The release of BTS’s new album Love Yourself: Tear and its lead single Fake Love are catapulting the K-pop idols to new levels of fame in the Western world.
Fake Love – which BTS performed at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night – has been played on radio and TV stations across the world, including in the US.
However, while more stations playing BTS is obviously a great thing, Korean fans are pretty annoyed that the single has been edited for US airplay – and the reason is pretty interesting.
The words 니가 and 내가, pronounced ‘niga’ and ‘naega’ – meaning ‘you’ and ‘I’ – have been censored from Fake Love due to concerns the words could be mistaken for the n-word.
Censored US radio version of "Fake Love"
I guess they think people might think Hobie is using the n word when he raps "naega" I wonder how they are going to do that on the BBMA's#iVoteBTSBBMAs @BTS_twt @BTSx50States pic.twitter.com/j9GVjnuJ7H— Marcel | Seokjin supremacist (@marcel_twt) May 18, 2018
KJ103 Oklahoma City host JJ Ryan explained why US stations had been sent an edited version of the song, tweeting: ‘The version of Fake Love on KJ103 (and likely US radio everywhere) is edited. This is the version sent to radio by the record label.
‘My understanding is that they did this to avoid stations potentially not playing the single because it could be considered offensive OR generate complaints with the FCC. If the public finds anything on US radio “offensive” people can file a formal complaint. Those complaints COULD result in the station’s broadcast license being revoked.’
He continued: ‘The label likely decided it’s better to not risk it and make an edit that US radio stations would embrace so the audience and programmers wouldn’t be hesistant. This also gives Fake Love the best possible chance of becoming a hit of course.
‘As a BTS fan myself I know it’s not offensive but the vast majority of Americans don’t and once they form a negative opinion it’s difficult to change their mind which could affect sales and research at radio.’
Many ARMYs are annoyed that listeners not familiar with BTS may think that they use the n-word in their lyrics.
Meanwhile, others have pointed out that there are other languages than English, and claim that it’s disrespectful to censor a Korean word just because it sounds like an English slur.
america censoring "naega" in fake love, just because it sounds like the n word is straight up ignorance at its best. other cultures exist, other languages exist. get your heads out of your asses
— jay ⌲pt2 (@silverpjimin) May 18, 2018
bighit is censoring the word 내가 (naega) in fake love because westerners can’t wrap their head around the idea that English isn’t the only language in the world. people will think bts actually uses the n word because of this— what are americans doing wow#IVoteBTSBBMAs @BTS_twt
— samantha (@inspiregguk) May 19, 2018
so america really out there censoring “naega” in fake love??? it’s literally a different f*cking language??? it means me/i in korean???? are y’all f*cking serious wtf
— ana (@f*ckagust) May 18, 2018
I just realized, they better not attempt to censor 'naega' from the #BBMAs Fake Love performance.
It's enough that they're butchering the song on radio stations due to complete ignorance. No unnecessary censorship, please – let them have their moment! ?#iVoteBTSBBMAs @BTS_twt— ᴍɪɴɪ??♀️ (@taestyfairies) May 20, 2018
why are people being understanding toward columbia records about censoring 'naega' out of fake love?? censorship would just cause greater miscommunication and make the gp think that bts is racist when they're literally just speaking their language??
— meg 118 (@awakeftyoongi) May 19, 2018
BTS aren’t the first K-pop band to fall victim to this censorship.
According to Koreaboo, 2NE1’s 2014 song I Am The Best had some instances of ‘naega’ and ‘niga’ bleeped out of the track when played on US radio stations.
The official Fake Love music video has been watched over 74 million times on YouTube.
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