Music / BTS

Who the hell am I? ^PicturedFrom back to front, L-R: SUGA, RM, j-hope, Jin, V, Jungkook, Jimin.

Comfort, got them
Principles, got them
Good music, got them
Good team? Goddamn!

— "Run BTS"

Influences:

• Nas, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., Dr. Dre, Eminem, Eric B. & Rakim, Snoop Dogg, Gang Starr, Mac Miller, KRS-One, Epik High, Tiger JK, Dynamic Duo, Warren G, Jay-Z, Kanye West, A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Migos, India.Arie, Tinashe, Drake, Justin Bieber (post-2015), Troye Sivan, Earth, Wind & Fire, Seo Taiji & Boys, Hermann Hesse, Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung.

BTS (or Bangtan Boys, or Beyond the Scene, or Bulletproof Boyscouts, or Bangtan Sonyeondan) is a Korean Pop/Hip-Hop/R&B Boy Band that debuted with BigHit Entertainment^note now BIGHIT MUSIC under HYBE Labels on June 13, 2013, composed of seven members: rappers RM (leader), SUGA, and j-hope, and vocalists Jin, Jimin, V, and Jungkook.

Interestingly, their fame grew very gradually; while they had a strong start for a small company idol group, they only started to reach higher success in Korea in 2015 (gaining an international fanbase much earlier) with singles "I NEED U" and "Dope", and winning their first big Korean awards^note awards in main categories such as Artist or Album of the Year, also known as daesangs in 2016. In 2017, they ended Justin Bieber's 6-year winning streak with the Billboard award for Top Social Artist, marking a turning point in their career. They've broken many records before and since, including having the highest-selling album in Korean history. They've also performed in sold-out tours in Asia, the Americas, Europe and other places, becoming (among other things) the first Korean group and Asian act in general to perform on Saturday Night Live, and the first to headline a concert at Wembley (with 2 sold-out nights). By the end of the 2010s, they were the biggest boy band on the planet, achieving a level of stardom rivaled that decade only by One Direction.

An unusual aspect of BTS is that the members have had significant input in their work since the beginning (including pre-debut), with all members having participated in songwriting; notably, RM and Suga were involved in the underground hip-hop scene in Korea as teens. While the main influence of the group has always been Western Hip-Hop, they're very versatile, often giving their own spin to wherever their Genre Roulette lands on, resulting in an affinity for Genre Mashups.

BTS' work has recurring themes centered around youth and young people's place in society, often dealing with topics such as mental health, expectations pushed onto young people, and social inequality, with more than one Protest Song under their belt; they also incorporate their own personal experiences into their work, including their career and difficult rise to stardom. Additionally, all three rappers in the group (RM, Suga and J-Hope) have released very personal and distinct solo mixtapes — RM (2015), Agust D (2016), Hope World (2018) and D-2 (2020), all heavily referencing the different points of their careers at which they each were released. In 2018, RM also released the introspective mono. (which RM has called not a mixtape, but a "playlist").

Their biggest and most ambitious project, however, might be the creation of an entire Mind Screw of a multi-media storyline tied to the narrative in their music, starring fictional versions of the members in what BigHit has named the BTS Universe. This series is comprised of Concept Videos, teasers, short films, a webcomic (titled SAVE ME), novels (The Notes) and other content, starting in 2015 with the "I NEED U (Original Ver.)" music video and currently ongoing. To read more about the storyline and characters of the series, you can go to the BTS Universe work page linked above.

BTS has also entered the big screen. Months after the YouTube Premium series of the same name, the movie Burn the Stage — a documentary about the WINGS Tour in 2017 and the experiences behind the scenes of the members throughout — was released worldwide on November 15, 2018. On January 26, 2019, the Concert Film LOVE YOURSELF Tour in Seoul was released in cinemas around the globe as a one-day-only event. On August 7, 2019, they released another documentary film about the LOVE YOURSELF tour under the title Bring the Soul; another documentary series of the same title was released weeks later on BigHit's Weverse app. A third series, Break The Silence, is also available in the Weverse app, with its release being followed with a third documentary movie, Break The Silence: Persona.

MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, their fourth Korean-language album and seventh overall, was released on February 21, 2020. It had 2 singles: the lead single "Black Swan" (released in one version for radio and streaming platforms and an orchestral version released as an art film for Youtube), and the main single "ON". The latter has 2 music videos, the "Kinectic Manifesto Film" (a Performance Video) and a cinematic Concept Video featuring the members in an After the End setting.

This album was notable for its promotion campaign, with a huge timeline of events leading up to it. This included not one but two comeback trailers, as well as the launch of CONNECT, BTS, "a global project to connect five cities and twenty-two artists" that "may be described in terms of a collective curatorial practice by curators around the world who resonated with BTS' philosophy". However, the many plans they had post-release, including another stadium world tour, were halted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The members decided to use the time that they would have spent on the now-cancelled tour to craft their next album, livestreaming parts of the process on the BANGTANTV YouTube channel.

In the meantime, the single "Dynamite", a disco-pop track entirely in English (the latter being a first for the group) was released on August 21, 2020 along with a music video. According to the members, it was an unexpected project they took on to heal and bring joy to people during the pandemic. With "Dynamite", they became the first all-Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100, and the first Asian act (and third group in general) to debut in that placement; it also had the highest opening-day Spotify streams for a song in 2020 (debuting with 7.778 million streams), and its video broke the records of the fastest YouTube video to reach 10 million views (which it achieved after 20 minutes) as well as the most-viewed YouTube video in 24 hours (with a whopping 101 million views). This was followed by the band's second #1 hit, their remix of Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo's "Savage Love", which became the first #1 hit with Korean lyrics. "Dynamite" would later give them their first Grammy Award nomination in a musical category^note LOVE YOURSELF: Tear was nominated for Best Recording Package, that being Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

The album BE (which also contains "Dynamite") was finally released on November 20, 2020. It's the album with the biggest amount of participation from all the members in its production — down to V directing its visuals, for example — and it reflects their feelings on life during the pandemic. Its main single, "Life Goes On", received a music video directed by Jungkook, and became the first track mostly in Korean to top the Billboard Hot 100 in history, and the first non-English track to top the chart since Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's "Despacito".

Another English single titled "Butter" was released on May 21, 2021, becoming BTS' fourth #1 single in the US and breaking records on YouTube and Spotify; it was followed by "Permission to Dance" weeks later, which too debuted at #1 in the US among other countries. BTS thus became the first group in history to replace a #1 debut single with another #1 debut single on the Hot 100. A remix of "Butter" featuring Megan Thee Stallion was released on August 27. On September 24, they collaborated with Coldplay in the song "My Universe" for the latter band's album Music of the Spheres, which became yet another #1 debut for the group, as well as Coldplay's first-ever #1 debut.

At the end of their Permission to Dance tour in Las Vegas, BTS announced the coming of an anthology album named PROOF which was released on June 10, 2022. It was confirmed to feature 3 new original songs and a compilation of their greatest hits, plus new demo and special editions of songs never released before.

On June 14, 2022, one day after their ninth anniversary, the band announced in a YouTube livestream that they'd be taking a break from group projects so the members could focus more on releasing solo albums. The band was facing the prospect of a hiatus due to South Korea's mandatory military service. Able-bodied males are normally required to serve for a minimum of 18 months before turning 28, but the band members qualified for a deferment to age 30. With the oldest member, Jin, set to turn 30 in December 2022, the band's record label announced on October 17 that the members would take a break to fulfill their military obligations. Jin enlisted in December 2022, followed by j-hope in April 2023, and Suga in September. RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook enlisted together in December 2023.

BTS plans to re-form in 2025 once all the members have completed their service, though the country's defense minister indicated that they might be able to do a few overseas shows while serving.

No relation to the indie rock band Built to Spill. Or with the BFS trope (as cool as that combination sounds).

---

Members

• Jin: Full name Kim Seokjin, born 4 December 1992. Vocalist, oldest member.
• SUGA: Full name Min Yoongi, born 9 March 1993. Rapper.
• j-hope: Full name Jung Hoseok, born 18 February 1994. Rapper, choreography leader, sometimes vocalist, member of the dance line.
• RM ^note formerly Rap Monster: Full name Kim Namjoon, born 12 September 1994. Rapper, The Leader of the group.
• Jimin: Full name Park Jimin, born 13 October 1995. Vocalist, member of the dance line.
• V: Full name Kim Taehyung, born 30 December 1995. Vocalist, member of the dance line.
• Jungkook: Full name Jeon Jungkook, born 1 September 1997. Vocalist, rapper (sometimes, mostly on old songs), member of the dance line, youngest member.

Note: All members participate in various degrees in producing, composing and/or songwriting.

Discography (in Chronological Order)

• 2013
  • 2 Cool 4 Skool (Extended Play)
  • O!R U L8,2? (Extended Play)
• 2014
  • Skool Luv Affair (Extended Play)
  • Skool Luv Affair (Special Edition) (Album Repackage)
  • No More Dream (Japanese Single)
  • Boy In Luv (Japanese Single)
  • Dark & Wild (Studio Album)
  • Danger (Mo-Blue Mix) (Japanese Single)
  • Danger (Taiwan Single)
  • Wake Up (Studio Album: Japanese)
• 2015
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, pt. 1 (Extended Play)
  • For You (Japanese Single)
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, pt. 2 (Extended Play)
  • I Need U (Japanese Single)
  • Run (Japanese Single)
• 2016
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever (Compilation Album, plus 3 new songs)
  • Youth (Studio Album: Japanese)
  • WINGS (Studio Album)
• 2017
  • The Best of BTS -Japan Edition- (Album Repackage: Japanese)
  • The Best of BTS -Korea Edition- (Album Repackage)
  • WINGS: You Never Walk Alone (Album Repackage)
  • Blood Sweat & Tears (Japanese Single)
  • LOVE YOURSELF: Her (Extended Play)
  • MIC Drop/DNA/Crystal Snow (Japanese Single)
• 2018
  • FACE YOURSELF (Studio Album: Japanese)
  • LOVE YOURSELF: Tear (Studio Album)
  • LOVE YOURSELF: Answer (Compilation Album, with 7 new songs) Full LOVE YOURSELF Series.
  • FAKE LOVE/Airplane Pt. 2 (Japanese Single)
• 2019
  • MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA (Extended Play)
  • BTS WORLD (Original Soundtrack^note BTS contributed 4 original songs: "Heartbeat", "Dream Glow" (feat. Charli XCX), "A Brand New Day" (feat. Zara Larsson) and "All Night" (feat. Juice WRLD) for BTS World)
  • Lights/Boy With Luv (Japanese Single)
• 2020
  • MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 (Studio Album)
  • MAP OF THE SOUL: The Journey (Studio Album: Japanese)
  • Dynamite (First English Single)
  • BE (Self-directed Studio Album)
• 2021
  • Butter (Second English Single)
  • BTS, THE BEST (Japanese Compilation Album)
  • Permission to Dance (Third English Single, released as a B-side to "Butter")
• 2022
  • Proof (Anthology Album)
• Solo work:
  • RM:
    • RM (mixtape, 2015). About RM's personal struggles with the dilemma of being both an idol and a (formerly underground) rapper. He uses the mixtape to state his pride in being the former and to prove himself as the latter, as well as to chronicle his personal musings about life and his coping with loneliness.
    • mono. (playlist, 2018). Less rap-heavy and more introspective than RM, focusing on the "personal musings" part. Its theme is more about loneliness and himself being his own worst enemy, but learning to live with it.
    • Indigo (studio album, 2022). Described by RM as his "last archive of [his] 20s".
  • Jin:
    • The Astronaut (single, 2022). Released as "a gift to fans" ahead of Jin's enlistment in the military and co-written with British rock band Coldplay, who previously collaborated with the band for their single "My Universe".
  • SUGA:
    • Agust D (mixtape, 2016, released also under the name "Agust D" instead of "SUGA"). Suga's personal story of his rise to success and his struggles with, among other things, mental illness. Half autobiography, half Boastful Rap.
    • D-2 (mixtape, 2020) If Agust D focused on the past, D-2 focuses on the present, Suga from 2016 to 2020. Less aggressive outside its scathing diss tracks, talks about getting older, capitalism, and the trade-offs of fame.
    • D-Day (studio album, 2023) Examines the idea of liberation, freedom of expression, and more criticism of capitalism. Even less angry than the previous mixtapes, delves into personal painful moments, and sends comforting and supporting messages to artists and musicians following his footsteps.
  • j-hope:
    • Hope World (mixtape, 2018). Touches on how J-Hope deals with fame as an established artist (the good and the bad) and his wish to live up to his "j-hope" persona, while maintaining his energy and versatility throughout with mostly funky and upbeat tracks.
    • Jack In The Box (studio album, 2022). An old-school hip-hop concept album inspired by the myth of Pandora's box. Received an official CD release in 2023 with the subtitle "Hope Edition" featuring five new bonus tracks: three live songs from J-Hope's Lollapalooza performance and two instrumentals.
  • Jimin:
    • Face (mini-album, 2023). Features five tracks all co-written by Jimin and was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic's emotional impact on him as not just a performer, but as a person.
  • V:
    • Layover (mini-album, 2023). A pop, R&B, and jazz-styled album featuring six tracks, including singles "Rainy Days", "Love Me Again" and "Slow Dancing".
  • Jungkook:
    • Seven (single, 2023). A collaboration with American rapper Latto, the lyrics of the song express a romantic (or sexual, if you're listening to the explicit version) desire to be with one's lover "seven days a week".
    • 3D (single, 2023). Another collaboration, this time featuring Jack Harlow. Shows off a more mature side of Jungkook through the instrumentation and lyrics.
    • Golden (studio album, 2023). Released in November 2023 featuring "Seven" (both the clean and explicit versions), "3D", and an additional single, "Standing Next To You", along with seven additional tracks.

