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[Sports Seoul | Reporter Yoon Dong-eon] BTS has rewritten K-pop history with unprecedented success for their fifth studio album, Arirang. The record topped both of Billboard’s flagship charts — the Billboard 200 and the Hot 100 — and, remarkably, 13 of the album’s 14 tracks placed on the Hot 100.
On the 2nd, HYBE and BigHit Music credited the achievement to the strategic planning of chairman and executive producer Bang Si-hyuk.
A key factor, the companies said, was the large-scale songwriting camps that boosted the album’s overall quality. During BTS’s 2025 comeback preparations, Bang held multiple camps in the U.S., which yielded hundreds of candidate songs. A rigorous selection process narrowed that pool to the final tracklist. Industry observers see this as part of a broader trend: world-class songwriters increasingly collaborating on K-pop projects.
The album also drew attention for foregrounding Korean cultural elements. Traditional motifs and cultural symbols are woven throughout the record to create a distinct sonic identity. For example, “Aliens” references jungmori rhythm, practices like removing shoes, and historical figures such as Kim Gu, while “No.29” incorporates the bell tones of the Seongdeokdaewang (Emperor Seongdeok) Bell. The folk tune “Arirang,” integrated into the title track “Body to Body,” produced a powerful moment when overseas audiences joined in chorus during live performances. Bang reportedly told the production team, “The sight of people from every country — different skin tones, hair colors and eye colors — coming together to sing ‘Arirang’ in one voice will likely become an iconic image unlike anything you’ll see again.”
Bang also offered a vision for BTS’s future, saying, “BTS will become an icon like a tourist destination that anyone wants to visit, beyond just a fandom.” He suggested the group is poised to evolve into global content that attracts a broad international audience, not just a dedicated fanbase.
Those strategies translated into measurable results. According to Spotify, first-time listeners of BTS’s music increased by more than 600% on the album’s release day, indicating a surge of global listeners actively seeking out the record. hellboy321@sportsseoul.com
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