by Leng Hubag
leolette@gmail.com
Note: This essay was written in June 2021. This November, BTS has broken the glass ceiling by being the first Asian to win the Artist of the Year in the American Music Awards and performing live twice – “My Universe” (a collab with Coldplay) and the grand finale, “Butter”. They made their US debut on the same stage in 2017.
It has been a couple of weeks of daily streaming of BTS’ newest all-English pop single and to say that it has been crazy, is an understatement. “Butter” has broken records in Youtube and Spotify, even beating last year’s “Dynamite” with 108.2 million streams in 24 hours. On the first day of June, to open their Festa month or BTS’ 8th anniversary, they hit no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart!
This South Korean-septet that debuted in 2013 as Bangtan Sonyeondan (Bulletproof Boyscouts) who are out to bust stereotypes and criticisms of youth, have really come a long way. In fact, they have rebranded the acronym in 2017 to mean “Beyond The Scene” for a more global appeal and their managing company Big Hit Entertainment also rebooted earlier this year and symbolically changed the company’s name to HYBE to encompass expanding structures and business ventures all over the world. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook have grown in leaps and bounds through the years in terms of their artistry and visuals. We have seen them grow more involved in producing music and content. From their heavy hip-hop debut album’s title track “No More Dream” to this 80’s synth-laden summer bop anthem for 2021, BTS has really stretched their musical genre and cemented their world domination. It is no surprise that everyone wants to get first dibs at the newest record-breaking “Butter”.
In all interviews, RM described “Butter” as just a fun song with no heavy message. Well, sorry, Namjoon but this ARMY (the BTS fandom which stands for Adorable Representative MC for Youth) ain’t having none of that. You see, my personal Armyventure consists of theories, explanation videos and finding significant connections in BTS content. If you want to know what I’m talking about, there is a wealth of information in different social media platforms and geeks like me are having a field day.
So I’m putting on my lens as a communication scholar and if I had an Army bomb, I will probably be waving that as well to the tune of “Butter” as I make necessary connections and inferences. Get it and let it roll.
Why Butter
Let’s back up a bit and look at the impact of “Dynamite”, BTS’ first all-English song released last year that had earned them their first Billboard No. 1 and a Grammy nomination. More importantly, it was their introduction to the Western market. Although in reality, they have millions of followers on social media and all over the world, broken record sales and sold out arenas and stadiums in different continents, still, BTS was not yet a household name. During interviews in major U.S. networks, they had to do their self-introductions over and over again. Hosts would often mix up their names and during their first American award show appearance, the music industry insiders and celebrities in the audience could not fathom the deafening response of the Armys in attendance for the Korean band.
Army is already a captured audience. What they need is to be mainstream in the U.S. market, which has been relatively elusive over the years despite being the world’s biggest musical act, putting out albums like Map of the Soul, which, according to a Billboard article is a “bright sonic soundscape” that delved into the deep with Jungian themes. This album is my personal favorite by the way, but since the songs were predominantly in Korean, they never got enough radio airplays which are a still huge factor in charting and there still seems to be the question on how “global” are global music awards when they hand out nominations and awards. Just trace the history of winners and you will find out that on the whole more of them fall under English-speaking and white.
With only RM as the proficient in English, and not to discount that these seven men are prolific composers of soulful and beautiful lyrics in their native language, I deduced that just like “Dynamite”, they would have to go again with a one-word title that’s catchy, gets stuck in your head, rolls off your tongue easily, cool, commercially viable and yes, what could be more staple and household than butter, right? Butter on your toast and pancakes – sounds like a good old All-American breakfast to me!
