BTS says new album will touch on pending global issues

A teaser image provided by MBC Radio on Monday for the network`s evening program “Bae Chul-soo`s Music Camp,” with K-pop group BTS as a featured guest. (Yonhap)

SEOUL — The themes and messages on the upcoming new album by BTS will revolve around major issues faced by the global community, the group hinted Monday.

“(The album) will include various genres of songs, so it’s hard to generalize the album as being of such and such genre,” BTS leader RM said during an interview on MBC Radio’s “Bae Chul-soo’s Music Camp.”

“The message will include topics that are deemed most necessary (for discussion) nowadays.” he added.

The seven-member boy band plans to release a new studio album near the end of the year.

BTS made history last month by becoming the first South Korean artist to top Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart with its disco-pop single “Dynamite.” The song took the top position on Billboard’s main singles chart for the second-straight week last week.

“It’d be a lie (to say) we didn’t look forward (to debuting at No. 1 on the Hot 100),” BTS member Suga said when asked whether the group anticipated the stellar performance of “Dynamite.”

Suga added, “But also leading the chart on the second week, that we did not expect. We thought we could potentially top the chart on the first week if we were lucky.”

The members also did not shy away from their aspirations for a possible nomination at the Grammy Awards in the United States.

“It’s a big goal. We’re dreaming for it,” said RM.

The runaway success of “Dynamite,” the group’s first full-English track, in the US has prompted speculations that the band could earn its first-ever Grammy nomination this year.

The band has made appearances twice at the event, as an award presenter in 2019 and as an onstage performer at the 62nd event held in January, where the K-pop septet performed with rapper Lil Nas X.

Besides hopes for a long-awaited nomination, BTS stated earlier this month that it hopes to perform at the annual award ceremony run by the US Recording Academy as a stand-alone act. (Yonhap)