Mini Reviews: Recent Media Consumption

I have a list of a bunch of things I've seen and read and attended this past while. I was going to write posts for them all, but then I remembered the awesome mini review idea and thought: brilliant plan! Especially since most of these really don't require a full post. So here goes.


Movie: Robin Hood

We had the theater rented out for Stuey's work people. I have no idea why they picked this movie for a party, but they did, so we went. I knew nothing AT ALL going in. So, it was yet again another take on the story of how Robin Hood began. I love this story, so of course I enjoyed it. But mostly it made me miss the BBC production that I loved back in the day. The dude playing Robin Hood reminded me both of that dude and Stephen Amell who plays the Green Arrow dude. Anyway, it was enjoyable with lots of great fight/escapade scenes as one would expect with Robin Hood.




Broadway: Finding Neverland

Last week we went to another musical... Finding Neverland and it was also enjoyable. I thought my heart strings would be tugged at more than they were, but it was sweet and the music was pretty great and the kids in the show were awesome. I think the actual stars could have been... louder. Not sure if it was their fault or the fault of the sound guy. But yeah. LOUDER!






Book: Flower Boy Tour Guide by Shannon Kent

Another fun fluffy K fan book.... this one not kpop, but kdrama. I read it on my phone on the plane coming home from our Thanksgiving adventure. It was a quick read, yes! It's about a girl (this one is not YA but NA... very very clean NA) who goes to Korea to participate in a tour of all the fun kdrama places. And the guy who leads this tour is beautiful of course (the flower boy... a term for beautiful guy.) But they annoy each other... until they don't. :) It was fun, as all these little easy K fan books are!



TV Show: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

While visiting my daughter, I suggested we watch this one evening. It was a fun one to watch together though her husband thought it was way too predictable and trope-y. I didn't remember the book at all, so everything was new to me. I really enjoyed it and thought it was a sweet and well done movie.



 

  Movie: Luck Key

When Toto joined us in Illinois for Thanksgiving she "made" us  watch this Korean movie that she had just watched with roommates and loved. Everyone actually seemed to enjoy it, (the above son in law seemed to enjoy it better than PPP Society!) It's one of those movies where you THINK you know what's happening, but in the end, everything was not at all as it seemed. We have two guys who live completely different lives and they somehow (the mess up of the locker key) switch lives. And in the process, they become better dudes... and in the process we the viewers find out what's REALLY going on. Pretty good!



Movie: BTS Burn the Stage

Earlier this year YouTube Red did an awesome documentary on BTS following them on their Wings tour (the one in 2017 that I was able to attend) and we all loved. So then they decided to do a feature film. I thought it was the same thing, but when it came out the week before Thanksgiving (only limited showings in limited places) I heard from all those able to go that it was similar, but different. So of course I was sad I couldn't go since I was no where near a theater that was showing it. But lucky for me, they decided to bring it back for a second run and I got to go this time!  YES! It was so fun. I smiled and giggled so much my face hurt. It's so awesome to see the behind the scenes of what these guys put themselves through to make fans happy and put on the best concerts they can.





What have you all been watching, seeing and reading these days?

BTS Speaks at the United Nations

On Monday, yesterday, BTS the Korean "boy band" group that I gush about a lot, spoke at the United Nations to kick off a new youth program by UNICEF. Seeing them stand there, so dignified and serious, made me so proud and happy. It feels like a sort of pay back to people who make fun of this music and these guys and even other groups, as just frivolous bubble gum dumb boy band music, and shows that they are much more than that. And that they have so much to say that will help the world become a better place... stuff they say all the time in their music, but yesterday they said it just a few smart words delivered by their leader, Kim Namjoon.

Stuff like: believe in yourself, speak up for yourself, follow your dreams and passions, don't be put in a box or a mold dictated by race, gender or anything. Don't lose sight of yourself. It doesn't matter if you mess up and make mistakes. You will be wiser tomorrow. It's okay to love yourself. It's a message they've been talking about nonstop for a long time now... and now the world got to hear it. Ah. It's so cool and crazy!

Our boy Namjoon, aka. RM did an impressive job. He's truly an amazing person in so many ways.

Anyway, here's the speech if haven't seen it and are curious about what I'm talking about here:




And here's the whole thing written out if you'd rather read it... (but believe me you will love to hear Namjoon's voice!)

