Literature and Music: Literary References in BTS Songs

Twitter, @BTS_twt

Korean pop 'Kpop' music is on the rise, and it has been for many years. The group BTS (Bangtan Sonyeondan) is one of the groups that rose to global fame during the past decade.

While it seems that our Taylor Swift-inspired classes are not related to Kpop, they did teach us a lot about the connections between Taylor Swift and English literature. This is how I was encouraged to explore literary references in other forms of media.

I have been a BTS fan for a long time (since 2015!) and I was always aware that works of literature or other forms of art inspired some of their music. For example, the song 'Butterfly' from their album 'The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Pt. 2' directly mentions the novel Kafka on the Shore by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The lines are:

"I don’t know if this is reality or a dream

My Kafka on the shore

Don’t go to those woods over there"

Butterfly, BTS

I felt inspired to finally read the book in 2020, which is now among my favourite novels. The lyrics depict 'woods,' referencing the mazelike woods that the main character, Kafka Tamura, is warned against entering. Despite the caution, he gives in to temptation and explores them. This reference has been thoroughly researched by fans and on this website's interactive lyrics, you can read up on this in more detail: https://genius.com/19080789.

'Butterfly' is just one example of a literature-inspired song by BTS. In the song 'Euphoria' for instance, Jungkook hints at Thomas More's Utopia in the line "When I'm with you, I'm in utopia". Many direct and indirect literature references such as these are already known by fans. Nine of those connections are listed in this article: https://www.soompi.com/article/1317010wpp/9-bts-songs-that-drew-inspiration-from-literature

Among them are great works such as Demian by Hermann Hesse or the folktale 'The Pied Piper Of Hamelin'.

One of the BTS members, Kim Namjoon or 'RM', is known to be a fan of literature. He listed some of his favourite books, which inspired people to read all or some of them. Popular 'Booktuber' Jack Edwards read RM's list and reviewed the books in one of his videos.

Both Jack Edwards and myself (and the course 'English Literature: Taylor's Version') show that artists such as BTS and Taylor Swift can serve as a source of inspiration and serve as motivation for their fans to read the stories behind their music.

Fran Albert