#MC: rm suga you wrote the song tell us about it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

behind-the-screen-of-bangtan · 5 years

Text

BTS’ relationship with their haters and with their fans

This post is part of the TSU. It belongs to the first part: Biography.

The relationship with haters

BTS may have had a slight case of obsession with their haters at the beginning of their career. It’s understandable though. The situation was hard for Bangtan, especially the ones coming from the underground scene that had accepted to become idols. The 4 Things documentary about RM and u/baepsayed’s posts about BTS’ pre-debut give a good idea of it.

They mentioned haters in 2 Cool 4 Skool, but the first songs really dedicated to them are “We On” and “BTS Cypher Pt.1” in O!RUL8,2?. They were aimed at all those who thought BTS wouldn’t make it after debuting. People also thought that becoming idols implied to renounce to sincerity and to just make commercial songs. By writing most of their lyrics and talking about society’s problems in their main tracks, Bangtan proved them wrong again. It was a fight, haters attacked Bangtan and Bangtan attacked back, belittling each other without being able to ignore each other though.

“Oh oh my haters, please diss me a little more”

“I’m not in the military service but my hobby is to shoot at you We gave you a blow with We are bulletproof The lame fakers’ consciences are pricked and react”

The next two Cyphers are in the same vein, “BTS Cypher Pt.2: Triptych” and “BTS Cypher PT.3: Killer (feat. Supreme Boi)” are masterpieces of wordplays and metaphors aimed to insult back the haters. Luckily, we have Muish’s ramblings (“Triptych”, “Killer”) and Doolset’s translations (“Triptych”, “Killer”) to appreciate all the work of the rap line.

There’s no song specifically against haters in The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series but the songs with a political message (“Dope” and “Baepsae”) includes mentions of the haters so they’re still on the boys’ mind.

The war ends in WINGS, the album where they reach adulthood. “BTS Cypher 4” is a goodbye to the haters, because while the haters are still obsessed with the boys:

“Even if you don’t like me, YOU KNOW ME Even if you don’t like me, YOU KNOW ME”

BTS is already walking towards their next chapter, namely Love Yourself:

“I love I love I love myself I love I love I love myself I know I know I know myself Ya playa haters you should love yourself”

We thus see that the first step to self-love was to ignore haters, even before the boys started working on themselves.

The epilogue to this series of songs is “Mic Drop”. RM explained in the Comeback Show - BTS DNA that he wrote his rap and realized he had no anger anymore, that these people weren’t important and that therefore it was goodbye. Not only has BTS decided to ignore haters, but they’ve also proved them wrong by conquering the worldwide music charts:

You would’ve thought we’d fail but I’m fine sorry Sorry Billboard Sorry worldwide Sorry that your son’s on such a roll, mum We be good to your parents on your behalf, which you weren’t able to do [...]

Did you see my bag Did you see my bag It’s full of trophies How you think bout that How you think bout that Haters are already fed up

BTS has nothing to do anymore with haters. There are thus low chances we’ll have another song about them - time to mourn “Cypher V ft. V” it seems. Even “땡” (Ddaeng) (Lyrics, Muish’s rambling), the very last song about haters, was released during the 2018 Festa so it was more intended as a gift for ARMY than a message to haters.

Fans replaced haters as BTS’ main obsession

Now that the haters are a matter of the past, Bangtan finally has time to acknowledge their fans. We technically already had “Miss Right” but it’s just an addition to Skool Luv Affair and the lyrics are just about an ideal girl so it’s hard to consider it as a song about ARMY. The next occurrence was “I Know” by RM and Jungkook. However, it was not an official release but a gift for ARMY during the 2016 Festa. Considering the date of release, it can be counted as the beginning of the “fans above haters” phase. And already they’re including everyone with lyrics such as:

“Know you love me girl So that I love you Know you love me boy So that I love you”

“2! 3!” and “Magic Shop” are both dedicated to the fandom. It’s interesting to see they’re both included in dark albums with respectively the theme of temptation (WINGS) and fakeness (Love Yourself 轉 Tear), rather than the hopeful You Never Walk Alone or the happy Love Yourself 承 Her. Same with the lyrics, you could expect something joyful but the boys rather decided to be sorry for all the hardships ARMY had to go through:

“Saying that there will only be good things from now on Saying that you won’t get hurt I can’t say that”

“I know that you’re hesitating because even if you say the truth, In the end it will all return as scars”

However, they also remind us to believe in the future and now that ARMY has helped accomplish their dreams, BTS hopes for ARMY to take care of themselves too:

