BTS's 'Life Goes On' music video surpasses 600 million views

BTS’s global hit “Life Goes On” (2020) surpassed 600 million YouTube views on Sunday, its agency BigHit Music announced that same day.

The video crossed the milestone at approximately 12:34 a.m.

The song is the lead track of its seventh EP "Be," released in November 2020.

BTS member Jungkook directed the music video, which captures the septet’s quiet, everyday moments.

He also used images such as a dusty bicycle and empty concert hall to evoke the isolation that people experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the group’s longing to reunite with its fans, to ultimately convey a message of comfort: Even when unexpected hardships bring everything to a halt, “life goes on.”

As of Sunday, the track has also surpassed 1.03 billion streams on Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming platform — a milestone in K-pop history.

Upon its release, “Life Goes On” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the first song with predominantly Korean lyrics to rank first in the chart’s then-62-year history. It then remained on the chart for three consecutive weeks.

Beyond the latest YouTube milestone, BTS continues to boast an extensive lineup of music videos with hundreds of millions or even billions of views.

“Dynamite” (2020) has amassed 2.1 billion views, “Boy With Luv” (2019) has reached 1.9 billion, “DNA” (2017) has surpassed 1.6 billion and “MIC Drop (Steve Aoki Remix)” (2017) has topped 1.5 billion. “Fake Love” (2018) and “IDOL” (2018) have each exceeded 1.3 billion views, and “Butter” (2021) has surpassed 1 billion.

BY KO SEUNG-PYO [[email protected]]