BTS Hidden Meanings and Interpretations
By Nissi and Sunny
The South Korean boy group, BTS, have progressively taken the world by storm. Seven members with unique senses of music, meaningful lyrics, and passionate choreography, the group has created an immense international presence. They have had numerous collaborations with acknowledged American artists, broken many records, won countless awards, performed at the Billboard Music Awards and the American Music Award, attended the Grammys and were even dubbed ‘princes of pop’ in TIME Magazine. Although their rise to success is an inspirational and interesting story, today we will focus on the hidden meaning behind some of their songs, music videos, and the messages they want to globally spread.
Even within BTS’ music videos, there is a hidden story to be deciphered by the audience. This story starts even before the Love Myself series and at first does not seem that significant. But as more music videos are released, more pieces are revealed to the story and the puzzle of the BTS Universe (otherwise known as the HYYH Series) comes together to portray a beautiful message that aligns with their lyrics. HYYH stands for Hwa Yeon Yang Hwa which means, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life. The series is about the hardships of young adults in life and focuses on themes of depression, anxiety, loneliness, family, friendship, and happiness. Though there are many interpretations and the story is not yet complete, here is ours.
It all begins in the music video I Need U in 2015. This music video and lyrics set the scene for the newborn BTS Universe. Each of the seven members plays their own characters that are all good friends in the alternative universe. The audience learns about the characters and the good times they have together as well as the hardships each member struggles with behind the scenes. The song itself is about a failing relationship between two lovers. “I’m sorry (I hate you), I love you (I hate you)... Why do I love you and try so hard to forget you when you don't even care?” This lyric shows how much one of the individuals in the relationship doesn’t want to let go of what the relationship they have but also can’t stand the mistreatment, dishonest, and manipulation from their partner. However, the events of the music video suggest something different. Instead of a decaying relationship between two lovers, the song is portrayed as a decaying relationship between the characters’ youth and happiness. Though each faces personal hardships, they stick together, finding happiness in one another.
In Young Forever the lyrics tell the story of how fame does not last forever and how they come to terms with this. They make an agreement to savour the feeling of the roaring audience and the thrill of performing and helping people with their songs for as long as they can. Even when they are forgotten, it might be a scary time but they will have each other. “Trying to comfort myself, I tell myself the world can’t be perfect. I start to let myself go. The thundering applause, I can’t own it forever. I tell myself, so shameless: Raise your voice higher. Even if the attention isn’t forever, I’ll keep singing. I want to stay this way for life, I want to stay young forever.” In the music video, the boys are trapped in a maze that represents confusion. After some time, the finally find their way out, away from their problems and to happiness.
Then, comes RUN, a rather emotional piece that corresponds with I Need U. Personally, I believe that RUN is about youth and not giving any care for anything. In the music video, the boys are continuously running as the song title suggests. Together, they perform unjust acts, such as vandalism, and run away from punishment as if they are wild and free. But in reality, they are scared to be alone and for the responsibility that comes with growing up. They run away from adulthood that is near and cause trouble to try to avoid it together. Though BTS does not condone illegal acts like vandalism or anything, the line, “Let’s run run run again! It’s ok to fall down. Let’s run run run again! It’s ok to be injured,” implies that it is okay to run aimlessly for a while. It’s okay to not know where you’re going in life, it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to get lost, and it’s okay to explore who you are. During the“2015 BTS LIVE — The Most Beautiful Moment in Life On Stage” conference, BTS explains that “It’s natural that people fail or make mistakes, but I think it’s a touchy subject for the society as a whole. We wanted to comfort ourselves by saying that one mistake or failure is not the end of the world.”
After the The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Series comes the seven short films of the Wings Album. The character’s conflicts and personalities are highlighted in these videos. Not to mention, the background music, acting, and cinematography is amazing. Let’s now start analyzing the characters and what could have happened in their past along with their interactions with other characters and other symbolism.
