Elvis and BTS, by Alexander Huerta-Mercado

During the hot summer of 1953, a young man who had worked as a truck driver walks into the offices of Memphis Recording Service and pays four dollars to record a two-song album as a birthday gift for his mother, to whom he was very attached. The secretary, upon hearing his voice, noted in her notes: “Good ballad singer. Keep.” The rest is history: Elvis Presley He became a global icon. On the one hand, their infectious rock and roll; on the other, his undeniable looks, his censored hip movements on early television and, over time, the image of a beautiful bastard who, despite his fame, had an unhappy personal life.

Previous generations in the United States had lived through the Great Depression and had endured the Second World War, but by the 1950s economic life had improved and many parents had a surplus that they could convert into tips for their children, and they could buy the merchandising that was offered from this new figure that became the idol. The media did their part; Radio, television and several movies, bad but successful, made Elvis, ‘The King’.

Let’s jump in time and reach our territory: bts – acronym for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translated from Korean means “bulletproof guys” – arrives for the first time in Peru after a meteoric career that began in 2013 and that, since then, has shattered popularity records. The tour was transcendent, since the idols had interrupted their presentations because they had taken a break to do their military service in South Korea. Curious thing: Elvis, in his heyday, also had to interrupt his career to do military service, a few years after the United States withdrew from the war in Korea.

Just as Elvis had an army of fans who were misunderstood by the adults of the time, BTS literally has an army of fans: the ARMY, a very organized group of followers who were in charge of protecting the group while it was in Lima. For example, they asked that the group not be received at the airport or that they not be disturbed outside the hotel to avoid stress or let them sleep peacefully. In turn, the ARMY organized a drone show and turned the city into a set of messages alluding to the visit of the Korean artists.

Unlike Elvis, BTS has the possibility of using the Internet that allows them to have frequent contact with their fans, showing personal aspects and revealing their own vulnerabilities.

Just as Elvis sang songs aimed at the identification of his fans, the boys of BTS explore self-esteem and “never give up” in their lyrics. They based some compositions on the psychological perspective of Carl Jung and shared with the ARMY the idea of ​​living in peace with one’s own emotional shadows. As if that were not enough, they were inspired by the novel “Demian”, by Hermann Hesse, for a series of videos, reminding us that the process of growing up involves accepting the ambiguity that seems to be prohibited in a world that asks for absolute things. Furthermore, with the singers’ own image they encouraged the idea of ​​a vulnerable, empathetic and close masculinity.

Concerts become spaces that replace ancient rituals, as they maintain the idea of ​​community with emotional effervescence, united by symbols where social values ​​are projected. Elvis almost never went out to sing outside the United States and BTS tours the world.

During a famous performance, people crowded to see Elvis, even after the show had ended; Then the announcer took the microphone and announced: “Elvis has left the building.” The phrase was repeated many times in the following decades when the crowd wanted to stay to see the idol and became a phrase that came to mean that the show was over. Seeing the ritual fervor and joy that BTS brought, seeing how each generation creates its happiness by recreating its own adventure and feeling a positive vibe in all this, I am happy to think that Elvis never left the building that continues to vibrate with new artists.