Other Media

• Multi-media:
  • The BTS Universe: A trans-media fictional story told through a series of music videos, teasers and additional content; started officially in 2015 and is still on-going.
    • SAVE ME (2019), a Korean webtoon that tells the main plot of the BU story.
    • The Most Beautiful Moment In Life: The Notes (2019), a novel complementary to SAVE ME that continues and expands the universe further.
  • BT21: Seven cartoon characters created by the members in collaboration with LINE for the latter's chat system, now a franchise of plushies and other merch goods.
    • PUZZLE STAR BT21: Puzzle game featuring the title characters. For mobile devices.
    • BT21 UNIVERSE: An official animation series about the story of the characters. Updates monthly on Youtube.
• Film:
  • Golden Closet Film (2017-2020): A series of videos filmed and edited by Jungkook of the band members in different locations such as Tokyo, Helsinki and Newark.
  • Burn the Stage (2018): A Rockumentary about the WINGS Tour in 2017, meant to show a more "raw" or honest side of the group behind the scenes. Originally released as an 8-episode Mini Series , then re-released as a (vastly different) movie in November 15th of the same year, with about an 80% of new content. Both are available on Youtube Premium.
  • BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul (2019): A Concert Film for one of the first LOVE YOURSELF Tour dates, which took place in August 2018. Released on cinemas worldwide in January 26th as a one-day-only event.
  • Bring The Soul (2019): Another documentary in the vein of Burn the Stage, now following their LOVE YOURSELF Tour in 2018. A documentary series of the same name and subject was also released on the Weverse app.
  • Break The Silence: Persona (2020): The third documentary in this style, following the SPEAK YOURSELF Tour in 2019 and showing the members reflecting on the similarities and differences between their on-stage and off-stage persona. Released after the Weverse-exclusive Break the Silence, first on theaters and then made available on Weverse as well.
  • BTS: Yet To Come (2022): A filmed recording of their concert BTS <Yet To Come> in BUSAN.
  • j-hope IN THE BOX (2023): A behind-the-scenes look at the production of j-hope's debut studio album Jack in the Box, his performances at Lollapalooza, and more. Released on Disney+.
  • SUGA: Road to D-Day (2023): Another documentary released on Disney+ featuring SUGA as he embarks on “a musical journey as he travels the world in search of inspiration in the form of new sounds and experiences” for his studio album D-Day.
  • Jimin's Production Diary (2023): A documentary detailing the creative process behind Jimin's debut solo album Face.
• Literature:
  • The Most Beautiful Moment In Life: The Notes (2019; see the BU above under "Multi-Media")
  • Beyond the Story: Ten-Year Record of BTS (2023): Published to commemorate the band's 10-year anniversary.
• Documentary series:
  • Burn The Stage (2018) and Bring The Soul (2019); see the Film section above.
  • Break The Silence (2020). Following the Bring The Soul series, it chronicles the latter part of the LOVE YOURSELF tour and the SPEAK YOURSELF tour. Available on the Weverse app and website.
• Reality Shows:
  • American Hustle Life (Mnet, 2014): BTS' week-long stay in Los Angeles to learn about West Coast Hip-Hop culture from mentors such as Coolio and Warren G.
  • Bon Voyage (Vlive): The group going on vacation to a foreign country.
    • Season 1 (2016), set in Northern Europe.
    • Season 2 (2017), set in Hawai'i.
    • Season 3 (2018), set in Malta.
    • Season 4 (2019), set in New Zealand.
• Variety Shows:
  • Rookie King: Channel Bangtan (SBS MTV, 2013)
  • Run BTS! (Vlive, 2015-ongoing)
  • BTS Gayo (Vlive, 2015-ongoing)
  • BTS in the SOOP (JTBC, Weverse): The members take a break from their bustling city lives to relax and spend time together in a peaceful forest.
    • Season 1 (2020)
    • Season 2 (2021)
  • In the SOOP: Friendcation (JTBC, Disney+, 2022): A spin-off of BTS in the SOOP starring V and his friends Peakboy, Park Seo-joon, Choi Woo-shik, and Park Hyun-sik, collectively known as the "Wooga Squad".
• Video Games:
  • SUPERSTAR BTS: Rhythm Game for mobile devices featuring BTS songs from their entire discography. Closed mid-2020 to give way to the in-house game Rhythm Hive.
  • PUZZLE STAR BT21 (see BT21 above)
  • BTS World: A Mobile Phone Game with RPG and Visual Novel elements developed by Netmarble. The player gets to act as the manager of BTS since pre-debut in a semi-biographical story, the main mechanic being collecting cards. Includes a great amount of original content, containing more than 100 video clips (featuring acting from the members) and 1,000 photos, plus an original soundtrack that contains the songs "Heartbeat", "Dream Glow" (Jin, Jimin and Jungkook, feat. Charli XCX), "Brand New Day " (j-hope and V, feat. Zara Larsson) and "All Night" (RM and SUGA, feat. Juice WRLD). Released in the second quarter of 2019.
  • BTS Universe Story: Another Mobile Phone Game developed by Netmarble Monster. As part of the BU, it continues Seokjin's story with Visual Novel elements, but it also contains a story creation aspect for players to create and share their own stories.
  • Rhythm Hive: Rhythm Game for mobile devices featuring songs by BTS and other BigHit artists, released in December 2020. Has a similar card/level-up system as SUPERSTAR BTS, with the main difference being that, in Rhythm Hive, member cards (and thus their level/grade) only affect the section of the song featuring said member (instead of the randomized system of the other game), plus additions such as the Artist Happiness meter.
  • BTS Island: In the SEOM: A Falling Blocks Match-Three Puzzle Game that follows the story of BTS being stranded in a deserted, magical island. Notable for having direct creative participation from the members and a theme song produced by SUGA.
• Web Animation:
  • BT21 UNIVERSE (see BT21 above under "Multi-media")
• Webcomics:
  • Hip Hop Monsters
  • We On: Be The Shield
  • SAVE ME (2019; see the BU above under "Multi-media")
  • 7FATES: CHAKHO (2022)

---

BTS contains examples of:

