BTS band reveals acts of discrimination towards them 0:46
(CNN Spanish) – If you already know what k-pop is, you already know that social media is its world. The followers of this musical style that originated in South Korea should not solely very energetic of their publications, however they’ve managed to transcend the musical spectrum to talk out on social causes or sabotage political labels in each the US and Latin America. Those that comply with the group BTS, probably the most widespread of the style, name themselves ARMY, they’re tens of 1000’s across the planet and have raised thousands and thousands of cash for social causes. How did an organized international fan base come up that manages to form developments on the web?
Who’re BTS and what’s the ARMY?
BTS is brief for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which interprets to Bulletproof Boy Scouts, and is a South Korean band made up of Kim Nam-joon, (RM), Kim Seok-jin, (Jin), Min Yoon-gi (Suga ), Jung Ho-seok (J-hope), Park Ji-min (Jimin), Kim Tae-hyung (V), and Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook).
Amongst BTS’s lengthy listing of ARMY-listed achievements, the group that debuted in 2013 is the primary within the Ok-pop style to prime Billboard’s Scorching 100 chart due to their music Dynamite and they maintain the Guinness document for reaching the vast majority of spectators in a digital live performance.
For its half, the ARMY, which interprets as military, is the fandom of BTS and its title means in Spanish “Lovely Consultant MC for Youth” and though it’s troublesome to calculate precisely the variety of folks that make up the ARMY, their networks social give us a tough concept. BTS’s official Twitter account, for instance, has greater than 35 million followers, whereas its YouTube channel has greater than 55 million subscriptions.
“The prerequisite for being an ARMY is that you just love BTS and that’s it. There isn’t any secret password, ”mentioned Wallea Eaglehawk, a younger girl from Queensland, Australia, who created her personal e book writer underneath the title“ Revolutionary ”(Revolutionary, in Spanish) to point out the revolutionary capability of BTS, a South Korean group of k- pop, and ARMY, because the group of followers of the band is thought.
“I see ARMY as a really dynamic and ever-changing group of individuals, united by means of love, and they’re additionally like a microcosm of the macrocosm, so they’re a cross-section of the world as a result of there are such a lot of of us now.”
In keeping with a 2020 census, carried out by ARMY, by which 400,000 individuals participated, the ARMY is current in additional than 100 nations, and though a big majority is made up of minors, the remaining 49% are over 18 years of age . The census additionally confirmed that one in 5 has a school schooling and that greater than 21,000 individuals who participated within the census are mother and father.
A decentralized and organized fandom
Not like different fan teams, the ARMY doesn’t have a frontrunner, so it’s a decentralized fandom by which nobody speaks on behalf of the ARMY. Nonetheless, the shortage of centralization has not affected their organizational energy, however reasonably potentiates it with the assistance of social networks. “Social media is unquestionably one of many mainstays of fandom as a result of it’s what connects a really, very sturdy international viewers,” Eaglehawk mentioned.
The ARMY community is so huge that it looks like there’s an account for every part, whether or not it’s documenting necessary moments (@ResearchBTS), translating content material (@BTS_Trans), studying about BTS (@BangtanScholars), organizing voting (@btsvotingorg), or pushing ahead fundraiser (@OneInAnArmy). The latter was the group throughout the ARMY that was in control of selling the #MatchAMillion marketing campaign to help the Black Lives Matter motion, amassing US $ 1 million in roughly 26 hours.
Donations on behalf of BTS
It began in November 2017 when BTS partnered with Unicef to launch the Love Myself anti-violence marketing campaign. BTS and its then label Massive Hit Leisure made a donation of 500 million South Korean received (US $ 418,897.60), allotted 3% of the sale of the bodily data of their assortment “Love Your self”, amongst different actions.
In March 2018, an ARMY named Ana summoned her Twitter followers to collaborate on a charity venture. The tweet went viral and a gaggle of volunteers from world wide organized in a matter of hours to create One In An Military (OIAA, a BTS fanbase that’s centered on charity, and that isn’t a political group or activist per se.
Nonetheless, OIAA isn’t the primary or the one group throughout the ARMY conducting charitable initiatives. “You’ll be able to go to Twitter, for instance, and there are campaigns like those we noticed to equal the million with Black Lives Matter, and even proper now with Palestine,” mentioned Eaglehawk.
