RM Live Pt. 1 - 5/28

hihi

My commentary in green.

ai shhii the angle is ::phone drops::
i gotta get a better angle

it's cuz i put it [the phone] on top of my pokemon cards

jak;fdjgladfj;lj cutiejakdlgj;alfjgl

anyonghasaeyo
it's been a while since i turned on the stream by myself
ugh this is frustrating (talking about fumbling with his phone to get it to stand upright so he could conduct the livestream)
one sec
okay..
works now right?
i don't like how this is cut off though so adjusting slightly this way
like this

k anyonghasaeyo
is the back too bright?
oh! who's that, jin hyung? hi anyonghasaeyo

what should i do?
what should i doo?
do i look like a ghost? (fidgeting with the lights)
this is better right?
i went riding roller coasters with jin hyung and i put that photo as the thumbnail for the stream
the reason i turned on the stream is because if i don't turn it on today, i probably won't turn it on for a long time
but before too much time passes since arirang was released, i wanted to talk about be sure to unpack some of the things while it's still fresh in my memory
i set the subtitles to korean so i'll try to speak in korean for the important stuff

if it's not clear, he does/says this because the Korean subtitles are a bit more accurate and he's about to share things that are deeply meaningful to him re: the work on this album, he'd rather not set it to 'english subtitles' and have things sort of misrepresented. Rather, he'd choose to articulate his thoughts clearly in Korean

as in, it's not about de-prioritizing non-Korean speakers, it's about wanting to express HIMSELF most accurately in his native language. my readers/followers/mooties likely aren't the ones getting this twisted, but I wanted to say that CLEARLY, just for your knowledge, in case you see some nonsense circulating that suggests otherwise. but like i'll always also suggest, it's not worth correcting internet dbags - I just want you to know for yourself in certain terms. don't waste time/energy correcting stranger dumdums 😘.

yesterday, we got the AMAs and then today
while performing in North America, Korea, and Japan.. there are times when I like get choked up and really immersed in the emotions
it's been a little over two months since this album came out, about 70 days or so.
I have a lot of thoughts about this album and for those of you who are coming to the concerts, I wanted to share some things on this live that I really want you to know [about the album/him]

now after tomorrow's last las vegas show, we'll be heading back to korea, so um yeah
in the past, I think I used to write down a lot of things and prepare for the live, so I was really debating about whether to turn on the stream or not, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the regional stories and things related to song camp and the album and my thoughts about the future...

because while performing, we went to seoul, tokyo, then tampa, el paso, mexico city, stanford, and then las vegas
we went to these 7 regions, and it was really nice to perform after such a long time and see so many people, it made me think about a lot of things
so I felt like I was really connecting with the audience, and especially.. there's so many of you who see [us/the concert] through video clips
during the encore part, there's that karaoke part where they play random songs and you never know which song is going to come out, and a lot of old songs come out there, right?
and today, 'Attack on Bangtan' came out, and if I remember correctly, 'Attack on Bangtan' came out around the time of NO, so it's been about 13 years, 12 and a half years or so..
thereby sorta bringing us back to the old days..
then being able to reflect on our present selves..
and then considering how we can do better in the future..

I think this has been a time for me to be able to think on those things a lot
and so i mean..

and i mean some of it.. is hassle to think about but
and cuz every single word I speak.. i mean sometimes can cause issues..
so honestly i was debating on whether or not even to talk about/turn this live at all

should i talk about arirang?
but to be honest, like other than the Rolling Stone interview
we only really talked about the album in a professional way
so I wanted to talk about how we approached the album and..
actually now that some time has passed
i can.. how should I put it.. there are things I'm able to talk about with a more refined tone, I guess
by now, I felt it would be okay to turn on a live to talk about it
[cuz by now] the wave of news [about the album] has passed, we've won awards, we've also done the first leg of the tour..

so anyway, we pored over so many things about this album very sincerely
considering all that, i don't think we've adequately communicated/expressed/shared all of that quite yet

so first off, there are my thoughts on the album as a comprehensive whole
then there are my thoughts on music and performance these days, which I want to share after going through the album
but first, before I get into that,
when Jin hyung was discharged from the military, it was about a year before we were all discharged, and at that time, we were all in a pretty bad mental state
so when Jin hyung was discharged - that time I was playing the saxophone - and we all gathered at either Jimin's house or my house, I think it was Jimin's house
and at that time, Jung Kook was also going through a really tough time
I mean we were all going through ittt, we were all privates [Korean military], crying our eyes out and stuff

talking about things like 'hyung, you'll have to do a lot to hold down the team for us..'
we talked about a LOT of things that time
and we decided pretty simply/concisely -'okay, considering how long they've waited/have to wait for us - as SOON as we're all discharged, we should come back with an album to show our appreciation in return

and with all the remaining members' discharge scheduled for June, the timing was good..

