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BTS will soon release a three-part anthology of key tracks, new songs, and previously unreleased rarities. Here's everything to know about 'Proof.'
There's a new stirring in the fabric of the BTS universe — a big one.
On June 10, the GRAMMY-nominated pop juggernauts will release Proof , a collection of tracks from throughout their discography, as well as brand new tracks, never-before-heard demos and more.
Spanning three discs, Proof promises to celebrate the band's past, present and future through a lovingly curated song cycle. If members of the BTS Army ever wanted to hear demos of tracks like "Jump," I Need U" and "DNA" — as well as an a cappella version of Jungkook's "Still With You" — they're in luck.
In the wake of Proof 's recently released tracklisting — featuring well-known tunes like "Dynamite" and "Butter" (and so much more), here's everything GRAMMY.com could find about the career-spanning compilation by a giant of 21st-century pop.
That's according to the official press release.
According to said press release: "The new album consists of three CDs that contain brand new tracks, members' selections, demo versions, unreleased tracks and more."
The first disc begins with a remastered version of "Born Singer," from all the way back in 2013, which the press release describes as "BTS' candid emotions they felt after one month of their debut." The disc ends with the lead single "Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)."
The second disc consists of "15 solo and sub-unit tracks," beginning with the new track "Run BTS," and highlights each BTS member's distinct tastes and personality.
The third disc, only available on CD, is said to be "dedicated to the fans," featuring unreleased tracks and demo versions that any fan will eat up — as well as a new fan song, "For Youth."
Read More: Smooth Like "Butter": How BTS' GRAMMY-Nominated Mega Hit Came To Be
Can you believe it's been almost a decade? Yet it feels like the Bangtan Boys are just getting started.
During their Permission To Dance Onstage concert in Las Vegas, BTS shared short clips with the text "We Are Bulletproof" and "2022. 06. 10." While this initially fueled speculation that a new album was coming, the release wound up materializing as Proof .
It's in the Highlights section of their Stories , where BTS also announced that "Yet to Come" will be the lead single.
See below — and watch this space as more details of Proof are unveiled!
K-Pop Group SEVENTEEN Talk New Album Your Choice, Love And Growing Together
Photo: The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images
To close out the year, GRAMMY.com is spotlighting five Korean K-pop songwriters and producers who made their mark worldwide in 2021: SUMIN, Teddy Park, ADORA, RM, and SUGA
Behind every successful K-pop act is a creative team helping compose their hit songs. Though more and more K-pop idols are becoming involved in their music creation, there are some contributors whose work on your favorite tracks simply can't go unrecognized. From R&B ballads to trap beats to electronic party anthems, the sonic possibilities are endless as genres continue to blur and producers get bolder with their choices. Many K-pop songwriters have done notable work abroad as well, collaborating with some of the biggest names in music globally and serving as the think tanks that made your favorite hit songs possible.
Though much of K-pop music mixes genres and languages, the structure of the songs often allows for more experimentation and nuance than we see in the Western pop industry. Taking inspiration worldwide and incorporating cultural markers in the music, the undefinable sound and flare of K-pop creatives has had an enormous impact on music as we know it.
To celebrate the incredible talent within the Korean music industry and to close out 2021, GRAMMY.com is spotlighting five Korean K-pop songwriters and producers who made their mark worldwide this year. Get to know SUMIN, Teddy Park, ADORA, RM, and SUGA.
Producing is too often dominated by men, but South Korean songwriter and producer SUMIN is a woman doing wondrous work in the space. SUMIN's versatility has found her expertly navigating both the underground and popular music scenes in Korea. Her style isn't bound by genre, often drawing influence from hip-hop, electronic, bass, and other sounds, with some dubbing her sound "Neo K-pop."
In addition to her own music — she released an EP called XX in 2020 — the composer has graced the credits of a diverse roster of Korean artists over the years. Some of the most popular songs she helped pen include "Lie" sung by Jimin on BTS' critically acclaimed 2016 Wings album; "Look" on Red Velvet's 2017 Perfect Velvet: The 2nd Album; "Eyes Locked, Hands Locked" on Red Velvet's 2019 The Reve Festival' Finale; and 2018 R&B single "Pool" by Woodz. Her most recent credits include "Epilogue" on IU's long-anticipated fifth album, Lilac, and "Bother Me" on Chungha's album, Querencia.
