I want to know the meaning behind the whale and whalien 52!
by Potatokey03
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240226 Deezer: 'Like Crazy' (by Jimin) is the first song by a K-pop/Korean Act to chart at #1 in our Top 100 Worldwide Chart for DAYS!!
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[https://borasaekvision.wixsite.com/home/post/bts-and-the-lonely-whale](https://borasaekvision.wixsite.com/home/post/bts-and-the-lonely-whale)
From the site:
“Whalien 52” is a song off their album ***The Most Beautiful Moment in Life Part 2***, part of a series that focused on the experiences and bittersweet moments of youth. The song utilized the 52-Hertz whale as a metaphor for isolation and loneliness. This is a singular whale, discovered in 1989, with an unusual song frequency that made it impossible for it to communicate with its peers.
The lyrics circle again and again around the dichotomy between the pain or frustration of not being heard, and the hope that one day the whale’s voice will reach others if it doesn’t give up trying. From their initial struggles to get recognition and later on the isolating quality of celebrity life, to simply living in our increasingly individualistic society—both BTS and ARMY know what that feels like. However, in this song, they are pairing social commentary with encouragement to keep hope alive because an honest message doesn’t need to end up being exclusively pessimistic.
There’s a whale of unknown species that people call the loneliest whale as it vocalizes in 52-hertz, which is a frequency that cannot be heard by other whales so they cannot communicate with any other whale. So this whale roams the oceans vocalizing, but no other whale is able to hear it and so there’s no response. The members took that and ran with it, to create the song Whalien 52. Ever since then, the whale has become a dear symbol to BTS and ARMY.
Edit: A single whale balloon(?) has often been present at the end of BTS concerts, but I believe either for PTD or YTC at Busan, there were two whale balloons, demonstrating that the loneliest whale is lonely no more!
Also, Jin drew a whale (Kore, which means whale in Korean) and you can even see it in the Idol MV, which was later turned into merch. Said whale plushie draws out a fierce competition among ARMY whenever it’s back in stock.
Whalien 52 is about a real-life whale who was unable to communicate with other whales because other whales are unable to pick up its frequency of 52hz. So, in the song, bts uses the 52hz whalien (whale + alien) as a metaphor for young people who feel like they aren’t being heard by society and their loved ones. Bts is telling them not to stop voicing out their opinions even if everyone around them is ignoring them. If you want to dive deeper into the lyrics, you can refer to [whalien 52 lyrics](https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/2018/06/01/whalien-52/). The whale was very relatable to armys, so it kinda became our unofficial symbol.
Whalien 52 is a song about BTS wishing their voices can reach someone someday. And armys are the ones who heard their voices and made their dreams come true.
BTS wanted a connection and armys built that with them so they are more lonely.
This is just a random guess lol😂
I appreciate this question so much. Thank you, OP.
Now some popcorn and light reading 🙃