but starting from the end of the previous year, we started talking about the setting for the song camp
regarding like 'who will lead/captain the song camp' was..
actually "song camp" is a kind of Konglish term, it's originally called "session" in English
I had experience with 'sessions' during the making of RPWP with about 30-40 people, within HYBE, so I was very familiar
Likely Jung Kook and Hobi also had direct experiences too

And so with 'sessions' there are sessions that include the artists themselves
But there are also sessions that take place before the artists are involved, like pre-sessions

I'm not sure of the exact timing but we started talking about the song camp setting around the end of last year to go to LA around July or August to go to the session together I'm pretty sure that's what we'd decided

I think I also really looked forward to that time
Wanted to discharge asap

And as long as the hiatus was.. Jin hyung and Hobi endured the most honestly
So many concerts and appearing on variety shows..
So moving beyond that sort of gap/disconnect (their hiatus)
The next thing was for us to fly to LA together

The issue was this...
the pre-session was already underway before we were discharged, as far as I know
starting around April or May

From that time, the songs that were coming out were 'BODY TO BODY', 'Swim', 'Normal', 'Like Animals', and ...Please?
Yea, I think those were it .. those had came out during that time

Just in case you're unaware, when he says 'these songs were out' - he doesn't mean the songs were the completed versions you know today, he means the existence of those songs, perhaps some of the larger themes, details, maybe some substantial melodies/directions for those songs were already secured - but it's not that those songs were in their final form as you recognize them today

Once we were discharged, before we headed out to LA, we all got together at a *pension and preview-listened to the songs

*펜션 (pension) = a vacation rental, cabin/lodge, airbnb type thing - NOTHING to do with "pension: retirement money, etc."
you'll actually see/hear people use this word a LOT - but be sure not to confuse the uses! hahaha

and, as you know, there are a LOT of songs that were cut
we had our own session where we listened to all the songs that were cut
and at the time.. like many people (relevant staff/ppl) from the industry had come and..
mm.. I had a lot of thoughts while listening to those songs..
at the time, I think there were about 15 songs or so, but the opinions were all different
some friends liked this song, some friends disliked this song

so the seven of us, ..i mean we each have a lot of experience, and we've all done solo work
and if you take a look at our solo work, you'll see we're all very different [from each other]
our artistic approach/goals/vision are different
the aspects/direction [of our artistry] that we most prominently want to showcase are different
now putting out a full album after 6 and a half years, and then going on tour, how do we tie all of that together?

if back in the day, maybe it fell on me.. especially me and like yoongi hyung?
we'd discuss like we listen to a LOT of music so..
if that was what was sort've helping us to make decisions

nowadays, all the members..
i'd say it's our great strength and weakness.. actually no - it's a strength for sure
all of our members are very considerate
this incredible relationship..
this incredible but very delicate [in structure]/intricate relationship that we have, no one takes it lightly/no one wants to disrupt/break it
so everyone is extremely careful about navigating it

like if any one of us doesn't like something, we all try to respect/regard their input
but the issue is.. since we're all like that
it makes coming to any sort of conclusion/decision really difficult
if 2 of us really oppose something while 4 of us is okay with it
and 1 person has no preference and wants to go with the group consensus..

like.. even before we were discharged, I anticipated that the whole, year-long process of making the album, releasing it, performing it, and even the tour would all boil down to how we make decisions as a group
and I was right in the end

so we distilled a few songs from the presession before we headed off to LA
in LA, I mean we've spoken on this a lot now but
we worked every day - 6 days a week at Conway Studio, a very nice and organic studio
At Conway Studio, there are 4 buildings, ah, 3 buildings..
we set up 4 rooms there, and every day, different producers, then instrumentalists, then topliners - the people who are good at coming up with melodies by singing on the spot - would come in and work with us

every day a different combination would go in
for example, one day it would be me and Jung Kook going in and working in this room all day, and then another day it would be Taehyung and I going in and working in this room all day
so it was like that, every day, the people in the room would be different
about 5 people would be in the room on any given day, and those 5 people would come up with 1 or 2 songs for sure
so it was like a really.. how should I put it..
a really, kind of like a workplace system?
a workplace where we make songs, I guess?

