I'm Listening To BTS For The First Time

[SteveDave]

I've read about BTS breaking records and appearing on things for the last year or so but I've never listened to them before.

I've started with "Dynamite"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdZLi9oWNZg

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying it. Non-threatening boys who look like lesbians singing about nothing.

Lovely stuff.

[Captain Z]

I agree that on the face of it it's not a bad song, catchy and distinctive. But I get a definite sense that the whole thing has been carefully manufactured within an inch of its life (as K-pop notoriously is), not just in terms of the band members. Even though I only follow modern pop to a very limited extent I was somehow aware that BTS were releasing their first English-language song before it happened, then spotted it in a Samsung TV advert, then possibly in a Youtube ad, all perfectly timed to reach peak saturation at the time of release.

As daf pointed out in the TOTP2020 thread, their follow-up single did not have great success - entering at #10 and falling to #89 the following week. And that was even before all the Christmas re-entries really took over.

[holyzombiejesus]

I always think BTS stands for Built To Spill and then I feel really old.

[SteveDave]

I was unaware it was their first English language song. I listened to another (that was in Korean) that sounded like an East 17 ballad.

[El Unicornio, mang]

They also make albums in Japanese. This isn't my kind of music at all, although I think their appeal lies almost entirely with the lads themselves. They could put out any autotuned tripe really.

The only thing I really got from the video was wondering if they had to pay anything for having the Beatles/Bowie posters in the background, they seem to go beyond fair use.

[Captain Z]

It may not actually be their first English song, but I do get the impression there's been a concentrated effort to get a K-pop band to the top of the UK charts this year.

[Bazooka]

SHInee were my lads back when I lived in Korea 2010-13

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8kyG5tTZ1iE

Choruses are commonly sang in English, and BTS would have had a High school level English education.



The middle bloke took his own life, behind all the groups of pop androids is a pretty merciless pressure industry.

[Sin Agog]

I not understand K-Pop.  I've probably got several hundred J-Pop rekkids, but K-Pop is just too straightforward and lacking in extradimensional bubblegummy goodness for me.

[dissolute ocelot]

There's been an effort to break BTS for a couple of years. They had a reasonable size hit in April 2019 with Halsey on the horrendously titled but pleasant-ish Boy With Luv, although as Halsey seemed to do fuck all beyond sing a few backing vocals (not the best use of H's bored-millennial drone) it was clearly an attempt to promote their pastel charms on Halsey's back. It was followed up by a Charli XCX-featuring flop, Dream Glow (much as I love her first album, sorry but she's never going to be Dua Lipa). Dream Glow sounds much more like a terrible 00s boy band song than Boy With Luv did, but Charli sang the first line and it got to number 61 in the UK. They actually headlined Wembley Stadium in summer 2019, but I guess there are a lot of east Asians in London.

I was told by a teenager who the actually cool[nb]not cool[/nb] K-Pop bands are but I've forgotten. I think one has a number in their name.

[Bazooka]

I was told by a teenager who the actually cool[nb]not cool[/nb] K-Pop bands are but I've forgotten. I think one has a number in their name.

2NE1, Probably, but K-Pop is no different to all pop, most groups have a sort of short fever period and then get thrown on the cinder pile. They don't have the longentivity of your Cliff Richards.

[lazarou]

I was told by a teenager who the actually cool[nb]not cool[/nb] K-Pop bands are but I've forgotten. I think one has a number in their name.

Current actually good artists would be Loona, Red Velvet, Sunmi (formerly of Wonder Girls) and Taemin (from yer SHINee up there) among others, all of whom have been putting out some fairly consistently great pop the last few years. Number in the name makes me think your teen might be an NCT127 fan?

Been a very mixed year for kpop but we did get at a couple of absolute bangers, with the crown probably going to Everglow for '80s throwback La Di Da. Others that spring to mind are Lee Suhyun's Alien, Taemin's Criminal and WJSN sub-unit Chocome with their shameless Orange Caramel tribute Hmph!

I've been following the scene fairly closely for years but have to admit I've been lured away lately by the more interesting stuff going on in the alt-idol jpop scene, where they're a lot less afraid to take a few risks and go off on some genuinely odd tangents. And now they've finally cleared out the region locks that thwarted potential fans for years it's a lot easier to get a hold of thankfully.

[Urinal Cake]

I've never really clicked with BTS. The songs are decent. Though those boys can dance.

Twice was pretty average this year until JYP finally decided it was time for them to grow up with this late release https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO0iwx3PUHo helps that it shifts beats all the time and the chorus reminds me of Wild World.

Speaking of the alt k-pop or k-rnb or whatever , BiBI is pretty  ace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcEtCd4I8DE lyrics aren't as cringey as you'd think though some of it is lost in translation. The boys in this are very goofy- like white boy band in the 90s trying to act 'hood' (one has a Trump-level tan and horrible braids) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgl_gzltJXo but BIBI kills it.

[kngen]

I not understand K-Pop.  I've probably got several hundred J-Pop rekkids, but K-Pop is just too straightforward and lacking in extradimensional bubblegummy goodness for me.

I think that's the attraction, isn't it? J-pop has gone full-on mental and stuff like AKB48 wouldn't get a sniff of publicity nowadays because they don't have some bearded gaijin wearing a nappy channeling Count Grishnackh in the back-up vocals, whereas K-Pop rarely fucks with their carefully calibrated formula.

I remember when Puffy had a song that sounded a bit like Black Sabbath. Was mindblowing at the time, but seems charmingly conservative in a post-Babymetal world.

[sevendaughters]

It's really anodyne and target-marketed shit! come on, poptism is 2016, we can all see through it, it isn't bringing any secret liberation is it.

[imitationleather]

Criticising BTS will be the thing that finally gets this forum taken offline.