From all the amazing work SUMIN has done, K-pop will benefit greatly as she continues to innovate and experiment.
If you're a hardcore Blink, you may be familiar with the name Teddy Park. The in-house YG Entertainment producer is credited for BLACKPINK member Rosé's solo debut songs "On the Ground" and "Gone," and he has a close working relationship with the group as well. He is also credited on major hits, like BLACKPINK's "Ice Cream" featuring Selena Gomez as well as the group's collab with Lady Gaga, "Sour Candy," off her Chromatica album. He also produced most tracks on BLACKPINK's 2020 album, The Album, and the 2018 party staple "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du," which became the highest-charting song by a Korean girl group on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Read: BLACKPINK Talk The Album: "The Spotlight Shed On K-Pop Is Just The Beginning"
Besides BLACKPINK, Park works with other major K-pop artists and has helped write and compose hits like Big Bang's "Fxxk It" and "Bang Bang Bang," Psy's "Daddy" ft CL, and Sunmi's "Gashina," in addition to working on a huge chunk of 2NE1's discography. The Korean American's production style is influenced by his days as a rapper, but also incorporates contemporary R&B, reggae, house, and EDM.
As Park has had a hand in some of the industry's biggest hits, he rightfully deserves recognition for his success in shaping the sound of K-pop over the years and into the future.
ADORA, or Park Soohyun, has been a longtime interest to the BTS ARMY. Her angelic vocals lace many BTS songs, including "Trivia: Seesaw," "The Truth Untold," "Serendipity," and "Euphoria," which she also helped write. As the only woman on their producing team, ADORA's presence on the tracks provide an extra layer and perspective that helps complete them. Her contributions to BTS' discography are expansive: She's written lyrics for fan favorites like "Spring Day," "Love Maze," and V's "Sweet Night."
More recently, she worked alongside J-Hope on "Blue Side," sang on "Telepathy" on BE, and contributed vocally and lyrically to TXT's minisode1 : Blue Hour. Her other standout work includes GFriend's "Labyrinth" as well as production on the solo projects from BTS members, like "forever rain" on RM's Mono and "Daydream on J-Hope's Hopeworld. She can be heard on multiple songs throughout BTS' Map of the Soul: 7, Map of the Soul: Persona, and the group's other chart-topping albums.
ADORA's unique touch hasn't gone unnoticed to many fans, and it'll be exciting to see how she continues to add to the multifaceted sound of other Big Hit artists.
Read: 5 Rising Korean Artists To Know Now: STAYC, ENHYPEN, ITZY, TOMORROW X TOGETHER & ATEEZ
You may know him as the charming leader of BTS, but RM's talents span boundaries. His songwriting and producing work deserves just as much recognition as his leadership abilities and rap skills. He's credited as a songwriter and composer on the group's GRAMMY-nominated hit "Butter" in addition to a large portion of their overall discography, including Map of the Soul:7, BE, Map of the Soul: Persona, the Love Yourself albums, his own mixtape, Mono, and more.
The list goes on and on, and his hip-hop roots have led him to solo collaborations with artists like Wale on 2017's socially conscious "Change," which the two artists wrote together. RM also wrote his iconic verse on the chart-topping "Old Town Road (Seoul Town Road Remix)" with Lil Nas X and penned TXT's lead single, "0X1=LOVESONG."
RM's expert lyric writing incorporates exceptional wordplay and a deft mastery of multiple languages, which give him a unique edge and which can be heard on his notorious rap lines on "Ddaeng," "Tear," and "UGH!" As RM continues to expand on his production and songwriting work, K-pop fans are truly in for a treat.
Read: Meet The First-Time GRAMMY Nominees: BTS Talk Excitement For 2021 GRAMMY Awards Show & Representing Koreans & K-Pop On The Global Stage
BTS member Suga originally joined Big Hit as a producer. Most of his work outside of BTS has notably been with women artists. From co-writing and producing IU's "Eight," Heize's "We Don't Talk Together," and Suran's "Wine" — which earned him a Best Soul/R&B award at South Korea's 2017 Melon Music Awards — Suga has been passionate about creating meaningful music with artists he respects. With American artists, he wrote his verse on MAX's "Blueberry Eyes" and "SUGA's Interlude" on Halsey's 2020 album, Manic.
