February 13th, 2022: it’s the 5th anniversary of the release of “Spring Day” by BTS. If you watch and listen closely, this song is always mentioned in conversations when talking about BTS’ music and their phenomenal discography. To others who are not familiar, it might seem strange to learn this is a b-side and yet, is an immensely popular song by the group. This b-side only appears on their repackaged album called Wings: You Never Walk Alone and has not left the Korean charts, the Gaon’s Digital Charts, since its release.
Once you read the lyrics (curtsy from @DoolsetBangtan on Twitter [and website link to the lyrics to “Spring Day” attached below]), you might learn that this alternative hip-hop and pop-rock ballad is about missing someone.
The narrator reminisces about old memories while simultaneously, bitterly accepting the cruelty time has provided to cause the rift between the narrator and the person they are singing about.
It’s a sad song.
With the motifs: winter, spring, time, change, and the phrase “I miss you”, this song touches on the bitter taste of missing the times and memories with this person. This is juxtaposed with the present and how the two have separated and changed over time with one trying to reach the other.
These lyrics, taken from the chorus, represent that sentiment.
추운 겨울 끝을 지나
Past the edge of cold winter,다시 봄날이 올 때까지
until the spring day comes again,꽃 피울 때까지
until the flowers bloom,그곳에 좀 더 머물러줘
please stay there a while longer머물러줘
Please stay
The winter represents a phrase of separation and change, where the cold, ice, and snow, have caused the rift. Whereas spring represents the thawing of the ice, where the flowers bloom as if new beginnings have arrived. The narrator is telling this person that once spring arrives, they will meet them soon, and stay at the place they’re at so they can be together once again.
One of the reasons I connect to BTS’ music is because of how they speak from the heart and on issues they care about. In many interviews by the group, they talk about how they feel passionate about these causes, and how they always have a song that speaks about a social cause in every album.
Other times, they’ve discussed how the creative process for some of their songs has caused them to become sentimental, cry, and become overwhelmed as it touches on even part of themselves that is difficult to talk about. However, they still choose to release their music, to help others, and also provide a release for themselves as well.
“Spring Day” is one such song.
When the song was released, many connected it to the 2014 Sewol Ferry disaster, a disaster where 304 individuals had drowned in a capsized ferry traveling to a resort on Jeju island, 250 of them being high schoolers. As they were waiting for the help that never came, the captain and some crew members left and told the students to stay and wait for officials who would not make it in time to save them.
The visual imagery from the music video has guided listeners to make this assumption. As scenes from the train tracks, laundry machines, and merry-go-round show viewers the survivors’ guilt and how maybe they will grow older, but many of those on the ship never will.
Then there are the references to Snowpiercer and the pile of clothing that appears throughout the music video. Snowpiercer is a movie set on a futuristic Earth. The movie contains messages on corruption and injustice and the systems which keep many of those in lower socioeconomic status at the bottom, while those at the top live lavishly.
The Sewol Ferry disaster was caused by corruption and greed.
The ferry had broken safety regulations but still left port due to bribing these regulators with fancy dinners and travels. No action was taken in time to save the kids, no one was prosecuted in the aftermath of the incident, and no laws have been created to prevent this from happening again.
That’s the tragedy of the Sewol Ferry incident.
No justice is given to the souls of those on the ferry and many families and friends continue to grieve for the loss of their loved ones with nothing to fill the void.
The pile of clothing has a meaning as well. It’s a reference to an art piece, created by Christian Boltanski, called Personne or people, but at the same time no one. The clothes represent the people who are no longer with us with their clothes being left as the last remaining piece of who they are. Young, and old, they all met the same terrible faith and that is Boltanski’s message.
It’s a message of mourning.
There are small piles of clothing, but the one at the end is the biggest pile of clothes. As you stare up at the top of this pile, this is when the heart stops and one realizes that, yes, these were once people as well and the tragedy is fully realized.
These are some of the messages that have been incorporated into the song. Although it is a song missing someone who is far away, a tragic incident, they have not fully confirmed the song is about the Sewol Ferry disaster.
In the Esquire article The Boundless Optimism of BTS, David Holmes asked the group whether it was about the Sewol Ferry disaster and they answered that it was about a sad event, but it was also about longing.
That message of longing is expressed in the first words uttered in the song.
보고 싶다 (Bogoshipda)
I miss you
Rather than anger, rather than hurt, or even rather than tragedy being expressed first, it is the longing that appears first.
And if one does look at this song through the lens of the incident, that longing is the grief of never seeing a loved one again which is the foundation of the music.
Even if the group has not officially confirmed the meaning of the song, many already know what the song means. Yes, it is about a sad event, and yes it is about longing. Those two things are what the song is certainly about, as many have gone through personal hardships and see their struggles in the song. To understand that this song has the interpretations to be seen from a lens of a single tragic and traumatic event is all the confirmation we need for something that maybe, doesn’t need to be expressed in words but understood with the heart.
If you look closely enough, you might see that “Spring Day” goes through the 5 stages of grief in its 4 minutes and 34-second runtime.
The first part of the song expresses the denial/isolation aspect. In the music video, a member of the group runs away from the camera in the music video as if in disbelief, also expressed in the lyrics.
Then comes the bargaining. The narrator here tries to tell the other person that if they do one thing, will that be the ticket to seeing the friend? We never fully get the answer in the song or the music video.
Then comes the anger, where the narrator expresses hate towards the circumstances of the situation. Even towards the person and how they’ve changed.
Next, is depression. We finally see the unadulterated pure sadness of the longing and tragedy felt by the narrator. They miss the person they want to see the person but they’ve come to the conclusion that they can’t.
Then finally we arrive at acceptance. We’ve taken a turn and the lyrics which express this change right after the bridge of the song.
아침은 다시 올 거야
The morning will come again어떤 어둠도 어떤 계절도
Because no darkness or no season영원할 순 없으니까
can last forever벚꽃이 피나봐요
It seems like the cherry blossoms are blooming이 겨울도 끝이 나요
This winter is also coming to its end
Winter is coming to an end, and the cold is still there, but soon the sun will shine and things might not be okay, but certainly, there is hope for another day and another season.
“Spring Day” has not left Gaon’s Digital Charts since its release and is still making records. However, one of the legacies this song leaves is that it’s a retelling of love and loss, and grief in the aftermath of a sad event.
Music has been known to heal people and for many who are going through hard times, this song gives strength and hope to move forward even as the longing is ever-present.
That is the impression the song leaves as it enters its 5th year of existence. It’s a reminder, a reflection of the memories of the past, and the winter of the present.
But just like the song says, “No season can last forever”, this winter, surely, will come to an end as well.
