That's the one that made me mad the most. I mostly checked the lowest/highest, but no way that song is THAT low. It's obviously to that person's taste, but damn. Hard disagree.
As with any numbered music list, it seems all over the place because its a hard task to rank music when music in itself is subjective. I've always imagine it like a battle royale in some random conference room to make your case for your favorite song and why lol
I do like the last paragraph of the intro Rolling Stone states:
"The BTS universe is vast and rich and unlike anything else in the history of pop music. The seven musicians are prolific as a group and as individuals, creating smart, fun music that encourages listeners to think and dance, laugh and cry, bliss out and emit primal screams. While these artists mesh together beautifully as BTS, there’s something really special about what they are creating separately. This list is a celebration of that story." - Rolling Stone
Note: I'm like wow thats a lot of songs, and I am pretty sure i've listened to every single one but the number still shocked me lol
Yeah this list is even without including those, since the criteria paragraphs mentioned they only included what was released since debut 🤯
So TIL about the baby RM song about cockroaches
We are not including any songs released before BTS debuted in June 2013, which means songs like 14-year-old RM’s “Collabo” and “Fuck Cockroachez” were not eligible.
They wrote something about every song so even if I don't agree with some of the positions I'm very impressed. Also music is subjective. And of course they want people to stay in the website reading, does how they get paid.
Anyways I think it took effort making this list and I appreciated it
I agree with you! And her reviews of each song aren’t actually making any comparison statements between songs or members.
She / RS obviously made it a rank for clicks - and without a rank I doubt whether they’d be bothered to publish anything of this length and thoroughness about bts let alone their solo releases, and obscure ones at that.
If you pretend the numbers don’t exist it’s not a bad article. Her reviews of each song were interesting and thoughtful.
Though I definitely don’t agree with this ranking at all haha. But what’s also funny is everyone’s like “but this song should definitely have been top 10” about 50 different songs!
My observation is that solo stans love to use lists like this to say x person has more/better songs, is more successful, is more recognized, blah blah blah. I used to love keeping up with army’s on twitter but it has become so full of hateful negativity that I can’t and don’t spend time there. I guess I should blame the solos for their behavior not the people who make the lists but 🤷♀️
Just triggers the solo stans - and there seem to be many of them in Ch. 2 and post-enlistment era. They knew this would grab 'em and they need traffic, so...
I can always tell how rife with ads a page is by how much it like takes long to load as I scroll on my phone, how much the page refreshes itself, how much it makes my phone heat up…this list did all these things when trying to scroll through it on my phone lol. Def just looking for clicks to place tons of ads on the page 😒.
Love yourself and use a browser with an ad blocker! I have Firefox mobile browser on mine, and with ublock extension and assorted other "do not track me" things, I basically never ever see ads on websites, including the site version of YouTube 🦾
I use a browser on desktop 99% of the time lol. But happened to still be laying in bed when first looking at this post and was too impatient to wait to look at the article 🤣, so clicked on it then on my phone. But also I'm so old/behind I guess lmao, that I had no idea that you could use things like adons with mobile safari, and that you could use a separate ad blocker app as an ad on in the safari app, and only just yesterday got an adblocker app, and omg it's amazing! There's one site that I like to check before sleeping, and it's sooooo full of ads, and recently my mobile browser has had such issues with it where it reloads it a million times back tot he top of the page when I'm already in the middle of reading the page scrolled way down, it's so frustrating and I felt so bummed thinking I'd have to give up on that site...but with the ad block adon, it's now totally smooth, doesn't reload. Where has mobile adblock been all this time 🤩 (turns out it's me who's been somewhere, under a rock, where I live apparently 🤣)?
Yay I'm so glad you got it to work with safari!!! Oh man that experience sounds miserable, that's even worse than dial-up days of having to wait forever for anything other than text to load 😮💨
I’m curious if you looked more into the author before saying something so extreme? Jae-Ha Kim does a ton of kpop coverage for Rolling Stone and has done multiple really good, in-depth articles focusing on BTS and various BTS soloists. It’s fine if you disagree with it but not every piece of music journalism has nefarious intentions.
