Listening as an act of love
How the StoryCorps Project and BTS validate the Human Experience
From the outside looking in, the BTS phenomenon seems to be a grand and lucrative affair. A quick breeze through this seven-member boy band from South Korea through news articles, and international award shows, one can easily observe the polished looks, slick dance moves, and not to mention, images from their concerts that promise nothing short of an epic, and colorful experience. On the surface, all of these may amount to a well-constructed celebration of the performing arts, and to seven artists that do not seem to be human. However, we find upon closer inspection, that these assumptions are not entirely true, and through listening, we find that the shameless importance placed on the human experience resides at the heart of the relationship between BTS and their ARMY fan base.
The idea for this piece began with a book that I had purchased two years ago at a little bookstore that sold second-hand items. Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life From the StoryCorps Project. Looking back now, the first part of that title had been eye-catching. What a line it was. Listening is an act of love. Clearly, but boldly it seemed to flash in delicate red letters on the cover, what I now see as a simple but powerful idea. Before the editor’s introductory note, a quote from ethnomusicologist, Alan Lomax sets the tone: “The essence of America lies not in the headlined heroes…but in the everyday folks who live and die unknown, yet leave their dreams and legacies.” But what is the book and the project all about exactly? Though it had been a while since I had flipped through its pages, the concept and the idea was clear to me as if it had been only yesterday. Created by radio host, and producer Dave Isay back in 2003, the StoryCorps project was built on the idea that the lives and stories of everyday people are important, and interesting, in the same way that the stories of celebrities and public figures are deemed important and interesting by the media (1).
Isay outlines the process quite simply. First, an interested participant must make an appointment in order to visit their recording booth. The participant can come alone, but they can bring anyone along whether it’s a parent, a friend, a co-worker. Anyone who would be willing to talk and share their story. Once the participants arrive at the booth, a trained facilitator will be waiting to take everyone inside, shut the door and press the record button. Once inside, everyone else sits at a small table equipped with microphones. And once the facilitator does indeed begin recording, it is then that our main participant is asked questions such as: “What is the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?”, or “What did your mother sing to you when you were a baby?” and perhaps something introspective like, “How do you want to be remembered?” At the end of the forty-minute session, two CDs have been created. One is given to the participants as their own personal copy, while the other will be stored at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress (2–3). This book is a compilation of chosen interviews whose participants had signed and agreed to their stories being published, along with their photos shared. Any special requests not to reveal other personal information had of course, been honored to protect privacy.
The variety of questions often asked or suggested on a StoryCorps booth, and the increasing level of intimacy and intensity that they carry, is comparable to that of a concept that BTS has used for their 2019 fan meeting concert in Seoul, South Korea. The theme of the concert was Magic Shop, which alludes to a song of the same name featured in their album Love Yourself: Tear. The idea was that this ‘Magic Shop’ was to be a place where all of the listeners’ and the audiences’ worries and stories would be heard, which again, is a direct reference to the lyrics of the song:
On a day you hate being yourself
Let’s build a door in your mind
Once you open the door and enter, this place will wait for you
It’s okay to believe, Magic Shop that will comfort you
Aside from the song, the idea of a Magic Shop is also a direct reference to a technique in psychology called psychodrama, which according to the band’s teaser for their Fake Love music video, exchanges fear for a positive attitude. Though they’ve gone on to dramatically explore the idea, it is the version of the Magic Shop in their fan concert that they’ve truly branded as something that could heal. Rubin notes that the buildup of the questions in the Magic Shop VCR: “‘What is your name?’ ‘How old are you’ ‘Where are you from?’ ‘What is your interest’… ‘What is your most important memory in life?’”, was similar to that of a game that they had done and studied about in graduate school. A game derived from a psychology study, that was meant to spark and create deep conversations and induce intimacy (though momentarily) among participants. The concert questions are similar to those of the study, because it travels from surface-level topics all the way to the deeply personal, and that this kind of self-disclosure, is what can be in BTS’ own words be called, “speaking yourself.” It is in this way, Rubin concludes, that “Intimacy becomes healing. We feel like we matter.”
At first, there was some sort of distance on my part as I flipped through the book two years ago. Not being American, there was not much historical connection with me, though the more I read, the more the significance of this book and its stories began to take shape. The ordinary, the mundane, has never felt more important and precious. The topics ranged from love stories, coming-of-age, anecdotes from work, survival and everything and anything that any of these people could think of sharing. There was a vulnerability and exuberant energy to these people, whose narratives went back to the same themes over and over again: love, hope, survival, and death. From the plumber who shares his work experience in detail, to the immigrant mother from India, and to survivors of the Second World War, or even the couples reminiscing way back when they were courting one another. Each and every story meant something to someone else, be it their family, their friends, and quite possibly, their future descendants. The little bits that are shared in these interviews, takes me back to this part of a verse from one of BTS’ tracks, Paradise, from their Love Yourself Tear album:
It’s okay to have different names to your dream
To buy a laptop next month,
Or to just eat and sleep
Or to do nothing but have a lot of money
Dream doesn’t need to be anything grand
You can just become anyone
We deserve a life
Whether it’s big or small, you’re still just you
Though the song in itself is specific in addressing society’s idea of what a dream is, it also looks at the so-called small or common things that may not seem so special in the eyes of institutions, or society in general, as something that one can be proud of. For if these small things are part of what truly makes an individual unique and ‘them,’ then it matters. Every single detail about an individual’s dreams, hopes, and stories matter. It matters because it takes up a small but irreplaceable space in a person’s life.
