This Week in KPOP: BTS Edition!

It's been such a CRAZY week in kpop. So much has happened that for this post, I'm going to concentrate only on BTS.

Here's what went down, just in the past week:

** BTS released their latest full album. (You can listen to it here on YouTube or on Spotify.) I forget what number it is... 5th maybe? I should know, right, but it gets confusing when they release mini albums and repackage albums and etc etc. But it's somewhere like their 5th or 6th full new album. It's called Love Yourself: Tear. Instead of buying it from some online place and getting it shipped from Korea... I walked into Target on that day and JUST BOUGHT IT! Seriously. This still feels so weird. But Target has since restocked with their previous album (Love Yourself: Her) and there are tons of each there at the moment.

BTS at the 2018 BBMAs in Las Vegas
They went looking much more casual than they did last year. I loved their look. From left to right:
Taehyung (V), Yoongi (Suga), Seokjin (Jin), Jungkook, RM (Namjoon), Jimin, Hoseok (J hope)

** Two days later they appear at the 2018 BBMAs in Las Vegas and win the Top Social Artist award just like last year.. and they perform their title track Fake Love in the USA for their "comeback stage." (Kpop term, maybe I'll explain terms some day. We have a video planned for this actually.) Doing their comeback stage in the USA is CRAZY! But they did and it seems all the celebrities there fell in love with them, and I'm sure a whole new crop of fans were born that watched them on TV.




** They had recorded an appearance on Ellen again, just like last November and that aired this past Friday. They performed Fake Love again and got teased and scared by Ellen. Though as last time, she didn't leave much time to actually talk to them.




** They flew back to Korea and did a comeback show where they performed choreoagrpahy to two more songs from the album besides Fake Love. I love them both, but I will show you the one called Anpanman because it's so fun and show another side of these guys:



** Yesterday, it was announced that they made the number one spot on the Billboard 200 in the US with that new album. They, a Korean band, outsold everyone else this past week. It's an insane accomplishment. And something that I'm not sure they even ever thought to dream of.

** Due to that accomplishment, the president of SK wrote them a letter and tweeted to them a congratulations. I don't even know what to think about this. And BTS is reeling I'm sure.




** Basically, I'm hoping that the world is looking at kpop in a different light, even just a little. And while BTS fans (crazy ARMY I call them. There's actually sane ARMY and there's crazy ARMY) they claim that BTS can no longer be called kpop, that they've broken the mold and the stereotype... while that may be true ( about the stereotype) I want to argue that they will always be kpop and that they should embrace being the ambassadors for this music.

Anyway. If you've been curious at all about them, it's good time to investigate!

My favorite song on the album (besides the title track Fake Love) is a ballad sung by the 4 vocal guys and it made me tear up (ha tear... get it? Love Yourself: Tear) the second (no joke here) that I heard it for the first time. Something about this song moves me like nothing I've heard:



So, you'll let me know if you listen to something and let me know what you think, right?

Bottom Line: It's been a GREAT week for BTS! Like there are truly no words to describe how awesome it's been.