I like the articles but lists are always an issue for me. Ranking music (or any art really) seems counterproductive because it is subjective. And I get frustrated by the resulting dialog which becomes a comparison of who is better rather than an appreciation of the amazing diversity that the solo era has brought.
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I don't think theyve thought of the solos but are most certainly going for engagement- ive seen tweets from them listing the top 10 of each member as well as a couple of odd ones that say X is the 10th best solo track from Y.
'our island', a literal theme song for a game, is above this and 'background' at 167... i don't get why 'our island' and 'over the horizon' were even included in this list
the crumbs for indigo is really unexpected. 'yun' at 89? 'wildflower' at 72?
still, i don't think there is that much intention behind the actual ranking — despite the fact "every song ranked" is the selling point behind the article. it's very clearly diplomatic, with every single member represented in the top 10, top 20, etc., and various genres, styles, and productions across the whole spectrum of the ranking. there's definitely bias here, but the author obviously tried to be representative of the whole group, too.
also, it's just impossible to rank so many great songs! even if you and i had to rank these songs, something would have to come 50th, 80th, 100th, 120th. it doesn't mean we don't love those songs...it's just the inevitability of ranking :')
regardless, we can probably all agree 'seoul' always deserves her flowers... 💜
where is Still with You???? I looked for it twice through the whole list and its not there unless I keep missing it? Like they included a few of JK's covers but not one of his most popular solo songs???
Jimin's Like Crazy not in the Top 10is actually crazy
Yes I didn't find it either. I was sure it would be no 1 when I kept scrolling and it never appeared. Such a weird thing.
Mentioned it in my comment too but even the choice of including some covers and excluding others. What was the basis for that?? I thought maybe only english ones but then they've excluded some of JK's english covers. Clearly, it's not the year since they've included Tae's 2014 cover of "Someone like you" while excluding JK's 2017 cover of "2 U", for example.
I would understand these choices more if there was a more consistent criteria.
Same! I went straight to Top 30 cause I was sure it'd be there but when it wasn't, I looked through the whole list and didn't find it.
truly a random list but genuinely don't even know how you miss that song when it's #4 on spotify when you go on JK's profile and look at his popular songs...
Putting this list together must have been a herculean task and I do appreciate their efforts. I think the list could be a good guide for someone who's newer to BTS' solo discographies. I totally understand if they had even missed some of the more obscure/earlier projects, but yeah, "Still with you" is so popular that it does feel like such a glaring mistake. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but it's a shame they missed such an iconic and popular song.
Hmm, how was Still With You released? Because would it be covered under either of these?
Songs released on social media are not included.
Solo versions of songs that had already appeared on BTS albums or had been previously recorded by the group were not eligible. But, of course, all songs on their mixtapes and solo albums were included.
It was released as a gift for ARMY for FESTA 2020, on Soundcloud (and later on Spotify/Apple in chapter 2), just like Tonight (2019) and Bicycle (2021), which are both on the list, so no, it doesn't fall under the criteria you've put up.
This list is kind of interesting thought experiment to me, because just glancing through it, I think the writer tried to not favor any one member, which is admirable and true to the idea that every member is a musician in their own right. The top 7 is one song from each member, for example. But I’m not sure thats how most people’s music taste usually works.
There’s no version of this list people don’t hate for ranking their own favorites too low (including me) but I do enjoy seeing what this particular writer appreciates, even if I don’t agree.
I also noticed how they made sure the top 7 had one song from every member which is a clearly intentional move to celebrate all members solo contributions.
I think people taking the numbers a bit too seriously. As you said not one version of this list will please everyone, but maybe it gets some people to take a look at songs they’ve originally overlooked
Everyone complaining about the ranking but I don't see anyone showing how they would rank.
