2017: You Never Walk Alone
On February 13, 2017, BTS re-released their second full-length studio album, Wings, titling it You Never Walk Alone. Pre-orders for the album, which contains 4 new tracks, reached over 700,000 copies. Title track "Spring Day" achieved an all-kill on 8 of the major South Korean online music charts, having crashed the Melon digital chart upon its initial release due to traffic overload. "Spring Day" entered the US Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at No. 15. A writer from the magazine highlighted the achievement as the single "almost all in Korean, had zero promotions in America."Within 24 hours of the music video for "Spring Day" being released, it reached over 9 million views. This broke the previous record on YouTube for the highest number of views on a K-pop group music video within 24 hours, previously held by the music video of their own song "Blood, Sweat, and Tears". However, the new record was broken a week later after the group released the music video for "Not Today", which accumulated over 10 million views in said time span. Similarly, "Spring Day" became the fastest K-pop group music video to reach 20 million views, achieving the feat in less than 4 days; "Not Today" bested this by reaching said number of views in less than 3 days. The group performed the new tracks from You Never Walk Alone for the first time at the South Korean leg of the 2017 BTS Live Trilogy Episode III: The Wings Tour, a week after its release.
On May 21, BTS won the Top Social Artist Award at the Billboard Music Awards.
From September 4 to 13, 2016, Big Hit Entertainment released a series of short films for each member to promote the new comeback.
Each film uses heavy imagery and quotes from the book, Demian, by Hermann Hesse.
They are: Jungkook's "Begin",
Jimin's "Lie",
V's "Stigma",
Suga's "First Love"
Rap Monster's "Reflection",
J-Hope's "Mama",
and Jin's "Awake".
On September 25, 'Wings': Boy Meets Evil was released as their comeback trailer. Later they released the concept photos for the new studio album. On October 5, they released the album's track list.
The group held a press conference for the release of their album on the 10th. Asked about their new concept and its meaning, leader Rap Monster explained, "The harder a temptation is to resist, the more you think about it and vacillate. That uncertainty is part of the process of growing. [Blood Sweat & Tears] is a song that shows how one thinks, chooses, and grows." Symbolism such as the "wings" were representations of growth, with Suga adding, "The song relays an optimistic determination to use our wings to go far, even if we are met with temptations in life."
During their V-live pre-show held on the 9th, the members discussed their own solo songs featured in the album, with Jungkook explaining that his solo track, "Begin", was about his journey to Seoul and meeting the BTS members.
V revealed his song, "Stigma", describing it as "a song under the neo-soul genre". J-Hope described his song, "MAMA" as unforgettable, as it was about his childhood emotions for his mother. "Awake" was also Jin's first experience in co-composition.
Rap Monster revealed that the 14th track, "Two! Three! (Still Wishing There Will Be Better Days)" was the first official fan song. In an additional V-live broadcast on October 20, 2016, Rap Monster discussed the album's songs in-depth. He complimented J-hope's dancing abilities for the trailer and Jimin's songwriting on "Lie", and shared that "First Love" reminded him how important the piano is for Suga.
The song "Am I Wrong" samples Keb' Mo's 1994 jazz/blues song "Am I Wrong"and the album credits Kevin Moore as co-writer and co-producer.
A re-packaged edition of the album, titled You Never Walk Alone, was released on February 13, 2017. This edition adds four new tracks which are "Spring Day", "Not Today", "A Supplementary Story : You Never Walk Alone" as well as an extended version of "Wings". The new version dominated the digital music market in South Korea. Lead track "Spring Day" shot straight to the top spot across eight online music streaming sites, including Melon, Mnet, Genie and Naver Music within an hour of its midnight release. MelOn's site was temporarily inaccessible and there was an error message when trying to access BTS' "Spring Day" due to so many people trying to download it. The song delivers a warm, comfort and hopeful message. It depicts personal experiences of the band members Rap Monster and Suga, about never losing hope while waiting to be reunited with an estranged friend. Spring Day is an alternative hip hop song with the essence of British rock and electronic music. The main melody was written by Rap Monster.
The group announced in November 2016 to be going on the 2017 BTS Live Trilogy Episode III: The Wings Tour in support of their album, having shows in South Korea, the Americas, and various Asian countries starting in February 2017.
On July 4, BTS announced that in addition to being known as Bangtan Sonyeondan or Bulletproof Boy Scouts, they will now include "Beyond The Scene" as their new brand identity. This was announced along with a cover of the Seo Taiji and Boys classic "Come Back Home" (originally from Seo Taiji and Boys IV) for Seo Taiji's Time:Traveler project.
On July 24, Big Hit Entertainment announced that BTS will be making a comeback in September.
