Social lyrics and impressive choreography: 7 reasons to love BTS

You may have seen BTS on the Trending tab on YouTube and on the first lines of the iTunes charts - yes, in Russia, too, Black Swan by @BTS_twt has achieved # 1 in 88 countries on iTunes. The group's Twitter account has almost 24 million followers (this is 8.5 million more than Beyoncé's), and BTS fans have taken over the platform for a long time and regularly bring their hashtags to the world top for a variety of reasons. American wrestlers John Cena, Matthew McConaughey, Ed Sheeran and many other celebrities have publicly confessed their love for the boy band.

Let's talk about why a group of seven South Korean guys became a global phenomenon and won the hearts of millions of people around the world - and can win yours too.

1. Genre variety

Pop, rock, R&B and soul, ballad, trap, EDM, many varieties of hip-hop - name the genre, and among the vast discography of BTS you will find songs to your liking. Except perhaps for some screamo and power metal, over the seven years of its existence, the group has affected almost all trendy musical styles.

Great examples of this music lover's exuberance are the albums Wings: You Never Walk Alone (2017) and Love Yourself: Answer (2018).

So once you get to know BTS, you can indulge in nostalgia for a bygone youth under Butterfly and yearn for unhappy love under The Truth Untold. And also throwing parties with Dionysus, raising morale before an interview with the Fire and dissolving haters on the Internet with Cypher 4. (There are four songs called Cypher. Check it out if you like hip-hop with a powerful beat and aggressive reading.)

2. Deep lyrics

Not a single boy band in the world is complete without simple songs about first dates, roses, tears and other romantic twists and turns. But BTS and their producers took the bold step of writing songs about social inequality and mental illness, glass ceiling and conspicuous consumption culture. And also about what success means and what its achievement is worth.

Starting with the debut single 2 Cool 4 Skool and subsequent releases O! RUL8, 2? and Skool Luv Affair, BTS 'lyrics often bring up the topic of pressure on teenagers from parents and society. In South Korea, in an atmosphere of strong competition at school, university, and then at work, you have to become the best - or you will become nobody. But guys who have experienced the same pressure on their skins say there must be another way: it is unfair to require a titmouse to fly as high as a crane.

In later albums, the themes of growing up, finding oneself and finding self-love become central. For example, in Fake Love, the lyrical hero dissolves so much in the object of his affection that he loses himself and becomes a faceless doll. Continuation of this story - in Epiphany: “Over time, I stopped coping with the storm in my soul, and behind the laughing mask my true face appeared. I am the one I have to love in this world."

Of course, if you are not a connoisseur of Korean, a natural question arises about the language. But enthusiasts have long translated all the texts for us into Russian, you can find them in thematic communities on the VKontakte social network.

3. Impressive choreography

With enough practice, any group of seven people will be able to synchronously repeat even complex dance moves. To become a single organism and in this synergy physically embody music, convey emotions and tell a story is a completely different matter. And BTS does this in every performance.

There are only a couple of members with significant dance backgrounds in the group - J-Hope, winner of the national street dance competition, and Park Jimin, who studied contemporary choreography at the Busan School of the Arts. At the same time, in BTS, there is no distinction of "These are the dancers, and this is everyone else behind." In the performance, each participant manages to show individuality, and as a result, magic is born.

The group's performances are usually the responsibility of the permanent main choreographer Son Songyk. BTS also collaborates with other professionals and studios, including Keon Madrid, Riehata, Quick Style Dance Crew and The Lab Creative Studio. The latter presented the fans of the group with an unbridled orgy to Dionysus - a song about love for art and wine.

4. Active social position

The K-pop industry consciously separates itself from politics and sells sweet fantasies regardless of the social climate. BTS are rare artists who go beyond that and inspire change. In addition to the acute problems in the songs, the work of the group carries universal human values: sincerity, care for oneself and those who are nearby, respect for differences and striving for unity, because creativity does not know geographical boundaries.

In 2017, BTS teamed up with UNICEF to launch BTS supports #ENDviolence the #LoveMyself campaign, which is dedicated to protecting children and adolescents from violence. The group and its agency Big Hit Entertainment donated and donated 3% of the physical sales of Love Yourself albums.

