black swan is just such a radical masterpiece. literally nobody ever makes music about falling out of love with their craft. come to think of it, it's a topic most artists would avoid bec of the risk of being perceived as "done for". and bts chose to do that in a monumental album

artists usually see being an "artist" as their primary identity. and yet what happens when the very thing that defines u, is something u no longer find solace in? people talk about art being healing but it is rarely spoken about how depression curbs the ability to create

+ artists have to be content creators today. the constant pressure to churn out content often weights you down and the burnout it causes does make it difficult to find that initial untainted joy u found when u first became an artist. i can't believe bts REALLY explored that.

the music video? the serve? the parallels to black swan? losing oneself in one's art so much that it becomes both your salvation and your downfall? wow. not to mention how their voices blend into one another. because it's a common reality the 7 face.

the visuals of the song look gothic and resort to iconography from the past but it talks about a very, very real and 21st century experience of what it is to be a creator. it's no longer 'isolated genius' or 'a masterpiece a year'. it's an endless line-up of putting out products.

yeah the song's just so special to me bec it helped me when i was going through something similar earlier this year and also what made me an army. the way my jaw dropped after watching that corden stage

ot7 black swan // The Dance (1910) by Henri Matisse

black swan (2010) Darren Aronofsky
black swan (2020) BTS

cinematic parallels

jimin in black swan MV // The Swan (1915) by Hilma Af Klint

in conclusion black swan is a queen and we must all bow down to her greatness

also i just want to add that it's wild how bts reclaimed the west's narrative of "poor overworked kpop boys" and "the dark side of kpop" through black swan. they talked about creative burnout on their own terms. it could not have been a non-risky choice.