A Guide To BTS - Part 1

you seem like an intelligent person, but a little constructive feedback for you - you seemed very quick to make judgements and assumptions after doing a miniscule amount of research and having very little understanding of BTS. They ARE actual composers and music producers. There's more than 10 years' worth of their vlogs, livestreams, behind-the-scenes vids, interviews, etc. where they talk about or show their songmaking process. As well as song credits - they are usually accredited for their work, but not always. Taylor has compiled the information through a decades' worth of content and sources. You did quick rudimentary research and read a line or two of Wiki page, I wouldn't be too confident about your conclusions. Taylor also went through revisions for this video helped by many fans, some of whom have careers in music or extensive musical knowledge, as well as vast knowledge about BTS - any inaccuracies as big as what you assumed would have been pointed out to Taylor before she released her final draft of this guide video. If you had read more Wikis about RM, it DOES actually say he is a composer - "With 200 songs attributed to his name as a songwriter and composer by the Korea Music Copyright Association (KOMCA), as of September 2022". There are other sources for his music producing work, which is not as much since he focuses more on songwriting. But he was already producing music as soon as he joined the company as a trainee - for example, We Are Bulletproof Pt. 1 is a song he wrote and produced at 16 years old, he had 2 other rapper trainees record it with him. Years later, all 7 BTS members re-recorded the song and released it on Soundcloud. Suga was already making beats, producing and selling songs when he was an underground rapper. He is well-respected as a MUSIC producer in the industry. And if you had read in more Wikis, it DOES say Suga is a composer - "As of 2022, 147 songs have been attributed to him as a writer and composer by KOMCA (Korea Music Copyright Association)". He co-composed Psy's song That That. He composed the melody for Outro: Tear by the 3 BTS rappers. RM and Suga especially devoted a lot of effort and time to hone their writing, composing and producing skills, starting from their training years. Hence why the 2 of them carry the biggest load for songmaking responsibilities for the group, but all 7 members have done it. There are other producers, writers and composers that work on their songs too, it is a collaborative process. But RM and Suga are major contributors. Big Hit was indeed NOT a big company, was not even considered mainstream. Just because people were auditioning for Big Hit doesn't automatically make them a big company. That's an illogical conclusion to make. It would be like saying a small business must be a big business because there are people buying from their store. Even the smallest labels will have people auditioning, but much less people comparatively to large labels. Before BTS's popularity, the kpop industry was dominated by 3 big companies - JYP, SM and YG (blackpink is from YG). Those 3 labels had the most power, money and influence over the industry and media. They have big budgets and large established fanbases. Their artists will also have an easier time getting publicity, performance time, promotion, etc. Artists who were NOT from those 3 labels had a harder time with everything. BTS had difficulty getting a spot to perform and their performances were sometimes cut short by broadcasts. BTS was the first group in a long while to win Grand Prize at award shows, those were usually won by artists from the big 3 labels. Also, in regards to all the nice equipment and fancy production BTS has - they didn't have big budgets or extravagant production in the beginning years, and it wasn't what made them popular. You don't need all that to become popular, as BTS shows. A lot of the nice production stuff you see in this video are from recent years, as a result of their efforts over the past decade. As the video informed you, they struggled financially in the beginning. Their production was quite simple in the beginning. They did not gain popularity through extravagant production and expensive cameras/sets. They didn't need that to showcase their genuine selves and their growth as artists and people, which is what drew fans in. They connected with their fans through simple things like vlogs, livestreams and sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. Showing their personal side, artistic side, and their interactions as a team. They gained popularity through their many talents and work ethic. And making authentic music and art that resonates with people. Being creative and diverse with their different genres of music and lyrical topics. And being very humble, kind, down to earth, self-reflective, humorous, genuine people. They're always supporting each other, highlighting each other's good qualities. When RM writes a song, he doesn't have a problem with giving more parts to other members so they can shine. RM as the leader of the group has many opportunities to take the spotlight, but he's always giving it to the other members and sacrifices a lot for the benefit of the group. All the members do that for each other and support each other, in various ways. They have many admirable traits, while also being transparent and open about their flaws and mistakes. It's stuff like this that builds a large loyal fanbase, not fancy cameras or sets. Since it seems you are also interested in building something up, you can take BTS as a good example and focus on developing those things I mentioned, not on having expensive equipment or fancy settings. Humility, a learning attitude, being able to self-reflect, and not being quick to judge or make negative assumptions are good qualities to develop and can take you a long way. Expanding your cultural knowledge and awareness is another useful thing to develop. EDIT on dec 19: for the people reading this comment, Cyrus has been binging through a ton of BTS content for the past month+, he really loves BTS a lot now. And he is doing less of the jumping to conclusion stuff. So continue to watch his reactions, don't be put off by his earlier reactions like this one. He really loves all the members a lot, he enjoys all their content, and his reactions are genuine. He livestreams on his Twitch and watches like 7 hours of BTS content at a time lol, so you can go over there if you want to join.

