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BTS are a 7-member k-pop group, and the biggest boy band, maybe the biggest band, in the world right now. And trying to unravel the reasons for that is endlessly fascinating, the way a breakaway success always is (is it social media! probably, but what does that actually mean!), but at the core they’re a group who’ve spent six years evolving their sound and look from really good to also really good in different ways, with a lot of sincerity and thoughtfulness about it, as well as being individually appealing people who love and make fun of each other a tonne.
Members left-to-right: J-Hope, V, Jin, RM, Jungkook (in front), Suga, Jimin (source)
BTS is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts. Which is a ridiculous name, but they were nearly called Big Kids, so we're probably in the better timeline. The official English meaning is ‘Beyond The Scene’.
MEMBER PROFILES
Jin
Kim Seokjin, b. 1992. Jin is the eldest member! He’s extremely tolerant about it, and also loudly full of complaints, at the same time. He has shoulders out to here. He has on two separate occasions gone viral outside the fandom for being strikingly handsome while doing nothing in particular. He’s made talking about his own handsomeness a personal meme, and that was so successful that he delightedly went on to make a bunch of other things memes: telling terrible dad jokes, over-the-top flying kisses, pulling handmade hearts from improbable places during concerts. (That last one finally culminated in this incredible stage for their song ‘Go Go’.) Jin looks after the other members a bit, in his role as the oldest, but he’s also gloriously and determinedly childish. He likes to cook and he loves to eat. He jumps like a skittish foal when he’s startled. He sounds like a squeaky windscreen wiper when he laughs. He almost never admits to having serious emotions, except when he does.
He’s one of the group’s four main vocalists. His voice has some edge, which he often uses to inject a satisfying sort of electric whine into his parts, especially in their harder songs. He’s not a natural dancer, but he’s really good at expressing choreo that calls for a particular kind of theatrical goofiness. He’s also completed a film arts (acting) degree, although he hasn’t had much chance to use it yet, outside of music videos and ads.
Suga
Min Yoongi, b. 1993. Suga (officially styled SUGA) has an electric energy on stage, and off-stage can most often be found lying on the floor. He’s the slightest and most delicate-looking member, and also the most intimidating. He looks after the younger members quite a bit, in a tsundere way. Actually he’s almost too tsundere to be real, sometimes. He puts a lot of value on honesty – he’s candid about naming his ambitions even when they seem too high, and he sometimes bares his soul to the elements in his messages to fans or in his lyrics. He’s also a barefaced and gleeful cheat and liar in games and variety. He loves and cherishes award statuettes like nobody else. He seems antisocial but is always quietly collecting senior industry friends. He has a cute gummy smile. He makes a lethally appealing girl. He looks like an excited pensioner when he runs and when he goofs off. In winter he wears so many layers you can’t see him.
He’s one of the group’s three main rappers – his voice has some gravel in it and his style tends to be fast, fierce and ragged at the edges. He’s not one of the main dancers, but he has a natural sort of loose-limbed grace that makes him extremely watchable when he’s dancing. He also does a lot of producing and songwriting; he’s one of the members with a lot of input into the sound and themes of BTS songs.
J-Hope
Jung Hoseok, b. 1994. J-Hope (officially styled j-hope) is a mood-maker and a force of easy kinetic energy – although he gets anxious and stressed behind the scenes, and often wears himself out when they’re filming. He’s the dance and performance leader, and runs dance practices when they practise on their own. He has a habit of giving soft head kisses to cute things, including the maknae line. Actually he dotes on the younger members a lot, in both welcome and less welcome ways. He’s the neatest and cleanest of the group – the other members gleefully remember the one time J-Hope accidentally went to sleep without showering after practice. He cries easily when he feels touched. He’s scared of all the things. His fashion sense is a carefully curated riot of casual-flamboyant bucket hats and patterns and shorts with slip-ons and ridiculous bags. He has dimples and a heart-shaped smile, which famously turns into a ㅅ shape when he’s down.
J-Hope is a triple-threat: he’s the lead dancer, one of the main rappers and a sometimes-vocalist. He’s also involved in composing and producing. His background is street dance, and his dance style tends towards a kind of precision-controlled looseness. As a rapper he uses a lot of half-sung rap and really fun onomatopoeia (if you hear car-engine sound effects in a BTS song, that’s J-Hope).
