How BTS and Arirang Taught Me Think Like An Artist
My Friend,
Around June of 2025 I started listening to the South Korean Top 50 Hits on Spotify. I wanted to listen to what the people of South Korea enjoyed listening to. I won’t go into the details… suffice it to say that because I enjoyed the music of the BTS group’s solo careers, I figured I may enjoy their new album, Arirang. I did not expect my brain to be hijacked.
For three weeks straight after the album dropped in March 2026 I couldn’t stop listening to or thinking about Arirang and all the songs. I literally couldn’t sleep at night. Lying tossing and turning trying to convince my brain to stop thinking about it - when instead it’s telling me that the theme of BTS thinking about Army 24-7 is like a thread expertly woven through many of the songs on the album. My brain wasn’t going to shut up about it.
I got up in the middle of the night, My Friend, and over the next couple of weeks wrote a six-page document. Read it in English here. I even tentatively asked my new Korean friend (that’s another story for another time) to translate it for me. She agreed before knowing it was six pages long. My bad. And yes, there’s a thank you gift involved for my friend. I wanted to share my thoughts and she made it possible. I am forever grateful. Read it in Korean here.
Six pages of all my thoughts written down about BTS’ Arirang album – what I felt it meant in my limited understanding of the group and their fanbase named Army. I was once again able to sleep at night. Even if I was still listening to Arirang on repeat all day and my family questioned my sanity.
I realised why my brain was obsessed when I was trying to explain it to my family and friends. You see, My Friend, to me the album is BTS’ love letter to their Army. Each song talks about different aspects of who BTS are now and what their hopes are for their relationship with Army. I hear of how BTS have changed during their hiatus for compulsory military service; their desire to come back together for the sake of Army; how they couldn’t stop thinking about wanting to perform for them again. I hear BTS describe the chaos that being loved by Army brings, but they would still choose their life for them. And I hear the themes running through their lyrics and music entwined all together in Arirang.
As I explained all of this, I understood. Sudden clarity, the message was clear. I learned how an artist thinks, feels, sees and communicates. Previously, I didn’t pay much attention to anything more than a painting being what the artist wanted to communicate and the style they expressed that was unique to them. I didn’t realise until Arirang that art could be so much more than that.
I saw Arirang, mirroring BTS in a way, where the individuals unite to make something 'more'. Specifically, songs that are amazing on their own, but unified in the album to communicate something deeper and infinitely more meaningful. Like a series of paintings exploring a topic or theme, where each painting delves into one aspect of the topic and common themes unite them into a series of something more that they could ever be on their own. It all made sense.
I’m not here to paint a lovely picture of a vase of dying flowers. That’s not my purpose. I’m here to paint topics and themes in series inspired by the abstract and the reality. Where each painting stands on its own, but unified becomes boundlessly more. I already have my theme for my graduation portfolio, and I love exploring the topic and rendering the themes visually in abstract realism. More about that later.
For now, I am incredibly grateful to BTS and Arirang for teaching me how to think like the artist I am. 🙏🏻