Oceans away and many years after StoryCorps had been established, we now turn to South Korea. Yiyun Kang had been one of many artists chosen to be a part of ‘Connect BTS,’ a global art project that spanned five countries. The artists chosen were invited to present their work in any way they choose, and all of the exhibits were open and free for the public. The first of the exhibits opened in London on the second week of January earlier this year, followed shortly after by Germany, Argentina, South Korea, and last but not the least, New York (Rea). Kang, the only Korean among the chosen group of artists, chose to directly reference the band that had started the art project through her piece called ‘Beyond the Scene.’ Interviewed by Korea Joogang Daily, she shares her process and thoughts on the making of her work, and the resulting exhibit. In preparation, she had gone on to study videos of BTS’ dancing and choreography, their songs and even interviewed several fans in order to better understand the band and their relationship with their most engaged and active audience, the ARMY. One of the most striking moments in this interview was Kang’s account of an interview with an ARMY living in London:
I interviewed 15 fans, and seven of them, who allowed their names to be revealed, are credited in the artwork. Among them was a Korean-British housewife in her 60s, who has been living in Britain for more than three decades. She hadn’t known anything about K-pop until she happened to see the BTS members speak at the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 and took interest in them. Then, she began to search their songs and music videos on the smartphone. When she saw the music video for “Fake Love” [a song about the someone exhausted by self-denying, self-sacrificing love] she burst into tears, because the song reminded her of her own life devoted only to her husband and children — not herself. She cried again telling this in the interview with me, and I also cried with her. After that, she became a big fan of BTS, going to concerts, including the London Wembley Stadium concert.
It is precisely in this interview, that I find the idea of sharing narratives, even if it’s a narrative that many others share, to be powerful. Kang understood this as an artist herself, learning firsthand how a band could affect millions of lives all over the world. As observers, we see the connection too. Whether we see the psychology of it, or whether it’s a need or instinct proven by science or something else, the fact that so many can respond to a question, a shared story or a call, is something that cannot be denied.
Surely, there are many projects, spaces, communities and platforms around the world now, open and buzzing with the same kind of emotion and powerful simplicity. The StoryCorps project wanted to give the participants with their own memories, conversations, and the assurance that it is they, the people who make history. That by virtue of their existence, an individual deserves to feel heard, to not feel alone, and to connect with others, and in a way, to not feel that they have been erased from the face of the earth. Because somehow, somewhere, there are others who have stories to tell, and that they will understand. And through this understanding, the audience could reach out to one another in agreement on a melody or a lyric from a certain band and say: “This touched my soul.” And that somewhere in South Korea, there too, are the seven members of that same band. A group among many who were placed by their own dreams and decisions and perhaps by some unknown force, decided to unwaveringly step out into the biggest stage and sing through one of their latest songs, We are Bulletproof: the Eternal: “Tell me your every story/ Tell me why you don’t stop this/ Tell me why you still walkin/ Walkin with us…”
SOURCES
“Beyond the Scene exhibit in Seoul.” ArtRabbit. January 14, 2020. https://img.artrabbit.com/events/yiyun-kang-beyond-the-scene/images/GZ5e6bdhZvlu/827x552/Bildschirmfoto-2020–01–28-um-16–42–23.webp.
“BTS at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.” Forbes. October 24, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2019/10/24/win-or-lose-bts-american-music-award-nominations -are-a-sign-theyre-being-taken-seriously/#2357d2434bd8.
“BTS performing at Wembley Stadium.” BigHit Entertainment. 2019.
BTS. “ ‘FAKE LOVE’ Official Teaser 1.” YouTube, uploaded by BigHit Labels, 14 May 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP71K87Hp5Y.
“Inside a StoryCorps recording booth.” StoryCorps.Org. https://storycorpsorgstaging.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/Mobile_Recording-Through-Window_photo-credit-Derek-Pruitt-The-Post-Star_lo-1–1500x832.jpg
Isay, Dave. Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorpsProject. The Penguin Press, 2007.
“Listening is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life book cover.” Amazon. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41DyhQdrodL.jpg. 2007.
Moon, So-Young. “Stories from ARMY Bring Yiyun Kang’s ‘Beyond the Scene’ to Life.” Korea JoongAng Daily, 29 Jan. 2020, koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3073113.
Rea, Naomi. “K-Pop Supergroup BTS Commissioned Art Stars to Create an Astonishing Array of Artworks Around the World-See Them Here.” Artnet News, 17 Feb. 2020, news.artnet.com/exhibitions/bts-k-pop-public-art-connect-1775838.
Rubin, Sydney. “The Magic Shop, part 3: Magical Healing Therapy.” Sydney Rubin, 29 Oct. 2019, https://sydneyrubin.org/2019/10/29/the-magic-shop-part-3-magical-healingtherapy/fbclid=IwAR04s0qvg3tezqTn__ rNps690gqobpq4L7c8loJcRVhON0PTkngvweMSHJA. Accessed 3 May 2020.
All lyric translations are from Doolset Lyrics.