Band and Member Tropes

• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Jin: "Worldwide Handsome", "third one from the left", "Jinnie", "Seokjinnie", "car door guy"
  • SUGA: "lil meow meow", "Minstradamus", "Yoonie", "Motionless Min", "Grandpa", "swag", "Min Suga", "Min Genius", "Yoongles", "Yoon", "Yoongs"
  • j-hope: "Hobi", "Seokie", "Hoseokie", "Jay", "sunshine", "Golden Hyung"
  • RM: "Joon", "Joonie", "Namjoonie", "Rap Mon", "Monie", "God of Destruction", "Sexy Brain Man"
  • Jimin: "Jiminie", "mochi", "Chimchim", "baby mochi"
  • V: "Taetae", "Taehyungie", "Vantae", "baby bear", "CGV"
  • Jungkook: "Golden Maknae", "Justin Seagull", "Jeon Seagull", "Kook", "Jungkookie", "Kookie", "Kookoo", "JK", "Jungoo", "nochu" (not true)
• Alliterative Name: Jeon Jungkook. Both "Bangtan Boys" and "Bulletproof Boyscouts" (The English translations of their name) fit this as well.
• all lowercase letters: The official spelling of "j-hope", though it's spelled as J-Hope in most parts.
• Animal Motif:
  • Fans often compare Suga to a cat and even give him the nickname "lil meow meow".
  • J-Hope is a squirrel because of his energetic personality.
  • Jungkook is a rabbit because of his adorable bunny smile.
  • V is compared to a baby tiger or bear.
  • Jimin is often compared to a baby chick or calico cat.
  • RM is a koala.
  • Jin is a hamster or a quokka due to his big cheeks.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: The younger members tend to be this at times, especially Jungkook.
• The Artifact: The hierarchic member roles that are typical of K-pop ("main rapper", "lead rapper", "sub-vocalist") still appear in Korean media from time to time even though those categories have become more and more blurry - both Jimin and J-Hope could be considered "main dancers" in their own ways (and some might extend the title to also include Jungkook and V), verses have been more evenly distributed among the singers since the LOVE YOURSELF era (with all of them getting solo songs), the rappers are also starting to sing, and you'd be hard-pressed to have just one "main" (as in, "the best") rapper when the rap line works much more like a Power Trio. This is even more apparent if one takes into account that the first BigHit boy group to debut after BTS, TXT, doesn't use the categories at all with the exception of "leader".
• Attractive Bent-Gender:
  • Suga:
    • In Rookie King, he dressed as a maid as a game punishment. Cue other members being amazed by his beauty and Jungkook outright said he wanted Suga as his "girlfriend".
    • Then in Run BTS! episode 11, he had to dress as a high school girl. The members are again amazed by the beauty. Not only that, many non-fans thought she was some pretty rookie girl group member!
  • To a lesser extent, Jin and Jungkook:
    • Both are also victims from Rookie King. Jin wearing a red sleeveless dress attracted huge attention from Jimin (whom he chased off) while Jungkook dressing up as a fairy raised cheers from other members. Given that Jungkook is The Baby of the Bunch, it can't be helped.
• The Baby of the Bunch: Jungkook, with the others (and fans) often cooing at him - allowing him to get away with a lot of light teasing towards older members. Particularly justified, as he joined BigHit at 13 years old and the other members basically raised him.
• Badass Adorable: Jungkook. He looks cute, but he can do this. He's very physically fit, with some of his dance moves requiring a lot of strength.
• Big Brother Worship: RM for Jungkook. Although Jungkook loves all of his hyungs (older brother), he seems to have a soft spot for the leader, RM. Jungkook said that the reason why he joined BTS in the first place was because he saw RM rapping and thought he was cool. It's also noted that Jungkook rarely teases RM compared to his other hyungs and is rather clingy to him.
• Big Little Brother: Jungkook and V are notably much taller than their older "brothers" Suga and Jimin.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Some of V's interests, like his love for classic songs in the early 20th century, should usually be for someone as old as his parents (or grandparents). This post perfectly embodies it. Him bonding and vibing with old people add to this. He has an image where he frequently dresses like he's from the The Edwardian Era, riding a horse, etc.
• Boy Band: A non-stereotypical example of a Korean Pop Music boy band.
• The Cameo: While he takes no part in the song itself, RM appears briefly in the music video for MFBTY's "Bang Diggy Bang Bang". On a toilet.
• Catchphrase:
  • "I purple you" (and its original Korean version, "borahae") is a phrase coined by V in 2016 that has since become (along with the color itself) representative of BTS and the relationship between BTS and ARMY, and thus the catchphrase of both BTS and ARMY (especially V).
  • j-hope's introduction catchphrase in English: "I'm your hope, you're my hope, I'm j-hope!"
• The Charmer:
  • V fills this role in their reality show "American Hustle Life". He got discounts due to his looks twice and Iris Stevenson described his voice as "soulful".
  • Jimin, too, if the many compilations of people being immediately drawn to him are any indication. He even gives Chimmy, his BT21 UNIVERSE, this quality as their main skill.
• Child Popstar: Jungkook was only 15 when the group debuted, and Jimin and V were only 17.
• Comical Overreacting:
  • They're prone to this A Lot, from screaming and cringing when members are made to kiss or say "I love you" to each other, to ganging up on a member for making them lose a game or giving a wrong answer to an easy question.
  • Suga tends to do this whenever j-hope shows up on screen (e.g. MV reaction videos) by yelling "J-HOOOOOPEEEEE" as loudly as possible.
• The Comically Serious: V tends to say hilarious things intentionally or unintentionally with little expression.
• Competition Freak: Most of the members really love to win when it comes to games (such as in variety shows), but no one comes close to Jungkook in terms of competitiveness, ever. His competitive side can be seen in how he throws (all light-hearted) tantrums sometimes when losing, how he goes all out just to win no matter how silly the game is, and in how eager and focused he becomes when playing. This fan-made compilation perfectly shows how competitive Jungkook can get.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: Both Rookie King, Run BTS! and BTS Gayo feature games where this applies to the loser, with the punishments frequently being decided by the members themselves. For example:
  • Rookie King (back in 2013) featured a punishment system centered around a Luck-Based Mission, with non-punished members showing No Sympathy (Played for Laughs) and cheerfully going along. Punishments involved members having to serve food to customers dressed as a maid, letting the others do horrible make-up on their face, or (more infamously) kissing another member (with another member gleefully pushing their faces together).
  • In November 29, 2017, BTS' arrival at the airport on their way to the MAMAs gained media attention due to Jin wearing a hanbok attire for no apparent reason. As it turned out, it was a punishment for losing a game on an episode of Run BTS! released on January 6, 2018. Yes, a whole month passed where this went unexplained.
    • Similarly, other episodes had the losing team wear their 90s-themed clothing in a public airport appearance, or T-shirts with an unflattering picture of a member, or movable bunny-ear hats.
    • Other punishments in Run BTS! and BTS Gayo have included doing the "Dope" choreography with a stocking covering their head, acting out a terrible script written by the other members, standing 5 minutes outside without a jacket on winter, and climbing a mountain.
• Cringe Comedy:
  • American Hustle Life has a lot of this. It features the members staying for a week in Los Angeles to learn about hip-hop in a boot-camp sort of way, containing moments like having to knock on random people's doors offering pie, having to cook and make creative presentations of their plates for Coolio (yes, the rapper), and going to the streets to cast women for a music video - all of this with only one member being fully fluent in English at the time.
  • To a much lesser extent, the hidden-camera jokes and punishment segments of Rookie King were cringe and awkward.
• Cuckoosnarker: Suga is very sarcastic but he also has a habit of saying random things sometimes. According to him, it seems to be inherited from his mother. These are one of the most infamous ones:
  (In Rookie King when he performed very, very well in archery) This is the power of the east-west wind!
  (After being asked why he didn't perform well in archery during ISAC) The wind is in the north-south direction.
• Cuddle Bug: Due to the members' No Sense of Personal Space attitude, half of them are this but Jimin, in particular, stands out for being the most affectionate one and frequently initiates ALL kinds of hugs◊. His hugs with◊ his fellow bandmate V, another cuddle bug, have gone viral on Twitter multiple times for how dramatic and movie-esque they are. Really, you'd think he hasn't seen the members for years the way he's always all over them.
• Dancing Is Serious Business: A given for any kpop idol group, but BTS take it to a whole new level with their insane year-end awards performances and awesome dance breaks, they are still able to wow audiences with their performances and stage presence even after 8 years into their career.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Mostly SUGA, who has a habit of being sarcastic toward himself or the other members.
    Suga [Commenting on their M Countdown debut stage that has many embarrassing memories for them]: There's a reason we got so much hate. (...) If I saw this on TV I would've been like "What are they doing?"
  • And to a lesser degree, RM. He's prone to snark when someone states the obvious and even interviewers aren't exempt from this:
    Interviewer: [Describing "Butter" a song released in the summer] This feels like a summer song.
    RM: [laughing] No way!
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • While they were still trainees, several members appeared as background characters in the Campy music video for Jo Kwon's "I'm Da One". J-Hope and Jungkook appear as Jo Kwon's backup dancers, Jin and V appear as the Big Bad's bodyguards (who die, get revived and go through a Heel–Face Turn at the end), and Suga appears as a kid with a casted leg who suddenly stops needing it anymore, thanks to the Power of Rock.
    • Jo Kwon's "Animal" also features J-Hope as a rapper.
    • Episode 4 of 2am Star Life Theatre had Jo Kwon visit trainees to give words of advice. This, of course, includes BTS (as well as SinB and Eunha from GFRIEND).
  • Jimin has a (rather amusing) blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in GLAM's "Party (XXO)".
• Even the Guys Want Him: Jimin, as commonly seen in reaction videos. PewDiePie, stepping into the K-Pop world in this video. He started with BTS, commenting on both their good sides and what he didn't like about them until he watched Blood, Sweat and Tears. After said MV, he promptly declared that he's gay.
  Pewds: That's it. I am gay now.
  • A reaction video also to "Blood, Sweat and Tears" had the reactor (jokingly) call his girlfriend into the room and break up with her after seeing Jimin.
  • The running joke is that "once you JimIN, you can't JimOUTor, is it just me who was created by loneliness", and that no one is immune to his charm.
• Family of Choice: While they do seem to have a good relationship with their families, living together far away from their homes for years led the group to become this in a way that's been acknowledged by the guys themselves, with older members essentially becoming Parental Substitutes for younger members during their first years - cooking their meals, driving them to school, going to their graduation ceremonies, etc. They're also a rare example of an idol group who, despite being able to get their own separate apartments, still live together by choice.
  • Their ad for the Hyundai Palisade (an SUV) is all about this trope, presenting the question "What defines a family?":
  Suga: Family is being in a group.
  Jimin: Loving & respecting each other.
  J-Hope: We may be very different from each other...
  Jin: We may not be related...
  Jungkook: ... but we feel stronger together.
  V: That is family.
  RM: That is remarkable.
• The Fashionista: V, who always wears Gucci products. Even his phone case is from Gucci!
• Former Teen Rebel: Inverted with RM and Suga. RM was such a diligent student he was in the top 1% of South Korea and Suga was on the Student Council of his High School. They have since then become adults and both write lyrics about the corruption of the school system and South Korea, in general.
• Friend to All Living Things:
  • RM somehow often manages to get photos or videos of himself with crabs or small frogs on his hands.
  • V once had a bird fly to his hand for a second, much to his delight. He even protected a mosquito before it gets swatted away by Jin while mumbling "Life is precious" to himself.
• Gentle Giant: RM is the tallest member at 1.81 m (very visibly so when compared to Suga or Jimin) and was one of the members with a heavier "tough guy" image in earlier years, but he's (by all reports) thoughtful and very kind and attentive with people. This trope, however, especially applies to his love for very small creatures (most notably crabs), often trying to find and carefully pick them up when he goes to the beach or rural places. Funnily enough, he said (rather passionately) in an interview in the UK that his favorite Pokémon is Mangnanyong (Dragonite's Korean name). Since he didn't know its English name, he later tweeted an image of Dragonite to clarify which Pokémon it was - with said image being the epitome of this trope... but also being oddly similar to RM himself, which many fans pointed out.
• Group Hug: It has become a tradition for them to gather for a big hug whenever they win a major award or during New Year's awards or after any nerve-racking event.
• Huddle Power: Is necessary for them whenever they do a Team Hand-Stack before performing or after their names are announced for a big award as part of a Group Hug or when they have to discuss things and come up with plans to win the games they play on their variety show Run BTS!.
• I Have Many Names: As seen in the above description, each of the members has at least one Stage Name and/or Affectionate Nickname alongside their real names.
  • Jungkook has Koo and Kookie/Gukkie, Taehyung has Taetae or just Tae, Jimin has Chimchim (or just Chim) and Mimi, J-hope/Hoseok has Hobi and Hoba and he also shares the nickname Seokie with Seokjin.
  • Jin has gone viral several times for his looks in social media, leading to him gaining various nicknames from people asking who he is, such as "Car Door Guy" (in a Korean awards show) and "The Third One From the Left" (on the Billboard Music Awards). After joking that he's "worldwide handsome" during an interview, Jin has turned "Worldwide Handsome" into his title and introduces himself as such in interviews in the US and the UK.
• Jack of All Trades:
  • Golden Maknae Jungkook; vocalist, rapper, dancer, composer, producer and more.
    • He also works as this within the group, working as a center in both singing (though more-so in early songs) and dancing. As a singer, he's one of the three tenors in the group, with boyish vocals that can be soft and airy but also work well with harder songs, and with a range that allows him to do both higher and lower notes well. Meanwhile, Jimin specializes more on higher notes (with a very distinct voice that's simultaneously softer and "edgier"); baritone V tends to do lower notes, growling and falsetto, which works very well in R&B songs; Jin is also around the middle in range, but he has distinctly more nasal vocals that are used more in Power Ballads and (more recently) very high notes, and is sometimes used as a counterpart or companion to V's vocals (such as the pre-chorus of "IDOL").
  • Similarly, J-Hope, nicknamed "Golden Dog" (as he was born in the year of the Dog): dances, raps, sings (which he uses in his verses and as backing vocals) and holds a number of writing/producing/composing credits in songs similar to RM's and Suga's. His singing voice is frequently used as the baritone counterpoint to either Jungkook or Jin's tenor.
• Large and in Charge: RM is the tallest member and the leader of the group.
• Large Ham: J-hope is always screaming in surprise, joy, or fear sometimes and has a larger-than-life personality. He can and will dance anywhere and everywhere he goes.
• The Leader: RM fits "the mastermind" version of this well, considering BTS was only assembled because of him.
• Learnt English from Watching Television: RM famously learned English from watching Friends (and from rap songs).
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: The whole group grew their hair out in 2022 and fans swoon over them harder as each of them looked so fine. Jungkook, Suga, and V in particular got the most attention for their long locks.
• Rule of Seven:
  • 7 members, which of course leads to 7 solo songs in WINGS, LOVE YOURSELF: Answer and MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 each.
  • Their first album to chart in the US Billboard 200 chart's top 10, LOVE YOURSELF: Her, charted at #7. All other Korean albums they've released since (minus the BTS World OST) have debuted at #1 in the chart.
  • Invoked with MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, named after this trope and released to celebrate 7 years of BTS as a group. Also, not counting the version of "ON" featuring Sia (only released on digital platforms), the album has a total duration of 70 minutes.
• The Napoleon:
  • Downplayed (while the shortest, he's not that short), but while Jimin is known for being incredibly nice - he once got genuinely sad over learning that dogs can't see colors -, he's also known for having the shortest temper. This, of course, makes him one of the prime targets of teasing from other members in variety shows.
  • Played with it in the case of Suga, the second shortest member. While this doesn't really apply to his real-life personality, he has the most aggressive on-stage persona in rap-focused songs, with his verses being very blunt and prone to cursing.
• No Sense of Personal Space: The members love to cling to each other at random times as the concept of personal space doesn't exist for them.
• Not So Above It All: SUGA is one of the more serious members, not really joining the members' antics and often sitting somewhere quietly and alone, but when he does join... he's even more chaotic.
• Piss-Take Rap: Jin sounds like an awkward dad while rapping.
• Plaster Cast Doodling: In one of the fansigns during the Run era, RM drew a heart on his right hand cast because he couldn't do the Korean finger heart for Armys with his plaster-wrapped hand.
• Power Trio:
  • The rap-line works like this both in and outside the music, which each member having skills that compliment the others' strengths. While the three are well-rounded skill-wise, RM tends to focus more on elaborate metaphors and wordplay, with a more introspective or philosophical tone; Suga's style is more blunt and down-to-earth, with a focus on storytelling, using just the right words; J-Hope, due to his background being street dancing rather than underground hip-hop, has a style more characterized by unique flow patterns, a great sense of rhythm, and experimentation with delivery, with his personality translating into a more playful style. This is particularly evident when comparing their solo work.
    • When it comes to interviews, RM is the one who carries the burden of being The Leader, often being the most careful with tact and maintaining order, translating for the group when the interviewer speaks English. While quieter, Suga is blunt yet thoughtful with his opinions, often speaking when the question is about music production or about trickier or more controversial topics (like politics). J-Hope, being a much more extroverted person, is often in charge of lightening the mood to help other members relax (a role he shares with Jin).
    • Outside of interviews, roles change a bit depending on the situation; RM is more of an intellectual, Suga is more practical/street-smart, and J-Hope often manages teamwork and choreography.
  • The dance line (J-Hope, Jimin and Jungkook, with V being a recent addition) has sometimes operated like this, getting moments for the three to shine together (such as their 3-J performance for the 2017 Festa and the intro to their "IDOL" performance for the 2018 Melon Music Awards). Their skills are also complimentary: J-Hope's specialty is hip-hop and freestyle, Jimin has training in classic/contemporary dance (and also hip-hop), and Jungkook has hip-hop dance skills along with a tremendous athletic prowess, working as a center.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Their image in their early years is a non-white example. While they were more directly influenced by Western rap than a good majority of other Kpop artists, they were still not all that knowledgeable about the culture behind it, and dressed and acted "gangsta" as part of their "Hip-Hop idol group" concept. However, after 2014 - a year that involved a trip to Los Angeles to learn about West Coast Hip-Hop's roots and culture for American Hustle Life -, the tough-guy "gangsta" image was scrapped for good. RM, rapper and leader of the group, has apologized for his mistakes on this regard and considers his attitude and hairstyle/fashion choices of that era an Old Shame. More on that here.
• Proud Beauty: To say that Jin knows he's good-looking is an understatement. He's more humble than most proud beauties, though.
• Renaissance Man: Aside from being the famous Golden Maknae (Jungkook is also good at drawing (he made the eerie painting seen in the "Begin" teaser for WINGS, for starters) and sports (see his performance at the relay races and wrestling matches in the ISACs, plus his skill in taekwondo). He's also been getting into photography (tagged on Twitter as "G.C.P" or "Golden Closet Photography"), filming and editing (as seen in his Golden Closet Films), and producing (starting with "Magic Shop").
• Running Gag:
  • When Jin was asked about how he felt about trending on Twitter as "the Third Guy from the Left" during the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, he responded with "I'm worldwide handsome", and proceeded to unapologetically make "Worldwide Handsome" his title. He will introduce himself in every single interview as this now.
  • Similarly, Jin blowing kisses to fans, interviewers, or the camera. Often coupled with the example above, much to the (benign) embarrassment of other members.
  • For the WINGS Tour, once a concert he would make an increasingly elaborate gag of revealing a paper heart hidden somewhere, be it his clothes or the ears of other members. This culminated in BTS' New Year's performance of "Go Go" in MBC, which had all the members revealing hidden hearts in weird places.
  • The LOVE YOURSELF Tour had a shorter one of Jin wearing increasingly weirder adornments with ARMY Bombs, going from ARMY Bomb rings to real ARMY Bombs sewn to his shirt. He then did something similar wearing different wacky sunglasses.
    • Another example from the tour was during "So What", where Jungkook (and another member) would do the Shoot Dance across the stage runway on cue with RM's verse. He would do it with V, then Jimin, then Jin, then Suga, then RM, then all members together... until Jungkook suffered an injury during a rehearsal that required stitches and prevented him from dancing at all. He gradually recovered however, gloriously symbolized by him getting up to do the Shoot Dance again.
  • The members chanting V's verse from "Jump" when one of them says "V".
  • When the members do reaction videos to their MV's, expect Suga to scream "JAY HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!" whenever j-hope does something cool.
• Spell My Name With An S: Jungkook is the romanization used in official material, but within the fandom "Jeongguk" (how it would be usually romanized) sometimes appears. Same for RM's real name Namjoon, which is very occasionally spelled "Namjun". However, alternate spellings for other members consistent with "Jeongguk" (which is how it would be spelled in the usual romanization system), such as "Yunki" and "Taehyeong", are never used.
  • A notable exception is BTS World, which uses "Jeongguk", "Yunki", and "Namjun".
  • Nowadays, Jungkook is referred to officially as "Jung Kook".
• Stage Names: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM (formerly Rap Monster), and V don't use their real names, which are (respectively) Seokjin, Yoongi, Hoseok, Namjoon, and Taehyung.
  • Before entering BTS, Suga was an underground composer under the name Gloss, and RM was a rapper under the name Runch Randa.
  • There's also Agust D, the alternate name SUGA uses for his mixtapes (but not for his collaborations with other artists).
• Stylistic Suck:
  • Whenever the rappers sing the vocalists' parts or viceversa, expect it to be this. Here's an example.
  • The intro for Episode 2 of Rookie King randomly features a low-budget propaganda-style video of the South Korean national anthem featuring the BTS members, with amazingly bad acting and fantastically terrible green screen.
  • The "Spine Breaker" music video, made by the members for a challenge in BTS Gayo in an afternoon in the hotel they were staying at.
• Team Dad: RM, Jin, and SUGA, although the latter is often referred to as "grandpa" by the fans. As for RM and Jin, both of them serve as the caretakers of the group as the leader and the eldest, respectively; RM watches over his members and keeps them together while Jin cooks meals for them and keeps their spirits up by telling funny jokes.
• Team Hand-Stack: It's a tradition they always do before every performance while shouting their own famous chant: "Bangtan Bangtan Bang Bangtan!"
• Technician vs. Performer: J-hope and Jimin (Technicians) vs. V and Jungkook (Performers) when it comes to dancing.
• Teen Idol: All of them, though teens are far from their only audience.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: V once introduced himself as "Kim, Taehyung Kim".
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Jungkook has beautifully wide and sparkly eyes. Namjoon compared them to the eyes of Bambi and it was said he covered his eyes with his hair in school because it got complimented too much.

