BTS make history with their album, ‘Love Yourself: Tear’
BTS, the South Koran boy band has become an international phenomenon. Their music has crossed boundaries and has connected people from different parts of the world. As a K-Pop band, the band has experienced a lot of firsts.
They became the first K-Pop group to perform at the American Music Awards in 2017. In the same year, they took home a Billboard Music Award, making them the first act from the genre to do so. Earlier this year, they became the first Korean group to perform at the Billboard Music Award.
As BTS make history by topping the Billboard 200 with their album, ‘Love Yourself: Tear,’ they are back under the spotlight once again.
BTS: Making Headlines
K-Pop music wasn’t so popular outside of Asia until BTS arrived at the scene. As their career progressed, BTS’ popularity continued to soar and it reached a point where they were placed at the first spot on Billboard’s Social 50 chart. On top of that, they were included in Time’s list of the, ’25 Most Influential People on the Internet.’ BTS also topped Forbes’ ‘Korea Power Celebrity’ list.
BTS started off by dropping their debut mixtape, ‘O!RUL8,2?’ which was followed by their first full-length Korean language studio effort, ‘Dark and Wild.’ It hit the markets in August of 2014 and won them a Golden Disk Award. In the fall of that year, they spawned a Japanese record, ‘Wake Up.’ The album was supported by three singles, No More Dream, Boy in Luv and Danger.
A couple of years later, BTS dropped their second Korean and Japanese studio LPs titled, ‘Wings’ and ‘Youth’ respectively. The former record charted in multiple countries including, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Sweden. Moreover, it earned them multiple accolades and received 4/5 stars from AllMusic. On the other hand, ‘Youth’ smashed the charts in Japan and was certified Gold in the country.
Building Anticipation for Love Yourself: Tear
Shortly after their third Japanese studio album, ‘Face Yourself’ came out in 2018, BTS announced that they will release their latest Korean record, ‘Love Yourself: Tear’ later in the year. On May 6th, they dropped the trailer of, ‘Love Yourself: Tear’ which featured a new track, Singularity. It served as the intro song for the album and was solely recorded by the band’s member, V. A. A few days later, the band revealed the track-list of the album which included a collaborative track with the Grammy nominated electro house record producer and DJ, Steve Aoki.
Love Yourself: Tear Finally Hits the Stores
On May 18, 2018, Big Hit Entertainment issued BTS’s latest record, ‘Love Yourself: Tear.’ Inspired by multiple genres including, hip-hop, K-pop and EDM, the record became a major critical success with major publications like AllMusic, Spin and Pitchfork giving it positive reviews.
It also yielded a single, Fake Love. The song landed at the tenth spot on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the highest-charting track by a K-pop band in the United States. It also received over one hundred million hits on YouTube.
Love Yourself: Tear Climbs Atop the Billboard 200
On May 28, Billboard broke the news that BTS’ album, ‘Love Yourself: Tear’ has debuted atop the Billboard 200. It also became the first foreign language record to become a number-one hit in the U.S. since Il Divo’s gold selling studio effort, ‘Ancora’ achieved the feat thirteen years ago.
‘Love Yourself: Tear’ climbed to the top spot because of the incredible response it received in the States. It sold approximately one hundred and thirty five thousand units in the country during the first week of its release out of which one hundred thousand were traditional album sales.
The news of BTS topping the Billboard 200 for the first time created a lot of buzz all around the globe. They were congratulated by the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in for this incredible achievement in a tweet:
“The songs, dance, dream and enthusiasm of BTS … energized and gave strength to young people around the world. At the very heart of BTS’s outstanding dancing and singing is sincerity. This magical power turns grief into hope and differences into similarity.”
Heading Out on a North American Tour
To celebrate the success of ‘Love Yourself: Tear,’ BTS have announced to perform a series of shows across North America. The band will start the trek by playing three shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. After that, they will go to different cities including, Oakland, Fort Worth, Hamilton, Newark and Chicago. BTS have also announced to reveal more tour dates so watch this space.
