Studio Notes Pt. 2- Arirang (3/20)

Part 2 of their Weverse/YouTube Live

My commentary in green.

Please find PART 1 here.

SUGA: then let's listen to the first track and talk about it - and i think as we do, there will be more to talk about
Jimin: let's gooo.. i feel like we'll stay up all night talking about this
🎶Body to Body

hobi: okay the first song
RM: it is very intense, a lot of people told me that this is their favorite track
BTS: true true
RM: cuz it was so strong
SUGA: it's good from the intro
JK: 🎶ddoongddoong🎶
SUGA: i mean for me personally with 'ARIRANG' I..
hobi: oh thisss also comes with a backstory

SUGA: cuz I..
RM: cuz that's going to come out too
SUGA: cuz I also used a lot of 'traditional Korean music' in my personal album too (re: Haegeum/Daechwita being the most popular to use Korean traditional instruments)
RM: hyung, you did do a lot ..like Haegeum and..
Jimin: Hoseokie hyung and I were pretty much fans [of this sound] from the get
hobi: like the feel in the first half...
JK: but but but Jiminie hyung was SO friggng funny remember?
hobi: oh that's right - he was super funny
JK: i learned about it after the fact but
hobi: well it'll come out in our documentary, the making of the album documentary, there are a lot of fun episodes that came out
RM: wait I watched it.. why don't I remember it?
V: no this is too big of a spoiler
RM: okay okay
Jin: wait what is it?? i'm sooo curious..

LOL Jin is so real for this

j-hope: Body to Body is literally like..
RM: body - holding - body ::holding hands::
SUGA: kinda like 2026 'hand in hand'
j-hope: yeah, it's like 2026 'hand in hand'

[as boba tries to fly away, carrying Jin & Jimin]

*Body to Body, was apparently written to evoke the same feelings as 'Hand in Hand' - the official theme song of the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

This song is inseparable from the feeling of 'national triumph' for Korea/Koreans and literally translates to '[Holding] Hand in Hand' - emphasizing unity. The 1988 Olympics marked the country overcoming decades of war, poverty, and authoritarian rule in bright celebration, a "WE HAVE ARRIVED" moment/vibe for South Korea.

From the official Olympics YouTube channel, Hand in Hand

j-hope: this is a song i really like from the album
RM: really like it
SUGA: i don't get tired of it
j-hope: right from the start - there's this.. .like a feeling in my chest..
Jin: almost get choked up..
j-hope: something that resonates
RM: i mean it's ARIRANG right? it's like ARIRANG and pop.. and like a fusion of that, like kimchi on top of a pastry or something
j-hope: HAHAHAHA
JK: oh you said that beforeee like..
Jimin: hyung, you're giving spoilers right now!!
RM: oh i am??

RM: kinda like pizza.. and kimpitang?

*김피탕 (kim pi tang)=kimchi pizza tangsuyuk

some may call it an abomination, some may call it a genius collab lol - it's a combination of kimchi and tangsuyook (lightly battered and fried and then tossed in a sweet and sour sauce glaze pork), and then somehow 'pizzafied' (essentially, i think they only melted cheese on top.. and placed the entire thing on top of a tortilla??? idr exactly but here is the chaotic episode - note, this is NOT how professionals make this food LOL)

RM: kimpitang style~ kimpitang vibes~ if you do fusion really well, it's really good
Jin: i think the fusion came out really well~ like a very feel good end result

j-hope: all the audiences may be able to enjoy it together i think
RM: if all the audiences, like ARIRANG and even the foreign fans, all sing along, it would be really grand~
V: but then that would be really..
Jin: this is also part of our song right? this part is actually easy to memorize and sing along to,
SUGA: so when we perform it, even the foreign fans who are probably very familiar with the song would be able to sing along
JK: right

j-hope: i think it's a really good song for the opening, and also for the ending, and also for the encore, i think it's a really good song that came out
Jimin: i think the feelings of the members who really want to perform right now are really well reflected in this song
Jin: that's right

[shenanigans.]

