![]() Later in verse two, there is another naming of an iconic artist and song. The homage to Michael Jackson can also be seen in the chorus with the lyrics: “High like the moon, rock with me, baby” referencing his classic disco-funk track Rock With You (1979) alongside Jackson’s famous ‘moonwalk’ dance (which although its origins can be traced back to the 1930s, became part of mainstream choreography and Jackson’s signature move when he performed it for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, TV Special in 1983). However, whilst Smooth Criminal is in the key of A flat minor, Butter is in A flat major, which replaces the dark and almost ominous tone of the former for a lighter and brighter sound. The opening lyrics “Smooth like butter / like a criminal undercover” are a direct link to Michael Jackson’s homage to gangster and crime films of the 1940s and 1950s, Smooth Criminal (1987). While the former mainly referenced the early days of disco and funk, here the period is later from the 1980s onwards. Like Dynamite, Butter reinforces rather than denies the continuing influence of black music and in particular R&B and Hip Hop on KPOP through the process of naming and intertextual referencing. These shifts in consistency make butter a particularly apt metaphor in music. When butter melts, it separates into milk solids and butter fat, with the solids sinking to the bottom and the fat rising to the top. As such butter is meaningful and meaningless mimicking its origins in milk, in which the original liquid can be transmuted into several different forms depending on the process: butter, yoghurt, cheese. This perhaps explains the simplicity of the production of Butter – which stays on one chord throughout allowing the instrumentation and vocals to shine – and the almost purity of the accompanying music video. According to Herbie Hanock (2014) in jazz, butter notes (Miles Davis actually said bottom notes but Herbie Hancock misheard him) are the obvious notes, related to excess and fat and even overplaying, that if avoided can led to the creation of something new and original in that it forces the artist to be creative. In the song, butter is referred to as “smooth” as in the opening phrase “Smooth like Butter”, while the final verse promises variations on its smoothness determined by temperature and flavour: “Hotter, Sweeter, Cooler? Butter!”. This gives some idea of how mutable or fluid the word butter is which, of course, is reflective of the very nature of butter itself: a spread made from milk which can either solid or liquid depending on the temperature it is kept at. An example of this is the Churning Song: “Come, Butter, Come”. In fact, in the nineteenth and twenty centuries, traveling vendors who traipsed city streets looking for customers, had their own jingles or songs related to the products for sale. ![]() In fact, a cursory search for ‘songs with butter in the title’ revealed 6,173 lyrics, 8 artists and 26 albums. Attesting to its global popularity, NME recently (16 June) named Butter as one of the best songs of 2021 so far. At the time of writing (20 th June 2021), it has spent over 700 hours at #1 on the Korean chart Melon 24 Hits which ranks songs according to their number of ULs (unique listeners) and it has gathered over 200 PAKS (Perfect All Kills) on the Korean charts as a whole (as of 2 nd June 2021). Butter is already proving to be one of the songs of the summer of 2021, hitting the number one spot on the Billboard 100 for three consecutive weeks despite stiff competition from Olivia Rodrigo’s Driver’s Licence and looks likely to keep that position for a fourth week. ![]() Like Dynamite, Butter is a celebration of contemporary pop culture infused with a bouncy, retro vibe. The music video is directed by Yong Seok Choi of Lumpens who have worked with BTS since their debut in 2013 with No More Dream, the director of photography is Nam Hyunwoo of MOTHER (a Seoul based content creative Agency) and responsible for the main choreography for the music video and performances is Son Sung Deuk. The song was recorded at Dogg Bounce (Pdogg’s studio in South Korea) and Larry and George Studios (New York, USA). Vocal production is by Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk, while vocal arrangement is by Pdogg. It is written by Jenna Andrews (who is also credited on Dynamite), Alex Bilowitz, Sebastian Garcia, Rob Grimaldi, Stephen Kirk, Ron Perry (the chairman of Columbia Records) and RM. Butter is BTS’ second English language single, following their 2020 smash hit Dynamite.
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