BTS' Wings Album Listening Party (Livestream Recording: 2 Hours)

Oh and fun fact, when I found out BTS relied on Hesse's novel Demian and psychological concepts of C.G. Jung, it seemed to be destined that I found them because I actually wrote an essay about Demian at school and interpretated it with a concept by Jung. We had to write this academic paper in our last year of high school, the subject I chose was German and I had gotten Demian as a present so I chose that for the paper.

Lina

That's why I love to come back to these albums in detail now that I know more. Thank you for that context. I actually used to think Stigma was BU related but you are right, if the rest of the solo songs are personal stories, that wouldn't make much sense. Also, thank you for just stating the facts since it is not our place to suggest any conclusions or "true meanings". I can also agree with with Alice's interpretation but of course this is just as equally not our place to know. But it is beautiful to hear about people relating to it.

Lina

In your own time, you should watch namjoon’s UN speech again. You will fall in love with his words even more especially knowing his story on how he struggled to love himself. I watched the speech first when I was like a baby army. I loved it but it made more impact when I rewatched it after knowing these.

Jane Thomas

I think what Jungkook is trying to say with “You make me begin” he means “You make me begin me”. The same goes for “You made me again” because I think he means “You made me, me again.” (this is my own personal interpretation) I think this is his way of saying, “because of the endless love and support you guys give me, I am now discovering who I am as a human being while learning how to grow into the person I want to become.”

Your comment made me think on Stigma a lot more and I think it's cool that everyone can connect with/interpret the song in their own way and I think Tae leaving some mystery behind the true meaning aids in that and I wonder if he were to talk about it openly now, it could possibly take away from that connection at this point and I believe Tae is well aware of that. For me at the heart of it I see it as being about the complicated and often messy relationships you have with your family members and perhaps childhood/generational trauma which is pretty relatable (I could go into more detail about this but given how protective Tae is about his siblings and family it doesn't feel appropriate).

Alice

Blood, Sweat & Tears changed the course for me when I was initially discovering BTS. I don't think it was necessarily the song itself but more the music video and the visuals that had me amazed and intrigued, I'd never quite seen anything like it, I love the vibe and aesthetic and storytelling behind the Wings and also You Never Walk Alone eras. I know you said that this felt like a birth of each member as individuals and although I think some already went through that to some extent in earlier comebacks I definitely do see that Wings was an extremely defining era and kind of changed the course for them not only as a group but as individuals too. It feels like they all shed some of their past insecurities and uncertainies through this album so that they could embrace the challenges and growth to come in the future. I was trying to pick my favourite songs from this album but it ended up being like over half the album. I think with the addition of solo songs and them all being so different it makes it even harder cause each song could fit a different mood/vibe, this album really takes you on a beautiful journey. I will say though that Awake has become a more recent favourite of mine, I think I found comfort in it after Jin enlisted. And I feel like Begin is often forgotten for Jk's other solo tracks Euphoria and My Time which I also love but Begin is special. And I love Lie, it feels very cinematic especially when watching the performance as well, the way Jimin embodies the music and lyrics through dance and movement is insane. Am I Wrong always felt like a very random song to me and I'm never sure if I like it or not but knowing that it has some deeper context makes it make more sense. 21st Century Girls cured my internalised mysogyny 🤣 but in all seriousness it's such a fun song and there's a particular music show performance of it that I keep coming back to. 2!3! Is like a big reassuring hug from Bangtan and it unites BTS & ARMY, I always think of when they performed it at the Magic Shop Muster. Interlude/Outro: Wings always gets me hyped and it's an amazing concert song. P.s. I should've counted how many times you said "wow" during this 😆 Glad you loved the experience too!

Alice

This was fun to watch! :) I understand your thoughts on 21st C Girl and Am I Wrong- but they are truly some of my favorite performances. Definitely check them out when you can. I hope to make one of these livestreams live one day!

Mandy

Namjoon’s song really makes me emotional. It’s also special bc at the end of the song, he said I wish I could love myself and their future album name is Love Yourself (one of my fav). It’s the most healing album for a lot of people. Lot of member’s including namjoon, jimin said that they learned to love themselves a lot more from this album. With Jin, you will think he will release a crack song bc he is always so light and wants to keep the mood light. But it’s the opposite. His songs are such an emotional bundle. Awake, epiphany, abyss, tonight. He lets his emotions, his sadness out in his songs. That’s how he communicates especially awake and abyss. He don’t like to talk it aloud. Like the You Quiz, he asked them to cut out his emotional talk. But in his songs, he lets everything out. His voice suits these kind of melody too

Jane Thomas

https://youtu.be/vba2H4i_kJU This is classical singers reacting to lie

Jane Thomas

I agree with the above comment that you should check out some of namjoon’s album review. Especially the albums that’s not included in rise of bangtan. He explains a lot of songs meaning and how they came up with their ideas and his philosophical thoughts too. Blood sweat and tears is one of my all time fav song. The concept, cinematography, choreo, vocals, rap everything together is such a gem. All of their solo songs are soo good. It’s so deep. Like in the episode says, Lie was about how jimin used to blame himself for his shortcomings. He believe in the “lie” that he wasn’t good enough. Namjoon talked about in the album review. Jimin took part in writing and composing the song along with some others (sorry idk who the others were. I believe docksim. Correct me if I’m wrong). Lie is one of my fav songs from jimin. I actually watch many classical singers/musicians reacted to lie and they gush about how well this is made. One thing they all talked about was how the melody was all in minor and when he sing “caught in a lie” it will suddenly go into major and that’s so genius. Can’t really explain weell bc I’m not a musician but I will link it if you are interested.

