← Back to Blog

BTS: How Seven Artists From Seoul Conquered the World

BTS — also known as Bangtan Sonyeondan — began as seven young artists from South Korea: RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. What started as a hip-hop-influenced group became a worldwide cultural phenomenon, proving that music in Korean could top the charts in every corner of the planet.

The Debut and the Slow Build

BTS made their official debut on June 12, 2013, with the single album 2 Cool 4 Skool. Their early music carried a strong hip-hop influence and spoke about the pressure, confusion, and dreams faced by young people. Their rise was not instant. The group spent years building an audience through music, performances, and a close connection with fans — a relationship that became one of the defining parts of their story.

Breaking the Language Barrier

The group's fans, known collectively as ARMY, became a global community. Songs such as "DNA," "Boy With Luv," "Fake Love," and "Life Goes On" carried BTS to an ever-wider international audience, as their music became a way for listeners to talk about loneliness, self-worth, identity, love, and the struggles of growing up. Their album Map of the Soul: 7 also arrived in 2020, the same year as their Hot 100 breakthrough.

Dynamite and the Hot 100

The 2020 release "Dynamite" became a major turning point. Released on August 21, 2020, it was BTS's first song fully recorded in English — an upbeat disco-pop track intended to lift spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making BTS the first all-South Korean act to top the chart, and stayed there for three weeks in total. It also earned the group their first Grammy nomination, for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The song was the closing track of their album BE, released later that year, and the success did not stop there — "Life Goes On" and "Butter" also went on to reach number one, proving the breakthrough was no one-off.

Legacy

"Butter" followed in 2021 as another global hit and earned a further Grammy nomination. The Recording Academy lists five Grammy nominations for BTS in total, including nods for "Dynamite," "Butter," "My Universe" with Coldplay, and "Yet To Come." More than a pop group, BTS changed the geography of global music — and widened the path for every K-pop act that followed.

Take your music global with TIR →