BTS’ “Map of the Soul: Persona” Enters a New Era

By: Brooke Price 

BTS’ new album is highly anticipated by fans around the world. Photo Credit: celebmix.com

It’s finally here! After waiting for seven months, South Korean boy group BTS has released a brand new album that fans can indulge in.

Ever since BTS’ previous album, Love Yourself: Answer was released on August 24 2018, fans anxiously anticipated the band’s new era. Love Yourself: Answer had wrapped up the Love Yourself series that the group had worked on since 2017.

The new album, “Map of the Soul: Persona” was released April 12th,  and is the first album of the new series and features seven songs. The tracklist includes “Intro: Persona,” “Boy with Luv,” “Mikrokosmos,” “Make It Right,” “Home,” “Jamais Vu” and “Dionysus.”

“Intro: Persona” is a hip hop and trap song sang by the leader and a rapper of the group, RM. It discusses the person that you mold yourself into in order to be liked and accepted by others.

The song questions what your true identity is if you keep creating false versions of yourself;

“The ‘me’ that I remember and people know
The ‘me’ that I created myself to vent out
Yeah maybe I have been deceiving myself
Maybe I’ve been lying
But I’m not embarrassed anymore this is the map of my soul.”

The group’s title track “Boy with Luv” is a collaboration with singer Halsey. It refers back to the band’s 2014 album “Skool Luv Affair,” which had the title track “Boy in Luv.”

“Boy in Luv” follows young love, where a boy feels nervous and angry about falling in love with a girl. “Boy with Luv” is a pop song that talks about what true love is and how strong one’s love can be.

The band decided to include Halsey in their track to provide the girl’s perspective about falling in love, while they sang from the boy’s perspective.

“Mikrokosmos” is a love song about how everyone is like a star and has their own history and is unique in their own way. Even though there are seven billion people in the world, there is only one you.

“Make it Right” is a collaboration between Ed Sheeran and BTS.  The song talks about improving one’s self to make their relationship work.

“Home” is a song for ARMY, BTS’ dedicated fans. ARMY also means Adorable MC Representative for Youth. The song describes the band’s relationship with their fans and how their fans are like a home to them and comfort and motivate BTS.  

“Jamais Vu” is the opposite in Déjà vu where the person doesn’t recognize an event although they have experienced it numerous times. According to yourdictionary.com, Jamais Vu is “a sense of unfamiliarity with, or of never having experienced or seen before, something that should be familiar.”

This song is about making the same mistakes over again and dealing with the consequences as if it was the first time. “Jamais Vu” is sung by a unit consisting of rapper J-Hope and vocalists Jin and Jungkook.

“Dionysus” is a song that has a hip hop beat to it. The song is based on the Greek god of the same name, who is the god of wine and fertility.

The song also talks about partying and drinking like the Greek god Dionysus. They also discuss how they strive to make their own music.

The group isn’t just restricted to K-pop, or Korean pop music, they are always trying different genres of music. BTS has expanded their genres such as trap, hip hop, ballads, Latin inspired songs, EDM, R&B and more.

BTS performed on Saturday Night Live on April 13th. They were the first South Korean act to perform on the show.

The boys were also on the Elvis Duran and the Morning Show on April 12th. The global press conference for their new album was also live streamed on YouTube April 17th.

They even performed “Boy with Luv” on the 2019 Billboard Music Awards with Halsey and won Top Social Artist for the third year in a row as well as Top Duo/Group.

According to Billboard, when BTS discussed their newest album, “Map of the Soul: Persona,” they said; “we find strength and happiness in every moment…You’ve given us so much love, and now we want to get to know our fans more. We filled our album with our genuine feelings and the messages that we want to share with you.”

BTS never fails to disappoint with their amazing songs and albums. We can’t wait to see what they come up with for their next album!