Anyway, I'm just so proud of them and wanted to shout it out. And to share the speech for those that don't listen to their music, but might need to hear this message anyway.

They will be on Jimmy Fallon tonight, and Good Morning America tomorrow if you want to see more of them. Believe me, they won't be as serious looking as they looked at the UN... or looking like they are going to church! BUT, they will look amazing and they will have a great time and they will show the world that they are for real and here to stay.

This Week In Kpop: September 17, 2018

Well, it appears I haven't done a kpop weekly wrap up for a long time! LOL... why did I name it that? Whatever, I will tell you about what happened this past week I guess anyway...

E'Dawn and HyunA

Awhile back a couple of kpop idols (celebrities) announced that they were dating and had been for two years... that they were sick of keeping it a secret and that they wanted to share with the world. Of course, while international fans seem okay with the idea.. Korean fans HATE the thought of their idols dating, and so they freaked out. The company for these two then also freaked out and said that they were now on hiatus... and they stopped all promotion for their groups. The dude was supposed to come with his group to KCON but of course he didn't and so we saw his group without him, which was a sad sad thing. So this past week they announced (we think they officially announced... I don't think it was a simple leak) that these two were being fired basically. And kicked out. Well... we ALL went crazy on Twitter and after a day.. the company's stock fell a TON and then they said.. okay wait... wait... maybe we won't fire them. Calm down everyone! So then after a few more days they said... yeah... we will keep them after all... and so now we are all... NO NEVERMIND! WE WANT THEM TO LEAVE AND MAKE ALL THE MONEY WITHOUT YOU! It's such a mess and such total drama. But real lives are messed up. The poor boys left in the group, trying to do their job... keep breaking down in tears. They had to release a new song and MV without him and it's so cute...but it's so hard to know that inside they are all hurting so bad.



The dude wrote a letter to fans that was seriously heartbreaking saying he just wanted to live a truthful life and that he never meant to make such a mess. I was proud of him though, for NOT apologizing for actually falling in love... or telling the truth. Anyway. It's still going to be seen what happens, but I hope they figure it all out. It's such a mess.



BTS came out with more songs and more awesome MVs. And a complete repackage album of all their recent best stuff. Currently they are on tour in the US and making everyone lucky enough to go to their concerts pretty much die in ecstasy over them. They really are amazing. Of course, we didn't get tickets this time. We tried and failed. They have been nominated for a Grammy... it's in the social artist category, but soon they will be nominated for an actual musical award, I'm pretty sure.  Just wait :) They have been having drama of their own with the Korean fans since they wanted to do song on their upcoming Japanese album writen by a dude that the fans do not approve of... so the company listened to the fans... again.. .and pulled the song. Those Korean fans are NOT to be messed with let me just say!

Our favorites, SHINee, released a video and new song this past week too and their video is the cutest thing ever....you should totally watch. And Minho is reading a book... can you see what it is? I couldn't but someone told me in a comment on our channel. I will let you guess first. :)




I can't think what else to report on for now. But it seems like there's always something going on!

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.

This Week in Kpop: February 19 ,2018

J-Hope

Everyone is SO EXCITED because J-Hope from BTS has finally announced the date he will release his mixtape. March 2. The world will never be the same again!!

Wooshin

Honey10s (fans of Up10tion) are sad because we all thought Wooshin was coming back to re-join the group. Man they made a lot of hints, but it looks like it was just wishful thinking so far. But please, let him come back soon.






NCT is doing some teasers that I think are meant to kill us. They released a song called Boss this past week too... but there is more to come from them.




Monsta X announced they'll be going on a world tour again, but no LA dates have been listed yet. Our dilemma... do we get to have second helping of Monsta X? I would love to!

Super Junior has still not announced an official date for their tours in the US. It's killing us. I'm not sure what's happening. But they have been working a ton on their TV show, which I have yet to figure out how to watch, but we are seeing a bunch of fun clips now and then.





Hyuk (from VIXX), for his graduation present to us his fans, released a dance cover. Dang, that boy is growing up!





We continued to fall in love with qpop group Ninety One and the day is not complete unless their songs have been played. We discovered all their instagrams and get fed often with their cute faces there.(I can't find that clip, but here's one of them just being them for you to see what I mean.)  After Korean, we'll all be learning Kazakh next. Wait for it.





SHINee had their concerts in Japan and sang without Jonghyun for the first time. I will never forget this image. Even if you aren't into kpop and don't know these guys at all, you have to admit this is a very moving image. Yes?

