BTS and "No More Dream": how they look back at their debut today

When BTS debuted with No More Dream in June 2013, they looked pretty different from the group we know today. Black clothes, thick gold chains, heavy makeup, hip-hop styling, and choreography they used to prove what they could do from the very first minute. The members look back at some photos from that time with a fair amount of laughter today, but they take the debut itself a lot more seriously.

No More Dream was released on their first single album, 2 Cool 4 Skool, and they gave their debut performance on M Countdown on June 13, 2013. Big Hit presented them at the time as a hip-hop idol group, and it showed in almost everything, from the song's sound to the clothes and the performance. They were loud, angry, and full of energy, and the lyrics spoke to young people following other people's expectations instead of thinking about what they actually wanted.

That theme wasn't entirely separate from what they themselves were going through. The members were very young, years of training behind them, and a career ahead of them that nobody could have predicted the outcome of. In later interviews, they've often returned to exactly that uncertainty from their early years, and the pressure they felt to prove themselves.

What they can joke about most easily today is definitely how they looked. Early BTS had styling that closely followed the hip-hop image Big Hit wanted to build at the time. There were chains, bandanas, baggy clothes, a lot of black, heavy makeup, and a few hairstyles the members wouldn't necessarily choose again today. When they come across old photos on their own shows and in interviews, the reactions are usually a mix of laughter, disbelief, and teasing each other.

The performances were a more serious matter. The choreography for No More Dream and We Are Bulletproof Pt.2 was physically demanding, and the group was already using acrobatics and elements that took a lot of practice on their very first TV stages. We Are Bulletproof Pt.2 in particular stood out for the dance break with j-hope, Jimin, and Jung Kook, including Jimin's acrobatics and the well-known bit of choreography where Jimin and Jung Kook pass a hat between them. For a group that was just introducing itself to audiences, it was clear how much they wanted to make an impression with their very first performances.

Jimin later spoke especially openly about how hard the period right before debut was for him. As the last member to join the lineup, he had a shorter trainee period than the others and for a long time wasn't sure he'd actually debut at all. Alongside vocal training, he also had to adjust his approach to dance, since the contemporary dance he'd learned in Busan was quite different from the choreography he now had to perform with the group.

No More Dream's release didn't turn BTS into stars overnight either. Their first album did modestly compared to the numbers they'd start hitting a few years later. Their ambition is visible in the early interviews, but the members later spoke much more openly about just how uncertain their future was at the time. Debuting meant they'd finally made it to the stage, not that they'd be staying on it for long.

That's what makes how their relationship to that period has changed so interesting. They can freely poke fun at the styling, the hairstyles, and some of the poses they struck back then, but they never disowned No More Dream along with all that. The song has kept returning at their concerts and special performances over the years, even after BTS had moved musically far away from the sound of their first album.

In later retrospectives, the members have often been surprised by their own energy from that time too. In footage from 2013 you can see a group with no experience yet of big stages, performing as if they had to make the most of those few minutes to be remembered. Add in the demanding choreography and the very deliberate concept, and their first performances look a little raw today, but interesting for exactly that reason.

The members can laugh today at some of what they wore, the hairstyles they had, and how they posed for cameras. But they've never treated No More Dream as an uncomfortable piece of the past they'd rather forget. They kept performing the song years later, and the old footage today is simply a great way to see where BTS started.