YouTube declared BTS’ Idol the most-viewed music video in the first 24 hours since being uploaded on the video-sharing website, smashing Taylor Swift’s record for her single Look What You Made Me Do.
Garnering over 45 million hits in 24 hours, the K-pop band beat Swift’s record of 43.2 million with their catchy pop song’s bright and colourful music video, which has now been viewed over 100 million times on YouTube.
The official Twitter account for YouTube congratulated the Bangtan Boys for their achievement. ‘Congratulations to BTS! ‘IDOL’ now holds the record for the biggest music video debut in YouTube history, earning over 45 million views in its first 24 hours.’
Swift is now second on YouTube’s list for the most-viewed music video in the first 24 hours
Nicki Minaj also appears on an alternative version of Idol and both tracks are available on their newly released album Love Yourself: Album, which they will be promoting on their world tour which started in August 2018.
BTS – Idol
The music video BTS’ Idol garnered over 45 million views in the first 24 hours of it being available on YouTube, exceeding the group’s previous record for Fake Love, which saw biggest 24-hour debut of 2018 by amassing 35.9 million views in a day, according to Billboard.
However, fans noticed that the view count for Idol was frozen for many hours over the weekend at the mid-70 million range, which according to YouTube, is because the site ‘may temporarily slow down, freeze, or adjust the view count, as well as discard low-quality playbacks’ to validate views to ‘maintain fair and positive experiences for content creators, advertisers, and users.’
Released on Friday, August 24, 2018, Idol is the feature track on Love Yourself: Answer and the new album includes an alternate version of the single, which features Nicki Minaj.
The music video presented a mixture of the South African dance style Gwara Gwara and traditional Korean dance, which was performed by the band members against graphics of art and the Korean lion dance.
As reported in the Metro, Suga explained that the incorporation of Korean elements in the music video was not intentional. ‘It wasn’t that in this album we wanted to demonstrate things Korean because we have done so well so far (in the world).
‘The feel we wanted to show is that of a festival that brings together people of difference races, sexes, ages. This album was produced with a sense that we want to unburden ourselves [of pressure] and play and enjoy with fans like at a party.’
Love Yourself: Answer
Love Yourself: Answer was released a day before BTS embarked on their world tour, starting in Seoul on August 25. The Bangtan Boys revealed that the theme of their new album would be ‘festival’.
‘When you think of a festival, its preparations take place for a very long time, but the festival itself terminates very quickly in a very brief moment and leaves behind tons of garbage, as our concert does,’ RM said.
He continued to say that ‘life is the same as a festival. Happiness lasts for fleeting moments, leaving behind some snapshot images of the moments. So the final conclusion to [the theme] Love Yourself should eventually be a festival.
‘After grappling with many questions, we wanted to draw the message that [we should] enjoy life and seize the fleeting [happy] moments.’
The group will head to North America in September to perform at multiple sold-shows across the US and in Canada, ending their tour at New York City’s Citi Field, the first-ever stadium show held Stateside by a Korean artist.
BTS tour
The BTS world tour consists of 33 concerts in 16 cities and is expected to welcome around 790,000 fans.
Here is a full list of their tour dates:
Seoul, South Korea – Aug. 25-26, Olympic Stadium
Los Angeles, California – Sept. 5-6 and 8-9, Staples Center
Oakland, California – Sept. 12, Oracle Arena
Fort Worth, Texas – Sept. 15-16, Fort Worth – Convention Center
Hamilton, Ontario – Sept. 20, 22-23, First Ontario Centre
Newark, New Jersey – Sept. 28-29, Prudential Center
Chicago, Illinois – Oct. 2-3, United Center
New York City, New York – Oct. 6, Citi Field Stadium
London, England – Oct. 9-10, The O2 Arena
Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Oct. 13, Ziggo Dome
Berlin, Germany – Oct. 16-17, Mercedes-Benz Arena
Paris, France – Oct. 19-20, Accorhotels Arena
Tokyo, Japan – Nov. 13-14, Tokyo Dome
Osaka, Japan – Nov. 21, 23-24, Kyocera Dome Osaka
Nagoya, Japan – Jan. 12-13, Nagoya Dome
Fukuoka, Japan – Feb. 16-17, Fukuoka Yafuoku! Dome