After that song that broke all records, topped all charts and was heard at every metro station, laundry house and fast food restaurant, the seven are back.
Donning cowboy outfits, BTS, the biggest pop group in the world, delivered a groovy track through their latest release ‘Permission to Dance’ on Friday.
The new English single was released to celebrate the eight anniversary of the South Korean group’s fanbase touted ARMY.
Prior to this, the Grammy-nominated group had topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks since the release of their last single Butter last month.
Ever since the start of the pandemic that made them cancel public shows and charted concerts, the group has been delivering messages of hope through their songs. PTD also stuck to that tradition when it showed a teaser with their lead rapper SUGA holding a newspaper that carries news of the end of the pandemic and the beginning of a new era.
Unronically, the song talks about a tomorrow when “we don’t need permission to dance,” when we can go out freely, when we can give up the masks and be with one another without fear.
SUGA, whose real name is Min Yoongi, is jokingly given the title ‘Minstradamus’ by the fans due to his history of making fairly accurate predictions in the past. Portraying him reading a newspaper saying how COVID-19 comes to an end in 2022 is no coincidence and it carries a strong message of hope for the crisis-stricken world.
The music video for the song directed by Yog Seok Choi of Lumpens and Woogie Kim of MOTHER shows the journey of the purple balloon. According to SUGA’s newspaper, purple balloons signal the end of the pandemic.
The previous English singles of the group -- Butter and Dynamite -- were somewhat under the disco-funk category whereas PTD went straight for the country vibes. This could be the most ‘American’ of BTS’ tracks that were released so far.
From the group dancing in a very Texas-esque desert-like setting to showing people from all across the world moving towards a world where one can kiss freely without masks, the music video talks about a brighter 2022.
The song was co-written by English singer Ed Sheeran in collaboration with Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid and Jenna Andrews.
PTD comes as part of the Butter CD single which was also released on Friday.
Since their 2013 debut, the band -- whose full name is Bangtan Sonyeondan (Bulletproof Boy Scouts) -- has ridden a global K-Pop wave with catchy, upbeat music along with lyrics and social campaigns aimed at empowering young people. The band has already bagged honours from the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.
The group’s first English language single Dynamite, released in August 2020, won their first ever Grammy Awards nomination in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category last year.
In November 2020, the group released a self-produced album, ‘BE’ with a lead single ‘Life Goes On’ which portrayed the struggles and hopes of survival in the trying times in a world shut down by the global pandemic.
