:blue_heart: 10 years of BornToBeat | three journeys with BtoB :blue_heart:

#borntobeat

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✦hello and welcome✦

today is March 21st 2022, and as you might know, it is the 10th anniversary of BtoB today!

i am here once again on behalf of KA‘s unofficial BtoB team to celebrate with all of you the now one-decade-long existence of our beloved favorite group!

for this blog, three of our team decided to use the opportunity to share their personal journey with BtoB and tell the story of how they came across the group and came to fall in love with them.

please us on our emotional trip down memory lane and come celebrate with us!

✦let‘s get started✦

‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊ ♡ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ♡ ‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊

°•. ☆ .•°

── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽°. miri‘s journey

before i begin, happy 10th anniversay to them 🥺 :two_hearts: i can't believe that it's already been so long and even though my journey with them didn't start with the most iration, i cherish the time i spent together with them so much. i how i wasn't a big fan of ballads or slower songs in general and especially when i first got into kpop. that especially wasn't lucky, because that's what these boys tend to release for us. but to everyone's surprise i for example didn't enjoy 'movie' as well which is a totally different concept. and i guess the more i listened to kpop and stumbled across their songs, the more i fell for them. i then learnt to appreciate 'movie' as a specific song, especially ilhoon while i realized how beautiful their slower songs actually are. i mean it's extraordinary how they combine their vocal skills and their rapping techniques. i also feel like 'only one for me' made the big difference to me and that's when i started to think about their music from another perspective. besides that, i immediately fell in love with 'i‘ll be your man', even though i forgot at what time i first listened to it.

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next because i already mentioned it above. ilhoon definitely caught my attention at first, especially because of his look in the 'movie' mv. but also because he has such intriguing charisma and an addictive rapping style. that was also influenced by his feature for hyuna's 'roll deep' ksjs there was just always something so eye-catching and mesmerising about him while his sweet personality as well as hardwork made me fall for him so much. he also managed to stay as my bias throughout all these years and even he's sadly not with the group anymore. i won't ever forget all the memories while i'm thankful to know how ive and kind he is. another member who constantly comes at me from left and right is minhyuk. this boy is just too breathtaking to even find words for. there's also literally nothing he can't do while he's someone so precious and warmhearted. however the other also never fail to remind me why they're such an impressive and loveable group as a whole. i especially love how random and chaotic they're while they're never pretending to be someone else which i find so charming.

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onto my favourite songs while i won't explain it in detail. and like there are a few songs which are so special to me while i also find their solo songs so charming and mesmerising. however for now i've picked three songs in fact 'whiskey' which is one of their recent bsides, but such an addictive and intriguing song. i love how unique it sounds while i can't stop repeating it or in general thinking about it. then 'i‘ll be your man' as one of their title tracks which also means so much to me and like it's just so powerful as well as beautiful. i find the combination of rapping and their vocals here so stunning while it sounds so memorable when put together with their strong emotions. i also felt like mentioning 'outsider' which is the second title track from their sub-unit 4u and like i love the concept so much. plus it sounds so fun and exciting which is so happy-making. plus there are so many more incredible and pretty songs, because they have such an interesting discography, but that's too much to talk about here.

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so shortly adding a few of my favourite moments starting with the iconic version of 'i‘ll be your man' from many years ago where they've sung with the effects to their mics. and like only thinking about this won't ever not be hilarious. it's even more hilarious, because all of them are singing or rapping with such ion like it's nothing special. however that gives even more reasons to laugh, especially with them not being able to hold in their laughter at times and also eric being there. i also want to mention the show me your voice part of a weekly idol episode 4u was in. and like it's a good combination of the insane vocal and rapping skills while they literally don't have any positions. plus it as always shows how effortless hilarious as well as chaotic they're. like watching them is immediately so enjoyable while i can't stop laughing and smiling. lastly everyone has to go watch the vlive they did after sungjae and hyunsik came back from the military, because it's the completel chaos happening again which we've all missed so much

.•° ☆ °•.

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°•. ☆ .•°

── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽°. ingrid‘s journey

BTOB used to be that one group spotify recommends to you sometimes that you listen to whatever comes on and then move on. You know they’re playing but you don’t really pay attention to them. So how did they go from that to being my ult and the only kpop group I really still care about?

Well, it all started with Kingdom: the legendary war. Yes, it’s that boring. I started watching it for SKZ and ATEEZ, but I instantly fell in love with BTOB. Like from the moment they appeared on screen I got really interested in knowing more about them. They were so funny and their introduction performance was absolutely beautiful! After watching them more I absolutely fell in love and I just had to know everything about this group.

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I honestly don’t know which member I noticed first, maybe it was all of them. I noticed Peniel because I had watched Hwaiting! (the dive studios show). I noticed Minhyuk because I knew about him from staning TxT. And I noticed Eunkwang and Changsub because they were just really funny and sung so well!

And as I started watching more BTOB content I fell in love with all 7 of them.