Suga composed for PSY "That That" and many other songs. The video you watch is more accurate than Wikipedia. Anyone can create Wikipedia, and the video you watch is done by ARMY. You are better off looking at the songs' credits. It might be hard to believe, but they do everything. Of course, there are other producers and composers in every songs.

Underground = not mainstream. Does not mean illegal (in South Korea).

In order for the members to be full members of the Korea Music Copyright Association, they need to meet certain requirements of % with lyric writing, music production, music composition for the credit to be given. That's most likely one of Taylor's sources. But as far as composing, the way BTS composes is different from how a Hans Zimmer composes (Suga is a huge fan of his btw). A perfect example of this is the theme song for their show "In the Soop". The song literally came from V plunking out random chords on a keyboard, J-Hope singing "soop soop soop soolooloop" and the others joining in adding lyric ideas. They created the melody accapella over the simple chord structure that V was playing. Suga walked in, liked what they were doing, and grabbed his equipment (which he always travels with) & recorded them because he thought it really would make a good theme song (the rest of them were just playing around). By the end of the show you see them recording the song with Suga at the soundboard. Hans Zimmer is a composer who puts notes on staff paper to build the composition. BTS members throw out ideas in a collaborative process and build melodies that are either accepted as-is, re-worked, or set aside in favor of something the producers think works better. But they ARE composers, even if they don't get a written credit for their piece of it. On their recent anthology album PROOF, they released a physical cd of unreleased demo versions of songs some of which were versions submitted by individual members but were either reworked or discarded.

This introduction included videos of their early year when the company was strugling financially, but also when the company got big, so if you see them in a big practice rooms, this is when the company got stable and able to support them fully. Anyway, thank you for trying to know BTS, their music really helped many people :)

BigHit was extremely small to the south korean entertainment industry, it used to be like a one or two rented floors company at that time, and was near bankruptcy. BTS had to live in a small dorm with multiple other trainees, not only the BTS members, then they moved to that also small apartment with one bedroom for 7 people. These were all paid by the company. They didn't have much money for props or costumes for music videos and promotions like award shows. They would get almost zero airtime because the company was too small. When they went to the US, they made part of their first studio album in a garage with equipment they bought cause they didn't have money to rent a studio. Then, a friend of the CEO lent them their studio, where they finished the album. If you want a comparison, BigHit was at that time like a small indie label that makes short films and the other really big companies were like Disney or Warner Bros. It was a SMALL company, and the only reason they could get or do most of the stuff they did was because the CEO had some contacts/connections to people from the industry from his previous job, because if he hadn't then I don't think they would have near as much as they did, even if what they had wasn't much. Today HYBE (BigHit) is the Disney of the S.K entertainment industry, and that's all thanks to BTS, period.

