BTS

What kind of group is BTS

BTS is a seven-piece group under BIGHIT MUSIC, made up of RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook. It debuted on 13 June 2013 with the single album 2 Cool 4 Skool, the date Kyunghyang Shinmun gave in its tenth-anniversary piece. The fandom is called ARMY, and the official site writes the fan club as “BTS GLOBAL OFFICIAL FANCLUB ARMY MEMBERSHIP”.

The Korea Herald listed the points the group has passed in a March 2026 piece on its first 13 years. It became the first K-pop group to perform at the American Music Awards in November 2017, the first K-pop act to enter the Billboard 200 at number one with Love Yourself: Tear in May 2018, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 with the English-language single ‘Dynamite’ in August 2020. The same piece recorded that group activity paused in June 2022, after the anthology album Proof.

Military service ran from Jin’s enlistment in December 2022 to Suga’s discharge in June 2025. Hankook Ilbo reported that when Jimin and Jung Kook were discharged on 11 June 2025 only Suga was left, and that he finished his service on the 21st of the same month.

Where to start

The fifth full-length album ARIRANG arrived on 20 March 2026. Kyunghyang Shinmun reported that it carries 14 tracks and that the title track is ‘SWIM’, which it described as an alternative pop song about “a determination to swim steadily at their own pace amid the waves of life”. According to the same piece the seven worked on the music together in Los Angeles last summer, with Diplo, Ryan Tedder and El Guincho among the producers.

The tour began 20 days after the album. The Korea Times reported that the ARIRANG world tour, which opened at Goyang Stadium on 9 April 2026, runs 85 shows across 34 cities, and that 46 of them had sold out by opening night. The stage is a 360-degree format with no designated front. RM said in the same piece that “the preparation wasn’t easy with a 360-degree stage, but once we get going I think it’s going to be a lot of fun”.

On 19 July 2026 the group performed at halftime of the FIFA World Cup final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The Korea Herald reported that it was the first halftime show ever staged at a World Cup final, and that the group sang ‘Dynamite’ in black, red and white outfits drawn from the colours of Korea’s Red Devils supporters.

Official music videos and stage films are on the group’s own YouTube channel and on HYBE LABELS. K-Culture Radar links to official uploads rather than re-hosting them, so that is where to watch.