that 뱁새 (baebsae) are birds called crow tits, which are any of various small birds of paradoxornis or related genera that resemble tits found especially in korea. its these little guys right here ^^
now, there’s a korean proverb that goes like this, “뱁새가 황새 걸음을 걸으면 가랑이 가 찢어진다” which translates to, if a crow-tit walks like a stork, it will break its legs, meaning if you overdo something or try to imitate someone better than you to make yourself look more/better than you are, you will just bring more hardship upon yourself.
so when rapmon and suga starts the song with
they call me baebsae
we were cursed at, this generation
quickly, chase ’em
thanks to the stork, my legs spread
so call me baebsae
we were cursed at, this generation
quickly, chase ’em
my teachers who were born with a gold spoon and chopsticks
the society calls us a try hard
we had a hell of a hard time, our generation
so quickly, chase ‘em away
cos thanks to the storks’ societal boundaries, our legs are bruised
so call us a try hard
we had a hell of a hard time, our generation
quickly, chase ’em away
our teachers who were born with it all
because in korean society, crow tits refer to normal people/lower class or the younger generation while storks refer to the ‘better’ higher class people, or supposedly, the older generation.
and i like how j-hope voices his concern by pressing on this issue further and mention the stuff normal people face everyday like
if you go to a part-time job, it’s “passion pay”
if you go to school, it’s the teachers
the superiors who use violence/abuse their authorities
and the media that go on about every day about “the forsaken generation”
i thought people should know that “열정페이” or “passion pay” is a term koreans refer to the extremely low wage that companies pay to young people where these workers get paid much less than they should be getting (often less than minimum wage) for a job in hopes that the workers’ “passion” will somehow compensate for the lack of a livable wage. its terrible.
as for “포 세대” or “the forsaken generation”, when IMF crisis happened in the late 90s, a lot of countries suffer from economical depression, including south korea. and because of the social pressures and economical problems such as rocketing prices, tuition, housing prices, and so on, a lot of people in this generation are said to easily give up on few things central to what is normally considered a complete life, for example, love, marriage, and raising children. and it’s precisely because of this term used in the song is why i think ‘stork’ is also referred to the older generation, in addition to the higher class people ^^
i also thought it was brilliant how suga just single handedly pointed out why the societal boundaries set by the storks are ridiculous and not fair because
i have the legs of a crow tit, you have the legs of a stork
they say, my legs are worth a million dollars
but mine are short, so how can we play/do the same events?
they say, if it’s the same meadow, it’s okay
Never Never Never
he is saying that his generation are at a disadvantage compared to the storks because crow tits and storks are obviously DIFFERENT species so they are playing in a different meadow, its poles apart, which is NEVER OKAY
and rapmon made it clear when he said he wanted to
change the rules, change change.
the rules that the storks want to, want to maintain.
but we can’t do that now, can we? BANG BANG.
(cos) this isn’t normal.
(cos) this isn’t normal.
to which v and jin replied in the storks pov
ah, stop singing on about effort, effort
ah, it makes me cringe (viscerally disgusted).
ah, effort effort, ah, effort effort (whatever)
ah, you don’t really stand a chance~
that had all of them yelled out
as expected of the storks!
at the last line, because of f course you higher class/older generation would say such things, do you even care..
fyi they use 싹수가 노랗다 in the song that literally means “your chances are yellow”, a common saying in korea to indicate that there is no hope at all because metaphorically speaking, there is a chance for a tree to grow tall if it stems from a green shoot but if you grow from a yellow shoot, there is almost no chance. its sort of a harsh thing to say to someone tbh
which is why when jimin and jungkooks’ part came i died because first of all, jimin and jungkookss voice, second of all jimin and junskooks voice, and third of all jimin and jungkooks voice they’re actually teasing the storks like
as expected of storks, they don’t disappoint
as expected of storks, they earn their name
as expected of storks, they eat/take it all
as expected of storks, of the storks~~~~
and that part where jungkook’s voice goes off
saying that it’s my fault, you’re joking, right?
saying that it’s fair, oh are you crazy
saying that this is justice
you must be kiddin’ me
you must be kiddin’ me
you you must be kiddin’ me
he is basically saying that it is outrightly insane for the society to blame them for their supposedly failures when they didn’t have a chance in the first place!
which is why the ending chorus gets me every time because instead of putting down the storks, they end up humbly BUT resonantly stating that, okay,
we are crow tits, we don’t disappoint
we are crow tits, we’ve earned our name
we are crow tits, let’s live together
we are crow tits, crow tits
like, despite everything though, isn’t it best to just live equally and get along well together?
i guess what bangtan is trying to say is that even if they were born without gold spoon and chopsticks, they will still work hard to overcome societal boundaries, like, despite coming from a relatively small company, despite being aware of the rigid social expectations of being an idol as well as having to face media favoritism on big companies, knowing they will get hurt a lot, they will still try hard to achieve success, and ‘chase’ away the storks in the entertainment industry.
also i think its important to know that while crow tits are active, noisy, and social birds, they are also highly adaptable, and are amongst the most intelligent of all birds after parrots and the corvids (crows and jays) <33
on a rather irrelevant note,
and gorgeous at the same time??
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