Projects

Since 2015, South Korean pop group BTS has grown into a veritable cultural phenomenon. Its global impact, in sales and recognition, is breaking through the formerly niche communities of K-pop fandom into mainstream popular culture.

Much of the interest in the group hinges on deciphering, explaining, and perhaps replicating its success. Whether defining the conditions of production that brought the group about or identifying the notable role played by the fans known as ARMY, these approaches tend toward structural perspectives. Other discussions, like those linked to South Korean soft power or the championing of lyrical themes like social critique and mental health, also work in broad strokes.

I take a different angle and stay close to a specific yet expansive area: how the group delivers its music through visual content and other non-auditory media forms and technologies.

For BTS, whose members are active songwriters and lyricists, skilled rappers and singers, the music is primary, but almost always delivered in intermedial chunks of content. While a purely musicological analysis may argue for the merits of the music, BTS has always been driven more by “visual music.”

This includes not only music videos but other moving-image texts like promotional teasers and trailers, highlight reels and short films, and performance footage with extravagant production design. There are also video games and an upcoming drama series.

Through an examination of work produced by BTS, I hope to ask: How is music communicated visually? What intermedial crossings should we attend to? What does this tell us about the multisensory material of the cultural texts we consume?