South Korean boy band BTS’ recent lead single, Fake Love, sends a powerful message to viewers about the importance of staying true to yourself.
Internationally renowned K-pop group BTS had a recent comeback in May with their first proper single, Fake Love, from their third studio album Love Yourself: Tear. Widely known as ‘Beyond the Scene’ or ‘Bangtan Sonyeondan’ (aka Bulletproof Boy Scouts), BTS has become the first K-pop group to top the Billboard 200 Music Charts this year. In fact, Fake Love managed to clinch the best 24-hour YouTube debut of 2018 with 35.9 million views, and has also become one of the top ten fastest YouTube videos to hit 100 million views. Thanks to the persistence of the septet’s legendary ARMY fandom (or, Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth), BTS has managed to successfully break into the mainstream U.S. music market, and are now viewed as the phenomenal princes of K-pop.
Having been an avid follower of BTS since their Dope and Blood, Sweat & Tears eras, I’ve always admired the group’s ability to fuse elements of K-pop’s conventional, catchy earworm beats with Westernised hip-hop and R&B tunes into their music. As most of BTS’ songs have always been socially conscious and reflective of the societal issues that millennials tend to face (such as loneliness, depression, love, etc.), I was excited to see what sort of overarching message they would offer in their next track. In other words, I was just as hyped and screaming like a fangirl (probably like the rest of the ARMY fans, I kid you not) when BTS officially dropped their music video for Fake Love; And I have to say that our boys did not disappoint.
Emotionally heart-wrenching and filled with melodic sincerity, Fake Love prompts viewers to re-evaluate their perceptions of love (particularly on what constitutes as ‘real’, authentic love), and the importance of staying true to yourself as a person. The song opens with fluid-like movements of the members’ silhouettes, with the lyrics: “For you, I could pretend like I was happy when I was sad/ For you, I could pretend like I was strong when I was hurt”. While it starts off as appearing seemingly positive, and hints about one affecting a ‘happy’ and ‘tough’ demeanour for the sake of a loved one, the song soon progresses into the hidden dangers of constantly maintaining this veneer. The verses, “I wish love was perfect as love itself/ I wish all my weaknesses could be hidden”, suggests that BTS had conceptualised the notion of love as being ‘flawless’ and ‘ideal’, and falsely believed that the concealment of one’s flaws was the only way to sustain love in the long-run.
Fake Love’s music video is jam-packed with aesthetically pleasing visuals and top-notch choreography from start to finish, and also exhibits a somewhat different concept from what the group had released in the past. In terms of musicality, the track leans towards the darker side, and is filled with tinges of regret, melancholy and despair. With its camera angles often focused on a series of closed spaces and wide shots, the video manages to vividly portray the internal struggles that each individual member experiences alone. We watch a gust of wind burst through the room where Jin was standing, followed by him desperately clutching onto a lantern (with a half-bloomed rose inside) amidst the wreckage that surrounded him. In accompaniment to the heart-breaking lyrics, “I grew a flower that can’t be bloomed in a dream that can’t come true”, an image of a shattered lantern with a missing rose soon materialises onto the screen. With roses being symbolic of love, the scene shows how Jin failed to protect the half-bloomed rose (which represented his ‘idealised’ form of love) from external forces, which he then gradually accepts and walks away in defeat.
There’s even a chilling scene of RM staring into his reflection in the mirror, which hints at how he is unable to understand himself and who he really is. The juxtaposition of contrasting colours also reveals the stark difference in personae, as the real-life RM is donned in a blue denim jacket, while his reflection is clothed in a yellow leopard-print jacket. The lines, “Love you so bad, love you so bad/ Mould a pretty lie for you/ Try to erase myself and make me your doll”, also indicate the risks of loving someone too much, to the point that one feels compelled to change himself to appease or meet the expectations of his loved one. The main choreography even draws references to the Japanese pictorial maxim of the three wise monkeys, “see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil”, in which the members are seen doing the same poses each time the chorus hits. Personally, I felt that the maxim-influenced dance implies one’s refusal to accept the harsh reality, that their love for another is inherently ‘fake’, and merely an illusion of ‘real’ love (as one is not being true to himself). Shudders. The song is so deep that it sends chills down my spine!
Moreover, BTS’ broken, doll-like movements in the video also shows that their love has reduced them to mere puppets, and how they’ve lost their own voices in the process of changing themselves. This can be linked to BTS’ affection for the ARMY fans, and how they face constant pressure to pacify their fans’ expectations as prominent K-pop idols in the cutthroat Korean entertainment industry. In fact, given Korea’s unrealistic beauty standards for public figures, idols are often coerced to undergo plastic surgery, in order to appear more visually appealing to the masses and their legions of fans.
Overall, Fake Love displays an artistic, soulful expression of a youth’s agonising experience in love. Rife with symbolism and jaw-dropping visuals, the track is indeed an empowering piece that stirs the senses of audiences, urging us to stay true to our inner selves. All in all, it’s important to remember that nobody’s perfect, and that you should embrace your uniqueness and imperfections. Thanks BTS, for reminding us again how self-love is the only key to finding real, true love.
What are your thoughts on Fake Love? Let us know in the comments.