Dedication is the key
Everybody knows ARMY is a vast, dedicated, and diligent fanbase. People of all ages are members of it, and as a fanbase, we all have one goal: to make BTS happy and proud by supporting them and their messages with all we’ve got. It’s only natural for us to put our love to good use, so ARMY works hard to be as organized, resourceful, and prepared for anything that might come our way. Being constant and tirelessly keeping ourselves motivated is a piece of cake when it comes to BTS.
We support BTS in many ways, mostly by quietly moving behind the scenes. However, streaming their music on every platform that can secure significant results is a method that catches a lot of attention on social media.
What initially is a fandom striving to give BTS the best results becomes often demonized to a point where our enthusiasm is mistaken for (or consciously turned into) obsession towards numbers.
As Namjoon said, “haters gon’ hate…”
ARMY will tell you that, through the years, we have had lots of false accusations thrown our way, and since we got our comeback goals plan down to a T, there has been a lot of fanfare.
During the "Dynamite" comeback, “avid fan of K-Pop, anime and pop culture, [..] pursuing her higher education focusing on Japanese and Korean media,” Miranda Larsen tweeted this:
She later deleted the tweets, but thanks to the Twitter account @bangtanimpact, we were able to see it.
…But ARMY’s got the upper hand
ARMY is smart; our motto is to speak only when our words can be proved. These were some of our replies:
1. Jin Ha Lee, associate professor at University of Washington and an ARMY, explained in her interesting essay “HOW MUSIC FANS SHAPE COMMERCIAL MUSIC SERVICES: A CASE STUDY OF BTS AND ARMY”:
2. Bangtan Scholars tweeted: “-"For many @bts_twt fans, the act of streaming is not only to simply listen to & enjoy but also to strategically support the artist... sometimes streaming can also be an act of resistance against the existing social structure & systems that fans feel are unjust." - @ElegantLogic,” supporting Jin Ha Lee’s tweets.
3. Other ARMYs also explained that streaming BTS songs is a way for ARMY to show appreciation for the boys:
4. One of our teammates, Anna (@annethebookworm), also expressed herself in a twitter thread, saying: “It's just plain insulting at this point. No matter what we do, someone will always try to drag us down. […] One day you'll see the truth behind our enthusiasm […] that we're over here trying to support people we care about (@BTS_twt) and change our world to be a better place to live in, inspired by their actions. So please, before you say something damaging and hurtful, make sure you look beyond the superficial and try to understand us instead of staying willfully on the surface. Encourage thinking with more thinking.”
Larsen accused ARMY of celebrating the “hyper-consumption in K-pop” simply because we know how the music industry works and use our potential by, in the words of Adam, streaming and buying songs. She also implied that we don’t care about “transformative and creative works, language learning, growth” when ARMY has always proved the contrary (see: fanarts and decoration of ARMY Bombs, video edits and such; the tremendous support of “Learn Korean with BTS” among international fans), going as far as calling us a “standom,” etymologically “(slang, sometimes derogatory) obsessive or excessive fandom; the fandom of stans.”
She then claimed that there is no depth when the endgame is view counts and cleared searches; this affirmation is easily disprovable because, as already mentioned above, ARMY’s only goal is to make BTS happy and proud; views and cleared searches are just another way to do that, condemned only because it’s there for all to see, and so we appear greedy and shallow to the public eye.
ARMY is far from shallow
We’ve debunked Larsen’s false accusations and established that ARMYs are not, in any way, “obsessed with view counts and cleared searches,” but genuinely work hard to show BTS how strong our love is and how much we’re ready to fight for them and support their messages. It’s quite a common misconception in the world of K-pop: everybody seems to perceive ARMY solely as avid pursers of high numbers, but it’s a belief that couldn’t be furthest from the truth.
ARMY is only greedy for BTS’ happiness, and we love it when the results of our hard work can make them smile. What makes ARMY sincerely happy is to see our boys take pride in their work and us, and to see that many of their inspiring and meaningful messages are truly coming across to countless people.
As long as we focus on each other, we can turn a deaf ear to what other people say. Sometimes, to keep our spirits soaring, we can even turn it into memes.
“Teamwork makes the dream work.” -BTS
DISCLAIMER: We do not own any audio & visual content in this video except for the editing. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. No copyright infringement intended.
Written By: Antonella
Edit By: Euni
Checked By: Esma
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