Preface – So BTS is about to release their long-awaited 5th studio album titled “ARIRANG”, the tracklist for which got revealed a couple of days ago and has already ignited a LOT of discourse and speculation. I’m always up for a healthy discussion, but as a self-professed “BTS discography enthusiast”, I’ll admit I was genuinely irked by a lot of the points brought up (much of which felt like slander with no facts to back it up). Paraphrasing a bit here, but some that I noted down include:
“none of the members have main production credits…how BTS will this be?”
“there are only two or three of them credited among twelve songwriters, how much input did they have really?”
“they’re not even first or second on the credits list; the order of credits is sooo important”
“how dare they refer to themselves as a self-producing group?”
“so many English names…I pray its a Korean album”
“only English song titles, so this is a full English album”
“these song titles sound like badboy rebel titles, how does any of this connect to ARIRANG?”
“shouldn’t they have worked with Korean producers for an album named ARIRANG?”
I feel like so many of these points come from either not knowing or ignoring BTS’ music history, and I really don’t like that. Especially since many of these people are parroting these opinions over and over, anywhere and everywhere, and there could be genuinely interested casual listeners or non-fans misled by them. I don’t think it’s fair to BTS, or to such people. We have 16 albums in BTS’ (mainly) Korean discography to look back at and glean information from, so I thought now would be a good time to do that. I’ll try to include as many facts (sometimes figures too) as possible, and I’m fully open to having discussions based on those, NOT on baseless assumptions and speculations.
Let’s start with how BTS’ albums are made
BTS released their debut album, “2 Cool 4 Skool” back in June 2013, and since then (putting their Japanese discography aside), have released 16 albums total consisting of EPs, studio albums, compilation albums, the last of which was “PROOF”, their anthology album released in June 2022. Their artistic direction has largely been about telling their own stories as they grew from teens to adults, from underdogs to the biggest group in the world; hence their discography having a narrative progressing from the “Skool trilogy” -> “Youth trilogy” -> “Love Yourself trilogy” -> “Map of the soul” era -> BE (pandemic).
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BTS and Bighit started out as a small team of singer-songwriters and in-house producers. From what BTS has shared with us over the years, album-making for them usually started with meetings with Bang PD (their CEO), deciding on keywords for the theme, receiving tracks and beats from the PDs, working on melodies and compositions for them, then submitting them to Bang PD again for evaluation (note: the producers themselves had their own submissions, including him), then reworking things after getting feedback. He was usually the one with the final say on what made the cut and what worked best. Then they would work on lyric-writing, recording and finally mixing done by the PDs. In their Grammy Museum interview, Suga talked about this and referred to it as a year round song camp.
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Among the 7 members, RM and Suga were the only ones with significant songwriting experience. J-hope quickly learnt from the two, and by debut, was involved in writing his own verses. Thus, rapline had writing credits starting right from their debut, while vocal line also slowly gained more interest in composition and songwriting, and started getting more regular credits from 2015 onwards. STRICTLY referring to album tracks (and putting aside the skits and interludes), BTS has about 139 tracks which can be considered full-fledged songs. Of these 139, there are exactly NINE songs with no member credits -> four album outros, GO GO, Epiphany (surprise!!), Filter, Dream Glow (from their OST album) and Dynamite. Except for the last two, all others were worked on by Bighit in-house producers. Of these credits, members have mentioned both melody compositions they did as well as lyrics they wrote (in group interviews and RM’s album behind lives). PROOF CD3 with all the demos on it is literal proof of how constant they’ve been at it.
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PRODUCTION is a completely different story. BTS don’t usually tout themselves as “self-produced” (plus its mostly a term used in fan spaces and not by artists), but do refer to Suga as a producer. Of the 139 album tracks I mentioned (and where 130 of them have atleast one member in the credits), there are only 18 tracks on which members have production credits. Suga accounts for 11 of these, starting with “Tomorrow” and “JUMP” from back in 2014. Jungkook got his first production credit with “Outro: Love is not over” (2015), RM with “Epilogue: Young Forever (2016), Jimin with “Friends” (2020) and V with “Blue & Grey” (2020). They really treasure these opportunities and wins and share them with ARMY when they happen, which is why the fandom is very familiar with the member-produced tracks.
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For the first three years or so of BTS’ career, when their label had lesser resources, most of the production was done by their in-house producers. These include Pdogg (84 credits), Bang PD (46 credits), Slow Rabbit (35 credits) and Supreme Boi (29 credits) (again referring to album tracks here which can be considered full songs; since it’s my own criteria, some might not find it fully accurate but it paints the picture well enough, I think).
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As soon as BTS gained enough success and they could afford to, they started reaching out to more producers to work on their songs. “Save me” (2016) is the FIRST BTS SONG to have multiple western songwriters featured on it (3/7), and started the practice of BTS albums having several outside producers and songwriters on them. This was 10 years and 11 albums ago. It’s not a brand new thing they’re suddenly doing.