the company was also making selections..
like for FYA, JPEGMAFIAMAFIA
and there's actually an artist I really like called 070 Shake
and 070 Shake also came in for about 2 days to work with us
and there are songs that made it into the album and songs that didn't
but anyway that's how it all went down

if in the first week or so, the members, I mean since they can't really speak English and they're a new to this way of working, they were unfamiliar so they were maybe fumbling a bit here and there but then about a week in, they started warming up/getting their bearings as they also each started to find there were artists they were drawn to working with
and that's how 2 months were spent

it was not like 'oh we'll make SWIM the title track for sure' right from the get
there were thoughts like 'certainly we have to have a more powerful, energetic sounding song than 'SWIM'
but here's the thing..
if you consider 'well, what should BTS' title track be for THE BTS COMEBACK?'
it's like everyone's answer could be the right one or the wrong one, right?
like some people expect us to do something like 'Dynamite'
some people expect something like 'ON'
some people expect something like 'Hooligan' like we have now
some people expect us to do something like 'Spring Day' or something like that
so everyone has a different idea
in some 10+ years, having made music in such a vast array of genres and styles and doing so much, we all had different thoughts about what the direction should be
and the fans are all different, and the thoughts of the members here are all different, and the thoughts of the relevant people in the relevant departments are all different
there was no way to narrow it down

the hardest part was that we didn't have a clear captain/leader
no one to drive the process and clearly proclaim 'this is right, this is wrong'
it was a really challenging time to assert something like that at the time
that made things really difficult

So to be clear, RM is not saying that the work of SETTING the direction AS the leader was the difficult part - but that even assuming the role as the "captain" was not for granted (by him or anyone) as they are ALL much more fully realized musicians with solid artistic opinions/goals, so that 'role' was never assigned/assumed by anyone - because it couldn't easily be claimed in this context, esp in preservation of the intricate group dynamic as he mentioned earlier

so honestly, we made this album without a clear direction at the start
so when this album came out, I thought it was natural that there would be a lot of different opinions about it
for example, starting with the title track 'Arirang' itself, there would be a lot of different opinions about it
but as just one who participated in the making of this album, I just think it's a miracle that this album came out, really

I think it's a miracle that this album came out, and whether people like it or not...

whether they feel it's lacking in some way or not, the fact that we were able to come back together and put out a full album as promised, and then go on tour and perform again together is really something to be grateful for
of course, there we all feel the "coulda woulda shouldas" and I feel that too

but really, that we were able to come back together without a single person leaving, without a single person getting sick/hurt, without a single person bailing out, and now that we're able to perform again and go on tour without issue

cuz see.. now that our scale has gotten bigger thanks to you all, we had to plan out the schedule for managing all of this
and if we don't do that like a year or a year in advance, we just can't pull it off, because there are so many people moving together with us, it wasn't like 'oh we can just do this and this and this' - it just didn't work like that

so this project was really challenging to put out
if there's something off that you're sensing - it's probably born of the fact that we didn't have one clear 'captain' to set one clear direction maybe?
i think it'd be that

but that's the only thing that we could do at the time - we had to get this out
this kind of directionless/lacking clear order or structure type album is the natural result of the fact that we all got back together to try to make something again

SO ..if i unpack the songs one by one, starting with 'Body to Body'..
Body to Body was, as I mentioned earlier, originally a song that came out in the pre-session
and I also had a collaborator named Cash..
andn cuz I'm not a native English speaker..
I just outright partnered with someone from America who is a professional songwriter to work on the lyrics with me
because I wanted to make sure that the lyrics would really resonate and feel natural in English

So with Body to Body.. actually it started out 'Body on Body' as I remember.. 'Body on Body' was a really sexual song so.. "I need some body on body" so.. you get the picture right?
And of course~ I mean there's no reason we couldn't put out a sexual song.. I mean we're in our 30s now, why not?
BUT at the same time, we also don't need to put out a randomly overly sexual song outta nowhere without reason just because
and we all felt we there was something we were trying to accomplish and forcing that kinda song in there didn't really make sense
so this concept of 'hand to hand' reminiscent of song 'Hand in Hand' in 1988 by the Koreana, which was the official song for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, so we changed it to this 'Body to Body' concept - we wanted it to become like an anthem

there's that scene from the doc that caused a lot of buzz right
with regard to whether or not to include 'arirang'
but there were parts of the before-and-after that were left out

for me, after listening to it exactly 3 times, it clicked for me 'there's a reason for this'
it's true that because I'd listened to the version of Body to Body without the Arirang portion so much, it [the +Arirang version] felt unfamiliar/awkward a bit
and of course, I was like 'oh, isn't this like too patriotic-in-your-face/on-the-nose?' and honestly this was a valid opinion
but in the end, if you take into consideration as far as the impact it'd have in the concert setting - almost like so many people overseas could grow to anticipate that part
the scene/picture.. ..everyone singing along to the Korean folk song in unison..
I didn't think this was the kind of scene/moment you could forcefully sorta manufacture..

there's the edit that I really like actually..
where hobi is standing next to me vibing and dancing to that part and i look hella serious/standing there like ::makes face::
i was legit thinking 'oh we're screwed..'

