Sunshine Review

 Fans were shocked by the release of the music video for South Korean singer IU’s latest single, “Love Wins All”. The video features V of BTS and has piqued the interest of both artists’ respective fanbases, Uaena and Army. Though the title might suggest a soft, sweet music video, what was actually released is not what you'd expect. Yes, there are sweet moments, but there's so much more to it than just that. Many fans have said the video could easily be extended into a movie, and it does indeed have a cinematic quality. The video opens not with music, but with the sound of IU and V running and breathing heavily. The sound is sharp and foreboding against the otherwise quiet background. Right from the start, every tiny detail in “Love Wins All” serves to create a specific feeling. In this scene, it's urgency, tension, and fear. Both characters are in casual clothes which are tattered and dirty, their faces equally dirt-streaked and beat up. V’s right eye is clouded, implying ...

  Can you imagine if you were an artist and one of the members of BTS–the biggest boy band in the world–was recommending your songs on his Instagram? Most people would probably freak out, and they might feel shy messaging the member about it. American singer-songwriter Umi was shy, but she still reached out after V of BTS mentioned her song, and it's a good thing she did, otherwise fans wouldn't have received a collaboration between the two incredibly talented artists, released by Umi on the BTS member’s birthday.  The collaboration, a single called “wherever u r”, really seems like a culmination of both artists’ individual styles, which already aligned quite well. The song is about a past love that's still holding on. The lyrics express regret over this ended love in Umi’s line, “I wish that I called you more/Just to make you feel better”, and the chorus concludes with the promise, “I'ma be wherever you are/Here in your heart.”  Having listened to the past work of bot...

  When the remaining members of BTS finally enlisted in the South Korean military earlier this month, Armys were understandably saddened by the necessary hiatus. Surely nobody was anticipating the announcement of “Closer Than This”, a single by Jimin that would be released on the twenty-second. Clearly the singer wanted to leave something to tie fans over until the group's reunion.  “Closer Than This” is a song that can only be sung by BTS. Such is made clear by reference to June 13 (BTS’s debut date) and the phrases “Seven=1” (meaning the seven members united) and “Until the days tinge purple once again” (to BTS, the color purple is a symbol of eternal love). Jimin sings of the group's past struggles, the “Times I sang in the rain,” and about “How you smiled for me in the snow.” The singer paints a vocal picture of BTS’s story up until now, and how they weathered it all together with fans. “Closer Than This” is about everlasting love and a promise to meet again. With the lyri...

 Ten and a half years ago, on June 13, 2013, Bangtan Sonyondan had their first ever live performance after debuting the day before. Today, the South Korean boy group is one of the biggest in the world. It may have been hard for them to feel this popularity in 2020 when the global pandemic hit and the world went into lockdown, however. Chapter 7: “We Are”, the last chapter of Beyond the Story: A Ten Year Record of BTS by Myeongseok Kang and BTS, opens with descriptions of the group’s pure joy after their concert, PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE–LA. The group’s enthusiasm makes sense in light of what the text goes on to describe: the preceding pandemic that caused the world to screech to a halt.  According to Jimin, this time was “chopped off” in his memory, though it was still a meaningful era for the group. Going in a completely different musical direction than what had been strategically planned before, the group released “Dynamite”, a bubbly summer single in English, and “BE”, ...

 I don't remember what I was doing when I first listened to “Golden” by Jungkook of BTS; probably either drawing or lying in bed getting ready to fall asleep. I do remember being surprised when I first heard the songs, though. Being notoriously terrible at picking up lyrics before at least the twelfth listen, I didn't at first realize that all of the lyrics were in English, but this is only one aspect of the album that came as a shock. From the flow to the subject matter to the fact that my Spotify settings skipped over two of the songs because they were explicit, none of it was quite what I'd expected. Of course, I'm not saying all of this as a bad thing; the Korean singer has never had a reputation for doing exactly what was expected of him (besides consistently impressing fans), and the album itself is a testament to Jungkook’s growth as an artist.   The first four tracks–“3D (feat. Jack Harlow)”, “Closer to You (feat. Major Lazer)”, “Seven (feat. Latto)(Explicit Ver...

  When taken as a single chunk, chapters 4-6 of Beyond the Story: a Ten Year Record of BTS tell a clear story of the band’s rise to almost unimaginable popularity, and the mental conflict it caused. These chapters examine all of BTS’s work from WINGS to Map of the Soul: 7, a timespan of about four years. In those four years, the band continuously rose in popularity, faced a crisis, and came out stronger. Chapter 4: “Inside Out” opens on a low note. Things weren’t necessarily going wrong in BTS’s career, but in their mentality, as they were burnt out from working non-stop. The members were experiencing conflicting emotions that they poured into their second full length album: WINGS . This album came onto the scene with a more abstract aesthetic, focusing on art and metaphors. The text points out what a risky move this was in terms of business, since the album might be intimidating to new fans who weren’t familiar with BTS’s musical themes. Myongseok Kang goes on to explain: “Howeve...

  Chapter three of Beyond the Story opens with lighter toned pictures from The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 1, The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2, and The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever. These pictures are in contrast to the grunge aesthetics that opened chapter 2, an instant visual indicator of the contents of this era in BTS’s history. Chapter 3: Love, Hate, Army, deals with a transitional period in BTS’s career, a period of extreme highs and lows all at once. In the music videos for this era, the group began to build their own storyline, where they portrayed fictional characters with ugly, real-life problems. BTS was becoming their own self-contained universe in which the characters, like the members themselves, were on the outskirts. In the videos, it was the outskirts of a physical city. For the band, the city represented the music scene. Even as they made more and more of a name for themselves, Bangtan never really fit in. They weren’t doing music t...

While the first chapter of Beyond the Story: A 10 Year Record of BTS focuses on the members’ personalities and how they first came together as a group, the second chapter talks about the beginning of their actual career. Preceding the chapter is a series of poster photos, one from each of the group’s first four albums. These images come as a bit of a surprise after the aesthetic opening, as BTS’s early style was drastically grungier than it is today. These photos are placed sparsely enough that they enhance the reading experience and bring visuals to the story without distracting from the main point or taking up too much space. This contributes to the book’s beautiful format, as does the use of purple coloring within parts of the text, and the Spotify-esque image shown for each album explained in the narrative.  This chapter, “Why We Exist”, goes into detail on how BTS shared their genuine personality with fans after debut, how they experienced doubts and struggles, and the harsh ...

  At midnight between July 13 and 14, 2023, Jungkook of BTS released his first solo single, ‘Seven,’ a song that was different from what everyone first expected. When the title was announced, fans expected it to be an emotional song alluding to the seven members of BTS. This was not the case at all. Instead, ‘Seven’ refers to the seven days of the week, and loving someone every one of those days. Basically, the song is about a persistent love that lasts forever. In terms of lyrics, ‘Seven’ could stand to do better. Written fully in English, the song describes romance like just about any other song on the radio. Not that love songs are always bad or unoriginal–love is indeed a large part of human life–but it would’ve been nice to see Jungkook take a more unique direction. Besides that, the song contains a few references to inappropriate behavior. That isn’t even to mention the explicit version, which I would not recommend to those with pure ears. Of course, it isn’t unusual for arti...