Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

BTS’ new album: how will the coronavirus affect Map of the Soul: 7’s release and tour plans?

K-pop band BTS promoted their fourth album Map of the Soul 7 in Seoul, South Korea – despite advising fans to stay home over coronavirus fears. Photo: EPA-EFE/Handout
K-pop band BTS promoted their fourth album Map of the Soul 7 in Seoul, South Korea – despite advising fans to stay home over coronavirus fears. Photo: EPA-EFE/Handout
BTS

The K-pop boy group has appeared on US TV shows with Jimmy Fallon and James Corden, and used TikTok and YouTube to promote the new album – but is asking fans to stop attending television shows during the current health crisis in South Korea

Move over, Kim Kardashian! BTS has broken the internet – and records – with the highly-anticipated release of its fourth studio album, “Map of the Soul: 7”. The full LP was dropped on February 21 and marks the return of the K-pop group after a six-month hiatus. The seven members of BTS – Jungkook, Jimin, RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin and V – have been hot on the press circuit promoting their new album and the track On – particularly in the US, South Korea and online.

Many know how loyal the fans’ BTS Army can be, but the fanfare was unprecedented when the K-pop group teased a 30-second snippet of their new track, On, on video-sharing social platform TikTok just hours before the full album release. The traffic was reportedly so high that some users experienced error messages on the TikTok app.

Advertisement

On Twitter, BTS also dominated the trending page on February 21, with top hashtags including #MAP_OF_THE_SOUL_7, #BTSComeback2020, and #ONChallenge, where the band challenged fans to use the track in TikTok videos. In just 48 hours, the Bangtan Boys had garnered an astounding 17 million Tweets worldwide.

So, dare we ask, does the album live up to all the hype? According to reviews coming in from Rolling Stone, Variety and Pitchfork, “Map of the Soul: 7” seems a worthy addition to BTS’ award-winning discography – was reportedly the most pre-ordered South Korean album of all time.

Billboard also announced “Map of the Soul: 7” was on course to hitting No 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. This would be the fourth time that the Korean pop masters have reached this position, following its last three albums, “Map of the Soul: Persona”, “Love Yourself: Answer” and “Love Yourself: Tear”.

 
For On, which features Australian pop star Sia singing in a duet, Jungkook said in an MTV interview: “Because this was a reboot, we wanted to take our old song ‘N.O’ and turn it into ‘On’,” in reference to the band’s 2013 single, an acronym for “No Offence”.