RM
Kim Namjoon, b. 1994. RM is the leader, the one who represents the group to the company and to the world. He’s earnest and articulate, and he has a gift for languages. He’s also a disaster of a human being: he breaks everything he touches and loses everything he owns. He cares a lot about fashion and anguishes over how daring to be about it. He starts hunting for crabs like a little kid any time he gets near a beach. As leader he’s conscientious about encouraging each of the others to speak up on camera and about helping them to show their best and most appealing selves. He always tries to make sure everybody gets credit where it’s due. He rarely starts shenanigans but he nearly always plays along when somebody else does. He has deep dimples. He’s the tallest member. He talks to himself out loud to encourage himself. He makes a literal human XD face when he’s feeling self-conscious. He originally debuted with the stage name Rap Monster, and regretted it.
RM is one of the three main rappers – his style is sometimes forceful but often precise and enunciated and full of clever wordsmithery. He does a lot of composing and producing, and he's the group's main lyricist. His lyrics range from fun wordplay and delicately beautiful poetics to odes to sexy shoes and dorky philosophy about lonely wales and ants, to biting social commentary and, often, self-reflection and wistful, soul-baring introspection.
Jimin
Park Jimin, b. 1995. Jimin has a natural cuteness that can be off-the-charts lethal. Since their debut he’s been very seriously working on adding in coolness and sexiness, to pretty devastating effect. He’s cuddly and tactile, flirty as hell and allows himself to be manhandled with varying degrees of good grace. He’s a practice bug and a perfectionist, and often fixates on tiny flaws or mistakes. He famously needs a lot of love and attention, and is shameless about asking for praise. And he’s generous with attention and encouragement for others. He also loses his temper easily, and he’s surprisingly yell-y for such a soft-voiced person. He throws himself bodily about when he laughs. He can casually fold himself in half. He has small hands and likes to wear his sleeves long enough to give himself sweater paws. He also wears a lot of rings, and says he likes his hands to feel heavy. He’s amazingly clumsy for a graceful person.
Jimin is one of the four main vocalists. He has a lilting sort of voice with a lot of colour to it, and he takes most of the really high notes in BTS songs. He’s also one of the three main dancers – his background is contemporary dance, and his style has a lot of fluidity and pretty lines. He also uses a lot of big powerful movements to make the most of his un-tall stature.
V
Kim Taehyung, b. 1995. V has the most incredible boxy smile you’ve ever seen. He’s fearless and sometimes unpredictable. He’s often puppyishly cute, on purpose or by accident, and he can get wild and over-excited, with an unselfconscious sort of naivety. He also has a deep and carefully cultivated interest in aesthetics and fashion and the arts. He sometimes has trouble expressing himself, and often makes vocab errors or uses odd syntax. He has a literal gazillion friends in both the idol and acting worlds. He’s even more of a flagrant cheat in games than Suga is. He goes stiff and silently shakes when he laughs really hard. He likes to hug something in his sleep, ideally a person. He's good with children and with animals. He grew up in an agricultural area, and has a lot of feelings about strawberries. This international beauty list named him the most handsome face in the world in 2017.
V is one of the four main vocalists. He has a low, husky voice that can be velvet-soft in some songs and this incredible gravelly wrecking ball in others. He’s not usually counted among the main dancers, but he has a lanky elegant grace as a dancer that can be pretty deadly. He can also dance in heels. V is also the only member who’s had an acting role in a drama, so far.
Jungkook
Jeon Jungkook, b. 1997. Jungkook (officially styled Jung Kook) is the maknae, or youngest member! He moved into the trainee dorms when he was 13 years old by international age, and the other members are going to admit that he’s grown up approximately never. People are constantly petting his hair. He’s ridiculously athletic and naturally good at every sport, as well as being a bit of a workout junkie. He’s also naturally artistic: he has a pattern of falling into a new creative or athletic pursuit and then being startlingly good at it. His sense of humour is meme-child physical, and he has a knack for imitating the other members. He has very slightly prominent front teeth and a habit of scrinching his nose, so fans tend to call him a bunny. A lot. He’s equal parts a terror and a considerate sweetheart to the other members. He has a sensitive nose and loves clean and nice-smelling clothes – whenever they stay somewhere new, Jungkook looks for the laundry first. He’s lively with people he knows but shy with strangers. In a lot of ways he was brought up by the group.
Jungkook is the other triple-threat member: he’s the lead vocal, a sometimes-rapper, and one of the three main dancers - his dance style is all sharp, clean lines. He also does some producing. He has the strongest and steadiest voice among the vocalists, so he’s often the backbone of Bangtan songs, but when he sings for himself he prefers a more delicate and breathless style.
One more time with real names! L-R: Seokjin, Namjoon (standing), Hoseok, Yoongi, Jimin (in front), Jungkook, Taehyung (source)