One space in the middle left for empty for Jonghyun.

But even through the sadness of this, the remaining four look like they are surviving, yes? 

On our channel we reacted to many things this week, but here's a very short compilation we did of five kpop songs that feature whistling. You might really quite enjoy it. And it's only two minutes!!





Are you watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics tonight? We are really hoping to see EXO on there! Let me know if you see them and what you think!! :)


I guess that's it for this week! The kpop life continues to be full and happy and wonderful!

This Week in Kpop: Jan. 29, 2018

We just word today that BTS song Mic Drop went GOLD in the US today.  PSY did this with Gangnam Style, but this is the first group that's done it if I understand right. Anyway. We think it's pretty cool and extremely exciting.

The other exciting BTS thing is that Target is now carrying their CDs in the actual stores! Like, you can just walk into a Target and buy a BTS CD... I can't even tell you how CRAZY this is! AH!!!

Jonghyun, the guy from SHINee who died in December, put out an album of the songs he was working on and finishing up before he left us. They are amazing. And he is winning all sort of awards for them now too. It's happy and sad at the same time.



Fanwars went ballistic this week when a US radio station asked if they should do a kpop hour every day. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but if I understand correctly, BTS fans rallied for the answer to be no because they felt no other bands should reap the benefits of their hard work getting BTS to be recognized by radio stations here. So then there was a big mess and the station backed out and said, ok fine we won't play kpop.  So in the end everyone lost. As a multifandom fan, this made me so sad and for a moment, we joined in on the drama and said our piece or two, wishing that all the fandoms would love and support each other just as the groups themselves all do. Sigh.


We had great fun on the channel this week discovering Qpop and have received a LOT of love from fans in that country. So much fun!!!

(This is actually a guy from Kazakhstan singing in French on a Chinese show and being reacted to by us (American girls) on our Kpop channel. LOL... we got a kick out of that.) 


Henry from Super Junior M had a new song come out this week:





The Olympics start next week in Korea and it's going to be very exciting to see who'll be singing at the Opening Ceremonies. Will you be watching? Many of the kpop groups got to run the torch these past few weeks also. It was fun to see all their pictures from the experience and see how much fun they had.





There's more but I'll stop there for this week/month!!

This Week in Kpop : January 7 2018

It's been two years since we discovered Super Junior and in so doing, discovered kpop and our lives were changed. We're having a giveaway to celebrate:

There was another Korean award show (Golden Disk) and BTS won album of the year. EXO won one global artist, which caused the fan wars to erupt yet again. Also Super Junior and a bunch of our other favorites, won another award that I don't totally know how to explain. But yeah. What it means is tons more awesome performances to watch!

BTS held their 4th Muster (like a concert but more informal) and did a bunch of performances to songs that previously had no dances to go with them, so that was cool.

SHINee announced in heart breaking letters to the fans, they will go ahead with the concert scheduled for Japan... and sing without Jonghyun though they will feel him with them in spirit.

Super Junior indirectly announced an LA concert date for April 29th, along with plans to have Europe dates. Also, they had performances in Malaysia this week.

New favorite song of the week.... Grrr by Stray Kids. Ah, this one is so much fun!!!

This Week (Month?) In Kpop: September/October/November

Well. SO MUCH IS GOING ON in the world of KPOP! And I haven't kept up on my idea to do these weekly/biweely posts, and so I'm going to touch on some of the highlights of the past while.


BTS COMEBACK

While I was on the trip, BTS had a new album come out. It's called LOVE YOURSELF "HER" and it has some really fun songs on it. DNA is the title track and I love it, but I especially love Mic Drop. Here it is:





Speaking of BTS, they arrived in LA today and they are going to be on like a bunch of talk shows here in the US (James Corden, Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen so far) and then perform at the AMAs on Sunday. WATCH THEM! YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY! They will perform DNA at the award show we've been told.

Anyway, this is huge for them and I hope America loves them and is nice to them and I hope they aren't corrupted by America. I hope it all goes well.


SUPER JUNIOR COMEBACK

Our favorite boys, the ones that started this whole obsession, also had a new album come out last week. They look and sound amazing. Even though they are all "old" now, they still have what it takes! Here's what they look like doing their title song from their album: Black Suit:




As part of their comeback, they've been having a daily "behind the scenes" show be aired that let's have a glimpse of what it's been like for them getting this album ready. I love seeing all their personalities come out during this kind of thing. It's been so fun to fall for them all over again.


