If you’re a Twitter user, you may have seen this phrase at the top of the ‘worldwide trending’ page last weekend. Maybe you actually clicked on the hashtag out of curiosity, only to find an endless amount of K-pop fan-cams and memes. Maybe you even saved a few of them. It’s okay, I’m not judging. Or maybe you just completely ignored the entire thing and went about your every-day pandemic lockdown routine; you ordered pizza, binge-watched some shows on Netflix and called it a day. But now that the trend has disappeared, maybe you’ve found yourself wondering what the whole thing was about. If you’ve stumbled upon this page, I’m about to answer your life-longing question.
BANGBANGCON was an online concert series which was live-streamed via YouTube and Weverse. The event was completely FREE and took place over the weekend (April 18th-19th), giving fans all over the world the opportunity to experience a 24 hour concert from the comfort of their own homes.
The event was created by BTS (방탄소년단) and their company, Big Hit Entertainment. In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, BTS is a South-Korean male K-pop group, consisting of 7 members: Kim Nam-joon (known as RM), Kim Seok-jin (Jin), Min Yoon-gi (SUGA), Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), Park Ji-min (Jimin), Kim Tae-hyung (V), and Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook). The letters ‘BTS’ stands for ‘Bangtan Sonyeondan’, which translates to ‘Bulletproof Boy Scouts’. They are also referred to as ‘Beyond The Scene’ in the western world, which I refrain from using because it’s gross so let’s just call them BTS.
BTS use their music and their platform to highlight aspects that are not given much attention in South Korean media, such as depression and gender identity. For this, many fans admire their music as they are using their platform and their words to empower people and let them know that they’re not alone. Although many fans are not familiar with the Korean language, the leader of the group, RM, constantly reminds the world that music truly transcends language.
When the group debuted in 2013, they were criticised by many and were told they would never make it in the music industry. 7 years later, BTS have accomplished so much; three Billboard No. 1 albums in one year since The Beatles, being the first Korean artists to present and perform at the Grammy’s and even gave a speech at the United Nations! Legendary.
BTS recently released their newest album, ‘Map of the Soul: 7’, with plans to begin the Map of the Soul World Tour earlier this month. However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, shows in South Korea were cancelled and others were postponed with rescheduled dates still yet to be confirmed. This, of course, has left many fans feeling disappointed and unsure of when they will be able to see the boys again (or for the first time). When I saw the announcement for this online concert event, I was so excited; it was honestly just a brilliant idea. I’m sure everyone is having an insanely hard time at the moment, due to the pandemic, so something like this to get people excited and give them something to smile about was just amazing.
The live-streams garnered millions of viewers from all around the world, roughly 50 million! That’s crazy. 50. MILLION. PEOPLE. Insane. The live-streams were subtitled and contained concert footage starting from 2014, during their ‘Red Bullet’ Tour and ended with a show from their ‘Love Yourself’ Tour which ran from 2018-19. It also included BTS’ third and fourth Muster, which is a celebratory concert/fan-meeting event that the group hosts, usually annually, to celebrate their fans. Musters are a combination of skits and live performances and I really want to go to one someday! As these Muster events are held in Korea, the live-stream allowed international fans, and just fans that haven’t experienced a Muster before, to finally be able to be a part of it.
The live-streams began at 12:00 PM Korean Standard Time (KST) on both days, which meant that it began at 4:00 AM, here in the UK. If you managed to stay awake, you’re a bloody trooper! I could not do it and just watched the live-streams when I woke up in the morning, as they were still going on. Each day’s live-stream lasted for 12 hours, with a 20 minute interval between concerts, so it was basically like a 24-hour concert. Could you imagine that in real life? I think I’d actually melt.
Something that made the experience even more immersive was the ability to synchronise your Army Bomb with the live-stream.
The ‘Army Bomb’ is BTS’ very own official lightstick, which is basically waved around at concerts to show your support for the group. When attending a show, you can put your seat info into the BTS Official Lightstick App to synchronise it to the light-design for the show. I know… technology is wild.
For BTS, I always try to buy tickets that are as close to the stage(s) as possible but it hasn’t always gone to plan. The footage was filmed from multiple angles, which meant the viewer was able to experience the show from the back of the venue (to witness the Rainbow Ocean in all its glory) and then front row (to experience the iconic Silver Spoon hip-thrusts in HD). So, that was also a big plus.
The event was really emotional; fans cried their hearts out, and we didn’t even have to think about looking ugly whilst crying because we were at home. Loved that for us! BTS has come a long way and haven’t always had it easy so when they speak about their hardships and cry, we cry. They deserve the world and I am so proud to be a fan.
So, have I answered your question? What was BANGBANGCON? It was an online concert series, live-streamed on multiple platforms, allowing fans of BTS to watch concerts together whilst isolating at home. We laughed, cried, sang, danced and cheered on our boys. It was an experience that the world will never forget.
If you watched the live-stream and you’re reading this post: Hi, ARMY! I hope you enjoyed BANGBANGCON and hopefully, we will be able to see the boys, soon. Until then…
방탄, 감사합니다.Thanks for reading.
Stay safe and try to stay positive!
Love,
JK ♡