Jane Thomas

I really recommend RM's Wings Album Review vlive!!

Bangtanlicious

Firstly apologies for what will be a mammoth comment… I really enjoyed re-listening to this album with you Max and your take on the songs etc. So many gems. I highly recommend watching the wings comeback v-live and RM’s Wings album review too. Lots of great information is within them and also a ton of fun. Worth keeping in mind when you move onto the wings short films that although they have the titles of these tracks and use snippets of the tracks like an OST, they are standalone from the lyrical content of the songs. The short films are very much BU related but the songs are not. The wings solo’s are all about each members own personal journey in real life. And each title is an important key word as Namjoon says in his vlive review. I agree with the consensus of the majority in the stream chat in relation to all the solo backgrounds etc but I wanted to add some info in relation to Jin and Tae’s. Note that in ‘Awake’ Jin refers to the other BTS members as flowers. ‘Still I hold the 6 flowers tightly in my hands’ He goes on to say maybe I can’t fly like the other flowers but I still want to try etc. I think he is acknowledging how in terms of skills in the beginning maybe he didn’t shine as much in comparison. (Of course it is a totally different matter now. All 7 shine brightly and individually.) Also as you watch more of Jin’s interviews etc you will see that he is very happy with his BTS life… that he simply wishes to be part of Bangtan and that he really enjoys it. In Bon Voyage Season 2 he refers to the members as like his phone or wallet. He feels anxious without them etc. Moving on to Tae’s… as you got given some information that could be misleading during your stream in relation to Stigma, I wanted to take the opportunity to share my interpretation of Stigma based on all the info we have gotten over the years. I believe over they years they chose to be very subtle in how they discussed it because of South Korean societal norms and the delicate and personal subject matter hence why the doolset note is intentionally vague. There is some information that some ARMY are unaware of or choose to ignore etc for their own reasons when it comes to Stigma. Like a lot of ARMY’s when this song came out and we read the lyrics, I just cried for the amount of pain that they seemed to include. For many years Stigma was a mystery because of what I mentioned earlier and how people mistakenly thought it was BU related. Those misconceptions continue to this day. Since so many are unaware and there are a lot of gaps in knowledge when it comes to this song… here are some facts and wider context. The meaning of the word Stigma itself is important. (Source Namjoon Wings Album review) v-live where he said all the solo songs on Wings had important titles.) A Stigma is usually a sign or mark of disgrace which is generally to do with a characteristic or trait that you cannot change. I.e ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age etc. Tae wrote this song alongside Philtre, slow rabbit and hitman bang. Philtre produced it. The lyrics are by Taehyung. Although the Wings short film is titled Stigma and uses snippets of this song. The song has nothing to do with the BU storyline and is standalone. Namjoon confirmed this about all the wings solo’s on his Wings album review vlive in 2016. He also said that Tae’s storyline in the BU is dark. And this song matches it in that sense. And as you have discovered all the members solo’s on the Wings Album are about their individual lives. E.g. Begin is about jk coming to Seoul. Mama about Hobi’s relationship with his mum and how she sacrificed so much for him and how he will take care of her now (in the BU this is not the case, I’m being vague so as to not spoil the BU for you) On the same vlive. Namjoon discussed the meaning of all other solos but not Stigma. He only shared that it has to do with Tae’s personal story so he doesn’t really have much to say on it. That the title was important. And that Tae was very cute when he was going back and forward in trying to decide about his narration of: ‘why did you do that to me’ and ‘are you calling me a sinner’ and whether it should be in English or Korean etc. But when Namjoon heard the full song he understood the importance for Taehyung of wanting to get the narration right and the passing reference I mentioned already to the BU storyline being dark. When they did the Wings album comeback v-live all the members talked about their songs and meanings. Tae only discussed the genre etc. Taehyung has a younger brother and sister in real life. (He does not have a brother in the BU another clear reason why it’s not BU related.) Tae himself had never really talked about the full meaning of the song apart from the process of recording it etc until very very recently where he only referenced the emotions he was feeling when he wrote it (in wewerse magazine 2022), that he was feeling ‘fragile’ and ‘broken’. ‘Like shards of glass’ that he didn’t think could be fixed together again. And that ‘I’m sorry you are hurting like this’ to console his younger self. Before this he only talked about it very very briefly in their tour documentary where he talks about the difficulty in singing it live and his worries and nerves in singing it live and to refer briefly (literally one or two lines) that it references pain from when he can’t undo things and hurts others as a result. This brief mention is what you will see in The Rise of Bangtan Chapter. Now some wider societal context and the impact of Stigma for other communities. South Korea is a very conservative country in regards to many things culturally. Thousands and thousands of Queer and LGBTQ ARMY identify with this song and find comfort and solace in it. You only have to read the YouTube comments on this song to see evidence of this. Particularly the line ‘Are you calling me a sinner.’ ‘What more do I have to say.’ ‘Even if I try to hide it or conceal it, I cannot erase it.’ ‘So please dry my eyes.’ Coming back to the song, while for me it’s very clear and I have my own thoughts about what this song is about because of the many things Tae has said to us and shared with us over the years in regards to movies that have resonated with him, music and lyrics he has shared etc and all the above information, others may have their own theories about what this song is about. What I know for sure is that none of us can speak definitively on behalf of Taehyung. And until he chooses to talk about this song fully, it’s all technically theory and we can simply enjoy this work of ART. Either way whatever the meaning of the song Tae and every other single BTS member is supported and loved by us all unconditionally. Once again thank you so much for sharing the stream. 💜

Kath

Love this album… so many iconic and memorable performances. I listen to this to this day 💜

ada