On April 17th, 2021, BTS held a virtual event where fans could watch past BTS concerts in a 7-hour live stream on BANGTANTV YouTube channel for free and would be deleted as soon as the last concert ended. This year the live stream consisted of three past concerts, BTS Live Trilogy EP. 1 BTS Begins (Memories of 2015), BTS 5th Muster [Magic Shop] in Busan (2019), and BTS World Tour Speak Yourself in São Paulo (2019).

Because of the pandemic, the BTS Map of the Soul Tour, originally scheduled to begin in April 2020, was unfortunately postponed. The company made sure fans were getting some sort of entertainment during these hard times and so the first BangBangCon part took place on April 17th, 2020 starting at 10 pm CST and lasting 24 hours, with its peak viewership at 2.24 million views each day. The second one was different, Bang Bang Con: The Live was a live concert live-streamed for those who paid a fee of $26, and It was recorded that there were 756,000 paid viewers, breaking a Guinness World Records title for most viewers for a music concert live stream. BangBangCon21 is the third concert that has been live-streamed to fans, and around 2.7 million people tuned in to the youtube live stream, not even including the people that watched it on other platforms. 

BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan), also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member South Korean boy band that debuted in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment, now known as HYBE Labels. They have had a massive increase of followings over the past recent years and massive success with concerts in worldwide stadiums and venues. With the 2018–2019 Love Yourself World Tour, BTS made a grossing of $196.4 million from its last 42 shows, becoming the highest-grossing tour by an act that performs primarily in a non-English language in history. With such high breaking records the company makes sure fans all over the world can watch past filmed concerts by selling discs of them and events such as BangBangCon for free.

The concerts themselves were very creative, and the way the performances were organized as well. The stadiums where their performances took place were exquisitely detailed. The fire and lights made you believe as if the settings displayed were real. The effects used, such as the lights, kept the performances alive and upbeat. But most importantly the backup dancers allowed the BTS members to stand out. The creative change in outfits also change the mood of the concert from song to song, whether it was upbeat music or calm and slow music.

The first concert to be streamed was BTS Live Trilogy EP. 1 BTS Begins (Memories of 2015). It was one out of the two concerts by BTS that was to promote their School Trilogy series, including their first mini-album, O!RUL8,2? and their second mini-album, Skool Luv Affair. This concert also was Episode I but chronologically the second out of the BTS Live Trilogy, with The Red Bullet tour as Part II (previously streamed at BangBangCon2020) and The Wings Tour as Part III as the final. With such a throwback concert, fans were sure to go back in time and see and listen to past performances and songs of BTS.

After the first concert ended there was a twenty-five-minute break. MVs (Music Videos) played and I had the chance to have a break and get something to eat, drink, and scroll through Twitter and see everyone’s reactions. When the time ended to start BTS 5th Muster [Magic Shop] in Busan, they performed “Home” from the album Map of the Soul: Persona, a song that got me singing at the top of my lungs at 3am with only my computer’s screen to light up my room. Me singing loudly for every song performed, especially the song “Spine Breaker,” was not a great idea when I woke up half my household and got a noise complaint, but the show must always go on, so I still sang very loudly, noise-canceling the world around me.

They ended the Muster with the song “Magic Shop” from the album Love Yourself 轉 ‘Tear’, which is also another meaningful song that is very comforting for me and many others. Once the song ended, the second break started, but this time it was 20 minutes, still playing MVs and past videos. At this point, it was around 4:20 am and I was a bit exhausted, and the only thing keeping me up was the coffee I had at the beginning of the live stream and all the serotonin I was getting while watching and singing along the performances. 

 The ending song for BTS World Tour Love Yourself Speak Yourself in São Paulo concert was “Mikrokosmos”, also from the album Map of the Soul: Persona. This song has held a lot of meaning for everyone since it was one of the last world tour performed songs since the pandemic started. While the song was playing BTS were getting off stage and fireworks began to pop in an array of colors painting the night sky almost distracting us from their departure, a perfect ending, yet no one knew what the next upcoming years were going to be like. At the end of the BangBangCon stream, a black screen showed up thanking everyone, especially ARMY (fandom name) who stayed and watched till the end.

The online BTS concert was very entertaining and all the members of the band seemed to be very involved in their performance. One of the most captivating parts was that during the concert, fans were able to join the concert life, and their cameras would show during the performance. It seemed like a normal concert with excited fans living the moment. I feel like this small detail allowed the fans to feel more involved and taken into consideration. 

The BTS concert had both an emotional and physical impact on many of its fans. During this pandemic, the band still found a way to satisfy their fans and showcase past live performances. And although the purpose of any type of concert is for bands to play their music, this live stream event was beyond that. The concerts brought to reconnect the BTS members and their fans together. To give hope for a new start since the pandemic.