After debuting as a seven member K-Pop group in 2013 with their album “Skool Luv Affair” in Seoul, South Korea, BTS have broken many records such as most viewed video in 24 hours, first K-Pop act to present at the Grammy Awards, first K-Pop group to be nominated for a Billboard Music Award, and many more.
Ten months following the release of their album “Map Of The Soul: Persona”, BTS have come back and put out a new extension to this series, with it being titled “Map Of The Soul: 7”. This album includes MOTS: Persona’s songs, but also has 14 brand new songs that come right after it.
The first song on the album, called “Interlude: Shadow”, is sung by the group’s main rapper Min Yoongi, who goes by the stage name SUGA. In this song, he talks about his aspirations, but not wanting to reach them out of fear of the darkness, or shadow, that comes with fame.
“Black Swan” is the lead single of this album and is an excellent transition from the first song. With reminiscent beats from their 2018 single “Fake Love”, this song takes us through recalling the pain of growing distant from one’s passions, which in this case is dancing. A black swan is an event that happens unexpectedly, has extreme impact, and is something of human nature, making the title of this song very fitting.
Following this comes two songs that were sung by individual members of the group. Park Jimin’s “Filter” talks about how he has multiple sides to him, but only chooses to show the one happy side while Jeon Jungkook’s “My Time” speaks about his struggles of being a trainee up to now as a 22-year-old.
“Louder Than Bombs”, co-written by Australian singer Troye Sivan, symbolizes the loudness of two things: pain and success. In the first half of the song, BTS describe the successful sufferings that they were required to go through, while the middle is more toward them hoping for better days than the current. The song ends with BTS saying how they’ve taken the pain and fear, but accepted it and moved past it. They’re now singing louder than bombs with confidence and determination for even greater things to come.
“ON” is the second promoted single off of this album and it reflects on their calling and mindset as artists during the past seven years. This is followed by the rapline’s song “UGH!”, where SUGA, RM, and J-Hope criticize a society in which people who hide behind masks of anonymity cast their anger against others.
Continuing through the album, “00:00 (Zero O’Clock)”, “Inner Child”, “Friend” and “Moon” have similar messages that recognizes past struggles, remembrances of old albums, unbreakable friendships between the members, and the love that these boys have for their fanbase, which is called ARMY. This is followed by “Respect”, which is RM and SUGA talking discussing the aspects of the word “respect” and the disrespect and hypocrisy of people to each other.
The last two songs “We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal” and “Outro: Ego” have perfect messages behind them to end off the album. The first is referencing how they are not alone anymore, but that they now have millions of fans around the world supporting them, while the second is speaking about how each individual member has grown more comfortable with their “egos” and that they now embrace themselves for who they are.
K-Pop has been making a big impact on music in the past few years, and BTS is one of the groups that helped this factor. BTS has had many successes in the past seven years that they have been a group, and this new album just adds onto their success.