20. No More Dream (2013)
At the start of their career, BTS were marketed as a cross between a Korean idol band and a blinged-out rap act: “Our life is hip-hop,” offered band member Suga early on. No More Dream is actually far tougher-sounding than you might expect: the vocals growl, the backing blares, the double-bass sample that drives the intro is great.
19. Mikrokosmos (2019)Here come the mirror men … BTS.
Evidently written with arenas twinkling with thousands of (lucratively branded) light sticks in mind, Mikrokosmos offers a brand of electronic pop that’s both melodically pretty and epic-sounding. Whether you choose to believe the claim that its title actively encouraged fans to bone up on ancient Greek philosophy is up to you.
18. Save Me (2016)
Part of BTS’s appeal clearly rests on the strikingly un-macho vulnerability they project. Save Me is a case in point. The music is upbeat, bearing the influence of tropical house, electropop and – in the rhythm track of the chorus at least – dubstep. But the vocals deal in breathy desperation: “I’m trapped in myself and I’m dead.”
17. Mic Drop (2017)
Already huge in Korea and Japan, a remix of Mic Drop by EDM DJ Steve Aoki gave BTS their first US Top 30 hit and breached the UK charts. Still, the original might be the best: trap-fuelled pop, with a distinct hint of Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On about its hook.
16. Run (2015)
Not to be confused with 2022’s Run BTS, Run is a finely turned example of the band’s gradual shift towards a more straightforwardly pop-oriented style. There’s still rapping here, but what really sticks with you is the wistfulness of the melody and the euphoric surge of the house-fuelled chorus.
15. Idol (2018)
A riposte to that perennial bugbear, the haters – “I do what I do,” it counsels crossly, “so you just mind your own business” – Idol intriguingly blends South African house variant gqom and traditional Korean pansori (narrative song), heavy on synthesised gayageum (zither) and the janggu (drum). Nicki Minaj turned up on the remix, evidence of BTS’s mounting US popularity.
14. Burning Up (Fire) (2016)
Another career milestone, Burning Up (Fire) was the first – but not the last – BTS track to top Billboard’s global digital sales chart. It’s a melange of surprisingly harsh-sounding electronics derived from the world of stadium dubstep, stop-start dynamics, sneering, faintly Beastie Boys-esque rapping, and a hook that lodges in your brain from first listen.
13. Dope (2015)
Banned in Korea for its apparently vulgar lyrics – which perhaps tells you rather more about Korean censorship than the lyrics themselves – Dope lauds BTS’s own work ethic, and decries those who suggest the band are merely puppets: “The media and adults say we have no will … they’re the enemy.”
12. Boyz With Fun (2015)
Boyz With Fun flew in the face of BTS’s pivot towards a heartfelt brand of pop, applying their rap vocals to a knowingly daft, preposterously fun slice of party-starting disco, complete with a hook line that calls back to Funkadelic’s oft-sampled 1975 anthem Get Off Your Ass and Jam.
11. Boy With Luv (ft Halsey) (2019)Bubblegum … BTS live. Photograph: Bighit Music
BTS’s sixth album, Map of the Soul: Persona, was allegedly based on psychoanalyst Murray Stein’s book Jung’s Map of the Soul: An Introduction, although it’s fair to say you wouldn’t know from the first single. Decorated with a guest vocal by Halsey, Boy With Luv was BTS at their lightest: perfectly turned, toothsome bubblegum pop.
10. Boy in Luv (2014)
You could, if you wished, view Boy in Luv as a kind of K-pop homage to the mid-80s productions Rick Rubin created for Def Jam. Certainly, the immense beat and distorted rock guitar has a hint of Run-DMC’s Raising Hell or the Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill, albeit with a massive pop chorus attached.
9. Butterfly (2015)
By the time of their fourth mini-album, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2, BTS had far outgrown their original hip-hop-inspired remit. Butterfly is a feather-soft, breathily delivered ballad, with an unexpected lyrical reference to Haruki Murakami. The Prologue Mix, released in 2016, dials things down further until the whole song sounds like a sigh.
8. Black Swan (2020)
The first single from Map of the Soul: 7 struck an oddly sombre and jaded note. Over a languid hip-hop beat and the sound of a gayageum, the lyrics strongly suggested BTS had had enough of fame: “The heart no longer races when the music starts to play.”
7. DNA (2017)
A couple of months after its release in South Korea and Japan, DNA provided BTS with their US television debut when they performed the track at the American Music Awards and stole the show. Their astonishingly intricate choreography might have grabbed attention, but DNA’s effervescent pop-EDM clearly had a role to play.
6. Dynamite (2020)
The first ever US No 1 single by a South Korean band, Dynamite was apparently intended as a corrective to the Covid pandemic. Like another lockdown-era hit, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, it sounded like a party in full swing, offering a precision-tooled 21st-century pop take on disco euphoria.
5. Fake Love (2018)
A classic angst-drenched BTS ballad, supersized for maximum impact: echoing stadium rock guitar, immense trap beat, epic synths, shout-along hook. Intriguingly, some fans interpreted its lyrics, most notably the line about “trying to erase myself and make me your doll”, as being directed at the strictures of the K-pop industry.
4. Butter (2021)From left: V, Suga, Jin, Jung Kook, RM, Jimin and J-Hope. Photograph: Lee Jin-man/AP
Amid BTS’s penchant for high-concept albums, Butter was designed, according to band member Jimin, with nothing more lofty in mind than to be “easy to listen to”. It achieved its aim via hook-laden 80s-inspired funk: there’s a tang of classic Jam and Lewis productions to the synths, a touch of Daft Punk to its sound.
3. I Need U (2015)
This was the song that turned BTS into K-pop’s biggest stars, still rooted in hip-hop but more pastel-toned than their previous releases. The backing carries a suggestion of synthesised panpipes and a hint of the musical box, a sweetness at odds with the lyrical vehemence: “I can’t take it! I don’t give a shit!”
2. Blood Sweat and Tears (2016)
The perfect example of BTS’s ability to absorb voguish musical influences into their sound – in this case the chugging dembow rhythms of moombahton – without sacrificing their identity. It might fit with 2016’s trends, but Blood Sweat and Tears still somehow sounds different, at one remove from the rest of the era’s pop.
1. Spring Day (2017)
Still the heartfelt BTS ballad to end all heartfelt BTS ballads nearly a decade on from its release, Spring Day was initially inspired by the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy, in which 304 people died, 250 of them high school students; the video comes replete with visual references to the disaster. But you don’t need to know the background to feel the song’s emotional punch. The rapped verses feel closer to impassioned spoken word than hip-hop swagger, and the melody is tear-jerking, which means however grandiose the music gets – booming drums, fizzing EDM synths, a big chorus – it always feels downcast.