page_title: BTS
section_title: 2017: International expansion and collaborations
hierarchical_section_title: BTS / Career / 2017: International expansion and collaborations
caption_attribution_description: English: BTS at a press conference for the Billboard Music Awards on May 29, 2017
context_page_description: BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member South Korean boy band that began formation in 2010 and debuted in June 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet which is comprised of RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook co-writes and co-produces much of the band's output. Originally a hip hop group, their musical style has evolved to include a wide range of genres. Their lyrics, often focused on personal and social commentary, touch on the themes of mental health, troubles of school-age youth, loss, the journey towards loving oneself, and individualism. Their work features references to literature and psychological concepts and includes an alternative universe storyline. The group has released several albums and performed on several world tours.
  The group released their debut single album 2 Cool 4 Skool in 2013. Subsequent work such as their first US Billboard 200 entries The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever, and Wings helped establish BTS's reputation as a socially conscious group. Wings became BTS's first album to sell one million copies in South Korea.
context_section_description: In February 2017, BTS released the repackaged edition of Wings (2016), entitled You Never Walk Alone. Pre-orders of the repackage reached over 700,000 copies, breaking the record for most albums sold in a month. The repackage included an additional four tracks that offered consolation and encouragement to its listeners. Its lead single, "Spring Day" (Korean: 봄날; RR: Bomnal) met critical praise as "an intelligent, compelling and elegantly restrained study of loss and longing" that "deliberately avoids cliché pomp and drama" by Dazed Digital. Embodying nostalgia and sorrow, it opened a new chapter in BTS' aesthetics and lyricism and attracted fans across generational boundaries. Upon release, "Spring Day" topped eight of the major South Korean online music charts, as well as Gaon, and crashed Melon's digital chart due to the high influx of user traffic. It also entered the U.S. Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 singles chart at number 15 with "zero promotions." As evidence of its staying power, "Spring Day" is the longest-charting song on Melon to date. "Spring Day" later won Best Song of the Year at the 9th Melon Music Awards.
  In conjunction with the release of You Never Walk Alone, BTS commenced their second world tour, 2017 BTS Live Trilogy Episode III: The Wings Tour, from February to December. The tour visited 12 countries including Brazil, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States and gathered 550,000 fans. On the tour, BTS began to play progressively larger venues, moving from halls into arenas and domes. Tickets for the North American leg sold out within minutes and two additional shows were added due to high demand, making BTS the first K-pop act to sell out arenas in the United States. After completing their North American leg, BTS attended the 24th Billboard Music Awards in May and won Top Social Artist, becoming the first Korean group awarded a Billboard Music Award.
  Celebrating Korean music icon Seo Taiji's 25th anniversary as a part of his anniversary project "Time: Traveler", BTS released a remake of Seo Taiji's 1995 classic "Come Back Home" in July 2017, reworking the sound and lyrics to similar sentiments toward societal change that Seo Taiji argued for in his songs. BTS was later invited by Seo Taiji to perform as backup vocalists and dancers for eight songs in his Seoul Olympic Stadium concert held early September. During the concert, Seo Taiji acknowledged BTS' thematic similarities to his music and recognized the group as his musical successors, declaring, "This is your generation now. Show them."
  Following the depiction of growth and temptation in Wings (2016) and consolation in You Never Walk Alone (2017), BTS embarked on their "Love Yourself" series which sought the enlightenment of self-love through the "起承轉結" (Korean: 기승전결; RR: Giseungjeongyeol) narrative sequence of "beginning, development, turn, and conclusion." In September 2017, BTS released the first part of the series, their fifth EP, Love Yourself: Her and featured music from the Chainsmokers' Andrew Taggart for the track "Best of Me". The EP was supported by two singles: the lead single "DNA" and a Steve Aoki remix of their song "Mic Drop" featuring American rapper Desiigner. In the narrative sequence, the EP represented the "承," or "development" of the series and is considered by RM to be one of the major turning points in BTS' career. Within the larger narrative, Love Yourself: Her described the joy and happiness of falling in love. Sonically, the EP served as "a dual exploration of the group's electro-pop and hip-hop leanings," with the first half consisting of “dance tracks that emphasize the group's vocals" while in the second half "the act's hip-hop side arrives in earnest...delivering powerful rap performances."
  Commercially, BTS continued to hit new career heights with the Love Yourself: Her EP, debuting at number seven on the Billboard 200 with 31,000 album-equivalent units. In Korea, the EP sold over 1.2 million copies on the Gaon Album Chart in its first month, achieving the highest monthly album sales in the chart's h
caption: BTS at their press conference in Seoul, South Korea after winning Top Social Artist at the 24th Billboard Music Awards on May 29, 2017.
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