OTHER COMEBACKS

Many of our other favorite groups have also had new albums come out this past week too. Monsta X, Block B, SEVENTEEN, Astro and Wanna One.... to name a few. All their new songs are so much fun! We can't get enough of them. And just yesterday, Monsta X won their first award! YES! They cried! It was awesome!


THE CHANNEL

Our Youtube channel has partnered with one of the biggest Korean entertainment companies (the one that puts on KCON, among many other things!) which means for us that we get some perks (hopefully) should we ever visit Korea, and we get some other opportunities that we otherwise wouldn't. It's been a scary thing, but we hope it's a good one in the end. Mostly we hope that when KCON rolls around again, we get to be more a part of the festivities on the front lines as we saw many other Youtubers doing last year. We'll see I guess.

Well, as I said... them's the highlights! So much is going on. It's so crazy. I just am constantly blown away by this music, this fandom, this industry... everything about it. Wow. It's a blast

This Week in Kpop: Kpop News and Highlights July 1- 7, 2017

Guys, so much happened in the kpop world this week. I feel the need to share and maybe vent a little even.

First, BTS ended their months long world tour and said they were off to "rest." Well, so, the VERY NEXT DAY they uploaded a cover song, and revealed a new logo and even want us English speaking fans to call them by a new name. WHAT? Ah, these guys never let us breathe!

We reacted to the new song here. It was a bit of a depressing one to me:




And here's the new logo and name. Maybe we'll understand more about what's behind this as time goes by:



 And now they are talking about a comeback. I find that term funny when they've not gone anywhere really and having been feeding us nonstop all year. Ha. Comeback. LOL.



Let's see, yesterday Sungmin, from Super Junior, got on Instagram and announced that due to unhappiness in the fandom about how he handled his marriage three years ago, he had decided to not join the group in their comeback this fall. (Now THIS is a true comeback.. nothing from these guys for two years!) Oh man. This really KILLED me and we (Megs and I) took to Twitter and vented our hearts out. We don't get how a bunch of stupid fans can have such power over these guys. Anyway. we are going to miss him in a big big way.

In other news, we had a pretty impressive giveaway on our channel to celebrate 10,000 subscribers. Today we've had fun with an announcement video... here's the results:





We fell in love with a new group called Day6 because one of their guys is HILLARIOUS on Twitter.  His name is Jae and you can check out his tweets here. And this is one of our favorite songs of theirs. Jae is the blond one in glasses.






KCON in LA is happening Aug. 18-20. We hope to go. Tickets go on sale next week. Groups are being announced and we are DYING at the thought of seeing them:
VIXX
SEVENTEEN
NCT 127
SF9
GIRLS DAY
KARD
COSMIC GIRLS
WANNA ONE
HEIZE

I can't believe I might actually get to see VIXX now too. First SHINee, then BTS... then Monsta X in a couple of weeks and now maybe VIXX? Seriously. I really might die.  I will do a more detailed VIXX post later, but first, watch this to meet them:




 Okay. What else happened. This isn't kpop but kdrama, but guess who's getting married? The two costars of Descendants of the Sun. (read my review here.) I love it when costars fall in love! And then.. they are actually getting married! It's the best thing ever! They are so freaking cute!

Um.... oh yeah! Up10tion went to KCON NY and SLAYED it! They are such a newbie group that it was their first time traveling out of Asia and they got to come to NY and perform at KCON and everyone fell in love with them! We knew they would. We had already fallen, but now, everyone else knows about their awesomeness. Here's their new song that we absolutely love:




Sadly, they too had to have their comeback without one of their members who is taking a mental health leave. Yeah he was harassed by "fans" too awhile back.  I just...it's insane...


Anyway,  Toto instantly learned their dance and uploaded it too:



Okay, I'm pretty sure more stuff happened, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Ah. Seriously. There is never a dull moment with this fandom.

We Don't Talk Anymore: A Cover

For those of you don't enjoy the Korean music because, well, it's in Korean...here's a song for you:




This is two of the BTS boys doing a cover of one of their favorite songs, We Don't Talk Anymore, singing in a language they don't understand.... and doing a dang good job of it! I can't get enough of their sweet, breathy voices and adorable pronunciation.