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Since 2016, BTS albums have largely been made by receiving submissions from various outside producers (western and Korean), selecting ones that fit their vision and criteria, and reworking them to fit the album mold. All this while the in-house producers and members continue to ALSO work on songs and beats of their own. From all these, the ones deemed the best make it into the album. I actually believe it’s this expansion which has helped them to continue evolving as artists and have such a varied, high-quality discography. That they refuse to be boxed in and are always open to new opportunities.
Some observations that I feel the need to highlight
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A lot of BTS’ most well-loved and acclaimed songs, either sonically, or adored for their lyrics, have MULTIPLE writers , and have outside producers working on them.
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“Run BTS” (2022), a song loved by fans and non-fans alike, that people said sounds like BTS “going back to their roots and debut era”, has 13 (mostly western) writers, of which 4 are BTS members (4/13).
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Same goes for beloved, “personal to the group and the fans”, songs like “Home” (3/11), “Mikrokosmos (3/12)”, “We are bulletproof: The Eternal” (3/16), “Answer: Love Myself” (3/10) and “For Youth” (3/11).
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I could go on and on. “Love Maze”, “Boy with luv:, “Jamais vu”, “Moon”, “Louder than bombs”…..all brought to you by a large group of songwriters.
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You also have songs like “The Truth Untold”, “Am I Wrong”, “Euphoria”, “Black Swan”, “Lost”, where……(gasp)….ONLY ONE MEMBER is credited. Would you consider any of these songs less BTS?
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BE (2020), an album that a lot of non-BTS fans like to ignore and dismiss, is actually one that has the most member-led credits with 4 out of the 7 tracks having a BTS member as the primary songwriter. If people were really that appreciative of members on credits and production, would this album have received more love? It makes one wonder.
What makes a BTS song distinctly BTS?
Spoilers….it’s not the sound or genre.
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BTS are album artists. This has always been the case. From their very first album to their latest, they are deeply involved in planning the content of it, the themes to be addressed and how the songs are curated. They are dedicated to delivering the highest quality they can, which sometimes includes their own compositions, sometimes not. And no matter how many writers are involved, it never sounds disjointed or stitched together. I can imagine how much care they must take to achieve that. There is not a single B-side across their 16 albums that, like or dislike aside, I would consider “filler”, not contributing to the sound or album concept, and added simply to pad the tracklist with. Isn’t that kind of crazy??
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LYRICS matter to them. Deeply. Since they work on so many genres, explore so many sounds, I would say it’s the lyrics that make the BTS songs, theirs. No matter who has worked on the beat, the melodies, mixing, once a song has made it into a BTS album, it’s BTS’ song, and the lyrics will always be the proof of that. They are purposeful, written with care and tie in to BTS’ message and themes, every time. It’s also a big reason why people connect to them so deeply, and remain lifelong fans. I actually have a good anecdote about this. MNEK is a well-known British singer-songwriter and record producer who made the demo that would later become “Paradise (2018)”. In this interview, he candidly talks about how surprised he was after sending the song to them, listening to it when it got released and realising it had been turned into a “self-help” song, when his original demo had been “much bitchier” (his words, not mine). I’m guessing there are probably a few other songwriters who feel the same way about the final BTS versions of their demos.
In fact, when talking about Dynamite and how it came to be, RM said they had been planning to do the same thing – add some Korean lyrics to it. But when they listened to the song, they felt that it flowed very well with the original lyrics as is, and might sound awkward in Korean; so they left it unchanged.
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Another important thing that makes BTS songs so very them is, of course, their VOICES. Every single member has such a distinct vocal color and tone, easy to tell apart, and that adds to the song’s identity when put together. Even when working with producers who have a very distinct sound to them, for eg “The Chainsmokers”, Ed Sheeran, Troye Sivan, you can certainly hear their influence in the tracks but these songs – “Best of me”, “Make it right”, “Louder than bombs”, when you listen to them and read the lyrics, it’s impossible to deny the clear BTS flavor added to each one of them.
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Lastly, but very importantly, its the LIVE PERFORMANCES. Whether it be with choreo or no choreo, once BTS have performed a song, it is so apparent that it is THEIRS and that they claim it proudly. That energy is infectious too, because over the years, there are so many songs that I remember had initial mixed reception even within the fandom and weren’t loved as much, then people completely changed their mind on after seeing it live. Some newer ARMYs may even find it difficult to believe, but this includes “Magic Shop”, “Dimple”, “IDOL”, “So What”, “Boy with luv”, “Zero o’clock”, “My Time”, “Make it right”, “Stay”, to name a few. Now so many of these are fandom favorites.
So what’s up with this LA song camp?