I would like to ask all of you: what is your name? What excites you and what makes your heart beat faster? Tell your story. I want to hear your voices and your beliefs. It doesn't matter who you are or where you are from, what your skin color or gender identity is - just speak up. Find your name and your voice.

BTS leader Kim Namjoon at the UN meeting in cooperation with UNICEF

Best of all, this message - not being afraid to express yourself and caring for others - does not remain empty preaching. BTS's fandom - ARMY - is coordinated through social media and independently conducts charity events for the birthdays of the members, important dates for the group, or just like that. New projects appear every month. For example, in December 2019, BTS Jimin's fans donated an Article on the Korean news portal Naver “BTS Jimin's fans donated to children with leukemia” 10,130,000 won (~ 542,000 rubles) to the Korea Children's Leukemia Foundation. And in January this year, fans of the group paid for over 36,000 breakfasts for disadvantaged children to celebrate BTS's appearance on the James Corden Show.

5. Fascinating complex concepts

Those who like to look for deep meanings and build pop-cultural theories, do not pass by.

To begin with, some of BTS's albums are thematically related, and these themes consistently continue each other. I would especially like to highlight three of them.

If you're into fictional social drama, check out The Most Beautiful Moment in Life trilogy, which launched in 2015. The videos for I Need U and Run, as well as the cinematic videos 화양연화 on stage: prologue and Highlight Reel, tell the story of seven teenagers with serious problems. Some have to endure an abusive father, others have mental health problems and addiction to drugs, and others live in a van due to dire poverty. To heighten the intensity of the drama, the story adds a motif of time travel in a futile effort to save friends.

Also, a web comic titled Save Me and a whole fiction book were released on this universe (all available in the English version).

For fans of dark aesthetics and decadence, there is the Wings album, which was accompanied by mini-films. This concept is closely related to the story from the previous trilogy, but it is presented through metaphors. For example, a hero who committed paricide appears in the form of a fallen angel (according to another version, the mythological Icarus). There are tons of symbols and references to world culture and especially to "Demian" by Hermann Hesse, a novel about growing up and finding oneself.

And finally, last year the album Map of the Soul: Persona was released, based on the concept of Carl Gustav Jung about the structure of the human psyche. A sequel is expected on February 21 with the release of an album titled Map of the Soul: 7, and there are already three clips presenting the key concepts of Jung's analytical psychology - Person, Shadow and Ego - as embodied by the BTS members.

6. Respect for the native culture

Despite the frequent questions from Western journalists, "Are you planning on releasing an English-language album?" BTS remains true to their roots and continues to sing songs in Korean.

Perhaps the most striking expression of BTS's love for their language is Paldogangsan, or Satoori Rap, which is dialect rap. In this song, RM, Suga and J-Hope recite their verses in the dialects of their native provinces - Gyeonggi-do, Gyeongsang-do, and Jeolla-do. In the text, the guys lively argue about which of the regions of South Korea has the most delicious food and the coolest guys live, and it sounds very funny.

In addition to language, artists pay tribute to other aspects of their country's culture. For example, at the 2018 MMA Awards, three participants dressed in Traditional Korean Hanbok Costume and presented three styles of folk dance - with drums, fans and masks.

7. Successful collaborations with world artists

BTS's collaboration with Western musicians also takes many different forms. Nicki Minaj read a rap verse in one of the versions of the song IDOL, and singer Halsey appeared in Boy With Luv, sang the chorus and even became the eighth member of the dance.

DJ and producer Steve Aoki boasts a very productive collaboration with BTS. In 2018, he invited the guys to record his composition Waste It On Me. It became the first fully English-language song that the band members performed.

This is the third collaboration between BTS and Aoki: the first was a fiery remix of Mic Drop, and then The Truth Untold, a sad and tender ballad, completely atypical for the person who usually lights the dance floor.

A very important event for the group was their performance at the Grammy Awards in 2020 - albeit not with their own song, but together with rapper Lil Nas X under his last year's hit Old Town Road. And so unobtrusively, BTS became the first Korean artist (if not the first boy band at all) to perform on this stage.

Album Map of the Soul: 7 is coming out very soon - on February 21st. Don't miss it if you are interested in at least some of the points mentioned above - the new release will surely contain the expectedly good content and a couple more surprises.

And if nothing at all hooked - well, at least, you have become a little better at understanding teenage girls. And John Cenu.