The first short film is Begin which is about the youngest, Jungkook. It begins with these two lines spoken in English. "The realms of day and night. Two different worlds coming from two opposite poles mingled during this time." The film continues with eerie whistling and Jungkook in his bed having nightmares and visions. They include a burning piano and a glass bird breaking. Afraid, he awakens, eyes wide. Music plays and ends abruptly as Jungkook looks down at a drawing in his hand of a portrait; a sketch of a man that seems to be Taehyung. The bed he was sleeping on just moments ago is dragged away and in its place, an easel appears. Thunder strikes and heavy rain begins to fall. He begins to paint and in his eyes, there is a reflection of the burning piano. He drops the sketch in his hand and the painting on the easel is set in flames. Splatters of paint begin to fall on Jungkook’s painting. The rain behind Jungkook accumulates as he shakes his head. A flock of birds flies overhead and the paint on the artwork runs as if it is crying. Jungkook looks down and picks up the portrait that he dropped before but instead of a sketch of a man, there lies the same black bird in his dream. The film ends with Jungkook’s shadow. He has sprouted wings. I think that Jungkook feels trapped. With everything going on his life, he finds no escape. He is afraid of all the evil happening and taking his friends away and can not find any relief, not even in painting as the artwork burns and seemingly cries. This represents Jungkook’s consequences for his actions. He cannot have good things without the bad. The birds represent freedom and Jungkook’s yearning to be released from all of his trauma.
The next short film is called Lie and it features Jimin. English lines are spoken again. "My parent's house made up one realm. This realm was familiar to me in almost every way. Mother and father, love and strictness, model behavior, and school." The first thing seen is a forest that is purple and blue. Seconds later, we see that it is just a watercolor painting hung on the wall. Jimin seems to be in a mental asylum. A robot is showing him some sort of symbols, like an inkblot test. Jimin shrugs and does not know what any of them means. In the next couple of frames, he is a bed reaching for someone who is not there. A glass of pills fills the next frame. He sees a burning piano and a sinking apple. He tries to drown himself but ends back up in a hospital bed. He takes a bite of an apple and examines the purple and blue painting. The film ends. I think that Jimin is dealing with denial. He knows what the inkblots mean but just pretends to deny them. He is too scared of his own mind that he decides to commit suicide by drowning himself but it ends up failing as he ends up in a hospital bed once again. I believe the apple has something to do with the apple of Adam and Eve and the Tree of Good and Evil present in the Bible. Though he is unsure of everything else, he bites the apple down firmly. Unless Jimin comes to terms with his denial and dishonesty to himself, he will continue to wake up in the same hospital bed cold and alone in his own illusion, caught in a lie. 
The third short film is called Stigma. Like before it starts with an English phrase: "It was the first fissure in the columns that had upheld my childhood. Which every individual must destroy before he can become himself. Such fissure and rents grow together again, heals and are forgotten. But in the most secret recesses, they continue to live and bleed.” This film is about Taehyung who killed his father as seen in previous music videos I Need U and RUN which is an even bigger offense in Korea where respect and politeness are integrated into everyday life and even the language. Taehyung is found committing vandalism by the police. The officer asks for his name and he replies truthfully with “Kim Taehyung”. In the next few scenes, we see Taehyung running, filled with guilt and distress. In his eyes, reflect a picture of a mother and child and in one frame shows a locked telephone box. The police officer interrogates him further and drinks a bottle of water. This reminds Taehyung of his father’s drinking. He looks away. Taehyung asks if he can make a phone call but there is no answer. Taehyung lies broken on the floor when a little white dog comes tottering to him. He embraces the dog, clutching it tightly and holds on for dear life. A cage then comes over Taehyung and locks him up. The puppy escapes, leaving Taeyung alone and encaptured. Taehyung doesn’t just murder his dad for fun or something. His father is an alcoholic and abuses his children. Taehyung’s only wish is to protect his sister and after such a long time of abuse and mistreatment, in rage Taehyung’s only solution is to kill his father. The dog represents purity, innocence, and joy and even though Taehyung clings on to these things, they all escape him, leaving him with frustration, regret, and longing. He feels guilty because he can not protect his sister which explains the title. 
