 It's no surprise that 2020 hasn't been the best year for everyone. There have been protests both in the United States and in Hong Kong. Fires raged across the Australian continent. We almost had World War III with Iran. Russia is putting bounties on US troops. COVID became a worldwide pandemic. Looting and vandalism run rampant across the United States. We lost Kobe, Chadwick Boseman, Diana Rigg, RBG, Regis, and of course all of this was going on at the same time. But there was one saving grace. We at the Asian Theory were able to get those BTS tickets. Hey man, I got some bad news for you. The concert, it got cancelled. Wait, really? So yeah, for most of us 2020 has been kind of poopy. But there has been a group that has been able to rise above it all. And if you haven't guessed by now, I'm going to tell you. This is 2020, the year of BTS. Let's take this back to January. January of 2020. Almost seems like a lifetime ago. We saw BTS perform at the Grammys alongside Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, and others making BTS the first Korean act to ever perform at the award show. So that was pretty cool. BTS kicked off the new decade with Black Swan, being the first single to drop from their new album, Map of the Soul 7. With 4.02 million pre-orders just in the first week, Map of the Soul 7 smashed the previous record of 2.69 million, set by, perhaps not coincidentally, Map of the Soul Persona. And this is just the pre-orders. When the long awaited day arrived, and the album was finally released on February 21st, it sold over 4.1 million in just its first week, easily becoming the bestselling album in South Korean history. The album debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200, making BTS the fastest group to earn 4 No. 1 albums since the Beatles in 1968. And we can talk about this again, but we want the comment section to be actually civil this time. The album debuted at No. 1 in countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, the US, and many other countries, making BTS the first Asian group to top the charts in the world's 5 largest music markets. And that's not even mentioning On, which was the second single, and whose music video was dropped on the same day as the album. It is the 7th most watched online video in the first 24 hours, getting 46.5 million views. Exactly one week later, the second official music video was released on February 28th, and within minutes of its release, the video became the biggest YouTube premiere of all time, with 1.54 million viewers watching at the same time. The video reached 10 million views in the first hour, breaking the record held by Boy With Love, as the fastest South Korean video to achieve this. On was big, it was meant to be huge. They were hungry for that No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100, and they were almost close enough to taste it. In the end, On debuted at No. 4 on the Hot 100, which was, at the time, the highest that a song by a South Korean group ever charted in the US. They came so close to that No. 1 spot, but it escaped them by just the tiniest bit, and I'll touch more on that later. They also came out with a version featuring Sia, which honestly isn't as good as the original. In April, they became the first South Korean artist to sell a cumulative total of more than 20 million albums, officially becoming the best-selling artist in South Korean history. In June, BTS performed at my graduation. Yeah, I'm serious. Well, to clarify, because of COVID, my school didn't have a graduation, and so I graduated online, which was fun. And well, because of this, and the millions of other college graduates who didn't have a real graduation ceremony, YouTube held a live stream called The Dear Class of 2020 Virtual Graduation Ceremony, which featured the likes of Brock Obama, Michelle Obama, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and tons and tons of others. And, you know, we're all BTS fans here. We know how popular BTS is worldwide, and we know that these days, globally, BTS is more relevant than, say, Lady Gaga or Katy Perry, but this is for an American event, hosted by an American company with American guests. For all intents and purposes, this event was geared towards an American, English-speaking audience, and the fact that BTS was pretty much the main event of the whole thing speaks volumes of how they're just smashing cultural barriers. I mean, that's like if Janet Jackson flew out to participate in the Mnet Asian Music Awards. Oh wait, she did that. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Janet Jackson. On June 19th, they released the Japanese single, Stay Gold, which was part of their fourth Japanese studio album, Map of the Soul 7, The Journey. It debuted at number one on the Oricon Daily Albums Chart and sold 448,000 copies within its first 24 hours, setting a new record for the highest first day sales by both a foreign and Korean artist in Japan. It also set the record for the highest first week sales of 2020 and became the most sold album of the year in Japan at the time. Stay Gold is also notable for being the first Japanese original song that BTS came out with in quite a while. The last Japanese song they released was the hit single, Lights, in July of 2019. And then finally, that brings us to August 21st, the song that absolutely broke YouTube and music charts worldwide. Dynamite, and it lived up to its name. It blew away the entire world. It