Hello
Annyeong
Konnichiwa
Ni Hao
With today's K-pop Monday we're revisiting one of the groups I admire, in past posts they've got Dark & Wild, twice they have shared with us The Most Beautiful Moments In Life with Part 1 & Part 2 and they've appeared before us asking O! R U L8, 2? This time it's time to grow our wings and take flight.
2016 saw BTS release their 2nd full length album Wings, an album that would take them to new heights.
On the 4th of September without warning Big Hit dropped the 1st of 7 short films to announce BTS' comeback titled Wings Short Film #1 BEGIN which focused on maknae Jungkook.
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On the 5th of September Wings Short Film #2 LIE focusing on Jimin was released.
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On the 7th of September Wings Short Film #3 STIGMA focusing on V was released.
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On the 8th of September Wings Short Film #4 FIRST LOVE focusing on Suga was released.
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On the 9th of September Wings Short Film #5 REFLECTION focusing on leader Rap Monster was released.
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On the 10th of September Wings Short Film #6 MAMA focusing on J-Hope was released.
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On the 13th of September the final film was released titled Wings Short Film #7 AWAKE which focused on the last member Jin.
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On the 25th of September a comeback trailer was released titled Boy Meets Evil.
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Finally on the 6th of October the M/V teaser was released revealing the title track to be 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears).
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The 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) M/V was finally released on the 9th/10th (UK time/S.Korea time) of October, with the release of their 2nd full length album Wings.
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Throughout all their comeback videos Rap Monster can be heard saying quotes from Hermann Hesse's book Demian which conluded in the 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) M/V, which saw an increase in sales for the book from A.R.M.Y wanting to know the story behind their concept. On the 9th of October the group held a V-Live pre-show on the V App, where the members discussed their solo songs on the album, Jungkook explained that Begin was about his journey to Seoul and meeting the other BTS members, V explained that Stigma was a song under the neo-soul genre, J-Hope stated that Mama is an unforgettable song, as it was about his childhood emotions about his mother. Rap Monster also revealed that track Two! Three! (Still Wishing There Will Be Better Days) was their first offcial fan song. On the 10th of October the group held a conference for the release of Wings, they were asked about the concept and it's meaning; Rap Monster said "The harder the temptation is to resist, the more you think about it and vacillate. That uncertainty is part of the process of growing, Blood Sweat and Tears is a song that shows how one thinks, chooses and grows." Suga then added that "The song relays an optimistic determination to use our wings to go far, even if we are met with temptations in life."
Billboard K-Town's Tamar Herman described the 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) M/V as a haunting one that explores ideas of fate, reality, life and death, and falling from grace.
Within 24 hours of the M/V being released it had reached 6.3 million views, setting a new record. On October 13th, it was revealed that the M/V had become the fastest K-pop M/V by a group to reach 10 million views, reports also showed that the goal was released in 42 hours beating a previous M/V of theirs. Sales reached 500,000 copies in it's first week of pre-orders alone making it their most anticipated and desired release.
Wings set records with it becoming the highest charting K-pop album to land on the Billboard 200 with 16,000 copies sold, they became the first Korean act to enter the Official UK Albums Chart, the album also broke Gaon Album Chart records as the highest-selling album on both it's monthly and yearly charts.
Wings saw all the members participate on all 15 of the tracks with each member co-writing their solo tracks, as well as Rap Monster, Suga and J-Hope participating on a majority of them.
피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) won a total of 6 music show awards with 2 wins on Music Bank, 1 win on Show Champion, 1 win on M Countdown, 1 win on Inkigayo and 1 win on The Show.
Wings entered 19 different albums charts including No.1 on the Gaon Weekly Albums Chart, No.62 on the UK Official Albums Chart, No.1 on the Billboard World albums Chart and No.7 on the Oricon Albums Chart. Wings peaked at No.1 on the Gaon Monthly Albums Chart and No.25 on the Oricon Monthly Albums Chart, it also peaked at No.1 on the Gaon Yearly Albums Chart for 2016 as well as No.6 on Billboard's Yearly US World Albums Chart for 2016.
Gaon Sales:
751,301+
Oricon Sales:
26,820+
US Sales:
23,000+
Totaling 801,121+ copies sold.
