K-pop band BTS reveal how their new album, Map of The Soul: 7, is deeply personal

It’s one of the most anticipated returns in modern pop music—the follow-up to Map of the Soul: Persona by Korean supergroup BTS. Already one of the biggest-selling albums of the year with four million pre-orders alone, Map of the Soul: 7 is nothing short of a spectacular success, less than a week after its release on February 21.

With 15 original songs (plus a few re-released tracks), it explores the Jungian philosophy of the shadow and ego within the human soul, while also tracing the impact of the band’s trajectory since their 2013 debut—and there’s a lot to unpack within it. Here’s everything we learned about Map of the Soul: 7 from BTS’s live-stream in Seoul. 

1. Map of the Soul: 7 is complicated, it took longer to make than a BTS album usually does, and it is deeply personal

“It’s about BTS looking back,” says Jin, and an album where the band wanted to show something different, to reveal the parts of themselves they’d previously tried to hide. It is, he says, “a confession." “[The song] Black Swan is about the fear we face as artists,” says J-Hope. “Louder Than Bombs shows our inner shadows. We are Bulletproof: the Eternal demonstrates that we will keep going despite the difficulties. It reveals our ego.” But despite the weighty nature of MOTS:7, Jimin adds that he loves their songs: “Every time I sing our music, I’m happy and that gives me confidence. We worked on this album for a long time and I want to perform this music as soon as we can.”

2. It's taken time, but BTS now recognise their musical and cultural influence across the world 

“We’ve realised the impact BTS have and I’m looking forward to what we’ll be able to show in the next seven years,” says J-Hope, who also refers to their “BTS style.” “That’s where we’ve grown and changed,” he muses. “There are many complex factors at work,” adds RM. “There’s our music, our dance, our communication. It's about the zeitgeist and whatever shows the zeitgeist best is what's loved the most. Our albums are very personal, but I think we live in an age where this story resonates around the world. We try to express it through our music and dance, and this is what people find refreshing. We know that our fan army around the world [is] studying [Korea] and Korean because of us, and we are very thankful for that.”

3. Not everything is planned minutely…

It's long been believed that Big Hit Entertainment—the band’s management—has had BTS’s entire discography and visuals plotted out for years, down to the finest details. But RM admits that while there are “big concepts and big pictures, there are also elements outside our control so not everything goes to plan." The idea of Map of the Soul being a trilogy (Shadow and Ego were supposed to follow Persona) was scrapped after BTS had an extended break and the group realised they had a lot to talk about. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we combine them into one album?’” says RM. “Shadow means our wounds and Ego is about accepting our fate. So 7 is a very appropriate title since we've come back after seven months.”

RM also mentions continual meetings with their executive producer, Bang Si-hyuk, and their whole team. “We discuss everything: the solo tracks, the direction of the album, the visuals, the hair, the makeup, the performance. Then we discuss [among the members] what are you feeling now, what are your pressures, what are you happy about, and we continue to communicate.”

4. They’ve already been called living legends, but this is the first time BTS have thought about what the group’s legacy might be

For Jimin, the thought of a legacy “is something new [but] I think it will be our music and albums, the stories we want to tell. We worked very hard to make these albums and they’re very precious. Thankfully fans can relate even though the language is different. We have artists from decades ago and their music still inspires and heals today. I hope our albums will do the same and that will be our legacy.”

5. Even after three consecutive albums topping the Billboard 200, BTS’s main aim is to have fun and make their fans happy

Not so for Jin, who says that while “results and records are important, if people can draw happiness from our album then that will be the greatest result that we can achieve." Suga, however, admitted that he’d be lying if he said they felt no pressure at all. Yet BTS’s “purpose is more important than goals or records. We’ve always done this work and we’ve always had fun, and if we continue to do that it will naturally progress into good results.”

6. After seven years together, the band has learned many life lessons about themselves, each other and what it means to work in harmony

Jungkook sounds a little wistful as he recalls his happiness during their trainee days, calling them “the best time." For Suga, however, he sees the present as their happiest moment, citing the opportunity to “progress and grow” as a reason to be thankful. But no career is without its challenges and although BTS are currently the world's most successful pop group, they have had their fair share of problems. Living and working together, says J-Hope, is one of them. “We talk a lot about our differences and try to solve [them]. Being together is the best thing, it’s also one of the challenging things, but we’ve grown to communicate and really work well with each other so the best moments are when we are together.”

7. However, the highs and lows of fame have created some dark internal places over the years

V highlights one of his biggest challenges as learning to deal with the on-off-on nature of being in the spotlight. “In the past seven years, we’ve been to a lot of countries on tour and the happiest moments are when we are with the Army [the fans]. I’ve overcome this challenge so I’m able to talk about it—when we're on tour, we go from venue to plane to hotel and this is just what we do. On stage, it feels like a festival and I’m in the limelight. I used to feel a void as soon as I got in the car, but it’s not that difficult any more.”

Suga, who wrote and performs Interlude: Shadow states the importance of seeing your shadow and acknowledging that it's “always going to be at your feet and it’s always going to follow you. It’s a matter of accepting it or not accepting it. It’s not about facing your shadow even or fighting it, but acknowledging it. Sometimes it will grow shorter or it lengthens, but it’s always attached to you. Accepting its presence takes a lot of courage, and that’s what allows us to keep going and keep going further.”

8. Through this concentrated time of looking back, it allows BTS to also look forward

“When I worked on Black Swan or other songs such as We are Bulletproof: the Eternal, I cried a lot because I thought about the old days,” admits RM. “It’s a constant battle to be able to show your weakness and express your fears. If I look back there were times where we were naïve and made mistakes, but overall I think we really did do a good job.” 

He wonders how a group could be so fortunate, but credits the Army, and also the media, for keeping their feet on the ground. “We say, ‘We’re not that great, we're just trying to do our best,’ and that’s what we want to keep doing,” RM says. “I’ve seen these guys for the past seven years and sometimes I’m a little bit tired of them, I look at them and think, ‘Oh, it’s you again,’ but, honestly, all I want to do for the next seven years and beyond is to be healthy, do what we can do and stay happy.”

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