Following
Wings’s
release, the album topped the charts in South Korea and became number one in twenty-six other countries on iTunes.
1J.K., “BTS Sweeps Worldwide iTunes Charts With “WINGS,” MV Hits 3 Million Views In Less Than 10 Hours,” Soompi, October 10, 2016, https://www.soompi.com/article/904995wpp/bts-sweeps-worldwide- itunes-charts-wings-mv-hits-3-million-views-less-10-hours. It also ranked twentieth in the Billboard Top Album Chart upon its release and made history by being the first album by Korean artists to enter the UK Albums Chart.
2“Top Album Sales,” Billboard, October 29, 2016, https://www.billboard.com/charts/top-album-sales/2016-10-29/; SBS PopAsia HQ, “BTS makes history on the Official UK Album charts,” SBS, October 17, 2016, https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2016/10/17/bts-makes-history- official-uk-album-charts.BTS’s
Wings sparked what the Korean media dubbed as “Demian fever,” as sales of Hermann Hesse’s
Demian skyrocketed in South Korea following the album’s release.
3“Interview with BTS: International focus ‘The Second Psy,’” (originally published on Culture Plaza October 16, 2016), Bangtansubs, accessed October 16, 2022, https://www.bangtansubs.com/videos/2016/10/16/161016-culture- plaza-international-focusthe-second-psy?rq=culture%20plaz. Fans across the world read the book to understand the album concept better, especially since the members themselves had declared that they had read
Demian multiple times.
4J.K., “BTS Talks About Using “Demian” in “WINGS” Concept and Names Variety Show They’d Like to Appear On,” Soompi, October 17, 2016, https://www.soompi.com/article/907457wpp/bts-talks-using- demian-wings-concept-names-variety-show-theyd-like-appear. Several forums, blog posts, and YouTube videos unpack the meaning of BTS’s videos, where an intertextual analysis of Hesse’s
Demian has become part of the BTS canon. Fans worldwide are reading
Demian and other books that inspired BTS.
Although it is hard to give a precise number for the group’s fans, according to Guinness World Records, BTS’s social media following on Instagram (60 million), TikTok (46 million), and Twitter (44 million) have broken world records.
5Eleonora Pilasto, “BTS smash followers record on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok,” Guinness World Records, March 4, 2022, https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2022/3/bts-smash-followers-record- on-instagram-twitter-and-tiktok-694194. One survey estimated BTS’s fans by global region from the number of BTS fan club members, finding 11.8 million fans in North and South America, 70.59 million in Asia and Oceania, 6.57 million in Europe, and 230,000 in Africa.
6Kumari Khushboo, “Top 10 counties with the most BTS fans,” SK POP, March 10, 2022, https://www.sportskeeda.com/pop-culture/10-countries-bts- fans. With BTS becoming one of the world’s biggest bands of the twenty-first century, with fans stretching across the globe, one can see the global impact that Hermann Hesse has on popular culture even today.