BTS Lyrics Inside is a book that highlights ten songs from BTS’ discography and takes a deeper dive into the meaning and development of their music.
The main purpose of the book is to learn more about the lyrics of some of BTS’ most iconic songs. But there is so much more to it than that, to my genuine surprise. Each song is covered twice, with the first being a breakdown of pronunciation for non-native speakers of Korean. The second has the lyrics in both Korean and English along with statements and explanations of the song’s development and meaning. This includes various public posts that the members have made over the years that provided small snippets of insight.
I was honestly really surprised with how much was in this book.
You also get tidbits of information about the music videos associated with the songs, behind-the-scenes photos, and the members’ thoughts on the songs. There is also a pronunciation guide for basic Korean and a deep dive into the culture of Korea, the history of the group, and the experience of a BTS concert. There are ten songs covered, which include:
- Fire
- Spring day
- We are bulletproof: the internal
- On
- Idol
- Life goes on
- Boy with love
- Magic shop
- Mikrokosmos
- Yet to come
I was honestly really surprised with how much was in this book. My expectations were that this would just be a lyric breakdown, explaining references, wordplay, and the like. I wasn’t even sure if it would be in English when I preordered it to be honest. So having this much content in the book was a pleasant, unexpected surprise.
The songs chosen were based on surveys where fans answered a variety of questions about BTS’ music. And they put the data they found in the book, which was rather interesting to see. It helps explain why some songs were chosen over others, which is something I questioned when looking at the song list. Of course, there are songs I would have loved to learn more about, like Black Swan, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Dis-ease. But hopefully, more editions of this book come out with more songs.
I still need to go through each song with more attention, thus why I haven’t fully reviewed the book. But because I am a big fan of their music and all that goes into it, I certainly will do that. I don’t want to say that this is a must-have for ARMYs, but if their music is your top favorite thing of BTS and you want to learn more about how these songs came to be, it is worthy of being added to your collection.
There are two editions of BTS Lyrics Inside available: a global version and a japan version. The only differences I am aware of is that the global edition is in English while the Japa version is Japanese, and the covers are different colors. I pre-ordered mine but I have seen it still available on Weverse and some K-Pop-focused shops like Cokodive.
What artists would you like a lyrics deep dive for? Let me know with a comment!