well even with 'ARIRANG' as the title, the reason I liked it was cuz "ARIRANG" itself.. i mean if you wanna say the scope of what 'ARIRANG' could cover is narrow, that could make sense - this word.. the use..the meaning.. but if you wanna call it 'broad' that could also be true - there's Jeongseon Arirang, Gyeonggi Arirang, etc.
but really, the concept of this new journey for these 7 young korean men..
'we're just 7 guys from korea at the end of the day'

for example, like yesterday, after the AMAs were over - i considered going to the after party and mingling with some of the artists and producers who are based in the US, and I thought maybe I could try to be smoothe, but then I just didn't go..
because I was intimidated and also, the members are uncomfortable with English
so there are some members who don't like parties and mingling, so we just didn't go...
but these kinds of things... wait why did i bring this up??

oh man, i love watching all BTS lives but definitely RM's solo lives are my favorite to translate because, after all, I started this whole effort of translating BTS content to grow my vocabulary and he expands it the most for me and covers such a depth/range of topics as he inevitably shares some type of thought exercise or existential crisis and oh how i love his thoughtful heart/brain

i love that he's so articulate but also finds himself going off on tangents during his lives.. but they almost always do tie back to his central point hehehe

why.. whyyy did i bring this up? oh it's cuz i was talking about ARIRANG
so like for Korea.. cuz like..
okay so how does Bangtan Sonyeondan differ from other teams?
what have we been doing?
and how much has the world changed?
the truth is, if you were to ask any producer to make an album for BTS, or even for the BTS that just got discharged, it would probably be the most difficult thing in the world
that's actually what I told our staff as well - like this is probably the most difficult project in the world
because it's K-POP but also pop
and we're coming back after a long time
and we have a history we're known for..
and the times have changed
and we while we can't just put out more of the same, if we change - how much change is okay?

anyway - well if I start to explain ARIRANG, i could go on endlessly..
but so that's one aspect..
when with Body to Body ..like before [the changes] and it was just a sexual song with a good beat and a nice melody with sexual lyrics
it just didn't feel likie a song we needed to do
like 'is this right?' when we imbue it with our voices..

but now, the 'I need the whole stadium to jump" that line and the Arirang part in Body to Body, this whole 'coming together as one' - I think it's one of the highlights of the concert, and for me personally, it's one of the moments I find most thrilling/exciting
when everyone sings 'Arirang' together in Body to Body - and then coming back to 'I need the whole stadium to jump' that part..
we accepted the 'Arirang' part but the coming back - is something we really strongly pushed for and ultimately managed to pull out

so the process of deciding anything is..
like the office is involved, the artists are involved..
and this continuous back and forth is how we arrive to a decision
what was shown in the documentary is a merely a tiny fragment

back when the netflix doc first came out, I created a form where followers/mooties could submit questions that I could follow up on re: translations - but I actually wound up getting questions about things that were so subjective. I found that I really didn't feel comfortable offering any answers. It's not my place to interpret on their behalf - especially when only informed by brief snippets.

So to the frustration/disappointment of a few people, I never put anything out but it wasn't because I stopped caring or forgot. It was because I was waiting for more information. I think this was the live I'd been waiting for... I also FULLY acknowledge, awesome as he is, RM is 1/7 of the whole team. That said, inasfar as his group yields to his leadership and has trusted his communications to be a fair vessel for group updates, I think it's a solid place to start...so in supplement to all the notes I took from that time, I'll be addressing some of the questions I received, my own thoughts, and all that into something that I'll probably try to post in June - hopefully by or before festa!

so anyway..
I think it came out well
Considering even up to the concert experience.. your collective voice incorporated into the song - is the song in its completion

cuz actually it's rare to have songs we just 'listen' to these days right?
there are videos, visuals, album covers, how the lyrics are done, whether the title is in lowercase or not, etc.
these days, there are no boundaries like that
in that sense, 'Body to Body' was a track that had to be included, and I think it came out well
so yeah, that's that

for Hooligan
this [live] can't drag too long...i'm going to try to cut it off within an hour
for Hooligan, Jung Kook and Hobi worked on it a lot
it probably came out of Jung Kook and Hobi's room
and as you know, I don't know why Jung Kook suddenly came up with the keyword but he came up with "watch this, watch this, beat going hooligan"
from there, the songwriters who were there at the time, including myself, started to flesh out the song with that keyword
it's the product of a lot of people's adjustments/revisions
and so El Guincho, an artist who has worked a lot with Rosalía, worked with us for about 10 days or so, and there were a lot of really fun tracks among the tracks that came out during that time, like the track that starts with the sound of a sound of the knives clinking, or the sound of a motorcycle, or the sound of a gameboy, etc.
this song probably came out of Jung Kook's and Hobi's room at the 1 month mark..
and the office, and Bang Shik-hyuk PD, they all really liked it
so much so that this song because the standard
a song like Hooligan - alternative hip hop
but a bit stronger, maybe a bit more like a title track, this song because the standard/benchmark for other songs
this song came out around the end of July or the beginning of August, and
so basically, for the rest of August, we were sent to try to make a song 'better' than Hooligan
that's how important the work of Jung Kook and Hobi were for us..
everyone that was there, from the first listen - the track was so good
that keyword 'hooligan' was so catchy

