BTS’s Map of the Soul: Persona

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Cher Wang, Writer

For the past two weeks, BTS has been the topic of many people’s conversations. Kpop being a world sensation has come to a peak with BTS’s popularity and their album Map of the Soul: Persona. Of course, there is the new and upcoming NCT 127, Blackpink, and Monsta X that are making their way into the American industry. However, everything started with BTS being the first boy group from Korea to attend the BBMAs (Billboard Music Awards).

from left to right: V, Suga, RM, Jungkook, Jin, Jimin, and J-Hope

With their release of Map of the Soul: Persona, according to Billboard charts, they have reached their third No. 1 album in less than a year. That’s getting put down in history since the last streak of having multiple number one hits were dated back to The Beatles.

Map of the Soul: Persona contains seven tracks, including their famous “Boy With Luv” collab with Halsey that scored number eight on the Billboard charts. This track has gained a lot of awards such as “the most viewed Youtube music video within 24 hours”, “the most viewed Youtube music video within 24 hours by a Kpop group”, and “the most viewed Youtube video within 24 hours”. But that is not all. The music video for “Boy with Luv” garnered “74.6 billion views” streaming on the day of its release, according to Youtube, while Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” had garnered 55.4 billion on the same day.

BTS had revealed their future plans in a press conference in Korea after their album had publicly launched. As some people may know, Korea has a new military service law in which 28-year-old idols cannot delay their enlistment to the army. Jin and Suga are about to enter the military in 2020, however, there is a small clause that many might not know: men 25 years and older before enlistment must have a special permit for them to travel abroad and this permit can only be used five times and each permit is 6 months long. Jin and Suga may not have enough time for them to travel abroad due to these limits for BTS are always touring the world every year.

BTS revealed to their fans that in the future, there will be either mixtapes or albums that will be released.

“Everyone is working on their own music,” RM said. “We don’t know if it’s going to be part of an album or a solo mixtape — but it doesn’t matter. You need to work on it, perfect it. If the quality isn’t there, the song just isn’t released.”

“I would like to do a mixtape,” Jungkook also said. “But for now, I have been unable to — nothing I did was good enough!”

(taken excerpt from Billboard)

So let’s continue to cheer on BTS on their journey of success! And with Jungkook’s bold statement, let’s hope to look forward to Jungkook’s future mixtape.