The Legend of the Pied Piper + Lyrical interpretation of Pied Piper by BTS

Pied Piper is well known amongst ARMYs as the “reality check”. If your friend is refusing to study and is instead binge watching Run BTS episodes, play Pied Piper. If you’re lazying around watching The Rise Of Bangtan series instead of going to work, then you need a good dose of Pied Piper.

It’s humorous yet alluring lyrics serve as a slap of reality on ARMYs faces, why?

Let’s begin with where the name ‘Pied Piper’ originated from.

The Legend of the Pied Piper

This tale took place in the Middle Ages, in the year 1284. A small town in Germany, Hamelin suffered a dangerous case of rat infestation and no one knew how to stop it until one day, a pied Piper (‘pied’ meaning multicolored clothing) promised to find a solution to getting rid of the rats. The mayor in return promised to pay him a certain amount of money (1000 guilders, as told by some versions of the story).

The piper played his part by getting rid of the rats. He played his flute and lured all the rats into the Weser River where they drowned. However, the mayor refused to pay him his full sum only giving him 50 guilders (some say he wasn’t paid at all as the mayor then accused him of bringing the rats in the first place). Enraged, the Piper left but promised to be back for his revenge.

One day while all the adults were in church celebrating the Saint John and Paul’s day, the pied Piper returned dressed in green and started playing his flute luring all the children in the town to follow him. 130 children followed him out of the town and into a cave, never to be seen again. According to some versions, only 3 children remained in the city; a lame who couldn’t keep up with them, a blind who couldn’t see where they were going and a deaf who didn’t hear the sound of the flute. They were the ones that informed the people what took place that day.

No one knows exactly what happened to the children. Some stories say the Piper led them to a happy place, Paradise, some say they also drowned at the Weser River while some say they were later returned after the Piper was paid multiple times the original amount.

The story has been retold by the Grimm brothers, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Robert Browning, and Bertholt Brecht. Other references have been made by Crispian St. Peters in the 1960s, Jethro Tull in the ‘70s, BTS in 2017 and others.

References:

• THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN: TERRIFYING, MYSTERIOUS, AND STILL RELEVANT

• Pied Piper of Hamelin

Lyrical Interpretation of Pied Piper by BTS

{JK, RM}

It’s dangerous so it’s better
You know deep inside
You can’t stop it now (You can’t stop)
So be honest with me now
Stop, now stop watching and study for your test
Your parents and boss hate me
Video clips, pictures, tweets
V app, Bon Voyage
I know, you can’t help what you like
But stop, interpret the music video later
You have so many pictures of me in your room anyway
It’s not just one hour, it’s a whole year that’ll disappear
So this song is a reward I’m giving to you

At the beginning of the song, JK points out the fact that we know what we’re doing is dangerous. Lazying around, consuming BTS content when we know we should be doing other things like school work and other responsibilities in our lives that we’ve postponed time and time again. Armys always want to stay up to date with BTS content because truth be told, we do be getting too much content on a daily. No one wants to miss out and sometimes that can be very challenging.

RM says we should stop consuming content and go and study. Our boss and parents hate them because they’ve taken up so much space in our lives. BTS says they understand that we can’t help it. They know that to us, they serve as an escape from our reality but even so we should stop and be disciplined if not, not just an hour but a year or more would pass.

{Jin,V}

You’re not being punished
Come here, I’m your paradise
Can’t close your eyes (Can’t close your eyes)
You can throw a fit but it’s no use (Don’t reject me)
Just close your eyes, tune your ears

Paradise is basically a happy and heavenly place. BTS is saying they know that they are ARMY’s happy place, our magic shop. However, in the story of the pied Piper, he lures the children to paradise and they were never seen again so this could maybe(?) also be a warning that even though BTS is our paradise, we shouldn’t go in too deep that we miss our way.

{Jimin, JK}

Follow the sound of the pipe, follow this song
It’s a bit dangerous but I’m so sweet
I’m here to save you, I’m here to ruin you
You called me, see? I’m so sweet
Follow the sound of the pipe
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh (I’m takin’ over you)
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh (I’m takin’ over you)

Here this is BTS playing the part of the Pied Piper luring you. Their music has the power to capture you. You know if you keep letting it consume you, it might be dangerous but it’s also so sweet.

