One day the world stopped. So goes the opening line of BTS’s song “Life Goes On,” and we see it in the opening moments of docuseries BTS Monuments: Beyond The Star as the band is forced to scrap their ambitious 2020 project when the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic hits. The clock then turns back to June 12, 2013 to show the idols just before their debut showcase. The eight-part documentary brings the history-making boy band’s first chapter—and all its glory—to a close, but it goes further than simply listing the group’s achievements one by one. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither did the BTS members become superstars overnight.
Numerous Western outlets have compared BTS’s rise on the international stage to the Beatles and the British Invasion. While the two groups certainly have some surface commonalities—finding major commercial success on US soil and becoming huge media phenomena—what really makes their stories similar is that they both rose up from total obscurity and built themselves up “at the expense of our physical well-being,” as SUGA puts it. After building a small following putting on performances in their hometown, Liverpool, the Beatles traveled to the German city of Hamburg in 1960 to perform relentlessly, often playing for more than 12 hours a day. It was the kind of arduous schedule that they never would have made it through without alcohol and caffeine—and a period where they had to figure out how to sell the music they wanted to play to unreceptive audiences. Their schedule only intensified in 1961, moving between the Cavern Club in Liverpool and gigs in Hamburg, where they played seven or eight hours into the night. The Beatles remain fixed in the minds of people around the world as legends even today, but that status was the direct result of the back-breaking labor they put in in the days when nobody knew their name.
Much in the same way, BTS didn’t just fall from the sky one day. Their new docuseries shows the intense training they went through after switching gears from becoming a hip hop crew to debuting as K-pop idols instead, standing as evidence of the blood, sweat, and tears they willingly spent to thrive in their tense, crisis-filled career. Jimin recalls living out of their practice studio for six months, but that was just the beginning. As RM notes, they pushed themselves to the limit in the name of a solitary goal—to debut—and once they had achieved it, they faced even greater struggles. After a huge amount of investment and an arduous songwriting process, everyone expects “Danger” to be the group’s breakaway hit song, but it ultimately fails to chart, leaving the label in a tight spot financially. The experience casts a dark shadow of impatience, fatigue, worry, and burnout over the group; their label isn’t very big and their future comes with no guarantees. All the BTS members can do is face things head-on. The boys are filled instinctively with a sense of urgency, propelling them into action as they give an unapologetically honest glimpse into their lives through rap and song. “The worries of youth showed up for real,” SUGA observes, and truer words couldn’t be spoken. Creativity thrives when nurtured through endless hard work. “We have always worked hard,” Jin says, “whether there was a crisis or not.”
Monuments doesn’t belabor the point that BTS has had outrageous success. Instead, by focusing on the way the members’ gaze is perpetually fixed on the goal in front of them and their accompanying excitement, it reveals how their success seems almost inevitable. Their very first concert at Ax Hall on October 17, 2014; their first number one on a music show in 2015; performing at K-pop dream stage Olympic Gymnastics Stadium the following year; winning Artist of the Year at the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA); marking their entry into the US music market by breaking Justin Bieber’s stranglehold on the Billboard Music award for Top Social Artist in 2017; reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Dynamite”; receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance—this is what all their hard work was always meant to lead to. But more often than not, the group members find themselves challenged by taking the road less traveled. A previously unimaginable world tour and the pressures of the worldwide music market weigh heavy and take their toll on the group. When, facing burnout, BTS sings in their 2018 song “Fake Love,” “For you I could pretend like I was happy when I was sad,” the group is in essence confessing to their listeners that they’re in part putting on an act, even if everything looks bright and shiny in the wake of their global rise to stardom.
We’ll always face new challenges, but each consecutive bump in the road is another invaluable opportunity to continue to grow and mature. All we need is to take the time to find sensible ways to overcome them. And that’s exactly what BTS figured out. Having stuck it out through hellish training and unspoken sorrow together, the members of BTS are more than just business partners—they’re friends sharing the most thrilling moments of their lives together. On their journey together in the name of friendship, they’re sharing their feelings with one another at all times, never feeling lonely because they have each other. And ARMY, the group’s steadfast supporters, are there to love them unconditionally. Ever since Jung Kook expressed his tearful gratitude toward ARMY when the group celebrated his, RM’s, and Jimin’s birthdays together in 2013, the fans have given the boys the strength to keep going and a reason to sing. Another key moment that demonstrates how important the fandom is comes on November 12, 2016, during a concert at Gocheok Sky Dome, when they sing along with BTS to “2! 3!,” a song the group has dedicated to them. Unlike other groups’ fan songs, BTS’s aren’t simply about being optimistic or sweet—they try in earnest to connect with their fans, opening up about all the hardships they’ve endured. What makes BTS so appealing, RM says, is “not because we sing better, are more handsome, or dance better than anyone else,” but “a special sentiment that only we possess.” In the end, it’s emotional sincerity that triumphs. In a world of increasingly fragmented tastes, BTS has deeply moved of a huge group of people, proving the power of a massive, unified community. That’s what makes BTS happiest when they’re performing for their fans from their position atop the world, adjusting to who they’ve become and learning to enjoy themselves.
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