also there was a very aggressive choreography
like the version Taehyungie did
so the idea the company had was to turn that portion into the challenge choreography/meme song
but we realized oh things definitely don't always go as planned because
one the choreography made by one of our fans, the one where you pop your hips, that's the one that actually caught on
and everyone's doing that dance for the challenge
the ::does hooligan official choreography:: part we made easy [for the purpose of it being accessible for viral challenge potential] never caught on..

so we realized like oh it doesn't just work like that
but in any case, we were happy many people did that challenge with Hooligan

this is also baked into my existential crisis lol. do you remember a time before viral challenges? not that there's anything wrong with people participating in viral challenges of course - but i think somewhere along the line for SOME people (not all)- the motivation/impulse to participate is not about appreciating the music or even the choreography, it's about using someone else's song/choreography to ..show off your body/your moves/how cute you think you look doing it? Cuz there's nothing 'original' about participating in a viral challenge -nothing different- except for the actual participant(s) involved. What is that? I wonder what is the appeal.

Again, NOT a judgment -heck I may even attempt a viral dance challenge some day and if/when I do, I WILL enjoy every bit of it I imagine. But there IS something eerie about clicking into a 'trending sound' and seeing hundreds and hundreds of people doing the same like 30-second choreography.

When I feel things like this, I'm not interested in judging it. But I don't want to glaze over how unnatural it all feels. I can simultaneously appreciate how it's fun/desirable to want to be a part of something... and still hold the fact that, for me, it all feels a bit absurd... ANYWAY~

For the 'behind the scenes' of Hoolican.. I don't know.. I think if Jung Kook and Hobi do a live later on - it's something you should inquire about.
so El Guincho and Hobi worked on it a lot and it was sucha a great combination [of artists] and this song would became the standard/benchmark
at around the same time 'Hooligan' was done, 'Alien' came out also and that probably also came from Jung Kook and Hobi's room

Then someone everybody knows, Mike Will Made It, and the track is very unique
doongdoongdoongdoongdoongdoongdoong
I was wondering how they'd come up with those lines but they did a great job
I think the songwriter, maybe Charles? anyway, they did a great job
we started out doing longer raps in the beginning and then cut it down and repeated that process a few times, as far as I know
Jung Kook and Hobi had a lot of thoughts about it
the original title of 'Aliens' was 'Endless'
so it was originally like this ::sings::
but 'Endless' just sounded a bit empty, you know?
'We have no end' is a bit too abstract, you know?
the pronunciation [of endless] was so catchy but being 'endless'
so we changed it to 'Aliens' and considered 'we're aliens from Korea - hi everyone' -how would this play?
Aliens and endless kinda sound similar too

this likely only true because English is NOT their native language loll in their heads, aliens and endless sounded similar enough to swap out comfortably - by any average English speaking imagination, perhaps we wouldn't hold the 3-syllabled "ALIENS" and the 2-syllable "ENDLESS" in comparison but this goes to show how diversity of thought begets really cool possibilities in creative realms #nothingrhymeswithorange #doorhinge #iykyk

so we thought that it was the kind of song that could preserve the original flavor/feel of the existing track while also incorporating more of our originality into it
anyway, if you look at the lyrics
there's honestly like a 'corny/country bumpkin-y'ish vibe to othem that we intended
i mean even the lines that outright express we're proud to be Korean - I could've written them in a more poetic way or in a way that felt more sophisticated - but we needed to preserve the 'flavor/vibe' of the original track

this song is just like "yeah, we're aliens - so what?/what do you want us to do about it?"
and seeing international ARMY singing that together creates this really fun/interesting sort of 'role reversal/pov flip'
so i actually think these lyrics, whether they become memes or jokes, I wanted more people to notice/engage with it
the lyricsc of this song are so straightforward and direct

Aliens was actually really difficult to write in Korean
we had a lot more English in it in the beginning
but then the members found some of the pronunciation challenging too
and since it's about being from Korea and stuff - it was challenging to preserve the original feel of it
it took a really long time
and I remember spending a lot of time revising this song