“I’m here to save you”, many Armys including myself have openly talked about how BTS and their music saved us. We found them at difficult points in our lives and they helped us through. They’re saying that even though we save you, we might also ruin you if you keep getting distracted by us instead of studying, working and doing other important things you should put your time into.

{ SUGA}

You know that it’s already begun
The moment you hear that sound (Yeah, SUGA)
Maybe I’m a bit dangerous
Like the pied piper
I’m testing you
Like the fruit from the tree of good and evil

Just like in the chorus, they’re showing that they might also be dangerous to us. Once you hear the sound of the flute/song, you become entranced. The reference to the Garden of Eden where the serpent tempted Eve into eating the fruit of good and evil, we can assume that BTS is trying to test us to see how much we can resist the temptation to consume their music and content. Eve knew the right thing to do was to obey God and not eat of the fruit of that tree, same way we know that we should be spending our time studying, reading, working but just like Eve, we can’t resist the euphoric feeling that comes with watching and listening to BTS.

{ J-Hope}

My pipe awakens everything
That sound burns you up even more
You’re pulled by it, you react
I’m endlessly blowing
I’m your guilty pleasure
You can’t escape, never

This is what I mean when I say the lyrics are alluring, kinda seductive in a way. Like you know you love me baby, come get me🤩.

Anyways, back to being serious. Just like the children couldn’t resist the sound of the flute, it’s difficult for us to also resist BTS. They’re our guilty pleasure (I’m not guilty though), we can’t escape them.

{Jimin, JK}

You’re not being punished
Come here, I’m your paradise
Can’t close your eyes (Can’t close your eyes)
You can throw a fit but it’s no use (Don’t reject me)
Just close your eyes, tune your ears

{Jin,V}

Follow the sound of the pipe, follow this song
It’s a bit dangerous but I’m so sweet
I’m here to save you, I’m here to ruin you
You called me, see? I’m so sweet
Follow the sound of the pipe

{JK, Jimin}

Yeah, I’m a bit dangerous (Ooh-ooh-ooh)
I can’t even handle myself (Ooh-ooh-ooh)
Don’t worry, my hands
They’re only warm for you
If I’m ruining you right now (Ooh-ooh-ooh)
Please forgive me (Ooh-ooh-ooh)
Because I can’t live without you
Because you know all of this

BTS is apologizing(?) for all the time we’ve ‘wasted’ on watching them and listening to them instead of doing other things. They go further to say they can’t live without us and of course we know because they’ve said BTS is nothing without Army and Army is nothing without BTS. They’ve also said BTS is Army in the same way Army is BTS. In the same way, they could also be expressing gratitude to us for our devotion to them. “Forgive me because I can’t live without you” is also a way of saying if we don’t stream their songs, if we don’t buy their merch, watch their shows, support them, where would BTS be now?

{JK, Jimin}

Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh (I’m takin’ over you)
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ooh-ooh-ooh, oh-oh-oh-oh-oh (I’m takin’ over you)

Final Note

The Pied Piper came into Hamelin to provide a solution to getting rid of all the rats in the town. At the end of the day, he caused more harm to them than good.

BTS came into most of our lives and got rid of our sadness, self hate, unhappiness and all the negative feelings we must’ve been going through then. They made us happier, through them we made amazing friends but just like too much of everything is not good, we shouldn’t be so consumed or distracted that we forget to actually LIVE.

Just as BTS are living their lives doing what they love with Armys supporting and cheering them every step of the way, they would also want us to live our lives, go to school, study, hang out with friends, build relationships, live, with them cheering us on as we grow.

Hey everyoneee!

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. My draft erased twice while writing and I had to start from the begin or re-edit some places and even though that would normally make me cry or scream, I enjoyed doing it again and again.

This is a disclaimer that BTS has never actually come out to interpret these lyrics, this is just from my thoughts and perspective of the song. If you have a different perspective, please share them in the comments. I would love to read them. If not, then tell me how much you enjoyed it I guess.

My friend, Pavi recently published a post on her interpretation of Blood, Sweat and Tears relating it to Greek Mythology (Click here to read) and I really really enjoyed it. You should definitely check it out. She did an amazing job.

Also, be expecting more interpretations coming up soon. To be notified whenever I post, sign up with your email below, subscribe to my blog if you’re a blogger or follow me through my social media links at the end of this post.

As always, thank you for reading! I appreciate you all🤍

Also Read:

Dissecting D-2: Dear My Friend

PARK JIMIN: A piece by Monica

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