Saturday, February 2, 2019

Burn the Stage: The Rise of BTS and Korean Boy Bands

Burn the Stage is a bio and pop-cultural commentary on the K-pop phenomenon. Written by culture biographer Marc Shapiro, it's a concise 110 pages and available in ebook and paperback formats.  The book seemed to me to be written to a specific formula. The author clearly had access to earlier interviews and media releases with band members and entourage.  It's not clear that Mr. Shapiro talked with or spent any time with the members of BTS himself. The photo appendices contain wiki commons free license images.  There is a potentially useful/interesting discography timeline with international releases listed by country of release. The appendix also contains a comprehensive list of awards and nominations listed in alphabetical order by award name.

Very little here which will be new for fanatical K-pop fans.  Possibly a good trivia crash course if you're taking your daughters to see BTS in concert and want to impress the other moms with your knowledge of the band members.

Three stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.


No comments:

Post a Comment