The 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) M/V has gained 98,978,846 million views so far which continue to increase with each day, the M/V has increased by 2,228,131 million views since making notes 4 days ago, this is all within 4 months of the M/Vs release.
On the 13th of February this year (2017) they released an extension (repackaged) to their wings album which I will share with you in a future post.
The album was released in 4 versions: W I N G, all 4 versions were set out in a black paperback book style case, they all have the same wings logo, the only difference for the album cover of the versions was that they all have a different pattern which connects them all together. Each version focuses on 2 members in the photo section, W is group shots and Jin's individual pictures as well as him with other members, I focuses on V and J-Hope's individual pictures as well as them together, N focuses on Jimin and Suga together as well as individual shots of them, G focuses on Rap Monster and Jungkook together as well as individual shots. All versions of the album are set out in the say way with the first section of the booklet focusing on the pictures and the second section focusing on the lyrics, member thank you's and album credits.
Track List:
Intro: Boy Meets Evil
피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears)
Begin
Lie
Stigma
First Love
Reflection
MAMA
Awake
Lost
BTS Cypher 4
Am I Wrong
21세기 소녀 (21st Century Girls)
둘! 셋! (그래도 좋은 날이 더 많기를) (Two! Three! (Still Wishing There Will Be Better Days))
Interlude: Wings
I have the I version of the album and personally looking at the unboxing of the other versions I prefer the pictures in the I version compared to the others, which is odd as my main favourite members are Jin, Suga & Rap Monster, although for the Wings comeback J-Jope was my bias wrecker, he was looking pretty good for this comeback, the pictures in the I version are just perfect, I love the styling and the colouring in the pictures, I'm not 100% on V being blonde but he looks good all the same. Overall I loved the whole concept for Wings, the Wings films were visually pleasing and I love how each film teasers their solo tracks from the album, while all the Wings films are beautifully made, the films that always have am affect on me is V's Stigma and Jin's Awake, the films continue off from their HYYH series, so V is wanting to be punished for the killing his father who was abusive, with Jin's still focusing on that he's the only member left. The M/V for 피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears) is by far my favourite M/V from BTS, it's visually stunning from the styling, to the settings, to the colours used, I love that they always try to tell a story through their M/V's and this one was just perfect from the start to the breakdown of Rap Monster's final Demian quote to the ending of the M/V, it all just fits perfectly. I'm not surprised that this album broke records because from start to finish it's an A class album, it's by far my favourite release from BTS and was 1 of my favourite albums released in 2016 beating my queens TaeYeon and Tiffany's solo releases. BTS are reaching new heights and opening new doors for K-Pop and if I had to recommend just 2 albums released in 2016 for new fans and non-K-pop fans to check out it would be BTS - Wings and GOT7 - Flight Log: Turbulence, they really were the albums that made 2016 more memorable for me. I really hope that BTS bring their Wings tour to the UK as I would love to be able to witness how amazing they are live.
Because this album has been re released with 3 brand new songs and the Interlude: Wings being extended and made into an Outro track, I thought I would share half of the tracks with you in this post and conclude with the rest of the songs in the extension post as this album is way to good to not share all the tracks from the album, check out 9 of the tracks below.
Begin - Jungkook Solo
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Awake - Jin Solo
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MAMA - J-Hope Solo
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Lie - Jimin Solo
By ashleygold25
Intro: Boy Meets Evil
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21세기 소녀 (21st Century Girls)
By
BTS Cypher 4
둘! 셋! (그래도 좋은 날이 더 많기를) (Two! Three! (Still Wishing There Will Be Better Days))
피 땀 눈물 (Blood Sweat & Tears)
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I really can't recommend this album enough, not only is it the best album from BTS, it's also one of the best albums to be released in 2016, if they're past albums haven't made you a fan then I think the Wings album will. BTS have worked extremely hard since their debut and it's nice that they are finally getting the acknowledgement that they deserve.
"A day may come when we lose
But it is not today
Today we fight!"
Whats your favourite solo track from Wings?
What's your favourite track from Wings?
(If you're able to pick any of both)
Whose Wings film affected you the most?
Let me know in the comments below.
See you soon!
Annyeong
Sayonara
Zai Jian
Bye
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