Worth the ‘Blood Sweat & Tears’

K-pop is breaking barriers

photo+courtesy+of+fuse.tv

photo courtesy of fuse.tv

Story by Jenny Gonzalez, staff

As the music video begins, the camera focuses on the eye of the boy. He begins to whistle the melody of the song. The angle changes. They do their signature moves which are difficult but performed expertly.

On June 11, 2013, the official member line up for BTS was introduced to the public, and a few days after, their first music video “No More Dream” was released. BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, meaning “Bulletproof Boy Scouts.” It is made up of seven band members: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook.

When a friend first mentioned K-pop to me, I would ignore her. I thought that the music was weird because it was in a different language, and I wonder why she would listen to something she can’t even understand. Yet, while watching videos online, I was led to a music video of Korean boy band, BTS. I didn’t know what to expect– I just know that it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. The music was awesome, and although the lyrics were in Korean, you could hear the feelings that were put into the song.

K-pop, or South Korean pop music, includes genres like electronic, hip hop, pop, rock and R&B music. Each song has a little bit of all. Along with the songs comes the music videos and perfect choreography. Although k-pop has been around for a while, the music is unbeknownst to some Americans.

Since they debuted in 2013, BTS has won several awards and gained a big fan base. Last year, they won the award for Top Social Artist at the Billboard Music Awards. They were chosen by US Weekly as one one of the most influential celebrities on social media and were found number 67 on the Billboard “Top 100.” They performed at the American Music Awards, making their US debut performing their hit song “DNA.”

Their US debut will help the band and K-pop industry become more known worldwide, which will help them gain more fans, love and support.