Can your boy band do this?
The best-selling Korean sensation BTS just dropped the first single from its new album — Map of the Soul: 7, out Feb. 21 — and it's a swirl of string-swept emo-rap introspection. The song's artistic ambitions are impressive enough, but check out the accompanying art film, in which the MN Dance Company (from Slovenia, not Minnesota) interprets the song through lavish choreography, shot in what appear to be the bones of an old shopping mall.
It's a bold step for a group whose worldwide commercial dominance has only emboldened its artistic impulses. Opening with a quote from Martha Graham about a dancer's mortality, BTS's "Black Swan" film nicely reflects the song's message — about artists' fraught relationship with the work that sustains them.
Map of the Soul: 7 comes out Feb. 21 via Big Hit.
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