NCT 2018 / Zico, Dean, Crush / BTS
When you look at NCT 2018’s “Black on Black,” Zico, Dean, and Crush’s “Bermuda Triangle,” and BTS’s explosive “Body to Body,” you are looking at tracks that function as subversive, anti-colonial anthems for the underdogs.
While dominant Western pop often channels hegemony by depicting violent conquest or individual extraction, these tracks offer a blueprint for revolution. They reject imperialist dividing lines and create an overwhelming, un-colonizable force through militaristic collective action, indigenous sonic reclaiming, and underground tribal solidarity.
1. NCT 2018 – Black on Black
⚔️ The Strategy: The Unstoppable Multi-National Phalanx
Under colonial logic, the empire dominates by practicing “divide and conquer”—breaking native populations into fragmented groups so they cannot resist.
Black on Black operates as the structural antithesis to this colonial isolation. It features 18 members from diverse national backgrounds (Korea, China, Japan, America, Thailand, Canada) moving as a single, flawless military phalanx.
- The Subversion: The track does not center on an individual hero. Instead, the choreography relies on massive human structures—towers, shields, and waves.
- The Revolution: When NCT performs this track, they weaponize sheer numbers and synchronized collective movement. By taking bodies from historically fragmented Asian territories and welding them into an interlocking machine, they create a visual manifesto for post-colonial pan-Asian solidarity. The “underdogs” unite to form a roaring, pan-continental colossus that refuses to be subjugated.
2. Zico, Dean, Crush – Bermuda Triangle
⚔️ The Strategy: Reclaiming the Lost Narrative of the Marginalized
The “Bermuda Triangle” is a deeply colonial geographic myth—a Western map label designating a mysterious, dangerous, and lawless vortex where things disappear.
Zico, Dean, and Crush take this imperial label and reoccupy it as the headquarters of their own independent, underground musical sovereignty.
- The Subversion: The artists gather in a dark, cathedral-like space, surrounded by heavy religious iconography and raw industrial landscapes. They do not seek validation from the established, mainstream music industry (the gatekeepers of cultural hegemony).
- The Revolution: They frame their alliance as a dangerous, impenetrable vortex (“We are the Bermuda Triangle, if you cross us, you disappear”). By turning a space of marginalized, underground hip-hop into an un-assailable fortress, they mock the center of power. They prove that the underdogs don’t need to knock on the empire’s door; they can build their own parallel reality that the dominant culture cannot colonize or control.
3. BTS – Body to Body
⚔️ The Strategy: Indigenous Reclaiming in the Face of the Global Machine
BTS’s Body to Body represents the absolute peak of this anti-colonial, underdog alignment. It is a track explicitly engineered to ignite a collective, physical uprising.
- The Subversion: The track opens with a clattering, hyper-modern hip-hop beat, demanding global presence (“I need the whole stadium to jump”), while taking sharp aim at the sterile, digital alienation of late capitalism (“총 칼 키보드 다 좀 치워 / 인생은 짧아 증오는 비워”—Put away the guns, knives, and keyboards / Life is short, empty out the hatred).
- The Revolution: The true revolutionary core arrives during the coda. BTS strips away the Western pop facade and weaves a soaring, echoing sample of “Arirang”—the definitive historical anthem of Korean resilience, sorrow, and survival against foreign colonization—directly into the modern trap beat. By blending the ancient melody of the occupied underdog with a global stadium anthem, Body to Body achieves a profound decolonial synthesis. It uses the ancestral code of survival to unite millions of fans worldwide (“ARMY”) into a singular, breathing, borderless community that operates outside the boundaries of any hegemonic superpower.
📊 The Blueprint of the Post-Colonial Anthem
| Song | The Underdog Strategy | The Anti-Colonial Liberation |
| Black on Black | Collective Synchronization Merging 18 multi-national bodies into a tight, military phalanx. | Overcomes the imperial “divide and conquer” tactic through unstoppable pan-Asian solidarity. |
| Bermuda Triangle | Spatial Reoccupation Transforming a marginalized, lawless myth into a sovereign fortress. | Rejects the need for mainstream validation; creates an un-colonizable underground hierarchy. |
| Body to Body | Indigenous Hybridization Merging modern global pop rap with the traditional code of Arirang. | Weaponizes ancestral memories of resilience to turn a global stadium into a unified, borderless sanctuary. |
Final Synthesis
These tracks demonstrate that the antidote to colonial violence and capitalist exploitation isn’t just passive rest—sometimes it requires active, thunderous mobilization.
By trading individualistic hubris for collective choreography (Black on Black), establishing independent cultural zones (Bermuda Triangle), and placing indigenous survival codes at the very front of the global stage (Body to Body), these K-pop anthems provide a visceral, revolutionary space where the underdogs of the world can lock arms, find their collective voice, and successfully push back against the forces that seek to fragment them.