After a nearly four-year-long hiatus due to mandatory military service, BTS finally returns with their newest hit album, ARIRANG. The album is centered on the band’s Korean identity, and it follows their journey of personal growth following their time in the South Korean military. The album’s name shares that of the 600-year-old UNESCO-inscribed traditional Korean folk song, which tells a story of cultural and national pride, longing, and resilience during emotional times. The album primarily focuses on themes of love, painful separation, strength in the face of adversity, and reunion—all of which both BTS and their fans, dubbed “ARMY,” can relate to after such a long wait.
The album came out roughly a week and a half ago, and it has already smashed every single record this year. Within 24 hours, the music video of the album’s title track, SWIM, hit approximately 33 million views, which is the fastest music video in 2026 to reach such numbers. Within the first hour during its premiere, it had already reached 5 million views. Within its first day of release, the album became the most streamed K-pop album in history, and it swept the Spotify Global Chart from spots #1-14, making all 14 of their new songs placed on the chart. SWIM also reached nearly 15 million streams during its first day, breaking their own records by surpassing their previous songs, Dynamite and Butter. On Apple Music, they set a new record for the highest daily total streams by any other artist on the listening platform, and completely topped the iTunes album charts in over 115 countries, surpassing other notable artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, and Harry Styles by a significant margin.
After the initial release of the album, BTS performed a live concert in Gwanghwamun Square, one of the most historic places in the nation that lies in the heart of Seoul. The concert was free to all in-person attendees, and it was also livestreamed on Netflix. The event was extremely successful, with over 104,000 members of the in-person audience and 18.4 million live global viewers, making it the biggest Netflix livestreamed event of this year. The group also made their television debut of the album this past week on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performing their songs SWIM and 2.0 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Just this past Monday, BTS have earned their seventh No. 1 Album on the Billboard 200, with ARIRANG joining other iconic albums such as Proof (2022), BE (2020), Map of the Soul: 7 (2020), Map of the Soul: Persona (2019), Love Yourself: Answer (2018), and Love Yourself: Tear (2018). Additionally, ARIRANG has completely taken over all other Billboard charts, including the Global 200 (which placed songs from the album in every single spot from #1 to #9) the Top 200, and Artist 100.
BTS has redefined global music influence, proving that their art acts as a universal language that binds diverse cultures together. Their previous music conveys ideas of self-love, resistance, and hope for a better future. ARIRANG is no different. The album explores the significance of their culture on the global stage, as well as their own experiences as non-Western artists performing for Western audiences. On the first track, Body to Body, the group made the creative decision to sample a traditional performance of the Arirang folk song. Within hours of the first listen, numerous videos on social media were posted to educate non-Korean fans on the meaning of the folk song and how important it was that BTS chose to not only name their album after it, but to also incorporate it into their modern music that millions of people from all walks of life listen to every day.
Personally, my favorite song off the album is Aliens. The song portrays the notion of being “othered” in Western society and shunned for being different by speaking in a different language. Throughout the years, BTS have received much criticism by Western media for not singing English songs and for only having one member, RM, who is the leader of the group, speak fluent English. Time after time, earlier interviews the group did in the United States during 2017-2019 always featured the seemingly endless questions surrounding their ability to speak English: “Will you release songs in English? What is your favorite English word? Which members are currently studying English? How did [RM] learn to speak such good English?” There would be at least a few instances every time they traveled to the United States where, rather than talking about their music, they would be asked such irrelevant questions. Aliens fights the stigma of being seen as “foreign” or “the other.” Instead, it shares a powerful message that being different is a strength, not a flaw, and to embrace the uniqueness of yourself as an individual—and for BTS, that means making music for a global audience on their own terms, not constrained by the expectations of the West.