Now, for FYA
FYA, as I said earlier, a song that needed to outdo Hooligan.. I guess
we wanted to make a good song that went even harder than Hooligan - and this was one of them
Now FLUME who put out a song 'Never Be the Same' (actually, Never Be Like You) back in the day that had kind of a dubstep..
wait maybe I shouldn't call it dubstep..
futurebass! it's futurebass
[FLUME] is someone who really drove/was a key figure in driving the futurebass boom sound

but FLUME and JPEGMAFIA
JPEGMAFIA also just came out with a new album called 'Experimental Rap' and he's basically a legend in the experimental alternative hip hop scene, he's like the king of it, the king
and his tracks are so good and his ideas are so good - he's definitely someone that we also looked to as a reference/inspiration
so these two artists actually released an album together last year, or maybe 2 years ago?
anyway, then also Diplo has so such a big network/lots of connections, our head in America (my guess is head American touchpoint?)
Cuz I told our office that I really wanted to work JPEGMAFIA - like NO MATTER what happens
so he came and amidst all that, we listened to FLUME's beats.. but FLUME had like over a few thousand beats, and we couldn't listen to all of them, so we listened to about 200 of them
and the one that starts with the sound of a motorcycle, that one was so good
and then when that part comes out 'it's fire'..
well cuz at the song camp, the term that was thrown around the most was "that's fire"
even just as empty words that they just throw around when like..
okay cuz at some point during the day everything is .. like this song starts to sound like that song..
this melody sounds like that melody
and then someone will sing something and then someone else will be like "oh that's firee'
it's like habitual.. out of habit

it's kinda like when Korean people just say 'have you eaten? or let's go eat' - it's that kinda feel

(as in, spoken out of habit a lot of the time rather than in sincerity - like not all invites to 'oh yea we should catch up = sincere attempt to secure future plans', not all utterances of 'that's fire = that thing is incredible' - it's just something you say)

it was kinda funny how this 'that's fire' compliment was just thrown around so much - so we were like what if we just go with that?
so blahblah, we were like "that's fire, it's fire"
and then everyone just thought it worked so I went up to JPEG hyung and was like "hyung can you do something with this?"
and then he was messing around with it and came up with it.. and then we were like OHHHH this is it this is it
and then we added a melody to it afterwards
and that's how that song came to be

JPEG hyung is the cutest thing ever in the land.

for me personally, i just wanted to make one headbanger
since Aliens, Hooligan, and Body to Body all have meaning
I kinda wanted one song to just go brainless .. kinda like brain rot
and at the concerts, just jump together .. like a total moshpit type of vibe.. this is what i imagined in my head
all together, shouting these nonsensical words 'everything that's fire' - truly with no meaning and just jump and play and ..
that's the scene i imagined in my head and to a point.. i think that's how it panned out

i mean a few of the members were like 'i'm not sure about this..?' but after the concert, they all accepted it
we needed this song
all the songs that made it on the album were songs we needed

okay next is 2.0
so our working/tentative/placeholder title for the album was BTS 2.0
like this project overall was "BTS 2.0"
for like a year and a half, before ARIRANG, we probably called it BTS 2.0
this also probably came from Jung Kook, Hobi, and Taehyung's room - the three of them

i also really like Mike Will Made It so there were times I just went into that room on my own ..cuz i can communicate and stuff...and I rap..
but definitely there were still some limitations going in on my own
certainly our 3 friends sitting and working with the different songwriters

sorry i have a slight throat cold so my voice is a little raspy

anwyay so when Hobbi heard "stop, riiiideee' he was like 'oh this track is SO fascinating, so fresh' like we HAVE to include this track
and there were many instances where Jimin and I had opposing thoughts

for me- I was like this song HAS to be included
because this is the only song currently that accommodate the kind of performance/choreography that people have come to so enjoy/expect from us
a song through which we can showcase this kind of very energetic visual performance
this was the only song with that kind of sound
that was my thought

but then like for Jimin and the vocal line, it was especially difficult
cuz if you listen closely to 2.0, the vocal line only has one melody really
it's the "you know how we do do do do" part
but actually this part is REALLY difficult
the notes are really high and it's really difficult to nail the exact 'vibe/verbal texture' of the way it's supposed to be pronounced/delivered
you have to have a certain understanding/familiarity with black music as well to properly digest/pull off this sound
and I think Charles was the one who wrote this melody
and with a very 'thin/airy' voice to do ::starts singing 2.0::
for these guys, who are from Korea, this was a really difficult melody to digest/pull off - it might've been the most difficult part for them to pull off

Briefly, with regard to some simple 'sounds' (such as "do)" may sound SO easy to native speakers - but if you really listen to yourself pronounce that word, "do" has a bounce to it at the end you probably don't realize. It has this 'ou/ew' at the end you may not have clocked before and sounds closer to something that might be spelled 'douw' rather than 'do' - which might be expressed in Korean, simplified as "두"- these are sounds that are REALLY difficult for Koreans to nail.. and then imagine having to sing that over and over again in rapid succession

