As the superstar K-pop boyband prepare for their first album in three years – after its members completed their military service – we count down the best of their toothsome pop
At the start of their career, BTS were marketed as a cross between a Korean idol band and a blinged-out rap act: “Our life is hip-hop,” offered band member Suga early on. No More Dream is actually far tougher-sounding than you might expect: the vocals growl, the backing blares, the double-bass sample that drives the intro is great.
Evidently written with arenas twinkling with thousands of (lucratively branded) light sticks in mind, Mikrokosmos offers a brand of electronic pop that’s both melodically pretty and epic-sounding. Whether you choose to believe the claim that its title actively encouraged fans to bone up on ancient Greek philosophy is up to you.
Part of BTS’s appeal clearly rests on the strikingly un-macho vulnerability they project. Save Me is a case in point. The music is upbeat, bearing the influence of tropical house, electropop and – in the rhythm track of the chorus at least – dubstep. But the vocals deal in breathy desperation: “I’m trapped in myself and I’m dead.”
Already huge in Korea and Japan, a remix of Mic Drop by EDM DJ Steve Aoki gave BTS their first US Top 30 hit and breached the UK charts. Still, the original might be the best: trap-fuelled pop, with a distinct hint of Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On about its hook.
