BTS is back. The best selling K Pop group of all time has been on hiatus for four years. They haven’t released an album in six. They were once the biggest band in the world. Can they regain their throne? Or has the world moved on. Leaning on traditional Korean sounds and a bevy of international producers, from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker to JPEGMafia, is their album Arirang the future or the past of K Pop? Hye Jin Lee, communications professor at USC and K Pop scholar, joins to break down the album’s references and ponder how longtime fans will respond.
**Songs Discussed**
BTS – Body to Body
Koreana – Hand In Hand
Lee Chun-Hee – Arirang
BTS – Hooligan
Michel Magne – Yang Tse Kiang – Bande originale du film “Un singe en hiver”
ROSALÍA – MALAMENTE – Cap.1: Augurio
Prefuse 73 – The End of Biters – International
BTS – Aliens
Kim Young-gil and Yoon Ho-Se – Ajaeng sanjo – Jungmori
BTS – FYA
Junior Sanchez – Lookin 4 Love – Extended Mix
BTS – No. 29
BTS – SWIM
BTS – Merry Go Round
Tame Impala – New Person, Same Old Mistakes
BTS – NORMAL
BTS – they don’t know ’bout us
The Four Freshmen It’s A Blue World
BTS – Paldogangsan
BTS – No More Dream
BTS and Zara Larsson – A Brand New Day
Agust D – Haegeum
Difficult_Deer6902 on
Wow this Hand-and-Hand deep dive really gives so much more meaning to some of the choices in Body-to-Body
Another great deep dive on Aliens.
WOW I’m shocked they really did their due diligence here and it’s a podcast episode that is giving me some different perspectives.
This was so enjoyable and well-researched. I would recommend!
Particular-Yoghurt81 on
Oh my god, I love this podcast. Will listen and see if it’s any good. 😊
Edit- OMG, this was EXCELLENT!!!! The best, most thorough analysis of the album and all it’s meaning. I wish they would have included a little bit about how Kpop has always been a influenced by Western producers and sounds, but overall still really great.
ravens_path on
I listened to all of it. Wow. I really enjoyed it. Music history in general and BTS music in specifics. Thanks for alerting us to this.
Leather-Ad-543 on
I am glad they are deep diving into the music and themes. I feel like SoP’s treatment of them most of the time hasn’t gone beyond “wow so big! so many fans! Now in English!” They deserve the more in depth analysis!
SensitiveCranberry20 on
I really enjoyed this episode. Really goes in depth and goes beyond the debates about Koreanness. Really happy Prof. Hye Jin Lee was there to provide a lot more context. I really liked the parallels drawn with the Hand in Hand song and how that song and the Arirang album had similar mission statements. Of being Korean, but also wanting to have a universal global appeal.
NovelSea1845 on
I loved hearing where the samples were from, for example, digging up the soundtrack from the French movie sampled at the beginning of Hooligan was cool. It’s fun to hear the original and then how it is used in the recording. They also played music with similar production sounds (because same producers). And I thought the discussion around BTS as underdogs was a very interesting take. This was such an interesting analysis of the album, thank you for posting the links 🙏🫶🏻
apobangpo91 on
i need someone to remind me to listen to this tomorrow when i have time lol!
sweetteapie93 on
I love Switched on Pop! It’s one of my favourite podcasts to listen to out of many (especially on pop music trends/history). The hosts have done an amazing job with their research and analysis on the subjects for each of their episodes. They have also done a few K-pop focused episodes previously. I’m still catching up on their episodes from the past year as we speak and I’m glad they did one for Arirang! While it will take a while for me to listen to this particular episode (until I’m done catching up on previous episodes), I’m very happy to hear very positive reviews from fellow Armys here on the Arirang episode! 😊
9 Comments
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BTS is back. The best selling K Pop group of all time has been on hiatus for four years. They haven’t released an album in six. They were once the biggest band in the world. Can they regain their throne? Or has the world moved on. Leaning on traditional Korean sounds and a bevy of international producers, from Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker to JPEGMafia, is their album Arirang the future or the past of K Pop? Hye Jin Lee, communications professor at USC and K Pop scholar, joins to break down the album’s references and ponder how longtime fans will respond.
**Songs Discussed**
BTS – Body to Body
Koreana – Hand In Hand
Lee Chun-Hee – Arirang
BTS – Hooligan
Michel Magne – Yang Tse Kiang – Bande originale du film “Un singe en hiver”
ROSALÍA – MALAMENTE – Cap.1: Augurio
Prefuse 73 – The End of Biters – International
BTS – Aliens
Kim Young-gil and Yoon Ho-Se – Ajaeng sanjo – Jungmori
BTS – FYA
Junior Sanchez – Lookin 4 Love – Extended Mix
BTS – No. 29
BTS – SWIM
BTS – Merry Go Round
Tame Impala – New Person, Same Old Mistakes
BTS – NORMAL
BTS – they don’t know ’bout us
The Four Freshmen It’s A Blue World
BTS – Paldogangsan
BTS – No More Dream
BTS and Zara Larsson – A Brand New Day
Agust D – Haegeum
Wow this Hand-and-Hand deep dive really gives so much more meaning to some of the choices in Body-to-Body
Another great deep dive on Aliens.
WOW I’m shocked they really did their due diligence here and it’s a podcast episode that is giving me some different perspectives.
This was so enjoyable and well-researched. I would recommend!
Oh my god, I love this podcast. Will listen and see if it’s any good. 😊
Edit- OMG, this was EXCELLENT!!!! The best, most thorough analysis of the album and all it’s meaning. I wish they would have included a little bit about how Kpop has always been a influenced by Western producers and sounds, but overall still really great.
I listened to all of it. Wow. I really enjoyed it. Music history in general and BTS music in specifics. Thanks for alerting us to this.
I am glad they are deep diving into the music and themes. I feel like SoP’s treatment of them most of the time hasn’t gone beyond “wow so big! so many fans! Now in English!” They deserve the more in depth analysis!
I really enjoyed this episode. Really goes in depth and goes beyond the debates about Koreanness. Really happy Prof. Hye Jin Lee was there to provide a lot more context. I really liked the parallels drawn with the Hand in Hand song and how that song and the Arirang album had similar mission statements. Of being Korean, but also wanting to have a universal global appeal.
I loved hearing where the samples were from, for example, digging up the soundtrack from the French movie sampled at the beginning of Hooligan was cool. It’s fun to hear the original and then how it is used in the recording. They also played music with similar production sounds (because same producers). And I thought the discussion around BTS as underdogs was a very interesting take. This was such an interesting analysis of the album, thank you for posting the links 🙏🫶🏻
i need someone to remind me to listen to this tomorrow when i have time lol!
I love Switched on Pop! It’s one of my favourite podcasts to listen to out of many (especially on pop music trends/history). The hosts have done an amazing job with their research and analysis on the subjects for each of their episodes. They have also done a few K-pop focused episodes previously. I’m still catching up on their episodes from the past year as we speak and I’m glad they did one for Arirang! While it will take a while for me to listen to this particular episode (until I’m done catching up on previous episodes), I’m very happy to hear very positive reviews from fellow Armys here on the Arirang episode! 😊