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Deciphering rise of BTS through their content

Korean Culture

Koreans are deeply influenced by the Confucian philosophy, which emphasizes cultivated knowledge in comparison to creativity and a collectivistic society. Which is quite different from the Western thought.

Despite the political unrest after the Korean War that resulted in the division of the region, these two countries still share the same culture and traditional values.

The French Institut national de l'audiovisuel defines K-pop as a "fusion of synthesized music, sharp dance routines and fashionable, colorful outfits”. Songs typically consist of one or a mixture of pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, and electronic music genres.

The Confucian thought has a huge influence on Eastern political ideas; shaping the moral system, the way of life, social relations between old and young and their work ethic.

This gives us some insight about the highly systemized, regulated k-pop industry owned by three big names YG, SM JYP. That control every aspect of artist’ career to control publishing, licensing and advertising and in the end operating a star-making academy leaving the artist with no creative freedom. These trainees are put through years of intense musical and chorographical training; they have to sacrifice all guarantees of personal freedom, sleep and comfort. These trainees are monitored for height, weight and figure; they are put through extreme diet regimes, sometimes get plastic surgery done to resemble anime like body proportions. --- to produce idol groups designed to present the very highest standards of beauty, dance, and musicality in Korean popular music.

Korean pop stars have become cultural icons in the region and globally.

Kpop and BTS:

The Korean Wave Hallyu refers to the global popularity of South Korea’s cultural economy exporting pop culture, entertainment, music, TV dramas and movies since 1990s. And since 2000, the Korean government invests great sums in the country’s pop culture to appeal to an international audience. The South Korean government has dedicated a department solely to K-pop to promote the music in Korea and beyond.

It was within this environment that in 2010, a man named Bang Si-hyuk began to quietly build a different kind of studio, and to cultivate the band that would become BTS. His belief is to give the members creative freedom to work on solo tapes, producing and writing. BTS was first launched in 2013.

Where other modern day boy/girl bands have stuck to singing about love and heartache, from the beginning he has encouraged BTS to tell personal stories, and made it imperative to speak about things the group is feeling individually, in a whole that is the reason for the socially critical and introspective lyrics. Honest musical expression of one’s creative anxieties — would become a crucial element of BTS.

BTS is inspired by a hip-hop trio called Seo Taiji & Boys in 1990s who challenged norms around musical styles, song topics, fashion, and censorship, which was unprecedented for a culture whose musical production had spent the past few decades subjected to strict government oversight. They are considered pioneers of rebel music against the system in K-pop.

Seo Taiji, who’s been called the ‘Culture President, recently proclaimed Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) to be the true heirs of the original Korean pop ethos he gave birth to decades previously. While collaborating with BTS on his 25th anniversary on his song “ Classroom Idea”, which criticizes the oppressive education system of Korea. This song was written by Seo Taiji in 1994 when all teenagers were forced to stay in school from 7 am to 9 pm. For people without a college degree it would be hard to get jobs, they’d be treated as underdogs, paid no respect, and kept invisible in the society. (Video will be played and explain from it)

Education is considered crucial because of the Confucian tradition of respecting, learning and the particular national desire for greater achievements.

From BTS’ 2013 album O!RUL8,2? song N.O. also talks about students being overwhelmed by the expectations placed on them by elders, and the effect it has on their mental wellbeing. (in relation with the education system, BTS also has a song for it)

Then their 2015 album The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 2; entails one of their most political song “Silver Spoon” or “Baepsae” it’s a bird in Korea translated as “Crow Tit” which is a small bird, considered as a weak one compared to a stork, crow tit has short legs and a stork has very long legs. The idiom goes “ a crow tit following a a stork will tear its legs”. Meaning when you try to do something out of your reach or capabilities you are likely to fail. Here storks are referring to people in power; big companies, conglomerates and the older generations. The crow tit being the younger generation. (they flap their hands like birds in their choreography).

They also use the metaphor of a teacher to refer to the older generation who are born with a golden spoon. So during the age of the storks or baby boomers (Baby boomer is a term used to describe a person who was born between 1946 and 1964) in South Korea they were experiencing huge economic growth and was extremely easy to get jobs, housing etc. But the economy of South Korea is now maturing and the side effects of ultra-fast economic growth have boomeranged to haunt the current generation. Millenials are facing high pricing of houses as well as high disparity between the rich and the poor and also all-time high youth unemployment.

