BY JOHN CARTER JR
Korean Boy Band BTS is taking the world, and in particular the United States, by storm with the release of their new extended play Map of the Soul Persona. This is made apparent in the literal record-breaking amount of views on YouTube they received on their video “Boy With Luv” on the date it was released. The album is highly popular and that particular song is now growing in terms of views on YouTube where it is currently at over 300 million views. The band is even branching out in terms of the artists that it does work with. Halsey, an American recording artist, also made an appearance in the track “Boy With Luv”.
The album is more than just numbers and views; however, as it is based on an unlikely source: Murray Stein’s Jung’s Map of the Soul, a book which is based on the ideologies/concepts surrounding and created by Carl Jung, one of the world’s most famous psychological and psychiatric minds. Jung who was known for his relationships with other great minds like Sigmund Freud, had developed many concepts that would lay the foundation for modern psychology in the time in which he was active. This allows for the base of information for the tracks on this album to be diverse and numerous in terms of its quantity.
It is odd but exciting to see this album and psychology crossover melted together in such a creative way in how it shows that the youth, in particular, major influencers, have an interest in perpetuating the concepts of previous thinkers for future generations to contemplate. It’s also interesting to see the amount of intelligence and creativity that is put in by not only the performers but the team behind making every colorful music video for BTS. There is also heavy involvement from the group members themselves in terms of the concepts being developed for their songs and music videos. We can see this in many of their different musical aesthetics, music video concepts, and lyrics inspired by the band members themselves. This is especially apparent to Map of the Soul Persona and its relationship to Jung’s Map of the Soul.
Moreover, there are plenty of fans who come to this album and many of their previous albums for the aesthetic that they express. The way that the singers use their voices to express a specific topic may be more important than the topic self to fans. This can be seen in many of their music videos. Each individual member of this group has a personalized aesthetic and it is fun to look to see which new appearance a band member will have given the drastically different aesthetic that they might have in one era to it the next. When analyzing this album it wasn’t just opening up a package, putting in your CD and that was it, rather it was a fun advertising campaign including photo books, photo cards, and many other additional things to perpetuate the fandom.
This, in particular, allows the group to expand upon the beauty standards in many countries in which Asian men and women are not necessarily viewed as being attractive in terms of those standards. In both gay and straight communities there are many people who say that they won’t consider dating or aren’t attracted to “ Fats, Blacks, or Asians.” This is more of borderline discrimination than anything else, but these men help push the boundaries of the contrived and archaic beauty standards that societies adhere to. BTS literally proves that you can be of different ethnic origins and still express a beautiful aesthetic. This was particularly important I think in America.
The music is some of the most fun that this era has to offer. “Boy with Luv” for example is a very poppy and pumping song, that could be played at parties or events. It has an interesting pink and spring-time color aesthetic with equally interesting rap solos. This would allow for the amalgamation of different music types that show the challenge of true musicians. Each voice of each individual band member can be heard in this song, whether it be a rapper or singer, this also offers a diverse pool of sounds and voices to pull from to make more unique pieces. “The Intro: Persona”, “Dionysus”, and “Mikrokosmos” are some of the other highly listened to tracks and rightfully so.
In conclusion, BTS is obviously doing many things right. From the performances to the psychological origins of their projects it is apparent that there is much work and love to put into every album that is produced by this group. They aren’t your typical boy band when it comes to what we as Americans have come to understand them as. They are definitely a refreshing taste and are shining examples of what we hope to see in the future. We want more of this moving of the beauty standards here in the United States. We are excited to see what BTS brings to the table next.
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