census’) comparable to those of organised religion, or perhaps the Beatles.
Dearly referred to as ‘the Beatles of the YouTube age’, the comparison is often made because BTS are the only other band to have not one, but three #1 albums on the American Billboard charts in a single year. They have one big advantage the Beatles couldn’t have dreamed of — in the YouTube age, the their influence spreads like wildfire.
The well oiled machinery of loyal fans responsible for this describe themselves as Adorable Representative MC of Youth, just the kind of army you can imagine wielding guns that shoot flowers.
Turning Clichés into Zeitgeist
If Greta Thunberg is the hope of the planet, BTS are the hope for its youth.
In the last few years, the K-Pop septet has led the campaign of self-love. Through their third full length album Love Yourself, BTS started a global campaign from what was at best a cliché pop song title. #LoveYourself has since taken the form of several social campaigns, including that of UNICEF.
Cut to 2020, and boom, we have another hot cliché turned into the zeitgeist. #LifeGoesOn is a message not just of hope, but resilience in the face of distress and distances. It is brought alive in the beautiful visual world of the music video. The band is framed inside a cocoon-like aesthetic, pleasing to the eye and the soul, going about their day and doing what they do best — making and performing music.
You see, stepping into the world of BTS is like entering a museum of greeting cards. The messages are filters of positivity, rose-tinted glasses designed to the uplift the mood of the world. You can try some on, and once you do, they are yours to keep — and spread.
You come out dizzy with sentimental positivity.
BTS is not a band — it is a Universe
When BTS arrived on the global scene in 2017, they introduced a new band logo, an open door with a sliver of light coming through. For fans, the logo symbolises positivity and energy that BTS bring to the world.
To me, an outsider, the band’s identity sends a clear message that the future of pop is not just about talent, it is about creating a live-wire relationship with fans watching from across the screens. It also tells me that the future of pop is unhinged from America — BTS have opened doors to a parallel universe.
Members of the parallel universe, the ARMY has its own logo, a mirror image of the open door. It represents, as one fan put it, “us (fans) on the other side, welcoming them and supporting them”. Together, the two logos are meant to form a shield.
In an interview with TIME magazine, the founder and CEO of Big Hit Entertainment, the machinery behind BTS, Bang Si-hyuk described his vision to create a universe with its own characters, symbols and myths, much like Marvel and Disney have created theirs.
Judging by the stories around each one of the band members, not just their gender fluid style and fashion statements, but also their growth journeys, struggles and flaws, I’d say he has succeeded. The myth of BTS is being created with every video, Tweet, comment and meme. In real time.
The Business of Optimism
“Life is sweet as honey
Yeah, this beat cha-ching like money..”
It makes brilliant business sense to enrich a wildly popular group of pop artists with a deep inner world. It fuels the myth of the band and makes for great content, all the while establishing an easy two-way street between the artists and their adorers.
But BTS content isn’t just content as we know it today. It is a miraculous mix of products that have flown off both digital and physical shelves.
BTS were the single largest movers of physical albums in the US last year, and this when they didn’t follow usual practice of bundling album CDs with concert tickets. Instead, albums come with uniquely designed art, mini books that delve into the themes of the album and other merchandise that fans drool over.
Big Hit Entertainment, which was once an obscure start-up label is now valued at $4.1 billion, backed by both hard-nosed investors and Adorable MC of Youth. When you join the dots between bestselling physical albums, record-breaking live concurrent views and a thumping fan base, the valuation is not so astonishing.
What is astonishing though, is the sense of responsibility the band members seem to have towards their fans, and how aware they are of their influence.
When told that they are being called The Beatles of the 21st century, band leader RM (who taught himself English and has since become the global face of the band) responded:
“We’re just seven normal kids who love music and performance, who have a dream to give hope and love and positive energy and inspiration to the people in the world.”