I don't mean to be rude. But the first thing i learnt in school was that Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Anyone can make edits wikipedia because it's open for anyone to make changes in the page. They are all composers, we have actually seen them compose. (And I wouldn't make it up, because I think being a producer and a song-writer is more than enough to call yourself an artist.)

All of them are songwriters/composers for multiple songs, the Wikipedia page is slightly off, Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, and they have produced songs to some extent. Suga is the one that produces the most, followed by RM, then J-Hope/Jungkook, but all of them have produced at least one song, and have written and composed multiple songs and are credited as songwriters/composers.

Also yes taylor did this all by herself and she kept this video as draft for long time and asked for each of the armys for their feedbacks and what to improve…. After months of feed back and many changes in video she finally made this

Points of clarification - the term “songwriter” in pop or rock refers to composing as well as lyrics. For instance, look up Paul McCartney or John Lennon on Wikipedia and you will see they are listed as songwriters, but we all know they composed their music. BigHit - At the time BTS started there we’re over 1000 entertainment agencies in Korea of which BigHit was one of the smaller. The industry (media, tv networks) were controlled by the top 3 agencies making it very difficult and sometimes impossible for artists from other agencies to get air time. When you note the expensive equipment being used in some of their “YouTube” productions, those were after they were multi-million dollar artists, outselling the likes of Drake, Justin Bieber, Arianna Grande etc. what’s impressive is that they continued doing all these things to stay connected to their fans, not only spending the money to do it, but taking the time. No other artists at their level are doing this, which is why they continually win top social artist awards. Note of interest - Today BigHit Entertainment, now Hybe, is bigger than the former top 3 combined.

This video is more accurate than Wikipedia😄. Just don't look at that. Sometimes that's the mistake most new fans make. They look at Wikipedia instead of seeing and hear them (BTS). When you watch more of BTS videos you'll understand many things. If you're really interested in learning more about BTS and their music, experts and armies can put you through. Trust us and read the comments often 🙂💜.

Bro trust Wikipedia more than armys who literally know everything about BTS and Taylor who is a professional editor in her real life lmao.

Suga produces he's own music and produces so many other artists stuff as well plus bts songs as well.

oh my god , the video is accurate , if you want you can go check the credits in all the songs

Whaaaat?? Even many artists and composers said that they produce their own music. I am not saying they are making every song they release but most of their Korean-lyric song. You can find the process and evidence in various video clip. Suga even used his own beat that he uploaded in yt 5years ago and make it into famous song name ‘ON’ in 2020. RM even wrote the melody for the most loved BTS song ‘Spring day’ while walking in the Seoul park. They were record producer mainly in early ages but now they grew up and developed their producing skills alot..! Wiki need some updates.😂

They are recognized as both songwriters and composers by the KOMCA the Korea Music Copyright Association.U can find that by looking up the KOMCA there u will get a list of their work credits

Suga is a composer as well

The company definitely backed them! But BTS too built the company (Hybe/Bighit) in to what it is today! Those fancy sets you see were only possible after BTS got famous, leading to the financial stability of the company, resulting in the company being able to provide them with all those fancy things! So, they did put in a lot of hard work to reach where they are today! It would be great if you could acknowledge that! Best Wishes! P.S: I am an Indian and am an Army! If you know anything about Indian music and heard the names of the likes of AR Rahman and S.D.Barman, you would understand the tradition of "quality" music my country has! While I adore the music of my country, I also love BTS and their music, not just because they are good at it but also because who they are as people and the effect they had on my life (and many others I am sure) just by them being themselves! I wish more people could relate to them and experience the pure connection BTS has with Army! I bet the world would have been a better and happier place!

Fact; they are all composers Though the 3 rappers have more under their belt

The way he's stating some things as if it's a fact and he doesn't even know the background..."they had the algorithm to make them famous"???? BTS & Army had to had to fight tooth and nail to get to where they are today. I like when reactors are curious and they ASK rather than state! Didn't really get a good vibe, came off really judgmental.