BTS perform at Wembley Stadium in London on June 1 during their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. Photo: IC

BTS arrive at Incheon International Airport in South Korea on June 10. Photo: IC

There has never been a K-pop group that has aroused worldwide sensation like the seven-member boy band BTS. Debuting in June 2013 under a relative small banner of Big Hit Entertainment, it celebrates its sixth anniversary on June 13.

Even though the band has held only a few concerts in China, it has millions of Chinese fans. On China's Twitter-like Weibo, BTS fans called on fans in their respective cities to hold events to celebrate their idols' anniversary. Chinese fans also provided a 15-second video of BTS that was displayed on digital screens at Times Square in New York three times a day from June 10 to June 16.

Immense popularity

BTS became the first band since the Beatles to top Billboard 200, the US music chart of the most popular 200 albums, three times in less than a year with their albums - Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Answer and Map of the Soul: Persona. 

The mainstream media exclaimed that they are an unusual phenomenon as they are the first South Korean idol group to sweep the European and American music market. East and Southeast Asia are the usual domains of K-pop music.

Their world tour tickets were reported sold out in the US, Britain and France. According to Metro UK it took only 90 minutes for the band to sellout their June 1 concert at the 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium in London during their Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. The group was also the first K-pop band to present an award at Grammys in February. Band members were selected by Time magazine as the Next Generation Leaders in 2018 and included in the most influential people of 2019.

Although most of their songs' lyrics are in Korean, they still have fervent followers who don't understand the lyrics of their songs. At the end of BTS' Newark concert in early 2017, a stop in their Wings World Tour, BTS leader Kim Nam-joon, who is also known as RM, told the audience "Music and performance transcend languages, and countries, and races."   The group is also recording with English speaking singers, including Halsey and Charli XCX. Their new single "Dream Glow" released on June 7, BTS is joined by British singer Charli XCX. The single topped Chinese music platform NetEase's list of new songs between June 8 and June 10 and set a record for the list's highest score on Saturday. 

Group charisma

Guo Ya'nan, a 22-year-old university student and BTS fan told the Global Times that she becomes overwhelmed by the group's singing and dancing. "Many of their songs were written and composed by the band members and so they're singing their own stories," she said.

All the band members have written songs and some have their own studios and produce recordings by themselves. Between the ages of 21 and 26, they have their own stories and specialties. Their most devoted fans have followed their increasing popularity and how hard they have worked to improve themselves as individuals. 

The group leader, RM, was an underground rapper and was criticized for joining the K-pop band and giving up his identity as a hip-hop rapper when he joined BTS. But RM has proved himself to be a successful leader and speaker. He has helped the group resolve conflicts and delivered appropriate public addresses.

"It's easy to relate to their songs which have powers of healing," Guo noted. Seeking healing is a theme that runs through many of the band's songs, which often reflect the mental health, anxieties and troubles experienced by young people. 

BTS' fans use the nickname "ARMY," which stands for the Adorable Representative MC for Youth. In an interview, RM said the name "means we talk to each other about our youth. We speak together, talk together, console each other."

A sense of attachment

Guo said she follows her idols on an app named V LIVE on which Korean idols sometimes interact with their fans. 

Chinese K-pop fans can access online videos of reality and variety shows that have been translated into Chinese. Many Chinese BTS fans buy the group's albums online and their huge sales confirm the band's popularity and their elevation to idol status. 

Chinese fans are really looking forward to BTS staging more concerts in Chinese mainland soon and worry that some senior band members will have to commit to their country's military draft in the near future.  

"I could wait for the youngest member to finish his military service and go to their concerts because by that time I'll be in my late 20s and can afford tickets, but what if they decide to withdraw from the stage?" a middle school Chinese fan wrote on Sina Weibo Wednesday, a day before the band's sixth anniversary.

Newspaper headline: Legend makers