The Significance of Kim Namjoon as a Celebrity
Kim Namjoon or RM is known as the leader of the Kpop band named BTS who is taking the world by storm at the moment. Kim Namjoon is a rapper, lyricist, singer, dancer, and a very capable leader to one of the biggest musicians in the world. But there is more to Kim Namjoon that will be reiterated in this video (Aminah, 2021).
How did Kim Namjoon become RM of BTS- it all started in 2010 when Namjoon was just a student and he was one of the best students in his class. He had also ranked among the 1 percent in his country to excel in the English test. He was not only a good student but secretly, he was a rapper and a lyricist from a very young age (Nisa, 2021). He used to participate in underground rap battles and was quite well known in the underground rap scene. There, he was known by the name Runch Randa. This is when the CEO of Big Hit, Bang Shi Hyuk discovered him in a rap battle and he saw the charisma inside the little boy. He it all his faith in Namjoon and scouted him into the company to create BTS around him. That is when the grueling journey began for Namjoon and his six friends who were going to join him on this journey.
- The first part of the journey- Namjoon loved writing, reading and rapping from a very young age. He has an IQ level of 148 and it is pretty visible in his song writing. Each and every song is filled with literary elements and metaphors. He has always proved time and again that he is a marvelous leader and musician. He started his journey in 2010 and since then he has been training to become a musician and performer. The other six members slowly came into his life through auditions and his team was formed. The CEO always wanted BTS to be around him and Namjoon was going to be a permanent member even when others came and went (Nainggolan, 2021). The other members who were finalized for the team were Kim Seokjin, Min Yoongi, Jung Hoseok, Park Jimin, Kim Taehyung, and Jeon Jungkook. Each and every member contributes to the team of BTS in a unique way and makes Namjoon become a good leader with their own hard work. BTS is a team and everyone depends on each other.
- In 2013, the group finally debuted and Namjoon was the leader. Since then, he educated and instilled thoughts about society and self-love in the fans named ARMY. He always talked about important things such as loving oneself, thinking about society, reading books, and having hope. Kim Namjoon also gave a speech at the UN in 2018 which was extremely profound and it established the fact that he was a good leader and a celebrity along with being a positive influence on the youth.
2:30- 3:30- UN speech
(Unicef.org, 2018).
the speech at the 2018 UN general Assembly contains one of the most memorable speeches by Namjoon. His speech reminded the world of the significance of self-love and self-identity. He reminded the youth that race, skin color, language, and ethnicity did not matter because the most important thing was to voice out one’s opinion. He said that accepting where one came from and accepting one’s flaws as well as mistakes was the first step to self-love. His speech was not only impactful because of the encouraging words but also because he has always spoken bout self-love and respect in every single speech. Even in his V live videos, he always encourages ARMYs to love themselves and work on their flaws but with kindness. His struggles to fight for his band and his teammates and also protect the fandom is definitely something worth speaking about (Parc and Kim, 2020)
The lyrics written by Namjoon have always been used in the discography of BTS and he has more than 200 songs to his credit. The songs like Spring day, Forever rain, Persona, and Trivia- Love are only a few examples of his lyrical genius. The band has won more than 50 daesangs. They have also won MMA, and BBMAs and are Grammy-nominated. These aspects prove that Kim Namjoon is not only a marvelous celebrity and a star, but he s also a very positive example for the youth and is a public figure, all at the age of 27.
The main topic of the video essay is a star case study and the star chosen for this case study is Kim Namjoon from BTS. The main central claim of the video is about the humanitarian speech that Namjoon had given at the UN in 2018 and the kind of lyricist he is. This video essay seeks to establish the importance of Kim Namjoon as a BTS leader, as a celebrity, a lyricist, a rapper, and finally as a public figure. This video essay talks about the significance of Kim Namjoon as a celebrity and the contributions he has made to the music industry as well as society. He has been an inspiration to the youth with his lyrics in songs like Spring Day, Persona, Respect, forever Rain, Reflection and Life Goes On (Ahn, 2021). He has inspired the youth to love themselves, speak about their identity and accept their flaws. He has advocated for anti-bullying, donated to various charities, and has become one of the best rappers and performers in the music industry. He has also been awarded the cultural merit award of South Korea. He has proved the fact that music transcends language and barriers (Rahmawati and Suprijadi, 2021).
