For nine years, BTS has been a musical powerhouse: breaking records, winning awards, and traversing a wide variety of genres. But even in nearly a decade, the band couldn’t nearly cover every genre each member was interested in. Certain sacrifices had to be made to create a cohesive discography and appease everyone. Now in their second phase, each BTS member has the opportunity to release solo music and truly reveal their personal sound and message to the world.
Starting a New Page
Chapter 2 is not really the first time that we have seen the members release solo music. Each member of the rap line has released at least one mixtape, and the vocal line have also released individual songs as well. However, these releases have never been given equal stature to an official BTS comeback. Many of their solo projects live only on Soundcloud, and no physical copies of a solo project have ever been released. As RM stated in the video released for Festa, “The mixtape content we’ve been making takes the same or even more effort and time—especially when it comes to financing— as making an official album… A lot of our fans think that mixtapes are our solo content. But, actually starting with j-hope, we’ll officially be showing our individual colors.” This means that going forward, the member’s solo projects will receive equal amounts of attention and promotion as their group projects.
In addition to physical albums, this may mean more solo music videos as well. Following the release of “Blueberry Eyes” with Suga, when Max was asked why the rapper did not appear in the music video, he alluded to a rule in which when collaborating as a featured artist, all seven members must appear in the music video. But recent releases show this is no longer the case.
The Second Chapter of Collaborations
In April of this year, ARMY was excited to learn that Suga had produced PSY’s new song “That That.” They were then surprised to learn that he would also be featured on it, and then they were shocked to learn that he would be appearing in the music video. Out of Suga's numerous collaborations and features, it was the first time that he appeared in a music video for one of these projects. ARMY was delighted to see him dancing along with PSY in the video and also enjoyed the behind-the-scenes content released by both P Nation and Hybe.
Just a week and a half after the announcement of chapter 2, Jung Kook had also embraced the new freedom in collaboration with the announcement of a song with Charlie Puth entitled “Left and Right.” Like Suga, Jung Kook had previously been featured on a number of songs but had never appeared in a music video until now. As of writing, “That That” has garnered 257 million views on YouTube, and “Left and Right” has 74 million, showing how ARMY will continue to support solo collaboration projects during the second chapter.
The First Solo Debut
While Suga and Jung Kook may have already started with their collaborations, chapter 2 officially commenced with the release of j-hope’s solo work. On July 1, the first track from his album was released. The song not only symbolically starts a new era, but both musically and stylistically, “More” reveals a side of j-hope not before seen in BTS or in his mixtape Hope World. The song combines hip-hop with grunge rock, and the music video features mainly muted colors, a stark contrast to the vibrancy of his previous solo work. In his interview with Weverse magazine, he stated, “As you know, I often present myself with a sunny demeanor. So I have a strong desire to display a different side of me. I personally challenged myself to do that in my current projects. I wanted to show an extremely dark, raw side.” The song definitely achieves this goal.
The rest of j-hope’s solo work will be revealed on July 15, with the release of Jack in the Box. Weverse has also released a preorder for physical albums for Jack in the Box or at least something close to a physical version. The primary difference between this release and previous BTS releases is that instead of receiving a CD, fans will receive a QR code that they can scan to listen to the songs and view the photobook on the new Weverse Albums app.
But new music isn’t all that j-hope has planned to kick-off chapter 2. It was announced in early June that he will headline Lollapalooza, a musical festival in Chicago on July 31. It will not only be one of the first times a BTS member will perform a solo concert, but he will also be the first Korean act to headline a festival in the United States. With all of this excitement, j-hope is definitely starting the new era of BTS with a bang.
While the media tried to portray the BTS break as a time in which BTS was inactive, the first few weeks of the new chapter have already shown that ARMY will be receiving more content than ever with the new solo schedules. j-hope has shown that the members are strong individually and have something to show outside of the group as well. But the newfound freedom for the members means that every solo release may look different, and we can only patiently wait to see what each member has to show us.
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Written By: Rachel K
Edited By: Aury
Checked By: Miranda
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