RM: i think i warmed up to it in gradations like.. when i first heard it, i was like.. this is not it..but then i was like.. then second listen - okay, it's good, let me listen to it one more time.. and i was like.. okay, i acknowledge it's good
j-hope: had like a 2 step process kinda
SUGA: the song 'ARIRANG' is something that we have heard a lot since we were young, and there have been a lot of remixes of it for various anniversaries and special occasions and
JK: like festivals
SUGA: yea so I was like.. I wanted to do something different with it, but then when I heard the final version, I was like.. oh it's good we included it - i mean Koreans might be like huh?? but outside of Korea
RM: there will be WAY more people hearing it for the first time, right?
JK: it's the first track
SUGA: and also lots of people sample their own country's music so I think it's really good
Jin: it's good
j-hope: it's really good

V: k~ now next
j-hope: let's listen to the next track
jk: damn
j-hope: hooligannnnn
RM: hooligannn
Jin: hooligannn

SUGA: the room we worked on this.. Guincho's room .. tell them the story
RM: it was these two right? (pointing to JK)
j-hope: when i arrived in LA, JK was working on this - and JK all of a sudden was like "hobi hyung, come here come here you have to listen to this"
RM to JK: you wrote the chorus for this right?

*サビ (sabi)- this one actually took me a whileee to figure out because this word "사비 or 싸비" kinda SOUNDS Koreanish?? but is not Korean, but gleaned from context, I could tell it referred to the 'chorus' many times - so I just looked it up for confirmation and it is a loan word that most often refers to the 'chorus or hook' - the most climactic part of the song, and a core term from J-pop production vocabular!

j-hope: JK did a lot of work/had a lot of say for this song
JK: but okay for this song ..I don't even know why but I kept thinking of "hooligan"
(my theory: tis because boba is a tiny hooligan and it called out from his dna and demanded to be written)

RM: did you watch soccer the day before?
JK: no i didn't - i just ::snaps vibes:: and thought of 'hooOligann' just over and over again outta nowhere
j-hope: oh just outta nowhere~ (spoken in a familiar/knowing tone - as artists and lyricists, they must all share some similar experiences where inspiration comes specifically but also very randomly and unexpectedly)
JK: yea outta nowhere/suddenly~ so I expressed that
SUGA: it's always like that when you're writing~
JK: oh and i didn't realize that would become the [song] title
j-hope: oh hooligan?
RM: but it's because Hooligan came out that this song came out the way it did, right?
SUGA: in the earlier days though wasn't this not the melody??
JK: right.. we revised it a lot.. and changed the melody at the end
RM: i mean this part 'watch this, watch this, be going, hooligan' really grounds the song..

SUGA: El Guincho really.. like.. i listened to the sound and was like wowww
j-hope: El Guincho really
JK: that's right.. the song ??? (i can't tell what he says here)
j-hope: this albun, i really felt like El Guincho is going to be a key part of it
V: this album, El Guincho was so..
JK: like if he wasn't there - what would we have done..
SUGA: he did SO well
RM: El Guincho normally works really closely with Rosalia - basically her right hand man - they've been working together for SO much of her their career...truly.. watching the way he comes up with beats was fascinating
SUGA: likeee .. i was so surprised
JK: it's different
Jimin: the method/technique itself is so different
RM: THAT'S EXACTLY IT! the method/technique itself is so different
V: we kepttt being like 'should we try this? should we try that' with Guincho
Jimin: we did that SO much

SUGA: from the pov of someone who also makes tracks i was like 'oh, you can do it like that???
Jimin: an entirely different method/technique
SUGA: but the one guy in that room was making tracks with a game pad
JK: right, right, right - but that itself was a method/technique too
SUGA: i'm sayingg.. so like he made a '*DAW' and incorporated the game track pads to make sounds and used the pad to make the sounds

(DAW = Digital Audio Workstation, essentially the software used to record/edit/arrange/mix/and produce music on a computer - before DAWs, producers needed A LOT of different equipment - but DAWs made it possible to put 'a studio' in a laptop~)

V: it isn't out yet but ..

JK: i don't think you can use it with comemrcial licensing but..
Jimin: oh really?
JK: yea he was testing stuff with it

RM: anyway JK really played a major role and it's that kind of song
j-hope: so good
JK: thank you so much 😊
Jimin (making fun of RM because he added ZERO new information about the song or about JK): "JK played a big role and it was that kind of song.." ??
j-hope:HAHAHA
JK::bobasmiles::

LOOK AT HIS LITTLE FACE OF HAPPY TINYBOBAHAPPYCAKES SMILES JKL:GJ:LDJ:GLDJG:LJFDG I ALL THE WAY CANNOT.

#caught. LOLLL