People Like Asian Dancin' Boys. But Why?

The greatest power anyone can attain in this short human life is the power of influence. It is the ultimate power which can be bought so easily. The most corruptible power which everyone has but no-one uses as they bow to people who assert their influence. oof, that sounded mildly radical.

Well... let me tell you why those dancing boys from Bangtan Sonyeondan aka BTS.

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Now, I'll be clear that I do not like BTS music as cannot find myself enjoying it. And with that statement, I've pissed a lot of people off. But I really don't care.

Ok... Time for a quick lesson.  

So South Korea, Their government has put a good amount of funding into pop culture to bolster their appeal to an international audience. This was done to increase tourism. And this sudden growth of popularity was because of the large investment into K-Pop.

This initiative was started from the 2000s and by the end of 2010, the overall number of foreign travellers visiting the country had jumped to almost 8-9 million.

The marketing folk that work in well... marketing have sold K-pop in a way that it would attract a large number of audience. This was also helped by the government once again providing a great number of funds to these content makers. No, not the ones who make the music but those who sell it.

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So what is so attractive about k-pop, you ask? (I know you didn't but you're still reading aren't you?) 
Well. it's the music and fashion promoted by the artists. The music being an amalgamation of different styles so it appeals to a larger demographic. And their looks are so out there that people can't do anything but look at them,

The artists too are immensely talented and trained (and mass-produced.) due to the multiple investments made (in talent farming). Also, have you noticed the production value of their music video? Like damn, that's a lot of money.

But one of the largest or the only largest hurdle is to cultivate a fanbase that is predominantly by English speaking artists. And that's why people are attracted to them.

Now to the meat of this post... Why does BTS stand out?

It's their music as artists. While all their colleagues in the industry sing of superficial things like love and all those things. They sing about deeply critical topics and problems hugging the society of the youth these days. Often relaying the pressure of culture and others in society itself.

With their art, they are always improving like all the other K-pop artists, often stating of wanting to be better than before. And their songs focus mainly on society. Though their lyrics are sort of bland and feel sluggish (personal opinion, people. jeez.) but does still carry the message they wanted to convey in the first place. 

With more participation taken in by the artist on songwriting, they are much more in tune with their song. This is because like most K-pop idols are produced by some of the bigger record labels whilst Big Hit Entertainment, of which BTS is from, is a rather small company. But then again, the boys don't totally write their songs and only works on them partly. That's still a good thing I guess.

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Ok, another quick course. You know how I was talking about influence right? Nowadays, influence is gained by having a presence in the world view. And how does one attain such power you ask? Social media and fanbases.

"So how do fans exactly work?" would be the first question to be asked. Well, the actual question is how do fans come to be. Well, I truly have no answer to that. But what I can tell you is fans need the idols. This is because they were just blank slates to be put personal projections on toward. And once again, BTS turns this on its head.

It is not uncommon for the artist to be in charge of their social media but the boys do the exact opposite, posting all private interactions and their normal fun stuff behind the stage. And most people crave for a relationship and BTS has given them that by portraying themselves as normal people and not as idols.

With these changes, the artist is much more closer with the fan and the average fan feels a sense of caring for the boys themselves. With the identity of being a BTS fan often becoming their personal identity (Very creepy, IMO.) And once you're a fan, you're part of a bigger group and that creates a mutual group feeling for driving their idols to stardom and beyond.

This so-called ARMY.

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So, I approached some BTS fans with some questions...

to get some insight into the fan-base that I used to hate. Anyways, this is taking to long. Get ready for some paraphrasing.

"How did you come by BTS?"

- The most common answer is a friend. Often started as a dare or just a common interest in music. Some were attracted by the message of the songs often by reading translated versions of the Korean lyrics.

"How does the BTS group make you feel?"
- Yep, again a common answer. Happy. And it's for the same reasons. They feel like they are in a close relationship with the artist. Most even feel inspired to make music of their own.

"What do you think of the community you are a part of?"
- They are ok. That's the common thing I learnt. They are well aware of the toxicity within and outside the community. Often commenting that they bring about bad air to the good people in the community.

"What do you think of those who actively hate BTS?"
- Most don't even care. And an answer that was common for every single person was the same sentence. Everyone has their own opinion and they couldn't do anything about that (kinda "for the children" right there).

Yeah, that's it. Bye.