Lyric, ‘Passion pay’ is a common practice in Korean society where companies pay young workers below minimum wage or nothing at all in return for experience. (lyrics will be shown in slide)

Speaks much about our society’s treatment to interns who go into the field to work. And the ‘given up generation’ saying that millennials are the generation who have given up on what may be considered as basic human rights and wants because of extreme high youth unemployment rates.

Sam-po-sadae (show the lyrics here) (read from ppt and explain these things gen Z has given up on). Millennial's giving up of romantic relationships, marriage, children, proper employment, homes, and social life in the face of economic difficulties and societal ills while facing condemnation from the media and older generations.

Then they go on to say that they want to change the system. Like this is not a normal situation. Society is sick but it also says we are not at the top yet and we have to push further. (video played and then this is explained).

Then BTS addresses how the older generation blames the millenials for their struggles saying that it is due to the lack of effort. Baby boomers seem to neglect the fact how society is completely different now compared to when they were growing up, also their economic situation is different. Saying that a lot of the problems millenials face today were infact caused by the baby boomers. But they seem to ignore this fact and tell the crow tits to work harder, try harder, put more effort.

Moving on to to their newer album “Wings”, song Blood Sweat tears, which is rich in literary and art references. Wings album is based on “Demian” a 1919 Herman Hesse novel that explore the psyche of the narrator as he grows up and loses his innocence and is on a journey to find himself. The ideologies presented in Demian are heavily influenced by the German philosopher Nietzsche. Nietzsche often wrote about the creation of the self. And more of his ideas in grounds of self-realization is central to Demian. (video playing in bg) There are motifs of mentorship shown in the video when each younger member is paired with an elder one. Jin the oldest member seen standing alone admiring the painting of the fall of rebel angels, the battle between good and evil. While gazing at this painting, Bminor plays in the background. Jin stands between two door, black and white, one good one evil. In Demian, Sinclair finds some freedom when Demian introduces him that the world cannot be categorized in binary such as good and evil. But rather there is good in all evil and evil in all good.

This concept is represented by the God called Abraxas, the god is nor good or evil but rather the affirmation of the existence of both. Saying that Sinclair will never find himself if he only acknowledges the realm of light he must seek knowledge and learn of both realms.

On the surface level one would say the song is about the dangers of temptation but through the imageries a lot of symbolism is shown, allusions from multiple sources of literature each symbol works harmoniously to create a larger system of meaning.

And their latest album Map of the Soul: Persona, based on archetypes of Carl Jung; is where they identify their stage persona as one part of their whole identities.

So as we see every succeeding album of BTS, one would witness the gradual growth of its members. With group and solo songs of each artist addressing issues like depression, anxiety, social and political injustice. Every member’s own identity plays a crucial role in building themes and concepts for their albums. And how they face these experiences that life brings them is translated in their albums.

Bringing us to the question, what is the machinery behind this idol group?

This boy band is still under a company which has its own producers. Bang-si-Hyuk (the founder), Pdogg (in house producer), Slow Rabbit (producer), Adora,Supreme Boi are the main producers. Main choreographer is Son Sung-deuk and J-Hope (member) takes part in choreography too (as he was a stret dancer earlier). Some members of the group have been credited as producers, RM, Suga, J-Hope and Jungkook.

The Korea Music Copyright Association attributes over 130 songs to RM as songwriter, composer, also including writing for member Jimin's solo song "Promise". The Korea Music Copyright Association attributes over 85 songs to Suga as a songwriter and composer. Suga won the 2017 MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards) best producer award for the song Wine. J-Hope produced his mixtape ‘Hope World’. Jungkook produced Magic Shop.

The group’s high-quality visual productions, largely produced by South Korean creative agency Lumpens, are frequently related to the themes of the band’s music. The agency has produced the visuals for some of their hits like Idol, DNA, Serendipity, I NEED U, Fake Love (Forbes article)

Pdogg production in "Love Yourself: Tear" with BTS hit the Billboard 200 albums chart and was nominated for Grammy Awards.

In an interview he was asked, to drop a hint about the sort of music BTS will come up in the future.

