Big Hit Music / Avery Publishing Group / Egmont Books Ltd / Harper Collins Children’s Books
The famous K-pop group BTS was able to find its audience beyond the Korean borders thanks to moving and authentic texts telling the life and hopes of the seven boys. Some of their songs are directly inspired by books, novels, and tales, enriching the universe built around the group. The success of the group is such that most of the works listed below have greatly gained popularity in Korea and around the world, as fans seek to understand more about the universe surrounding the group, as well as the personalities of the members.
Let's find out what stories inspired them, as well as the songs related to them! Let's dive together into the universe of the most famous K-pop group on the planet.
1. "Into the Magic Shop" by James R. Doty MD
Avery Publishing Group
Summary: "Growing up in the high desert of California, Jim Doty was poor, with an alcoholic father and a mother chronically depressed and paralyzed by a stroke. Today he is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University, of which the Dalai Lama is a founding benefactor. But back then his life was at a dead end until at twelve he wandered into a magic shop looking for a plastic thumb. Instead, he met Ruth, a woman who taught him a series of exercises to ease his own suffering and manifest his greatest desires. Her final mandate was that he keep his heart open and teach these techniques to others. She gave him his first glimpse of the unique relationship between the brain and the heart.
Doty would go on to put Ruth’s practices to work with extraordinary results—power and wealth that he could only imagine as a twelve-year-old, riding his orange Sting-Ray bike. But he neglects Ruth’s most important lesson, to keep his heart open, with disastrous results—until he has the opportunity to make a spectacular charitable contribution that will virtually ruin him." - Amazon
Link with BTS: In the song 'Magic Shop', the group mentions the existence of a magic shop that is supposed to provide comfort on days when we wish to disappear. The real magic is that this shop sits in everyone's heart and awaits our arrival, if we want to believe it. The group aims to create a door in the hearts of fans to access it – a beautiful metaphor that encourages them to open their hearts and realize that the true comfort they seek comes from within us. Thus, the members of the group let fans know that they are not alone in going through an ordeal. After the song was released to the public, the book quickly became a bestseller in Korea, multiplying its sales by 510. The author then thanked the group on his Twitter for using his novel as inspiration.
2. "Demian" by Hermann Hesse
Penguin Books
Summary: "The main character of this classic novel, Emil Sinclair, is a young boy raised in a bourgeois home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words that means "world of light" as well as "world of illusion". Emil's entire existence can be summarized as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion (related to the Hindu concept of maya) and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. In the course of the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate 'Max Demian', he detaches from and revolts against the superficial ideals of the world of appearances and eventually awakens into a realization of self." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The songs 'Boy meets evil' and 'Blood Sweat & Tears' refer to the work of Herman Hess by exploring themes of duality and the interdependence of good and evil. In the music videos, there are visual depictions of temptation, similar to those in the book, and direct allusions to the characters of Emile, Demian and the god Abraxas. In addition, the leader, RM, reads a passage from the book for each clip.
3. "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami
Penguin Books
Summary: "Kafka on the Shore follows the fortunes of two remarkable characters. Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy. The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down. Their parallel odysseys are enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerising dramas. Cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghostlike pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since WWII. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle." - Amazon
Link with BTS: In the song 'Butterfly', the group makes direct reference to the book by quoting passages, including the title.
4. "1Q84" by Haruki Murakami
Vintage
Summary: "The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The song 'Sea' (only available on album) draws its inspiration from this book and quotes passages from it, questioning what is real and what is part of a dystopian universe.
5. "Jung's Map of the Soul" by Murray Stein
Open Court
Summary: "More than a mere overview, the book offers readers a strong grounding in the basic principles of Jung's analytical psychology in addition to illuminating insights." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The name of the album 'Map of the Soul: Persona' is a tribute to the name of the book. Within it, we rediscover the concepts evoked by Carl Jung through the titles 'Persona', 'Ego', and 'Shadow', interpreted by the rappers of the group.
