Kevin: WOOOOOOOO!
[Subtitles by youtube @anisian] [Rossini's Semiramide Overtune plays]
Umu: You are now reacting to BTS's Suga
And his interlude track to BTS's 2020 'Map of the Soul: 7' album,
'Map of the Soul: 7' continues the exploration of the Jungian psychology,
That began with BTS's 'Map of the Soul: Persona' album
While 'Persona' discussed the face we show to the world, 'Map of the Soul: 7' explores the shadow,
The dark side of our personalities, the parts of ourselves we want to keep hidden
The song opens up with the hopes he had when he was young, and when he first debuted,
of being a rapstar, and being on the top of the charts
He shares that as his fame grew, so did his shadow
The brighter the light that shone on him, the stronger the shadow became,
And he struggled with the fame and the way it changed him as a person
This is also a struggle between his two personas,
When does his stage name, 'SUGA', and his birth name, 'Min Yoongi' begin?
What part does he get to keep to himself?
And the song ends with SUGA saying, "I am you, and you are me"
*sad sobs by Umu*
Ju Young: Why is everything so deep that you pick out Emma[Umu] Umu: hahaha- (Jason: Ok this is actually-)
Umu: Suggesting that he is learning to accept the dichotomy of the persona and the shadow, SUGA and Min Yoongi
Jason: Okay, that's really heavy, you know you got Freud, you got Sigmund Freud, but Carl Jung is this like...
Ecstatically creative psychologist who-his work is just mind blowingly incredible
It takes from-
So many different regions of the world, these guys,
I'm expecting musically, we're going to kind of see a differentiation between the outer and the inner world
of that idealism, and I think that knowing that this is kinda based off of Carl Jung,
this will be interesting to be listening for
psychological concepts in their music, but WOAH,
Freaking crazy, that's fire, I'm very excited now
Owen: I'm curious, I'm curious about how they're gonna do that (Kevin: Yeah) Because it seems like-
Owen: Part of the shadow is their performing persona,
vs their outside of the worl-outside of the performing world,
like who they feel like they are with their friends or just..
And that kind of reminds me of, there was a quote with St. Vincent, in an interview she was asked,
"Where does St. Vincent end and you begin?" (Kevin: Annie Clark begin mhm) and she was like- Annie Clark begin,
She was like "Oh you have to ask St.Vincent" (Kevin: OHHHHHH) or something like that
And it's like- (Kevin: That's good!) Yeah,
So I don't know, it's like you can be different people, it's kinda cool
Sam: Isn't he in a...a MAX song? [BGM: MAX Ft. SUGA's "Blueberry Eyes"]
Umu: Yes Sam: That song is so good
Sam: So good...anyways sorry got a little bit distracted (Umu: Hahaha) Are you ready?
Raffi: I'm ReaDY Sam: Me too, 3, 2, 1
Henry: Oh, love that intro
Sam: Bighit Raffi: Bighit
Sam: oHH~
Kevin: Oooo the shadows
OH
Cloud: That was surprisingly deep Brianna: Wow, I did not expect his voice to be low, the timbre!
Owen: He did a good job :)
Kevin: WOOOOOOO the 'Polanski' imagery right there
Owen: I love all those extended harmonies,
like you hear so many 9s on every single chord, it's pretty cool (K: Mhm)
Sam: Wow
The momentum he is able to get on this song is nuts
Brianna: Oh there's like kind of harmonies behind him as he's sing-
Kevin: Woah, the people falling, that's really great
Raffi: Wow
Jason: Great guitar, great guitar usage Brianna woAH (Ju Young: WOW)
Ju Young: Electric guiTAR
Jason: Yeah, sonically now it's a different pers- (Ju Young: woAHHHHH)
Jason: Now it's into a different area of the collective consciousness
Brianna: whAt??? Ju Young: Oh my god...
Kevin: I think his delivery is really solid, especially in this section
oH, oH, heLLO...HELLO!
Ok, the distortion here is pretty awesome
This is pretty great
Ju Young: *deep breaths + surprised pikachu face* This is pretty great
Ju Young: *deep breaths + surprised pikachu face*
Oh my god
Kevin: Aye it's person- THEY REFERENCED THE FREAKIN- Owen: He got the persona!
Kevin: The SCREEN CRACK Owen: Haha Nice
Jason: Yeah this is pretty socially profound
Raffi: That's how it ends?! *wheeze* Sam: Wow...that's crazy
Kevin: So. there is this Swedish film called, 'Persona' by Ingmar Bergman
and when I was screaming 'THERE'S A REFERENCE TO THE-' yeah, halfway through that film,
the screen cracks in half and things go crazy, so...
Highly recommend it, though you probably need some caffeine cause
it's the slowest one and a half hour long film ever if you're not into it
Depends on you
Umu: Okay, thoughts on this song and how the music and video represented what he was talking about?
Sam: I just think that there were shots in that video that said so much,
there was a scene where all of them were at his conc-
I assume its his concert, where it's all these people dressed up in like black clothing,
to give sort of like this idea of anonymity,
and he was also in the um- in the crowd, so sort of like really,
isolating those two sides of him and how sort of the media and the paparazzi see this one side of him,
and how like there-those two sides are kind of like bleeding into each other,
I think that's really, really-that's just like- how do you come up with a shot like that?