Jungkook and Jimin

BTS Wins Top Social Artist at the BBMAs

Jimin, Jin, Rapmonster, J-Hope, Jungkook, Suga, V

So, after three weeks of voting online for them... 100 times each day on the BBMA website, and 100 times on Twitter (okay so I was pretty lousy at the Twitter voting, but I tried!) BTS won the Top Social Artist at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night, beating out Justin Bieber who has won for six years in a row previously!

What was the vote count? I don't know the exact final but it was like 300 million for BTS and 20 million for Justin, with the other nominees getting.... way less than that.

It goes without saying that we, the fans of BTS, the fans of any kpop group, were over the top HYPED about this. We were dying for them to perform, but alas, they weren't on the line up. But they did get invited to come and accept the award and so they did and it was awesome and perfect and wonderful.

And now, as expected, the whole music world here is wondering who they are. (Want to know who they are in my words? Here's my post from awhile back!!!) And I'm dying to tell the world. And yet, at the same time, I'm dying to NOT share them. I want to keep them to myself and have them be my own little secret. Let the world sit back and just not know what they are missing. Especially if they are going to be judgmental and racist. (Which is actually happening I hear, after this win, but thankfully, I haven't seen it and I truly hope I can stay away from that crap.) If people feel that way about them, then let's just keep them safe and hidden away!

Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate here and say... look at them, see how awesome they are! If you are interested in seeing our reaction to them getting the award, of course we filmed it.




And if you, like the rest of the music world, want to know more... just ask. Please. And... maybe I'll send you link or two. :)

But I'll send you out with a quick taste for what they're like. Here's some clips of some of their most popular songs:

Our BTS Experience!! (BTS Wings Tour in Anaheim April 1, 2017)

Well, I know you are all dying to know how the big anticipated event turned out. I've been saving telling you until I had videos to show. And finally, the videos are all done!

This concert was everything we imagined it to be. These boys are awesome. Beautiful, talented, amazingly... awesome. We really can't find the right adjective to describe them, or how they make us feel. (I'm talking in the plural here for all of our group that went... six of us, plus a few more we met up with!)

It was a fabulous day and fabulous weekend. We spent lots of time in lines, and we didn't even care because the lines were pretty much as fun as everything else, just talking to everyone else there that was as crazy as us!

We stood in line for three hours to get buy merch. And then later two more hours to get through security to get into the concert. Then after an hour of sitting inside waiting for it to start, we stood for 2 1/2 more hours during the concert! It was an exhausting day both physically AND emotionally!

And it was the best day ever!

Here's the video we made of the preconcert excitment, including driving to California, going out to eat with our Twitter friends, and interviewing poeple in the merch line:




 Actually, we have a video of just the interviews which you can find here if you are interested.

 And then the second part of our experience is the concert itself. We ended up filming more on our phones than we thought we would. "Real" cameras weren't allowed and we decided not to risk it, so we didn't even bring them in. So, all we have is the crappy stuff we got on our phones. Here's what is was like... which is mostly a lot of screaming. A LOT of screaming. And crying at the end when it was over.


 


Afterwards we meet up with our friends again, at midnight, at IHOP and just gushed. We filmed a bit of it and here it is:
(This also includes Megs and Ryn talking on their drive home.)

 

 Guys. I don't know. Really, this was so much fun I can't even describe it. I wish I could find something to compare it to so that you would all understand! Anyway, here's hoping for future weekends of such joy! I can't wait to see who we get to see next!!

(P.S. If any of you book bloggers read this, and/or watch this, you might be familiar with fellow former book blogger Penelope from The Reading Fever, who has joined me (surpassed me I would even say) in the fanatic fandom that is kpop and BTS. Look for her in these videos... she's there with us!)

Introducing: BTS!

When I did my "Introducing SHINee" post I realized that I talk about BTS a lot, but have never done an introduction post, and so, you know, I had to do one. And since SHINee is over and we are on to BTS, now is the time.

Taehyung (V), Jin, J-hope, Suga, Jimin, Jungkook, Rapmon

So, BTS stands for BangTan Sonyeondan, which means Bulletproof Boyscouts in Korean. It's a weird name, I know, but it grows on you and there's all sorts of deep meaning and symbolic-ness to it, but I don't know it all really, so we'll just leave it at that.

