BTS is the name of a boy group of 7 members formed by a South Korea entertainment ‘Big Hit’, and they are one of the most popular boy group in Korea and have won countless awards. More interestingly, BTS have always maintained their dominance on developing their fandom in foreign countries comparing to other Korean groups. They have won the “Best Korean Act” award of MTV Europe Music Awards already in the year 2015, However, their global popularity had not burst until the song they have released for their new album “Wings” on October 10, 2016: ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’. Before the song ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ have been released, they were already popular in South Korea, and have won 1st places by their previous songs. Nevertheless, the reports have shown that the music video of ‘Blood, Sweat, and tears’ has passed the milestone of 100 million views on Youtube, which made the group the second fastest music video by a K-pop group ("BTS’s “Blood, Sweat and Tears” MV hits 100 Million Views” 2017). After that, they started to receive more awards internationally. They received one award and one nomination from the Billboard of the Year Awards in 2017 and won the Nickelodeon Brazil Kids’ Choice Awards on the international show of the year in Brazil in the same year. These are all remarkable accomplishments, and they definitely cannot be fulfilled without their great success (KEZ 2018). Therefore, it has always been a question of what made the song ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ the turning point in BTS’ foreign popularity?

First of all, in the song, the lyrics are mostly in first and second person, “I’ve accepted that I’m locked to you”, “I’m here enjoying the pain”, “my body, mind, soul”, Although the lyrics include words such as ‘poisonous’, ‘chalice’ of lines partly linked to the Western mythology, the lyrics are not associated with the content of the mythology theme at all. This is actually a use of strategy. The use of “me” creates a self-identification of the fans, according to Stars written by Richard Dyer, which allows the audiences especially the fans, who listen to the lyrics are able to place themselves in the alike situation as the singers’ persona or their experiences (Dyer, stars, 18). Since ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ means to show a process of boys moving from teenager to adulthood, “me” emphasizes that the story does not only link to the European stories. Furthermore, the mythology has been too narrow down to the western audiences, a lot of Korean audiences would not understand the content of the music video. the connection with the audiences of lyrics has compensated this deficiency.

Despite the strategies, BTS have something they’ve done very differently compared to boy groups from other companies. The music video is showing a story of western mythology due to its settings, member’s outfits and props. Each of the members is representing a character from the bible. For example, Jin from the music video is a statue of Satan. The western mythology elements include a lot of paintings from the earlier centuries as well, such as “the Fall of the Rebel Angels’ painted by Pieter Bruegel about the rebellion of the fallen angels against God by siding with Lucifer (Lubbock 2008). This could be used as an expansion to the western market. Nevertheless, to the leader of BTS, RM, have said in an interview that “the harder a 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.” (SBS 2016). The reference to mythology serves to use as a metaphor for their own past experiences to be a success. The title ‘Blood, Sweat and Tears’ has both the meaning of the war between angels and gods，and the arduous process of being successful. This is actually very unusual in the Korean-pop industry nowadays since, in order to ensure the boy/girl groups are impeccable, most of the Korean entertainment companies use professional producers to compose their songs and create certain themes. However, the style of ‘realness’ fits the western notions of masculinity and individualism, which in fact helps BTS to develop in the western market. The Michael Fuhr’s K-POP music and transnationalism from the Routledge Handbook of Korean Culture and Society has justified that in the west, Asian artists have been stereotyped as passive china dolls or martial artists. This break-in of their individualism has simulated greater acceptance and positive imaginations from the west to Asians, especially to Koreans (Kim, the Routledge handbook, 289). Thus, referring to their personal encounters in their songs seems to be unnatural, but it can also use as a strategy to promote their image.

As the lyrics have already shown, the song is obviously being not base on Korean traditional theme. At the beginning of the music video, the members are entering a western museum. However, the music video follows their conventional strategy to advertise for the group. This is because Korean pop has always favored feminine looking men. The concept of ‘prettiness’ exists in the Korean-pop and culture. According to Lilia Yamakawa in her article ‘Flower man of Korea’, she has indicated that ‘In 2013, South Korean men spent roughly $900 million on skincare. There are many salons and spas just for men that offer hair, facials, massages and other procedures.’ (“Flower man of Korea” 2014) Besides the Korean men’s aspiration on beauty, The Korean or even Asian fans have also been captivated by the feminine style of Korean Idols because they prefer ‘softer’ and ‘gentler’ images of the man. The Korean entertainment use this fans’ preferences, often put makeup and soft-masculine outfits on the idols both for their music videos and for their concert. This ‘flower man’ concept should be very different from western culture since they prefer men with muscularity, but in ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’, it tends to combine the feminine concept with the western culture. The members despite wearing makeup, are trying to look like a western foreigner. For instance, the youngest member of the group, JungKook, has a dramatic smoky eye makeup and glittering lipstick, but with blue lenses and livid brown hair in the video. In addition, the fabric and the pattern of the shirts are all in ancient western styles; but the design is very modernizing in suits with some sparking spangles on the clothes. This mixing culture and fashion seem odd, but this mix contributes significantly to the star manipulation thesis. Also according to Stars by Richard Dyer, “Fashion is often assumed to be the ultimate in manipulation because it is so superficial. However, one function a star serves is to fix a type of beauty, to help a physical type identify itself.” (Dyer, stars, 37). The combination of western-type outfits with Korean makeup has created a special identification of the members. Through combining the western-type outfits and Korean makeup, the BTS members show to their music video’s audience that they are innovated and unlike other Korean boy groups that 100% follows the trend of having a Korean conventional look of idols, which in terms show their individualism and uniqueness. This has also shown that they are trying to open the world market.

In conclusion, there are a lot of elements of the song that are different or even strange in the area of South Korea. However, they are all correlated to the western market but only in different aspect as lyrics and concept of music videos. This has shown to the world the importance of developing the foreign popularity. BTS and their entertainment use their sincerity on the video and the strategies they used in the song of being developed in the foreign market to cater to the western notions of individuality and masculinity, but still being traditional on the surface to maintain their Korean or Asian fans. Only the combination of the two has made the song so successful.