It’s been a year since the first music video of the song Black Swan by BTS was released with MN Dance Company taking the stage in a contemporary dance performance of, what is now deemed, Black Swan (Orchestra version).
The song was a surprise to many. At least a surprise to me. At the time, Connect BTS was ongoing and the map leading to the release of the album Map Of The Soul: 7 was unfolding. There was no telling what kind of a surprise BTS and Bighit were going to pull and this was no exception.
In some ways though, it was an exception. As I was sitting down at my university job after clocking in, I looked down at my phone and saw the notification for the song from Weverse. I clicked and watched the masterpiece unravel.
I can say with certainty, even if it has been a year, Black Swan is one of the most artistic, moving, and beautifully constructed pieces of music BTS has ever created.
The initial music video starts off with a quote by American dancer Martha Graham stating “a dancer dies twice — once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful”. The quote, in its solitude against a white backdrop, fades as the dancers from MN Dance Company take the stage in an empty, quiet warehouse.
They get into their positions and the bellows of the string instruments erupt into the intro of the song. With the vocals joining into the string instruments, the layers have been set and the song commences.
The song is a rollercoaster, as the strings rise and fall and as the vocals rise and fall, the heart can’t help but join into the haunting echoes of a mournful cry of a loss that it seems to speak. Only later, with the help of a translator, do I get the full sense of what the song says.
This is the mark of true artists, speaking about the realization of what music truly means to them as they begin to sink further down into the ocean floor. They fear that they will not feel for the music anymore, that one day it will cease to move them and, as it coincides with Graham’s quote, this will be their first death.
The tragic lyrics speak about a loss some of us might have felt before, where passions we once had ceased to interest us anymore or couldn’t be continued as life took us in a different direction.
This is BTS, ripping away the layers (in contrast to Map Of The Soul: Persona) to show their fears and vulnerability as artists. This is a component of themselves that threatens to swallow them whole, the Shadow that grows bigger.
This takes courage and strength. With all eyes on the biggest artists in the world, BTS has allowed listeners to take a glance at them at their most vulnerable.
That’s incredibly admirable of them to do and I can’t help but appreciate them more
That wasn’t the end though.
On March 4th, 2020, a second music video for Black Swan was released. This video contains the original version of the song, which is on streaming platforms.
This version starts and ends with a harp-like sound and showcases the members in the Los Angeles Theatre. In a beautifully crafted video, the members as a group and individually tell their story of how the music stopped making their hearts race.
The shots in this version are beautiful and show BTS surrounded by darkness dancing barefoot in an empty theater. In a message to the world, this is BTS showing the Black Swan's last performance.
That is the devastating beauty of Black Swan.
The words of loss and tragedy on losing a passion are beautifully captured by contemporary dances, beautifully crafted sets, and cinematic shots.
One of the biggest reasons this song has captured my love was because of BTS’ genuity as artist.
The creation and the end-product of it are motivated by their wanting to be honest about who they are. This is one of the reasons why I became so interested in them in the first place.
They are genuine people, they create music to share stories and that’s been their foundation since 2013.
Black Swan is a continuation of their story which is meant to connect with the listeners and the listeners' lives.
What a beautiful song and what a beautiful story. As the 1-year anniversary of this song is completed, we can only look back in awe at the artistic creation of Black Swan and how it shared a message of fear and vulnerability that was able to reach millions worldwide.
That is BTS and the devastating beauty of Black Swan.
