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behind-the-screen-of-bangtan · 5 years

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BTS’ relationship with their haters and with their fans

This post is part of the TSU. It belongs to the first part: Biography.

The relationship with haters

BTS may have had a slight case of obsession with their haters at the beginning of their career. It’s understandable though. The situation was hard for Bangtan, especially the ones coming from the underground scene that had accepted to become idols. The 4 Things documentary about RM and u/baepsayed’s posts about BTS’ pre-debut give a good idea of it.

They mentioned haters in 2 Cool 4 Skool, but the first songs really dedicated to them are “We On” and “BTS Cypher Pt.1” in O!RUL8,2?. They were aimed at all those who thought BTS wouldn’t make it after debuting. People also thought that becoming idols implied to renounce to sincerity and to just make commercial songs. By writing most of their lyrics and talking about society’s problems in their main tracks, Bangtan proved them wrong again. It was a fight, haters attacked Bangtan and Bangtan attacked back, belittling each other without being able to ignore each other though.

“Oh oh my haters, please diss me a little more”

“I’m not in the military service but my hobby is to shoot at you We gave you a blow with We are bulletproof The lame fakers’ consciences are pricked and react”

The next two Cyphers are in the same vein, “BTS Cypher Pt.2: Triptych” and “BTS Cypher PT.3: Killer (feat. Supreme Boi)” are masterpieces of wordplays and metaphors aimed to insult back the haters. Luckily, we have Muish’s ramblings (“Triptych”, “Killer”) and Doolset’s translations (“Triptych”, “Killer”) to appreciate all the work of the rap line.

There’s no song specifically against haters in The Most Beautiful Moment in Life series but the songs with a political message (“Dope” and “Baepsae”) includes mentions of the haters so they’re still on the boys’ mind.

The war ends in WINGS, the album where they reach adulthood. “BTS Cypher 4” is a goodbye to the haters, because while the haters are still obsessed with the boys:

“Even if you don’t like me, YOU KNOW ME Even if you don’t like me, YOU KNOW ME”

BTS is already walking towards their next chapter, namely Love Yourself:

“I love I love I love myself I love I love I love myself I know I know I know myself Ya playa haters you should love yourself”

We thus see that the first step to self-love was to ignore haters, even before the boys started working on themselves.

The epilogue to this series of songs is “Mic Drop”. RM explained in the Comeback Show - BTS DNA that he wrote his rap and realized he had no anger anymore, that these people weren’t important and that therefore it was goodbye. Not only has BTS decided to ignore haters, but they’ve also proved them wrong by conquering the worldwide music charts:

You would’ve thought we’d fail but I’m fine sorry Sorry Billboard Sorry worldwide Sorry that your son’s on such a roll, mum We be good to your parents on your behalf, which you weren’t able to do [...]

Did you see my bag Did you see my bag It’s full of trophies How you think bout that How you think bout that Haters are already fed up

BTS has nothing to do anymore with haters. There are thus low chances we’ll have another song about them - time to mourn “Cypher V ft. V” it seems. Even “땡” (Ddaeng) (Lyrics, Muish’s rambling), the very last song about haters, was released during the 2018 Festa so it was more intended as a gift for ARMY than a message to haters.

Fans replaced haters as BTS’ main obsession

Now that the haters are a matter of the past, Bangtan finally has time to acknowledge their fans. We technically already had “Miss Right” but it’s just an addition to Skool Luv Affair and the lyrics are just about an ideal girl so it’s hard to consider it as a song about ARMY. The next occurrence was “I Know” by RM and Jungkook. However, it was not an official release but a gift for ARMY during the 2016 Festa. Considering the date of release, it can be counted as the beginning of the “fans above haters” phase. And already they’re including everyone with lyrics such as:

“Know you love me girl So that I love you Know you love me boy So that I love you”

“2! 3!” and “Magic Shop” are both dedicated to the fandom. It’s interesting to see they’re both included in dark albums with respectively the theme of temptation (WINGS) and fakeness (Love Yourself 轉 Tear), rather than the hopeful You Never Walk Alone or the happy Love Yourself 承 Her. Same with the lyrics, you could expect something joyful but the boys rather decided to be sorry for all the hardships ARMY had to go through:

“Saying that there will only be good things from now on Saying that you won’t get hurt I can’t say that”

“I know that you’re hesitating because even if you say the truth, In the end it will all return as scars”

However, they also remind us to believe in the future and now that ARMY has helped accomplish their dreams, BTS hopes for ARMY to take care of themselves too:

“It’s okay come on when I say one two three forget it Erase all sad memories hold my hand and smile”

“You gave me the best of me So you’ll give you the best of you You’ll find it, the galaxy inside you”

Even though they’re not officially dedicated to ARMY, “Outro: Wings” and “A Supplementary Story: You Never Walk Alone” can both represent the relationship between the group and their fans. It’s confirmed in the credits of The Wings Tour:

Special thank to our wings, A.R.M.Y

Same with “Answer: Love Myself”:

You’ve shown me I have reasons I should love myself

“But the mask and persona itself is ARMY. BTS=ARMY ARMY=BTS”

- RM, Map of the soul: Persona behind (11:30)

I don’t know if they know about it, but ARMY often patronize each other with “ARMY is BTS’ face” to remember everyone to behave well and be respectful.

It’s also through the fandom that BTS reached the mainstream level - and they stayed thanks to their talent. Even now, all interviews or articles will have at least one paragraph about the fandom.

But is it what RM meant when he said that ARMY is BTS’ persona?

He described the idea of persona as the social mask we wear outside. It does fit with ARMY being BTS’ representative.

However, our dear leader also explained that the songs - except “Intro: Persona” and “Dionysus” - were a tribute to ARMY. The songs explain how BTS see ARMY: someone with whom they share a relationship of mutual caring and trust.

“HOME” is the song acknowledged as being dedicated to ARMY. It expresses that “the home BTS want to return to when they’re tired and lonely is ARMY” according to the article presenting the album (src 1, src 2).

We’ll be at ease without needing to say a word If I only have you, everywhere will become my home

The idea that wherever they are, the boys feel at home with ARMY resonates a lot with their international schedule and them having their best time during concerts - when they’re with ARMY.

So more than an Adorable Representative MC for Youth for BTS, ARMY is actually a very close friend. Which leads us to the last point.

Recently, BTS has tried to be even closer to us:

they used fans’ phones to film themselves during concerts

they tried to register for music shows pre-recordings (Jin and RM)

they did an unboxing of Persona (J-Hope, Jimin, and Jungkook)

they posted on the Fancafe from ARMY’s side (Suga and V)

Those are typical fan activities that are familiar to a lot of ARMY.

Laslty, they asked about us with the hashtags #curiousaboutARMY #아미의모든게궁금해 (on @BTS_twt, @bts_bighit, and on @MnetMcountdown for an event collecting ARMY’s moments about BTS for MCountdown BTS Comeback Special). And the ARMYPEDIA event was the occasion to collect even more ARMY memories.

Hard to tell if it’s for a future project or just for fun but no matter what, I don’t think a lot of artists try to understand their fans to that point.

Firstly focused on the hate, BTS has progressively learned to rather prioritize what they love and to enjoy the close relationship they have with their fans.

#BTS #TSU #Biography

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