Beyond The Story Quotes

“the Korean idol industry was growing at a rapid pace, the issue of contract renewal in the seventh year became a drama that got everyone—the company, the group, as well as the fans—worked up. At the turn of the new millennium, large management companies like SM, YG, and JYP had all achieved a level of success that made failure of any of their debuted artists the exception. They therefore wanted to recontract their artists, even if that meant changing the conditions of the contract to a certain extent in order to benefit the artist. However, the artist may ask for even better conditions, and satisfaction with the financial terms is only the beginning. Even within a single group, each member may want different things depending on their personality, preferences, and style of working.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“2009, the Korea Fair Trade Commission established a “standard exclusive contract for performers” so that popular culture artists, including idols, could protect their rights and interests when signing to a management company.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“idols that have debuted, the contract with their company generally lasts seven years.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Korean idol groups’ contract renewal is one of the most unusual things about the industry. As can be seen from BTS’s debut process, in the case of most Korean idol groups, their companies invest a huge amount of capital and people power in production. It is also the company’s job to bring together the members to form the group, and the members of course sign a contract with the company.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“immediately after its release, LOVE YOURSELF承 ‘Her’ had hit number one on the iTunes charts across seventy-three countries and regions.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“As soon as they got their tickets to enter the American market, BTS began to expand their position in the US with staggering force. At the same time, the members were being flooded with work with a similar staggering force. And that was in another language, too.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“RM had to trim his message to make it brief and so as not to cause misunderstanding. If the meaning didn’t come across properly, questions would arise that could cause problems for both Korea and America. ______Until around the end of 2018, I found it stressful every time. I couldn’t always come up with answers just like that. So, I learned English really as a matter of “survival.” I still find it difficult when technical topics come up. And for sensitive questions, I didn’t think that just avoiding answering left a good impression. So, I had to respond tactfully without being provocative or causing misunderstanding, and I had to do that in English. Truly … there were a few really hairy moments.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“English wasn’t the only problem. This was of course the first time a Korean idol group had become so popular in America, and the US media didn’t only ask the group about BTS, but about the idol industry, and the Korean popular music industry as a whole.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“In this scene, Freddie Mercury is depicted as being cornered psychologically. He was exhausted—with Queen’s enormous popularity, their schedule was accordingly hectic, the press was digging into their personal lives, and as a result, they were flooded with every kind of misunderstanding and criticism. When Freddie Mercury says he no longer wants a life that’s a repeat of albums and tours, Brian May answers back: That’s what bands do. Album, tour, album, tour. Like Queen, BTS couldn’t escape “what bands do.” Going back a little in time, to between the release of the album YOU NEVER WALK ALONE in February 2017 and LOVE YOURSELF承 ‘Her’ in September of the same year, BTS had performed thirty-two concerts across ten different countries and regions as part of the 2017 BTS LIVE TRILOGY EPISODE III: THE WINGS TOUR.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Though running the real path to success, they were also the ongoing targets of large-scale cyberbullying. The reason for this we’ll never know for sure, but there’s also no need to know. Perhaps the hateful comments that first started to appear on articles announcing their debut had been a prediction of what was to come. BTS were subjected to abusive language for being from an unknown company and criticized at public events for being idols pursuing hip-hop. The first large-scale cyberbullying attack on BTS was because they had “sold too many records.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“The cyberbullying of BTS foreshadowed the changes brought to the Korean idol industry by the advent of social media, as well as the personality of the idol fandom. Cyberbulling that took place either out of random hatred for an idol or for the purpose of carrying out checks, began to occur far more frequently among the consumers of idol music than in the past.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Following the cyberbullying directed at BTS, cyberbullying of idols within the fandom stuck around almost like an institution.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“In Korea, the volume of records purchased directly by consumers is announced via the Hanteo Chart. 29 The Hanteo Chart reflects total real-time sales, but Hanteo are notified by record stores of advance order and sales figures from autograph sessions to commemorate album releases, which generally take place on weekends, and these figures are lumped together. This means that sales numbers on the Hanteo Chart suddenly go up, and fans say that “[ sales] exploded.