Sgmb - Tumblr Posts
I will sell my first born to be a part of the Smeraldo Garden Marching Band universe. Take me in Fairy Jimin.
i could cry. omg my baby ,ㅠㅠ let's keep streaming 🙌🏻🙏🏼
LAST CALL: Which member is hosting the summer BBQ?
QuickCombo: SO 4 MORE | GO GO | SGMB
Listening links and my thoughts on this QC below the cut:
This was definitely an interesting set to create. Smeraldo Garden Marching Band has such a jovial/upbeat vibe but ya'll know me, I like to craft a little bit of a story with these combos while maintaining the pace of the songs. This combo demonstrates the lifecycle of a stereotypical idol singer. With So 4 More, they start their journey focusing on how much work they're putting in and where it's getting them. (Also don't confuse this track for the slower So 4 More BTS put together for their anniversary - I'm specifically referencing the version of So 4 More on Dark & Wild. Some performances call this song 2nd Grade).
We then move into Go Go with the critical look at how frivolous the lifestyle can be; focusing on fun times only and squandering time.
Smeraldo Garden Marching Band is the catalyst to point us right at the beginning of the cycle as the idol realizes why they are in the industry in the first place: the genuine love of the craft, the process, the people that support them. Just because it's lighthearted doesn't make it any less real.
SMERALDO GARDEN MARCHING BAND
My thoughts prior to the release of MUSE. I've avoided pretty much all reactions and analysis posts until I finished this so I have no clue if anyone else has come up with better words to describe some of these concepts but here's my take on it. I wanted to get this out prior to MUSE so that I can see how my view evolves with further context but here's where I am now.
Initial Reaction:
I'd actually had a few issues that night so I wasn't in the best headspace to take in a new song but I did listen to it on Spotify first and then watched the mv twice, once without subs and once with. (And yes, I know it's technically not called an mv...deal with it lol)
Anyways, I definitely wasn't immediately sold on it - which is expected from me, it's EXCEEDINGLY rare that I like any song on first listen but SGMB only took a couple of runthroughs before I was on board. One thing that helped me reframe it in my mind and with my previous expectations is to remember the first part of Jimin's self-proclaimed attributes: Cutie, sexy, lovely. SGMB leans very solidly into the cutie aspect, a little near the lovely side but far deeper into Cutie than anything we've seen in his solo releases. (RememberCute was an answer in the seossword puzzle). That got me thinking about where the rest of his songs would be in comparison and here's the placement I've landed on. Some of these have changed over the past few days but I'm curious where y'all disagree with my placements.
Good old Serendipity, a perfect balance of the three in my opinion. All of FACE is firmly in the Sexy section with Like Crazy leaning more evenly into Lovely. Lie is also right there with LC but more closely on the border. My beloved Promise and Letter holding down the Lovely section with CTT straying closer to Cutie. If you forgot about the cutie circle though, SGMB would have seems like it was complete out of the expected range. I am curious if we'll ever get something that's a mix of cutie and sexy, I can't comprehend what that would be like but I wouldn't put it past our JM to find a way!
Theories?
So, how do I think I did with all of my theories? Let's go through them one by one:
Open Locker Meaning: nothing to prove/disprove this yet. There were an awful lot of references to Serendipity in the mv though, so maybe that's the tie-in? I don't know, this one was a streeeeeetch in any case.
Sound Effects Interlude: we know we're getting an interlude but we'll have to wait for MUSE and any behind info to learn if it's sound effects that Jimin recorded himself like Dive.
Rooms Going from Dark to Light: Yes! I mean we knew it was going to be a lighter album than FACE but I think the word BRIGHT is all over SGMB. And I think this technique in both of those videos was trying to highlight that for us.
SGMB as an Actual Band: Yes! Definitely right here too! I'm going to talk about this more below because I think this is actually a very important part of this song.
The Emoji Poll from the Insta Chat: Yes! I think some people are still trying to make the argument that each option is supposed to represent different songs on muse. And while the others may lean more into any of these specifically, SGMB definitely has elements of all of them as well
An Actual Band?
So, like I mentioned in the theory above, I had the thought that SGMB could be portrayed as a fictional band itself, very similar to what MCR did with the Black Parade. And since Jimin decided to use this as the song's title; as well as make it the pre-release track, I think this is an important topic to delve into.
First, this allows Jimin a perspective shift to share with us his career outside the lens of BTS. Not because he NEEDS or WANTS to separate himself from them but he has had his own journey as an artist that may differ from his experiences from the perspective of a BTS member. Obviously BTS is completely woven through this journey and he gives us an acknowledgement of that with the line about 12 June and the handsign.
(Sidenote, whenever I see any of them do that now, I instantly think of that moment in Jimin's pixid ep where he said they don't anymore...I think we may have been misled...) 😝
Second, the frame of SGMB from a band's perspective also puts the song firmly in the categorization of 'work' rather than 'personal'. With FACE being such a deeply personal projectregarding his very deep human experiences, i love that he'svery upfront with us about MUSE being a work project. I've said this before, and it's one of my absolute favorite things about Jimin's music: he crafts it so that we can easily adapt it to our own interpretations. There's a lot of loving and beautiful imagery in the lines of this song that can have special meaning in all levels of relationships; platonic or not. But his delivery if this message to us, is professional. This is reinforced by the suits Jimin has worn in all of the material released so far. He's following a work dress code. (If you happen to see this post within a week of release, we have a poll regarding Jimin's suits on @bts-polls )
ME + US = MUSE
I just want to touch on this briefly here as I expect there'll be more once the album releases but there are some hints already. Like I discussed in my FACE post, Jimin has again come up with some key words to weave through the project. In FACE, it was several sentences but MUSE seems to be focusing on the following:
ME: Jimin himself
US: Jimin's view on his audience
MUSE: His awareness of us and how that effects his creations and manner of artistry.
