BTS Are on the Front Line of South Korea’s Generational Warfare
With their new single, the supergroup continues a playful assault on youth unemployment, career pressure, and social inequality
Toward the end of the second verse in “Dope,” the 2015 rap-dance single that helped catapult South Korean group BTS to pop stardom, singer RM declares furiously: “잠든 청춘을 깨워 go.” Translation: “Wake up the sleeping youth, go!”
Since their debut in 2013, BTS has progressed to become South Korea’s biggest music act. The group’s latest release, “Interlude: Shadow,” features rapper Suga deftly ruminating on the pressures of success over a pulsating trap beat. The video reached nearly 30 million views in two days — a startling feat for any song but especially so for a nonradio release that features only one of the group’s seven members.
The success of BTS has helped spark a steady expansion of Korean culture to the rest of the world and especially the U.S. — a trend better known as the Korean wave. Even years after their…
