BTS released their highly anticipated music video for “Dynamite”. The video racked up over 98 million views on YouTube on day one, breaking the site’s record for most views within 24 hours of release.
What We Know:
- “Dynamite” is the first entirely English single by K-Pop powerhouse BTS. The music video premiered on August 21 at 12 a.m. ET/1 p.m. KST. Within the first 24 hours, it was viewed over 98 million times, setting a new YouTube record. K-Pop group Blackpink was the previous record holder, setting the bar at 86 million views during the first day when they released the music video for “How You Like That” in June. “Dynamite” also set the YouTube record for the most-viewed premiere with over 3 million live viewers at its release.
- BTS might have another song of the summer on their hands with “Dynamite”. Everything about the song is uplifting and energetic from the group’s vocals to the cheerful lyrics. The music video is full of colorful visuals and scenes of the boys dancing and having fun with each other. There’s definitely some inspiration from the Jackson 5 and other disco and funk groups in the song’s guitar and high brass instrumental. The music video also evokes plenty of nostalgia with posters of The Beatles and David Bowie, an old school diner and record shop sets, and giant letters that spell “DISCO”.
- While promoting the song, the group explained that “Dynamite” is meant to be something positive and joyous during what is otherwise an incredibly bleak year. During an interview with USA TODAY, rapper Suga said that the coronavirus pandemic “is a situation that everybody else around the world is facing, so we just started to explore what can we do right now, what can we do really good?” In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music, group members said that they “made this song in hopes of giving energy to the listeners. We’re glad this song turned out great and hope a lot of our fans can listen to it to receive the positive energy we tried to incorporate in the song.”
- 2020 has been quite a year for BTS. The group released its full album Map of the Soul: 7 in February. Like most musical artists, the pandemic put an indefinite end to concerts and touring. Last month, the group released a Japanese album titled Map of the Soul: 7 – The Journey with Japanese versions of previous songs as well as original singles. With an additional album in the works for late 2020, BTS decided to release “Dynamite” to give fans a taste and share some excitement with them.
BTS will perform “Dynamite” at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards on August 30 at 8 p.m. ET.
