BTS and BlackPink: Songs That Inspire and Empower

The world has been engaged in a fierce competition based on military and economic power. In a culture that prioritizes society over the individual and the state over society, the individual has been largely ignored in the ideologies and values that govern the times and nations. However, K-pop groups such as BTS and BlackPink, through their songs and lyrics, dream of a society where individuals exist as themselves with full value, not as parts of a machine that exists for the development of the nation, and live together while recognizing the differences and differences between me and you.

Before BTS and BlackPink, K-pop in the U.S. was viewed as marginal music mass-produced in music factories in Korea. But BTS and BlackPink have taken a different path than most other idol groups. Since their debut, all members have been involved in writing, composing, and producing their songs, and they've been singing about me, you, and their dreams and hopes ever since.

Hailing from South Korea, BTS and BlackPink have become extremely popular over the past few years not only in South Korea, but around the world, including Southeast Asia, United States, Europe, and the Middle East. There are many reasons for their success, but their timeless melodies and relatable lyrics have been credited with a large part of it. Even though the lyrics are in Korean, their music is worth studying because it has garnered a fan base and influence far beyond Asia into the English-speaking world.

BTS, the best boy group in the world

BTS is recognized as one of the best voices of today's youth, noting that their lyrics address the struggles, concerns, and social issues faced by teens and 20-somethings. This perception has been very positive in the U.S. press, music media, and fanbase, indicating that BTS is resonating with their core audience. Known for their musical self-reliance, with every member contributing to the production of their own songs and creating their own music, BTS is also known for incorporating their personal stories into their lyrics.

By analyzing the lyrics of 87 songs (excluding duplicates) in all of BTS's albums (15 albums) released up to 2020, 51 songs (about 59%) are autobiographical stories of BTS and its members, and their music has been a very consistent narrative, reflecting the growth and success of seven young men who dreamed of becoming singers, their journey from idols of small and medium-sized agencies to the world's top boy group, and their worries, concerns, and anguish as singers and human beings that they felt and thought during the process.

Meanwhile, the paper 'An Exploratory Study of the Global Popularity of BTS Using Korean News Reports: A Topic Modeling Approach' presented by Professor Eunjung Hyun of Hongik University's School of Business offered a different perspective.

The paper analyzed various Korean newspaper articles about BTS from 2013, when the group debuted, to last year using a topic modeling technique. Topic modeling is a technique that uses a computer program to extract topics based on keywords used in textual materials, and the characteristics of the extracted topics can be used to identify the overall topic of the text.

Based on this, Professor Hyun analyzed that "the main success factor was that BTS shared their thoughts and social issues in their song lyrics with people around the world, including their fandom, Army, through SNS." In their lyrics, BTS used phrases that reflect the reality of youth, such as "effort" (38 times) and "life" (17 times), as well as negative words such as "absurdity" and "criticism" 166 times, and the most repeated word was "me" used 1,000 times. BTS uses words such as dream, hope, and believe in their song lyrics to encourage the youth of today to have dreams and not lose hope.

In this post, we used Google's AI chatbot Bard to find the 10 most common words in the lyrics of songs sung by BTS. The results showed that 'Love' appeared 888 times, followed by 'I', 'Dream', and 'World'. 'Love' is by far the most common word in the lyrics of BTS songs. However, BTS's interpretation of love varies, with songs such as "You deserve to be loved (21st Century Girl)" and "Maybe the hardest thing to do is to love yourself (Answer : Love Myself)" being dedicated not only to men and women, but also to the young people of today and their fan club, the Army. All of these highly frequent words penetrate their messages of comfort and encouragement to the younger generation.

<Ranking the words that appeared the most in BTS's lyrics>

“Please ARMY, remember what we say, love myself, love yourself”

-BTS-

BLACKPINK, The top female idol who turned the world pink.

BLACKPINK is a four-member girl group under YG Entertainment that debuted on August 8, 2016. Since their debut, BLACKPINK has become one of K-pop's leading girl groups and has achieved great success in the global music market.

• Music Charts

Starting with their debut song "Whistle," BLACKPINK's songs "Playing with Fire," "Like the Last Time," "Kill This Love," "How You Like That," "Ice Cream," "Pretty Savage," and "Lovesick Girls" have all reached number one on local and international music charts. In particular, "How You Like That" received 86.3 million views on YouTube within 24 hours of its release, becoming the first K-pop group to surpass 100 million views on YouTube in 24 hours.

• Album sales

All of BLACKPINK's albums have been million-sellers, from their debut album "Square One" to their 2022 sophomore album "THE ALBUM". Most notably, "THE ALBUM" sold over 2 million copies worldwide and became the first K-pop group to reach No. 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart.

• CONCERTS

BLACKPINK held a total of three world tours from 2018 to 2022, mobilizing more than 5 million people in total. In particular, the world tour "THE SHOW" commemorating the release of "THE ALBUM" in 2022 held a total of 17 concerts in 10 cities and was sold out.

From the beginning of their debut, BLACKPINK emphasized intense love like "fire" and foreshadowed the catastrophic nature of love. Since then, they have shown that they are not afraid of love's catastrophe or death, but rather recognize it as a counterpoint that guarantees the intensity, permanence, and authenticity of love. Furthermore, she recognizes love as the meaning of her existence.

Even though BLACKPINK knows that the consequences of their fiery love will eventually lead to catastrophe, they sing that it is meaningful to endure the pain of love because it is the only meaning of life. However, BLACKPINK is not yet concerned about the 'you' as the other person who is different from me in the song. They are not yet thinking about the other person, 'why is he different from me, how should I accept this difference,' and trying to change me and you by sharing experiences with him.

BTS and BlackPik's songs show that loving 'me' and 'you' is inseparable from reflections on the meaning of love, the existence of 'me' and the relationship with others, and that it is difficult to make meaningful 'relationships' when trapped in one's own world.

Like BTS, we used Google's AI chatbot Bard to find the 10 most common words in the lyrics of BlackPink's songs. The analysis showed that, like BTS, 'Love' was the top word, appearing 715 times, followed by 'You' and 'Night'.

<Ranking the words that appeared the most in BLACKPINK's lyrics>

When we analyzed the lyrics of songs sung by BTS and BLACKPINK through Google Bard, the word "love" was the most common. This is likely due to the fact that both groups sing a lot of songs about love. In addition, the words "I" and "Dream" appeared a lot in BTS's lyrics, while the words "You" and "Night" appeared a lot in BLACKPINK's lyrics. This can be interpreted as BTS tends to sing songs about their lives and dreams, while BLACKPINK tends to sing songs about love and passion.