In early Might, rumors swirled on social media a few mysterious e book. Its title wouldn’t be introduced till June 13, but it surely was slated for worldwide publication on July 9, with an preliminary print run of 1 million copies. Media protection targeted on fan hypothesis that the creator was Taylor Swift, a idea that drove a wave of preorders of the still-unnamed venture. Nonetheless, a few of us instantly deduced that the e book was truly in regards to the South Korean pop group BTS. The most important clue was that the announcement and launch dates had been every a serious anniversary for the band—10 years since its debut and the naming of its monumental fan base, ARMY, respectively.
And certainly, inside days the writer, Flatiron Books, confirmed to The New York Instances that the 544-page e book was titled Past the Story: 10-Yr Report of BTS. It was written by the South Korean journalist Myeongseok Kang (and translated into English by Anton Hur, Slin Jung, and Clare Richards), based mostly on in depth interviews with the group’s seven members. However I nonetheless had questions, each as a fan and a cultural critic who has written my very own e book about BTS. How candid would the members be? Would the e book converse largely to diehards like me, or would it not handle to seize the character of stratospheric fame for common readers? After a decade of the group’s existence, how far would Past the Story transcend the … properly, you recognize.
Because it seems, the e book is much less a standard memoir or private biography than a meticulous accounting of how BTS was born and have become a worldwide juggernaut below the once-tiny file label Massive Hit (now the large leisure firm Hybe). For anybody who’s ever heard “Butter” on the radio and puzzled over the group’s ascent in America, Past the Story has solutions: It’s an enchanting, sophisticated, and at-times anxiety-inducing chronicle of fan-driven world domination—in addition to a extremely accessible useful resource for newer devotees.
Many ARMYs first study BTS’s lengthy, bumpy historical past in a piecemeal method—via fan-made YouTube movies, official documentaries, livestreams, memes, and Twitter threads. Now this historical past is out there in an unguarded, complete package deal, narrated by Kang. Even for longtime fans, seeing BTS’s profession laid out so intentionally is staggering. Kang covers each album, tour, and large awards present up till mid-2022, proper earlier than BTS introduced that the members would briefly be specializing in solo tasks and getting ready for his or her necessary army service. The e book doesn’t delve into their lives outdoors their job, which is unsurprising, provided that the members are extraordinarily protecting of their private relationships and recognized for working nonstop. However Kang nonetheless manages to layer an emotional historical past on prime of the skilled one. By considering their evolution as artists, BTS’s members additionally give readers a transparent sense of how the crucible of fame compelled them to develop as human beings.
Past the Story is split into seven sections that hint the most important eras of the group’s rise. Many readers will know the place the story finally goes—a number of No. 1 Billboard Scorching 100 hits, Grammy nominations, numerous historic firsts, a number of United Nations Normal Meeting appearances, a White Home go to—however suspense nonetheless infuses the early chapters. Kang conveys the depth and savvy of BTS’s chief, Kim Namjoon (stage identify RM), who was recruited as a teen by the mastermind producer Bang Si-hyuk to kind a hip-hop group with the man underground rapper and aspiring composer Min Yoongi (Suga) and the extremely revered avenue dancer Jung Hoseok (J-Hope). Ultimately Bang, wanting BTS to be extra of a standard idol group, introduced in 4 vocalists: the unflappable eldest, Kim Seokjin (Jin); the perfectionist Park Jimin (Jimin); the versatile Kim Taehyung (V); and the golden maknae (or multitalented youngest), Jeon Jungkook (Jungkook).
Once they first meet, they expertise the everyday character clashes of any new group: The clear freaks balk on the soiled dishes within the sink and sweaty garments on the ground. The hip-hop aficionados maintain fixed classes to show the novices about rap music. Everybody, no matter dance expertise, practices the robust choreography till they’re completely in sync—all whereas they’re on strict diets. (ARMY will likely be happy to know that Kang devotes a number of pages to the notorious mandu incident.) “The extra you look again on BTS’s preparation for his or her debut, the extra shocking it’s that none of them stop within the course of,” Kang writes. Even after that 2013 entrance, the members described experiencing isolation and going through mockery from lots of their friends at greater, extra financially profitable corporations. So troublesome had been BTS’s first two years that when a Massive Hit staffer informs the label’s vp, “One thing’s occurring. Uh … they’re getting increasingly followers,” the second lands like a stunning twist.
Within the first half of the e book, Kang gives context in regards to the broader Ok-pop world, exhibiting simply what number of guidelines BTS broke to distinguish itself from its friends and predecessors. The members filmed vlogs providing followers an unpolished have a look at their lives, even generally criticizing Bang or the corporate straight—a “full rejection of style norms in Korea’s idol business,” Kang writes. Of the unusually darkish realism of 2015’s single “I Want U,” he observes, “Throughout the Korean idol business, experimenting like this was no totally different from deliberately attempting to wreck your self.”
As a fan, I used to be astonished that the BTS members appeared to go a very long time with out realizing why their very own supporters favored them a lot. Even once they had been confused by their reputation, they expressed deep gratitude to the individuals who boosted them. Jimin tells Kang, “Even now, I keep in mind that one row subsequent to the published cameras throughout our first efficiency,” referring to the handful of followers who confirmed as much as cheer them on as rookies. For ARMYs, this evidently real humility is a part of what makes them so interesting—they’ve by no means behaved as if success was an inevitable final result of their expertise or laborious work. Of “Dynamite” topping the Billboard Scorching 100, Suga talks about not desirous to bask within the achievement: “I noticed it might be wiser to get again all the way down to Earth as rapidly as doable. There was no have to be floating within the air like that.”
Past the Story immerses the reader in how bewildering this entire progress course of was from BTS’s perspective. Excessive highs (showing on the American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards, in addition to main speak reveals) are juxtaposed with profound lows (overwork, unrelenting despair, an rising lack of privateness). The members open up in regards to the stress of changing into enormous within the U.S., a very unfamiliar market, when six of the seven didn’t converse English. J-Hope remembers berating himself for not with the ability to grasp the language as rapidly as intricate dance strikes: “Every time, within the lodge room I believed to myself, ‘Oh, so I assume that is all I quantity to.’” As soon as they started to regulate to the worldwide nature of their fame, the pandemic arrived. They had been compelled to desert their plans and experiment as soon as once more by releasing their first English-language single, “Dynamite,” whose success shocked RM: “The fandom should’ve craved it greater than we’d thought,” he stated.
Not till this later a part of BTS’s profession, Kang writes, did the members transition from doing issues for “the sake of out of doors approval or to show themselves” to turning inward and “attempting to achieve some extent of excellence the place they might really feel glad with their outcomes.” Readers can recognize how their inside progress has been nearly inseparable from their creative growth. Jungkook, who joined Massive Hit in center faculty, talks about studying how you can acknowledge his personal feelings for the primary time and “unleash” them in music. V displays on rising older and going via an “adolescence of the thoughts,” earlier than realizing that he’s the type of musician who can write solely when genuinely impressed. Jin talks about abandoning his obsessive worrying to the purpose of “dwelling with none thought in any respect,” which allowed extra “psychological house” to maintain his work.
For followers, there’s one thing comforting about how a lot of this story we already know, and one thing satisfying about lastly seeing it put down formally in phrases. To me, this familiarity is a reminder of how weak BTS’s members have been from the start, even when the chance of self-revelation was excessive. Kang doesn’t contact on what lies forward. The band’s future chapters have but to be written, however this survey tells a whole story. It’s a doc capturing the way it feels to go from aspiring musician to worldwide celebrity, and what it takes to take action.
By BTS and Myeongseok Kang
By Lenika Cruz
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