So I fell in love with kpop. Right?
Wrong. I fell in love with BTS. I’m still not into kpop. I am only into BTS.
What is this love that I am talking about? Celebrity worship? Kind of. Is it because my boys are incredibly good-looking or so sexy that they could get you pregnant with just one look? Hell, yes!
Watching them perform could very well induce my absent uterus and ovaries to grow back in place. Homophobes would say that they’re pretty. I don’t mind. They are beautiful. But my interest goes beyond their physical attributes. The good looks do get most people’s attention. At first. That is a fact.
But for most of us in this 20-million strong fandom, it is something beyond the surface that sucks you in and keeps you, a willing prisoner, in this rich and empowering new world that you have fallen into.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Beyond most of today’s artists who sing about nothing but love, sex, and violence, my boys sing about growing up pains like losing their dreams because it’s their parents who dictate what they should do with their lives.
In their songs, they lament about their school system, and how they have been turned into automatons. And their music (yes, they write their own music) grew with them. They did write about finding love, and experiencing loss and disappointment. But they didn’t stop there. They continued with the realization that life is not all cotton candies and unicorns, and about coming face to face with evil in the form of sin and temptations. Drawing inspiration from the works of the philosopher Nietzche, they explored the idea of facing what is dark within us, and of embracing it, for only then can we become the whole person that we are meant to be.
That is pretty deep for a mere kpop boy band, isn’t it? It shouldn’t surprise anyone who would take the time to know them, instead of just dismissing them outright. This group is led by a 24-year old man with an IQ of 148 who does nothing but read and think and write music. He also sings and raps and dances in between, when he is not giving a speech before the United Nations General Assembly.
I believe that this man, Kim Namjoon, is the heart, brain, and soul behind Bangtan Seonyondan (BTS) — the world’s biggest boy band with a following of roughly 20 million fans or ARMY, as the fandom calls itself. They are so popular that even Ed Sheeran wrote a song for them (Make It Right) and calls himself ARMY.
The magnitude of their fame is difficult to grasp, even for me who calls myself a part of ARMY. But let me try to give you an idea. They held a stadium tour in the US, Brazil, UK and France from May to June this year. Originally, one-night concerts were scheduled in the following stadiums: Los Angeles at Rose Bowl Stadium (capacity 90,888); Chicago, Illinois at Soldier Field (61,500); E. Rutherford at MetLife Stadium (82,500); Sao Paolo, Brazil at Allianz Parque (10,500); London, UK at Wembley Stadium (82,000); and Paris, France at Stade de France (80,000).
Scheduled for July this year in Japan are concerts in Osaka at Yanmar Stadium Nagai (47,000), and Shizuoka at Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa (50,889). Tickets for these one-night concerts sold out in hours, if not minutes. A second day was added for each venue. They also sold out in record time.
Why? What do the fans see in them? Why does ARMY love them? Why do tickets priced by scalpers at 300 to 400 percent their original value still get snapped up by their fiercely-devoted fans? Is it their looks? A definite come-on. Music? Oh, yes!
Their music is highly-sophisticated. There is none of that simplistic stuff with lame lyrics that we hear over the radio. It is a blend of pop, hip-hop, alternative jazz and soul, as well as other genres that I am not qualified to write about.
There is a world of difference in the poetic way with which their lyrics are written in comparison to the usual Western music where they just do conversational English. Even the English translations that ARMY rely on to understand the songs are like poems by themselves.
I can just imagine how much more beautifully-put their words must be in the Korean language where their songs are mostly sang.
There is also the dancing. These boys, especially three of them, are highly-skilled dancers. BTS elevated dancing to the next level within the kpop industry with their razor-sharp execution of extremely-complicated choreography, and with a synchronicity that one can only marvel at.
My boys are not vocal powerhouses though, but they can deliver. And lastly, there’s the lyrics that send out powerful messages which ARMYs have responded to.
You see, as their music grew with them, the boys of BTS also sang of depression and social anxiety, and even addressed the issue of suicide. These were previously-taboo subjects which no one in the kpop industry dared to mention. They shared their inner struggles with their fans through their songs, and through these songs, they sought to comfort and strengthen as they have been comforted and strengthened. Their music were self-portraits, coming deep from their hearts, a sharp contrast from the other boy bands who sang only of what their agencies gave to them.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
These were what the Korean fans heard and responded to. BTS is real and identifiable, while the other kpop idols seem too perfect and too distant.
Suddenly, those with mental health issues didn’t feel so alone anymore because they have the boys from BTS to identify with. They are struggling, too, and yet they are fighting on, and doing okay. The songs telling them that sometimes it is okay not to be okay, as long as you don’t give up became sources of strength and inspiration.
And where do I fit in all these? For years, I struggled with low self-esteem, hating everything about myself. I was miserable deep inside. Then I found BTS who struggled in the same way. I heard them when they said that the way out of this pit of self-loathing is to love yourself, and to accept yourself for the flawed but beautiful being that you are.
They have undertaken this journey, and they invited ARMY to do the same. This signaled the birth of the Love Yourself campaign. (To be continued next week)
__________________________________
Author’s email: [email protected]
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
br />