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I watching BTOB funny moments compilations to get to know them better because I didn’t know where to find any other content. But it worked cause I somehow learned all their names and started staning them from pretty much only that. I also watched their “... is sleeping” videos an insane amount of times.

It took me like 2 or 3 days to stan BTOB from barely knowing them. And let’s just say those days were just eating, barely sleeping and BTOB.

I’ll never forget the first BTOB song I was obsessed with. It was “Insane” and honestly that's probably the best way to describe me during that time as well. It became my most played song in 30 days four days after finding it and after a week it was my most played in 6 months. And yes, it was my most played song last year as well, to no one’s surprise.

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You might think I was ulting BTOB at this point, but I actually wasn’t. I genuinely don’t know why, I was more obsessed with them than any other group I staned and I hadn’t watched this much content of only one group since the start of 2021 when I started staning TxT again. I think I was just lazy and thought 5 ult groups was enough. Spoiler, it wasn’t, because not even two months after I started staning them I decided to ult them and my bias Hyunsik.

During the rest of 2021 BTOB ed a lot of my previous favourite artists in most streams and they’re my 10th most played artist ever as of writing this. At the end of the year I was in the top 0.5% of their listeners. I don’t really these times, I was pretty much only watching BTOB content and streaming them all day during the entire rest of the summer.

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I’m genuinely so happy I got to know BTOB. Only good thing Mnet has done to be honest. Even now when I’ve pretty much entirely stopped listening to Kpop, I still keep up with them. Their music is still as good as ever and it’ll probably take me a really long time to stop watching their content. They’re some of the funniest, most talented and loveable people I’ve seen and they really brightened up my life after getting to know them. I think I really needed them at the time I found them and obsessing over them distracted me a lot from other things and I’m really thankful for that.

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So happy 10th anniversary BTOB! I really hope they keep making their beautiful music for many years more and that they get all the recognition they deserve! And finally thank you BTOB for brightening up my days!

.•° ☆ °•.

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°•. ☆ .•°

── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽°. charlie‘s journey

To be honest, I don‘t every single detail of my journey with BtoB, but one thing I do is how it started. I knew that there was a group named BtoB pretty soon after getting into Kpop in general, but I did use to mix up a lot of groups, especially those starting with B (specifically B.A.P, Block B and BtoB) and since I didn‘t listen to much besides Exo, BTS and Seventeen at the time to begin with, I actually ended up never listening to any BtoB song until the end of 2016, November 6th to be specific. I believe to that there were several songs being released that day, with B.A.P‘s „Skydive“ being the one I paid most attention to; but having already been a KA member at the time my following feed was full of people talking about the various releases that day and this is how „I‘ll be your man“ by BtoB, which was one of the releases that day, was brought to my attention, so I checked it out, and then- *inhales* -forgot about BtoB‘s existence for another two months.

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And this was until January 1st of 2017, when KBS released the ICONIC Bad Girl Good Girl performance by Got7 Bambam, B.A.P Youngjae and MonstaX and BtoB Minhyuk and I instantly fell head over heels in love with Minhyuk. I swear, because of him I watched this video a hundred times at least and eventually I had to look up Minhyuk and his group and ended up back at „I‘ll be your man“, wondering how tf i had not noticed him previously, and thus began a period of time in which I spent a LOT of time watching funny BtoB videos on Youtube and listening to their songs, especially often „Thriller“, „Wow“ and „ Beep Beep “, which are still high up in the hall of fame of my fave BtoB songs.

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Soon after, there came the first BtoB comeback that I witnessed as a Melody, which was „Movie“ and I that to be the time I fell absolutely in love with Sungjae and Ilhoon - and this is where my memory starts leaving me because I can absolutely NOT recall the exact history of who I biased when in BtoB, but I know that I biased every single member at some point, and despite having returned to biasing Minhyuk years ago at this point and also being quite vocal about it, I still love every single member very much and wouldn‘t want to miss a single one of them in BtoB.

I that at the time in early 2017 it would still be kinda hard to get your hands on physical albums by artists other than BTS (even those were still rare) where i live without having to spend enormous sums of money for shipping and taxes, so it was a very lucky coincidence that only few days after the „Movie“ release, there was a comic convention in my city where they also sold Kpop albums, and I actually was able to buy myself the Feel‘em mini album which was so special to me because it was one of the first albums I ever owned, and it was the very first one I purchased myself, and I being so excited about it :blue_heart: that same day I also purchased a Seventeen album (Seventeen being my ult group at the time), but I was somehow even more excited about my BtoB album because I had just discovered them recently but already loved them so much!

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Despite not ulting BtoB at the time and generally having a vaste range of groups I would stan and keep up to date with (other then now where I only follow a hand full of groups, BtoB pretty much being the only active one), BtoB were always a comfort place for me even back then. Their videos and music, especially their Brother Act album which was released later that year and is still my favorite BtoB album, would make me feel at home and would always cheer me up, and the always seemed so authentic and genuine, also with their fandom who in my experience are all such kind and chill and loving people, that I loved being a Melody then and still do now.

