ARIRANG explained: How BTS used a 130-year-old Korean folk song and a Hollywood star to signal their emotional return

The goal of the album, in their own framing, is to take emotions rooted in Korean cultural memory and expand them into something universal. Longing, distance, reunion, resilience aren’t specific to one culture; they’re human. ARIRANG is BTS’s attempt to sit in that space.

ARIRANG album structure

BTS’ ARIRANG contains 14 tracks, and the sequencing is deliberate. The first half is louder and more outward-facing, while the second half pulls inward.

“Body to Body” opens with energy, designed for live performance and shared celebration with fans. “Hooligan” follows as a reflection on the path they’ve taken and the trail they’ve left for others. “Aliens” leans into BTS’s distinctly unconventional identity, capturing how they’ve always engaged with the world on their own terms. “FYA” signals a fiery return, and “2.0” sits with the present moment, exploring growth and change.

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At the center of the album sits the interlude, “No. 29.” It contains no lyrics and no additional production. The only sound is the tolling of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok, also known as the Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok. This bell is designated as Korea’s 29th national treasure, which is why the track carries that title. It’s a deliberate pause, a moment of cultural grounding before the album moves into its more personal second half.

From there, “SWIM” (the lead single) explores the resolve to keep moving through life. “Merry Go Round” deals with endurance through life’s repetitive cycles. “NORMAL” captures emotions tied to both the stage and everyday life.

“Like Animals” is about living fully and freely. “They Don’t Know ’bout Us” is self-assured and rooted in their own sense of self. “One More Night” explores deep infatuation. The album closes with “Please” and “Into the Sun,” both of which function as vows of commitment.

Who made it

The members took the lead creatively across the board. RM contributed to every track except the interlude. SUGA and j-hope worked on multiple tracks including “Body to Body,” “Merry Go Round,” and “NORMAL.” Jimin is credited on “They Don’t Know ’bout Us” and “Into the Sun.” V contributed to “2.0” and “Into the Sun.” Jung Kook played a significant role in four tracks, including “Hooligan.”

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On the production side, the album brought in a range of notable collaborators: Diplo, Ryan Tedder, Mike WiLL Made-It, Flume, Kevin Parker of Tame Impala, El Guincho, and JPEGMAFIA.

The lead single: SWIM

“SWIM” centers on a straightforward idea: Rather than fighting the current, you keep moving at your own pace. The song frames that choice, just continuing forward through difficulty, as a form of love for life itself.

Talking about the track, BTS commented, “A song that mirrors life itself. I hope it resonates with many people as they move through each day, taking each moment as it comes, splashing along, and continuing to swim forward. The more you listen, the warmer it feels, so I hope it becomes a source of strength as people go through their lives. Also, just like the folk song “Arirang,” which has been passed from mouth to mouth and stayed with people through generations, I hope “SWIM” will remain close to people’s hearts for a long time to come.”

RM led the songwriting on this track, and his approach keeps it grounded. The production builds warmth gradually, and the members have noted that it tends to feel warmer the more you listen to it. The video for “SWIM” was filmed in Lisbon, using a mix of an actual ship and purpose-built studio sets to create a more cinematic visual scale.

American actress Lili Reinhart plays the central character, a woman on a ship navigating an open sea. She is dealing with doubt and emotional difficulty, and throughout the video, the seven members of BTS are present around her. But she cannot see them. They watch over her quietly. They are there but not visible to her.

Director Tanu Muino shaped the video’s narrative, which traces a journey through struggle and slow recovery. The ship functions as a symbolic space, somewhere between the real world and an interior one, where the woman moves through a range of emotions before eventually finding a way forward.

There’s an additional layer fans have connected to the video. The woman is widely interpreted as representing ARMY (BTS’s fanbase), and BTS’s presence in the video reflects how they’ve spoken about the period during their military service hiatus. They could see fans through posts and fan cafes, but fans couldn’t see them in return. The video reverses that dynamic visually. She searches for connection, lives through it fully, and at the end breaks the fourth wall, looking directly at the viewer as though sharing something only they would understand.

Throughout all of this, she doesn’t change who she is. Same clothes, no transformation. She simply exists as she is, inside a space where that feels like enough. That is how ARMY feels about BTS. BTS being there but unseen is not a metaphor for absence. It’s a metaphor for the kind of presence that doesn’t need to be visible to be real.