Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS

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The same way we all know there will never be another Beatles , is the same way we know there will never be another BTS.

The book would have benefited from heavy editing and as it is, could have gotten the message across in half the length or less. In this respect, BTS and Big Hit, without even realising it themselves, were in the process of tearing down boundaries. It seems to get uncomfortable at the thought of any hardship that can't be framed as a heroic struggle (like actual human flaws) and wraps most things up with a pretty bow in the space of a few paragraphs. This is an artist that constantly ekes out plenty of audiovisual content, and to me the challenge of a book is to prove the necessity of this written medium, when BTS have already bared their souls before in multiple documentaries, movies, vlives, youtube livestreams, etc. I feel it could’ve benefited from tighter editing and a clearer, more consistent identity and voice.The amount of love and appreciation I have for them is more than enough for me to endure these hard times caused by their absence. It was a super pleasant read (gulped it down in 2 days), but it was akin to the In the Soop or Bon Voyage interviews when I guess what I was looking for was a bit more of the spontaneous V Live candidness or even the raw storytelling that comes out on Suchwita. It was wonderful to hear the members’ perspectives on the different ups and downs they’ve had as a group. In addition, portrait photos tha t show BTS as individuals and artists open the book, and throughout there are concept photos, tracklists of all previous albums, and over 330 QR codes.

I still can't believe it, an actual book written by bangtan themselves along with that Weverse Magazine journalist ahhh we're always eating good in this borahouse god bless! and I felt an extreme emotion, that in some ways everything I had done up until then had been worthless. Its about them as performers, about them as a group and thats why the book refers to members by their stage names; RM instead of Namjoon, V instead of Taehyung, Suga instead of Yoongi etc.The book isn’t all celebratory, it definitely does touch on moments of other people in the industry being disrespectful towards them, targeted hate campaigns, and also moments where BTS made mistakes, but that doesn’t overwhelm the story. Being cognizant of a lot of their journey, there was definitely a book that needed to be made on their first incredible and eventful 10 years! Sometimes it read like a news report or a cover story, and then sometimes like a memoir, which was jarring. If only the framing would have been shifted from the growth in success to the personal growth the members have gone through during the time the book spans, it could have been much better.

Beyond The Story is finally out and as promised it is an astounding record that delves deeply into Bangtan's active years before and after their debut in 2013. I wouldn't go into it expecting to learn much (more) about them personally, or in any way unrelated to the band, though. On days when we had a lot of rehearsals, we’d be working fourteen hours out of a twenty-four hour day.

It clearly tries to build this hero myth around the members of BTS, doing so mostly by boasting with numbers and surface-level beating-the-odds motivational clichés (an actual quote from the book: "– – BTS's accomplishments over those seven years followed the progression of what could almost be considered a classical hero narrative"). In doing so, BTS nurtures the power to build brighter days and they choose to take another step on a road that no one has gone before. BTS, an acronym of "Bangtan Sonyeondan" or "Beyond the Scene," is a boy band from South Korea that debuted on June 13, 2013.

I’ve followed BTS since late 2017 and as such, few ‘revelations’ are new - still, I appreciate the effort to insert novel detail (or novel retellings of old details) for an old-timer like me. There’s also a big emphasis on explaining their thought process behind different songs and their lyrics, which I really appreciated.If you know BTS well some things will already be known to you, but they also have included some new elements from the members' perspectives and also quite a lot of backstory for what happened during their most challenging and difficult years as a group. I had to admit there were moments that made me laugh a little (see: Joon nearly having a mental breakdown at the 2017 America interviews), and I loved several segments on Yoongi and Namjoon (and even Chim) that accurately showcased the kind of introspective people they are. BTS shares personal, behind-the-scenes stories of their journey so far through interviews and more than three years of in-depth coverage by Myeongseok Kang, who has written about K-pop and other Korean pop culture in various media. If history books are the answer sheet to the present, then our sunbaes (seniors) who did music before us are our answer sheet, right? A lot of quotes from the band members gave me deja vu, like I'd heard them in lives or interviews before.