[1] The group's label officially announced Be on September 27, 2020, stating via press release that the album "imparts a message of healing to the world by declaring, 'Even in the face of this new normality, our life goes on'".

"Life Goes On" was written by band members J-Hope, RM and Suga alongside Ruuth, Antonina Armato, Chris James and its producer Pdogg.

[5][6] The folky[7][8] production consists of 808 drums,[9] electronic beats,[7] melodic rhymes, a stripped-down melody[10] accompanied by "acrobatic" vocals and harmonies on the chorus.

[17] Supported mainly by sales and streaming, "Life Goes On" received "minimal" US radioplay in comparison to its predecessor "Dynamite", prompting discussions from publications such as Slate and The Atlantic about, among other things, the difficulties facing non-English-language performing/speaking artists to break into the mainstream.

She acknowledged that "non-Korean-speaking audiences would, of course, not understand most of the lyrics", but believed that the song "could resonate with many listeners in a difficult year" if given the chance by radio.

[18] After outlining other performance differences between "Dynamite" and "Life Goes On" and possible influencing factors, Slate's Chris Molanphy concluded "One thing we do know, basically indisputably, is that radio, the third component of the Hot 100, decidedly prefers BTS singing in English."

"[19] Echoing sentiments similar to Molanphy's findings, Cruz additionally wrote that "The takeaway seems clear: If you don’t primarily perform in English, you need to outsell your closest competitors many times over—or secure a radio-friendly collaboration or remix—to have a shot at reaching No.

The first, released on YouTube on November 17, 2020, is a 26-second long clip—accompanied by "ambient piano and guitar music"—of the band outdoors at night, seated around a campfire, then indoors watching a video while dressed in pajamas and loungewear.

[24] More personal and "sentimental" in nature, it presents the band living together in isolation in their dorm during the COVID-19 pandemic—in one scene RM "wistfully wipes a couple of fingers' worth of dust off his bicycle seat" as he can no longer participate in that outdoor activity[19]—having a pajama party, watching movies, and playing video games,[25] intercut with a clip of V driving his bandmates around South Korea and eventually past Seoul Olympic Stadium—he "peers out the window" and "longingly stares" at the venue as they pass it—where the band was slated to kickoff their Map of the Soul Tour several months prior, before it was ultimately cancelled due to the pandemic.

At a press conference held the day of Be's release, Jungkook said that his intent with the music video was to express the "sadness and the longing" the band felt due to the tour's cancellation "and because we couldn't see ARMY much".

[34] The final version, "like an arrow", was released on November 29 and comprises various black and white photo stills, some of which were first seen in the second teaser trailer, depicting behind-the-scenes cuts from all four music videos, as well as candid shots of the band, set to the song's audio.