With testing season coming up for juniors and college applications looming over seniors’ heads, what’s better than having some music to keep you going?

Jung Hoseok, known artistically as “j-hope”, is a South Korean musician. Though he is most well known as a member of K-Pop group BTS, he has also established himself as a strong solo artist. 

In July of 2022, j-hope released his first studio album and second body of work titled Jack In The Box. The album is primarily influenced by old school hip-hop, but it includes a variety of styles including pop, grunge, and R&B. Differing from its happier predecessor Hope World, Jack In The Box takes listeners through the hidden parts of j-hope’s psyche. The first three tracks of the album do a great job setting the stage for this journey.

One of the most creative choices j-hope made was using the Greek myth of Pandora’s box to link the album’s intro (simply titled “Intro”) to the first full song, “Pandora’s Box”. He uses the story to mirror the way people view him. After opening the box she was instructed not to, Pandora released horrors into the world, leaving nothing in the box but hope. The message of the myth is that sometimes, curiosity can lead you into dark situations. In the first two tracks, j-hope connected the story to his fear of not knowing what may happen to his fans’ perception of him if he “opens the box”, or reveals less positive things about him. After listening to these songs with no background information, Damian Mendez (‘25) said “‘Pandora’s Box’ seems pretty aggressive. It was good, though. I really liked the transition from the intro to the first song.” 

Following “Pandora’s Box”, the third track “More” was met with mixed reactions as it differed greatly from what j-hope’s typical sound was. When speaking about the track in an interview with Billboard, he stated “I wanted to express a little bit of a darker side of me… a different aspect of myself.” Take it from student Melissa Yu (‘24), who said “I feel like it was really out of his comfort zone, but I appreciated seeing a new part of him.” Throughout the song, he speaks of everything he’s done in his life, all the things he still has to do, and how he’s still thirsty for more despite his accomplishments. The song ends with the lines “keep my passion, I gotta go / I’m still not enough”, and they solidify his belief that no matter how much work he puts in, he will never feel as though he’s done enough.

Jack In The Box is a story of self reflection, and it addresses j-hope’s dreams, fears, and how he views himself as an artist and an individual. Overall, it’s a very strong body of work, and most will be able to find at least one song in the album that sticks with them.