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Now fast forward around one and a half ish years? I think it was around late 2018? They lowered the age to be drafted into the army to serve the obligatory military service by two years or so, which meant that the older BtoB would have to enlist sooner than expected, and while I was happy about them planning to enlist in two groups so that a) Peniel wouldn‘t have to be alone and b) they would be back together sooner, I was also heartbroken that there would be no group activities for around three years. I had just graduated high school at the time, and three years later would mark around half of my university time, and it just seemed SO far away back then. Another memorable thing from back then is that Minhyuk released his HUTAZONE album, somewhat as a farewell gift for melodies, before he enlisted, and this was what eventually brought me back to him being my bias in BtoB, which still lasts to this day 🥺 this album is still one of my favorite and most played Kpop albums and it was such a bittersweet release that brought me so much joy but also marked the beginning of what felt like a really long BtoB free time.

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During their absence, I wouldn‘t say I forgot about BtoB, but as time ed and I got more and more busy with university and also found some groups I grew to be very ionate about, those other artists kind of snatched my attention took up their spot in my list of favorite groups up to a point where I THOUGHT I didn‘t care about BtoB that much anymore. However, I was proven very wrong the exact moment Eunkwang‘s service ended because from one moment to the other it suddenly felt as though it hadn‘t been rather quiet around BtoB for several months and I was all of the sudden excited like I hadn‘t been in a long time. Especially when Minhyuk and Changsub also returned, and they formed BtoB4u together with Peniel, they really made my entire year of 2020 with „Show Your Love“, because as for everyone else, that year was pretty hard for me. This was also the time I finally started ulting BtoB, because I didn‘t really have an ult group at the time since my previous ult group Bigstar had disbanded in the meantime. I don‘t think I have ever been more thankful for BtoB‘s existence than I was at that time, and I am convinced that they are at least partly responsible for my seasonal depressive episodes being far less intense that winter than in other years.

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trigger warning; mentions of scandal around Ilhoon, drugs, s*xual abuse; feel free to skip this paragraph if you feel uncomfortable!

However, that very winter, BtoB also lost one of their and I‘m not gonna lie, the first few days were hard as hell for me because Ilhoon had always meant a lot to me ever since I started following BtoB. Next to him having to leave the group, this entire scandal thing around had me very frustrated. Though I am personally very opposed to drug consumption and have lost several friends to it, I felt like the way the media and also prosecution dealt with his case, especially compared to other idol scandals involving (in my opinion) far heavier offenses like violence and s*xual abuse, was quite off. Though as far as I know he is now on probation, there were punishments in the talks that went up to four years of prison, and that thought just made me sick to the stomach. I have not heard anything about Ilhoon for quite a while, but I really miss him in BtoB and I genuinely hope that he is alright and doing well.

But despite the BtoB4u promotions always reminding me of this, they also made it a lot more bearable at the same time and again I am so thankful for them being there and helping me through that winter.

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Now we only recently got Sungjae and Hyunsik back from the military and already got a full lineup (at least as full as it will get from now on) comeback one month ago and I know this sounds extremely cliché, but now Kpop finally feels whole again for me. I am so happy that they still exist as a group and are still going strong. I have now been with BtoB for over five years which is the longest I have ever stanned a group, and while they evolved a lot during that time, I also hit a lot of milestones in those years (graduating high school, getting my drivers license, coming of age, starting university, ing the first board exam, moving out of my parents’ house etc) and I feel like I really grew with them.

I still ire their talents and their art and hard work like I did on day one; even though I have seen it for five years, I am still blown away by their abilities whenever they release something new. BtoB are so special to me and are my favorite Kpop group for so many reasons; and now that they celebrate their 10 year anniversary, I feel so blessed to be able to witness it as their fan for many years, and to be able to appreciate for how long they have been around and are still among the popular groups, since this is sadly a milestone not many groups get the chance to achieve.

:blue_heart: Happy anniversary to BtoB! :blue_heart:

.•° ☆ °•.

‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊ ♡ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙·̩̩̥͙*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ °̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥ ♡ ‧̍̊·̊‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̍̊

And those were our stories with BtoB! I really can’t believe that right now as this blog is posted, is actually the day of their 10th anniversary and BtoB have officially existed for an entire decade!

This blog is a very special one for the BtoB team and also for me personally, because it is not every day that your favorite Kpop group turns 10 years old while still being active, and we hope that we were able to express our joy about the anniversary and our love for those seven incredible human beings!

Here is to 10 years of BtoB full of swag and full of changed games, and here is to hopefully another 10 years together with this amazing group and together with Melody!

I hope you enjoyed the blog.

Thank you for reading and for celebrating with us!

:blue_heart: Happy 10 years BtoB! :blue_heart:

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