BTS recently (okay not that recently... I haven't been keeping up with tumblr) featured on
One Week One Band, a long-running music blog where guest writers get a week to show off their faves and explain why you should love them, too. They've previously covered critical touchstones, cult classics, indie darlings, and Beyoncé, but BTS are their first Kpop group.
Here's an excerpt from the first entry in the series:
"We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2” is the song that made me stop ignoring BTS and investigate this group of rookies. The title plays on the English translation of their name, “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. It’s catchy, and forceful, and if it sounds like anything in K-pop that’s come before it, it’s the evolution of those sounds to be speedier, leaner, and more aggressive. I was not a fan of their styling at this point, but they were one of the first boy groups to be dressed in costume versions of streetwear like this (bandanas under snapbacks, shorts over leggings, visible Hood By Air and Nike logos everywhere, and only black and white). Typical K-pop songs will just stick a single rapped verse into the middle eight. In “We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2”, the verses are rapped and the choruses are sung, which emphasizes that BTS’s members don’t rap just as a texture, but as the main feature of the song.
“We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2” doesn’t confront the idol vs. artist issue so much as hydroplane over it. BTS put themselves on a level above both idols who rap because they can’t sing (a charge that’s becoming less and less relevant these days) and amateur rappers without any label recognition. They plug the long hours all idols put into the practice room and music show circuit into the pre-existing equation of hard work with hip-hop credibility. (“Only throw stones if you’ve done as much as me,” Jimin taunts in the chorus.) The ability to make this dual attack is unique to their position as rappers who are also idols."
Keep reading at
the source, or check writer Madeline Lee's personal site for
an index of posts in the series.
Source:
One Week One Band,
Maddie Loves Kpop.
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