BTS's "Dynamite" Spent 12 Years In The Shadows, Here's How It Finally Entered The Spotlight

BTS‘s “Dynamite” is new to the world, but this hit song was born over a decade ago. As fate would have it, “Dynamite’s” journey to stardom is much like BTS’s.

BTS began as seven hopeful trainees who worked day and night while sharing a small dorm and big dreams. At the time, their agency, Big Hit Entertainment, wasn’t part of K-Pop’s “Big 4”. It was a little known company with a tight budget and a whole lot of talent that was ready to shine.

Fast forward to 2020. English writer-producer David Stewart was one of the many songwriters hoping to team up with BTS when word got out that they were looking for a new song. “It was a bit of a holy grail cut,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. “I had quite a few conversations with big producers and writers in America who were trying to get it.”

Stewart and his “Dynamite” co-writer, composer Jessica Agombar, hit the jackpot when Big Hit Entertainment chose them for the job. Like BTS, “Dynamite” has humble origins and it went through many changes on its way to the top.

Stewart revealed that the song wasn’t born in a high tech studio. It was created in a bedroom with whatever equipment he had available to him at the time.

I made that song out of my bedroom in my parents’ house. I didn’t do it in the flashy studio with a big console. This is 12 years in the making, me in my bedroom just working.

— David Stewart

Together, Stewart and Agombar began reworking “Dynamite” into the funky fresh disco dream that BTS was seeking. Once “Dynamite” met the approval of Ron Perry, the head of Columbia Records, the duo worked with BTS to turn their “Dynamite” into BTS’s “Dynamite”.

We changed four or five little bits — a few of the lines were maybe not something that would make sense for BTS to say.

— David Stewart

Now, “Dynamite” is taking over music charts and social media while smashing records and bringing joy to millions of listeners. “I did it on my laptop in my bedroom,” Stewart says. “It’s mind-boggling to me that something so big can come from something so modest.”