“I hesitate when I play it for people I know.”
Koreaboo
46 minutes ago
BTS has finally returned with their new album Arirang and the title track “SWIM,” marking the end of a long hiatus.
Unfortunately, both the album and the song sparked mixed reactions from netizens after release, with some praising the group’s new direction and others unsure about the shift in style.
The song even divided the members! Before release, Jimin shared that he expressed doubts that the song wasn’t strong enough to serve as a BTS title track. His concerns seem to reflect the group’s overall hesitation, as revealed in BTS’s upcoming Netflix documentary.
The documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Arirang. According to Yonhap, the members openly admit they struggled to feel confident about “SWIM.”
Even after deciding on “SWIM” as the title track, BTS still struggle to feel fully confident.
J-Hope admits, “I hesitate when I play it for people I know,” while V says, “We’re going in the exact opposite direction of what people expect.”
They also share the somewhat lukewarm reactions from those around them who had heard their musical shift in advance, adding, “My friends say they understand it, but they don’t fully get it.”
— Yonhap News Agency
Despite the uncertainty, the group decided to move forward with the track thanks to a previous single. Jin recalled that about half the members didn’t initially want to release that track either, yet it went on to break records both globally and in South Korea.
After much discussion, BTS ultimately concluded that trends change and they couldn’t keep doing the same thing forever.
Trends change, and we can’t keep doing the same thing forever. If we’re going to change, it has to be now.
— BTS in their new documentary via Yonhap