SGMB and CTT are both bursting with these references and viewpoints. But I honestly don't think of SGMB as a traditional 'fan song'. I have another post where I talk about the different kinds of fan songs. Like I said above, SGMB details Jimin's experience as an artist and how his audience plays into that process. Not like CTT that's literally a diary of our journey with him. Maybe an extremely nuanced take but SGMB just doesn't feel like it belongs in the same 'fan song' categorization that CTT does.
The End for Now
Does anyone know anything about that little hand-wave Jimin does during the bow at the end? He repeats it. Is just an additional flourish that he's added in himself? I've never seen anyone do that during bows after a performance so I'm wondering if it's a cultural/industry thing.
What do y'all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts! If any of you have made posts about SGMB, I'll try to read them now but rumblr is not very forgiving if you miss something in the timeline. I'm very happy for you to share links to your posts in the comments!
Behind video, spoilers below cut:
This was so wholesome! And I think I was definitely right to incorporate the cutie, sexy, lovely diagram in my sgmb post but it sounds like Jimjn was pushing for thjs song to be in the section for both cutie and lovely so I missed just a bit. Sorry JM!
hey, i was curious about something from ep 6. jimin talks about filming with the kids for sgmb, and jungkook says he saw the video. but sgmb was filmed the day before they left for tokyo, and their conversation was just a few days after that. there’s no way the finished product was done by then, right? (especially considering that music video wasn’t scheduled to come out for many months) can we assume jungkook is talking about some other video of jimin and the kids or maybe some raw footage? the timeline is just interesting to me!
Hi anon,
While there's really no way for us to know, I do have a couple of suspicions. But first, I would always recommend if any specific wording seems to stick with you abut anything the members say, please remember that they do speak in a language that often doesn't have a 1:1 translation to English. I don't have anyone to point you at since I don't spend any time in BTS social media outside of tumblr but I believe there are some army translators out there that can corroborate the translations.
Now, onto the video in question. There are a couple of hints I've gleaned over the years regarding BTS's work process and access to monitoring their own footage. In case you're not aware, the raw data on the big ol' fancy cameras is quite large and it takes some doing to get that data moved to here it needs to be for editing.
But we all know how involved BTS is with monitoring their own content after most takes. How many times do we see 3J asking for one more take in that Butter dance practice?? So we know they will utilize the monitor station to review directly after takes. But I've seen them point a lower quality camera at one of those monitors and watch the output later. You can see this type of footage in the SGMB shooting sketch as well. Here's a quick bit:
We see the entire cast gathered around a monitor but then it cuts to a camera recording the monitor. That means there is a person pointing a camera at the monitor itself. My theory is this extra footage is uploaded to some shared location for ease of review while the actual footage takes whatever time it requires to properly manage the quality. I would also assume that all of the members have access to this shared space to review whatever they'd like.
All just theories though. I know there are a few of you that have reached out to me who actually work in film and I'd be curious to know if this sounds realistic or not.
I absolutely love the Mood Photo for Blooming Version of Jimin's second album MUSE that dropped today. Just one picture and I already can't contain my excitement. So I came here to add my 2 cents.
First, our flower boy is back. He loves a backdrop of blooming vegetation and it's 100% on point for a Version called Blooming. Expected nothing less of him. The blue flowers are Smeraldos, telling us where we are. The white ones reminded me of Jimin's birth flower - Spirea or bridal-wreath.
And Blooming being the Version focusing on the ME of MusE...genius. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a nod to his birth flower, especially after the Weverse Post mentioned 951013 poems. It makes sense for the concept of MusE Blooming version to have more direct links to Jimin. The first track is literally called Rebirth, might as well remind us all when that birthday actually is. We know it's important to him.
Now, with all the Smeraldos blooming around him, we're clearly in the Garden already. Hello, connection to TTU and that whole tragic backstory. So, we're in the garden of that ugly guy who wanted to confess his love for the girl that stole his flowers by/after breeding Smeraldos for her to sell. Or something. In the story, after he successfully grew the Smeraldos, the girl never showed up again, and he later found out she died. So he missed his chance to ever confess to her, thus making it The Truth Untold. Tragic romance. Not sure how much of that setting is gonna be relevant for MUSE, but he made it a point to feature the garden that whole story is taking place in by making a Marching Band for it. Alright. Makes me really curious what Smeraldo Garden Marching Band is going to be about. I know we have connections to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. His styling in the Mood Photo also made me think of Black Parade by My Chemical Romance (but that might just be my emo teenage nostalgia talking).
I'm 100% here for his styling. Sadly, just a tie, no choker... But man, that belt? That crop-top? The black tips in his hair? His tattoos?! Please, I'm so here for it. Leader of the Smeraldo Garden Marching Band - Park Jimin is coming and I really can't wait for the Concept Photo and Clip tomorrow!
With the description of the album, SGMB is giving Set me free pt. 2 × ON vibes. Hell yeah! Can we appreciate the absolute genius of Jimin and his team for coming up with the story for both albums, since they were clearly created together and it seems like the FACE was only part 1 of the story he wanted to tell. The more raw, personal part maybe, about his struggles and how he finally overcame them. But baby, we ended with Jimin finally setting himself free, and the ride has only just begun.
How genius is it to start FACE with a tired, dieing Marching Band in Face Off, to then describe his struggles, finally setting himself free at the end, to continue the next album with Rebirth -> Showtime~☆ -> NEW MARCHING BAND!!!! I mean, just his song titles already tell a clear story. If SMF pt.2 was a phoenix rising from the ashes, that lead-up from MUSE looks like he's catching fire, taking flight and lighting up the sky! And I'm so here to watch the fireworks!