BTS' Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt 2 turns one: Exploring liberation symbolism in orchestral music video (2024)

BTS’ Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt 2 turns one day, exploring the liberation symbolism in its orchestral music video. Read here.

BTS' Jimin in Set Me Free Pt. 2 music video; Image: BIGHIT MUSIC

Jimin, a member of the distinguished South Korean boy band BTS made his solo debut last year with his album FACE. Before the release of the album, last year Jimin released the pre-debut lead single from the album FACE, Set Me Free Pt. 2 on March 17, 2023. It has been one year since this banger was unveiled to the world to a smashing response. The song turns one today, let’s explore the liberation symbolism in its orchestral music video.

BTS’ Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 first anniversary: Exploring liberation symbolism in its orchestral music video

Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 was released one year ago today as the lead single of his debut album FACE before its release. The song Set Me Free Pt. 2 is the first hip-hop song by Jimin with orchestral background music. Set Me Free Pt. 2 is a hip-hop track with a base in pop style, laced with orchestral trumpets, heavy drum bass, synth music, vocal effects, vibrations, and auto-tuned vocals. An ingenious track that flawlessly incorporates a style that is modern and stands apart in the K-pop scene.

Watch the music video of Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 here

The music video for Set Me Free Pt. 2 was released simultaneously which focused on the theme of liberation present in the song’s lyrics. The music video is set in a circular room filled with flashing lights, the room has a large troop of dancers in the middle outshines the BTS member Jimin. The music video is largely focused on intricate choreography, a possible nod to the soloist’s dancing prowess along with his singing.

The dance troop in the music video becomes a mechanism to pressure the message of the song, liberation. The dancers at the beginning of the music video with hand actions try to show the misery of being shackled in pre-decided boxes the world wants one to fit in. With a loud sound, Jimin emerges from the middle, as if there to fight the haters, the world that wants him restrained, and internal battles. Jimin is dressed in a combat outfit, his ready-to-fight attire becomes a symbol of freedom as he performs the song as the center light of focus.

The music video of Set Me Free Pt. 2, is a symbolic representation of liberation and the fight towards it. The dancers take various forms in the video as a maze, as people who try to bring Jimin down, surround, and jeer at Jimin and maniacally grab him and try to consume him. In the second part of the song when Jimin appears wearing a jacket with German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Ich lebe mein leben in wachsenden ringen’ (meaning I live my life in widening circles) tattoed across his chest, it is a representation of breaking away from the pre-determined chains of society.

Towards, the climax the dancers try to pull Jimin down and collapse with him, following which he emerges in a pure white outfit as a symbol of being liberated and at peace from the shackles of haters, society, and his internal battles. Jimin at the end emerges as the winner, now liberated.

Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 broke several records

Jimin’s Set Me Free Pt. 2 debuted at number 30 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the highest-charting debut single by a Korean soloist in the history of the chart. The single also achieved the highest peak by Jimin on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time, number 30. For the following week of March, Set Me Free Pt. 2 became the best-selling and most downloaded song. The pre-release single recorded 56 million streams and 42000 digital sales, earning Jimin his first top 10 entry in the Billboard Global 200 chart. Set Me Free Pt. 2 music video reached 2.7 million views in the first two hours of its release.

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