This short film focuses on Yoongi who is the original possessor of the burning piano seen in each of the films as well as I Need U, RUN, and later on Blood, Sweat, and Tears. The English phrase here is: "There are numerous ways in which God can make us lonely and lead us back to ourselves. This was the way it dealt with me at that time." The film begins with Yoongi breaking into a music shop. A loud, pulsing alarm rings but Yoongi seems unbothered, absorbed with playing the piano in the shop. He does not stop playing until he hears a faint whistling, the same one heard in Jungkook’s story Begin. Intrigued, Yoongi decides to look for where the sound is coming from. As he wanders on an empty road, a car drives by quickly, barely missing Yoongi. In the next scene, we see Yoongi looking straight in despair. The sound of a car accelerating is heard before the sound of a crash and glass breaking. The screen fades to black. Yoongi appears again and adjacent to him is a splatter of blood. It is not his, as he does not appear to be injured. Yoongi runs with the desperation and the bathtub seen in Jimin’s story Lie flashes on-screen for a few seconds, overflowing. Yoongi arrives back at the music shop where small flames surround the outside. The inside is not on fire with the exception of the piano, engulfed in hungry flames. Yoongi watches as the piano burns and the sound of whistling is present again. Yoongi’s first love is music, in the HYYH series and in the real world as well. His character in the series and his real self also share another thing: they both struggle with depression. In the HYYH Series, Yoongi tries to get away from his thoughts with music, but the whistling encaptures him; it distracts him. When he returns, his one true love is destroyed and he has nowhere else to go. The film just accentuates Yoongi’s loneliness and depression and how his happiness, like the piano, burns up in flames. 
The fifth Wings film focuses on Namjoon, the leader of BTS. It starts with the lines: “The other realm, however, overlapping half our house, was completely different. A large mixture of horrendous, intriguing, frightful, mysterious things, including slaughterhouses and prisons, drunkards and screeching, fishwives, calving cows, horses sinking to their death, tales of robberies, murders and suicides." This film begins with Namjoon pulling out the same sketch of the black bird in Jungkook’s film Begin. He examines and tattoos the image on his arm. Tattoos are a big taboo in Korea. He burns the picture of the bird, puts the burnt paper in a liquid, and drinks it. He collapses and when he wakes up his tattoos turn colorful. The breaking glass of Jungkook’s nightmare is shown again. He awakens in a room full of mirrors and it is apparent Namjoon is uncomfortable. He is scared of his own reflection; scared of his own self. The mirrors spontaneously shatter and the ringing of the phone from the telephone booth from Taehyung’s call in Stigma is present. He reaches the telephone booth to find that it is locked with no way inside and the word ‘LIAR’ written on it in bright red letters. The ringing echoes in his ears as he desperately bangs on the booth. He had told Taehyung that he would always be there for him. But at Taehyung’s darkest moment, Namjoon was nowhere to be seen. Full of regret and sorrow, Namjoon looks at the ground. Not only can’t he show love for himself, but he also fails to show love to those who are closest to him. The film ends with the echoing lyrics: “I wish I could love myself.”
The next short film involves Hoseok. (This one is my favorite!) “With a face that resembles her son, timeless, ageless and full of inner strength, the beautiful woman smiled with dignity. Her gaze was fulfillment, her greeting, a homecoming. Silently I stretched my hands out to her." Hoseok is in a mental asylum on a hospital bed. A nurse comes in to write his diagnostics and characteristics. Hoeseok is diagnosed with Münchausen syndrome, which is defined as a psychiatric condition where a patient feigns an illness to create attention or draw sympathy to themselves. This can be seen just seconds before when Hoseok is pretending to be sleeping and as soon as the nurse walks away, he gets up. He is in a purely white room with two doors and a clock above. The clock strikes 1’o clock and the doors open, flooding the room with orange pills. These same pills were present in Jimin’s video, Lie. Hoseok takes one and swallows it and in his eyes reflects Taehyung’s vandalism in Stigma. The white room he’s was once in now has splatters of neon paint. He tries to find a way out of the room, pounding on the walls and moving in a peculiar manner. He collapses, covered in paint and surrounded by pills. We can assume that he was high. He wakes up, looks out of a small peephole, and the blue and purple forest is seen once again. He exits the room and takes a closer look at the painting. From his pocket, he takes out a Snickers bar, eats it, and smiles. As he walks away the forest turns into the picture of a mother and her child. Hoseok was abandoned at an amusement park, a place for fun and entertainment, when he was younger. From this experience most likely sprouts the Münchausen syndrome. With no mother to care for him, he probably grew up with a lack of attention and always yearned it. When Hoseok leaves his room, this is a significant moment. He is ready to not be babied anymore. He has come to terms with growing up.
