BTS on "Butter" and the Sounds of Summer | TIME

J-Hope isn’t worried about change. In fact, the 27-year-old member of Korean pop group BTS insists, he and his six bandmates thrive on it.

The change in this case? A move toward more English-language music. “I think it’s interesting to see results from trying out these new things,” he explains to TIME over Zoom with the assistance of a translator, as the others—RM, Suga, Jimin, V, Jung Kook and Jin—nod along. “I started to take more interest, my English improved and it’s actually fun.” V agrees: “It wasn’t an easy process, but the results were good.”

The two singer-dancer-performers are referencing their group’s recent summer songs, “Butter,” released in May, and “Permission to Dance,” their latest from July. Both tracks have been major hits: “Butter” has now notched eight weeks at the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, a personal best for the septet, and was only knocked down after the first seven weeks when they replaced themselves with “Permission to Dance.” (A week later, at the beginning of August, “Butter” is back in the number-one spot.)

Together, the pair of songs helped them break the record for most weeks in the top two slots in Digital Song Sales chart history, and their double-replacement is also historic. These smashes follow their 2020 hit “Dynamite,” also sung primarily in English, which achieved significant radio play and chart success last summer. (That they are chart leaders is a given, but their records bear noting: they boast the quickest accumulation of five Hot 100 No. 1 songs in less than a year since Michael Jackson, and they’re the first artist to dethrone themselves since Drake in 2018.)

Read more about BTS: https://time.com/6087073/bts-butter-permission-to-dance/

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Видео BTS on "Butter" and the Sounds of Summer | TIME канала TIME