When comparing BTS’ debut sound to their current music, the difference can be quite shocking. Rather than one big change, it has been a gradual evolution both musically and lyrically. To track this change throughout their career, we analyzed the official English translations on Genius of BTS’ discography. Then, we generated a word cloud to create a visual representation of the most used words in each BTS era.
Era 1: 2 Cool 4 Skool - Dark & Wild
BTS’s first era lasted slightly over a year and included four releases: 2 Cool 4 Skool, O!RUL8,2?, Skool Luv Affair, and Dark & Wild. The public’s first introduction to the band was through songs such as “No More Dream” and “We Are Bulletproof Pt. 2” which, while encouraging hard work, simultaneously advocate for rebelling against societal norms and inward focus on the Self. This theme is carried throughout the era and may account for the high number of self-references with ‘Bangtan’ appearing 20 times and ‘BTS’ 22 times. The albums also explore the concept of young love and infatuation. The era is also peppered with love songs that together amass 79 mentions of the word ‘love’ and 80 uses of the word ‘girl’ (or a variation such as girlfriend).
Songs with heavy lyrical repetition were also common during this era with songs such as “Like,” “Just One Day,” and “Let Me Know.” These songs are likely the reason ‘like’ was the most common word with 173 appearances, ‘just’ was second showing up 156 times, and ‘know’ was third with 143 mentions. BTS had also begun foreshadowing their next era with ‘youth’ and ‘young’ showing up a combined 9 times.
Era 2: The Most Beautiful Moment in Life pt. 1 - Young Forever
Sharply departing from their previous image, BTS introduced their second era, “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life,” in 2015. Shifting away from their previous image, mentions of ‘girl’ fell to 37, ‘BTS’ fell to 4, and ‘Bangtan’ fell to just 1. While still focusing somewhat on pain, the era also mixes in the beauty of young adulthood. Naturally, reflecting this theme, the occurrence of ‘young’ and ‘youth’ increased to a combined 20.
It wasn’t all different, though. Lyrical repetition continued to be a staple of the era with songs like “Run” pushing the word ‘run’ into third place as the most used word appearing 56 times. Additionally, while diminished, ‘like’ remained the most commonly used word, but decreased to only 112 appearances. The word ‘love’ also returned, but in a diminished capacity showing up only 49 times.
Era 3: Wings and You Never Walk Alone
Moving on, BTS took a turn toward a darker, more mature sound. During this third era, the group also greatly diversified the content they wrote about. Their most used word of the era is ‘love,’ but it only appears 48 times. This series also introduced the trend of giving each member a solo song. Each song still adheres to the theme, but allows for a wider variety of topics to be covered and thus a larger diversity of words to be used.
A sense of yearning and desire prevails throughout the two albums, illustrated best by the next two most common words ‘fly’ and ‘want’ both with 43 appearances each. Similar to their previous eras, love remained a dominant theme, but the way it was discussed changed. Mentions of ‘girl’ dropped all the way to 9. Instead, songs such as “Reflection” and “BTS Cypher 4” introduced a new object of love, ‘myself’, with 29 uses and ‘yourself’ with 6. This was also another instance of BTS foreshadowing the themes of their upcoming era.
Era 4: Love Yourself: Her - Love Yourself: Answer
The “Love Yourself” series is BTS’s fourth era and consists of three releases. Rather than sticking to one cohesive theme, the “Love Yourself” series follows the progression of love, from first attraction to heartbreak to self-love. With this narrative in mind, it is unsurprising that we witness the return of ‘love’ as the most common word, appearing 201 times, the most of any word in any series. ‘Myself’ was another obviously dominant word, occurring 57 times throughout the era, and ‘yourself’ added in another 7 appearances.
The “Love Yourself” series also saw the return of some older BTS trends. They brought back self-referencing with 6 allusions to ‘Bangtan’ and 2 to ‘BTS.’ Some of the previous common words also made a reappearance such as ‘just’ and ‘like’ with 124 and 83 occurrences respectively. Finally, references to ‘youth’ and ‘young’ were back up to a total of 12. The lyrics of this series transcend beyond simply the album, though. They were also immortalized in RM’s 2018 speech at the United Nations, where he encouraged listeners to not only love themselves but also to speak themselves.
Era 5: Map of the Soul: Persona and Map of the Soul: 7
BTS then introduced the “Map of the Soul” series, which explored the Jungian concepts of persona, shadow, and ego across two different releases. The lyrics of this era again show a marked change from previous eras with low counts of the word ‘girl’ (just one), ‘youth’ (again just one), and ‘love’ (only 24). The series also contains no mentions of ‘BTS’ or ‘Bangtan.’ Additionally, in just twenty-one unique songs, they use 1227 words. That is only 170 words less than the Love Yourself era which had 5 more songs.
Surprisingly, even with this lyrical diversity and depth, the most common word of the series by far was, ‘yeah’ with 156 appearances. The next most common word was ‘now’ with only 72 appearances. This represents BTS’s duality as they made pop anthems while simultaneously discussing nuanced and relatable topics. For example, “Black Swan” repeatedly uses the word ‘yeah’ in its lyrics, a word that when found in large concentrations is often written off as a filler for a song with little substance. But “Black Swan” actually talks about the sadness when something that previously made you happy no longer does so. This combination of deep meaning with pop would become even more prominent in their next era.
Era 6: BE and Butter
BTS’s most recent and current era includes the releases BE and Butter. As this era occurs entirely within the pandemic, naturally, the content of the songs changed. Only one reference of the word ‘love,’ no uses of ‘girl,’ and no self-references reveal how far BTS have come since their debut era. The main intention behind these releases was to cheer up the listener, so the unique concept of this era is not surprising.
But there are still many similarities between this era and the previous one. Once again, the most commonly used word was ‘yeah,’ with 49 occurrences. Given that three poppy chart-smashing hits—“Dynamite,” “Butter,” and “Permission to Dance” – are all in this era, this makes a great amount of sense. However, as with Map of the Soul, there is still profound depth in this era with songs like “Life Goes On” and “Blue & Grey,” which discuss the melancholy associated with the loneliness of a global pandemic. This era has also evolved as the situation has evolved, transitioning from songs such as “Fly to my Room” referencing the isolation at the start of the pandemic to “Permission to Dance” which optimistically looks to the days the world can be reunited. BTS’ music changes as the world changes.
What makes BTS’ discography unique is that they have always covered a wide array of topics that are relatable to listeners. They have never confined themselves to one theme and looking at the words they use is one way to see this. They have always been willing to call out what is unfair, celebrate love, and look for the beauty and optimism in life. But the words they have used to do so have changed as they have matured. It will be exciting to see what lyrics BTS writes next as they continue to take us on a journey through music.
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Written By: Rachel
Edit By: Juju
Checked By: Aury
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