BTS 'Beyond the Story' Published... 7 Members Share a 10-Year Record of Youth

Published on the 9th 'Armi Day'... A Special Gift from BTS

A rapper who dreamed of performing at a Hongdae venue, a college student majoring in acting, a producer who sold songs since his teenage years, a street dancer who practiced b-boying, an arts high school student learning modern dance, a boy who played the saxophone dreaming of becoming a celebrity, and a middle schooler who received debut offers from seven agencies?these seven boys, raised in different environments, came together to create a miracle, a story now captured in a single book.

BTS_BEYOND THE STORY_Cover [Photo by Big Hit Music]

A book highlighting the past 10 years of BTS, the '21st-century pop icon,' has been published. On the 9th, Big Hit Music released the official book BEYOND THE STORY: 10-YEAR RECORD OF BTS (hereafter ‘BEYOND THE STORY’) to commemorate BTS's 10th debut anniversary. Produced through years of planning and preparation, BEYOND THE STORY conveys the vivid and sincere story of BTS's journey from before their debut to the present.

Three Years of Reporting, Two Years of Interviews... A Record of Youth Told Directly by BTS

BEYOND THE STORY was completed based on over three years of reporting and more than two years of interviews. The book unfolds through seven chapters?‘Seoul,’ ‘Reason for Existence,’ ‘Love, Hate, ARMY,’ ‘Inside Out,’ ‘Flight Without Landing,’ ‘The World of BTS,’ and ‘Us’?following the flow of time.

The author, Kang Myung-seok, editor-in-chief of Weverse Magazine, infused the book with insights into the domestic and international music industry and popular music, objectively highlighting BTS's musical trajectory while incorporating interviews conducted with the members over more than two years.

The book begins with the scene on December 24, 2010, when Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), who had moved from Gwangju to Seoul, arrives at the dormitory feeling overwhelmed by the glamorous scenery of Gangnam and meets Min Yoon-gi (Suga), who was already there. It then covers the process of the seven members joining one by one, meticulously recording their honest and detailed statements about their album activities?from their first album 2 COOL 4 SKOOL, through the Hwa Yang Yeon Hwa, LOVE YOURSELF series, MAP OF THE SOUL, Dynamite, BE, Butter, Proof, and up to their historic solo performance at the 2022 Grammy Awards as the first Koreans to do so.

As RM said, this book vividly conveys their journey, which was “once as outsiders and somewhat outliers, but now somewhat different from back then.” It captures the fears, excitement, and behind-the-scenes stories the members experienced through major domestic and international stages and award ceremonies, world tours, the pandemic, and UN speeches. The book’s title, BEYOND THE STORY, reflects that it contains the most sought-after stories that have never been heard before.

BEYOND THE STORY will be published in a total of 23 languages, including the original Korean edition. About ten language editions will be released on July 9, the day BTS’s fandom ARMY was born, known as ‘ARMY Day.’ It is unprecedented for a Korean-language book to be simultaneously published in about ten languages on the release date, and the Sunday release is also unusual. The foreign editions feature numerous translators from the domestic and international literary world, including Anton Hur, a Korean-English translator who was a finalist for the International Booker Prize, one of the world’s three major literary awards.

Group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan). [Photo by BigHit Music] [Image source: Yonhap News]

Everything About BTS at a Glance

BEYOND THE STORY not only reviews BTS’s musical activities but also provides an overview of their current significance and the trends in the music market. Alongside a timeline neatly summarizing BTS’s album releases, concerts, awards, and external activities, the book includes over 330 QR codes to allow readers immediate access to videos and audio mentioned in the text for convenience.

Given BTS’s communication with the world through the internet and social media, these elements are highly meaningful, making this book a special archive about BTS.

The Second Chapter of BTS to Be Newly Written, the Beginning of a New Journey

Published to mark BTS’s 10th debut anniversary, BEYOND THE STORY looks back on their past while also promising the future they will write. Big Hit Music, their agency, expressed hope that this official book “will become a record ‘sincerely shared’ between BTS and ARMY.”

The book concludes with the members, who have walked together for 10 years, looking toward the future. In the final chapter, ‘Us,’ J-Hope shared his hopes: “Meeting these people has been such a great blessing. I always want to tell the members how thankful I am, and we keep running forward thinking, ‘If ARMY can smile and be happy, that is our happiness.’”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.