Music Tropes

• Album Intro Track: Every BTS album has one of these, introducing its general concept and themes. The intros all get music videos as "comeback trailers" for the album weeks before the album's release. Most of them have one of the rappers do one of these, with the exception being the LOVE YOURSELF series, which has 3 intros (plus "Epiphany") done by the singers.
• all lowercase letters:
  • The official spelling of "j-hope".
  • mono. and the titles of all the songs within it.
• An Aesop: One of the main things that drive BTS as musicians is their continuous effort to speak about issues that people in their generation from Korea and around the world care about, some of which are even taboo in their country, often resulting in these.
  • Songs like "No More Dream" and "N.O." directly criticize the way social expectations pressure young people into giving up their dreams to pursue respectable life goals.
  • "Spine Breaker" criticizes consumerism among teenagers - particularly the padded jacket craze in South Korea, where said jackets as well as other expensive clothes and accessories became a mark of social status, leading some teens to force their parents to spend hard-earned money on them just to become the cool kids.
  • "Could You Turn Off Your Cell Phone" directly speaks against people becoming overly consumed by their phones to the point of not paying attention to people they're talking with or becoming obsessed with using social media to make updates about their entire lives.
  • "Tomorrow" and "Lost" reassure people who are lost in their paths in life and encourage them not to give up, something particularly relevant in a highly-competitive society where mental health is barely an afterthought.
  • Similarly, "Paradise" talks about life not having to be a race, and states that having a dream is not a requisite to be happy.
  • "Dope" and "Baepsae" address the demonization of younger generations by media in an age that social and economic hardships have made working and living conditions harder in Korea, something that can also feel relatable for young people in other countries (i.e. millennials). "Baepsae" also explicitly talks about social inequality and work exploitation.
  • "Am I Wrong" calls out people who are indifferent towards the news and what's going on around the world, with SUGA's rap ("we're all dogs and pigs/ we become dogs because we're angry") referencing/responding to the classist remarks of a government official from Park Geun-Hye's administration, who said that South Korea should have a cast system where the majority would be treated "like dogs and pigs".
  • "Go Go" addresses the younger Korean generations' tendency to overspend as a way to cope with an increasingly bleak future, considering that attempting to save up on money under these working and living conditions would hardly do much in the long run, anyway.
  • "Magic Shop" and Jimin's "Promise" follow up on this message by encouraging listeners to find happiness and growth within themselves; that is, encouraging fans not to depend on BTS emotionally, but to also direct the love they've given to BTS to themselves.
    you gave me the best of me/ so you'll give you the best of you
• Audience Participation Song:
  • Aside from the usual fanchants, BTS will usually ask the audience to sing along to "I Like It", "Miss Right", "Epilogue: Young Forever" and "Fire" during live performances.
  • Their official fan songs, "2!3!" and "Magic Shop", are designed to be this.
• Auto-Tune: They've used this as a stylistic choice, such as in "DNA" (used subtly for a cosmic-like sound) and "Mic Drop (remix)". Suga in particular has been using this increasingly frequently, even if the other rappers don't use it as much if at all - examples being his verses in "Come Back Home" and "Outro: Tear". "Dionysus" is also heavy on this.
  • "Shadow" and "Black Swan" heavily use autotune to convey feelings of drowning and loss of individuality underneath fame. tybutdisagree analyzes BTS' use of auto-tune in "Black Swan" here.
• Badass Boast: Many of their songs feature some boastful phrases, usually in the rap parts. Notably, their Cyphers and "Mic Drop" are famous for being Badass Boast songs.
  • "Airplane pt. 2" takes the form of a success story, with the chorus talking about all the places they're traveling to.
• Battle Rapping: "Satoori Rap/Padolgangsan" is a song where each member brags about their particular region of Korea.
• Best Years of Your Life: Discussed. While not following the exact wording, the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series is effectively named after this trope. The album series is meant to show how youth, despite having its beautiful moments, also has its moments of struggles, pain, fear and uncertainty.
• Boastful Rap: Par for the course of a hip-hop-influenced group. Often overlaps with Take That! and Take That, Critics!.
  • "We Are Bulletproof" pts. 1 and 2 are "rapping about being good at rapping" textbook examples.
  • The Cyphers (pt. 1, pt.2, pt.3 and pt.4) are the space where all three rappers show off their skills while bragging about, well, their skills. They also boast about having working harder and being more skilled and successful than those who criticize them for being idols/from a small company/both. Their success is often shown by mentioning all the places they've travelled to.
  • "Mic Drop" is about all the success and achievements they've gained despite the haters ("did you see my bag/did you see my bag/my bagÂ’s filled with trophies").
  • From the mixtapes, "Agust D" is a big example, with Suga rapping about the success he's achieved and his rapping skills (what he calls making people "go to Hong Kong" ^note a euphemism for having an orgasm with his "tongue technology"), saying that the Kpop category isn't enough for him now.
    • He does it again in "Daechwita" (where he says Korea isn't big enough for him now) and "What Do You Think?" from D-2.
• Break-Up Song:
  • "Coffee" and "I Like It" are examples of the "I wish we were still in love" kind.
  • "Intro: What Am I to You?" and "Danger" are more of a "Relationship Break-up"/"Teetering on the Brink of a Break-up" variation. The former is also notable for showing the evolution from the upbeat start of the relationship to its messy end.
  • A similar example about a collapsing relationship is "Outro: House of Cards", which has also been extended into a whole song.
  • While LOVE YOURSELF: Her was about falling in love while becoming a Stepford Smiler, LOVE YOURSELF: Tear is about the relationship collapsing. This is shown in the songs "Fake Love", "134340" and "Outro: Tear".
    • Interestingly, "Outro: Tear" was revealed in Break the Silence to have been written as a break-up song for the members, back in early 2018 when they were discussing whether to disband.
• Call-Back:
  • SUGA's line "big cars, big house, big rings" from "No More Dream" has reappeared in other songs with the context and meaning around it evolving throughout BTS' career.
  • The strings from the beginning of the "Boy in Luv" music video get sampled again during the first part of "Intro: Who Am I to You?", where RM raps about newfound love before it all goes downhill. Similarly, the piano from the start of "Outro: Propose" appears at the beginning of the "Danger" music video, with each being from Skool Love Affair (where "Boy in Luv" comes from) and Dark & Wild (which has "Intro: What Am I to You?"), respectively.
  • The track "Intro: Persona" samples "Intro: Skool Luv Affair" from the homonymous EP.
    • The lyrics also reference the "dogs and pigs" line from "Am I Wrong" (itself a response to the controversial statements of a government official during the Park Geun-Hye administration), has the line "I dreamt of becoming a superhero/ Now it feels like I really became one" referencing "Anpanman", and repeats the line "what's your dream?" from "No More Dream".
  • "Boy With Luv" is by title a clear Call Back to "Boy In Luv" - drawing a parallel between the representation of love and gender roles in their earlier work and now.
  • "Interlude: Shadow" has a number of them, including many visual and lyrical parallels to "Intro: Persona" (both RM and Suga stand on platforms in front of their fans, pairing the lyrics "I just wanna fly" and "don't let me fly"), and to 2013's "O!RUL8,2?" (sampling the instrumentals of "Intro: O!RUL8,2?", making several visual references to its Comeback Trailer video, and retroactively answering said intro's question of "What's your dream?" from the perspective of someone who has already achieved it). Additionally, the hooded figures from "Fake Love", "Mic Drop" and "Fire" are back.
  • "Outro: Ego" follows the theme of "Persona" (which references their 3rd album trailer) and "Shadow" (which references their 2nd album trailer) by going all the way back (literally in the music video, with a quick montage of all previous BTS music videos in reverse) to BTS' debut trailer. The track itself samples "Intro: 2 Cool 4 Skool" (the first track from the first BTS album, featured in said debut trailer), with the beat morphing into a fun African-based rhythm. The lyrics reference the reflections surrounding fame touched on "Persona" and "Shadow" and makes a new conclusion, where the doubts and pain and darker feelings underneath fame became instead an impulse to grow and keep going forward.
  • "Respect" by the duo RM and SUGA to "Moving On"
    RM: Ayo, SUGA!
  • "Respect" also calls back to "Epilogue: Young Forever" with one of SUGA's verses, using the same cadence as that verse.
    SUGA in "Young Forever": Dreams, hopes, forward, forward.
    SUGA in "Respect": Money, honor, forward, forward.
  • The members' solo work does this too. D-2 by Agust D (SUGA), for example, makes many references to past BTS and Agust D song as he revises or affirms old ideas of his:
    • "Moonlight" has the line "If you think you're gonna crash, accelerate even harder, you idiot" from BTS' "Intro: Nevermind".
    • "Daechwita" has the line "To contain me, this country is still small", referencing "To be contained in the category called K-pop, my size is different, whoo" from "Agust D", and the line "It makes no sense to call me a dog. I was born as a tiger, I'm not a fragile pill-popper like you" in reference to "I canÂ’t live like a dog when I'm born to be a tiger" from "Give It To Me".
    • "What Do You Think?" alone makes Call Backs to several BTS and Agust D songs, those being "The Last", "No More Dream", "Home", "Interlude: Shadow", and "Airplane pt.2".
    • "28" references "Interlude: Shadow".
    • "Burn It" brings back the "Yeah, yeah, burn it" from "Outro: Tear".
    • "Dear My Friend" reuses his verse from "Spring Day" (also about missing a friend), now used in a song about who this friend was.
    • And then you have SUGA taking a line from D-2 ("Who said that humans are the animals of wisdom To my eyes, it’s obvious that they are the animals of regret" from "People") and referencing it in BTS' "Blue & Grey" from BE ("Could it be possible that humans are really the animals of regret, or is it just me who was created by loneliness").
• Cerebus Syndrome: As the boys mature, so do the themes of their albums, particularly regarding the topic of love; their work as a whole can thus be read as a Coming of Age story on its own, with (up until WINGS and maybe the LOVE YOURSELF series) each installment getting darker and more complex (though still retaining fun or silly songs in between).
  • While the School Trilogy had songs criticizing the school system, societal expectations and consumerism, the rest of the songs were generally either some form of Boastful Rap or love songs that ranged between Silly Love Songs and the Break Up Song type.Dark n Wild - sort of an epilogue to the School Trilogy - has a more complex take on love, adding topics like mixed signals, Love Hurts and Hormone Addled Teenagers. The album ends with the heartbroken "Outro: Does It Make Sense?".
    • "Intro: What Am I to You?" from Dark n Wild is a Cerebus Syndrome example in a single song, starting off with beautiful sampled violins and RM's rap about the start of a relationship... until the relationship starts to go downhill. By the end, he's angrily shouting, "what am I to you?! What am I to you?!/I do love you crazy, uh, do you?!".
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series introduces the topic of what it means to be young and the struggles of youth that go along with its beauty. While it features some of their biggest empowering/hype songs, it also takes on topics like uncertainty, fear for the future, depression and loneliness, relating them to the members' own experiences. Most of the love songs deal with a relationship falling apart, longing for a failed relationship, or desperate, toxic love. This is where the rather melancholic BTS Universe story officially took off, too.
  • WINGS (and its repackage) is possibly their darkest/most emotional album yet, having falling into temptation and breaking the world of illusions as its theme. Its intro and title song are the only love songs of the albums and talk about a forbidden/obsessive love. Then it's followed by a series of very personal and emotional solo songs for each member, featuring topics like melancholy, self-hatred, guilt and living a lie. The second half has a lighter, hopeful tone, but with songs that are either Pep Talk Songs or very emotional.
  • MAP OF THE SOUL:7 is split into 3 parts, corresponding to the Jungian concepts of Persona (the social mask), Shadow (the part of ourselves we deny) and Ego (the synthesis). It starts joyful and uplifting with the songs from the Persona EP, goes into a reflection of the dark side of their sucess, and then picks back up with songs about their will to keep going and the bond between each other and their fans.
• Chekhov's Armoury: BTS and BigHit have mastered the art of hiding future concepts in performances, music videos, concept images, VCRs and (occasionally) lyrics.
• Concept Album:
  • The School Trilogy (2 Cool 4 Skool, O!R U L8?2, Skool Luv Affair) had the concept of youth and school.
  • Dark&Wild (an epilogue of sorts to The School Trilogy) follows the concept of the first half of the album being "Dark", and the second half being "Wild".
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, pts. 1 & 2 and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Epilogue: Young Forever, were focused on the beauty and struggles of being young.
  • WINGS follows a Coming of Age concept, with heavier and more mature themes and a Whole-Plot Reference to Hermann Hesse's Demian.
  • MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA and MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 include a Whole-Plot Reference to Carl Jung's psychological treatise of the same name, referencing the concepts of Persona, Shadow, and Ego.
• Cover Version:
  • Their covers of ShinHwa's "Perfect Man" and Rain's "Rainism", complete with choreography, are well known among BTS fans.
  • They covered Seo Taiji and Boys's "Come Back Home" as part of Seo Taiji's 25th anniversary project, complete with music video. Before that, they covered another song by them, "Class Idea", for the 2016 KBS Song Festival.
  • Jungkook has recorded many covers that he uploads to Soundcloud, both in Korean and in English: he has covered songs by Troye Sivan (with RM), Tori Kelly, Charlie Puth (featuring Jimin), Music/IU and Justin Bieber, among others. He also sang Big Bang's "If You" in the show King of Masked Singer.
  • V has covered "Someone Like You" by Adele (complete with music video) and "Lay me down" by Sam Smith (during "Bon Voyage", one of their reality shows). He and J-Hope also covered "안아줘 (Hug me)".
  • Jin has covered Ra.D's "Mom" (dedicated to his parents and released for Parent's Day), "I love you" by Mate and YB's "April Outside the Post Office".
• Creator Provincialism: One notable trait of BTS is how often their songs reference elements unique to Korea, such as 독서실s (mostly private study facilities for high school students with no non-Korean equivalent) in "No More Dream".
  • They're quite proud of the cities they came from (which are all outside of Seoul), and it shows. "Ma City" is about the members boasting about the cities they grew up in, while "Satoori Rap/Paldongangsan" is about the dialects spoken in those regions (and the rivalries between them).
  • Suga in particular will always be happy to remind you that he, in fact, comes from Daegu. He Lampshades how much he speaks about Daegu in "Ma City".
  • "Spine Breaker" talks about consumerism among teenagers, based on the teenage fad of padded jackets in Korea.
  • Several songs (most notably "Baepsae/Silver Spoon") reference the crow tit - used in a popular Korean saying in contrast to a stork as a metaphor for "try-hards" or people who lack opportunities - and the golden spoon/silver spoon/etc. descriptors of Korean class status.
  • The Boastful Rap song "DDAENG" is filled to the brim with Korean cultural references (explained here), with the title alone referencing several different things at different points of the song (most notably, the card game 섰다).
