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xparrotGetting into BTS, fanning on a band, one thing that didn't really occur to me was how it could impact my relationship with music.
My musical tastes have always been really basic. I like what I like and so I've collected a diverse playlist over time (Jpop from anime, miscellaneous songs from fanvids, that time I got obsessed with Blind Guardian) but I mostly tend to go for music that I'd call "accessible," the sort that I can decide within a single listen whether I like it or not.
So a couple of days ago a member of BTS, RM, band leader (and my bias), released his second solo album. "Right Place, Wrong Person" is self-described alternative/experimental hip-hop/pop/??? -- one friend said he's going through his Sgt. Pepper phase -- and I listened to it when it dropped going 😅😅😬😅😂😅
It wasn't a surprise -- we knew he'd been working with an indy Kpop collective, and he'd performed one song from it before, which was already pretty off the beaten path (in retrospect, "Come Back to Me" is by far the most standard pop song on the album!) But RPWP is, in a word, weird -- rough and raw and very definitely Not My Kind of Music. Not something I'd ever seek out or listen to again.
Except because Namjoon's part of BTS, so I have this parasocial attachment that means I want to hear what he has to say -- and because his last solo album I absolutely adore, though it's a completely different beast -- I did listen to it again.
And again.
And several more times, and every time I enjoy it more? Not even in an "appreciating art" way but in a vibing, bopping along, riffs-getting-stuck-in-my-head want-to-hear-it-again way.
I've posted more on social media in the past 48 hours than I have in a year+, I'm feeling that blood-fizzing fandom excitement over an album -- this is not what music's usually like for me!
Of course there's the character-based fanning aspect about what it says about him as a person and artist -- like all of Namjoon's work, it's simultaenously intensely personal and conceptually abstract, so there is much room for interpretation. But the album and the music itself -- it's funky, it's complex, it's wacky (two of the songs are titled "Nuts" and "Groin"! So "RM's Groin" is now ranking on Spotify! and let's not even talk about the use of pi in the album structure), and I wasn't expecting to be able to connect to it like this.
I keep listening to the whole album straight through without skipping. Even "Domodachi" which I kind of hate, it's discordant in a way I find off-putting (except Little Simz' rap, that's banging) but it's part of the whole, it'd be like skipping the flat stretch of a roller coaster.
My favorite is the collab "Around the world in a day" which is some kind of lost '60s prog rock song? Which isn't generally my thing (I told you, I have zero musical taste) and actually it's two completely different songs mashed together, of which the first half is nice and the second half is OMGGGGG (Namjoon's never sounded like that before and his voice is so perfectly suited for that kind of singing, I cannot get over it!?)
There's also the title song "LOST!", and its trippy music video, which is Pixar's Inside Out meets Severance (two of my favorite things, but not ones I'd expect to taste great together?)
Anyway! RPWP, good stuff!
--One warning to anyone who listens, the album's very NSFW for language -- the lyrics are half English, half Korean, and Namjoon's favorite English word is "fuck"...
In conclusion: fanning on music is fun, and I'm happy to have this gateway into it!
So anyway, hey! how are you doing? Anyone still here?
My musical tastes have always been really basic. I like what I like and so I've collected a diverse playlist over time (Jpop from anime, miscellaneous songs from fanvids, that time I got obsessed with Blind Guardian) but I mostly tend to go for music that I'd call "accessible," the sort that I can decide within a single listen whether I like it or not.
So a couple of days ago a member of BTS, RM, band leader (and my bias), released his second solo album. "Right Place, Wrong Person" is self-described alternative/experimental hip-hop/pop/??? -- one friend said he's going through his Sgt. Pepper phase -- and I listened to it when it dropped going 😅😅😬😅😂😅
It wasn't a surprise -- we knew he'd been working with an indy Kpop collective, and he'd performed one song from it before, which was already pretty off the beaten path (in retrospect, "Come Back to Me" is by far the most standard pop song on the album!) But RPWP is, in a word, weird -- rough and raw and very definitely Not My Kind of Music. Not something I'd ever seek out or listen to again.
Except because Namjoon's part of BTS, so I have this parasocial attachment that means I want to hear what he has to say -- and because his last solo album I absolutely adore, though it's a completely different beast -- I did listen to it again.
And again.
And several more times, and every time I enjoy it more? Not even in an "appreciating art" way but in a vibing, bopping along, riffs-getting-stuck-in-my-head want-to-hear-it-again way.
I've posted more on social media in the past 48 hours than I have in a year+, I'm feeling that blood-fizzing fandom excitement over an album -- this is not what music's usually like for me!
Of course there's the character-based fanning aspect about what it says about him as a person and artist -- like all of Namjoon's work, it's simultaenously intensely personal and conceptually abstract, so there is much room for interpretation. But the album and the music itself -- it's funky, it's complex, it's wacky (two of the songs are titled "Nuts" and "Groin"! So "RM's Groin" is now ranking on Spotify! and let's not even talk about the use of pi in the album structure), and I wasn't expecting to be able to connect to it like this.
I keep listening to the whole album straight through without skipping. Even "Domodachi" which I kind of hate, it's discordant in a way I find off-putting (except Little Simz' rap, that's banging) but it's part of the whole, it'd be like skipping the flat stretch of a roller coaster.
My favorite is the collab "Around the world in a day" which is some kind of lost '60s prog rock song? Which isn't generally my thing (I told you, I have zero musical taste) and actually it's two completely different songs mashed together, of which the first half is nice and the second half is OMGGGGG (Namjoon's never sounded like that before and his voice is so perfectly suited for that kind of singing, I cannot get over it!?)
There's also the title song "LOST!", and its trippy music video, which is Pixar's Inside Out meets Severance (two of my favorite things, but not ones I'd expect to taste great together?)
Anyway! RPWP, good stuff!
--One warning to anyone who listens, the album's very NSFW for language -- the lyrics are half English, half Korean, and Namjoon's favorite English word is "fuck"...
In conclusion: fanning on music is fun, and I'm happy to have this gateway into it!
So anyway, hey! how are you doing? Anyone still here?
no subject
Date: 2024-05-28 11:32 pm (UTC)Anyway YES Namjoon cutting loose is so satisfying. I'm always impressed with artists who can make real art out of misery, but also the album is just wildly fun? I saw someone on Reddit saying this isn't RM or RapMon, this is Runch Randa all grown up, and I am here for it. (though if I replay the Groin MV too many more times I think my phone is going to spontaneously delete the Youtube app...)
no subject
Date: 2024-05-30 08:01 pm (UTC)this is Runch Randa all grown up 😂😂😂 this is too accurate
no subject
Date: 2024-05-31 06:53 am (UTC)Ahahah my sister has put her foot down about not getting into other Kpop groups (nothing against them, it's entirely for wallet preservation!) but I admit to enjoying all the bits of SKZ I've seen XD
no subject
Date: 2024-05-31 07:46 pm (UTC)