I don’t know how this happened…
Over the last few months, I have been somewhat blah about k-dramas. Nothing has grabbed me. I’m usually watching back catalogue, but tried one of the new ones, Queen of Tears. Got bored after three episodes.

I went back to western dramas, trying out Emily in Paris and The Witcher. I have now given up on both of those. Henry Cavill has a morose charm, and a nice horse, but I became irritated and my attention started to drift after three episodes. As for Emily in Paris, it was like junk food, extremely easy to consume, but started to make me feel pretty ill after a while. Halfway through seaon 2, I decided that I despised Emily and hated all the other characters too. So that was an end to that.

What I did do, starting two months ago, which has proved much more satisfying, was that I “discovered” BTS. (That’s me, 10 years too late, but no matter – they even have empathetic words for me on that issue: “It doesn’t matter if you only discovered us today. The day you discovered us was the day we debuted.” Or some such thing.)

Let’s just say, I have found them WAY WAY more interesting than I could possibly have imagined. (They’ve even got me writing things in capitals…). I approached them two months ago completely blind. I knew none of their music, hadn’t heard of any of the members. All I knew was they were big, as in globally big.

It’s quite the rabbit hole. And so far, I have only nibbled round the edges of their musical catalogue and all the masses of material featuring them online. Learning about them has been an organic process. I am writing about it, to post here.

Without saying anything more at this point, if you said “BTS rap line” to me two months ago, I would have answered “Huh??” Now I have a picture of them on my phone. It’s very strange.

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    That quote is one of my (many) favourites – it’s honestly so sweet!! Such a lovely way of phrasing that sentiment that really speaks to how genuinely dear they consider ARMY to be.

    It is quite the rabbit hole and definitely go at your own pace – but I’ll throw in that if you haven’t watched any Run BTS episodes, they’re a great way to organically get to know the group a little more, and also it’s so entertaining hahaha

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      Thanks for that advice! The Run BTS episodes are all on Youtube, aren’t they. And they go right back to the beginning of things?

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        Yeah! They’re also on Weverse (for free) but you’ll need to sign up for the platform. If you’re into other groups, then it’s worth because you can watch their content & lives too on Weverse.

        And yes there’s like 3 seasons of Run BTS that go from 2015-2020, so they go back to the almost early days, and some of them were shot while they were on tour in other countries and whatnot so it’s really cool. They’re all pretty entertaining but you don’t have to watch them chronologically, so if you’re wanting to check out some of the most well recieved eps. someone made a great list here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bangtan/comments/krmzqh/what_are_some_of_your_favorite_funniest_run_bts/

        Tbh the idol variety show rabbit hole is also v big – so many groups have excellent ones, to the point where sometimes I might not be a fan of their music but am a fan of their variety shows 😂 If you’re wanting more on the documentary side of things, the 10 year anniversary documentary that looks at their journey all the way from the very start was a good watch too.

        Hope I haven’t bombarded you with info (sorry if I have!!). I know I get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content there is in the K-pop sphere, but there’s no requirement to engage with it all to be a ‘fan’ right, so you do you 💜

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          No, no, that’s great, thanks for all that. Clearly there’s no one way to be a fan, but the whole BTS-ARMY thing has got me pondering what it actually means to be a fan. It’s not as if BTS don’t tackle the nature of that relationship in their songs…! They are quite frank about it!

          I have noticed that the cool fans (ie ARMY, I guess) call all the members by their real names rather than their idol names, and that thing where they chant all their full names in order of seniority at the start of every concert is quite a thing to behold. FB throws up all manner of reels about them, now that it has registered my interest, and I am clearly in the early stage of infatuation, as I still find video clips of Jungkook hitting Yoongi over the head with a blow-up hammer when he’s trying to meditate, endlessly funny. They are very charming together.

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            Yes I agree, the fanchants are awesome!! I’ve only ever had the chance to go to one concert live, and it was Stray Kids not BTS, but the energy levels when doing the fanchant in person is insane!

            You mentioning fanchants also reminded me of a really funny clip from someone who went to a Blackpink concert and was doing their fan-chant but accidentally slipped into the BTS one instead, probably because both fanchants have two Kim’s at the start so muscle memory took over. The panic in their voice is hilarious when they realise they’ve lost control of what their mouth is saying 😂 https://www.tiktok.com/@therealgiancena/video/7167437953088687366

            Enjoy this stage!! There’s something really magical about when you first start getting interested in a group and explore clips & music etc hahaha ✨

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