“It’s okay come on when I say one two three forget it Erase all sad memories hold my hand and smile”

“You gave me the best of me So you’ll give you the best of you You’ll find it, the galaxy inside you”

Even though they’re not officially dedicated to ARMY, “Outro: Wings” and “A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone” can both represent the relationship between the group and their fans. It’s confirmed in the credits of The Wings Tour:

Special thank to our wings, A.R.M.Y

Same with “Answer: Love Myself”:

You’ve shown me I have reasons I should love myself

“But the mask and persona itself is ARMY. BTS=ARMY ARMY=BTS”

- RM, Map of the soul: Persona behind (11:30)

I don’t know if they know about it, but ARMY often patronize each other with “ARMY is BTS’ face” to remember everyone to behave well and be respectful.

It’s also through the fandom that BTS reached the mainstream level - and they stayed thanks to their talent. Even now, all interviews or articles will have at least one paragraph about the fandom.

But is it what RM meant when he said that ARMY is BTS’ persona?

He described the idea of persona as the social mask we wear outside. It does fit with ARMY being BTS’ representative.

However, our dear leader also explained that the songs - except “Intro: Persona” and “Dionysus” - were a tribute to ARMY. The songs explain how BTS see ARMY: someone with whom they share a relationship of mutual caring and trust.

“HOME” is the song acknowledged as being dedicated to ARMY. It expresses that “the home BTS want to return to when they’re tired and lonely is ARMY” according to the article presenting the album (src 1, src 2).

We’ll be at ease without needing to say a word If I only have you, everywhere will become my home

The idea that wherever they are, the boys feel at home with ARMY resonates a lot with their international schedule and them having their best time during concerts - when they’re with ARMY.

So more than an Adorable Representative MC for Youth for BTS, ARMY is actually a very close friend. Which leads us to the last point.

Recently, BTS has tried to be even closer to us:

they used fans’ phones to film themselves during concerts

they tried to register for music shows pre-recordings (Jin and RM)

they did an unboxing of Persona (J-Hope, Jimin, and Jungkook)

they posted on the Fancafe from ARMY’s side (Suga and V)

Those are typical fan activities that are familiar to a lot of ARMY.

Laslty, they asked about us with the hashtags #curiousaboutARMY #아미의모든게궁금해 (on @BTS_twt, @bts_bighit, and on @MnetMcountdown for an event collecting ARMY’s moments about BTS for MCountdown BTS Comeback Special). And the ARMYPEDIA event was the occasion to collect even more ARMY memories.

Hard to tell if it’s for a future project or just for fun but no matter what, I don’t think a lot of artists try to understand their fans to that point.

Firstly focused on the hate, BTS has progressively learned to rather prioritize what they love and to enjoy the close relationship they have with their fans.

#BTS #TSU #Biography

7 notes · View notes

ktaebwi · 6 years

Text

[TRANS] 180128 Yonhap News Interview w/ BTS (1/3)

Source Part 2 | Part 3

① BTS “Our secret to success is not SNS but sincerity + ability”

20s, the age that eats and eats and still craves for more. At 5 PM, BTS opened up some treats and had snack time, proving to be hearty eaters. To the members (RM 24, Suga 25, Jin 26, J-Hope 24, Jimin 23, V 23, Jungkook 21), who have to split up their time small, with success comes the time they miss home cooking.

“Members whose houses are at Seoul can eat a meal and come back, while Jungkook and Jimin are from Busan, so they eat home cooking about 1-2 times a year.”

At Nonhyun-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, we interviewed BTS, said to be more difficult to meet than any other celebrity.

With 1-year worth of schedule packed already and a busy year waiting ahead, the members shared “We still sleep 6-7 hours a day. Only Jin and V sleep a little later because they play games”. Even with a small question, they didn’t answer sloppily.

Last year, BTS attained First·Best achievements in the Billboard chart, recorded 1.5 million in album sales on Gaon Chart and swept Daesangs at various award shows with ‘Love Yourself 承 Her’ album and ‘MIC Drop’ Remix version. With a year-long rapid leap, they became an ‘uncrossable wall’ group that will be the turning point in the history of Korean music, like Seo Taiji & Kids, H.O.T, DBSK, Psy.

During the one-hour long interview, the members expressed “It’s the beginning of a year with lots of thoughts” and laid out their feelings. They led the conversation with honesty, repeating the word ‘sincerity’, talking about the emotions when their sweat brought forth fruits, the anxiety and loneliness behind and how they overcome it.

