Sunshine Review

 Ten and a half years ago, on June 13, 2013, Bangtan Sonyondan had their first ever live performance after debuting the day before. Today, the South Korean boy group is one of the biggest in the world. It may have been hard for them to feel this popularity in 2020 when the global pandemic hit and the world went into lockdown, however. Chapter 7: “We Are”, the last chapter of Beyond the Story: A Ten Year Record of BTS by Myeongseok Kang and BTS, opens with descriptions of the group’s pure joy after their concert, PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE–LA. The group’s enthusiasm makes sense in light of what the text goes on to describe: the preceding pandemic that caused the world to screech to a halt.  According to Jimin, this time was “chopped off” in his memory, though it was still a meaningful era for the group. Going in a completely different musical direction than what had been strategically planned before, the group released “Dynamite”, a bubbly summer single in English, and “BE”, ...

  When taken as a single chunk, chapters 4-6 of Beyond the Story: a Ten Year Record of BTS tell a clear story of the band’s rise to almost unimaginable popularity, and the mental conflict it caused. These chapters examine all of BTS’s work from WINGS to Map of the Soul: 7, a timespan of about four years. In those four years, the band continuously rose in popularity, faced a crisis, and came out stronger. Chapter 4: “Inside Out” opens on a low note. Things weren’t necessarily going wrong in BTS’s career, but in their mentality, as they were burnt out from working non-stop. The members were experiencing conflicting emotions that they poured into their second full length album: WINGS . This album came onto the scene with a more abstract aesthetic, focusing on art and metaphors. The text points out what a risky move this was in terms of business, since the album might be intimidating to new fans who weren’t familiar with BTS’s musical themes. Myongseok Kang goes on to explain: “Howeve...

  Chapter three of Beyond the Story opens with lighter toned pictures from The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 1, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2, and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever. These pictures are in contrast to the grunge aesthetics that opened chapter 2, an instant visual indicator of the contents of this era in BTS’s history. Chapter 3: Love, Hate, Army, deals with a transitional period in BTS’s career, a period of extreme highs and lows all at once. In the music videos for this era, the group began to build their own storyline, where they portrayed fictional characters with ugly, real-life problems. BTS was becoming their own self-contained universe in which the characters, like the members themselves, were on the outskirts. In the videos, it was the outskirts of a physical city. For the band, the city represented the music scene. Even as they made more and more of a name for themselves, Bangtan never really fit in. They weren’t doing music t...

While the first chapter of Beyond the Story: A 10 Year Record of BTS focuses on the members’ personalities and how they first came together as a group, the second chapter talks about the beginning of their actual career. Preceding the chapter is a series of poster photos, one from each of the group’s first four albums. These images come as a bit of a surprise after the aesthetic opening, as BTS’s early style was drastically grungier than it is today. These photos are placed sparsely enough that they enhance the reading experience and bring visuals to the story without distracting from the main point or taking up too much space. This contributes to the book’s beautiful format, as does the use of purple coloring within parts of the text, and the Spotify-esque image shown for each album explained in the narrative.  This chapter, “Why We Exist”, goes into detail on how BTS shared their genuine personality with fans after debut, how they experienced doubts and struggles, and the harsh ...