He replied, because a new series has started with ‘Love Yourself 承 Her’, we are planning to continue that. After that, [the decisions] will change based on BTS’ situation and the members’ sentiments at that point. The members put a lot of effort to make sure their characteristics can be shown through their music’.

The concept and themes the group work on for their albums come from them. Though the production may not be solely done by them. The ideas originated from the members are worked upon by the members alongside the company. The ultimate example of the members’ creative independence from their company is their personally composed, freely released mixtapes. They reflect each member’s individual personalities and creative orientations.

Bang-si-Hyuk gave BTS autonomy to run their own Twitter and vlog from their studio, and for the rappers to write alongside Big Hit’s in-house production team.

Since 2000, the Korean government invests great sums in the country’s pop culture to appeal to an international audience. The South Korean government has dedicated a department solely to K-pop to promote the music in Korea and beyond. These cultural exports have benefited the economy and country. BTS have become the youngest ever recipients of the Hwagwan (Korea’s) Orders of Cultural Merit for their services to the promotion of Korean pop culture and Hangul, the Korean alphabet.

How is bts so popular?

“We came together with a common dream to write, dance and produce music that reflects our musical backgrounds as well as our life values of acceptance, vulnerability and being successful,” said BTS’s leader, RM, in a 2017 interview with Time. Their latest record, Map of the Soul: Persona, made them the second group in history to have three No. 1 albums in a single year—the first was the Beatles.

There are six main ways BTS breaks with established precedent for K-pop boy bands to carry out this mission:

· They frequently write their own songs and lyrics.

· Their lyrics are socially conscious and especially attuned to describing the pressures of modern teen life in South Korea.

· They create and manage most of their own social media presence.

· They aren’t signed to “slave contracts,” nor do their contracts have the grueling restrictions of other idol groups.

· They tend to focus on marketing entire albums rather than individual singles.

· They talk openly about the struggles and anxieties of their career instead of presenting an extremely polished image at all times. (To be said- Rap Monster also differentiated the group by taking an open stand in favor of LGBT rights, a topic which is still highly incendiary in South Korea. Idols typically don’t take sides in such topics.)

A lot of these elements have been present in other k-pop groups- most notably Big Bang, which influenced BTS more than any other k-pop band. But Big Hit Entertainment systemized these elements in BTS and marketed it hard.

BTS has broken several charts records during each come-back in 2016 and 2017, not only locally but also internationally. Unlike other K-pop fandoms, BTS fans, span every age, gender and ethnic group -- BTS is not a teenage phenomenon, it is an intellectual phenomenon. Language barrier is no hinderance to spreading their message by their active fanbase who translate lyrics, make video compilations and create fan fiction about the band. Their messages penetrate through language, age, ethinicity and gender (need to add videos of older people attending their concert).

Even before their debut in 2013, they already had contents such as covers and dance practices, published through several medias (Youtube, blog, Twitter...). They have constantly tried to update fans on their activities through planned and unplanned interactions. The boy group was one of the first artists featured in the live broadcasting application launched by Naver in August 2015, V App. BTS’ social angle is always cited by the ARMY as the top reason for their ardent support.

This worldwide popularity is confirmed by their growing strength on social media (linked in article).

Besides being crowned music’s hereditary princes by Korea’s "President of Culture” Seo Taiji, some other prominent supporters of BTS include Korean music critics, philosophers, Jungian psychologists, Brazilian authors, American painters.

That BTS happen to have a small, intimate team to aid them in the production endeavour which does not make their work any less authentic, and it differs fundamentally from other K-pop companies.

K-pop, which has swelled in the past five years from a niche genre to a $5 billion global industry. “Somebody always has to be the one to walk down that path and cut through the jungle and make some noise, and I think that group [was] BTS,” says Phil Becker, vice president for content at Alpha Media, which owns 68 U.S. radio stations.

America and the UK have been the powerhouses of popular music — only three of the 30 highest selling artists of all time have come from elsewhere. It means that the dominance, in terms of both cultural influence and commercial prowess, has been held firmly within the grip of the West. In 2019, BTS came second on the worldwide list of best-selling artists across physical, digital and streaming platforms, beaten only by the all-conquering Drake. BTS have almost single-handedly pulled things back towards the East.

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