Kim Namjoon! Kim Seokjin! Min Yoongi! Jung Hoseok! Park Jimin! Kim Taehyung! Jeon Jungkook! BTS!”
When BTS kicks off their four-night concert at Staples Center on September 5th, a handful of Temple City High School students will be among the thousands of fans screaming their idols’ names at the top of their lungs.
“I’m looking forward to the concert so much!” Junior Kaylie Hyunh said. “I’m so grateful that I have a chance to watch them live. I can’t wait to see the choreographies for their new songs and interact with them directly.”
Hyunh is one of the few BTS fans in our school who managed to get tickets to the group’s World Tour: Love Yourself which sold out within minutes.
This is BTS’s highly anticipated return to the US after having sold out Honda Center for two nights last April with The Wings Tour.
“Seeing them perform live was really special,” Junior Leeann Wei said. “It’s completely different from seeing them on your phone screen. The overwhelming energy of the fans and the excitement of seeing my idols right in front me made the concert a magical experience.”
The group’s name, BTS or Beyond the Scene, is an acronym for BangTan Sonyeondan. In English, it translates into Bulletproof Boy Scouts.
The name’s meaning comes from the group’s desire to use their music to comfort and protect their fans from the pressures and criticisms that many teenagers face.
Over the course of their career, BTS’s songs have explored many themes related to youth such as finding your dream, losing innocence and remembering to take care of yourself.
“The message that they’ve communicated through their music that has impacted me the most is probably their message to love and believe in myself,” Huynh said. “Their songs are so endearing and encouraging that they help me improve upon myself to do better.”
In this past year, BTS has released three albums that all explore the theme of self love. The three albums can be seen as three acts of a play that follows one’s personal journey to love oneself.
The first act, “Love Yourself: Her,” depicts the passion and excitement of young love that seems everlasting. The second act, “Love Yourself: Tear,” conveys the group’s message that love will not last unless one is true to him or herself. The final act, “Love Yourself: Answer,” reflects the group’s overarching message that one must love themself before loving others.
Following the release of “Love Yourself: Her,” BTS launched the Love Myself campaign in partnership with UNICEF’s #ENDviolence—a global campaign seeking to protect children from violence, exploitation and abuse.
Since the campaign was launched in November of 2017, BTS and ARMY—the name of their fans—have raised over $1,000,000 through album sales and donations.
“If I were to describe BTS in one word, it would be ‘inspirational’,” Wei said. “I see them as role models in the way that they’ve worked hard since they debuted five years ago to get to the level of success that they are at right now.”
Despite their sudden rise to international stardom, BTS remains humble and continually expresses that their success is all thanks to the love and support of their fans.