The Official Reason BTS Decided To Release Their Anthology Album “PROOF”

BTS have recently released their anthology album PROOF, which has left ARMY an emotional mess as they got to hear the new meaningful tracks like “Yet To Come” and “For Youth,” as well as previously unheard demo songs.

But despite the incredible reception for BTS’s latest comeback, the initial news that BTS would be releasing an anthology album as opposed to an album full of entirely new songs was met with mixed reactions.

Fans Have Mixed Feelings About BTS’s Anthology Album “Proof,” But Unwavering Support For BTS

And while there were understandably fans who were disappointed that BTS would not be releasing an entire album of new songs, ARMY could speculate why the decision was made.

On the one hand, PROOF is the perfect way to close out this era of BTS and move on to a new one.

i think this is an anniversary album for all of us, that’s why it’s called “proof”. we gotta go through all their old eras together with new 3 songs. after that we getting new era, new chapter.

— elliot ★ (@jeoncejoon) May 4, 2022

And an anthology album was the perfect way to allow newer ARMYs and locals to learn about how diverse and massive BTS’s discography actually is. While also giving more familiar fans the chance to reminisce about BTS’s past.

An anthology album will also be a beautiful way to re-introduce old music to new Armys. Looking forward to reliving every wonderful era together with BTS.

— army film club (@0613frames) May 4, 2022

Bighit was actually smart for this cause if you think about locals are most likely aware of bts's comeback, they'll listen to the album and do a little research and see that these tracks are from different albums and hence them being interested in the older music+

— 🌱⁷ (@ICHIY00N) May 4, 2022

And J-Hope seemed to confirm that the anthology album was the perfect chance for newer ARMY to learn about music that they maybe hadn’t yet heard.

As part of 2022 FESTA, BTS released a wide range of previously unseen dance practices that cover the evolution from their debut tracks “‘We Are Bulletproof PT.2’ + ‘No More Dream'” to their recent GRAMMY performance of “Butter.”

J-Hope showed ARMY that he was watching the old dance practices with them by uploading clips to his Instagram stories…

Old memories.

-J-Hope via Instagram stories

And Weverse, where he showed a clip of “Am I Wrong” and suspected that there are probably ARMYs who hadn’t heard the song before the new dance practice was released.

Currently I’m continuing to rewatch “Am I Wrong” it’s fun hehe I keep remembering memories from that time…

There must probably be a couple ARMYs who don’t know “Am I Wrong,” right?

-J-Hope via Weverse moment

And in their recent “PROOF Live,” BTS officially revealed why they decided that releasing an anthology album was their right next step.

First, they addressed how because of the unexpected and unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, most of their plans had to be changed, and they all had to be flexible with the content they planned to release.

After our “ON” promotions the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Over the two years since then a lot of things have changed for us as well as for ARMY, right?

We’ve done many unthinkable projects. I guess a lot of things have happened.

-Jungkook

Right, we can say this now but most of the things we’ve done since 2020 were not planned in advance… The same goes for this project.

We’ve done most things spontaneously based on the best decision we could make each time. Everything was flexible.

As we went on we were sometimes a little afraid and unsure if we were on the right path. We’ve also had growing reservations about what was the right answer. That came to mind. We really hung in there.

-RM

And while perhaps releasing an anthology album wasn’t something BTS expected to do, the album’s construction was certainly well thought out.

Let’s talk about what made us release PROOF and what’s included in it as well.

-RM

Jin explains that since they have so many songs in their discography, an anthology album felt like a way to sort through their music.

Since it’s been roughly 10 years since our debut we wanted to take a moment to sort out what we’ve released so far. So we put them all in one album. There are a lot of great songs in [the album].

-Jin

Specifically, Jin points out that by compiling their discography into one single album, fans can listen to the songs all at once.

We thought it’d be great if you could listen to all these great songs at once. That’s another reason.

-Jin

V also points out that the anthology album allowed members to share previously unreleased music, which serves as both exciting new content for fans and nostalgic content for BTS.

And if you look closely many of our unreleased songs are included in this album. We took those songs as a chance to reminisce on when they were recorded.

-V

And V also confirms that the anthology album was BTS’s way of wrapping up their “first chapter” before starting their next one.

And we also wanted to wrap up our first chapter. That’s why we created our album.

-V

Of course, the music was specifically selected by each of the members, so it provides an emotional and deep look into songs that BTS felt helped highlight their career, which is represented in their immense discography.

So the contents are pretty interesting. There are three CDs which contain plenty of songs.

-RM

While we were working on the track list we realized we had so many songs. Before we knew it, it became three CDs. As we arranged the track list.

So one of the CDs contains BTS’ history. Yes, it has all the title tracks. Another CD contains the stories our members wanted to tell each other. Songs with encouragement and respect for each other are included in that CD. And the other CD has [unreleased songs]. BTS is nothing without our fans, right? So the theme is our love for our fans. And it also features some of our unreleased songs.

-J-Hope