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“j-hope elaborates on the happiness that comes with popularity: ________Making it known through my work that “This is the person I am,” it tasted so sweet. I acknowledged for the first time that I was loved a lot.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“There’s a real irony to all of these stories because it was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOMENT IN LIFE series that put BTS and Big Hit Entertainment on the fast track to success. It was also the start of a drastic shift in which the Korean popular music industry’s influence would expand worldwide, and even idol groups who, like BTS, had debuted in smaller companies had hopes of reaching the top.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“more and more idol groups began to release albums as a series under a single concept just as BTS had done, and the importance of “story-planning”—the so-called “Universe”—was also becoming clear.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Within the Korean idol industry, experimenting like this was no different from intentionally trying to ruin yourself. In Korea, idols are seen as offering up a fantasy. In their music videos, whether the concept involves smiling brightly or rebelling against the world, in most cases this is all part of the same objective: looking cool.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“I NEED U,” a calm and delicate sound is layered against SUGA’s incensed rapping, and then, when the sound suddenly speeds up, he sings in a low and sorrowful voice, “Sorry (I hate u) / Love you (I hate you) / I forgive you (Shit).” With intensity and sadness appearing constantly alongside one another, listeners feel sad while also becoming more and more elated. Then, in the chorus, these emotions fuse together and explode. The way in which the drawn-out chorus suddenly switches to a powerful beat demonstrates the song’s cathartic element alongside its explosive dance routine.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Getting a number one on a chart music TV program is a rite of passage for every idol group in Korea. Each chart music TV program runs weekly. Every terrestrial channel has its own, and put together this basically means that, other than Monday, there’s one on every day.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Even in the most liberal of countries and cultures, it is not easy for a pre-debut trainee to publicly voice his complaints about the label’s CEO. And Korea is a country where idol groups cannot be launched without significant capital, time, and planning know-how.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“A common misconception outside the idol industry was that management companies were in charge of everything about the music, taking the lead in musical creativity. But even the most finely produced songs cannot shine if the idols performing them are untalented or unwilling.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“struggling with the lyrics to “No More Dream.” RM had to compose a staggering twenty-nine versions of the rap lyrics for this particular song.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“Big Hit Entertainment made plans for an official social media presence on platforms used commonly by fandoms—such as Twitter, e Daum cafés, and KakaoStory—and established tailored goals and content styles for each platform. For instance, one of Big Hit’s goals after BTS’s debut was to attain a specific number of new followers on days BTS featured in a music program. This new approach to promoting an up-and-coming idol group played an important role in establishing a unique identity for BTS. Videos on the blog showcased unpolished compositions by the trainees, choreography practice in tiny practice studios, and glimpses into members’ genuine trepidations as they spoke into the camera without any airbrushing.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“If not for Glam’s failure, the BTS blog might have been backed by more resources. But a budget crisis was not the only reason BTS members made their own pre-debut promos.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“At the time, pre-debut promotional initiatives for K-pop idol groups generally meant publicizing the audition process through music channels on cable TV, or having members feature on reality shows. But instead of appearing on television, BTS members expressed their genuine selves to audiences through vlogs posted on YouTube.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“in the world of idol music, kalgunmu was the law of the land.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“What Bang Si-Hyuk learned in this process was that idols moved to a completely different beat compared to the music industry that came before. Idol music exploded onto the scene with the debut of Seo Taiji and Boys in 1992, and with the 1996 debut of H.O.T., an industrialized production system was put in place. BTS debuted as the idol system approached the twentieth year of its golden age. Its first teenage fans were now in their thirties, and as fandom culture developed over the years, the content and standards the fans demanded also became clearer.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“2AM, Glam, and the four years it took for Big Hit Entertainment to debut BTS was basically the company catching up to the past twenty years of the industry.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“1TYM, like BTS, emphasized the role of vocalists as well as rappers, and they had some choreographed movement in their acts. But according to Jin, BTS reset their mandate to become an “overperformance group.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

“with the tepid reception of Glam by mainstream audiences, the company reallocated their resources to BTS.”
― BTS, Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS