Made with Blood, Sweat & Tears
Move aside Big Bang, BTS are the new kings of K-pop
With only two more months till the end of 2016, have all you K-pop fans found your favourite song and music video of the year?
Well, I know I have - South Korean boy band BTS' smash hit, Blood, Sweat & Tears, a super infectious dance number that melds delicious hooks with dark sensuality and dreamy visuals, is right at the top of my list.
Unless you've been living under a rock, there is no way you could have missed BTS' swift ascent to the top of the K-pop hierarchy.
In the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed the dashing septet setting world record after world record with Blood, Sweat & Tears, the lead single from their second studio album, Wings.
Not only did they become the K-pop group to score the most number of YouTube views in a single day - Blood, Sweat & Tears' video was viewed a whopping 6.34 million times in under 24 hours - they are also the fastest K-pop group to cross 10 million YouTube views, having achieved that in 41 hours.
As we speak, the view counts of Blood, Sweat & Tears continue to rise like nobody's business. It's now well past the 23 million mark.
Welcome to BTS' reign as the new kings of K-pop! Move aside, Big Bang, EXO, and SHINee, you're passé.
Fans who have followed the careers of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Rap Monster, Jimin, V and Jungkook since their debut in 2013 would argue that BTS' success is no fluke.
Before Blood, Sweat & Tears came along, the lads have been consistently releasing catchy, melodic tunes such as I Need You, Dope, and Fire.
It was only a matter of time that they would go one notch up to deliver a mindblowing masterpiece.
AMBITIOUS
Unabashedly bombastic and epic in its musical arrangement, Blood, Sweat & Tears is accompanied by an ambitious video that is filled with artistic and literary references.
Set in a museum dripping with grandeur and splendour, there are sightings of deep, insightful quotes (German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star" is inscribed above a mirror) and famous oil paintings (V sits at a balcony facing the Landscape with the Fall of Icarus).
It is delightfully surrealistic at times, too, with scenes of Jungkook dangling on a swing and subsequently floating in mid-air, or when green tears roll down Jimin's cheeks.
For many fans, Blood, Sweat & Tears is a perfect 10/10. I can't wait for BTS to outdo themselves once again.
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