“Merry Go Round” Has Finally Arrived on YouTube

After more than three months of waiting, the music video for “Merry Go Round” has finally arrived on YouTube.

BTS first released the video on June 19, but at the time it was available only on Spotify, and only to Premium users in select countries. As of today, the official video is on YouTube as well.

“Merry Go Round” is one of the songs on the ARIRANG album, and the video is shot in black and white. The members start out separated, each in their own part of a strange space. Later it turns out that they are actually on a spaceship, with a giant carousel at its base.

The carousel motif will be familiar to anyone who has followed BTS for a while. It first appeared in 2017 in the “Spring Day” video, and BTS has returned to it since. “Merry Go Round” also features the words “You Never Walk Alone,” another link to that period of their career.

But the carousel isn't just a reminder of the past. It's also important for understanding the song itself.

“Merry Go Round” is about times when the days go by and nothing seems to change. Time moves on, but the feeling stays that we keep going around in the same circle.

Speaking about how the song came to be, RM connected that feeling to his military service. The days were alike, a lot of things repeated, while life outside the army carried on. Out of that experience came the idea of the carousel as an image of that endless repetition.

Still, the song isn't only about the military. That feeling is easy to recognize in everyday life too, in stretches when we feel like we're standing still and every new day looks more and more like the last.

You can sense exhaustion and uncertainty in the song, but it isn't about giving up. A sense of togetherness matters too, and the video emphasizes it in particular. The members start out separated, and by the end they are together again. The carousel keeps turning, but they are no longer alone.

That's why the return to motifs from the “Spring Day” era and “You Never Walk Alone” is interesting. Almost ten years later, BTS returns to familiar images, but with very different experiences behind them.

The carousel is the same, but the BTS returning to it today is not.

The “Merry Go Round” video is now available on the official BANGTANTV YouTube channel, and you can watch it below.