This is something that makes perfect sense to me, and I am so confused on why anyone would be upset. I remember on their reality show “In The Soop S1” (2020), they were playing around in the living room and somehow ended up writing the theme song for the show together. Suga reflected on how their usual song-making process was very different, making sections separately and then putting them together, and he seemed to really appreciate that moment. Later on, when they all recorded it together in the studio, they had so much fun and you could tell it was a genuinely memorable moment for them too.
After physically being apart for 3 years, it makes so much sense that they would want to spend time together, learning to be a group and constantly around each other again. That they would want to make music together like that. Especially since several of their solo albums were made that way (FACE, RPWP and partially D-Day), and they saw the merits of it. To be so hands-on together, giving each other feedback and exchanging thoughts then and there, learning from and bouncing ideas around with seasoned producers in the industry, such a collaborative process could only serve to ignite their love for music that much more.
And that they decided to do this in LA? That makes sense too. They were, legally, not allowed to leave Korea for the past two years or so. Just that restriction alone would make ME want to pack up and go as soon as I could, even just for a bit. LA is a cultural hub, with a vibrant music scene, accessible and frequented by music industry giants. So why not? Working with Western producers? They’ve done that for over 10+ years now, why would they suddenly stop? Why would they limit themselves to Korean producers ONLY when they have a chance to work with new, exciting people who have established themselves and are considered the top of their field, not just in the US, but the world? All the while, Pdogg remains their main producer, working right there with them.
And the credits? The order they appear in that’s so important? That Jin doesn’t have a credit? They haven’t told us in detail, of course (waiting for the documentary), but after hearing the members describe the routine they followed there – how for about eight weeks straight, they were in those studios working together, how they had so much fun and learnt so many new things regarding music – I don’t think any of that matters one bit. When the process is that collaborative, who really cares how anything is presented on paper? It’s apparent they did it as a group and found the work very fulfilling. The songs in the album are BTS’, and that’s that. For eg, Jimin for his solo song “Who”, doesn’t have any official credits but when we watched the behind video, we found out the entire theme of the song had been based on his ideas. When it’s possible for things like that to happen, why harp so much on the tiny details?
“The title is ARIRANG, but all these English song titles”
Respectfully, this is an idiotic take to me. I’m always so aware that it was BTS that picked the title of ARIRANG, not us. ARIRANG, which has been described to encompass many themes (separation, longing, sorrow, reunion, love), and contrary to what many people seem to think, does not simply equate to “KOREAN”. We can have our guesses, of course, but the truth is that we have very little idea what BTS were going for when they decided to pick this title. Or how they’ll choose to explore this theme. Trying to make any conclusive remarks before we get the album simply isn’t the way I’d approach this.
J-hope has already confirmed the album having Korean lyrics, but that people thought a full BTS album would be all English when their English trilogy accounts for exactly 3 songs in their discography, and they’ve released six new Korean tracks since then…it’s confounding. I have no problem with BTS deciding to “get freaky” if that’s what they want to, but from some of the descriptions of the album they’ve given us, I would not be surprised at all if many of these songs don’t mean what we think they would mean from the title alone. I can’t wait for album release day to find out! Especially knowing BTS are all Korean and the titles as they jump out at native English speakers may not necessarily be how they are perceived by the members. It’s sort of like how I know the meaning of “bangtan sonyeondan”, and know that Koreans find it cringe, but can never fully understand why exactly that is so.
Concluding thoughts
This probably came across as a bit of a rant, and I apologize for the sheer length of it. It’s just that narratives build so easily on the internet, and when they have no meritual basis but continue to be propagated, I find it extremely frustrating. I respect things like a song or album not being to your taste, sonically or otherwise. That’s totally fine! To each their own. It’s okay to voice your criticisms too.
But my problem with the whole discourse around BTS’ discography is that people are always so vague about it. They generalize a lot and don’t go into specifics, while being weirdly dismissive. And are often WRONG about the basis for their criticisms, like for example, in assuming that this is the first time BTS have worked with so many western producers on an album. There is also a lot of hiding behind, “but the english trilogy….” when trying to work out what the album will be like, when the fact is that, the english songs apart from Dynamite weren’t even a part of their albums (Butter got added to PROOF yes, but only because it’s an anthology compiling title songs together).
I’m hoping that with this post, I can hopefully get atleast a couple of people more informed on what BTS’ album-making process has historically been like. And maybe get my fellow BTS album enthusiasts hyped up at the same time. It’s AMAZING and still kind of unbelievable that we’ll be getting 14 brand new tracks from BTS, and I just wanted to make sure we have some of our facts straight. I’m deeply intrigued by how excited every producer involved in this has been, how confident the BTS members are about it, and how mysterious they’re keeping all of it. Truly can’t wait for March 20th!
If you’ve read this far, thank you so much and have a good day.
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