BTS Gives “Permission to Dance” with New Music Video

On July 9, 2021, BTS, willing and ready to take the necessary steps to reach their English-speaking audience, released the physical single album Butter along with new summer jam “Permission to Dance.” As some of K-Pop’s most renowned sweethearts, they’ve responsibly taken a few moments in the last year to offer some comfort to fans in the time that they’re forced to be apart.

Co-written by Ed Sheeran, “Permission to Dance” complements “Butter”’s sunny disposition, as BTS has been consistently releasing upbeat music—such as “Dynamite”— to help us through the hard times brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The music video opens with a masked waitress looking longingly out the window, and right from the first shot we can see that BTS is reaching out once again to those trapped by the pandemic’s strict rules that apply to some more than others—namely essential workers. 

Peppered with images of different people going about their daily routine with purple balloons somewhere in the background, “Permission to Dance” is a fun summer bop to get you moving, and features the people taking a moment to dance it out. While “Permission to Dance” is an upbeat groovy song not unlike “Dynamite” and “Butter,” BTS stays finding new ways to connect with their audience of all walks of life as they continue to reach out to different fans.

Alongside the tribute to essential workers, the choreography incorporates elements of international sign language—a rare moment of communication to hearing-impaired fans specifically. As one could guess by the name, “Permission to Dance” is all about the dancing and getting everyone involved. Between shots of the people in question, our boys are featured in a few spots of the sunny south, where they appropriately don cowboy hats and other country-inspired outfit elements to mesh them with their desert surroundings, but that's not to say it's necessarily dry. They dance on an outdoor patio, in and outside a laundromat in the same sunny area, and once again they’re all-smiles as they sing about living in the moment and enjoying what’s here right now. 

With borders slowly opening up and social distancing laws becoming slightly more lenient as vaccines have begun to be distributed, people who were masked throughout the video take them off by the end to reveal smiling faces—the end of the pandemic approaches, and all there is to do now is take the moment in stride.

The album consists of “Butter,” “Permission to Dance,” and instrumental versions of both songs, providing a fun experience throughout, and really its only flaw is that there’s not more to it.