  • "IDOL" (which mixes South African dance rhythms and sounds with Korean traditional instruments) includes the shouts "ursoo!" and "jihwaja!", which are sounds made to show excitement or boost the mood in traditional Korean music/dance performances.
• Creator Thumbprint: Suga whispering (sometimes saying) his name in the beginning of his verses like in "Pied Piper", "134340" and many other songs.
• Cultural Cross-Reference:
  • They've made many references to rappers and rap songs from the US. RM and J-Hope's verses in "Hip Hop Lover" (itself an ode to the genre) are pretty much a list of their rap influences, including Nas, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Eric B. & Rakim, Snoop Dogg, Gang Starr, Mac Miller, and Kendrick Lamar, among others.
    • The lyrics of "Butter" references several 80s-90s songs such as Usher's "U Got It Bad" (and a line mentioning Usher himself), Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" and "Rock With You", and The Jackson 5's "Blame It On The Boogie".
  • They've also referenced several popular Japanese works in their lyrics, as the members are fans of manga, anime and videogames.
    • "Anpanman" heavily references the manga character of the same name.
    • "Attack on Bangtan" references Attack on Titan by title (the Japanese version of the song, "Shingeki no Boudan", is named after the original title of the manga^note "Attack on Titan" does not mean the same as "Shingeki no Kyojin", which means "advancing giants", so this was clearly intentional).
    • Other Japanese works they've referenced are Pokémon ("Intro: What Am I to You?") and One Piece ("Cypher Pt. 2").
  • WINGS is a Whole-Plot Reference to German writer Hermann Hesse's Demian.
  • "Magic Shop" (as well as the "Fake Love" teaser) references James R. Doty's book Into the Magic Shop.
  • The "IDOL" choreography for the line "sometimes I become your superhero/Keep spinning, you Anpanman" (itself a Call-Back to the song "Anpanman") has the members posing as different comic superheros: Jin as the Hulk, Suga as Black Panther, Jimin as Spider-Man, J-Hope as Anpanman, V as Iron Man, RM as Captain America, and Jungkook as Thor.
  • Agust D (a solo mixtape by BTS member Suga) has the track "Tony Montana".
  • J-Hope's "Daydream" has the lyric "Like the hole Alice fell into/Like the road that leads to Hogwarts".
    • When J-Hope is flying on his bed into space in the "Daydream" music video, he looks at his phone, which displays the message "DON'T PANIC!", sent from a man named Arthur (a reference to Arthur Dent, the main character of the novel).
  • The MAP OF THE SOUL series heavily references Carl Jung (specifically, Murray Stein's book Jung's Map of the Soul), particularly the archetypes of Persona, Shadow, Ego and Self.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Dreams and the conflict of hope vs. despair are recurring themes that has appeared throughout BTS' discography.
  • In their earliest work (particularly in 2 Cool 4 Skool" and O!RUL8,2?''), they talked how Korean society pressures young people to abandon their dreams and pursue acceptable, stable life goals; lyrics thus directly addressed young people and asked them "what's your dream?" or encouraged them to not give up even if it feels useless to go on. In later songs like "Go Go" (about Korean youth spending their money to have fun instead of saving it, because their bleak economic situation meant savings are ultimately meaningless) and "Paradise" (about how it's okay to not have a dream), however, they also address how happiness in the present may be more important than a set long term goal.
  • "Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life" might be one of their biggest examples of this trope, about a youth being at the point where they're afraid of the future and don't know what they'll be doing with their life.
  • They've also addressed how they themselves have struggled with the meaning of a "dream" or a purpose. In "Interlude: Shadow", SUGA raps about how fame has also brought him more fear and greed the more he ascends, while "Black Swan" talks about the fear and pain of losing the ability to feel something for the art they make.
• Destructive Romance: Appears in The Most Beautiful Moment of Life:
  • "I NEED U" and "RUN" are about irrationally loving and holding onto someone despite knowing the relationship will end. "I NEED U" focuses on an inner turmoil of love and hate of the speaker towards the other person, of suffering because of the other person but being unable to leave them. "RUN" focuses on the fact that the speaker keeps trying to escape the inevitable, running in circles in their dependence on the other person.
  • "House of Cards" is about a relationship that both parties know is unsustainable and will inevitably collapse, but both still keep holding on to.
• Everything Is an Instrument: Suga sampled the sound of a basketball hitting the ground for "Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life".
• Evil Laugh: At the end of "BTS Cypher Part 2: Triptych," SUGA closes out his verse- and the song proper- with a breathless, wheezing cackle. He also does this during his verse in "Ddaeng" and towards the beginning of "give it to me" from Agust D.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Songs like "No More Dream, "Intro: O!RUL8,2?" and "N.O." talk about how young people are pressured by family and society in general to abandon their dreams and seek stable careers instead.
• Female Empowerment Song: "21st Century Girl" encourages women to live proudly without caring about what others say.
• Foreshadowing: Ooooh, boy. Even if it isn't for the BTS Universe, they sure like foreshadowing future concepts.
  • In the 2014 MAMAs performance, Jimin showed a (fake?) tattoo on his torso that said "HYYH" and "Nevermind", both clues for their next album series, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life (also known as Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa).
  • "Outro: Her" has the following lyrics as a chorus, which hint at the titles of the rest of the chapters in the LOVE YOURSELF series:
  All of my wonder
  You're the answer
  I call you her, her
  Cause you're my tear, tear
  • Their performance at the 2017 MMAs also hinted at key concepts in the series, including the concepts listed above, as well as the titles "Euphoria", "Singularity", "FAKE LOVE", and "Epiphany".
  • The BTS Universe has also provided Foreshadowing for music concepts and songs.
  • The VCRs for the 2015 BTS LIVE TRILOGY: EPISODE I. BTS BEGINS concert foreshadow plot points from the BTS Universe later revealed through The Notes and SAVE ME.
  • The "Epiphany" music video, The Notes (in the Answer booklets), and the VCR for BTS' MAMA performance of "FAKE LOVE"/"Anpanman" introduced the concept of the "map of the soul" in 2018. In 2019, the title of the first album after the LOVE YOURSELF series was MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA.
    • From the 2018 "FAKE LOVE" performance at the Melon Music Awards, the boxes the members are in at the beginning vaguely resemble letters, which in retrospective look a lot like the word "PERSONA".
    • In a performance of "DNA" for Mnet during the promotions of LOVE YOURSELF: Her (back in 2017), Jin's shirt pretty clearly displays the word "PERSONA" scribbled on it.
• Genre Mashup: On top of Genre Roulette, many songs have mashups of different styles and genres of music, something Korean critics pointed out was an anomaly in Kpop as groups mainly either Genre Shift or have a one-off experiment with a genre; while the groups do keep up with the music trends which the latter ended up being, they don’t usually mashup genres. Here are just a few examples.
  • "Fake Love" has been described as an "emo-Hip-Hop song with a Grunge guitar and a Trap beat".
  • “Dionysus” is a rap rock-synth pop-hip hop song.
  • “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” combines dancehall, moombahton, trap, and tropical house.
  • “Spring Day” combines alternative hip hop and soft pop rock with Britpop and electronic influences for good measure.
  • “Black Swan” combines emo hip hop, trap, and cloud rap.
  • "Idol" blends gqom (a South African genre of electronic dance music) and traditional Korean rhythms, complete with shouts from traditional Korean dances in the chorus (ursoo and jihwaja), along with pop and hiphop elements. The choreography reflects this by including moves from traditional Korean dances and the South African gwara gwara.
• Genre Roulette: While their early work is mainly Hip-Hop and R&B, the range of genres they've covered has gotten wider and wider over the years. So far, they've also done Neo Soul, moombathon, Latin-inspired pop, Electronic Music, ballads, Rock, Electronic Dance Music, Trap Music, Funk, Jazz, among others. LOVE YOURSELF: Tear alone has half of the genres previously mentioned and more.
  • RM defies the notion of being a one-genre-only group; one of the reasons he gave for changing his Stage Name from "Rap Monster" to "RM" is that the old name limited him in the kind of music he wanted to make. He has even said through the lyrics of "Do You" (from the RM mixtape) that genre is "a trap", refusing to stick to one label:
    IÂ’m not pop, IÂ’m not rock, IÂ’m not funk, IÂ’m not R&B or hip hop
• Gospel Music: The live version of "Mama" has a gospel appear after the bridge.
• Greatest Hits Album: Proof, where each disc takes a different concept of this:
  • Disc 1 contains all the group's singles from debut to the album's lead single, "Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)".
  • Disc 2 contains the original track "Run BTS" and is followed by 2 songs picked by each member from the group's discography.
  • Disc 3 is filled with demos of previous tracks and ends with the original track "For Youth". Note that "For Youth" is the only Disc 3 song to appear on digital versions of the album.
• Heavy Meta:
  • "Hip-Hop Lover" is about the rappers' love for the genre, with each one naming their influences.
  • They have several songs that take shots at other Korean underground Hip-Hop rappers and the Kpop industry and talk about their own experience regarding both, such as the Cyphers, "Ddaeng", and the mixtapes RM and Agust D.
  • RM reflects about the dilemma of being both a rapper and an idol, and the difficulties and criticism RM faced after becoming the latter.
    • From this mixtape, RM uses "Do You" as a refusal to conform to others' expectations and adhere to one specific genre.
    • This dilemma seems to be resolved for good in BTS' "IDOL", which is a statement of pride over being both an idol and an artist.
• Hidden Track: "Gil/Path" from 2 Cool 4 Skool.
• Homage: "Chicken Noodle Soup" by j-hope (feat. Becky G) is this to the song of the same name by Webstar and Young B., with the latter being the song that got J-Hope into dancing.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Teenage boys oogling at girls and how their "testosterone heavily shows up" when checking girls out is the whole theme of their song "War of Hormone".
• Idiosyncratic Album Theming: Their albums are released as part of a series or "arc" (the School Trilogy, "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life", LOVE YOURSELF), with all forming part of an overall coming-of-age narrative.
  • All of the (Korean) albums also have an Intro sung or rapped by a single member (except for Skool Luv Affair, which essentially has all three rappers rap, but with RM getting the "main" role) and an Outro performed either by the vocal line or the rapper line, not both.
    • The exception to this is WINGS, which has an unusual structure in itself: while it has a solo Intro featuring J-Hope, it also features a series of solo songs (one for each member) and an Outro (Interlude in the original version) featuring all members, and it was released also in a re-packaged version.
• Letters 2 Numbers: The School Trilogy, which portrayed life in school, had the titles written in textspeak "2 Kool 4 Skool" and "O!RUL82?"^note "Oh! Are you late, too?".
  • MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA. Not only does it go into a more upbeat sound and lyrics (with a fully pink cover), but it draws a direct parallel to Skool Luv Affair through the intro and especially the title tracks. While "Boy in Luv" was a lot about a "manly" concept of love and had a heavy rock-ish sound, "Boy with Luv" is more "funky pop", with the song being about a much healthier concept of love based on sharing a mutual connection.
• Location Song: "Satoori Rap/Paldongangsan" is a song about the different regional dialects of Korean, and "Move" is about their old dormitory. "Ma City" is also a song where they each boast about their hometowns.
• Lonely Piano Piece: The instrumentals for "The Truth Untold" are for the most part a very minimalistic piano piece. Appropriately, the song itself is about the story of a man who doesn't dare to show himself to the woman he's in love with because of his grotesque appearance, only letting her take flowers from his garden and watching her from afar.
• Lyrical Cold Open: Many examples. In their early days especially they had a knack for having energetic songs with an explosive start. Songs with this trope include "If I Ruled the World", "Coffee", "Attack on Bangtan", "Boy in Luv", "Rain", "Look Here", "Outro: Do You Think It Makes Sense?", "I NEED U", "Dope", "Boyz With Fun", "Butterfly", "Blood, Sweat and Tears", "4 o' clock", "Best of Me", "Let Go", "FAKE LOVE", "The Truth Untold", "Anpanman", and "So What".
• Lyrical Tic:
  • Seems the exclamation "Bang!" is used quite a bit in their songs.
  • Another, tic seems to be "Fire", culminating in the song "Fire".
  • "La la la la" is also used frequently, showing up in songs like "No More Dream", "Fire", "Spine Breaker", and "DNA".
• Metal Scream: In the final section of the rap rock track "Dionysus" (where it turns into a full headbang type of sound), Jin lets out a Type 4 scream.
• Money Song: "If I Ruled the World", "Go Go".
• Motor Mouth: The rap-line does this in several songs, with RM and Suga in particular being very adept at fast rapping; Suga is, in fact, one of the fastest rappers in Korea.
  • Examples of RM are his verses in "We Are Bulletproof pt. 2", Cyphers 1, 2 and 3, "Look Here", "Tomorrow", and "Outro: Tear". In his RM mixtape he goes up to eleven, with tracks like "Joke" and "Rush".
  • Examples of Suga are his verses in the pre-debut tracks "We Are Bulletproof pt. 1" (a verse he recycles in his mixtape's main track "Agust D", where it's even faster), "It Doesn't Matter" and "School of Tears"; from BTS tracks, his verses in "N.O.", "Second Grade", "Ma City", "Paradise", "I'm Fine", "Cypher pt. 3", and especially "Cypher pt. 2".
• Multilingual Song: While including English words or phrases isn't uncommon in Korean music, RM's fluency in English has resulted in a few songs having whole verses in English, such as several songs in RM and mono.. This is, however, most noticeable in both versions of "Mic Drop (Steve Aoki remix)" - one has the pre-chorus, chorus and RM's verse translated into English, and the other (featuring Desiigner) replaces J-Hope's and Suga's verse altogether with Desiigner's verse, with RM's verse (still in English) being shared with the other rappers instead.
• Music at Sporting Events: "Mic Drop (remix feat. Desiigner)" has been oddly popular in basketball events. Probably because of Desiigner's first line, "Bentley basketball, uh (git)/We playin' that a lot, huh".
• Music Is Politics: They've talked in their lyrics about the hardships they've gone through as Kpop idols in an oligopolistic, visual-based and highly competitive industry. Suga explicitly mentions the group being cut from broadcasts and being told they wouldn't make it for being from a small company in both "2! 3!" and "Sea".
• Never Trust a Trailer: A rare music version. Before the release of BTS' music videos, which is usually at the same time as the single and album (instead of after, as is the case with most Western pop music), one or more teasers are released featuring snippets of the song. These snippets, however, have come to be known as misleading; they tend to only feature part of the instrumentals (which also have some instruments missing), with this part not necessarily being the most representative of the song. For example:
  • Going by the teasers, you'd think that "I NEED U" and "Blood, Sweat and Tears" were slow R&B songs instead of what they actually turned out to be. This is because those instrumentals only actually end up appearing in the intro and bridge of those songs, respectively, with the rest of the songs being much more bombastic.
  • The teaser for "Spring Day" contains a moment where there are only vocals and an organ, which never happens in the final version. However, the Brit Rock Mix version of "Spring Day" - released one year later on Soundcloud - does.
  • The teaser for "IDOL" features traditional Korean instruments much more heavily than the final version, which has more South African sounds. The live version they did at the 2018 Melon Music Awards sounds much more like the teaser version.
