7 Reasons BTS is the Right Choice to Get You Through Quarantine
FULL SPEED AHEAD ON HAVING A GREAT TIME
First of all, I need to come clean that I came really late to the BTS fanclub. I’m basically the K-Pop equivalent of people in my generation who didn’t read Harry Potter until college. Like, sure I knew BTS existed, but for whatever reason I didn’t start really listening to them until the release of their last album, Map of the Soul: 7, earlier this year. Just like some people for whatever reason didn’t get around to reading Harry Potter until college, at which point they suddenly joined a Quidditch team, decked their dorm room in House colors, and turned their life over to J.K. Rowling forever. The great thing about Harry Potter fans is that it doesn’t matter how late you got to the party, we’re just glad you’re at the party! I hope this will prove true of BTS’ fanbase (aka A.R.M.Y.) and that they will one day count me as their own.
That said, since Map of the Soul: 7 dropped, a couple things have happened: 1) I became a rabid BTS fan. 2) The Coronavirus pandemic swept the world.
As an essential worker, leading volunteer operations at a homeless shelter in New York City, the pandemic hit hard in the first month as we work around the clock to adapt to a new reality. Then I myself got sick with COVID-19 for about two weeks. For me, silly as people think it sounds, BTS will always be the music that got me through COVID-19, the voice that told me a better day would come.
NOW LET ME SHOW YOU. Here are 7 reasons why BTS is the perfect group to get you through this quarantine.
1. Positive messaging!
Common themes in their music are friendship, love, vulnerability, self-awareness, and overcoming darkness and adversity.
Like, Brene Brown but make it choreography!
2. You will literally never run out of content, including…
ENDLESS AMAZING DANCE VIDS. Like this. And this. And this.
Despite what my sister says, I don’t think you can watch these and not feel happy. She just likes feeling sad.
Adorable and hilarious behind-the scenes videos.
Even if quarantine lasted FOREVER, you literally would not be able to get to the end of BTS YouTube content because the fans are WORKING ALL THE TIME, TRANSLATING, MAKING HIGHLIGHT VIDEOS, REACTING, HEARTING, DEFENDING, I DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW THEY HAVE TIME TO DO THIS.
Some of it includes puppies.
All of it is cute and funny and good-natured.
3. You get to learn about another culture. Travel, but from your bed!
And did I mention the culture you’re learning about happens to also be the one that FLATTENED THE COVID-19 CURVE while we all were still sneezing two inches apart in the produce aisle?? GET WATCHING, WESTERNERS, AND STAY SIX FEET APART.
4. Social awareness and political critique.
Uncommon for K-Pop, and thanks in large part to its rapper-composers RM and Suga, BTS is known for being socially conscious and politically engaged, calling out both systemic injustice and individual greed. In songs like Silver Spoon (Bepsae) and No More Dream, BTS critiques injustices built into South Korea’s cultural and political class systems. In songs like Go Go and Spine Breaker, they call out their peers for consumerism and political apathy.
5. They’re an actual underdog story!
At the time of BTS’s debut in 2013 (EXACT DATE JUNE 13TH MY BIRTHDAY PRAISE THE ZODIAC CALENDAR GODS), K-Pop was ruled by the “big 3” production companies: YG Entertainment (Western audiences will recognize PSY aka Gagnam Style among their artists), SM Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. BTS was with a very small, very unknown company called Big Hit Entertainment. They became a worldwide phenomenon when their fresh style and unexpected authenticity exploded their international popularity and filled a gap many pop fans felt existed in the industry. “Their success was solely thanks to their fans’ support,” according to Youngdae Kim, who wrote BTS The Review.
6. A.R.M.Y.: The community that sprang up around BTS.
In the end, it’s about unity and our common humanity.
We’re all talking right now about being in this together and staying home for your neighbor (including annoying ads from every capitalist stronghold acting like they care). One of BTS’s unifying themes is our common humanity and what we owe each other. For a small taste of that community, check out the first two minutes of this video from a performance in London at Wembley Stadium, and the surprise their fans gave them. (OR watch the whole thing if you like lots of sobbing and effusive expressions of love, WHICH I DO.)
7. THEY. ARE. SO. PRETTY. TO. LOOK. AT. (Yes that’s 7 links to 7 beautiful people. Dad, don’t read this.)
(I had this as reason #1 but am trying to act like it’s less important to me.)
In my own words, while writing up a job description for the role of boyfriend/husband, “As pretty as possible but still masculine.”
So, go enjoy!
xoxo
