Image Credit: A Jeong JM
BTS receiving a Bonsang award at the 31st Golden Disk Awards in Seoul on January 14, 2017.
How BTS is Breaking K-pop Stereotypes
By Samira Safarzadeh
LOVE YOURSELF
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o matter who you are, where you’re from, your skin color, your gender identity, just speak for yourself,” says BTS band leader “ Kim Namjoon (whose stage name is RM). In September 2018, the Korean pop (K-pop) band spoke before the United Nations to promote their self-love campaign. BTS was the first Korean boy band ever to address the UN. The three-minute speech during the launch ceremony of UNICEF’s global partnership Generation Unlimited BTS encouraged the youth to believe in themselves. The month before, BTS partnered with UNICEF launching the ‘Love Yourself’ campaign. “True love begins with loving yourself,” said Namjoon in the UN press statement. BTS, the Korean boy band, consisting of seven members, V, Jungkook, RM, Suga, Jimin, J-Hope and Jin, formed in 2013. Since then, they have been making waves in the pop industry, breaking major records, receiving numerous RIAA gold certifications, charting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and selling out stadiums within two hours. Their latest album, “Map of the Soul: Persona,” broke the record for the most number ones on Korean charts, forecasted to get No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 as well as breaking record, for the most viewed video on YouTube in 24 hours with their music video “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey. These feats are unheard of as the band sings only in Korean with occasional phrases in English.
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The typical K-pop artist has what Korean society sees as the “perfect body and face” and are held to extremely high standards, with members often undergoing extensive plastic surgery to keep up with beauty ideals. Even if BTS doesn’t break the perfection mold in terms of their look, they do it relation to their messaging. Unlike other bands in the genre who have been engineered for success, BTS writes and produces many of their own songs and are adamant about remaining authentic. While K-pop bands are known for perfect looks, synchronized choreography and trendy outfits, BTS goes above and beyond, often using their platform to speak out about sensitive matters. In South Korea, politics and pop-culture typically remain separate. However, the band doesn’t let societal pressures of keeping up with a squeaky-clean ideal stop them from standing up for what they believe in. BTS discuss topics beyond the repetitiveness of love and heartbreak that is often heard in pop music. The band’s lyrics speak out about mental health, self-love, challenging bureaucracy, suicide, the K-pop idol stereotype-system and female empowerment. In December 2017, BTS member Suga said in an interview with Billboard, “If we know that everyone is suffering and lonely, I hope we can create an environment where we ask for help and say things are hard when they’re hard, and day we miss someone when we miss them.” “In Korea, there is no mental health,” says