I think from the entire album, this was the part that the vocal line had the hardest time with
so even after the recording was done - they had a lot of thoughts that the finished sound didn't meet their standards or didn't feel right and they were self-conscious about it.. so up til the very end, before the setlist was decided, they kept asking for it to be pulled out
I think including Taehyung
but me and .. I forget who else - but we firmly were like 'there's NO. WAY.'
nooo possible way [it'd be taken out]
NO way
so thank goodness.
after all we kept it- and it worked out and I was right because.. now the members really like it

I do think that if we didn't have this song..
cuz like Hooligan too, the choreography for it is like ..
and Aliens too.. I mean I suppose if could be done that choreography could be made but it wouldn't necessarily feel 'new'
i mean fortunately, the vocal line - even though it was so difficult for them.. like when we do it now..
i mean at the end.. i mean they're just flying around (doing it so well)

for me, every time we danced - i really wanted to perform the 2.0 choreography well
so I'd come an hour before the dance lesson to practice on my own and stay 30 minutes after
because ...always looking to Jung Kook, Jimin, Hoseok, and Taehyung..
i don't want to be a burden/dead weight/hold them back
like them, I want to be able to dance with feeling for it to look good
I mean i've been in the industry so long too so
i kept watching them and analyzing.. watched other dancers analyzing and trying to learn from them
anyway, it was a very memorable time

and so many people showed our music video lots of love
we while still holding on to the parts of us that are very us - we were also able to take a new step forward
i think it was a very meaningful song
and i'm very grateful for the work of Mike, Charles, Jung Kook, Hobi, and Taehyung

oh my gosh.. this is so crazy I have been talking way too long omg..

friends - we are at the 35minute mark out of 1:11:55 long live. pray for me.

well imma just keep going. i mean i started so now there's no turning back.
later on ..like my thoughts on Arirang..
well ::mumbles::
i don't know EVERY part of everything that happened - so I'd appreciate it if you received this just as MY personal Arirang review

Okay next is No. 29
the bell of King Seongdeok the Great
from what I know, while I was working on the album, I met with the director of the National Museum of Korea, Yu Hong Joon, to check out the bell of King Seongdeok the Great after 15 or 20 years and he said it would be great if about 10 people could come and play it
so he said it would be great if I could go to Gyeongju and play it
I really wanted to hear it, but I think the schedule didn't work out at the time
so I couldn't go, but this idea came up, maybe from Bang Shik-hyuk PD, I think?
so instead of doing a skit like we used to do where we just talk in the car or something, it would be meaningful to have like a very hyped up section [on the album] and then a more emotional, sentimental pop section towards the end, and to have this bell playing in between as a sort of bridge between the two sections

so this frequency.. for it to die down, it takes about 1 minute and 40 seconds or 1:37 or so (it is exactly 1:37)
so I mean it was a shame that I couldn't hear it in person but someday, if I ever have the opportunity to ring the bell, I'd really love to ring the bell and hear it in person and maybe even play it at a concert at some point
let's go

prays that No. 29 is not the Karaoke that plays at any of my concerts unless it's a 3rd track - in which case I'd welcome the addition so I could likely ground my nerves before losing my mind at the end of the concert 🙂‍↕️

okay next is SWIM
for me actually - i really like this song
i'm sure a lot of people may have been underwhelmed by this song
it's not exciting like 'Dynamite'
it doesn't go hard as a hip hop performance like Hooligan or 2.0
you might be like 'why did they choose such a boring, sort of deflated song'

#never

first off - the reality is this: there was no better song than SWIM
we weren't necessarily aiming to make SWIM the title track

but we also had to consider radio play and the longevity of the song, and the accessibility/broad appeal of the song - so honestly, there was really no option besides ‘Swim.’

even with ‘Swim,’ there were a lot of..
honestly, it’s probably because ARMY really promoted that one track so well

but these days, I think there’s really more of a concept of a lead single or just a single
the idea of a ‘title track’ doesn’t really mean much anymore, in my opinion - ESPECIALLY in pop music and even more so in the U.S.

the concept of a ‘title track’ barely really exists anymore

and honestly, what I loved so much after ‘Arirang’ was completed this time was that it wasn’t just ‘SWIM’ getting attention

of course, the reason the whole album charted nationally is because ARMY listened to it so passionately, but it was really great seeing Body to Body AND Hooligan AND 2.0 AND NORMAL get so much attention/get discussed

like this kind of album
as an idol group, it's actually so difficult to have a lot of different songs from the same album get attention, get discussed, and start charting and stuff like that
but with SWIM, maybe because sonically it was a little less flashy/attention grabbing?