So aside from the flexibility of Butter in rhythm and rhyme (hotter, cooler, sweeter, summer), I wondered what else could there be in the word play? Again, if you study the rapline’s repertoire, you would learn their word plays are a common motif, if not a spark of genius. So when they put out their music video teaser for “Butter” that ran for about 23 seconds, I knew that the catch phrase “Get it/ Let it roll” is the message. The latter is an idiomatic imperative that means to let it go; to start something; to bet all your winnings on it. I dare say, that BTS has come to conquer. But how? They have said it in their promotional interviews, “to melt your hearts like butter”. Smooth, eh? Coupled that “butter” and “on a roll” underline that things are going pretty well – and BTS is not complaining. With the upward trajectory of their career and widespread influence of their art and brand during a pandemic where business pursuits are bleak, this is nothing short of a miracle backed with a lot of hard work, strategic planning and a solid fan base. This attention to details is what got us hook, line and sinker. I would love to go into the deconstruction of the music video but that deserves another article. The title is simply butter on top of a layer of pancakes. Wink. We haven’t even scratched the surface yet.
Why Yellow
Ellen Meloy writes that “Within every color lies a story, and stories are the binding agent of culture.” This part of the analysis educated me. Aside from the obvious reason that butter is associated with the color yellow, I wanted to get my hands on unpacking its other meanings as BTS “Butter” heavily used “yellow in its concept and promotion. My initial reaction was, oh, they are playing the race card? I understood that “yellow” is used as an ethnic slur – a stereotypical description of Asians but this was exacerbated by the series of Asian hate crimes in the U.S. fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This led me to read up more on the subject – the origin of “yellow” as an ethnophaulism (ethnic slur). Michael Keevak wrote a book, “Becoming Yellow” and in it he says that Europeans referred to East Asians as “white” before the 18th century. It was in the latter part of the 17th century that “white” was reserved for Europeans only. I also came across an enlightening article by Kate Chow entitled, “If We Called Ourselves Yellow” (If We Called Ourselves Yellow : Code Switch : NPR) that referenced the Keevak’s book where it explains that Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, separated humans into four categories. He already assigned white for the European, black for African and red for American and was searching for a distinguishing color for the Asian. Eventually, he established the color “luridus” which means lurid or pale yellow to Asians. The xenophobic allusions crept its way into pop culture by way of images of the “Yellow Peril” and comic book villains like the “Yellow Claw”.
Then the “Yellow Power” movement happened in America in the 1960’s and because of it there was a cultural shift in meaning and identity of being “yellow”. The article further posits that there came a sense of empowerment and thus, may be reclaiming the power of the “yellow”. It gets more current and relevant by citing how Jon Chu, director of the All-Asian cast Crazy Rich Asians, wrote an earnest letter to Coldplay stating his plea to use their song, “Yellow” in one of the pivotal scenes of his movie. He writes, “If we’re going to be called yellow…we’re going to make it beautiful.” This letter has been widely circulated online and if you watched the film, you would know that he was greenlighted by the band and we, in turn, got one of the most heartwarming and romantic scenes in cinematic history and a long overdue breakthrough in representation and unpacking stories about Asians in Hollywood. Chu was right. Coldplay’s “Yellow” in Mandarin was perfect and it was beautiful. I’ve been schooled.
So why yellow? It is significant to note that yellow is the color of the year 2021 and hyper lemon is the accent color of HYBE which signifies a forward-facing and challenge-welcoming mindset. It is exciting to note that we are only halfway through the year and BTS has already made milestones and record-breaking feats in music (Hello, Grammy performance and Billboard No. 1 for the 4th time) and brand collaboration (the worldwide hype about the BTS Meal offered by America’s No. 1 fastfood chain McDonalds). It’s a pretty good time to be BTS. As they break more glass ceilings, I only hope that more will be schooled and realize that music can change us – whether it would be for us to learn to love ourselves better or cross lines that have alienated us from each other by the color of our skin or our ideologies. George Bernard Shaw probably asks it best: There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Personally, their music is helping me get through this pandemic one day at a time with my favorite line from Suga’s “So Far Away” – may your trials end in full bloom.
So, why Butter?
With a hand over my purple heart, why not?