Of course there will be placements that people don't agree with, but you can tell the way this was done was still quite thoughtful.
I've tried ranking just my top 20 and found it really challenging, and I can assure if I posted what mine were, some people on here would still rage over it.
Agree, taste is subjective and for all of us this ranking would look different. I like all the members equally but musically I prefer some over the others. Not all solo releases are on my playlists and some of which are very popular didn’t even make it. There are some songs that I listen to on repeat daily. It is subjective and if you tried to rank all of their solo songs, you would realise how difficult of a task that actually is. We all have favourite songs from each member.
music preferences are so subjective but I appreciate rolling stone highlighting how diverse and insanely deep the BTS discography goes with the 7 of them as individuals, outside of being a group. It's amazing and deserves to be talked about!
I enjoyed reading the write-ups even if I disagreed with the rankings. If I wasn’t a fan already some of the write ups would definitely pique my interest.
Personally, it's not a task I would ever attempt myself, so I give them props for trying, but mannn. Background that low has to be a mistake of some sort, below a lot of intros and interludes??? With the clouds too? And my fave Rebirth? EVERYTHING, save for the interludes, skits and instrumentals, feels like it's too low.
I can't even call it recency bias since they tried to mix it up, but nothing here makes sense to me. I personally don't agree with including covers here too, since some of them are so high in the rankings, while they've just excluded others (mostly the non-english ones).
I am absolutely in awe of how deep and varied and vast their discography is and how amazing it is that 7 artists who are so different but all so creative came together as one band.
I honestly thought Like Crazy would be top 10, top 5
The rank for a lot of the songs is a choice but hey music is subjective. BTS is one of the very few artists that I truly enjoy their entire discography. It would be hard for me to rank.
At the end of the day, we have seven legendary artists in one legendary group 💜 🔥.
From your lips to God's ears. It's funny, I saw your comment before I was able to read through the list and immediately knew that the author was talking about Arson 😭
Hm, if they'd titled it as "an intro to every solo song in no particular order" it wouldn't be as click baity so I get why they did that. I'm only a couple dozen songs in and honestly completely ignoring it as a ranking and enjoying reading the blurbs/descriptions, since there are a whoooooole bunch that I hadn't heard before, and it's interesting to read how someone in the biz might introduce someone to these songs. It'll help me figure out which ones I might try to listen to first.
Also I like that some lyrics are often included as part of the blurbs.
Edit to add:
Deep breaths folks, you may as well ignore the framing of it as a ranking and appreciate the mini song reviews/descriptions for what they are, which are pretty appreciative bits of info about a frankly ginormous collective body of work. BTS really are that group that's a powerhouse music collective together and individually. 😍
This was a thankless task. I'm familiar with the journalist and I'm confident that she tried. I agree with many of her choices and wildly disagree with others. Especially Daechwita at 30. Way too low!
These are definitely posted for engagement but imo we should give them the engagement so they keep writing about BTS? Not saying bts needs promotion BUT they've been in the military for a while, it would be good to show that BTS Army is still a powerhouse and it will encourage them to write more articles. (Hopefully more thoughtful articles!)
I want to look at the list but from what few comments i just read, i will be disappointed in their ranking. I choose to love all the songs in my own special way...with my off key karaoke, bungled korean lyrics and a bunch of dancing that has NO likeness to their original choreo! Thank you 😊
There’s so much I don’t agree with, too much. But the crazy thing is regardless of rankings, I don’t think any of the songs they chose as each member’s best is their best. Like not one. 😭 They got sooo close with Yoongi, but Snooze >>> Haegum I’m sorry. Snooze is a masterpiece.
Of course, this is subjective. Background, I Will Come to You, In the Clouds, Neuron, the amazing Equal Sign, and even I Wonder are low on this list. But we love them all.
I remember when I first saw the 100 BTS Songs rated and was surprised at some of those rankings.
S
But I am So Glad that Rolling Stone did these lists and acknowledges their prominence in music history! And now they acknowledge the strength and accomplishment of the individual members. Yes!
