Map of the Soul: Persona is the sixth extended play by South Korean boy band BTS. It was released on April 12, 2019, via Big Hit Entertainment. It is the follow-up to their 2018 albums Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer, and precedes the band's Love Yourself: Speak Yourself world tour. The EP was released for pre-order on March 13. It debuted at number one on the US Billboard200, making BTS the first band since The Beatles to have three number-one albums in less than a year. The album also topped the UK, Scottish, New Zealand and Australian Charts, making BTS the first Korean act to achieve a number-one album in each of these countries. Moreover, the album sold 3.2 million copies in one month, making it the best-selling album in South Korea after 24 years.
Map Of The Soul : Persona
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Released: April 12, 2019 Studio: Big Hit (Seoul) The Village (Los Angeles) Genre: Pop K-pop R&B Rap Rock Length: 26:05 Language: Korean Label: Big Hit iriver Columbia Virgin Producer: Various Pdogg Hiss Noise Arcades Fred Gibson Bad Milk Marcus McCoan
Composition & Production
Map of the Soul: Persona has influences from various places. The album itself is based on the book Jung's Map of the Soul, about the theories Carl Jung created for psychology.
Lead single "Boy With Luv" has been described as a funk pop song about happiness and love. It serves as a parallel track to their earlier song "Boy in Luv". In the video for "Persona" words such as "persona", "shadow", and "ego" were in it which directly references Carl Jung's theories. It has been described as a song that is trying to answer the question of "Who am I?"
"Mikrokosmos" and "Home" are songs dedicated to the fans, as they are the home that comforts BTS when they are tired and lonely. The track "Mikrokosmos" is the name of a piano series composition done by Béla Bartók, though the Korean translation of the song is microcosm which has a different meaning. BTS also described "Mikrokosmos" by saying it would "paint the world through human interest".
"Make It Right" is a collaboration between BTS and Ed Sheeran, and "Jamais Vu" is a unit song consisting of the members J-Hope, Jin, and Jungkook. The EP also features references to Greek mythology, with a track called "Dionysus" and their concept photos, depicting a few of the members holding grapes. It was described as a strong hip hop track with an intense beat, significant rock influence, vocoder effects and features Jin's rocking adlibs throughout the song.
Artwork
On April 1, BTS released two sets of concept photos to illustrate the EP's concept. The first version shows "BTS playing around in a photo booth" with the solo shots "similarly show[ing] off each member in a variety of poses". Version 2 "emphasize different sides, or personas, of each BTS member", as described by Billboard's Tamar Herman. On April 3, the final two versions were released: Version 3 and 4. Version 3 shows the members with roses in rose-toned rooms. Version 4 has each member posing with either grapes or strawberries wearing elegant clothing and jewelry.
Promotion
Pre-Release The introductory video played before the band's performance at the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards in Hong Kong had hinted at the title before its official announcement. The album is reportedly the "beginning of a new chapter" for the band, and the first in a new series of albums.
On March 27, the trailer for the album was released named "Persona". The solo featured RM, the leader of BTS, and was described by Refinery29's Natalie Morin as "a colorful, dynamic song" and "nodding to the band's coming-of-age and self-discovery themes."
The trailer for the song "Boy with Luv" featuring American singer Halsey was released on April 7, 2019. The second teaser trailer was released on April 10 and featured a longer sample of "Boy with Luv".
Live Performance
On April 13, 2019, one day after the release of the album, BTS appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, performing "Boy with Luv" along with the Steve Aokiremix of "Mic Drop" shortly after. The band were the first Asian act to perform live on SNL.
On May 1, 2019, BTS performed "Boy with Luv" with Halsey on the Billboard Music Awards 2019.
On May 21, 2019, they performed "Boy with Luv" at The Voice's finale. They also performed the song at Britain Got Talent's fourth semi-final on May 30, 2019.
