BTS

BTS (hangeul: 방탄소년단, Japanese: 防弾少年団 (Bōdan Shōnendan); Chinese: 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 built around hip-hop, before expanding their musical universe into various genres.

They were formed in 2013 by Big Hit Entertainment and are made up of seven members: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook.

The group's name, Bangtan Sonyeondan, is a blend of "방탄", meaning "bulletproof", and "소년단", meaning "boy scouts". They debuted in June 2013 with the song No More Dream from their debut album, 2 Cool 4 Skool. They won the "rookie of the year" award at the 2013 MelOn Music Awards, the 2013 Golden Disc Awards and the 2014 Seoul Music Awards, where they would win two bonsang ("grand prizes"). In 2016, the group won its first daesang ("main award") 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 people on the internet by Time. Their EP Love Yourself: Her was the best-selling release of 2017. In February 2018, the remix of MIC Drop with Steve Aoki made them the first South Korean group to be certified gold by the RIAA.

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

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

On 15 October 2020, Big Hit Entertainment (now HYBE Labels), the band's label, went public; the shares issued instantly doubled, considerably enriching the septet and making their label, valued at 4.1 billion dollars, one of the thirty largest companies in South Korea.