What Does It Take to Evolve as an Artist?
In the beginning of every artist’s journey, an artist will need to create a distinct identity, discover their own authentic sound, and enhance their own songwriting skills. However, the journey is easier said than done because many artists often take many studio sessions or time to self-reflect to face the biggest challenge of their artist journey: the risk of growth. In the music industry, many artists and bands are easily recognizable with their distinct voices, specified genre, and unique songwriting, but if an artist or a band takes the risk to change their recognizable sound to grow as an artist then they are at risk of losing their loyal fans who have been adjusted to their signature sound. But, what if I were to tell you that the art of evolving as an artist requires risk to find your true authentic self as an artist. Let’s look into an artist’s perspective, RM, to have a better understanding of the risk they took to learn about the art of evolving as an artist.
Who is RM?
RM, Kim Namjoon, is a South Korean rapper, songwriter, music producer, and leader of BTS. In 2015, he began to start his solo hip hop artist career by producing his first hip hop mixtape “Mixtape” but, in 2018, he began to take the risk of changing the genre of hip-hop to R&B for his second mixtape “mono.” Then, in 2022, he was launching his debut studio album “Indigo” where he began his journey to evolving as an artist because the album highlighted his skills in genre bending with every track featuring a combination of pop, hip-hop, and R&B. In addition, he made the executive decision to remove his first mixtape from his discography, except on SoundCloud, because he began to realize how his first mixtape no longer reflected his new identity as an artist. He wanted to portray as a true authentic solo artist instead of portraying as the hip-hop rapper persona given to him while training with BTS at BigHit Entertainment. Thus, RM’s perspective and determination of taking risks in experimenting his music to grow as an artist over the years resulted with him understanding how artist development is necessary for the making of his 2nd album “Right Place, Wrong Person.”
RM’s Artist Development in “Right Place, Wrong Person”
According to Weverse, RM’s 2nd solo album, released on May 24th, 2024, consisting of 11 tracks that captures “the feeling of being an outsider who doesn’t fit in” which simply highlights RM’s journey of evolving as an artist over the years and during the production of his latest album. For instance, his 2nd solo album introduces a gradual progression in finding his true artist identity and sound by exploring different genres, he broke down the challenges he had to face while growing as an artist through his lyrics, and he took the risk to discover his artistic style by experimenting with each track very differently from each other. Ultimately, “Right Place, Wrong Person” showcases the risk of genre exploration, the importance of experimentation, and the development of authentic storytelling throughout the 11 tracks in the album including: “Right People, Wrong Place,” “Nuts,” “out of love,” “Domodachi (feat. Little Simz),” “? (Interlude),” “Groin,” “Heaven,” “LOST!,” “Around the world in a day (feat. Moses Sumney),” “ㅠㅠ (Credit Roll),” and “Come back to me.” Let’s dive deep into the album to understand the art of evolving as an artist through his 11 tracks.
The Risk of Genre Exploration
In the music industry, genre exploration and research typically occurs with the mixers and music engineers to produce the track with or without knowing which artist or band will be singing the track. For RM’s case, he produces his own music and works with a team of composers and music producers to help elevate his music. In his studio, he initially took a risk with his first studio album by blending pop, hip-hop, and R&B for all of his tracks yet gained positive reviews for taking the risk. However, for his latest album, he took the time in his studio with new producers to explore multiple genres and how they can compliment each other while maintaining his goal to become an authentic artist. For instance, he used genres like haunted hip-hop, dreamy shoegaze, jazz, and electronic to develop his songs. For example, the track “Around the world in a day” featuring Moses Sumney has unique sound effects that aren’t often used by other artists and contains three genres within the track that complimented each other: soft acoustics, soul, and rock rap. In addition, “LOST!” is the main title track of the album where he used pop, R&B, rap, and electronic to blend with his rich lyrics and distinct rap flow. However, after the release of his songs, a portion of his fans were confused about RM’s decision of using multiple genres to create the album, but the risk of almost losing a small portion of his fans for finding his sound(s) was worth it for RM as an artist.
The Importance of Experimentation
In RM’s studio, he discussed with his new team of producers for the album where they discovered how RM has the ability to experiment on his own music to grow as an artist. For instance, RM used juxtaposition for his album to experiment between the opposition of the name of the album and the song “Right People, Wrong Place” where he ensured the listener felt lost with the use of 8D Audio to trick their brain into thinking the music is playing in different places and have them think if it is the “right people in wrong place” or “wrong people in right place” due to its juxtaposed lyrics. In addition, RM experimented with using two languages, Korean and English, within “ㅠㅠ (Credit Roll)” to express the meaning of the track because ㅠㅠ is used to text their expression to others to state their sadness of an ending and (Credit Roll) emphasizes the melancholic emotion of the end approaching hinting an end of a movie which resulted the blend of the two languages to compliment each other. After each track, RM shows his effort to experiment with languages, flow, and juxtaposition to grow as an artist with experience in different techniques and creative audio ideas due to experimentation.
The Development of Authentic Storytelling
Throughout RM’s album, his songwriting skills creates a captivating story that allures his fans to comprehend his lyricism and understand their meaning within each track. For instance, “out of love” expresses his authenticity as an artist through storytelling by describing his life as a human compared to his life as an artist showcasing how difficult it can be to be your authentic self in the public eye. In addition, RM talks about his previous connection with art, peace, and unity within a community in the song “Groin” where he experienced that he was not able to express his thoughts and emotions due to expectations set as an artist. His album consistently discusses his journey leading up to his 2nd album where he talks about setting expectations, being viewed as only an artist, discovering himself through art, and the difficulty of growing as an artist through authentic storytelling.
Overall, the process of evolving as an artist is an art form of growth. Based on RM’s experience of creating the album and growing as an artist, he showcases the importance of taking risks to find your true authentic self as an artist. His discography and latest album proves that risk is necessary for every artist to face their challenges to progress as a successful artist. Thus, the art of evolving as an artist comes with risk, therefore, are you willing to take the risk to become your own true authentic self as an artist?
Written by ELIZABETH VELEZ
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