It feels like it’s been a while since I did general BTS blog that wasn’t some kind of in depth analysis or mini essay. Fear not, it’s not going to take you a millennia to read this one. It is no secret that BTS have a habit of smashing records left, right and centre (including their own ones). They literally have their own fan made Wikipedia page dedicated to all of the records that they have set and broken. With their legacy firmly set in the stone, the next course of action for them was to earn a coveted spot in the 2022 Guinness World Records Hall of Fame thanks to their 23 world records.
Becoming a Hall of Famer is a huge achievement, with 2021 Hall of Fame inductees including the likes of animated show The Simpsons (for the longest running animated sitcom), young activist Greta Thunberg (youngest TIME person of the Year) and soccer star Pele (most wins of the FIFA World Cup by a player). It signifies incredible achievements that are not only amazing individual feats, but also ground-breaking ones. BTS certainly fit the bill for this criteria, shattering the glass ceiling of the music industry ten times over and constantly proving that their music transcends all languages, bringing together one of the most diverse fan bases in music history. As Eleonora Pilastro writes on the official website for the Guinness World Records,
“Despite their young age, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook have left a mark in the present cultural landscape, breaking free from the limitations of their home market and of a language, South Korean, that remains widely unknown to the international public.”
This is certainly true, as the group’s Korean heritage makes their achievements all the more impressive in the western music industry. Their success is an important sign of progression in the music industry and will hopefully lead to more diversity in the future.
Out of those 23 records that the group have broken, 11 of them were in the last year alone and 5 of them were in relation to their second English single “Butter”. Released in May of this year, “Butter” stayed at the top of the Billboard charts for 9 none consecutive weeks and so it is no surprise that the song has broken so many records on its own. Here are just a few of their other broken records that BTS have achieved, earning them a spot in the Hall of Fame: most streamed group on Spotify; most followed music group on Instagram; most Twitter engagements (average retweets) for a music group; most viewers for a YouTube music video premiere for “Butter” (they beat their own record set by their 2020 song “Dynamite” for that one) and most tickets sold for a livestreamed concert with a whopping 756,000. You’ll have to get check out the official Guinness World 2022 book either in print or online to find out the rest of the records that the band has broken when it is released on September 14th, 2021.
I remember when I was little, we would buy the Guinness World Record book relatively often and I would spend hours looking through it- sometimes alone, sometimes with my mum or brother- in amazement at all of these achievements. Maybe one day, I can sit with my kids and pull out a dusty 2022 Guinness World Records book and remember how I was there for the BTS phenomenon and how I was a proud member of their ARMY. I will probably avoid telling them about the gigantic crushes I have on them though.
