BTS

BTS (Hangul: 방탄소년단, Japanese: 防弾少年団 (Bōdan Shōnendan); Mandarin: 防弹少年团, pinyin: Fángdàn Shàonián Tuán), also known as Bangtan Boys/Bangtan Sonyeondan, is a South Korean boy band from Seoul, initially formed around hip-hop before expanding into diverse musical genres.

Formed in 2013 by Big Hit Entertainment, the group consists of seven members: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook.

The group's name, Bangtan Sonyeondan, combines "방탄" meaning "bulletproof" and "소년단" meaning "boy scouts". They debuted in June 2013 with the song No More Dream from their first album, 2 Cool 4 Skool. They won the "Rookie of the Year" award at the 2013 MelOn Music Awards, 2013 Golden Disc Awards, and 2014 Seoul Music Awards, winning two bonsang ("grand prizes"). In 2016, the group won their first daesang ("main prize") by being named Artist of the Year at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.

In June 2017, BTS was named one of the twenty-five most influential personalities on the Internet by Time. Their EP Love Yourself: Her was the best-selling of 2017. In February 2018, the MIC Drop remix in collaboration with Steve Aoki made them the first South Korean group to receive a gold certification from the RIAA.

The group has authored several songs composed for advertisements for major brands such as Mattel, Coca-Cola, Hyundai, and Puma.

BTS holds several Guinness World Records with the most retweets on Twitter and the most YouTube views in less than twenty-four hours, with over 108.2 million views for their Butter music video in 2021. They also hold over 60 daesang and four Billboard Music Awards. In total, they possess over 220 awards and three hundred thirty-nine nominations.

On October 15, 2020, Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE label), the group's label, went public; the issued shares doubled instantly, significantly enriching the seven members and valuing their label at 4.1 billion dollars, making it one of the thirty most important companies in South Korea.