Like that's really cool
Cl: I think it was interesting, because like we've listened to other rap songs obviously, and it's usually more of like a-
here feel this flow, now feel this, now feel this, and this is more like sectioned,
where it's like, you're gonna do this rhythm for a section, and I'm gonna do this rhythm for a section,
and we'll do this one, instead of like, intertwining and being like,
we'll do eights, and then into triplets, and then back to eight, sixteenths, triplets, like- (Br: Mhm)
kind of where it like makes you feel- Br: Like showing everything I got all at once you know
Cl: Yeah, cause it's really hard to go inbetween all of those things, but it's also cool to have them like
Where they have their each like standalone section
Rf: Closer to the beginning, like moving towards the middle there was,
moments when the rap was really speeding up and the text there is about being swallowed into it and,
that-it's exactly what his voice did, I mean it was just continuous, continual flooding of thought and,
Which is like-it's funny because you're-you're like how do you come up with that,
but that's like authentic inspiration, like it's-when it's your life and you're talking about it,
Sm: Ohhh
Rf: I mean that's...
There- it's very vulnerable
This is very vulnerable work
Ow: I loved the shot of him being on the stage and having a million phones and cameras being up to him,
I think him being constantly,
like watched, under critique, just being um-
always being a point of focus for other people, so everything he does,
even as not-as an artist-and not as an artist, it's like, he's like afraid of that attention,
and afraid to like show himself,
K: I thought it was amazing, I thought it delivered on all the fronts,
except for that first, I call it a chorus but the song doesn't really follow that structure-
U: Is it when he starts singing?
K: Huh? Yeah, when he starts singing, I think the-
You know they were trying to do the stadium effect, with some-
With some electric guitar and stuff, but I think if they had a little bit more reverb,
If there was some more boomy-something that felt more stadium-y,
with some of that live sound, I know it's not really live sound, but there's a way someone can-a producer can manipulate that
Uh, recording engineer, and I think that would've made it more effective, but then when the distorted stuff came in,
and his rap voice became distorted, I thought that was all really good
Yeah the video is super powerful I think, I really liked the way he-
there's the-there's the hands and the shadow people pressing him down,
but then immediately that is spliced with sort of like him standing on this translucent surface,
and the shadow people falling, and so I'm suddenly questioning "Where is gravity?"
and "Where are the shadow people falling to?", and I think that's sort of like the personal struggle,
sometimes the shadows are pressing me down, sometimes I'm able to stand above them and they're-
It feels like they are falling into oblivion, but they still come back sometimes
So I think there's some really powerful stuff there,
and the lyrics, yeah the whole "I wanna be rich" thing, you know the first time you hear it,
if you don't listen to the rest of the lyrics it might sound a little egotistical
But I think it's intentionally so, and it actually reminds me of the way Kendrick Lamar kinda writes his rap songs
Because especially in the album "good kid, m.A.A.d city", he would-he would do these boasts, braggadocious things,
but he would actually mean the opposite, he would make a song about drinking,
and how you should just jump into a pool of liquor, but actually the song is about how that's a dangerous habit
And so here, he's saying all these things, and he's saying with so much conviction,
but with the rest of the song and the context, you know there are-there's a dark side to that
I think by putting it out like that, just saying it-putting it so simply,
Yeah I definitely can connect with that, there's a part of me that just understands
Especially when he repeats it a second time, I'm like 'Oh, I know where he is now', yeah
Cl: I could talk for days about like what is ambition,
Like that's so interesting that he starts out being like, "I wanna be a rockstar",
because I don't really relate to that, maybe I did when I was a kid, but I don't remember
Cause it's like, you remember playing Pokemon when you were a kid and they're like
'Be the very best~!' and you're like 'I wanna be the very best' [BGM: Pokemon Theme "Gotta Catch 'em all!"]
Now I'm like in music school, like I don't wanna be the best, I just wanna be like ~okay~,
Like I don't wanna make big waves, but I wanna be happy
Br: I mean I've always wanted to like be the best, or just I know I've always wanted to do music,
and then there's really like a dark side, like there's a lot of depression that happens when you sit in a practice room,
for 6 to like 10 hours a day, practicing by yourself, performing with people you don't really know- yeah
Cl: "It's so lonely at the top" When he said that I was like FACTS Br: That's true, in order to be the best,
Br: You have to be by yourself, and have to work out everything yourself, and analyzing yourself,
for like multiple hours a day isn't good for your mental health
That's the tea~
Hr: So, musically his departures from like completely new rhythm and melody shift,
to the different sections in the song, super cool, really nice jarring effect
Criticism musically, I don't like the words, "I wanna be a rockstar" I wanna be blank, I wanna be blank,
I feel like you could write that same message with more nuance in your language
Ch: Hm...I thought it was interesting that every once in a while it had "I wanna be..."