Kim Namjoon’s Contributions to the Music Industry and Society
The two major points of this video essay are the UN speech by Kim Namjoon and the lyricism that he offers. The UN speech was a turning point in the career of BTS as a group and also for all the seven members of BTS individually. The UN speech and the most important words spoken by Namjoon and did a marvelous job in incorporating the diversity of the world while speaking. He talked about himself as a little boy from Ilsan in South Korea. He aids how he was learning every day about himself and his identity along with learning about the world. He also accepted his flaws and tried to change them. Finally, he urged the youth to “speak yourself” and not hide their identity (Kanozia and Ganghariya, 2021). Namjoon encouraged the youth in speaking up irrespective of their skin color, race, ethnicity, or gender identity. This speech proved the fact that he was not just a rapper or a performer or even a celebrity. He was actually a spokesperson for the youth and the fans named ARMY and he always tries to educate people about important aspects of life. He is an avid book reader and is maybe one of the very few artists who recommend books to his fans and also goes to art museums to support artists.
The second part of the video was about the lyrics that he writes. He has been credited for writing more than 200 songs for BTS. Each and every song speaks about important things like psychology, mental health, society, self-love, and self-identity. He has written lyrics that have metaphors, alliterations, and genius wordplay. For instance, in the rap named Ddaeng, he used the Korean word “ddaeng” in five different manners all of which had a different meaning. “ddaeng” is a sound that is like the ding of an alarm or of the school bell and he used this sound in different meanings. He used the word “ddaeng” as an onomatopoeia (Evangelista, 2020).
He has also written lyrics such as, “Are we living to die, Or are we dying to live.” (Namjoon,2016). He also wrote lyrics that spoke of mental health such as “The world is just another name for despair, My height is/ /just another diameter for the earth / I am all of my joy and anxiety / It repeats every day, the love and hate directed to me.” (Namjoon,2016). These prove that his thought process is far more profound than other musicians. His lyrics not only talk about love but they talk about important things in society, self-love, and mental health.
Therefore, the celebrity named Kim Namjoon is worth the recognition and his attitude towards the world and music has been evaluated in the video essay. He is not only an outstanding rapper with a dynamic flow but he is a genius lyricist, Grammy-nominated artist, and a musician. Above all, he is an individual who values his position and imparts hope to people.
References
Ahn, H., 2021. 15 English and K-pop The case of BTS. English in East and South Asia: Policy, Features and Language in Use.
Aminah, S., 2021. presupposition in kim namjoon’s speech at united nation general assembly. PROJECT (Professional Journal of English Education), 4(2), pp.172-177.
Amino, A., 2018. BTS Cultural Merit Award | ARMY’s Amino. [online] ARMY’s | aminoapps.com. Available at: <https://aminoapps.com/c/btsarmy/page/blog/bts-cultural-merit-award/bNwj_MNrUouBl5Xd4wEab0LoMEl0pdpeNLK> [Accessed 13 April 2022].
Aryawan, L.P.K.F., 2022. The Deixis of Motivational Speech Remarked by BTS’Kim Namjoon at The United Nations General Assembly (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha).
Atmaja, E.K., Ardini, S.N. and Lestari, S., 2021, July. speech function analysis used in the united nations speech video about youth and self-acceptance delivered by kim namjoon of bts. in unclle (Undergraduate Conference on Language, Literature, and Culture) (Vol. 1, No. 01).
Evangelista, R.A., 2020. Beyond The (K-pop) Scene: Analyzing the Role of BTS’s Love Myself Campaign and Celebrity Diplomacy in the Promotion of UNICEF’s Child Protection Campaign, conference Philippine Korean Studies Symposium.
Kanozia, R. and Ganghariya, G., 2021. More than K-pop fans: BTS fandom and activism amid COVID-19 outbreak. Media Asia, 48(4), pp.338-345.
NAINGGOLAN, F.C., 2021. an analysis of figurative language in the song lyrics of map of the soul: 7 album.
Namjoon, K., 2015. RM – Life (English Translation). [online] Available at: <https://genius.com/Genius-english-translations-rm-life-english-translation-lyrics> [Accessed 13 April 2022].
Namjoon, K., 2016. Genius English Translations – BTS – Reflection (English Translation) Lyrics | Genius Lyrics. [online] Genius. Available at: <https://genius.com/Genius-english-translations-bts-reflection-english-translation-lyrics> [Accessed 13 April 2022].
Nisa, L.C., 2021. A Discourse Analysis of Kim Namjoon’s speech at United Nation (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Bumigora).
Parc, J. and Kim, Y., 2020. Analyzing the reasons for the global popularity of BTS: A new approach from a business perspective. Journal of International Business and Economy, 21(1), pp.15-36.
Rahmawati, R. and Suprijadi, D., 2021. The mood types analysis in script of rm’s speech at the united nation. Project (Professional Journal of English Education), 4(4), pp.574-580.
Unicef.org. 2018. “We have learned to love ourselves, so now I urge you to ‘speak yourself.’”. [online] Available at: <https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/we-have-learned-love-ourselves-so-now-i-urge-you-speak-yourself> [Accessed 13 April 2022].
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