Unboxing: BTS Lyrics Inside

In June, HYBE's education sector, HYBE EDU, was acquired by Cake Corporation, an edutech company. Their first release with BigHit Music after the acquisition is a 180-page hardcover book called BTS Lyrics Inside, which "features the lyrics, interpretations, and behind-the scenes anecdotes of the ten BTS songs ARMY loves. They have been carefully selected from the many great songs written and composed by BTS." BTS Lyrics Inside is available on Weverse Shop and retails for $26.94 USD or ₩29,000.

BTS Lyrics Inside — Front
BTS Lyrics Inside — Front and Back
BTS Lyrics Inside — Front Endsheet
BTS Lyrics Inside — Table of Contents

The preface included in BTS Lyrics Inside explains the purpose of this book best, so I'll be using their descriptions.

"While there are many great songs that BTS was actively involved in writing the lyrics for, this book presents a selection of 10 songs in total... to ensure adequate coverage of the deeper implications of the lyrics and various anecdotes related to the songs. The selection was based on two surveys about fans' favourite BTS songs conducted in 2020 and 2021, with responses from approximately 145,000 and 204,000 ARMY, respectively."

The 10 songs featured in BTS Lyrics Inside are:

1. Boy with Luv (feat. Halsey)
2. ON
3. Life Goes On
4. IDOL
5. FIRE
6. Magic Shop
7. We are Bulletproof: the Eternal
8. Mikrokosmos
9. Spring Day
10. Yet to Come

BTS Lyrics Inside — BTS Discography
BTS Lyrics Inside — Hangeul and the Pronunciation of the Korean Language
BTS Lyrics Inside — Part 1: Opening

"We also analyzed the set lists from several performances and fan-meets, from Love Yourself Tour in 2018 - 2019 to BTS Permission to Dance: On Stage in 2021 - 2022, and classified 10 songs into categories such as opening song (OPENING), dance number (DANCE), song dedicated to ARMY (FOR ARMY), and closing song (CLOSING), which are based on the progression of a concert."

BTS Lyrics Inside — About the Song

"Each chapter focuses on one song and consists of three sections: About the Song, Sing Along as You Fan-Chant, and Lyrics Inside. Two or three chapters make up a part, and each part ends with some concert-related episodes of a feature covering an aspect of Korean culture that may help deepen readers' understanding of the songs.

In the About the Song section of each chapter, there is a brief introduction of the album and the song, as well as little anecdotes from BTS' lyrics writing and official interviews."

BTS Lyrics Inside — Sing Along as You Fan-Chant

"The Sing Along as You Fan-Chant section presents all the lyrics, their Romanized pronunciations, and the fan-chant to make it easier to sing along to the song."

BTS Lyrics Inside — Lyrics Inside

"The Lyrics Inside section is designed to help readers understand the Korean lyrics written by BTS by offering a translation of the words, an explanation of the vocabulary and expressions used, and an in-depth interpretation of the song. This section also includes genuine quotes from interviews and social media posts of BTS relevant to the lyrics to help readers relate to the messages conveyed by BTS songs."

BTS Lyrics Inside — Music Video Commentary
BTS Lyrics Inside — Back Endsheet

"We... hope that this book will enhance readers' understand of the language of the songs while also deepening the connection they feel with BTS even further, so that they can share the same musical experience as BTS through the universal language of music that bridges BTS and their fans."

BTS Lyrics Inside — Handwriting Note
BTS Lyrics Inside — Handwriting Note (Inside)

The first edition of the book also includes an 80-page notebook of all the lyrics of the 10 songs along with pictures so you can write your own notes in it.

BTS Lyrics Inside isn't necessarily a must-have for casual ARMYs, but it's a really nice item to have for ARMYs who want a deeper look into the intent and background of BTS' lyrics (and maybe learn Hangeul while they're at it). I almost wish they had released this sooner because it has some great information about their concert culture, like official fan chants, cheering order, using ARMY Bombs, what to expect during encore, etc. Still, I think this is a beautiful volume to have with great series potential. It's actually an opportune time to release more volumes since BTS is on a group music break right now...