• Non-Appearing Title: "No More Dream" and "War of Hormone".
• Ode to Youth: Their work in general takes on the topic of youth in several ways, either by exploring both the good and the bad sides of being young or by encouraging the younger generations to be bringers of social change.
  • One big example of this trope that differs from other BTS songs is "Epilogue: Young Forever", which is about the fleetingness of the beautiful moments they're going through as young artists and the acceptance that they can't last forever - but they can keep being young in spirit as long as they keep running towards a dream.
• Pep-Talk Song: They've stated several times their intent to make songs where people find strength or comfort. Examples of this trope in their work are "Tomorrow", "So Far Away", "Not Today", "No More Dream", "21st Century Girl", "Intro: Nevermind", "Fire", "Intro: O!RUL8,2?", "2!3!", "Lost", "A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone", "Paradise", and "So What".
• Piss-Take Rap: Jin in "Circle Room Cypher", his cover of Suga's "Nevermind" for the 2017 BTS Festa, and, to a lesser extent, part of his lines in the BTS Muster version of j-hope's "Chicken Noodle Soup" (where he replaces "popping, rocking, hopping, tutting, dougie, flexing, swaggin'" with "popping, popping, popping, popping..."). He likes this trope.
• Phrase Salad Lyrics: Almost all of "Joke" from RM's mixtape RM is this.
• Pop-Star Composer: RM for the Korean version of Fantastic Four (2015), with the song "Fantastic".
  • "Don't Leave Me" from BTS's Japanese album FACE YOURSELF was also made for the Japanese version of the drama Signal. Three years later, "Film Out" was released as the ending theme of The Movie.
  • Their also Japanese song "Your Eyes Tell" was written by Jungkook for the soundtrack of the Japanese romance movie of the same name.
• Power Ballad: "Awake" is one of three examples being from the LOVE YOURSELF Series. These tend to heavily feature Jin, with two being solos.
• Protest Song:
  • "No More Dream" and "N.O" protest the structure of the Korean education system and the pressures society forces on young people.
  • "Baepsae", which criticizes with class inequality and the burdens society places on the current generation.
  • "Am I Wrong", released in 2016, calls out indifference to current events, with SUGA's line "We all are dogs and pigs We get angry and become dogs" being a Take That! of the classist remarks of a government official during the then soon-to-be-impeached Park Geun-Hye's government, who said that "99% of South Koreans have no ability to move up in the world and can be treated like animals".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Attack on Bangtan": BANG!! TAN!! SO. NYEON. DAN!! (itself a reference to a memetic scene from a Korean Starcraft comic that does the same thing)
• Rated G for Gangsta: Just compare "No More Dream"'s music video to "I Need U"'s... or "DNA"'s. Depending on the way you look at it, this is also inverted, as their songs have progressively taken on more mature themes.
• Rearrange the Song:
  • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever features various remixes and extended versions of songs from The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pt. 1 and 2, including extended versions of "Outro: Love is Not Over" and "Outro: House of Cards", "Butterfly (Prologue version)" and various remixes of "I NEED U" and "RUN".
  • There's a "Christmas version" of "Awake" on the group's official Soundcloud.
  • "So Far Away", originally released in the Agust D mixtape, got a different version released on Soundcloud for the 2017 BTS Festa. It has more orchestral instrumentation and features Jin and Jungkook instead of the original's Suran.
  • For the 2017 KBS Song Festival, BTS did a live rock version of "DNA". Later, a different, somewhat softer rock version was released in LOVE YOURSELF: Answer as "DNA (Pedal 2 LA Mix)".
  • "Mic Drop" was re-released as a single in a remix version by Steve Aoki, with English lyrics in the chorus and RM's verse. The remix also has a version featuring Desiigner, whose verse takes the place of the first two verses, with J-Hope and Suga rapping parts of RM's English verse instead.
  • "Fake Love" got a "Rocking Vibe Mix" version shortly after the original's release. It's the one used in the "Fake Love (extended ver.)" music video.
  • They also released a "Brit Rock Mix" version of "Spring Day" on Soundcloud, for the 2018 BTS Festa.
  • "Dynamite" has nine official remixes (ranging from EDM to tropical).
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Baepsae" and "Go Go" serve as this to the previous generations (who are portrayed as unsympathetic and unreasonably demanding of the younger generations despite being responsible for the latter's disproportionately dire socioeconomic situation), although "Go Go"'s is more subtle.
  • The Cyphers are this to their haters (including rappers and others who have criticized them), with 2 and 3 being the most vicious ones - "Cypher pt. 2" being not-so-secretly aimed at B-Free, a rapper who publicly criticized RM and SUGA to their faces for wearing make-up and taking the "easy" path, the latter of which they deconstruct in the track. "Cypher 4" and "Mic Drop", too, though they center more on the success they've achieved despite the hate and how the haters have become irrelevant and can't touch them now.
  • "Ddaeng" goes a step above "Mic Drop", being this to those in the industry who mistreated them and predicted/hoped for their failure. Who exactly? According to varying interpretations, it could be those in Korean media who ignored or looked down on them, rappers who said they "sold out" by becoming idols, celebrities/media figures who treated them with disrespect due to them being rookies/from a small company, their haters (especially among Kpop fans), or all of the above.
• Record Producer: Some members, such as RM and Jungkook, but most frequently Suga, have done this for several of their songs.
• Reverse Cerebus Syndrome: BE's first half consists on the tracks "Life Goes On", "Fly to my Room" and "Blue & Grey", which are the most emotional, gloomy (in "Blue & Grey"'s case in particular) or at least mellow songs in the album. After the Skit however (where the members talk about the news of "Dynamite" charting at #1 on Billboard), the album immediately picks up in mood with "Telepathy" (a funk-inspired disco-pop track), followed by "Dis-ease" (a wild old-school hip hop track), and "Stay" (a Future House track), finishing on a (literal?) high note with the disco-pop song "Dynamite".
• Rule of Seven: 7 members, with 3 albums (WINGS, LOVE YOURSELF: Answer, and MAP OF THE SOUL: 7) containing 7 solos.
  • MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, was released on the 7th year of the group, invoking this with its title.
• Sampling: Being a Hip-Hop-influenced group, they've done this several times. Some examples from Who Sampled? are:
  • "Born Singer", which is an interpolation J. Cole's "Born Sinner". It was finally cleared for release 9 years later, for Proof.
  • "Coffee" is an interpolation of Urban Kazapa's "Coffee/Cafe Latte", and uses beats from Mountain's "Long Red".
  • "War of Hormone" samples the "ah yeah!" from Run–D.M.C.'s "Here We Go" (Live at the Funhouse, NYC - 1984). This song, as well as the tracks "Euphoria" and "Intro: Persona", sample sound effects from Super Mario Bros..
  • Contrary to popular belief, the beginning of "Autumn Leaves" does not sample "Deadroses" by blackbear (or EXO's "They Never Know", for that matter) - both use the same synth loop from a royalty-free sound library, as stated by the producer of "They Never Know".
    • Similarly, "Cypher pt. 4" uses the same sample as SFB (2)'s "Strangers". The producer of the track gave it to BTS without knowing that it had already been given to the other group, and he apologized after finding out.
  • "Am I Wrong", which sampled Keb Mo's "Am I Wrong".
  • Hilariously, "Not Today" samples the viral Youtube video "Crazy German Kid" (from 0:15).
  • "Outro: Tear" samples the original orchestral soundtrack of the third part of BTS' own "Highlight Reel" short films, from the BTS Universe.
  • j-hope's solo single "Chicken Noodle Soup" (feat. Becky G) heavily samples the song of the same name by Webstar and Young B., intended as a Homage to the latter as the first song that got j-hope into dancing.
  • The tracks "Intro: Persona", "Interlude: Shadow" and "Outro: Ego" from the MAP OF THE SOUL series are very explicit Call-Backs to their beginnings, and as such they sample "Intro: Skool Luv Affair" (from their third EP), "Intro: O!RUL8,2?" (from their second EP), and "Intro: 2 Cool 4 Skool" (from their debut), respectively.
  • As found here, the vocal sample in "Respect" comes from the track "Morning Time" by Lost John (and was available as a free sample).
• Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Downplayed with RM, when they just debuted. While being as approachable as your average Korean idol, his on-stage persona was that of a particularly tough rapper compared to the others, while releasing songs such as "Like".
  • Inverted for BTS and especially the rappers now - these friendly, cuddly, pretty-looking guys are the same ones behind tracks such as the Cyphers, "Outro: Tear", "UGH!", "Interlude: Shadow" - and that's before we get to solo tracks such as "1 VERSE", "Joke", or "What Do You Think?".
• Self-Empowerment Anthem: "21st Century Girl" is this for women, doubling as a Female Empowerment Song and a Pep-Talk Song.
  • "Not Today" is an underdog anthem.
  • "FIRE", in a "live your life however you want" way.
• Sequel Song:
  • "We Are Bulletproof pt. 1" (made pre-debut) and "pt. 2" (the better known one, released in 2 Cool 4 Skool).
    • MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 brings us "We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal", which vastly differs from both previous entries, exchanging Boastful Rap with a fully pop (if highly melancholic) sound and lyrics reminiscing and celebrating BTS' career and relationship with fans.
  • There's also "Airplane" (from J-Hope's solo mixtape) and "Airplane pt. 2" (from LOVE YOURSELF: Tear), with pt. 2 even featuring a verse from pt. 1. Hope World'' also has a track named "Piece of Peace pt.1", though whether it'll actually have a sequel is yet to be seen.
  • "I'm Fine" is "Save Me", but after the Character Development seen throughout the LOVE YOURSELF series; it features the latter's main melody in reverse, an inverted order of the rap parts, and even inverted themes in the lyrics (with the lyrics in RM's verses being direct opposites to his part in "Save Me").
  • They also have a history of sequel albums:
    • "The School Trilogy" of 2 Cool 4 Skool, O!RUL8,2?, and Skool Luv Affair, along with the "epilogue" of Dark&Wild.
    • The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pts. 1, 2, and Young Forever.
    • LOVE YOURSELF: Her, LOVE YOURSELF: Tear, and LOVE YOURSELF: Answer.
  • "Boy With Luv" is this to "Boy In Luv" - the stark difference in both sound and representation of love and gender roles is meant as a demonstration of the evolution and maturity of BTS as a group and as people.
  • Subverted with "Change pt.2" by RM, which is about how people (including himself) change with time, as opposed to his previous song "Change", which is about wanting change in society.
  RM: I released a song in 2017 titled "Change". It was a song I did with Wale. But this song has nothing to do with that one.
• Shadow Archetype: The concept is explicitly explored in MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, which directly takes inspiration from and is structured after Jung's archetypes of the Persona, the Shadow and the Ego. BTS connect them to the ideas of fame and being both an artist and a celebrity, meaning that the "Shadow" here (corresponding to the middle section of the album) relates to things such as the greed and insecurities that lie behind reaching such heights (such as in "Interlude: Shadow"), fears of losing passion for creating art ("Black Swan"), and longing for what may be sacrificed in the process of becoming famous (such as in "My Time").
  • In "Interlude: Shadow", the shadow is described by SUGA as something that follows him; as "the light" (in this case, implied to be the spotlight) "gets brighter", his shadow "grows bigger", "darker", "swallows [him], and becomes a monster" - that as he gets higher and gets the life he always wanted, the idea of the fall becomes more terrifying, with his fear and greed driving him to not rest. The song concludes with the shadow speaking:
  Yeah, you’re me and I’m you, you get it now, right?
  We’re one body, and sometimes we will crash
  You will never be able to take me off of you, you get it, right?
  Yeah yeah, you can’t take me off of you, whatever you do
  Yeah, you’ll be more at ease if you accept it
  • The shadow is ultimately shown to not be an inherently bad thing. The Art Film version of the "Black Swan" music video in particular has the main dancer (who's shirtless) surrounded with other dancers (dressed in black) who control him, hold him back and put him down, until the main dancer manages to command them and symbolically be free while still being tied to them. The album later leads towards acceptance of the Shadow with the "Ego" section.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Hip-Hop Lover" lists a lot of their Hip-Hop influences (among the influences listed above).
  • "Attack on Bangtan"'s title seems to be a reference to Attack on Titan. This is supported by the fact that the Japanese version is titled "Shingeki no Boudan", like the manga's Japanese title, "Shingeki no Kyojin" - this matters because "Attack on Titan" is not a direct translation of the Japanese title, as "Shingeki no Kyojin" means "advancing giants".
    • According to translator Doolset, the line "But what will happen if Bangtan Sonyeondan advances? Bang! Tan! So! Nyeon! Dan!" is based on an memetic scene from a 2005 Korean StarCraft comic. In the scene, a Protoss character says "“but what will happen if the Dragoon mobilize?” and all three Protoss (that character included) dramatically go "Deu! Ra! Gun!"^note How "Dragoon" would be split in syllables in Korean.
    • According to fellow translator Muish, j-hope's line "I need to heal my medic/but I'm another star" in "Jamais Vu" references Medics from the Starcraft: Brood War expansion, as part of its game imagery.
  • WINGS (songs, concepts and videos) is a Whole-Plot Reference to Demian (by Hermann Hesse), a book RM read.
  • "Not Today" is heavily inspired by Aragorn's "this day, we fight" Rousing Speech in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
  • "Magic Shop" (as well as the teaser video for "Fake Love") is a reference to Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart, by James R. Doty. It was also referenced as Foreshadowing in one of the year-end performances in 2017.
  • "Anpanman" is a reference to the manga character of the same name, running on the idea of being a hero who might not have strength or muscles to fight evil, but uses the best of their ability to help other people.
  • The phrase "map of the soul" (used both in the BTS Universe and as the title of the MAP OF THE SOUL album series) is simultaneously a Shout Out to Murray Stein's book on Carl Jung Jung's Map of the Soul and to Epik High (who also named an album after the Jung theory).
  • "Daechwita" from Agust D's D-2 mixtape references the Korean movie Masquerade (2012), a fictional period story about the Joseon dynasty king Gwanghae secretly hiring a lookalike to avoid threats of assassination.
  • Jin's "Moon" live stage from the MAP OF THE SOUL: ONE concerts is themed after The Little Prince, with Jin in a similar outfit to the title character's, standing at the beginning on a small moon/planet that has a rose (which looks like it's slowly turning into a baobab) which he leaves. At the end, he's joined by a group of dancers with fox masks.
  • RM's track "Yun" (feat. Erykah Badu) from his solo album Indigo is titled after and contains narration of the late visual artist Yun Hyong-keun. His paintings are also featured in the album itself.
• Silly Love Song: A necessity for any Boy Band. "Blanket Kick," "Miss Right," "Just One Day," and, perhaps obviously, "Boy in Luv" are among BTS' examples of this trope.
• Singer Namedrop: "Rise of Bangtan"'s chorus translates to "Who are we? Who are we? The rising Bangtan!" They also do it on other songs, such as "Boys With Fun", "Attack on Bangtan", "Not Today, "Anpanman", and "Run BTS".
• Singer-Songwriter: Everyone in the group is capable of singing or rapping and writing their own music; special mention goes to the rappers, who have written their own lyrics for almost every song and been described by Bang Sihyuk as BTS' "musical pillars".
