#princesmitty

let me go on a tangent here. giacomo puccini, one of the most famous opera composers ever, once created the opera "turandot". this opera, sung through entirely in italian, uses a few "localised" and "regional" musical instruments and melodies to add authenticity to the fictionalised tale of a non-existent persian princess puccini decided to place in china. several melodies in turandot are based on traditional chinese music, which puccini acquired through an italian diplomat to china. to this day, turandot is hailed as one of the greatest and most dramatic pieces of musical art ever conceived and represented, especially it's act 3 aria nessun dorma. that this is one of the songs not to borrow from any of the chinese melodies puccini used for his music is, well, something. it is also very telling of how the interception between western and eastern music can go haywire, even when it is super duper mega popular.

okay. still with me? good. arirang is obviously named after the korean folk song, one with obviously greater cultural value and understanding of its origins than the album it is named after. i do not need every k-pop group to make "korean" music, or music inspired by traditional korean music. if your concept is to release a city-pop record, then god-willing do it but do it well and knowing where you borrowed it from. but naming your album "arirang" and then going on to release 40 minutes of americanised pop music, heavily borrowing from hip-hop and r&b, with only one small call-back to korean (folk) music at all is ... missing the mark. does inviting 10+ different producers and writers, majorly white and monolingually american, honour the name of your project? does it authentically represent the huge connotation of your album's theme to its name, its biggest promotional strategy - using a korean landmark to promote yourself and your art that has assimilated itself so much it has distinctively become nothing more but derivate "global" (based on black genres) pop music?

the biggest boygroup in the world is now korean, and has been korean for the better part of six years. they returned after a two-year hiatus with an album whose name is synonymous with their country's culture, with one of the most iconic musical and cultural touchpoints in the history of their country, and you find barely any of of it, not more than one overtly present lick of it, on the album. the lead single stars a white actress from riverdale in the mv and has the member who used to refuse singing or rapping in english, suga, do just that and he doesn't sound like he enjoys himself.

there are songs on this album i enjoy (alien, 2.0, like animals) and there are many songs that sound like they were a cross between demos from jennie's album last year or demos from j-hope's next project considering he is clearly carrying every good moment on this album on his back. i know many people don't like jin's voice, but he honestly was the one i could listen to the most out of the vocal line on this album, but i do enjoy the colour of his voice to begin with. the return to a rapline-focused album only coming because they fit the current trend of hip-hop and r&b blend in kpop better than the vocal line is a grain of salt in what is the best thing about this album, which is the focus on j-hope, suga, and rm.

why they needed so many cowriters to release a white-washed project under this specific album title is mind-boggling. it's like hybe wanted to blast "we are a k-pop group from korea" into everyone's conscience again without actually doing something to honour that. if i'd want to listen to a good bts album with a hip-hop focus that actually managed to mix their own unique perspective with a more "global" sound, i will put on hyyh or wings.

there is a conversation in here about how much korean artists, or eastern artists in general, need to assimilate themselves into western music - until there is nothing distinctively korean left to them and their music and their image - but hybe does not want to have this conversation. people will remember bts' top 40 hits that do not hold any true meaning of how cultural connection in music could tell us something new or interesting, if done well and done with care.

WILL SMITH Dodgers vs. Diamondbacks, 260326

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