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BTS’s fifth full-length album, “ARIRANG”, carries special meaning. It marks the group’s first team album release in nearly three years and nine months, while also presenting the direction the seven members are ready to move toward together.

According to BigHit Music, the members were deeply involved in the entire songwriting process, infusing their own thoughts, colors, and reflections drawn from their long journey into the music itself.

During a Weverse Live session, the members shared that they had worked on around 140 songs before carefully selecting just 14 tracks for the final album. That number alone speaks to the time, deliberation, and sincerity behind this release.

The choice of the title “Arirang” invites deeper reflection. As a group composed entirely of Korean members, BTS has introduced the name “Korea” to the world not through slogans, but through music that resonates across cultures.

Arirang has never belonged to a single era. It is a name that has carried different emotions across generations. This article begins by exploring the meaning behind that name, and why BTS chose it at this moment in time. The story continues with Gwanghwamun in the next installment.

“Arirang” is a deeply familiar name. And precisely because of that, it is not a word that can be chosen lightly. Names that carry tradition also carry weight.

Naming their fifth full-length album “Arirang” feels less like a stylistic concept and more like a statement. It reflects where BTS stands today, and the direction they are prepared to move toward.

Arirang is not tied to a single era. It has been sung across generations, taking on different meanings in moments of joy, departure, resistance, and comfort.

After nearly three years and nine months, choosing “Arirang” may represent both a return and a quiet reorganization of their journey— not by erasing the past, but by acknowledging it.

Arirang is difficult to define as a single song. While it shares one name, its rhythm, tempo, and emotion vary widely by region. It has been sung as a song of farewell, labor, resistance, and comfort.

In that sense, Arirang is less a melody and more a collection of emotional memories shaped by the people who lived through different eras. Its origins remain uncertain, and its meaning has never been fixed.

From the simplicity of Jeongseon Arirang to the liveliness of Miryang Arirang and the bittersweet depth of Jindo Arirang, these variations reveal that Arirang carries countless lived experiences within its name.

Arirang has never been a finished song. It survives by being re-sung and reinterpreted, with each generation adding its own emotions to the memory it carries.

Attempts to define the meaning of “Arirang” have existed for generations. Yet no single interpretation has ever been universally accepted.

Some trace it to a word of love, others to expressions of aching emotion. There are legends, labor-song origins, and even theories of linguistic influence from northern cultures.

What matters is not which theory is correct. Rather, Arirang has endured precisely because it was never confined to one fixed meaning.

If its meaning had been limited to a single emotion or era, the song might have faded with time. Instead, Arirang remained flexible— becoming love, farewell, rhythm, resistance, or comfort, depending on who sang it and when.

The absence of a definitive answer left space for reinterpretation. That openness is what allowed Arirang to remain alive in the present.

The diversity of Arirang becomes clearer when viewed through its regional variations. Though they share the same name, each version reflects a different way of living.

Gyeonggi Arirang is the most familiar and balanced. Its restrained melody allows listeners to project their own emotions onto it.

Miryang Arirang is lively and fast-paced, carrying energy and resilience rather than sorrow.

Jindo Arirang blends deep sorrow with excitement, releasing emotion through powerful vocal expression.

Jeongseon Arirang, the oldest form, is plain yet deeply resonant, leaving a quiet but lasting impression.

Together, these variations show that Arirang does not repeat a single emotion, but gathers many lives under one name.

Arirang is often called “Korea’s unofficial second anthem.” It has appeared at international events and sports games, sometimes alongside the national anthem, sometimes in its place.

The irony is that Arirang was never created as an “official” song. It became symbolic because people chose to sing it, and memory turned it into representation.

Its status has never been static. Depending on the era and interpretation, it has faced discomfort or controversy, yet in other moments it became a language of solidarity and comfort.

Even outside Korea, Arirang is received in different ways— as a sound that evokes “Korea,” or as an emotion of farewell and longing. It continues to travel without being fixed to a single meaning.

In the end, the phrase “second anthem” points less to official patriotism and more to how a shared name can hold many feelings, and still become a symbol for a community.

All of these questions lead to one point: why did BTS choose “Arirang” now?

This album marks the group’s return as a team after nearly three years and nine months. During that time, each member continued their own journey, before coming back together.

The members were deeply involved in songwriting, creating around 140 tracks and selecting just 14 for the final album. This was not simply a comeback, but a process of reflection and decision.

Just as Arirang has never been fixed to one emotion, this album leaves space for listeners to place their own memories and feelings onto the music.

BTS’s “Arirang” is not about returning to the past. It is about standing where they are now, and choosing to sing forward from that point.

The name “Arirang” does not exist only within music. Its meaning shifts depending on where it is sung.

Gwanghwamun Square is a place layered with memory— moments of gathering, voices raised together, and meanings that continue to evolve.

Like Arirang itself, Gwanghwamun cannot be reduced to a single identity. That is why this choice feels less like staging and more like a message.

The next part of this series explores why Gwanghwamun became the stage for BTS’s “Arirang,” and how this space reshapes the meaning of the performance.

This series is not simply about a comeback, but about documenting a moment in time.