BTS
BTS, also known as Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member South Korean K-pop boy group
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.
Their second full album, Wings (2016), peaked at #26 on the Billboard 200, which marked
the highest chart ranking for a K-pop album ever. In South Korea, Wings became the best-
selling album in the Gaon Album Chart history at the time. It sold more than 1.5 million
copies, making it BTS's 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 #7 on the Billboard 200, 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 #85 and peaked at #67. Another
track from the album, "MIC Drop", was remixed by Steve Aoki with a feature by Desiigner
and peaked at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100. Both tracks are certified Gold by the
Recording Industry Association of America, a first for any Korean group and the second
Korean act overall after PSY. The album sold over 1.2 million copies on South Korea's
Gaon Album Chart in its first month, achieving the highest monthly album sales in the
chart's history and the highest on any Korean chart in 16 years, second to g.o.d's Chapter
4 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. Their third full album, Love Yourself: Tear (2018),
debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, making them the only K-Pop act to achieve this feat so
far. The album's title track, "FAKE LOVE", is the group's third song to reach Gold
certification. Love Yourself: Answer, the repackage of that album, also debuted at #1 on
the Billboard 200 The repackage sold over 1.9 million copies on Gaon Album Chart in
August 2018, breaking the chart's all-time monthly record once again. On November 9,
2018 "Love Yourself: Answer" became the first Korean album to be certified Gold
(500,000+ units), and BTS became the first Korean group to get a Platinum (1,000,000+
units) certification with the single "MIC Drop" in the United States. They have sold over ten
million albums in Korea, with five million being sold in 2018 alone.
Known for their large social media presence, BTS were listed by Forbes as the most
retweeted artist on Twitter in March 2016. In May, Twitter launched its first ever K-pop
emoji, featuring BTS. In October, Billboard placed BTS #1 on their Social 50 chart, making
them the first Korean group to top the chart. To date they have spent 104 weeks at #1 on
the Social 50 chart. Also in 2016 they charted on YouTube's Music Global Top 100: 17th
on the video chart, 6th on the artist chart and 14th on the tracks chart. In May 2017, they
won the Top Social Artist Award at the Billboard Music Awards, becoming the first Korean
group to win a BBMA. On November 20, 2017, Guinness World Records revealed that