Critique Paper - - The Real Story Behind “The Truth Untold” PDF

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- The Real Story Behind “The Truth Untold”...

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The Real Story Behind “The Truth Untold” by BTS The Truth Untold is the third track of BTS’s Love Yourself: Tear album and was released last May 18, 2018, by Big Hit Entertainment, BTS’s agency. Even though this song was not the album's lead single, it received many good reactions and is loved by many, especially ARMY's all over the world. The Love Yourself: Tear album is part of the Love Yourself Trilogy which consists of Love Yourself: Her, which was followed by a Japanese mini album called Face Yourself and was released last September 18, 2017, and Love Yourself: Answer which was released on the twenty-fourth of August, 2018. They are a seven-membered Korean boy band, and their leader is Kim Nam Joon (RM) and is part of the rap line together with Min Yoon Gi (Suga) and Jung Ho Seok (J-Hope). This song is compromised with the groups' vocalists, who are Kim Seok Jin, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung (V) and Jeon Jungkook. This song was made with the collaboration between BTS and Steve Aoki. Bang Si Hyuk, Big Hit Entertainment's CEO and primary producer, also helped in producing this song. Many fans of the American DJ, Steve Aoki, were shocked because most of his compositions are hip hop and mostly rock. This time they have created a more sentimental song. The main instrument of the song is the piano and is mostly heard at the beginning of the song. The tempo is slow at first and gradually becomes faster towards the end. There was a saying that was going around the K-pop industry for a long time. The saying is "After your debut, and you never improve," many idols and producers say that this is somewhat true in some cases. This happens due to a busy schedule, and there is no space for improvement, RM (2018) stated in a V-live. However, The Truth Untold proved this saying to be false. RM (2018) said that when he heard their vocalists

sing, he thinks that they have improved drastically when compared to their trainee years. This song talks about the inner struggles that BTS is facing right now and it shows that they are wearing a mask to be the person that society is telling them to be. The vocalists sang the song with longing and full of sadness in their voice, and this is the reason why the song captivated so many hearts of fans. The Truth Untold is unique and special because it has a sad story behind the written lyrics. As the song progresses, the more powerful the song becomes, this is because at the beginning of the song all you can hear is the piano and the voices of the vocalists. At the post-chorus, you could hear the drums and the guitar faintly, and you could tell that the song is developing into a faster tempo. Especially at the bridge part, the sound of the drums is dominant than the piano, and you could also hear the electric guitar strumming. The song ended again by the slow melody of a piano. This song is referencing the Italian story named “La Citta di Smeraldo” which was written during the fifteenth to the sixteenth century. The song starts with the lines of "Full of loneliness, this garden bloomed, full of thorns, I bind myself in this sand castle." In the surrounding area of a town, there lived a man that locked himself away in an old castle because he is full of self-hatred due to his hideous appearance. He spends years in isolation with a closed heart, not letting anyone to get in. The garden alone serves as his sanctuary, and the flowers make him feel at peace even though he feels lonely and angry. "What is your name? Do you have a place to go? Oh, could you tell me, I saw you hiding in this garden.". One day the man's pursuit of solitude interfered when a girl who is wearing ragged clothing starts to steal flowers from his garden. He finds it infuriating at first and starts to have sleepless nights to guard his garden against the girl.

He wanted to confront her, but he never finds the courage to do so because he is very insecure and does not want the girl to see his gruesome appearance. As the days go by, curiosity hit him and finds himself waiting for her every night to see if she was doing fine. "I cannot show you a ruined part of myself, once again I put a mask on and go to see you." In the story, the man was longing to follow her, but his insecurities were stopping him from doing so. Nonetheless, the man’s curiosity finally took over him and decided on following the girl after she steals flowers from the garden. However, before he goes out to follow her, he wears a mask to hide his true appearance. The man discovers that the girl is in-fact living in poverty and is selling the flowers that she stole from the man’s garden. After discovering this hurtful truth, he follows her multiple times and the urge for him to help her increases night by night. This situation often happens in real life. We yearn for things, may it be confessing your feelings to someone or even just initiating a conversation, but are held back by insecurities and challenges that we face. People would do anything to hide their true selves and pretend to be beautiful and to pretend to be someone else. Further referencing to the story, the line, "Bloomed in a garden full of loneliness, A flower that resembles you," means that the man spends numerous days to invent a new and special flower for the girl to sell and in hopes that she could gain more money with this new flower. The man named the flower Smeraldo, which means emerald in Italian. The Smeraldo flower symbolizes the sincerity that could not be delivered. "If I dared to stand before you, would everything be different now?". The man goes to the town to give the girl the flower that he just invented. However, as he gets there, he found out that the girl died out of starvation while he was busy making the flower. He

returns to the castle and regrets confronting her sooner than later. Above all, he regretted letting his insecurity get the best out of him. The man most likely wondered to himself, “If I had just confronted her from the beginning, would everything be different?”. Another line from the song is "Left alone in this sandcastle." The "sand castle" was used to reference the man's old castle. The sand castle stands for uncertainty and something that is momentary. This means that the man cannot forever hide from his old castle because it will eventually crumble away. The story of La Citta di Smeraldo is a parable for people who experience the misfortune of letting their insecurities and self-doubt prevent them from doing the things that they want in life. This story is somewhat similar to when BTS debuted, and they repeatedly questioned themselves if they can be successful in the music industry because they came from a small company. They questioned themselves if they are working hard enough to reach their dreams of becoming an idol. They lived in fear and anxiety thinking that they were not good enough for the audience to watch. They almost disbanded, but this did not stop them and viewed this obstacle as their stepping stone to success. Until they released the song "Dope" last 2015, this made South Korea realize that these boys can dance at a different level compared to other K-pop groups. Moreover, it was in the year 2016 when they released "Blood, Sweat and Tears" that gave them international fame and the "BTS" that we have today. The Truth Untold has a specific theme and concept about how people tend to hide from the real world. When listening to The Truth Untold, you can get the vibe of a love song or a lullaby. However, the story behind it has a deep meaning and has a sad story to tell. This song is connected to the leading track of Love Yourself: Tear, Fake

Love. It tells us to remove our mask and be who we are, do not be afraid of being yourself and do not try to be someone else just for the sake of "fitting in." As Kim Nam Joon (2018) said, "Find your name, find your voice by speaking yourself."

References Hoeltje, M. (2016). ‘Meaning and Truth' and ‘Truth and Meaning.' Dialectica, 70(2), 201215. doi:10.1111/1746-8361.12143 J, I., & J, I. (2018, May 29). Legend of the smeraldo flower – Indrachapa J – Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@indrachapa/legend-of-the-smeraldo-flowerd0e689b167af Romano, A. (2018, September 26). How BTS and their ARMY changed K-pop - and the world. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/6/13/17426350/bts-historymembers-explained Selesi, Z. (2018, May 23). BTS's 'Love Yourself 轉 Tear': A Track-by-Track Analysis. Retrieved from http://culture.affinitymagazine.us/btss-love-yourself-轉-tear-a-track-bytrack-analysis/ "We have learned to love ourselves, so now I urge you to 'speak yourself.'". (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/we-have-learned-loveourselves-so-now-i-urge-you-speak-yourself...