BTS Went Global — And Lost Korea in the Process

Dramatic split-scene composition showing a traditional Korean folk performance with hanbok and hanji textures on the left and a massive modern Western stadium K-pop concert with English signage on the right, divided by a glowing symbolic line representing BTS identity tension between Korean roots and global pop ambitions.

BTS built their empire singing in Korean. Now their latest album — titled “ARIRANG,”named after Korea’s most iconic folk song —has its lead single entirely in English. And Koreans are not happy about it. The Comeback Everyone Was Waiting For After nearly four years, BTS returned withtheir fifth studio album “ARIRANG” —their most ambitious project … Read more