“Fake Love ”was released on May 18, 2018, as the lead single from BTSs third album Love Yourself: Tear. It becomes BTS’ 3rd MV to reach 800 Million Views on YouTube after “DNA” and “Boy With Luv” “Fake Love” broke the record for most-watched music video on YouTube within 24 hours, achieving 35.9 million views on the platform on its first day, surpassing their own record of 22.3 million views with “DNA”. It also became the third most watched music video within the first 24 hours in 2018. Within 8 days, “Fake Love” surpassed 100 million views besting the group’s previous record with “DNA”, which achieved the same in 24 days. As of May 2020, the visual has garnered over 700 million views, now it ha surpassed 800 million views.
“Fake Love” was written by “Hitman” Bang, RM, and Pdogg, with the latter as producer. Talking about the song, RM explained in a V Live broadcast that among all songs on the album, “Fake Love” was most difficult to work on. The main foundation of it was created by him, while the rest of the song-making process was handled by Pdogg and “Hitman” Bang. He also shared a demo version of the track during the broadcast, which he felt was “completely different” and “more depressing and deeper” than the recorded one. Speaking about how the song was conceived, he said:
“To adjust to voice range of our vocalists, we change the pitch in the end so rappers often have difficulty adjusting to that. (In case of this song), it went up by 6 1/2 pitches as far as I know. Six and half — that makes a totally different song! We adjusted to that pitch and added the guitar sound and there came the ‘Fake Love’ we listen to now.” _RM
Lyrically, the song talks about love that was once believed to be destiny, but turned out fake at the end and reflects the theme of the entire “Love Yourself” series” that any love wherein one does not love oneself is not real.” It also recounts the emptiness that comes to a person who has invested too much in a relationship, only to lose one’s own identity in the process through lyrics such as, “I even became quite unsure of who I was / Try babbling into the mirror, who the heck are you?” The lyrics further reference to the notion of holding onto a toxic relationship: “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true.” Lines like “Mold a pretty lie for you” and “Try to erase myself and make me your doll” suggest themes of “hiding depression” and “pressure” to maintain relationships despite struggling with mental health
“Fake Love” debuted and peaked at number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on the issue date of June 2, 2018, selling 29,000 digital copies, which was the highest debut on the chart for that week. It became BTS’ first top-ten entry on the chart and the highest-charting song by a Korean band in the United States, surpassing their own record achieved with 2017 song “Mic Drop” at number 28.
BTS also became the second K-pop act to chart a top-ten song in the country after Psy achieved it with “Gangnam Style” and “Gentleman” in 2012 and 2013, respectively. The single appeared at number seven on the Billboard Streaming Songs chart with 27.8 million streams in its opening week, becoming their first top-ten on the chart. It also became their fifth number one on the US World Digital Songs chart. On the Pop Songs chart, the single peaked at number 34 in the week of July 21, 2018.
“Fake Love” was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), for track equivalent sales of 500,000 units. “Fake Love” appeared on the Australian Singles Chart at number 36, which later became its peak. It was certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for track-equivalent sales of 35,000.
On December 9, 2018, the single album received double platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), denoting shipments of 500,000 copies. On June 26, 2020, “Fake Love” received a silver streaming certification from the RIAJ for 30 million digital streams.
BTS performed “Fake Love” live for the first time at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards on May 20, 2018
Watch the amazing video
0 Comments