About the Song:
“Foreign language hits have generally been received as novelties in the United States” BR but the Internet “atomized American into smaller and more segmented audiences” BR which meant “radio programmers had a harder time determining what counted as pop and what didn’t, and sounds from outside the anglophone mainstream could charge their way up the Hot 100. That, more or less, is what happened with the South Korean genre known as K-pop.” BR
K-pop is a “hypermodernized take on the old Motown charm-school model” BR “Young pop idols are trained with military precision…go[ing] through years of lessons in singing, dancing, speaking foreign languages, and interacting with the media.” BR The greatest benefactor of this approach was BTS (short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which roughly translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts). The seven-member South Korean boy band formed in 2010 with Jin, Sugar, J-Hope, Rap Monster (later RM), Jimin, V, and Jung Kook.
They released their first album, 2 Cool 4 Skool, in 2013 and landed their first #1 in South Korea in 2016 with “Blood, Sweat & Tears.” The next year, “DNA” became their first chart hit in the U.S., peaking at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100. Even after reaching the top 10 with “Fake Love” in 2018, the group wasn’t focused on recording in English. RM said, “We don’t want to change our identity or our genuineness to get the #1. Like, if we suddenly sing in full English…then that’s not BTS.” BR
However, after another couple of top-ten hits and the band being forced to cancel touring plans because of the Covid-19 pandemic, they did exactly that. While they “were reluctant to record ‘Dynamite’…they felt it was a necessary move…to record in English to avoid losing its pandemic momentum.” BR As their first English-language single, “Dynamite” was “created specifically to dominate the American charts” BR and did exactly that – it debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100.
The song was written by David Stewart and Jessica Agombar, “two British pop-industry professionals who’d previously worked with American stars like the Jonas Brothers and Hailee Steinfeld.” BR They focused on creating a song that was “uptempo, fun, [and would] not take itself too seriously.” BR It “needed to grab listeners’ attention immediately.” BR The result was “a bright, ingratiating piece of disco-pop…[that] was perfectly in tune with its moment on the American pop charts.” BR
Resources:
First posted 3/24/2024; last updated 10/14/2024.
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