The last film is about the oldestember who happens to be the main character of the story, Seokjin. This film wraps up all the previous ones. "The bird rights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas." Abraxas comes from the name of a Gnostic god, the Supreme Being. According to Gnostics, the term is magical and represents infinite power. This may be where the phrase ‘abracadabra’ comes from. All the symbols of the boys are gathered here: the bird of Jungkook, the apple of Jimin, the portrait of Taehyung that Jungkook painted, the piano of Yoongi and the phone booth of Namjoon. Jin has the ability to turn back time and needs to use this ability to fix the mistakes of his friends and change their futures for the better. He does not think he is capable and is a little nervous but will do anything to help out his friends. He carries a camera with him and takes pictures of his friends, capturing memories for if he does not remember what happens when times goes back. “Maybe I, I can never fly. I can’t fly like the flower petals over there or as though I have wings. Maybe I, I can’t touch the sky still, I want to stretch my hand out, I want to run, just a bit more.”
In the past three years, BTS has been focused on the promotion of self-love through their albums, ‘Love Yourself’ series, and the ‘Love Myself” campaign with UNICEF. In 2017, BTS released the first part of the series, Love Yourself: 承 Her, which started their promotion for self-love. The series carried on until the end of 2018. There are four parts of the series: Love Yourself: 承 Her, Love Yourself: 起 Wonder, Love Yourself: 轉 Tear, Love Yourself: 結 Answer. Throughout the series, BTS put in their own stories that are reflecting on youth, life, and love with the goal of delivering and promoting self-love. In November of 2017, BTS has joined hand with the UNICEF (United Nation Children’s Fund) to launch a new campaign called ‘Love Myself’ ‘#ENDviolence’. In the ‘Love Myself’ campaign, BTS wants to raise their voice to support young people, and with care and love, they want to make this world a better place where people can dream of tomorrow.
The first album of the series is Love Yourself: 承 Her. In the album, BTS talked about love and its affection on an individual. In their title song, DNA, BTS believes that love is not just a coincidence but is fate and destiny that has been decided from the beginning of time. “Don’t worry about it, love. It is not a coincidence. We are totally different, baby. Because, we both have found our destiny.” When we are young, we believe that the world is ours, everything is perfect and it is like that pink color of the wonderland. Also, when a person is in love, they would put aside their own interest and focus on the other’s interest in order to make them happy. In the track, Best of Me, there is a line said that “Whether this is a dream or reality, it’s not important. Just the fact that you’re by my side.” Reality starts to fade away as well as the border between dream and reality
The last track of the album is Outro: Her which said:
I can never take off the mask
Because the me behind this mask
Is not the one you know
Make up to wake up today too
And dress up to mask on
In order to become the me that you love
This part of the lyrics support the theory that nothing matters, as long as the other person like it and love it, we would willingly change to satisfy them.
The next album is Love Yourself: 起 Wonder which only has one track, Euphoria. The lyrics of this track and its music video metaphor many things. The lyrics embrace the idea of experiencing euphoria, the feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. It is when you believe that you have found true love and every single moment with this love is an experience of euphoria. However, happiness does not sound realistic which caused them to keep doubting the joy and even wonder to themselves whether it is real or just a dream. It is called ‘Euphoria’ because, in their dream, only happiness and beautiful moments of youth, love, and life exists. When a dream is wonderful and filled with only joy and euphoria, we never want to wake up again, and that is what scare us. The GIF below shows the unison of all of the member of the group. Before the ‘Love Yourself” series released, all of the members of the group had separated due to personal struggles and problems. They always wanted to unite but unfortunately could not. However, in this album, Love Yourself: 起 Wonder, they dream of the unison of the group. They see that only when they’re together, they can feel euphoria and enter the utopia that they want to be in, and no matter what happened, in the end, they will be back together as a group. https://youtu.be/kX0vO4vlJuU
Second to the last album is Love Yourself: 轉 Tear. In this album, they focused on the dark side of love and life. The title track of this song is Fake Love. Though the title does give the audience the idea of romantic love, BTS revealed that when it comes to love, it’s everything not just in a romantic way. According to RM, a member of the group, he was trying to say that "if you, in love, when you're not true to yourself, the love won't last because love is complex and we always have the dark sides and the sad sides.” This album is dedicated to all of the pains and struggles that people usually go through during their youth. In the society full of various opinions and different standards, it is hard for one to be true to themselves. Though we can not physically see the force that pushes us to a position where we have to be different to who we are, there always is some sort of reasons that make us cover up ourselves. Since we don’t want to disappoint anyone nor being unwanted and left out, we turn away from the negative sides and the flaws that we have, so that we can be accepted and loved. As we keep turning away from our flaws and mistakes, the love that we receive seems to fade away and empty. We start to lose ourselves, we start to lose our identities, and we eventually become a doll that people shape us. “I wanna be a good man, just for you. I gave the world, just for you. I changed everything, just for you. But I don’t know me, who are you? (BTS, Fake Love)” This is the state where hopelessness occurs and doubts start to attacking the love that we thought was true. We start to realize things that we don’t want to be true.
