{"id":75981,"date":"2026-01-16T14:08:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/16\/bts-new-album-arirang-name-meaning"},"modified":"2026-01-16T14:08:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T05:08:38","slug":"bts-named-their-new-album-arirang-what-is-so-striking-about-their-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=75981","title":{"rendered":"BTS named their new album Arirang. What is so striking about their choice?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The title is loaded with meaning for all Koreans, and will give fans globally an insight into the folksong culture that shaped the world\u2019s biggest K-pop group<\/p>\n<p>BTS announced their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/music\/2026\/jan\/14\/bts-announces-return-with-new-world-tourm-includin-in-2026-and-2027\">long-awaited comeback<\/a> and world tour this week, with their first full-length album in nearly four years set for release on 20 March.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the K-pop group revealed its title \u2013 Arirang \u2013 a choice that carries profound emotional weight for Koreans. So what does it mean, what is its significance for the Koreas, and why did BTS choose it?<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/jan\/16\/bts-new-album-arirang-name-meaning\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title is loaded with meaning for all Koreans, and will give fans globally an insight into the folksong culture that shaped the world\u2019s biggest K-pop groupBTS announced their long-awaited comeback and world tour this week, with their first full-leng&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2929,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[955,9,425,40,1032,222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bts","category-k-pop","category-music","category-north-korea","category-pop-and-rock","category-south-korea"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2929"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75982,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75981\/revisions\/75982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}