We speak to rapper RM of BTS, the seven-member boy group whose ultra-dedicated fanbase have made them the most prominent South Korean act to break the westThe phone line crackles out of Seoul where it’s nearly midnight, and where RM, the leader of seven member South Korean group BTS, is looking back at a crazy month in which they broke records – some their own, some they never even thought they’d achieve – one after the other in a relentless wave.
“I feel like we’re a balloon…,” RM says, surmising the time period, and there’s a tinge of disbelief in his voice. That’s unsurprising given their latest mini-album Love Yourself: Her is the biggest selling K-Pop album in pre-orders ever (over a million in domestic alone), and with the lead single “DNA”, they’re now the fastest K-Pop group to hit 10 million, 20 million, then 100 million YouTube views. Then there are those killer chart standings – #14 on the UK album chart, top 10 on the US Billboard 200 album chart – while DNA not only reigned over worldwide iTunes charts but rose to #67 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest position ever for a Korean group.
Expectations had, naturally, run high for their comeback; BTS (rappers RM, J-Hope, Suga, and vocalists Jimin, Jin, V and Jungkook) reached ‘phenomenon’ level last year with their second studio album WINGS and moombahton-style single Blood Sweat & Tears, yet 2017 has already provided an almost unbelievable new layer of success. Every day now brings another milestone, another article or another Western radio station playing the frisky, echoing electro-pop of “DNA”, adding to the feverish atmosphere around them. If their powerhouse fandom, known as A.R.M.Y, even felt momentarily overwhelmed by it all, then they’re not alone.
( Read more... )Source: DAZED