Episode Six Transcript - The Butterflies On the Concrete POdcast: What Got Me Through The Week?

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Hello! Welcome to the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I want to talk about Lollapalooza! This was my first year watching the festival and I was not disappointed. The artists that I would like to discuss are Tinashe, Griff, and the main event, Sunday’s headliner, J-Hope! I’m grateful that I was able to watch it all on Hulu!

Tinashe’s featured on Calvin Harris’s new song, ‘New To You’ along with Normani and Offset, and it’s a song that I really like, plus I enjoy some of her older songs, too, including her feature on the Far East Movement song called ‘Freal Luv,’ so I decided I wanted to watch her perform! I consider myself more of a casual listener of Tinashe’s music so I only knew of the single, ‘Bouncin,’ off her latest album, 333, but after watching her performance I definitely want to check out more of her newer songs. She’s an incredible artist. She’s the total package, really. She sings well, she dances well, and I could tell she really loves performing, and the audience was really into it as well. She really shines on stage, and so I’m glad I got a chance to see her set.

Griff is someone I started listening to during the pandemic. I randomly turned on the Brit Award show last year on a whim and she won the Rising Star Award. She also performed her song, ‘Black Hole,’ and after I heard that I knew I had to listen to more of her music. I think the lyrics are supposed to be very exaggerated in that song, but the lines in the chorus, which are, and I quote, as written by Griff, Frederik Eichen and LOSTBOY according to Genius.com:

“There’s a big black hole where my heart used to be

And I tried my best to fill it up with things I don’t need

It don’t work like that, no, it’s not easy

To fill the gap that you left in me.”

Those lines really, really resonated with me. It’s how I was feeling at the time, still in the midst of grief, and I’ve since made peace with the idea that it’s probably how I’ll always feel going forward. Anyway, a number of her songs helped me get through last year. I’d recommend her whole mixtape, entitled, One Foot In Front of The Other, but in particular, the title song, as well as ‘Walk’ and ‘Heart of Gold,’ in addition to ‘Black Hole.’ Her performance was really cool to see. I wasn’t able to see her on tour earlier this year because I’m still being cautious about crowded events because of covid, so I’m happy I could see her on the Lollapalooza livestream. She’s extremely talented and I look forward to seeing her career blossom even more in the future.

The only reason I even considered watching Lollapalooza this year was because of J-Hope, from BTS. I first got curious about BTS after seeing them perform ‘DNA’ on the American Music Awards back in 2017.

 It was rare back then to see Korean artists on American TV. I remember staying up late to watch CL perform on James Corden’s late night show  just a year prior with my loved one, the person who introduced me to Korean dramas and started me on this journey towards loving both Korean dramas and Korean music, and back then it had felt like  a really big deal, so for me it was even more fascinating and more exciting to see a Korean band perform at an awards show. I didn’t know much about them then, but it was how I discovered them.

After the American Music Awards performance,I started listening to more of their music casually, particularly ‘MIC Drop,’ and now, however many years later, I’m someone who randomly sings ‘Burning Up (Fire)’ and ‘00:00 (Zero O’Clock)’ when I’m washing the dishes. I’m someone who gets excited about seeing their posts on Instagram and on Weverse, who looks up translations of their Instagram stories on Papago as needed, and makes sure that I add their new songs to my personal Spotify playlists so I can stream consistently. For example, I’ve been listening to ‘Bad Decisions,’ which was just released with four of the members, Snoop Dogg and Benny Blanco, along with J-Hope’s new album, Jack In The Box, and the album, Proof. 

In other words, I’m a fan. I still haven’t watched American Hustle Life yet, and I haven’t seen all of the Run BTS! episodes, and I have some of their cds, but I don’t have a lot of merch so I’m not sure if I’d be considered true Army by the more devoted fans, but I love and enjoy their music. I’ve heard the saying in the fandom that BTS’s music finds you when you need it, and it’s true. After losing my loved one, they certainly have helped me heal with songs like ‘Spring Day’ and ‘Magic Shop.’ I’m indebted to them for that. And their music comforted me while I was in the pandemic, you know, isolated, too. I know they comforted so many of us with their music and content during that time. Their online concerts, music releases and television performances truly brought me so much joy, and I’ll forever be grateful to them and want the best for them because of this, no matter what.

