If you’ve ever seen or listened to a BTS acceptance speech, you’ll notice that there’s always one thing that’s omnipresent: their gratitude to their fans, the ARMY. And certainly, at times this relationship feels particularly unique to this fandom compared to any other I’ve ever been a part. No other act, whether artist, film, or TV show, has ever shown the same regard for its community the way the seven boys of BTS have. But I’ve really only begun to fully understand what this entailed from looking at it through the lens of fandom framework. Sure, BTS (along with their multi-disciplinary team) create the cultural objects per se — the music, the videos, the reality series and whatnot — it is the fans, the community surrounding them that truly continuously creates this one-of-a-kind culture.
One particular incident that stands out was at the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020, when it was revealed that BTS made a collective donation of $1 billion to the cause. The news spread quickly, and soon enough, the ARMY rose in response, matching their $1 billion donation — not one day after the news broke. And all done predominantly through social media and the highly engaged community. Twitter is the fanbase’s home, and we sure know how to wield it.
The fandom today comprises largely of digital natives — teenagers who’ve grown up alongside the internet and have found BTS at some of the most influential and impressionable times of their life. And as all young people do, they’re making sense of their place in the world and are hoping to do some good in it, too, using the best tools they know at their disposal: social media and the internet.
And throughout all this, the ground we lived and breathed on was Twitter. Most especially in the absence of fan events and meetups throughout the pandemic, the online community grew exponentially, both in engagement and in size.
One example that illustrates this is an online monthly phenomenon, #ARMYSelcaDay. As its name suggests, the hashtag is online event for fans to post selfies of themselves, alongside pictures of the BTS members. Usually, they also include recreations of photos the members have taken themselves, bonus points if it’s a particularly meme-able, memorable, or funny. And these events are highly active: community members often retweet and comment each others’ posts.
Often, these are the only times we see the actual people behind the icons, the humans that make up the community. It’s a rare glimpse of authenticity within this digital landscape — and yet it’s also very much staged in a way, and very mediated. Selfies in themselves are inherently performative, and yet these particular entries add an extra layer to to the performance. Much consideration is put into each photo, whether it’s to fit a certain aesthetic in mind or to mimic a BTS member, and is catered for a very specific (and very reactive and engaged) audience.
Looking back at this with a more critical lens, this is another example of a fan-created event that bolsters a sense of belonging and community for its members. In a sense, it’s saying I see you, and I recognize you as part of this community the same way you perceive me — in a sense, a sort of affirmation validating each others’ membership in the community. And all through something as simple as a selfie, a song lyric, and a hashtag.
Yet another monthly online occurrence is the #WordsByBangtan movement, a hashtag-led event on Twitter meant to celebrate and highlight the band’s lyricism. Participation in this event is primarily through manmade art that interpret and celebrate the band’s lyrics. BTS’ lyrics are often a universal anchor-point for many fans, and the event acts as a global celebration of this shared love, with a different theme for each month.
On the subject of fan creations, remix culture has also taken on a new format in this community. This particularly in the creation of short-form videos, known as “edits”, as a means of music promotion. In an era where music is produced with virality as an objective, K-pop fans create edits. These are essentially video clips of anything — be it a popular television show, game, or an idol’s stage performances — which are spliced together with a particular artist’s song as background music. This is a key aspect to the finished outcome, as they’re created with the goal of promoting the song far and wide throughout the platform. This is without a doubt an extension and reiteration of early fan remix culture, but what makes this interesting is that these edits have a set goal and target audience. They aren’t merely for personal gain, but to promote the artists they love to those outside the fandom, and in effect grow the community.
As I write this now, I’ve been part of this fandom for nearly three years, and have engaged with it online for almost as long. Being part of this community has now become inseparable from my identity, and has been a driving force that’s led to the way my life is today. And this isn’t just my story; it’s the story of thousands of fandom members around the globe, and of anyone whose ever felt the same kind of all-encompassing passion for a piece of creation, long after it’s been consumed. Some things just refuse to leave you behind so easily. Thank goodness for that.