In keeping with ARMY documentation, up to now, greater than 600 charitable initiatives have been organized that help quite a lot of causes world wide. For instance, the ARMY just lately donated 300 meals for Ramadan to the 100 Million Meals marketing campaign and raised $ 2,091 to help individuals in ICE detention facilities. ARMY’s charitable actions should not directed by BTS, however they’re impressed by what many of those donations are made on behalf of the members or, charities which can be throughout the curiosity group of BTS are supported.
Why don’t all of the followers do that? Are you able to think about if everybody’s followers thanked them [a las bandas] organizing charitable actions in your behalf? What a greater place this world could be, “mentioned artist Halsey on Zach Sang’s radio present after her collaboration with BTS on” Boy With Luv. “
Halsey and BTS through the Billboard Music Awards on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment in Might 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Credit score: Ethan Miller / .
Activism (and counter-activism) in networks
Whereas each the ARMY and BTS should not immediately associated to any political motion, their actions could be seen as revolutionary acts. For instance, the group donated US $ 1 million to Black Lives Matter in the US and in a tweet they mentioned: “We’re towards racial discrimination. We condemn violence, you, I and all of us have the fitting to be revered. We are going to stick collectively. #BlackLivesMatter ». Quickly after, his ARMY collected one other million in about 26 hours.
Within the midst of the massification of the BLM motion after the dying of George Floyd, in 2020 the response additionally emerged with opposing hashtags in favor of the police or the whites, towards the postulates of the defenders of the black group. Again then, Ok-pop followers did what they do greatest: submit numerous memes and movies of their favourite teams, this time utilizing anti-black labels to drown out these voices. So when individuals searched for the hashtags #WhiteLivesMatter, #WhiteoutWed, and #BlueLivesMatter on social media platforms, they got here throughout countless photographs and performances from Twice, EXO, and different widespread Ok-pop teams.
In June 2020, the Dallas Police Division requested individuals on Twitter to submit a video of “unlawful protest exercise” to its IWatch Dallas app. However as an alternative, Ok-pop followers flooded the app with fancams. The police division mentioned at some point on Twitter: “As a consequence of technical difficulties, the iWatch Dallas software will likely be quickly inactive.” Even after the app crashed, Ok-pop followers responded to the Dallas Police Division tweet with extra Ok-pop movies.
“Basically the ARMY isn’t political, however truly, should you look, they’re activists. They’re for social justice, and that in itself is political, ”Eaglehawk mentioned.
Alongside the identical strains, BTS chief RM instructed Selection: “We aren’t political figures, however as they are saying, every part is political finally. Even a pebble could be political.
Nonetheless, that isn’t an opinion shared by all BTS members. In the identical interview with Selection, Suga mentioned that they don’t take into account themselves political figures and indicated that “the ARMY talks about their very own initiatives and we all the time respect their opinions, as we respect these of anybody else.”
From USA to Colombia
Lately, it has been seen on social networks, particularly on Twitter, how accounts associated to Ok-pop content material have used their nice organizational expertise to advertise hashtags associated to social conflicts, or typically ‘acceptable’ tags to vary their which means as they did with the labels within the US A latest instance is that of Colombia, the place when reviewing the hashtags # UribeTieneLaRazón and #YoApoyoalESMAD on Twitter, you possibly can see pictures and movies of varied Ok-pop bands —comparable to BTS and Blackpink— as an alternative of exhibiting the messages of the previous senator and former president of Colombia Álvaro Uribe towards the demonstrations or content material in help of Colombia’s Cell Anti-Riot Squad (Esmad).
Nonetheless, whereas many of those social media actions are attributed to BTS’s ARMY, the ARMY doesn’t declare success. “We consider that we don’t symbolize nor are we the face of the 1000’s of people who find themselves at the moment actively collaborating within the completely different digital actions, concerning HT, which can be carried out within the nation,” ARMY Bogotá instructed CNN en Español . “Our work on unemployment is only informative.”
The period is giving delivery to a coronary heart
He can’t take it anymore, he dies of ache
And you need to run
Effectively the long run fallsI have to go away the home and the sofa
The mom lives till the solar dies
And you need to burn the sky
If essential, to dwell # FuerzaCOLOMBIA 🇨🇴💜✊ pic.twitter.com/X05RFUjgwl– ᴮᴱ BTS ARMY Bogotá ⟭⟬ 🧈 (@ARMYBogotaCol) Might 4, 2021
With info from CNN’s Alicia Lee
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