Suga's style has an introspective charm that reflects his own personality well. He's credited for co-producing earlier BTS hits like "Tomorrow" and "Let Me Know," but has since gone on to work on more as their sound continues to evolve. His own solo project, released under the alias Agust D in summer of 2020, gave a full-throttle view of his hard-hitting, diss-track style of rap coupled with more self-reflecting songs.
While the BTS members each have involvement in the behind-the-scenes music-making process, Suga counts more than 100 credits with the Korea Music Copyright Association. Along with BTS bandmate J-Hope, Suga became the first Korean lyricist and composer to take part in a No. 1 song in the Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Savage Love (BTS Remix)".
There's no telling what else Suga has in store for K-pop fans in the years to come, but his past work shows a promising future in production.
2021 In Review: 8 Trends That Defined Pop
BTS - "Black Swan" Music Video
The striking visual is the latest offering from the South Korean septet's chart-topping album
BTS are back with another stunning music video off their newly released, chart-topping album Map Of The Soul: 7. Today (March 4), the global pop superstars released the official music video for "Black Swan," the first single off the album.
Simple yet striking, the "Black Swan" video shows the South Korean septet deliver a gorgeous dance performance inside an equally beautiful theater. Directed by YongSeok Choi and co-directed by Guzza, both from the Lumpens creative collective, the visual depicts the members of BTS transforming from swans into the song's eponymous black swans onstage.
The "Black Swan" video follows the group's recent cinematic visual for Map Of The Soul: 7 single "ON," which last week (Feb. 28) broke YouTube's record for most views for a video premiere. Last month (Feb. 21), BTS released the Kinetic Manifesto Film: Come Prima, the first visual for "ON" that unfolds like a short film.
Released last month, Map Of The Soul: 7, BTS' fourth studio album, is breaking records around the world. Already the best-selling album of the year worldwide, the album topped the Billboard 200 chart, their fourth No. 1 album in the U.S., while lead single "ON" currently sits at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking their highest record on that chart to date.
Read: BTS Talk New Album 'Map Of The Soul: 7': "The Genre Is BTS"
In an interview with the Recording Academy last month, BTS explained their creative approach to Map Of The Soul: 7, which sees the group exploring everything from pop ballads to hip-hop jams.
"I think it's less and less meaningful to divide music into genres now," BTS member Suga said.
"The genre is BTS. That's the genre we want to make and the music that we want. New genre," the group's Jungkook, V and J-Hope added.
Map Of The Soul: 7 follows a dazzling performance from BTS at the 62nd GRAMMY Awards last month. They joined Lil Nas X in a star-studded performance of "Old Town Road" that also featured Billy Ray Cyrus, Diplo and Mason Ramsey.
Map Of The Soul: 7 marks BTS' first full-length project since their 2018 album, Love Yourself: Tear, which topped the Billboard 200 chart and solidified the group as the first Korean act to accomplish that record-setting feat. It's also the second installment in BTS' ongoing Map Of The Soul series, which launched with the chart-topping Map of the Soul: Persona EP last April.
Why is K-pop's popularity exploding in the United States?
Photo: Emma Mcintyre/Getty Images
From Lizzo’s classic Hollywood gown to Ariana Grande’s puffy grey dress, who wore your favorite red carpet look?
The 62nd GRAMMYs red carpet didn’t disappoint. Every color, pattern, style and texture under the rainbow was represented.
Take, for example, Lizzo’s elegant white classic Hollywood-inspired gown or Lil Nas X’s hot pink cowboy suit. Shawn Mendes opted for a vibrant purple suit and Tyler, The Creator made a splash with a light pink bellboy outfit. Billie Eilish homed in on the color green for the evening while Yola rocked hot pink.
With so many great looks to see on Music’s Biggest Night, we wanted to know, which artist wore your favorite look?
Check out the complete 62nd GRAMMY Awards nominees and winners list here.
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