The Beatles of the 21st Century—and So Much More!
- Author : Herman, Tamar
- Publisher : VIZ Media, LLC
- Genre : Biography
- Publishing Date : August 11th, 2020
Contains Spoilers
BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears Introduction
BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is a new biography about one of the most famous bands in the world - BTS. BTS has found success far beyond the reaches of any K-pop before them, with fans all around the world. While K-pop has become increasingly popular outside of South Korea, never before has a band achieved the recognition and fame that BTS has. BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is a biography written entirely in English for foreign fans of this K-pop band, detailing the band’s rise from a brand new group in a competitive scene to one of the most internationally recognisable groups of our time.
It explores the timeline of BTS, has details about all of the members, highlights important points about each album and song they have produced, discusses the phenomenon of the BTS Army (the fans), and more. It also has quite a few pictures both of BTS performing as well as photoshoot sessions. At 157 pages long, BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is a thorough book that covers just about everything you can imagine about BTS, and author Tamar Herman delivers it all in a clear, concise, and non-biased style that reads very professionally.
On the flip side, many fans have voiced complaints online about BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears before it was even released due to it not being an official and endorsed product. But before we get into that, let’s check out our pros and cons for BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears!
Discussion Time
1. Learn the Ins and Outs of the Industry
One of the most interesting things about BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is that it not only teaches you a lot about BTS themselves, but also about the K-pop industry as a whole. The book does a great job explaining the differences between what being a K-pop idol in Korea and abroad are, the evolution of K-pop as an international genre, and how groups succeed and fail in the competitive and ever-changing industry. For fans of K-pop as a genre or interested in learning more about its impact in the music scene, seeing these insights throughout the book are really cool. Of course, BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is always focused directly on BTS themselves and their role within the world of K-pop, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also pick up some other interesting factoids along the way.
BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears also looks at how BTS has affected the international music scene and their expansion beyond popularity in just Korea and a niche market abroad. For anyone interested in this phenomenon, it’s worth reading the book!
2. Lose Yourself in All Things BTS
It goes without saying that one of the main reasons anyone would be interested in grabbing a copy of BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is that they want to learn more about BTS! And BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is a wonderful resource for learning everything possible about the band. Often, K-pop can be inaccessible for English-speaking audiences as far as getting official goods and information, but BTS has successfully been bridging that gap and bringing K-pop to an international audience. BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is also doing just that by being a source of information, photos, and stories - in English! - for BTS fans around the world. Rather than relying on poorly translated Korean sources or fan-written articles, BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is a published book written in a professional manner.
BTS fans can’t get enough of the group, and BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is something new and special to check out. It likely has information that they have never seen before, along with new photos. Not only is it a great piece of merchandise to display in a BTS collection, but it’s full of stories that BTS fans will enjoy reading as they make the journey from zero to hero along with their favourite band.
1. It’s Text-Heavy
If you’re looking for a photobook of BTS, you’re looking in the wrong place. BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is solidly a biography, so first and foremost, its a lot of information to digest. A lot of the pages are very text-heavy with no pictures at all. There’s a lot of information to sift through if you’re looking for something specific, and if you’re just interested in short and fun anecdotes about BTS, look elsewhere. For someone wanting to truly learn about the band, their origins, and story, it’s great; but if you just want a fun, light read full of pictures and fanservice, BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears isn’t the right book for you.
2. It’s Unofficial
It’s important to keep in mind that BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is not an official product that is made by the band, but rather a biography written by a well-known journalist. In the past, Tamar is known for not always shedding a positive light on the BTS Army and on the band themselves. This can be a big deterrent against buying the book and is one that must be respected as it is any fan’s choice whether or not they want to support Tamar’s product. The book has been written in a very straightforward and professional manner, but keeping in mind that, as an unofficial product, it may contain the bias and opinions of the author is still important, too.
Final Thoughts
BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is an interesting piece for BTS fans to add to their collection, even if they just read it slowly. It has the band’s background and origin story, their rise to success, profiles on each member, and even breakdowns of the meanings behind the lyrics of nearly all of their songs. And its got quite a few great pictures along the way, too!
BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears also walks readers through the wider BTS Universe, the complicated storyline that is told through BTS’s songs, social media, webtoons, and more. BTS is more than just a music group; they’re a multimedia phenomenon, and BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears explains everything in a way that is easy for anyone to understand. While its main audience is likely going to be superfans of BTS, its information is presented in a clear and easy to read in a way that even a new fan of the band who wants to learn more can understand.
While not every fan loves Tamar’s work, as a piece of informative literature, BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears is done well; it’s written in an unbiased format that presents information coherently and clearly. It’s not a book of fanservice, but it is a thorough biography about BTS, accomplishing what the book set out to do. [We sat down for an interview with her, actually, so scroll down for a link to that below!]
Have you read BTS: Blood, Sweat, & Tears yet? Are you interested in reading it? Why or why not? We would love to hear from you in the comments!
Author: Jet Nebula
