Kuwentong Bangtan: Music Video Review: Credit Roll, Kim Namjoon, RPWP 2024

This scene from the MV of Credit Roll prompted me to revisit the Constructivist Theory of Media. What we see flashed on the screen is a mediated construct of reality. These constructs are created by content authors and creators with an agenda or a purpose to inform, to persuade, to influence, to entertain; for propaganda at some point; and in many cases, to control the ebb and flow of information and shaping public opinion in the process. In the video, Namjoon is speaking in front of a camera in a room he shares with other people. A story in a story with layers that can be peeled.

While Namjoon faces the camera on broadcast, he communicates his message that has been crafted, framed and produced for an intended audience. Sadly, it escapes them as yet another TV production. Unaware of the dynamics of the media content prepared for their consumption, they choose the appeal of food. They huddle and listen to each other’s stories on real time while partaking on dishes shared within their circle.

The technology we use to communicate and make connections can very well be the technology that divides and isolates us from each other. Namjoon finds himself at the right place with something to say but he is the wrong person because, people interpret content from media and the internet based on their own values, cultural norms, beliefs and biases. More often than not, people believe and listen to who they know within the confines of their chosen cliques.

When the credits roll, Namjoon asks, “Do you hang tight or goes off to life?” Whatever our answer is, he is grateful because, despite being "godamn" lost, he can come back to “me”.

Thank you, Kim Namjoon for making RPWP.  What a well thought out album. Well curated, artistic and tastefully done. For the past three weeks, it challenged me to rethink of my own message and biases; my fears and the uncertainty of a future yet to come. Thank you for opening doors to find “me” and doing it in the most humane way.

Now, I’m off to do some art.

#RPWP_CreditRoll #RM_RPWP #festa2024 #ARMYGlowUp2025 #AGU_Communication

Kuwentong Bangtan: Come Back to Me, A Music Video Review

Kim Namjoon, my ultimate bias and leader of BTS, has once again served awesome sauce. In his new single, Come Back to Me, he contemplates on his many personas which he assumed, earned and accepted over time. Many of these personas are dictated upon him by family, fans and friends. If you are a solid and loyal ARMY who has been in the fandom for quite a while, you know the depth of Namjoon’s pain and his years of struggle in dealing with these personas. To deal with this tension, he poured it all on creating music - his one true love. Oh, he loves many things, art, books, trees, the stars and ARMY; his family and blood brothers; his freedom. But music is his home.

In this home, he created masterpieces that speak of his battles, both internal and external. It can be found in BTS’ decade old discography. One of them is Intro: Persona (EP, Map of the Soul 2019) where he asks, “Who the hell am I?” The song, a fusion of hiphop and trap genre, is an assertion of self preservation. Taking off from the Love Yourself era and the UN Speech of 2018, Namjoon, in Intro: Persona, decides to choose his Self from the many personas and persevere seeking what will make him whole in a manufactured and plastic industry.

Forward to 2022. On the release of his full length album, Indigo, he sings of yet another decision of being true to oneself in the title track Wildflower. Using the metaphors of fireworks, flowers growing in the wild and a landscape of mountain and air, Namjoon tells his story of equilibrium.

At the height of fame and global success, BTS pauses for military service. Who else can give up gold and glory to fulfill yet another duty, another designed persona by someone else but our Bulletproof Boyscouts. They know their priority. They are balancing out roles from duties keeping intact the identity that grounds them. The artistic identity of the seven shine so bright in this era of hiatus as one member drops content and solo projects one after the other highlighting their own choice of music and art. I have never seen such diversity and depth by a Kpop group or foreign act.

Then again, BTS is a class on their own.

With the release of Namjoon’s single, Come Back to Me, he once again harps on the theme of choice and self love. This time, he does it with sophistication and tenderness. The music video shows him in many rooms and in many personas. He experiences different levels of conflict in each. Meeting his anima half way through, he is able to make peace with his personas. In the end, he elects to be with his anima. His soul. His true self. Together they left the rooms of personas. Pain divine

This is bittersweet for me. CBTM touches and communicates with me on many levels. That happy sad feeling lingers as I watch our Bangtan boys grow up and become the persons they choose to be.

Now, it is my turn to come back to me.