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Are you a BTS ARMY Too?
So some of you may or may not have heard about the biggest musical act in the world right now, BTS. I fell into the rabbit hole a year and a half ago now, and I have yet to climb out. I know that many people just “don’t get it” and I really just wanted to right out my thoughts on why more people need to get over their initial impressions of these guys. SO many people just look at them and make the most ridiculous assumptions about them. So I’m here to spill some BTS Tea.
BTS consists of 7 amazing young men:
- Kim Namjoon, or RM- the leader and main rapper, and the brains behind so many o their songs!
- Kim Seokjin- the eldest of the group, vocalist, aka Jin aka Worldwide Handsome
- Min Yoongi- main rapper, aka SUGA, and an amazing producer of music
- Jung Hoseok- main dancer, and rapper, aka J-Hope, aka Hobi, and the sunshine of the group
- Park Jimin- vocalist, and the most incredible dancer!
- Kim Taehyung- vocalist, aka V, and has the most amazing smile
- Jung Jungkook- youngest, main vocalist but considered to be the “Golden Youngest” because he’s literally good at everything he does!
So many BTS fans are facing ridicule in the media because for some reason it is assumed that we’re all a bunch of raving mad teenage girls that don’t know any better. The hilarious thing is that MOST of us are actually grown adult women that have finally found an act to resonate with. I mean, can teenage girls sell out an entire car?! BTS are endorsing the new 2020 Hyundai Palisade, and sales skyrocketed during the first month it was announced. Now, people are on a 6-month long waiting list because Hyundai can’t produce them fast enough! (Source)
In reality, the biggest reason why we’re so in love with these boys is because they have taught us how important it is to love ourselves. It’s insane to me that so many people weren’t even told that they should love themselves. Our world has gone SO far away from common sense and common human decency that we are living in a time where so many people hate themselves. We grow up with so many insecurities, stressors, and traumas and we never learn that WE should be the most important person to ourselves. We deserve to love ourselves, we deserve to be loved by others, and we should be our true authentic selves. We are allowed to be happy!
7 amazing strangers have taught millions of people how to love themselves because no one thought that was important to do when we were younger. Let that sink in.
~Kristin~
The BTS ARMY
I’ve always thought it was funny that BTS picked ARMY as their fanclub name, but these days it really it amazing because there are SO many of us. We’re truly a huge ARMY! ARMY technically stands for “Adorable Representative MC for Youth”, but as that’s quite a bit to say, they settled for just ARMY.
The ARMY consists of people of all ages, backgrounds, and places. I have seen ARMYs from ages 3-100 at this point! The majority of use seem to be in the 20-50 bracket though (which is why it is so infuriating to be called little girls all of the time- grown men can paint their stomachs and go scream at a football field to watch other men touch balls for a few hours, so why are we the ones made fun of when we’re actually promoting something more worthwhile?!).
ARMYs have a multitude of charities that go on through the year as well. Usually there is one big donation made to a specific charity for each of the boys’ birthdays which are scattered out around the year. The one I see the most is tree donation, and this varies on location depending on who organizes the whole thing. I have seen ARMYs also make donations to teachers, cancer funds, and soooo much more. I’ve never seen a fandom so dedicated to change.
Also, the power ARMYs have is insane sometimes. About a month or so ago there was a clear snub against BTS for some reason, so instead of getting angry and ranting, we all decided to chart all 13 of BTS’s albums on the iTunes chart. That was quite a feat, and it was really cool to see so many people band together to help our boys.
Why People Love BTS
- They are genuine. I have never seen artists that were so genuine in their work. All they want to do is to continually improve their talents and to make their fans happy. They don’t hide their flaws, and they embrace who they are as individuals.
- They follow a story line with their albums and music videos. This is what REALLY got me to love BTS even more. There is SO MUCH in the BTS universe for the last few years. They created their own characters and backstories, and their songs and videos followed these themes.
- They are talented! So talented! There are 4 vocalists and 3 rappers in BTS, and they all seriously can do everything perfectly. The 3 rappers are the ones that take charge the most with writing lyrics and producing the music. They aren’t just letting others do that side of the work for them, like so many other artists do. They put their heart and soul into what they’re doing. All 7 of them have done their own solo songs at one point as well.
- They are still so humble. This is crazy still, considering that they are literally the most sought-after group in the world right now. They still strive to do their best in everything they do and they always express that they can’t even believe that they’ve gotten to this point. They attribute everything back to ARMYs.
- They have come SO FAR. These boys started out living in a 1 bedroom flat at the beginning of the debut. They went hungry at times, they have to share basically everything, and they had to have been so uncomfortable. But they busted their butts and never gave up. Now they have broken so many records, won more awards than any other group, and somehow
- They actually care about their fans! Literally every show they do or award they get, they are screaming about how much they love ARMYs and how we’re the ones that made them who they are today. They do everything with the fans in mind- their jobs aren’t just about making money or getting famous, which is unfortunately what a lot of other artists are all about.
- Along the same lines about caring about the fans, we even have our own phrase and color associated with us- purple. A few years ago at one of their shows, Taehyung started this trend just for us. He said, “Purple is the last color of the rainbow colors. Purple means I will trust and love you for a long time. I just made it up.” Since then, “I purple you” has been a common and special phrase used for the ARMY, and we tend to use purple for everything now, especially hearts.
- They talk about topics that need to be addressed like pressures in the school system from a young age, mental health struggles, and their biggest message is about learning to love ourselves.
- They are making the world learn more about another culture. This one is so important to me. I feel like as Americans, we really aren’t encouraged to learn much about the rest of the world. There is still so much disdain and racism towards people that don’t speak English or come from different parts of the world. BTS have helped millions of people learn about a country that might have never been on their radar, and they’ve inspired so many of us to learn how to speak Korean!
So all in all, BTS is amazing!
People are really starting to understand the appeal more, and I can only hope that they continue to get people to open their minds. We get so caught up in everything that is only in English and we tend to forget that there are thousands of other languages out there. Social media and the internet has made it so much easier to connect with people all over the world too.
Where to Learn More
- Follow the boys on Twitter here– it’s where they are most active with social media.
- Follow them on YouTube here
My choices for songs and music videos to start with:
- RM’s latest solo release from last year, mono- this album is incredible. Moonchild is my favorite of course, and it was what sparked the inspiration for this blog name!
- Boy With Luv Video– this song is from their album last year, Map of the Soul: Persona that released early this year. It was their 3rd album in less than a year to hit number 1 on the Billboard charts.
- Fake Love Video– this is the first song I heard from the boys, and it’s what got me into this world! YouTube had actually recommend their live performance of this song on the Billboard Music Awards to me, and I just happened to click it!
- Mic Drop video– this is one of their most popular songs ever, and they usually perform it when they’re doing American TV performances still.
- Spring Day is one of their most beautiful songs ever- check the video out here.
- I’ve made a playlist on Spotify that people can follow too that has ALL of their songs on it. They currently have over 200 songs!
- Their latest album was released in February 2020, and it is called Map of the Soul: 7. It was yet another record breaker too of course! This album had songs like Shadow, Ego, Inner Child- a theme that MANY people need to learn more about right now as the world is going through so much change on a collective level.