The now most-listened-to K-pop boyband Bangtan Sonyeondan famously known as BTS, is releasing hit after hit owing to the huge support they are receiving from all over the world. Releasing the most awaited album “Map of the Soul: 7” in 2020, the group has become successful considering the number of streams on their albums on various platforms.
BTS is an-all Korean band with seven members consisting of RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. RM, Suga, and J-Hope are the group’s rappers, while the rest are vocalists. The group debuted in 2013 in Korea as a hip hop group but gradually evolved to explore several genres.
The boyband has grown tremendously to cause a craze in the US and more than ten other countries for their dance moves, music, and style. Although this fame across the western countries promises more record breaks like the “Dynamite” single, it comes with a challenge to their musical norms. However, BTS have vowed to avoid compromising their style by working on their terms while keeping the fan base close.
The “Map of the Soul: 7” album dives into the inner psyches of the group to express emotions on individualized self-discovery. From the album’s name, the 7 represents the seven members of the group and their overall emotions.
For instance, Suga expresses how it has become scary at the top. Following a translation of one of his lines, Suga sings, “I’m scared of flying high, no one told me how lonely it is here, that my leap can be my fall.”
Speaking to Host Zang Sang, Suga highlighted the main message in the album as facing the individual inner shadows. Suga candidly states, “You must face it and move on forward,” as translated to infer the depths of the career. Suga’s sentiments and his lyrics in the album’s opening song show the attention the group has towards the fan base of ARMY they started by telling them that everyone faces darkness and they have to come out of it.
The slow and saddened sounds dominating the first parts of the songs express the true feelings of the singers before dissolving into intense and deep bass towards the end. While the songs express a more personal side of each of the group members, which for the most of it exhibit their sadness and self-discovery, they are happy about how far they have come and hope for more. The sexy-sounding solo tracks from members like Jimin accompanied by the Latino-styled instrumental create deeper huskiness, pleasant to listen to.
The combination of more playful and less playful pieces within the album influences the passion for continuing listening as the tempo rises towards the end of the songs. The most notable characteristic of the album is how the group managed to create atmospheric hip-hop that dissolved into the individuals as well as their relating the acts with their craft.
The marching band-style drums dramatically accompany the songs, becoming the driving force of the performances verse by verse. The choral harmonies and other anachronistic elements like the trap beats prominent in the songs bring the energetic moments of the album.
Consequently, the group’s rappers take on the haters with their rap sounds complemented with gunshot effects and turbulent strings as a way of expressing disgust to their haters, who are constantly ridiculing their style.
We could say the songs try to incorporate whimsicality, but they delve into micro-aggression, which is the ugh! moment for all of us. However, we find relaxation in their harmonious vocals, which reveal a soft-pop tune towards the end. The album’s end reduces the resonance with fury to declare a promise of happiness.
“Map of the Soul: 7” is worth listening to for first-hand experience.
The Beat @APU 