They debuted four years ago this June with a song called No More Dream, which you can see here:





They are band that is much heavier in the hip hop and rap stuff then what I'm used to. In fact, it took awhile for them to grow on me because I felt they were so... out there. So... I don't know... trying to be bad boy-ish, or something. Some of the first videos I saw of them were tragic sad disturbing things with a story line that rips out your heart. They were a little too much.

But then when I watched more stuff and became more familiar with their personalities, it all changed and I found them to full of all the good things: substance and fun, smartness and silliness, rappy songs and ballad songs. They had everything.

But the thing that really sets them apart is their amazing dancing. I just really had no idea that people, boys, anyone, could dance like this. It's mind boggling watching them sometimes. Seeing them dance live is going to be a trip.

Anyway, here are the boys:

Namjoon, also known as Rap Monster, is the leader of this group, even though he is not the oldest (usually the oldest is the band leader) and falls right in the middle age-wise. I'm told someone (people from Big Hit? The company that they work for.. maybe?) discovered him and decided to build a group around him. Without him, there would be no BTS. He's a literal genius and has the deepest most profound thoughts probably constantly in his head. He taught himself English by watching TV and when he speaks you can barely detect an accent. He's truly amazing. He's one of the three rappers in BTS, and he's awesome. However, he's always in the back because he's not a very strong dancer. LOL! (Though, that's not saying much given the fact that they as a group are this amazing dance machine!)

Seokjin... known just as Jin, is next up. People call him the visual of the group because he's the "most" handsome, though I don't know how anyone can decide any one of them are more handsome than the others. He does have a killer smile though and he is a hoot. He loves to tell what they call "dad" (aka stupid) jokes and then guffaws a killer laugh afterwards that is the best thing ever. He's a goofball and I love it. Plus, his beautiful singing voice is to die for.

Yoongi, who goes by the stage name of Suga, is up next. He's also a genius and produces much of their songs. His rapping is insane and beautiful and some of the most emotional songs I've ever heard. For me he tends to be the quiet one of the group, and a bit reserved, but then suddenly, he'll turn into this squishy teddy bear. When they were a new group, one year for his birthday he wrote 300 personal notes to his fans and delivered them to everyone at a meet and greet. If you want more on him, we have a whole video dedicated to him.

Hoseok, also known as J-hope is next in. He's also a rapper and he is full of energy and spunk and positive-ness that is out of this world. Everyone calls him the sunshine of the group and that's because he is never not bouncing around and smiling and spreading his "hope" everywhere. Besides rapping, he's also an amazing dancer and choreographs many of their dances.

The above boys are called the "hyungs" or older brothers. The last three are the "maknaes" or the younger brothers. And for some reason, they tend to be my favorite.

Jimin, who... oddly enough, goes by Jimin, is... amazing. I just... I have no words. He dances like it takes absolutely no effort at all and he looks so graceful and beautiful it kills me. And then when he sings, he does those killer high notes that stand out in all their songs and you're just like...ah. Wow. And his personality is all over the place. Sweet and caring and shy and polite. Then savage and sexy the next minute. After Taemin (mentioned in my SHINee post) Jimin is the dancer to watch. Which is why when they did a duet dance awhile back, I went crazy for it.

Taehyung, stage name of V, is next in line. He is the first one I paid attention to in this group, which is why when I'm asked who my favorite is, I will say it's him. He has a personality that will suck you in like no other. Very cute and silly and fun and soft and goofy and... pretty much the complete opposite of the "bad boy" image they sometimes portray. I love it so so much. His contribution to the group his is deep, husky melty voice. Oh my word. The best.

The baby of the group is Jungkook, no stage name, but lovingly called Kookie by the brothers and fans alike. And everything I've mentioned above about all the other boys? Yeah, he can do it ALL. He's brilliant, he raps, dances, sings with the melty voice, is nice on one hand, and savage on the other. Everything. He's like the perfect child. The Golden Maknae as they say. And beware his smile.




Have I gushed enough about them? Can you tell I love them all? They truly are amazing.

The song that made me a fan is Fire, which is one that I bet most of you will love since it's a little more "normal" than that first one I posted above. I've shared this one before, but here it is again.




 And after that we discovered dance practices which shows their dancing and silly personality. Here's one of my favorites of them "practicing" and being silly:




 And just so you can see a softer one, here's one of their newest songs called Spring Day about losing touch with old friends. (I decided to show you a live version instead of the MV so you can see their singing and dancing better.)





Anyway. a tiny overview of an amazing talented group of boys that I can't wait to see TOMORROW!!!