Welcome to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, stans, and newbies alike. Each week, I’ll be rolling out interviews, lists, and all kinds of content to keep you in the loop on the latest and greatest from our friends in Seoul and beyond. Also, make sure to subscribe to my companion newsletter!
The members of BTS are accustomed to topping the charts, but now they’ve also topped the bestseller lists with their new book, Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS. The collection of personal interviews, photos, and QR codes linking to videos from the past decade has officially achieved No. 1 status on Amazon’s best-selling memoirs chart, while also landing in the top spot for music biographies.
Comprised of conversations with South Korean writer and editor Myeongseok Kang (and translated into English by Anton Hur, Slin Jung, and Clare Richards), the book does in fact live up to its name. There is the story of BTS known to the world, of a “boy band” that defied the odds and crossed cultural and language boundaries to achieve unprecedented chart domination and touring numbers for an act grown in the K-pop world.
Then, there’s also the story known to ARMY, and it’s one that goes far deeper than the narrative known to casual listeners or people tangentially familiar with RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. There are the infamous tales passed around that feel like checkpoints in every fan’s journey (even now, after reading the book, it doesn’t feel like we have the full story behind Jimin and V’s long-discussed “dumpling incident”); there are the stories that pull at the heartstrings, like a 15-year old Jungkook tiptoeing around the group’s tiny dorm room in an effort to not disturb the older members at any point of the night.
With Beyond the Story, BTS go deeper into the good, the bad, and the ugly of the stories fans already know well, and add to the roster with a hearty helping of new insights around the many struggles they’ve faced over the past ten years together. What the general public might not realize is that while BTS had to fight a massive uphill battle to achieve success outside of South Korea, their domestic battle had the odds stacked against them, too. A huge portion of the book is dedicated to the slights the septet experienced at awards shows, or people who criticized them for inhabiting a space somewhere between a hip-hop crew and a traditional idol group. They dig into derisions from radio hosts who didn’t understand their stage outfits or styling, and talk through plagiarism accusations and social media vitriol.
They’re not using the book to complain or throw any other groups under the bus, though — the takeaway is more so that there are so many things about BTS’s success that feel nearly miraculous, but their team dynamic has to be what trumps all of them. As another once internationally beloved boy group is currently making headlines with the reminder that they grew sick of each other after five years, the contrast couldn’t be more clear — early on in Beyond the Story, RM points to the care the bandmates developed for one another as a safety net: “The members were just good people,” he says. “Very good people.”
All this to say, it’s a recommended read both for fans who have been along for a huge part of that journey or are just now learning about this once-in-a-lifetime act. As BTS’s second chapter rolls on (more on that below), and the promise of 2025 lingers on the horizon, spend some time in coming weeks hearing from the members themselves about their unprecedented story so far.