Below are Q&As with BTS.

- Anyone would understand the swag in your ‘Mic Drop’ lyrics. You spent a year with ‘bags filled with trophies’.

▲ J-HOPE: It was a year of many achievements that I feel proud of myself looking back. All thanks to our fans’ enthusiastic support.

▲ JUNGKOOK: I wasn’t nervous at all, be it at award shows or American NBC talk show ‘Ellen DeGeneres Show’. It’s because I believed in our fans. At that time I felt that I made a right decision choosing to become a singer.

▲ JIN: Hmh, I think I became more handsome last year. I’ve been saying this for years so our fans would understand this, haha. We interacted with fans a lot last year too. We had more contents, interacted with fans in various ways and together made achievements.

- Many fields have analyzed BTS’ secret to success and economical value. Even in the politics world there were reports urging to learn your method of communication. It was summarized into many factors like refined music, contemporary messages that connect with the youth, synchronized choreography, friendly SNS interactions, but what do the members think is the key factor?

▲ RM: We have received this question countless of times and I think I have represented the team to answer more than 200 times. It’s finalized gradually with every answer and this is the newest version. I truly praise Bang Shihyuk PD-nim for his batting eye. We started as a hiphop crew but Bang PD-nim thought that there needs to be someone to talk about what is needed in our society. There were rappers like us who can realize that idea and other members who are skilled performance-wise. If we were to summarize BTS’ secret to success into keywords, I think it would be ‘Sincerity + Ability’. Our sincerity is visible in the public’s eyes, but people only focus on the point that we’re active on SNS. What’s more important is that we’re singers, so our music and performances’ quality has to be good no matter what. We have that and combining with the sincerity and messages we want to deliver and our frequent SNS usage, they’re envisioned and supported by Bang PD-nim. He provided us the freedom and we as players took high risk to get high return. We and the company have equal credit and in terms of a collaborative relationship between the company and the artists as business partners, I think this is a good model.

▲ SUGA: I thought a lot about this too since I was curious. It’s hard to sum up in one thing. What someone needs to talk about but no one did, I think that’s where I started. I took a look back to see how I made music before, since it was the beginning of a new year and I was feeling restless, and Bang PD-nim was like this from the start. He sat in the small studio and told us, ‘What do you want to talk about? Think about the subject for your beats.’ We said ‘Respect personal taste’, ‘Why does no one talk about schools and the society?’ and that’s how we started. Unfortunately, when others analyze us, they attribute our success to SNS only. Kim Saengmin sunbae-nim who hosted our fanmeeting not long ago praised us in his podcast that ‘Nothing can beat working hard at what they’re good at’. When I heard that I thought ‘He really felt what we do’. It took 5 years for people to know this, so I felt sentimental.

- Last year you were record makers. The most representative records were your Billboard achievements and album sales, which figures came close to you emotionally?

▲ RM: When we made it to No.28 on the Billboard main single chart ‘Hot 100’ with ‘MIC Drop’ Remix. Having our name on the ‘Hot 100’ that I have been seeing since I was small was shocking to me. Normally in America, the top 40 songs on ‘Hot 100’ are considered nationwide hits, so making it into the top 30 itself was a huge deal.

▲ J-HOPE: The album sales came to me. I felt moved how the album with music we made recorded a big sales number.

▲ SUGA: Actually I don’t dwell on figures or records. Many things happened last year but the performance at ‘American Music Awards’ was the most memorable to me. When I was little, award shows weren’t broadcasted live on TV so I had to watch on the Internet. Appearing on the show was thrilling already but getting to perform on stage right in front of Diana Ross, who received the Lifetime Achievement award, was unbelievable.

- You received fervent responses in American. Local fans arranged campaigns to request your songs at radio stations and helped with Billboard rankings. With ‘Mic Drop’ entered the ‘Hot 100’ for 8 consecutive weeks and ‘Love Yourself 承 Her’ on ‘Billboard 200’ for 15 consecutive weeks, your popularity doesn’t seem to cool down. In which aspect do you see the local fans’ enthusiastic reactions?

▲ SUGA: There’s barely any difference between the way Korean and American fans love us and how they express that love. If I were to choose one, I’d say they like when we’re together the most. They must have found it special how we’re always together no matter what we do.

