Blending Cultures in BTS’s “Blood Sweat and Tears”
Main Article Content
Abstract
Pop culture often functions as a vehicle for what is deemed “high culture,” either through mentions and representations, or adaptations and recontextualizations. Hallyu, the wave of Korean cultural products overtaking the world market, including emerging markets such as the Romanian one, abounds in examples of cultural blending or hybridization. BTS, the Korean band who have made K-pop a truly global phenomenon, exemplify the blending of high culture with pop culture, as well as the blending of Eastern and Western cultures, especially in the video to their 2016 song “Blood Sweat & Tears.”
Article Details

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Ahn, Patty et. al. “Intro · On Bangtan Remixed: A Critical BTS Reader.” Bangtan REMIXED: A Critical BTS Reader, edited by Patty Ahn, Michelle Cho, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Rani Neutill, Mimi Thi Nguyen, and Yutian Wong, Duke University Press, 2024, pp. 1-27
BTS. Blood Sweat & Tears Official MV. 9 October 2016. YouTube, HYBE LABELS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmE9f-TEutc. Accessed 13 August 2024.
Buja, Elena. “The Spread of K-Pop Culture in Romania.” Redefining Community in Intercultural Context, vol. 5, no. 1, 2016, pp. 185-191, https://www.ceeol.com/search/journal-detail?id=1610. Accessed 13 August 2024.
Coward, Harold. “Taoism and Jung: Synchronicity and the Self.” Philosophy East and West, vol. 46, no. 4, 1996, pp. 477-95. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1399493. Accessed 20 August 2024.
Curtius, E. R. “Hermann Hesse.” Hermann Hesse, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 2003.
Hesse, Hermann. Demian. Translated by Walter John Strachan, Peter Owen Limited, 2006.
Hong, Euny. The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture. Picador, 2014.
Kwon, Marci. “Blood, Sweat, and Tears: BTS, Bruegel, and the Baroque.” Bangtan REMIXED: A Critical BTS Reader, edited by Patty Ahn, Michelle Cho, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Rani Neutill, Mimi Thi Nguyen, and Yutian Wong, Duke University Press, 2024, pp. 68-78.
Lee, Wonseok. “Tradition, Transition, and Trends: Contextualizing BTS’s Gugak-Inspired Performance of ‘Idol’.” Bangtan REMIXED: A Critical BTS Reader, edited by Patty Ahn, Michelle Cho, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, Rani Neutill, Mimi Thi Nguyen, and Yutian Wong, Duke University Press, 2024, pp. 33-43.
Marinescu, Valentina, and Ecaterina Balica. “Audience Perceptions and Representations of Korea The Romanian Experience.” The Global Impact of South Korean Popular Culture: Hallyu Unbound, Lexington Books, 2014.
Marshall, Colin. “Why Do Koreans Love Herman Hesse's Demian Above Other Western Novels?” BLARB, 25 June 2017, https://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/the-korea-blog/koreans-love-herman-hesses-demian-western-novels/. Accessed 20 August 2024.
Stein, Murray. Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction. Open Court, 1998.
Storey, John. Inventing popular culture: from folklore to globalization. Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
----. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction. 6th ed., Routledge, 2018.
Walsh, John. “Hallyu as a Government Construct: The Korean Wave in the Context of Economic and Social Development.” The Korean Wave: Korean Popular Culture in Global Context, edited by Yasuke Kuwahara, Palgrave Macmillan US, 2014.