but as a whole album, seeing it get so much love as a whole was justt.. i really liked it and just.. i just really really liked that
SWIM took a reallyy long time to write the lyrics because..
and actually to write this in 2026.. is actually really sad (in the sense that, shouldn't ALL music be meaningful? it feels off to even have to assert 'well we wanted this song to have meaning' because it seems that's no longer for granted as a standard for music)
but we wanted to make this song meaningful as well
i mean since we were making it the title track anyway.. and because we couldn't come up with a song that was better than 'SWIM' as a radio track
cuz ..to be honest, I can't even swim well but it felt like life is like swimming
whether it was counting down, day by day, while in the military
waiting..
and like wandering around
just swimming day by day, one breath at a time, swimming through it
so I think this song is actually really sad, and I think it's a song that represents the 30s, maturing, and living our own lives as 30-year-old BTS members, building on the rapport we have with you all

so this song, personally.. i mean the lyrics to
this song has ..
cuz of course if we had a better title track, that would've been great
but this song, for me, i think will stay with me for a long time
i hope it gets even a lot more love

of course, naturally, we're a team that has always had to prioritize performance and a team that came up, rooted in intense hip hop and hard-hittinghip hop sounds
this may feel underwhelming for some
but SWIM just.. for me it's
SWIM will be a song I want to hear on my deathbed typa thing..

My tiny mama heard 'SWIM' and wanted to share with me that she sought it out to listen to it after she saw some people fussing over the fact that their title track wasn't in Korean. She admitted she was surprised to hear that so she had to check it out. Tiny mama listened and looked up the lyrics in english and carefully reviewed them to understand and she said she teared up...

She proceeded to tell me of a time when she and her sisters were playing by the river in Korea when they were younger. She's the oldest of the kids so she took care of everyone else but ..was largely left unattended because 'she always took care of herself.' And on this day, she'd taken a tube on the river and was playing when she slipped on a slimey river rock and fell out of her tube. My mom never learned to swim (she still doesn't know how - we've tried to teach her - it doesn't work). The river was loud and no one was paying attention and she thought she might die.. no one looked for her but she could see her sisters playing as she sank. She thought she might die.. but she said some sort of resolve gripped her because she knew her family still needed her. So the mustered all the strength she had and ..the way she describes it .. 'FLAILED LIKE A CRAZY PERSON' until she resurfaced and then she continued her underwater dance of chaos.. thinking 'just make it a bit further.. a bit further..' ever flailing towards her tube.. and then her sisters caught sight of her and told the adults. She reached her tube. She'd drifted quite a ways but with the help of the adults, she was brought back safely.

She said she realized she could survive anything with her mind that day. That's what 'SWIM' evoked for her. She didn't tear up telling me this story. I did tear listening to her story -until she told me about the flailing. She also acted it out friends, it was quite the visual. She's 4' 11" (150cm) a tiny dollop of a human. But tell me why she did burst into tears saying 'it hurt her heart to think that these kids (aka BTS) has had to survive like that, clawing forward an inch at a time..' and then took a deep sigh in recognition of/resignation to the fact that we ALL have moments or seasons like that in life.

cuz.. this can be heard as a love song and/or just as a song about life
and it was intentional to keep the lyrics somewhat ambiguous in that way to be interpreted either way

'right here with the moon and the sharks'
watching you - this 'you' can be interpreted as someone i love, the fans, my self, my life..
i think this is a pretty rare song that can hold a whole spectrum (joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure) of emotions within it
anyway that's SWIM
a song that, personally, I hope/wish is shown a lot more love

* 희 (喜, hui) = joy
* 노 (怒, no) = anger
* 애 (哀, ae) = sorrow/grief
* 락 (樂, rak) = pleasure/happiness/delight

literally breaking down to mean "joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure/delight - but contextually used/understood as 'full range of emotions'

and oh gosh i'm so sorry my voice is so raspy right now..
i've been giving my all at the concerts and so..

(literally trying not to pass away from how hot his raspy voice sounds as we are still only 42minutes/1:11:55)

'ah, people don't actually listen to lyrics anymore' is the ..sorta sad realization i came to when we finished this album

so i'm also kinda hoping that if maybe hearing me talk about this might nudge you to consider listening for what we were trying to convey within the album..
i'm just letting you all know that, yea, personally, lowkey that is a hope of mine

i mean i have a LOT to say about SWIM but there will be more opportunities to talk about it in the future probably so
anyways, I really like it
I also think the KEEP SWIMMING campaign is so good
we'll all just keep swimming/pushing forward another day
life is ..you know there's not much to it
lots of happy moments, lots of sad moments
it's just kinda like SWIMMING...

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At just about 43 minutes/1:11, part 2 coming soon...