If I knew that I had an unavoidable military enlistment that was fast approaching, and which would require a commitment of 18 months away from home, I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that I might be curled up in the fetal position in the weeks leading up to it, no motivation to work or do much of anything but rest. For BTS member Jin, however — the oldest of the 7-member pop group, and whose mandatory Korean military service is thus coming up first — it’s a totally different story.
The fun-loving Kim Seok-jin — who playfully describes himself as “Worldwide Handsome” and always blows a slow-motion kiss at the crowd during his introduction at BTS concerts — has been, shall we say, a little busy over the last few weeks. Coldplay recorded his solo song, and he teamed up with them. The AstronautA touching and sad (but temporary) farewell to his fans before he enlisted in the military. He flew to Buenos Aires to perform the song at the River Plate stadium.
A new YouTube series features Mr. ‘Worldwide Handsome’BTS
Part of his seemingly endless fan service? A 4-episode reality series, Drunken TruthYou can stream the video for free on YouTube this weekend.
This show seems to have the same happy-go-lucky vibe of something like BTS’ older reality series Bon Voyage, which I’ve been going back through as a newcomer to the staggering mountain of content this group puts out collectively and on an individual basis.
The new YouTube series focuses exclusively on Jin and Baek Jong Won, his partner. Jin learns to make his own alcohol. This seems like the ideal mission for a pop star, who in the past has recorded his own mukbang shows that consist of Jin eating and Jin watching. The Drunken Truth’s first two episodes can be streamed via BANGTANTV on November 12. The second episode will be available on November 19, followed by the final episodes on November 19.
It’s also nice to hear Jin, at one point in the trailer for the new show above, singing “There is no oooooooone else” — which is, of course, a line from The AstronautThe official music video has been viewed almost 40 million times on YouTube since it was released two weeks ago.
‘I get heaven to myself’
Talk about The Astronaut, the song earned Jin his first solo entry on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, which the publication putting its debut at No. 51 was streamed almost 5,000,000 times in the United States and downloaded 44,000 times during its first week of tracking after its October 28th release.
This news makes Jin the fifth BTS member to earn a solo hit on Billboard’s Hot 100.
To be sure, the milestone is extremely bittersweet for the tens of millions of BTS fans around the world known as the group’s “ARMY,” since the band’s label has previously released a statement explaining that once promotional efforts around Jin’s The Astronaut wind down, at that point he’ll “follow the enlistment procedure”Before reaching a certain age, all Koreans have to adhere to the same rules.
In hindsight, it feels very Jin to decide to put out one song before his enlistment begins — a song explaining his feelings about the BTS ARMY — and then fly across the world to perform it live, just one time.
More BTS ‘Yet to Come’
We have already mentioned that you can look up the definition in the dictionary of “fan service,” in a just world what you’d find there is the band’s official two-trapezoid symbol, representing open doors.
You don’t even have to be a fan of the group to appreciate the level of content and interaction with fans that they have released throughout their career. Disney Plus, for example, has become the indispensable streamer for fans of BTS, given that it’s the streaming home of A fantastic BTS concert film revisiting the Los Angeles shows from the band’s Permission to Dance tour at the end of 2021.
Disney Plus launched last month a new reality series, called In the Soop – FriendcationThe online platform Weverse has launched a new reality series called ‘BTS: The Extended Reality Series’. It allows viewers to follow BTS as they relax in remote locations and take a break form the hustle and bustle that is pop stardom. In the “Friendcation” edition, viewers follow BTS member V and his friends from various entertainment fields — including Park Seo-joon, who’s part of the cast of the upcoming Captain Marvel 2 – The Marvels — as they set out on a four-day vacation together.
“We were able to reach this far thanks to BTS. They were our starting point and the driving force throughout the way. We, including BTS think that we could not take a single step without ARMY. We’ve went through everything together in the process…” pic.twitter.com/FI9t4cgG1l
— sen⁷ 🌊 (@sugatradamus) November 10, 2022
A documentary that focuses exclusively on BTS was also made, entitled BTS Monuments: Beyond the StarDisney Plus will be bringing you, in 2023.
The individual band members are also using the group’s current hiatus, which is largely a function of the required military service, to release individual projects as Jin did with The Astronaut. Next up? Group leader Kim Namjoon, who’s putting out his solo album titled IndigoDecember 2.