BTS (band)

BTS (Hangul: 방탄소년단; RR: Bangtan Sonyeondan), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member
South Korean boy band formed by Big Hit Entertainment. On June 12, 2013, they performed the song
"No More Dream" from their initial album 2 Cool 4 Skool [4] to commemorate their debut on June 13,
2013.[5] They won several New Artist of the Year awards for the track "No More Dream", including at
the 2013 Melon Music Awards and Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards. The band
continued to gain 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.[6] The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever went on
to win the Album of the Year award at the 2016 Melon Music Awards.[7]

Their second full album, Wings (2016),[8] peaked at #26 on the Billboard 200, which marked the highest
chart ranking for a K-pop album ever.[9] In South Korea, Wings became the best-selling album in the
Gaon Album Chart history at the time.[10] It sold more than 1.5 million copies, making it BTS's first
"million seller",[11] and the group was subsequently awarded Artist of the Year at the 2016 Mnet Asian
Music Awards.[12] The group's next release, Love Yourself: Her (2017),[13] debuted at #7 on the
Billboard 200,[14] 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.[15] 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 act ever.[16] The album sold over 1.2 million
copies on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart in its first month, reclaiming its title as the best-selling album
in the chart's history and becoming the biggest selling Korean album by month in 16 years, second to
G.o.d's album in 2001.[17] BTS was awarded the Mnet Asian Music Award for Artist of the Year for the
second year in a row in 2017.[18] Their third full album, Love Yourself: Tear (2018), debuted at #1 on the
Billboard 200,[19] 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.[20] Love Yourself: Answer, the
repackage of that album, also debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200.[21] 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.[22] Since their debut, they have sold an estimated 9 million albums worldwide.[23]

Known for their large social media presence, BTS were listed by Forbes as the most retweeted artist on
Twitter in March 2016.[24] In May, Twitter launched its first ever K-pop emoji, featuring BTS.[25] In
October, Billboard placed BTS #1 on their Social 50 chart, making them the first Korean group to top the
chart.[26] To date they have spent 93 weeks at #1 on the Social 50 chart.[27] 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.[28] In May 2017, they won the Top Social Artist Award at the Billboard Music Awards,
becoming the first Korean group to win a BBMA.[29][30] In June 2017, Time magazine named the band
one of the 25 most influential people on the internet.[31] On November 20, 2017, Guinness World
Records revealed that BTS had earned a spot in their 2018 edition for "having the world's most Twitter
engagements for a music group".[32] That December, they were revealed to be the most tweeted about
celebrity in 2017, being "liked or retweeted over half a billion times (502 million)" worldwide.[33] BTS is
#1 on the 2018 Forbes Korea Power Celebrity list, which ranks South Korea's most powerful and
influential celebrities.[34]