Who of you have never heard of BTS (방탄소년단)? Surely everyone has heard of BTS at least once. BTS is a boy-group that contains seven members (RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook), and is under the auspices of Big Hit Entertainment. Starting from a small agency that is less well known, now almost all parts of the world know about BTS and are competing to meet with BTS through concerts, fan signs, fan meetings, or other BTS events. All the BTS members have their own uniqueness that makes them loved by many people, especially ARMY. One of the members who receives lots of love from fans is Kim Taehyung, or fondly called by his stage name, V. The duality that he displays on and off the stage has left a special impression for fans, and so have his good looks. He even ranked fifth in “The 100 most handsome faces of 2018”, organized by TC Clander. Besides all that, V’s voice is the one that plays the most important role. Being the only vocalist with a baritone voice type in the group makes his voice the most easily-recognizable in one hearing. His voice is soft and full of power, making V suitable for singing any song. Not only singing, but V also had the opportunity to produce some of his own songs. Now Channel-Korea will discuss some of the songs produced and performed by V. Are you curious? So, stay tuned and let’s get to it!
BTS’ V’s Self-Composed Song, Winter Bear
First, we will discuss the song that V recently released, entitled “Winter Bear”. “Winter Bear” was published on August 9, 2019, on the BANGTANTV YouTube channel and BTS’s official SoundCloud. This song itself is a gift from V for the ARMY, in order to celebrate 1000 days of “I Purple You”. The phrase “I Purple You” was first coined by V during the BTS 3rd Muster concert on November 13, 2016. This began with a project that was made by ARMY, where they would sing “2! 3!” and covered their army bomb with a purple bag. Right after the project, V felt touched, and start explaining what true purple meant, and said “I Purple You” for the first time. V published the song on 9 August 2019, at 12 PM KST.
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) August 9, 2019 This is the song with the first full-English lyrics released by V. Behind this song, V did not produce it alone, but was assisted by RM as the leader, and Hiss Noise and Adora. Although this is not V’s first solo song, this song is the first with the full-English lyrics released by V. As for the music video, it contains V’s recordings during a trip from London to Paris, and then to New York, which is a series of BTS’s biggest world tours. Here comes the music video that is full of beautiful scenery and full of aesthetics graphics.
This Music Video had been viewed 28 million times in less than three months. This proves how much influence the song created by V really has.Here’s the SoundCloud version of “Winter Bear”.
“Winter Bear” itself is a rock ballad that tells about a very comfortable sleep, V wants listeners, especially ARM,Y to sleep well every night after listening to this special song, and use this song as a lullaby before sleep. Here’s the short lyrics of “Winter Bear” She looks like a blue parrot Would you come fly to me I want some Good day, good day, good day Good day, good day Looks like a winter bear You sleep so happily I wish you a Good night, good night, good night Good night, good night Imagine your face Say hello to me Then all the bad days They’re nothing to me With you Winter bear Sleep like a winter bear Sleep like a winter bear
The Story Behind Winter Bear
Behind all the beauty contained in the song “Winter Bear”, there are some interesting facts that may only be known by the ARMY.
V once revealed in a Twitter post that he wrote this song after watching an English film during a tour. Big Hit also uploaded behind the scenes footage of the making of the music video for the song. The words “Winter Bear” on the cover were written by V himself inside the car, while on the way to the cover photo shoot location. He had tried several writing models before finally choosing the last. V also took photos for his own cover. He tried various angles until he finally found the right one. There is a story that touches the heart behind the two bears contained on the cover. In Episode 85 of “Run BTS!”, the members played a manito game where they exchanged presents. Many of the presents were gag gifts, but Jimin‘s was sentimental.
— linh⁷ ✨ (@vmins_) August 20, 2019 At the time of filming, “Winter Bear” had not been released yet, but, apparently, V shared it with his fellow BTS members. Jimin said that he was completely in love with the song, so he decided to give V two bear figurines which were used by V on the cover for the song. How sweet this 95L friendship is. Surely all of us hope to have friends like Jimin. <3
V’s Other Solo Songs
Before “Winter Bear” was released, V already had three songs that he sang himself, both the songs contained on the BTS album, and the songs he created himself. Here are some of the songs.
Stigma by V BTS
On the second Korean studio album (fourth overall) by BTS, which was the Wings era, BTS released a series of short films for each member to promote the upcoming album. The short films started with Jungkook’s “Begin”, followed by Jimin’s “Lie”, V’s “Stigma”, Suga’s “First Love”, RM’s “Reflection”, J-Hope’s “Mama”, and ended with Jin’s “Awake”. The films were released from September 4 to 13, 2016. V’s “Stigma” short film was released on 7 September 2016. The short film for each member are surrounded by theories that are famous among the ARMY. Here’s the short film “Stigma”.
V described his song, “Stigma”, as a song under the neo-soul genre. V not only became the singer, but he also contributed to music composition and lyrics. Here are the lyrics and the meaning of the song.
Singularity by V BTS
V’s second solo song is “Singularity”. It was released as the trailer for BTS’s then-upcoming third LP, “Love Yourself: Tear” on May 6, 2018, and was released a second time on the compilation album “Love Yourself: Answer” on August 24, 2018. “Singularity” is produced by RM, as the leader of BTS.
The music video reached over ten million views in less than fifteen hours from the time it was uploaded. The music video itself described as an enclosed space, in which member V moves between areas of light and shadow, and, later, a dark room filled with flowers. They interpreted the “restrained” choreography, performed with white masks, symbolizing that he has concealing his true self to attain love, and the images of broken ice indicated his realization that he had been acting in a way that wasn’t genuine.
Scenery by BTS’s V
The last song we will discuss is “Scenery”, a ballad from V that was released on January 30, 2019, through BTS’s SoundCloud page. “Scenery” was written and composed by V (who also photographed the cover artwork), produced by Big Hit Entertainment producer Docskim, and featured additional contributions from Big Hit producers Pdogg and Hiss Noise. After it was uploaded for the first time on BTS’s SoundCloud, the song broke SoundCloud records by reaching 100 million streams from 20 million people in just over fourteen days, the shortest time ever seen on the platform.
The cover for the song was taken by V while he was in Amsterdam, Netherlands. “Scenery” itself reached 1.48 million streams in 1 hour, and 4.1 million streams after 12 hours, even though it wasn’t an official song released by Big Hit. It’s just a song that V gave to the ARMY as a New Year gift.
— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) January 24, 2019 Before it was officially released on BTS’s SoundCloud, V gave a bit of a spoiler by uploading a little recording process via Twitter, to make ARMY curious and wait for it. Here are the lyrics and the meaning of the song.