▲ RM: In the same context, before fans become fans, they’re part of the public who consume contents. I believe they become ‘core fans’ because they distinguished what is not visible in the eyes. If we combine our chemistry and sincerity they felt through video contents like performance videos and behind-the-scenes, music and high-quality performances, I don’t think there’s any weapon more powerful than that. It transcended languages and became the catalyst powering fans to request our songs on radios.

- You appeared on 3 big American talk shows, was there any behind story?

▲ V: I remember these questions the most, ‘Why are your fans so enthusiastic?’, ‘How did you gain such great fans?’. (When asked how he replied) RM answered because he’s good at English. (laughs)

▲ RM: We originally planned to only perform at all 3 talk shows, but after the production crew saw the fanchant and reactions of the fans on set, they add corners like games and talk section with the MCs. There wasn’t supposed to be a talk section with Ellen but after seeing our fans, Ellen said ‘This can’t be it, we need to do more’ and arranged it. It was thanks to fans.

▲ JIN: We asked the translator hyungnim for cool words and sentences and memorized them to talk one by one, but we couldn’t quite understand the questions so we couldn’t answer. V even stayed up all night to prepare questions that would likely to come out but he couldn’t answer, it’s cute.

▲ V: (Searching for the memo note he wrote answers on) I predicted they would ask questions about the performance so I memorized all the answers, but Ellen didn’t ask. The translator hyung obviously said ‘There’s a good chance they’ll ask this question’... (laughs)

- Since your debut in 2013, you have faced the dreams and reality of boys and youth, and in Suga’s mixtape track ‘The Last’, you also confessed about the feeling of separation with reality, depression and compulsion when you dreamed of being an idol star. Looking back at your trainee days, how did you overcome the anxiety and how far do you think you have reached that dream now?

▲ SUGA: I think anxiety and loneliness are something that’ll come with us for the rest of our life. How we let then out matters much and we have to learn our whole life to know how to. I think life is thinking every moment, because emotions change so much with each situation and moment. Through this article, I want to tell people that “I feel the anxiety and so do you, so let’s find the way and learn it together". Never once have I not had a dream. All of my dreams came true. When I was a trainee, my dream was to debut as a singer, after I debuted, it was winning first place, after I won first place, it was winning the daesang and making it to Japan and America. To be honest, Billboard and ‘AMA’ were only far-fetched talks I couldn’t even dream of, but it came true. I don’t feel like I’m running towards a specific dream more than before, but lately my thoughts have changed, our values and happiness as human beings are also important, so I’m still far (from attaining it). I have achieved a lot as a single but last year was probably the turning point. I’m only 26 years old and even though I have been making music for 10 years, counting from pre-debut, I will continue for a long time. I’ve been having a lot of thoughts this new year.

▲ RM: I think humans are programmed to feel ambivalent emotions at the same time. They say it’s the motivation created for humans to dominate other worlds as the lord of all creation. We think about parting as we love and we think about fall and failure as we feel the success, it’s in our genes. It’s the same context with what Suga-hyung said, (anxiety is) like a shadow. To put it in my case, my father got tinnitus during his 25 years working at a company. He said it was hard for him, he got stressed when he concentrated on his work or did something he liked even with no symptom shown, and when he faced stressing situations it got so severe that it affected his life. The anxiety that shows as tinnitus to someone is like a shadow, it gets taller with my height and longer with the night. We can’t say we overcome the ambivalent emotions from the other side of our hearts, however, humans must embrace our inevitable loneliness and darkness, so we need a haven for ourselves. Before, music was the only thing to me and I was lucky to choose this path and meet good friends, achieving occupationally and financially. I made a few havens for myself so I could befriend my anxiety. I collect figurines, buy clothes that I like, go to unknown neighborhoods to see how people live. When I take the bus and wander around unknown neighborhoods, it bridges the gap and makes me feel like I’m not far away from this world. It’s how I disperse my anxiety.

- Looking at the lyrics that harbor your experiences, there must be a lot of hard times in the past 5 years.

▲ JIN: I’m the type to avoid such moments so I try to live another life by playing games. When I play games, I get to live with a completely different personality. Recently I started gaming again and happened to meet friends I met 10 years ago when I played. We have never met in real life, just online friends recognizing each other from IDs. But I felt somewhat happy. It brought back old memories.

▲ JIMIN: Now is probably the time I feel lonely and tired the most. We always say we’re happy, but when hard times come we start thinking there’s no one who understands us, not friends, family, and it makes us feel lonely. Not long ago, I listened again to our songs and rewatched our live broadcasts and felt better.

#bts #bangtan #ot7 #yonhap int #translation #trans:interview

1K notes · View notes