[BTS] about BTS records, BTS members, BTS ages, BTS's six ways
1. About BTS
In 2012, Rolling Stone published a list of the 10 K-pop bands most likely to make it big in the US. Achieving significant US fame was a newly attainable, if still distant, milestone for South Korean pop groups thanks to the 2000s’ tremendous exporting of South Korean culture overseas — a trend known as Hallyu, the Korean Wave. Rolling Stone’s list, which appeared two months before Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” included groups like Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, and 2NE1 — the greatest bands of what’s generally thought of as the “second generation” of pop groups to emerge during K-pop’s rise to international prominence.
It didn’t, however, include a group of teenage boys, then-recently assembled through a studio audition process, who were being meticulously polished and prepped for their debut. On December 22, 2012, the group released a number of Soundcloud clips featuring its seven members rapping in Korean and English — including a rap cover of Wham’s “Last Christmas.”
It was hardly the stuff of attention-getting Korean hip-hop. But the band in question — Bangtan Boys, later officially known as BTS — would go on to completely transform the image of all-male boy bands in South Korean music and shatter conceptions of what breakout success looked like for South Korean bands overseas.
BTS’s rise to prominence has been so immense over the last few years that the band’s latest single, “Butter” — their first since a trio of groundbreaking, historic No. 1 singles in fall 2020 — is a major event BTS made headlines in 2020 with the hit single “Dynamite,” which became the first K-pop song in history to debut at No. 1 on the US Billboard “Hot 100” chart.
Having already racked up more than 60 million YouTube views in its first 12 hours online, “Butter” already seems positioned to be an even bigger hit for the band. These US chart-toppers are huge accomplishments for BTS. The band has spent years building to this point, slowly conquering the American music scene with one milestone after another. Since 2018, when they became the first South Korean band in history to debut an album at No. 1 on the US Billboard chart, they’ve collaborated with major artists like the Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, and Halsey. They’ve performed everywhere from Good Morning America to Saturday Night Live, from Times Square’s New Year’s Eve concerts to Grand Central Terminal.
In 2020, BTS garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group performance. They’ve even snagged a couple of Guinness World Records for their incredibly engaged fanbase. So why was BTS the band that finally broke through the culture barrier overseas to make significant waves in the US? The answer lies in a combination of factors, and most of them are about change: the changing nature of K-pop’s studio culture and the way “idols” are produced; changing depictions of masculinity in South Korea; changing ranges of acceptable expression in K-pop; and, above all, the approach BTS has taken to building its fan base and interacting with its fans.
But to understand all this change, we have to back up a few years to understand how K-pop became the regimented industry it is today — and how BTS subverts that regimen. How they did it: a consciously authentic style combined with socially conscious messaging “We came together with a common dream to write, dance and produce music that reflects our musical backgrounds as well as our life values of acceptance, vulnerability and being successful,” said BTS’s leader, RM, in a 2017 interview with Time.
2. BTS's six ways
There are six main ways BTS breaks with established precedent for K-pop boy bands to carry out this mission:
- They frequently write their own songs and lyrics.
- Their lyrics are socially conscious and especially attuned to describing the pressures of modern teen life in South Korea.
- They create and manage most of their own social media presence.
- They aren’t signed to “slave contracts,” nor do their contracts have the grueling restrictions of other idol groups.
- They tend to focus on marketing entire albums rather than individual singles. (This is essentially still true despite their recent string of singles in the US.)
- They talk openly about the struggles and anxieties of their career instead of presenting an extremely polished image at all times.
In essence, they found a way to imbue their musical style with substance. This led to well-reviewed, pointedly personal works like their three-album series The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, which deftly mixed “theater [and] autobiography.”
Their two most successful singles from this period managed to neatly encompass this new direction. “I Need U” (2015) was a refreshing, personalizing step away from hip-hop toward an R&B sound, while “Dope” (2015) openly celebrated the endless grind of their lives: “Over half of the day, we drown in work / Even if our youth rots in the studio / Thanks to that, we’re closer to success.”
Colette Bennett is an entertainment reporter and a huge fan of BTS — but even though she liked their music, it took a while for her to take their message seriously.
“When The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series started, I saw something,” she says. “And that’s when I went back and watched their old vlogs. Up to and after debut, [these] skinny kids all crammed in a studio the size of a broom closet. Just … being honest about how much they poured into what they were doing, humble about being scared and unsure, etc.”
To Bennett, the band’s frank discussion of mental health and the expectations placed on Asian teens was revolutionary. In 2016, she wrote a profile of the band that argued that they were changing the nature of K-pop through their interpersonal approach to image-making. While watching them on their 2017 “Wings” tour, she said, “there was a moment that really stuck out.”
“There’s a song the three rappers do called Cypher 4. The refrain is, ‘I love, I love, I love myself / I know, I know, I know myself.’
“I looked around me at hundreds of people in their 20s cheering every word, and I thought, ‘My god. They’re using their influence to teach young people — the ones most inclined to grapple with self-hatred — to start considering what self-love means.’”
BTS members from oldest to youngest:
In South Korea, age plays an important role in society. Which is why many are curious to find out the BTS members from oldest to youngest.
3. BTS members age:
In BTS, you can often find the oldest members of the group helping out the youngest members of the group. Except for when the oldest members forget their age and play around with the youngest members too.
Here are the BTS members from oldest to youngest:
- Jin – Jin is the oldest member of BTS
- Suga – Suga is the second oldest member of BTS
- J-Hope – J-Hope is the third oldest member of BTS
- RM – RM is the fourth oldest member of BTS
- Jimin – Jimin is the third youngest member of BTS
- V – V is the second youngest member of BTS
- Jungkook – Jungkook is the youngest member of BTS
The BTS members ages range from 28 years old (international age) to just 23 years old! Though to be fair, the BTS members don’t always act their age. Jungkook, the group’s center, is actually the youngest member of all seven.
Here are the BTS members ages from oldest to youngest :
- Jin – 28 years old
- Suga – 28 years old
- J-Hope – 27 years old
- RM – 26 years old
- Jimin – 25 years old
- V – 25 years old
- Jungkook – 24 years old
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