It was like as almost if all of these things that he has been doing as a member of BTS,
and in the spotlight consistently for so long now has almost made him lose "who the heck am I really"
"What do I actually want in life, what do I actually wanna be" because everything has just kinda been this roller coaster
Hr: *sings ITZY's Wannabe* I wanna be me, me, me~ (Ch: Oh my god) [BGM: ITZY's "Wannabe"]
*static noise*
JY: That's so interesting because... Js: There was a lot of depth to that
JY: I was there for a lot of beginning stages of BTS this was before they had this like whole invasion in America
And it's so interesting listening to this song and how eerie this song is now, because back then,
they used to produce songs where it was all about like
"If I ruled the world" like this would happen" [BGM: BTS's "If I ruled the world"]
"I want big cars" [BGM: BTS's "No More Dream"]
They were talking a lot about materialistic things they wanted
And they were really dreaming about becoming big,
and like now that they've become like SO big,
and like listening to this, it really...
I hope it gives the message to everyone that like,
They're human, you know, they go through times of darkness and like uncertainty,
Which was, portrayed very well in this song! When um...
Things went downhill, I don't know where 2:00...
Like 2:10 where everything spiraled downhill, and then with that ending,
It wasn't like a complete ending!
Sm: The fact that the background was pretty much just the bassline, that gave him the opportunity to really play with the momentum,
and to really get that distortion and glitchy like sound, and to really play with that and to-
Almost like toy with our expectations of what the song is-where the song is going to go, so I think that's really cool
Br: I don't believe his voice is that low I'm- (U: It is) I-I feel like they autotuned it lower
Cl: It's just because his face is so like flawless (Br: Mhm) and it just makes me think that he's so young
and it's like *makes voice deeper* 'my voice is down here'-
U: That's him, I've heard him in person- (Br: HAHAHA You're like aight) [S/N: Can also testify to his low voice live :)]
U: Girl I promise like- (Cl: Haha You're like-) Cl & Br: I was there
U: Like- [BGM: BTS's "First Love] is one of his other raps Br: *jungshook*
Br: And then when he goes to rap it's higher that's why I was like noooo-
Cl: I wish my voice could go that low [BGM: BTS's "First Love]
Br: Yeah (Cl: I'm a little jealous) U: He's got versatility, he's got range! haha
Br: And then when he was like rapping, I felt like they were kind of like harmonizing,
like I felt like there was some type of background harmonization with it, which is what I really enjoy
I feel like the basis of this piece was more like a poem, like it was more like written word
Is what I want to say but like I don't speak Korean so I don't-I didn't know what you were saying
Cl: Spoken word? (U: Spoken word) Br: OH Spoken...
U & Cl: AHAHHAHA
Cl: It's fine Br: Spoken word
Js: Yeah, so he goes through the actual map of the soul,
Yeah ok, so you can see here
Yeah, so that like infinity, that circle, well here's a map of the soul by Carl Jung
So this kind of infinity sign, and this is-this is the kind of concept, the outer world persona, ego, self, shadow,
and the inner world animus, so like it seems like what they're portraying visually,
This song, it starts out with-with kind of like the social norms of like what we are told what we want
We want to be a rockstar, we wanna be popstars, we wanna be famous, we want money,
Um and it's simplistic sonically and you're kind of like having this bass that's going up a bit,
and then going down, it's super simple, and then the mirror, there's a lot of mirror work going on
What ends up happening is when he gets on stage,
you see he starts talking about this is when he gets down more deeper into his own self,
Where he's talking about like he's afraid, nobody told him it was this crazy and this difficult to be this famous
and this like high up, he came to his senses to find himself as high as he is but as low as he is so,
it's that-it's that dichotomy, it's-it's the juxtaposition of how famous he is, but how low he feels,
and sad he feels about specific things about within himself, and then what ends up happening is there's this sonic shift,
where you have this really heavy, just grained out like 808 kind of bass going on,
and you have these really wacky synth sounds that are almost like personifying evil,
and the concept within the self that drives for fame, that drives for specific lust or desire,
and it seems like that is kind of ove- like he is letting that...it's part of him, and it's this kind of,
battle that he's kind of having within himself
When he comes back and it-the lights are red, and things around him are saying,
"I wanna be king", "I am you, you are me, we are the same person", very poetic and very psychologically invoking
Yeah so, it seems like by the end he's kind of succumbed to this-to this darker inner self that's getting him like through,
and it's sad because then it ends abruptly kind of with people taking photos and pictures and-
And he's just in the center of it all, and the thing is that he's a normal human being
Because all of us go through this in our own storylines, in our own experiences,
because this is exactly what Carl Jung talks about is that,
through the outer and inner world, there are so many differentiations within our collective consciousness that it's-
I would recommend to read some Jung, it's pretty incredible, but this guy articulates it very well
His cadence is incredible and the sonic musicality that changes during each
part of the personal consciousness is pretty profound I think
That- now I know why BTS is crazy and incredible because that was very, very well done
Very well done
[BGM: DAY6's "Cover" // Subtitles by youtube @anisian]
Hr: b[i]ts U: IT'S B[I]TS
Ch: How many does it have? (Hr: It's btz) it's bizz
U: BTZ Ch: BUZZ (Hr: OKAY)