  • RM has composed and produced several of their songs, and has written lyrics for more than 100 songs. In their album LOVE YOURSELF: Tear, he participated in the creation of all tracks, from composing to lyrics and producing. He's also written some English songs, including his rap parts in songs like "Change" (feat. Wale) and the remix version of HONNE and BEKA's "Crying Over You", as well as all the rap sections in "Butter".
  • SUGA has produced and/or composed several of their tracks (including "Tomorrow", "Let Me Know", "Jump", "Boys with Fun", "Intro: Nevermind", "Dead Leaves" and "First Love", among others) in addition to writing his own lyrics. He has also produced tracks for other artists, such as "Wine" for Suran, "Eternal Sunshine" for Epik High, and "eight" for IU.
  • V composed "Hold Me Tight", and wrote "4 o' Clock" together with RM. In 2019, V also released several self-composed and self-written songs on Soundcloud, wrote a song for the Itaewon Class OST, and co-wrote his solo "Inner Child" with RM.
  • Jungkook composed "Outro: Love is Not Over" and had a part in the production of "Magic Shop" and composition in "Your Eyes Tell". He also composed and wrote "Still With You" for 2020 Festa, and has come up with ad libs and melodies for several BTS songs.
  • Jimin has participated in creating the melody for "Blood, Sweat and Tears", wrote the lyrics for "Lie", released his self-produced (with the help of Slow Rabbit) and written (with the help of RM) song "Promise", and composed, co-produced and co-wrote "Friends" his MOTS 7 duet with V. He also came up with the bridge of "Dis-ease".
  • j-hope writes his own lyrics, has participated in the production/composition of several songs ("MAMA", parts of "Awake", parts of "Whalien 52", "Dis-ease") and wrote, produced and composed most of "Dionysus".
  • Jin wrote the basic melody of "Awake", composed and wrote (with some help of RM) the solo track "Tonight", and composed and wrote his MOTS 7 solo "Moon". He also wrote the lyrics for his solo song "Abyss" and made significant contributions to the song "Stay" from BE.
  • The rapline have also released solo mixtapes and albums that they produced and wrote.
  • This document details all the credits in BTS' releases by member (as detailed by official credit listing in albums and data from the KOMCA).
• Solo Side Project:
  • RM and his 2015 mixtape RM, 2018 mixtape (renamed playlist) mono., and 2022 album Indigo. He has also made various collaborations with other artists, such as Warren G ("P.D.D."), MFBTY ("Buckubucku"), Wale ("Change"), Fall Out Boy ("Champion", remix version), Drunken Tiger ("Timeless"), HONNE ("Crying Over You", also in a remix version), Youngha ("Winter Flower"), Lil Nas X (one of the several remixes of "Old Town Road"), and eAeon ("Don't"). And then there's his pre-debut work as a trainee...
  • SUGA and his mixtapes Agust D and D-2. He produced Suran's "WINE/If I Get Drunk Today", is the featured artist in Lee Sora's "Song Request", and worked on composition and arrangement of Epik High's "Eternal Sunshine". He also produced Heize's song "We Don't Talk Together", and is featured on Halsey's "Suga's Interlude" and IU's "eight" (both of which he also coproduced and cowrote). He is also featured on MAX's "Blueberry Eyes", though he didn't write anything but his own verse, and in 2022, produced and was a featured artist in PSY's "That That" (complete with choreography).
  • j-hope and his mixtape Hope World (with an extended version of "Blue Side" released years lated as Soundcloud and Youtube-only), plus his song "Chicken Noodle Soup" (feat. Becky G), a cover and homage to the single by Bianca Bonnie and Webstar. There's also his pre-debut collaboration with Jo Kwon in "Animal".
  • Jimin and his self-produced (with the help of Slow Rabbit) and written (with the help of RM) song "Promise", and his song for the Our Blues drama soundtrack, "With You" (featuring Ha Sung Woon).
  • V's self-composed and self-written songs "Scenery" and "Winter Bear", of which he also did the cover photo for both. He also sang, cowrote and coproduced "Sweet Night" for the Itaewon Class soundtrack.
  • Jungkook often records covers that he later uploads to BTS' Soundcloud page, plus the yet-to-be-released-fully original song that he teased on his birthday. He also has the original song "Still With You", a Soundcloud-only track (though an acapella version is included in the upcoming BTS anthology album Proof). He was also part of the song for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 "Dreamers".
  • Jin self-written songs "Tonight" and "Abyss", and the song "Yours" for the Jirisan drama soundtrack. He also released "The Astronaut", in a collaboration with Coldplay.
  • Along with their share of covers, V and Jin both sang "Even if I Die, It's You", the theme song of the drama Hwarang (where V also had an acting role).
  • BTS are an interesting case in that solo projects involving BTS members (with the exception of mixtapes, solo collaborations and contributions to soundtracks such as the Hwarang song) are credited to "BTS" in music platforms and/or are released in BTS' official channels rather than separately, reinforcing BTS' image as a group first and solo members second. SUGA's features also often have him credited as "SUGA of BTS".
    • Songs such as "4 o' Clock" (by V and RM), "Promise", "Scenery" or "Tonight" (plus all cover songs) are all in BTS' Soundcloud.
    • Steve Aoki's "Waste it on Me", which features RM and Jungkook (with harmonies from other members) appears as "Steve Aoki feat. BTS" on music platforms. Similarly, the feature in the remix of Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo's "Savage Love" is credited to "BTS" despite it featuring Jungkook, SUGA and j-hope.
    • All three songs from BTS World, which are all sung by sub-units, are also released as "BTS feat. [featured artist]".
• Song of Song Titles: A good part of RM and j-hope's verses in "Hip-Hop Lover" is just each rapper naming his greatest rap influences, including name-drops of albums and mixtapes such as Illmatic, Doggystyle, Ready to Die, The Chronic and Friday Night Lights, as well as the song "Wild for the Night".
• Songs of Solace: As the members themselves have said, some of their songs are meant to comfort and give strength to listeners who are going through a rough time. Some examples are "Tomorrow", "2! 3!", SUGA's "So Far Away", RM's "moonchild" and "everythinggoes", "Paradise", and "00:00 (Zero O'Clock)".
• Soprano and Gravel:
  • All the rappers are baritone, while the singers are all tenor except for V, who's also a baritone. This trope particularly applies with Jimin, who's voice is very characteristically soft and high-pitched, especially in contrast with the rappers or V.
    • An example is "Fake Love", which starts with V and Jungkook singing the first verses and then jumps to Jimin and Jin's "I'm so sick of this fake love" lines. "Fake Love"'s final verses are sung simultaneously by V and Jimin in different octaves (followed by Jungkook and Jin also singing in different octaves).
    • A similar, more raw example is found in "Blue and Grey", used to heartbreaking effect.
    • The difference between V and Jimin's voices is so notorious that it's a key component of the contrast between "Intro: Serendipity" (sung solo by Jimin) and "Intro: Singularity" (sung by V).
  • Different variations of this trope are combos between soft vocals and j-hope's or (especially) SUGA's raspy voices. An example of this is both versions of "So Far Away", both of which are rapped by SUGA in contrast with much softer vocals (Suran in the Agust D version, and Jin and Jungkook in the BTS Festa version).
  • V also did a lot of growling in early songs (such as "Boy in Luv" or "Jump"), making him stand out even more among the singers. Even when using his normal voice, his low notes are sometimes used to great effect in contrast with the others, such as the pre-chorus of "Let Me Know", his lines in "The Truth Untold" or the final lines in the Hidden Track "Sea".
• Spiritual Successor:
  • They've been compared by critics and audiences alike to Seo Taiji & Boys, the group that created the sound that defined Kpop in the 90s ^note Lee Sooman, founder of SM Entertainment, only built the "industrialized production of idols" formula based on what teens were already listening to years after Seo Taiji's debut, so he would actually be a Trope Codifier whose work diverged greatly from what Seo Taiji & Boys did.
    • Both appeal to Korean youth through their narrative, both have lyrics about social and political issues (with both criticizing the Korean education system), both have self-produced music with a mix of genres (including Hip-Hop), and both are notorious for their popularity and impact on recent Korean pop music history.
    • The parallels were especially notorious in BTS' 2016 cover of Seo Taiji and Boys' "Class Idea", which fits neatly with BTS songs like "Not Today" or "No More Dream"- so neatly, that Suga included a verse from "No More Dream" in BTS' performance of "Class Idea" with Seo Taiji himself a year later.
    • Even Seo Taiji has named BTS his successors; after inviting the group to take part in his 25th anniversary project (where BTS covered "Come Back Home") and his 25th anniversary concert, he told them "this is your generation now".
• Stop and Go: J-Hope's verses in "Butterfly" and "Love Is Not Over (Full Length Edition)" feature this, complete with saying "stop" right before it happens.
• Studio Chatter: All of BTS' skits.
• Take That!: While some of it overlaps with Take That, Critics!, there are examples of this in some lyrics.
  • "We Are Bulletproof pt. 2" has the line "On the other hand, for you guys, contacted by your company by luck/ and got labeled as rappers because you couldnÂ’t sing, the rapper title is an extravagance".
  • "Cypher pt. 2" can be interpreted in its entirety as a Take That to B-Free.
  • In "Am I Wrong", SUGA's line "We all are dogs and pigs We get angry and become dogs" references the classist remarks of a government official during Park Geun-Hye's government, who said that "99% of South Koreans have no ability to move up in the world and can be treated like animals".
  • Suga's verse in "Airplane pt. 2" has been interpreted by many as aimed to one or several Korean (likely idol) rappers and their fans who have mocked BTS or accused them of using "mediaplay" or becoming "Westernized"/sell-outs/arrogant, all while the rapper(s) in question come(s) from more powerful companies and do(es) Boastful Raps about money and fame.
    I got fed up by you cutely bragging about your money on TV
    My passport is about to die from overwork
    YouÂ’re the ones who benefitted from media, bwahahaha
    Hey, hey youÂ’re the ones whoÂ’re better at playing celebrities
    WeÂ’re still the same as back then, woo!
  • "The Last" from Agust D has the line "Show Me The Money- it's not that I couldn't do it, I didn't do it, ####". Show Me The Money is a Korean rap competition show where many rappers (including idol rappers) go to prove themselves, though it has a divisive reputation, particularly among international fans.
  • He does it again in "Daechwita" (where he insults rappers with no talent who use drugs for the aesthetic) and "What Do You Think?" (where he insults people who blame his and BTS' success for their failure, and also has the line "I hope all those ######## who tried to get a free ride by selling our names shut their mouths up").
• Take That, Critics!: Several tracks of theirs contain examples of this, often taking shots at people from the K-Hip Hop side who have criticized them for being idols, or people from the Kpop industry/other fandoms who have looked down on them for being from a small company; BTS's rise to success despite the hate they faced from both sides during the group's career actually became a key part of their underdog narrative, so this trope is very much present in their work. Overlaps with Boastful Rap.
  • The most well-known examples are in the Cyphers, "Mic Drop", and "Ddaeng", with each track becoming more and more dismissive to critics than the previous one as the group gained status.
  • Special mention goes to "Cypher pt. 2", which (according to speculation) was directed towards the K-Hip-Hop community and especially rapper B-Free, who (during a Hip-Hop event in Seoul where he, RM, and Suga were invited to speak) publicly criticized RM and Suga for becoming idols - down to describing their use of make-up as "like being gay" and calling their decision to become idols "falling into temptation" and taking the "easy" path. Aside from showing off their skills, the rap line uses "Cypher pt. 2" to call out underground ("real") rappers in the Korean scene for being arrogant despite not necessarily having the ability to live up to the "real rapper" title, and to boast about being more skilled and having worked harder in their craft than them.
    • The most direct reference to B-Free (who lived several years in Hawaii) might be the line "take a break, go to Hawaii, just go home" in Suga's verse.
  • The "RM" and "Agust D" mixtapes also have examples:
    • Related to the above points, the "RM" mixtape deals with RM's dilemma of being both a rapper and an idol, proving his skills and affirming himself as both despite what his critics and former friends (the ones he lost for becoming an idol) say, with the overall message being to just do what you want without defining yourself by labels (with one of its singles being titles, well, "Do You").
    • "Agust D" as a whole tells Suga's story of his rise to success despite his struggles, so while it deals with topics like mental illness and uncertainty over the future, this trope is also present. He takes some very blunt shots at underground Korean rappers and fans of other idol rappers who have looked down on him and BTS, boasting that he worked harder, is more skilled, and managed to rise above all of them despite all the struggles and criticism thrown at him. He also says that he hopes he'll never pray for other people's failures, unlike his haters.
  • "Airplane pt. 2" has Suga's following verse, which some speculate refers to accusations by fans of other Kpop groups of having BigHit manipulate media to gain more fame (known as "mediaplay"):
    I got fed up by you cutely bragging about your money on TV
    My passport is about to die from overwork
    YouÂ’re the ones who benefitted from media, bwahahaha
    Hey, hey youÂ’re the ones whoÂ’re better at playing celebrities
    WeÂ’re still the same as back then
  • "IDOL" is about the members declaring their pride over being both idols and artists, with the chorus shouting "You can't stop me lovin' myself", no matter what anyone else says.
  • "Persona" has RM taking the criticisms he's received over the years and transforming it into a statement of personal growth and not letting others define you. It even makes an allusion to the "but namjoon" meme, which references the way RM's past mistakes keep being brought up by antis and other Kpop fans despite his continuous attempts to improve.
• Tick Tock Tune: "Do You" from RM's mixtape, "Just one day" and "Love is Not Over", near the end. "First Love" features a very slow, subtle one.
• Title Track: "The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pt. 1" and the track "Intro: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life".
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Dynamite" starts out in E major for the majority of the song, shifting up to F# major for the final chorus and outro.
• Uncommon Time: "Lie" is written in 6/8 time and "Singularity" is written in 3/4 time.
• Vocal Tag Team: 4 singers and 3 rappers, with the singers usually taking on the chorus and pre-chorus and rappers usually being in charge of the verses. The distribution among the singers might vary; Jungkook has a history of getting more lines in songs (being the main singer), but the vocal distribution has been getting more even over the years, especially in the LOVE YOURSELF series. BTS has long stated that line distribution doesn't matter much to them, as they instead focus on what sounds best. They've also stated they try possible combinations and variations to test what sounds the best.
  • There are, however, songs featuring only the singers ("The Truth Untold", "Dimple", most of the album Outros) or only the rappers (the Cyphers, "Outro: Her", "Outro: Tear"), featuring units ("Dream Glow", "Brand New Day" and "All Night" from the BTS WORLD OST, "Jamais Vu", "Friends" and "Respect" from the MAP OF THE SOUL duology, plus Soundcloud releases like "4 o'Clock" and "I Know") and some only feature one member (the solos in WINGS and the MAP OF THE SOUL duology, almost all of the album intros).
• With Lyrics: "Monterlude", an unofficial song by RM, is a vocal cover of the track "Interlude" from 2 Cool 4 Skool.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: The albums from The School Trilogy were about life in school, so we got titles written in textspeak such as 2 Cool 4 Skool, "Skit: R U Happy Now?", "Skool Luv Affair" and "Boy in Luv". This last inspired the name of its sequel five years later, "Boy With Luv".