Factoring all of that in, there was no way I would miss J-Hope’s debut solo stage at Lollapalooza once I heard that I could stream it on Hulu.

His album, Jack In The Box, is fantastic. My favorite songs from it are probably ‘What if…’, ‘= (Equal Sign)’ and ‘Safety Zone.’ J-Hope has such a bright personality that it took this release for me to get a better sense of the other aspects of his artistry. I know he previously released Hope World but for some reason I never really considered doing a deep dive into it, or the other rap line mixtapes. I’m slightly embarrassed by this because now I’m obviously behind and need to go back and listen to his older music, but I can say that with this release, I’m learning more about him as a solo artist beyond ‘Just Dance,’ ‘Ego’ and ‘Chicken Noodle Soup.’ Also, if you haven’t watched him on IU’s Palette yet, I would recommend you watch that interview on YouTube.

The chorus for ‘Safety Zone,’ which was written by J-Hope and Pdogg, according to the English translation on Genius.com is, and I quote:

“Where is the ray of light for relief in the dark?
A peaceful home? Or is it a distant blue?
Where’s my safe zone?
Left, right, go straight?
What’s my safe zone?

Here? Over there? or X?”

There’s something so extremely relatable about this song and these lyrics. For me, personally, its hard for me trust people these days, outside of my immediate family, and building new, genuine relationships and friendships takes time and can be difficult, and it can be exhausting, feeling like you don’t have someone you can rely on, or confide in, or somewhere to go to find a sense of peace outside of God. Once again I’m able to gain strength from a song like this because in some ways it seems as if some semblance of these emotions I’ve described might be felt by even the most amazing of people, not just someone as average as me.  We’re all just trying to navigate life as best as we can.

J-Hope’s Lollapalooza performance has been uploaded onto YouTube now which is a blessing because, honestly, I would’ve bought it on DVD for however much they offered it for, so it’s nice that they’re letting us view it on YouTube for free. If you haven’t watched it yet, I think you should stop listening to this and go watch it. It was iconic. I couldn’t stop thinking and talking about it even days afterwards. It blew me away and impressed me in ways I wasn’t expecting, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just knew he’s a great performer so I thought it’d be a great show. It turned out to be even better than that – it was outstanding.

I actually wrote down my initial thoughts right after watching his Lollapalooza  performance  and so here’s my full, immediate reaction:

J-Hope has made his official transition to solo act look so effortless. As far as I’m concerned, after watching his stage presence - which I already knew was good but damn it was electric, and totally phenomenal at this show – he was born to be a solo act in my mind now. The media and some fans seemed understandably upset about BTS pursuing solo work instead of prioritizing group work. Obviously, they’re still a group throughout all of this, but like…. I remember after the announcement people seemed worried, whereas I wasn’t completely surprised, though I was hoping for a world tour before they posted the  video about it. Anyway, it turns out that there’s no need to worry at all.

This performance proved at least one thing, in my opinion  - the most important thing - and that’s that this next phase of BTS isn’t the end of anything. Instead, this scenario is a win/win for everyone. The members can pursue what makes them happy, Hybe as a company now has seven separate artists that we as fans will wholeheartedly support so they’re only going to make more money in the long run, and then we as fans are going to get even more content, while getting to know the members better as people and individual artists.

I’m OT7, but in general, if asked, I would say Jimin is my bias, and V is my bias wrecker. But now, after Lollapalooza, I’m calling J-Hope my bias wrecker. Like, my favorite artist from BTS keeps changing because each member has their own charm, and I just adore all of them and I can’t wait to hear more of what they’re going to do in the future.  I’m so proud of J-Hope, it’s very clear that he put his heart and soul into his album Jack In The Box and the promotions for it.  I’m also so excited about what the future will bring as he continues to grow as an artist, and as the other members continue to grow as artists as well.

If you couldn’t tell already, I was truly captivated by J-Hope’s performance and as a BTS fan, this has shown me that I still have so much more to learn about the members and who they are as artists and people. That’s my goal going forward, to just keep learning and discovering more.

Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode. If anyone is listening to this and would like to talk about how much they also loved his performance or any of the other performances at Lollapalooza, or share something else that  got you through this week, please comment on this episode’s post on our Instagram page WhatGotMeThroughTheWeek, or by email at whatgotmethroughpodcast@gmail.com.  The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on HyssopandEbony.com.

Until next time!