6. "The Owl Service" by Alan Garner
Harper Collins Children’s Books
Summary: "Alison, her stepbrother Roger, her mother and stepfather are holidaying in a gorgeous, isolated valley in Wales, a few hours away from Aberystwyth, staying in an old house Alison inherited from her late father. Short-tempered Nancy and her son Gwyn have been hired to work at the house for the family’s stay, as has Huw Halfbacon, (whom Nancy hates) the strange handy-man and gardener who has worked at the house for many years. Alison, Gwyn and Roger, discover a dinner service decorated with a floral owl pattern in the loft of the house. The moment they find it, bizarre things start happening, and the teens become embroiled in the centre of a mystical curse from centuries ago, doomed to repeat the tragic legend of Bloduewedd, Lleu Llaw Gyffes and Gronw Pebr." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The photoshoot for the album alludes directly to the book as it appears in some images, and with shadow puppets, the limbs represent birds that can be interpreted as owls. A television series based on the book was also created in 1969, and some of its credit's shots recall scenes from the 'Lies' and 'Prologue' music videos.
7. "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Egmont Books Ltd
Summary: "A pilot crashes in the Sahara Desert and encounters a strange young boy who calls himself the Little Prince. The Little Prince has traveled there from his home on a lonely, distant asteroid with a single rose." - Amazon
Link with BTS: In the song 'Serendipity', JiMin portrays the little prince. He sings of his love for his own rose, alluding to the novel, while surrounded by whimsical spatial imagery that further emphasizes the song's inspiration. The clip is mostly shot in blue tones, which is reminiscent of the cover of some editions of the book, as well as the blond hair of the "two" little princes. In addition, 'Serendipity' also draws its source from the Korean poem 'The Flower' by Kim ChunSoo which is about being recognized by the person you love.
8. "The Ones who Walk Away from Omela" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Harper Perennial
Summary: "Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness. Allegorical short story describing a utopian society whose prosperity depends on the perpetual suffering of a single child." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The music video of the song 'Spring Day' opens with a sign bearing the neon Omelas, inviting to discover the group and its world. Although this novel is one of the inspirations of this title, the most important is undeniably the sinking of the Sewol. On April 16, 2014, 304 people, the vast majority of whom were high school students on a school trip, were killed in a shipwreck near Jeju Island. Korea's hierarchical system was called into question following this tragedy, because if the students had not listened to the order to remain in their cabins while the boat was sinking, the number of victims would have undoubtedly been less important. Even today, 'Spring Day' remains the group's most popular song in the hearts of Koreans, for its heartwarming lyrics telling students that they will never be alone (in the afterlife).
9. "Anpanman" by Takashi Yanase
Fröbel-kan フレーベル館
Summary: "He comes to the rescue of hungry people by offering them a part of his head made of bread filled with red bean paste. He is known to be the weakest of superheroes, but his heart is no less big." - Amazon
Link with BTS: In the song 'Anpanman', BTS seeks to make us understand that we must love each other despite our flaws, and that being weak does not make us less of a hero, but a superhero of a future generation.
10. "Pied Piper of Hamelin" legend from the town of Hamelin
Augustin von Mörsperg
Summary: "The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend from the town of Hamelin, Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in multicolored clothing, who was a rat-catcher hired by the town to lure rats away with his magic pipe. But then the citizens refuse to pay for this service, and he retaliates by using his instrument's magic power on their children, leading them away like he did with the rats." - Amazon
Link with BTS: The song 'Pied Piper' portrays BTS as the Pied Piper, inviting listeners to get away from their daily lives by listening to their music, while highlighting the love for their fans who can't take their eyes off the members, like if they were bewitched like the children of the tale.
BTS' discography is rich in various and multiple references and there is no doubt that the members of the group will continue to create their universe with future literary references. Which BTS song is your favorite? Have you read all of these books? Let us know in the comments below!
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