Music Video Tropes (not including those confirmed to be in the BU)

NOTE: For tropes regarding specifically the storyline and characters that connect various videos from the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, WINGS and LOVE YOURSELF series, go to the BTS Universe work page.

---

• After the End: It's strongly implied (most notably by the presence of an ark with animals next to RM and a truck next to Jimin) that this is the case for the setting in the "ON" official music video.
• Alone in a Crowd: This effect is used in the second chorus of "Spring Day", where Jungkook stands still while the rest walks around him in blurs (filmed in a low shutter speed). Jungkook then joins the others, also becoming a blur.
• Alternate Music Video:
  • "I NEED U" has the regular version, and "I NEED U (Original ver.)". The former is a censored version of the latter due to violent scenes, to the point that to really follow the BTS Universe story both are part of, it's necessary to watch the uncensored Original version.
  • "FAKE LOVE" has an extended version that expands a bit on the story (featuring the Rocking Vibe Mix).
  • There's a video for "IDOL" and for "IDOL (feat. Nicki Minaj)", the latter using alternative takes from the former plus an appearance by Nicki Minaj for her verse. It also adds videos posted as part of the fan-organized #IDOLCHALLENGE at the end.
  • "Boy With Luv" and "Dynamite" have alternative versions ("ARMY with Luv version" and "B-side", respectively) heavily featuring outtakes, including mistakes and general goofing around.
  • "Black Swan" has the Art Film version (featuring orchestral instrumentals with a performance by the MN Dance Company, with BTS themselves being absent), and the main official video featuring the members in the Los Angeles Theatre.
  • There are 2 music videos for "ON": a pure Performance Video titled "'ON' Kinetic Manifesto Film : Come Prima", and the simply titled "'ON' Official MV", which features a full cinematic story set After the End.
  • A good bunch of older videos (plus "Dynamite"), which tend to have more cinematic elements, have an alternate "Dance version", using only takes featuring the choreography. There's also an existing dance version and a "Facial Expression" version of "Just One Day", though neither are posted on official channels.
  • Japanese versions of singles often get their own full music videos. Some, like "Run" and "Blood, Sweat and Tears", are dramatically different from the original Korean music videos.
  • "Life Goes On" has the "in the forest" and "on my pillow" versions, one-take videos originally filmed as part of the original version; "like an arrow", only featuring still images; and an "ARMY version" posted exclusively on BANGTANTV featuring a compilation of Tiktok videos of fans singing.
  • "Butter" also has music videos for the "Hotter" and "Cooler" remixes; similar to the "in the forest"/"on my pillow" videos, it uses outtakes from a particular set. Since they're pretty much improvisation from the members (read: members goofing around), it works.
  • "Permission to Dance" has a Shorts Challenge version, featuring a compilation of Youtube shorts submitted by fans where they dance to the song, which are watched by an astronaut floating in space.
• Animated Music Video:
  • The videos for all of BTS' pre-WINGS Intro tracks (which also function as album trailers).
  • From the mixtapes, there's the black-and-white music video for RM's "Forever Rain" (from mono.), with the main character (RM) walking under the rain surrounded by very strangely (and sometimes nightmarishly) drawn people.
  • The music video for "Make It Right (Lauv remix)" is this, featuring a story of a lonely boy who becomes friends with a girl. After she magically is turned into a cape, he travels far and wide to find and slay a dragon, keeping the cape with him.
  • The "We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal" music video shows the journey, trials and tribulations of BTS, represented by chibi animated versions of the members traveling through various BTS eras.
• Bloodless Carnage: In the bridge of "Not Today", we start hearing gunshots, immediately followed by all the members (except Jungkook) falling dead to the ground in slow motion, one by one. There's no blood or visible wounds whatsoever.
• Call-Back:
  • Heavy in the MAP OF THE SOUL series:
    • The "Persona" music video/comeback trailer features RM in a classroom that's very similar to the one appearing on "No More Dream"'s music video teaser, has RM dressed in a school uniform like in Skool Luv Affair or in his 2 Cool 4 Skool/O!RUL82? attire, and has a stuffed doll being thrown that looks like RM's look in Skool Luv Affair era. It also has shots of RM among mirrors (a common motif associated to his character in the BTS Universe) in what might be a reference to the "Reflection" and "Fake Love" videos, and a gigantic CGI version of himself that could be a reference to the "IDOL" music video.
    • During RM's verse in the "Boy With Luv" music video, many signs appear in the stage that are actually titles of many BTS albums.
    • The "Interlude: Shadow" comeback trailer has several visual references to the "Intro: O!RUL82?" comeback trailer (see also the Music Tropes section above), particularly the image of a microphone breaking through glass.
    • The "Outro: Ego" comeback trailer goes as far as take the first few seconds of the BTS debut trailer, then show a film roll playing clips of all of BTS' music videos throughout their entire career in reverse.
    • The "We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal" Animated Music Video (released for the 2020 Festa) shows the members' journey (figurative and literally in the video) through various past eras, represented through call backs to settings from previous music videos (the classrooms in "N.O." and "Boy With Luv", the alleys from "I NEED U", etc., plus the members' styling for each respective era). The members start out separate in different eras (with RM in particular starting in BTS' first practice room) with the boys reuniting outside of the labyrinth from "Epilogue: Young Forever". Then, while they're making a bonfire next to the tree from "Spring Day" (dressed and styled like in the WINGS Tour: Final concerts), they find purple stars (referencing the I purple you" phrase) that then transform into a flying whale (implied to be the one from "Whalien 52"), which carries them to a purple galaxy (a phrase also used by the members to refer to ARMYs) that resembles a concert full of ARMY bombs. The end shows the members in a field of flowers, now in "Boy With Luv" attire.
  • The whale and galaxy imagery also appears heavily in the "Heartbeat" music video (from the BTS World soundtrack).
  • The music video for the Japanese track "Stay Gold" - though not technically part of the BTS Universe - seems to be set after the "FAKE LOVE" music video or at least heavily evokes imagery from it - the same house, with the members in similar separate rooms (Jungkook's in particular is the same, with Jungkook even wearing the same clothing). Towards the end it also references the "Spring Day" song and music video - with the members finally reuniting and encountering a field with a tree in full bloom.
  • Similarly, the music video for "Film Out" (also a Japanese single) heavily evokes the BU despite not being technically part of it to convey the lyrics (about desperately holding onto memories of someone who is not there anymore). It starts featuring Jin alone looking at a room where he and the rest of the group are all together (meaning "the past"), it places him face-to-face against V, it features a scene of Jin coming out of a door to nowhere that resembles scenes from the BTS Universe Story trailer, it has a scene where a room explodes into itself around a member in a very similar manner to a scene from "FAKE LOVE", and it uses the imagery of photography in a way that resembles Seokjin's holding onto photos and a camera in the BU story.
• The Cameo:
  • You would only know from behind-the-scenes info, but the body j-hope whispers "wake up" to (which is supposed to be another j-hope) in the "Daydream" music video is V.
  • Jin and Jungkook appear as background villagers in the music video for Agust D's "Daechwita". They're the guy that turns to the camera after Suga bumps into him and the guy that bumps into the first guy. Chaos ensues.
• Changed for the Video: The Art Film music video of "Black Swan" (originally featuring a trap beat) features an orchestral version.
• Chroma Key: Used almost all around in "DNA" and especially "IDOL", which borders on becoming a Surreal Music Video with how much intentionally weird and/or colorful stuff they throw at you.
  • Subtly used in "Dope" to create an illusion of the video being The Oner. When RM's verse starts, the other members run off to the right of the screen while we move with RM to the left, yet the other members appear behind him (because RM actually moved to stand in front of a green screen).
  • Heavily featured in "Outro: Ego" as well, at times going for a similar kitsch effect as "IDOL".
• Concept Video: "N.O.", "Spring Day", among others. Especially notable are the videos belonging to the BTS Universe continuity, which is an entire series of these (including "I Need U", "Run", "Blood, Sweat, and Tears", and "Fake Love").
• Deliberately Monochrome: They have multiple music videos in black and white colors:
  • RM's "Do You" mv is completely in black and white from start to finish.
  • "War of Hormone" is an example of a limited palette. It's almost fully in a Sepia tone, save for Jimin's red pants and the red stripes in Jungkook's jacket, probably to give the MV a vintage vibe.
  • Another limited palette case: "Butter" starts in a monochromatic tone then changes to full color when they switch to the choreography.
• Epic Tracking Shot: "Dope" has several of these to transition from one room to another. "Not Today" has one at the very beginning, from the outside of a basement to the inside, where RM is.
• Evil Wears Black: Played With. According to the music video director, the dark hooded figures in "Mic Drop" represent BTS' "haters"; however, BTS ends up turning them into their fans with their music.
• Fanservice: Many BTS' music videos include this, but it's most prevalent in "No More Dream" (featuring Jimin's abs), "We Are Bulletproof Pt.2" (featuring all of the members' abs), "Just One Day", "Boy In Luv", "War of Hormone" (Butt Slaps!), "For You", and "Dope". Not as prevalent in more recent videos.
• Funny Background Event: Many instances in the "War of Hormone" video, whether it was trying to go along with the music while the camera was centered on a certain member, trying to get the girl's attention, the bike ride scene, etc.
  • There's an example in the "IDOL" music video that combines this with Freeze-Frame Bonus; in the second pre-chorus, Jin towers over tiny versions of the other members, watching them dance. During a split second, mini-Jungkook appears twerking.
  • A good part of the music video for "Butter (Hotter Remix)" is made of this trope, with multiple shots of one or more members singing in the foreground while the out-of-focus members are clearly goofing around in the background. This includes members doing silly dances or lounging in chairs, and Jungkook doing a one-hand stand just because he can.
• Hologram: In the "My Universe" music video, DJ Lafrique helps Coldplay, BTS, and Supernova7 communicate by transporting them as holograms to each other's planets (Floris, Calypso, and Supersolis respectively).
• Homage:
  • "Boy With Luv" references and recreates various scenes and shots from Singin' in the Rain, though it averts Spoofing in the Rain.
  • As "Boy With Luv"'s "Shadow" counterpart, the music video for "Black Swan" heavily references the film of the same name, turning to a performer's point of view of the stage and the theater, and referencing scenes such as the Mirror Scare scene through Jin and Nina's growing of black swan wings through Jimin.
• Human Notepad: The latter half of Jimin's "Set Me Free Pt.2" MV from his solo album FACE has his whole torso and neck covered in a German poem writing.
• Imagine Spot: "Stay Gold" cuts back and forth between the members alone in dark rooms (staring at space or windows in longing), and sequences of the members being happy and together; the latter look extremely dreamlike (some complete with a Gaussian Girl effect), implying they (or at least some of them) are this trope.
• In Da Club: "Danger (Japanese Version)" and "Fire" have club scenes like this.
• Lighter and Softer: Like the song, the video for "Boy With Luv" (2019) is this to "Boy in Luv" (2014). The bright colors, the dominance of pink and heavy inspiration and references from musicals from The Golden Age of Hollywood (not to mention the role Halsey has in the music video, where she sings and dances as an equal to the members) is a stark contrast from the messy, dirty classrooms from "Boy in Luv" (where the girl in the video is more of an object, with the boys aggressively trying to charm her).
• Lyrics/Video Mismatch: Being Concept Videos, several videos fall into this, especially those belonging to the BTS Universe. For example, the lyrics of "I NEED U" talk about a girl, but the video is about the friendship of the 7 boys instead.
• Man on Fire:
  • During the second chorus of the "Mic Drop" music video, after an explosion, you can see stuff falling slowly in flames in the background, which on closer look could be either rubble or people.
  • The hidden person in all black in the "Fire" MV catches fire after Suga shakes hands with them.
• Mugshot Montage: "Butter" MV includes scenes where photographs of the members are taken while holding plates showing their names and birthdates.
• Off with His Head!: In "Daechwita", the king persona of Agust D has several cut-off heads in bags hanging in front of his palace, with the mangnani or executioner being shown retrieving a freshly cut off one in its bag. Later in the video, present-day-Agust D is brought in to be decapitated as well. It's subverted, as the executioner instead frees him and gives him a gun, which he uses to kill the king.
• The Oner:
  • "War of Hormone" has several one-shot parts, while "Dope" creates the illusion of being a one-take.
  • "Save Me", however, is actually filmed entirely in one take.
  • j-hope's "Chicken Noodle Soup" is filmed like this until the last chorus (or at least gives the illusion of one), with 2 shots being connected by the camera briefly going upwards to a (CGI) zeppelin for a moment and then going back.
• Performance Video: More often than not, the choreography takes half of the focus or the main focus of the video, with examples being "We Are Bulletproof pt. 2", "Dope", "N.O", "Just One Day", "Danger", "War of Hormone", "Save Me" (where the dance performance is filmed as The Oner), "DNA", "Mic Drop", "IDOL", and the "Kinetic Manifiesto" version of "ON".
  • Averted in "I NEED U" and "RUN", which focus entirely on the story of the BTS Universe instead of featuring any of the existing official choreography.
    • Also averted in "Come Back Home" (a cover of a song by Seo Taiji & Boys as part of Seo Taiji's 25th anniversary project) where BTS don't appear at all, instead showing youth who have ran away from home as described in the song.
    • The "Black Swan" Art Film doesn't feature BTS at all either, instead showing a performance of the Slovenian MN dance academy.
• The Promised Land: The official music video for "ON" shows the 7 members reuniting from different places in a Crapsack World and leading a crowd to a new land. This is a played with example of the Idealistic Variation, in that once they arrive there (with the doors leading to it opening on their own), their arrival is what makes plants instantly grow.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Japanese version of "Mic Drop" (which has the original instrumentals instead of the Remix version) replaces Steve Aoki with a dark, sinister hooded figure with red glowing eyes.
• Rule of Cool: "Mic Drop" (both the remix and the Japanese versions), full stop. Explosions! Slow motion! Explosions in slow motion! Giant Steve Aoki/red-eyed hooded figure in the background! Flaming debris falling slowly from the sky! All while the members rap and do their choreography, unaffected.
• Scenery Porn:
  • "Spring Day", one of their most visually striking videos, contains several wide shots featuring the members in front of the sea and the snow.
  • "Not Today" also has very wide shots taking place in a desert among mountains.
  • "Heartbeat" (from the BTS World soundtrack) has the various landscapes the members are in (which, in the case of Jin and Taehyung, are examples in themselves, being set in a beach and countryside, respectively) with beautiful images of planets, galaxies and floating whales.
• Shout-Out:
  • At the beginning of "Fire", Suga meets a hooded figure, shakes hands with them... and the other person catches fire while they're still shaking hands, all from a wider shot from the side, much like in the cover for Wish You Were Here (1975).
  • The hotel that appears in "Spring Day" (where they see their memories together) is named "Omelas".
  • The "Boy With Luv" music video has a lot of references to Singin' in the Rain, from posters of the movie on display outside of the theater to direct homages of several scenes of the movie.
    • The "Black Swan" music video has several references to, well, Black Swan, including the Mirror Scare scene and Jimin sprouting black wings. These references in contrast to "Boy With Luv"'s homage to Singin' in the Rain have connections to the Jungian concepts of "Persona" and "Shadow", as seen here as well as BTS' Genius Bonus page.
  • The official music video for "ON" contains many references to other works, such as a Game of Thrones-esque battlefield, the wall from The Maze Runner, Pride Rock from The Lion King, and Noah's Ark.
  • The music video for Agust D's "Daechwita" is inspired by the Korean fictional period film Masquerade, about Gwanghae, a real king from the Joseon dynasty, secretly hiring a lookalike to avoid threats of assassination. Said movie is also referenced in the lyrics.
• Spontaneous Human Combustion: The beginning of the "Fire" music video has SUGA shake hands with a man who spontaneously starts being consumed by fire, in a reference to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.
• Stairwell Chase: In "Spring Day", we see this kind of shot with Jin looking up to the rest of the members running up the stairs.
• Stuff Blowing Up:
  • The car and the building the boys exited in "Fire".
  • The "Not Today" title appears in front of an explosion.
  • The "Mic Drop" music video(both the Remix and Japanese versions) manages to feature an explosion in the background in sync with the music and choreography happening in front.
    • There's another example before that during Suga's verse, where he raps in a dark room with Jungkook and Jimin as backup dancers. At a certain point, the room "explodes" behind Suga; while there's no fire, everything aside from the table and Suga himself goes flying, including the photos... and Jimin and Jungkook.
• Time Stands Still: RM is the only one moving and singing while the other members are frozen in "Film Out". Things go back to normal and the members move again when Jin turns around and gives them his back (though they can't see him).
• You All Share My Story: The "Heartbeat" music video from the BTS World soundtrack follows the members side stories - which in the game, are the members in alternate realities where they never met or become idols, instead each living in different settings and pursuing separate goals -, until they all end up meeting and training together.

---

Tropes associated with the webcomics (for SAVE ME, go here; for 7FATES: CHAKHO, go here.)

"Hip Hop Monsters" Tropes

• And the Rest: RM splits the group into "Suga-hyung and me", "Jin-Hyung and Hope", and "etcetera".
• Animal Motifs: The Hip Hop Club are anthropomorphic animals, which is strange because everyone else appears to be human. The animals do match their personalities, though.
  • RM is a duck: In keeping with cartoon portrayals of ducks he is easily irritated, impulsive, and bossy.
  • Jin is a dog: Initially intimidating but turns out to be extremely friendly and loyal.
  • Suga is a turtle: As befits a lazy bum^note the character, not the real Suga.
  • J-Hope is a bull: It's subtle, but J-Hope is shown to be a little stubborn and set in his ways.
  • Jimin is a cat: He's more focused on maintaining his body than participating in the club.
  • V is a monkey: He's easily excitable, Hot-Blooded, and likes to copy others.
  • Jungkook is a rabbit: The Trickster this evokes actually applies to Jungkook IRL more than his comic counterpart, though.
• Flanderization: Every. Single. Member.
  • RM thinks about nothing but Hip Hop 24/7.
  • Jin is constantly talking about food, talking about cooking, or complaining that he doesn't have the right cooking implement/ingredient handy.
  • Suga has pro-level basketball skills... and no stamina. He's also almost always seen reading.
  • J-Hope has absolute confidence in his abilities and fashion sense despite ample evidence to the contrary.
  • V has the attention span of a gerbil and is always blurting out things that have little or nothing to do with the subject.
  • Jimin is obsessed with working out and is extremely gullible.
  • Inverted with Jungkook, who is not really rebellious and cocky in real life.
    • In any situation where there is even a hint of mystery Jungkook will always suggest the worst possible outcome and loves scaring the other members. He also has a massive competitive streak.
• Furry Confusion: The main cast are anthropomorphic animals, yet non-anthropomorphic cats exist.
• Height Angst: Jimin complains that he has to spend more money on a tailor due to being the shortest.
• Medium Awareness:
  • When Jungkook suddenly starts getting allergies, he starts glaring at Jimin, who's a cat. Jimin says in response, "Why are you glaring at me... I'm just a character..."
  • RM frets over only having a pink umbrella for the rain, as it's (according to him) a color unfit for hip-hop, to which Suga responds: "Who's going to know it's pink if it's a black-and-white cartoon?"
  • In "Tazza", Jimin and J-Hope start playing around with Jungkook's speech bubbles from the previous panel.
  • RM manages to Falcon Punch Jimin across a Split-Screen Phone Call.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Jungkook, full-stop.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Several strips are dedicated to RM freaking out over only having a pink umbrella for the rain. It doesn't matter. It's a black-and-white comic.
• Shout-Out:
  • The comic has referenced Gordon Ramsay, of all things.
  • Suga's caller ring is T-ara's "Sugar Free".
  • RM manages to do a FALCON PUNCH.
• Stealth Pun: J-Hope can be a little stubborn sometimes. He's also a male cow. He's literally bull-headed.

"We On: BTS" Tropes

• Adaptational Badass: Not only is this "Bangtan with superpowers", but all of them are portrayed to be more impressive and involved in the action than they make themselves out to be in real life. One member even comes from a warrior family here!
• Adaptation Dye-Job: The members' hair color doesn't vary too much from their 2014 hairstyles... except for j-hope, who in this comic sports luscious, neck-length blond hair.
  • SUGA's hair more closely resembles his infamous audition hairstyle than any hairstyle he's had since.
• Adaptation Personality Change: They all get this to some degree, becoming more serious due to the setting and their different backstories. Particular examples include V (who's known for being extremely sociable and at the time was more of a class clown in real life, personality-wise) becoming a brooding loner, j-hope (mood setter of the group and generally Fun Personified on-stage) becoming an Only Sane Man of sorts, and SUGA (who, while being on the more introverted, snarkier side, is very much also prone to joking around) becoming The Stoic and... The Big Guy.^note SUGA is easily the shortest member along with Jimin and is not exactly known as the most muscular.
• Humanoid Abomination: What becomes of Seungwoo - his corpse is used as a host by an alien parasite and transformed into a tentacled, self-regenerating monster.
• Loners Are Freaks: V's (dangerous) powers of controlling black holes made him realize he was different from the rest at an early age and caused people to treat him like a monster, so he isolates himself so he doesn't put people in danger.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: RM's Nerd Glasses do this when he gets serious.

---

"But what will happen if BTS rises?"

---