What happens when the thing you love most starts to feel like a burden? When the passion that once fueled your creativity starts to fade away ? These are the questions BTS ask themselves on Black Swan.
Released in January 17, 2020 as a pre-release single for their album Map of the Soul: 7, Black Swan was inspired by the members feeling creative burnout and the fear it brings.
Fear of the First Death
At its core, Black Swan is rooted in the concept of the “first death” of an artist. The idea that losing the joy and emotional connection tied to your art is the equivalent of a physical death.
That fear sets in as soon as you hear the opening lines:
“Do your thang, do your thang
Do your thang now
Do your thang, do your thang with me now
What’s my thang?
What’s my thang? Tell me now
Tell me now, yeah, yeah, yeah.”
For BTS, “their thang” is their music, their live shows, and the stories they tell through their concepts. But here, slowly beginning to lose the passion that fuels their work. The Korean lyrics use the experience of sinking underwater as a metaphor for how burnout weighs us down. Throughout the song, BTS sing about their the toll their status as famous K-pop idols has taken on their work and the confusion on what they should do about it:
“Ayy, the heart no longer races
When the music starts to play
Tryna’ pull up
Seems like time has stopped
Oh, that would be my first death
I been always afraid of
If this can no longer resonate
No longer make my heart vibrate
Then this may be how
I die my first death, yeah
But what if that moment’s right now, right now?”
“Ocean with all light silenced shut, yeah, yeah, yeah
My wandering feet held in a rut, yeah, yeah, yeah
Every noise and sound’s been cut, yeah, yeah, yeah
Killin’ me now, killin’ me now
Do you hear me? Yeah
Sinking slowly like I’m possessed, nah, nah, nah
Struggle but it’s all ocean floor, nah, nah
Every single moment becomes eternity, yeah, yeah, yeah
Film it now, film it now
Do you hear me? Yeah”
Two Music Videos, One Story
Instead of just one music video, BTS released two visuals for Black Swan. Each one tells a different side of the story while drawing from psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theories about one’s shadow self.
The first was an art film featuring Slovenia’s MN Dance Company. Raw and cinematic, a dancer tries to escape his shadow in an abandoned theater.
This shadow grows stronger as more dancers join in to trap the protagonist. The choreography feels frantic as it captures the internal conflict of fighting with your inner demons and ultimately winning.
The official MV was filmed in the historic Los Angeles Theatre, located in Downtown LA’s historic Broadway Theatre District.
Simple and elegant, each member is lost in a moment of isolation and reflection. Jin is in a room full of mirrors, torn between different identities. V is sitting on a throne-like chair as a black-winged figure passes behind him. We even get to see Jimin transform into a black swan, his shadow self taking over him.
As the video ends, Jung Kook watches his shadow disappear before walking away, having won his battle. His expression shows he’s at peace with himself, having reconciled the parts of himself he used to fear.
Dancing with the Shadow
In many ways, Black Swan foreshadows the themes of Map of the Soul: 7. Identity, ego, facing your fears and reconciliation with the self. It peels back the curtain on the cost of stardom, and the existential dread that even the famous and successful can’t escape from.
The most powerful message of Black Swan is that fear is not the end. It’s the beginning. When the music no longer moves you, when the applause fades, what do you do? You keep dancing.
📌 Changelog
- June 5, 2025: Rewrote the article to include additional information. Changed image.
- March 4, 2020: Date original article was posted