OUTRO: TEAR
If someone said they would turn back the time for me
Would I have been able to be a bit more honest?
The bare face that only I know
The ugly and pathetic old friends within me
Would you still be able to love me again like before
With that smile with which you used look at me
...
This is the real you and this is the real me
Now we’ve seen the end and not even resentment is left
I’ve woken up from the sweet dream and I close my eyes
This is the real you and this is the real me
The last album of the series is Love Yourself: 結 Answer. This album mainly focused on self-love and by the name ‘Answer’, it discussed about the final stage of the journey, finding the answer to your own questions and doubts. In life, there will be people who would come to hurt you, to challenge you, but no matter what the circumstance is, you have to know that you are your own solution. You are the only one who can bring happiness and joy to your life. Just by loving yourself, you have contributed the most admired masterpiece to the world. You become a hero who plays an important part to end negativity and sadness in this planet because by loving yourself, you encourage others to love themselves, to embrace their flaws and mistakes, and from that becoming a better person. In one track of the album, Answer: Love Myself, there is a line say that: “It is harder to love yourself than to love someone else,” and this is a hundred percent true. It is hard to love what we have and to accept what we are given. We always put ourselves to a higher and harsher standard because we never feel enough. However, we must
know and realize that the only way to improve is to accept the present and to forgive ourselves.
Besides creating music to promote the message, BTS has joined hand with the UNICEF to help young people to have a better life where they can dream a bigger dream. On September of 2018, BTS participated in the ‘UNICEF Generation Unlimited’ partnership event of the 73rd regular session of the UN General Assembly in New York as the representative of global youth. In the event, RM, the leader of BTS, has given an inspirational and encouraging speech with his own stories to the world. His stories are the reflection on his journey to becoming who he is right now. Like any other people, he had been through many struggles, he doubted himself, he lost himself in the middle, and he ran away from his flaws in other to feel somewhat better. However, in the end, RM realized that “true love first begins with loving himself” and that “maybe he made a mistake yesterday, but yesterday’s him is still him”. RM is now proud of himself for what he did and does, he embraces his flaws and mistakes and from there finds the way to speak up for himself. At the end of the speech, he continuously encourages others to “speak yourself despite where you from, who you are, your skin color, your gender identity.” You can only “find your name and find your voice from speaking yourself”.
After every pain and mistake, there is always a lesson and memory. Personally, I have been struggling a lot with myself and my own value. There have been tears and suicidal thought, I even thought that the world can be much better without my existence. I see myself as worthless and always compare myself with others. I never satisfy with what I’ve done and with what I’m given. Even though many people may criticize me for admiring BTS, but through their songs and stories, I have come to realize that I am my only salvation and the only one who can find hope in the darkness that has trapped me in. Today, I am still struggling with finding my soul and my true ‘love’, but I will try my best to face my problems, to embrace my flaws, to accept my mistakes, and encourage myself to become a better version of myself. I start to think of painful moments as beautiful memories that filled up my used-to-be boring journey. I am not a superstar nor celebrities nor hero, but hope that by taking action on myself, I can inspire and encourage people around me to also love themselves and speak themselves.
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