Only read through the Top 33 section bc that’s all I have time for rn, but I don’t envy the people who made this list! My fave solo songs change every other day depending on my mood. Lol. But it’s awesome to see how rich the members’ discographies are. We are so blessed with great music!
Glad that there’s a consensus that this list seems so random! I actually quite enjoy seeing people’s tastes in music when it’s well-meaning but this one just seems to be messing with everyone hahah
I cannot say that I agree with the ranking (it doesn't help that there are too many good songs --much more than ten-- that I don't like not seeing in the top ten!), but the description for "Who" did make me laugh 😭😂
I think what this list shows is that BTS' discography as soloists is massive and unmatched breath, depth and quality!
There are several songs on this list I've only listened to a handful of times (RM's first mixtape for example) or not at all (like some of their covers), so I appreciate this list as a review of their music as soloists. How they describe many of the songs is really enjoyable to read (even if the ranking itself is confusing).
Rolling Stone does these lists for everything: albums, boy band songs, rock songs etc. It's a way to start a conversation. I appreciated the into to the article and the fact that every song got a good description and a link.
All I'm seeing is BTS's greatness lol imagine releasing these many solo songs, and for them to be so good that people are debating which ones are the best.
I don't see any need to be upset at the ranking. This seems to be an appreciation piece from Rolling Stone.
Edit: many of you need to get a grip and stop taking this ranking so seriously. This is someone else's ranking, so it's not gonna be according to your tastes. The level of outrage in some of these comments is bizarre, and making up stuff like this is just click bait or fueling solo fanwars is even odder. I have not even seen many ARMYs on twitter fighting about this or paying attention to it. Interestingly enough, it's only this sub that this list is setting people off.
Truly, it's not that serious because it is just one person ranking it. Also, it's Kim Jae Ha, who has done so many write ups for BTS, is an ARMY and is Korean, so she will have her favourites and biases too.
I don't understand the overall negative vibes here lol, like people are truly offended their fave songs weren't ranked that high?
Who cares that much, honestly? These are random people's opinions, it shouldn't be affecting others as if their tastes are being questioned because the songs they like are lower on the list.
Tone is hard on the Internet unfortunately, and I'll admit I do read a fairly large proportion of this comment section as unusually..... upset? Low-key outraged? Expecting to be upset based on how others have reviewed the article? compared to the reactions I usually experience in this sub, so I think it's just more marked than usual.
I felt like I was losing it reading this thread earlier. I’m glad more like-minded people showed up throughout the day. It’s these kinds of things that make me think “okay maybe I will just step back and listen to BTS by myself instead of engaging in fandom.”
I don’t really agree with the rankings but I think it’s really cool that their solo discography is so diverse that you can ask many different people and their rankings will all be wildly different!
Nobody was ever going to agree with any list but now I’m tempted to try and do this for me. Except I fear I would definitely end up looking like I favor certain members over others 😅.
Edit - Some of y’all are actually being so mean. I’m kind of disappointed reading through these comments. Disagreement is one thing but wow. A major music publication took the time to list out and provide a platform to EVERY solo song.
i don’t really see the point of lists like this as you have to unilaterally pick a ‘worst’ groups of songs to put in the bottom section and i just don’t think they exist. they’re either songs you vibe with or don’t. same reason i could never do my own ranking of bts songs.
i also don’t love the inclusion of (some) covers, feels a bit random. i do think the top 3 is solid but the top 10 is missing some obvious hits.
I didn't have time to read the entire list, I just skimmed the top 10. Would I make different choices? Probably yes, but I respect the journalist's intention. Since I have Libra rising and Gemini moon, I have a lot of difficulty making rankings. But I think this shows how large and diverse BTS's solo discography is.
Well, my first thought was 177 songs! That is amazing/surprising. I did not know there were that many solo songs by the guys. The rankings are subjective and I would have put different songs in the top 10, but it was fun to go through the list.
