The guessing game began this week when a mysteriously untitled book, scheduled for publication in July and known only as “4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023”, appeared. It quickly became a bestseller when Taylor Swift fans began feverishly speculating that it was her surprise memoir.
But the mystery has been solved, with publishing house Flatiron Books bringing forward their announcement by a month to reveal the book is actually by another musical powerhouse: the K-pop boyband BTS.
Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS is written by journalist Myeongseok Kang with the seven members of the group – RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook – and will be structured as an oral history of their story. It has been translated into English by Anton Hur, in collaboration with Clare Richards and Slin Jung.
Rumours about the book began to spread when US booksellers shared news that an untitled book with a huge initial print run of 1m copies was coming on 9 July, and that they had been required to sign an affidavit to stock copies on publication day. The book, a Flatiron sales official emailed sellers, would have “global appeal” and “massive publicity”.
The scant available details about the book were read as clues by both fans of Swift and BTS. The author and subject were initially set to be revealed on 13 June: 13 is Swift’s favourite number, but the date is also the 10th anniversary of BTS’ first single, No More Dream.
The numbers in the 544-page count – 5-4-4 – also add up to 13. The 9 July publication date also falls two days after the release of Swift’s upcoming album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). But it is also the 10-year anniversary of Army day, marking the founding of BTS’s fanbase, Army, whose name stands for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth”.
Speculation about the book made it a bestseller on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites earlier this week, as fans of both Swift and BTS placed pre-orders.
The Army is an extremely online fandom that has become famous for their devotion to the band, with many learning Korean to help translate BTS content into English and other languages for fellow fans, as well as harnessing their collective voice for political activism.
When the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag began to take off on Twitter in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, K-pop fans hijacked the hashtag and drowned it out by flooding Twitter with video clips and memes of their favourite artists, many accompanied by anti-racist messages.
Soon after, K-pop fans humiliated the then US president Donald Trump by registering for tickets at one of his rallies with no intention of attending, meaning Trump showed up to a very empty 19,000-seat arena in Tulsa.
Since 2013, BTS has released nine albums and six EPs. In 2018, the group became the first K-pop act to hit No 1 on the US Billboard album chart with Love Yourself: Tear, an achievement it repeated twice more in less than a year, matching a record set by the Beatles.
Last June, BTS announced they were going on hiatus, citing exhaustion and pressure as well as a desire to focus on solo creative projects. “It’s not that we’re disbanding,” member Suga said at the time. “We’re just living apart for a while.”
In October, the group’s label confirmed that the seven members of BTS would perform their mandatory military service, meaning any reunion would be delayed until 2025. All able-bodied South Korean men under the age of 30 are required to serve for between 18 and 21 months – a duty intended to maintain the country’s ability to defend against a possible attack by North Korea, with which it is technically still at war.
The oldest member of the band, Jin, began his military service in December, with J-Hope following in April.
BTS remains a huge money-spinner for South Korea, adding an estimated US$3.5bn annually to the country’s economy. Still, some male K-pop stars have struggled to resume their careers after military service, in a cutthroat industry where artists are seen as easily replaceable.
Associated Press contributed to this report
