Popular K-Pop boy band BTS recently teased their upcoming album with an animated video that showcases Howard University’s campus. This nod to a pivotal moment in Korean American history sparked mixed reactions from users on online platforms and social media.
What cultural reference did BTS use in their animated trailer?
The group released the animated trailer on March 12 to promote their fifth studio album, Arirang, their first musical project together in three years following a hiatus for mandatory military service in South Korea, according to WJLA. The new album will be released on Friday.
In the video, the seven band members are seen rushing to board a ship to the Americas. They later arrived on what appaers to Howard University’s campus, where they started performing for a small crowd. The trailer pays tribute to seven Korean students at Howard University whose singing, in 1896, became the first recorded Korean voices in the United States.
The Howard University Founders’ Library, which opened in the 1920s, was featured in the background of the video. On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the institution released a statement about the historic ties between Howard University, Korea and other cultures.
“They became the first to record Korean voices and music in the United States — an early example of the University’s enduring role as a crossroads of global culture,” A Howard University spokesperson wrote in a statement obtained by WJLA.
Who were the seven Koreans at Howard?
The Washington Post published an article on May 8, 1896, about seven young Korean men who came from “notable families” and were well-educated but wanted to learn English in America.
They had left Japan, where they were studying, with the consent of the Korean prime minister, who also provided them with funds to travel to British Columbia. In spring 1896, the young men ran out of funds and called the Korean minister in Washington for help, according to an article from The Washington Times Herald at the time, Forbes reported.
Minister Suh Kwang Bum paid for the young men’s expedition from Vancouver to Washington and partnered with Howard University to enroll them. The students stayed in Clark Hall free of charge, as the popular HBCU became a hub for enslaved African Americans to gain an education as well as other international students who were shunned elsewhere due to strict racial laws, per Forbes.
After settling at Howard University, three of the young men were invited to the home of ethnologist Alice Fletcher on July 24, 1896. From there, Fletcher recorded several songs with Ahn Jeong-sik, Lee Hee-Cheol and Son Rong, whose singing became the first Korean voices ever recorded, according to the Library of Congress‘ records.
They recorded several Korean songs, including the “Love Song: Ar-ra-rang,” which was the first known recording of “Arirang,” a folk song and Korea’s unofficial anthem, according to Forbes. While the students’ whereabouts later in life remain unknown, their historic contribution to Korean American history is something many people may not know existed.
What are online users and social media saying about Howard’s feature?
BTS originally dropped the video to their 78.2 million followers on Instagram. Since then, the animated trailer has garnered mixed reactions from users on online platforms and social media. Some social media users praised the boy band for highlighting how K-Pop is deeply rooted in Black culture, while others criticized them for only having a few Black people in the crowd at Howard University, even though it is supposed to be a historically Black college.
“Kpop comes from Black culture,” one user on NBC Washington’s post wrote.
“People are so ready to be mad at something and miss the whole point. They took inspiration from seven Koreans coming to the Americas to record a song the song is literally the name of the new album. The animation shows two Black people from the front but when it zooms out there are even more we don’t know what color they are but here people go blaming BTS or their company for this,” another wrote.
“This was fascinating! I’m a massive BTS fan but agree it would have been nice to see more black faces to pay homage to the university and black culture contributes to Kpop,” a third user wrote.
On a Reddit forum, some users thought BTS’ representation of Black people in the video, especially at Howard, was disrespectful.
“I was never a huge army but I did like Jhope and I liked their album ‘The Most Beautiful Moment in Life”’ so I occasionally checked in on them, but yeah this the last straw for me. I will not support anything they put out going forward. This is EXTREMELY disrespectful,” one user wrote.
“I live in Nigeria and even I know Howard university is an hbcu. This is so ignorant,” another wrote.
“This is what happens when you center white people as part of the fantasy of the group. There’s literally zero chance this wasn’t intentional,” a third user wrote.
What has BTS said?
BTS actually addressed their pulling of history in text that displays before the video gets started.
In a disclaimer before the video reads:
This video was inspired by the story of seven young Koreans as documented in The Washington Post on May 8, 1896 (“Seven Koreans at Howard”), some of whom captured the first known audio recordings of Koreans in Washington, D.C., on July 24 of that same year.
As a modern reimagining, this work draws upon the profound cultural significance of these historical records, which preserve the authentic voices of young Korean men and the first-ever recording of “Arirang.”
This production may deviate from actual historical events and does not serve as a formal evaluation or interpretation of any historical event or person.
The group nor management has said anytihng additional following the release.