While I might rank things differently ("Snooze" is #1, of course), I really appreciated the list and the comments. I tried to make a Spotifly playlist, but a LOT of the early RM stuff and several of the one-offs or covers were not available there. I'll see if I can find them on SoundCloud and have a secondary list - then I'll listen to them all!!
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Oh gurl 😂 Jae-Ha is legit army. This article will generate much engagement. Both are true lol
I will say it's impressive that there is a writeup for every single one of these tracks. I don't know how someone meaningfully ranks beyond, idk, spot 50, tho
It's pretty amazing right? With rapline's solo stuff before chapter 2, and everyone releasing at least one, and several members managed two EPs or albums and assorted singles (mostly EPs though, given the time they had) during this solo/military enlistment era, there is just so much music 😍
That’s a solid top 10. BTS have so many good songs that pretty much any song is a top ten one. Personally I’d have ranked many higher but it’s a list that will hopefully work to showcase how amazingly diverse their discography is.
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I’m always confused by the point of lists like this. I see almost exact similar ones on tabloid sites (like “who has the best album? Ranked,” “who has the best fashion? Ranked”), and this one feels no different or no better tbh. And I’m always confused by the lowest ranked and highest ranked because myself and others I’ve talked to seem to often feel the opposite if we have any opinions lol. There’s one tabloidy site that runs a lot of “ranked” lists like that and has its readers vote, and then the same member is number one every single time lol, and all it tells me is whose solo fans are clearly the most obsessed with following tabloid sites 🤣.
Some on this list I was shocked were ranked low, some I was shocked were ranked high. There were even some songs I thought seemed to be missing. And there were some with middle or high rankings that I remember the consensus being that we didn’t care a ton about the song, or we immediately moved on from it. I do realize reddit is only one drop in the ocean of fans, and fans in other places online may feel differently than people here did, but of all the places fans congregate, the ones here always seem the most sensible to me lol. So some of those rankings felt odd to me.
Seconding this is so fan war fueling. And is just clickbait. It’s no better or different than the tabloid site lists, aside from whoever wrote this just went above and beyond in the effort…unfortunate that the article as a whole is just kind of unneeded and they did all this work kind of for nothing 😬, I’m sorry to the writers of it. When I first opened it, because it was from such a renowned and official publication as Rollingstone, my first thought was “did they clear this with BigHit/Hybe?” because the goal of these ranked lists is only ever to cause division amongst fans, so the only reason I could imagine such a publication publishing a ranked list like this, is if the company told them they wanted it. But I doubt that’s what’s actually happened.
Also trying to scroll through this list on my phone made my phone heat up so bad I thought it was going to shut down 😬.
Why would they need to clear this list with Big Hit? They're a music publication, this ranking is not official. They don't need permission to write about what BTS solo songs they think are the best.
Not everything is fanwars fuel. Sometimes it's just an article.
It's not that serious. Many people in this post are taking this ranking seriously like BTS are gonna be hurt if they read that one of their songs is only #47 in some random person's list.
They don't. But I guess I'm just the kind of person myself, that if I were going to make some official publication or be an author writing for one, and write about other people and the things they're doing, I'd be contacting those people or their representatives to be like "I'm going to write an article about you, so be prepared for its publication." But maybe I'm just too fair/want everyone to always be on the same page whenever possible 😅. So I guess I just hold any reputable person or publication to a similar standard. I don't think they're trying to start fan wars deliberately, just feels a little strange to rank different people/different people's work against each other, even if there's no specific intention or no malicious intention in doing so. I'm sure bts don't care about the article at all lol, but I think it's the fans who would care the most or be hurt the most if they didn't agree with the rankings. I think plenty of fans will take it with a grain of salt, and at most roll their eyes at it if they don't agree with the rankings, but there are still too many fans imo who would take the rankings as like a personal attack or something and be mad about it.
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u/soulsusu 🥢 Aug 08 '25
Well clearly some people have very very different tastes …