was their first ever English single. Over 3 million viewers watched this premiere, shattering a YouTube record for premiere viewers. It also set a record for the most viewed video in the first 24 hours of release at 101 million views, becoming the first YouTube video ever to surpass the 100 million views in less than 24 hours. Dynamite debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and made over 260,000 sales, making it one of the fastest selling singles in recent years. Yes, BTS has topped the charts in other countries before, but this is the very first time that they, or any other Asian group for that matter, ever did it in the United States. In addition, they hit number one on Worldwide Billboard 200, as well as number one on the Worldwide Billboard 200 excluding the US chart. Giving BTS the first ever Billboard all kill, if you will. They have been so dominant that what they've done is so unprecedented that we have to create new awards just for them. As of recording this in the second week of October, it's still in the top five of the Hot 100, which is a testament to the achievement. The same month, they performed at the MTV Video Music Awards and performed Dynamite, where they also received their awards for Best Group, Best Choreography, Best Pop Video, and Best K-Pop Group. And they're also scheduled to perform the song at the Billboard Music Awards sometime this month. And they didn't sleep on the track in Korea either, achieving a perfect all kill in less than a week of release. Just so you know, a perfect all kill means Dynamite charted number one on 10 different charts in Korea. Add to that the three Billboard number ones, that's 13 charts with Dynamite at number one. What do we even call that? Is this an Omega all kill? An N-game all kill? What about a Dynamite all kill? I hope you don't mind if I just dwell on this achievement a bit, because I can't stress enough how big of a deal Dynamite was. Let's take it back to February of 2020. 7 was released. And so was on. It's important to note that while on was definitely a hit, despite the diversity of the United States itself, the American music industry is kinda xenophobic. Vox writer Aja Romano put it best, and I quote, The band's longtime goal was to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The band was always extremely vocal about its dream of chart dominance without sacrificing its identity by singing in English. In retrospect, on really feels like a last ditch, full out effort to break that barrier once and for all. For that single, Big Hit bought out a literal brass band, produced two separate music videos and a dance video, dropped the radio edit featuring Sia, and shut down Grand Central Station for a fantastic tape performance on The Tonight Show. It was all great, and none of it was enough. So BTS did what they said they'd never do. They released a song that was, for the first time ever, entirely in English. And lo and behold, the moment they released that English language song, Dynamite. The band suddenly got extensive radio play. Over 1,500 plays on the radio around the country on its first day of release. BTS finally got their coveted number one. Hey, do you know how many songs have debuted at number one on the Billboard Hot 100? 46. 46 songs ever. This puts them in the same prestigious group as Michael Jackson and Elton John. To be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with BTS coming out with a song fully in English, and I'm guessing most people don't mind either. I don't see it as abandoning their identity. In fact, I don't think that Dynamite is even their best song. Their goal was to draw in American and English-speaking mainstream audiences to give them just a taste of what BTS is, and to hopefully draw them in to listen to some of their other material. And in my opinion, they definitely achieved that goal. More recently, they've become the most viewed music group of all time on YouTube, passing Maroon 5, who have literally been around for almost 30 years. And that brings us to today. 2020 isn't even over yet, and BTS definitely still has some surprises at their sleeves, because next month they're scheduled to drop their fifth studio album, B, on November 20th this year. Meaning that, including their Japanese album, BTS is releasing three separate albums just this year. What other artist does that? And though the information we know about the upcoming album is scarce, I mean, come on, let's be honest. You know it's gonna be great. And for the icing on the cake and the cherry on top, remember that video we made about Jin's mandatory military service? About how he had to leave the group in December to serve? Not happening anymore. Well, at least not until 2021. So at least for a little while, the boys are sticking together. In fact, a bit of good news for all male K-pop artists. There's actually a proposal to revise South Korea's military service act to allow outstanding pop culture artists, such as BTS, to delay their military enlistment until age 30. A South Korean official stated that the reason for this is to, quote, provide the option to postpone enlistment for those in other fields whose careers flourish in their 20s. And while it's a postponement and not an exemption, hey, that's a step in the right direction. With all this, who knows, maybe I will get to see Jin at the Rose Bowl this year. So yeah, move aside year of the rat, we got some new kings in town. 2020 is the year of BTS.