BTS 'Life Goes On': Jungkook directed MV gets 70M views in 24 hours, fans say 'it was never about breaking records'
K-pop boy group BTS has dropped another impressive music video on YouTube with their new song 'Life Goes On'. While BTS unleashed their highly anticipated album 'BE' on November 20, the Jungkook-directed music video, with its featured track 'Life Goes On', has been getting a whole lot of love from fans since its release. In less than 24 hours, the new visual reached nearly 70 million views on the platform, getting 67,726,262, according to a report by Soompi. Although ARMY – BTS' fandom – would certainly have a lot to do with the numbers, the famously loyal BTS fandom, is citing the milestone has more to do with pure love for the song and the video itself than any attempt to break records.
One fan wrote in the comments section of the video, "Don't feel discouraged ARMY. We did a great job and I'm proud of all of you. We may not be able to reach the goal but 67.9M in 24 hours? That's BIG. Remember that we're streaming a whole album with a tracklist of eight songs. We gave our best and we deserve to rest. From now on, enjoy the song that BTS gave us as our forever home and comfort zone, stream until we reach the 105M goal!" Another fan wrote, "It's okay guys, it's okay if we didn't break the record. BTS made this song just to comfort us so let's not overwork ourselves for something we can't do. youtube is obviously slowing down the views so we can't do anything but we can keep watching the video to show them how much we loved it. it was never about breaking records, it was about showing our love to them <3 everyone worked hard i am PROUD of us."
For the video itself, other fans wrote comments like, "Thank you BTS for this masterpiece." Another fan noted, "Everyone: This is The worst year ever. BTS: Sorry but 'Life goes on.'" Another fan added, "Can we talk about how “BE” doesn’t have a single feature on it? No disrespect to the artists they’ve worked with on previous albums (we always love a good collaboration), but this just proves that BTS can hold up just fine on their own. I love how their music is evolving. They are truly unpredictable. I stan the growth and maturity. #versatilitykings."
Although 'Life Goes On' garnered a strong number of views on YouTube, it still falls behind the band's first number-one single in the United States, 'Dynamite', which had a total of 101.1 million views reached within the first 24-hours.
As similarly explained by the aforementioned fans, 'Life Goes On' may not have had the specific intention to be as explosive as the video for 'Dynamite'. It leans toward a more balladic, comforting sound than 'Dynamite' which carries a more upbeat, club-worthy theme. Additionally, BTS built up the hype for the arrival of 'Dynamite' with a release countdown, whereas 'Life Goes On' did not receive such promotion.