Emma Hudson
Dr. King
ENGL 494: Project 1
16 September 2020
Fandom Culture: The Significance of BTS ARMY Stan Twitter
In 2017, BTS, a K-Pop group from South Korea, won the Top Social Artist Award at the Billboard Music Awards, signifying their rising popularity not only due to their music but their online presence thanks to their ever-growing fanbase. The group’s main social media platform that receives the most attention is Twitter; thus, the app has become a virtual meeting place for BTS fans, better known by the acronym ARMY (Adorable representative MCs for Youth), which is why the classification “ARMY Stan Twitter” exists. The specificity of this online community has proven to be significant for numerous reasons; however, the most notable reasons include the commonality of narratives ARMY share and social media as a tool for globalization and activism. Overall, the relationship and expectations between BTS and ARMY have built a strong online community that infiltrates the far reaches of the internet.
For context, it is important to note that similar to the rise of Stan Twitter, BTS’s popularity was not an overnight endeavor but a steady and unprecedented rise. The group debuted on June 13th, 2013 from a small company called BigHit Entertainment, which is significant to mention because the company was going under and needed to debut a successful idol group. BTS’s story exemplifies an underdog story, which has resonated with fans who were around then and now. Knowing BTS’s origins reflects the fan’s origins stories in terms of how fans describe the day they discovered the group. Typically, once fans discover BTS they navigate to Twitter because the band posts personalized tweets, exhibiting their personality. Researcher Suk-Young Kim noted BTS has made a noticeable presence on Twitter, which is not only supported by their Top Social Artist Award, but according to the Guinness Book of World Records, BTS broke the record in 2017 for having the most Twitter interactions for a music act (Kim 56). To put this into perspective, that is more likes and retweets than President Donald Trump and Justin Bieber combined (Kim 56). The numbers show that Stan Twitter’s significance is quantifiable; however, there is more to the narrative.
The narratives of ARMY have plenty of commonalities, namely discovering the group at an unexpected time, yet at a necessary time. Thomas King states in The Truth About Stories: A Narrative, “Sometimes the change is simply in the voice of the story teller. Sometimes the change is in the details. Sometimes in the order of events. Other times it’s the dialogue or the response of the audience” (King 1). He also adds, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are” (King 2). With ARMY, sharing stories matters. For instance, David Perry, a Jewish political reporter, discovered BT21 Line Friends, which is one of BTS’s merchandise lines, and turned to Twitter to ask where the characters came from. ARMY Stan Twitter answered and Perry found, “Online fandoms can be tricky communities to navigate from the outside. They tend to revel in inclusivity, in-jokes, and often demand admiration of whatever it is they are stanning. ARMY was nothing like that. They respectfully offered links of different kinds of music and performances I might enjoy, inquired after my musical tastes (I play Irish rock and bluegrass), and tried to match that to BTS” (Perry). He also described his amazement with how fans were open to talking about their struggles with mental health, in part because of BTS’s empowering messages in their music. Essentially, his experience on ARMY Stan Twitter showcases a positive side of the fandom and a positive means for discovering the band. Moreover, ARMY has stories they feel comfortable sharing through BTS and on Stan Twitter―a public forum.
For these narratives to be shared, there must be a place or means for communicating and Twitter has been quintessential in globalizing Stan Twitter content. An academic study titled “Online community development through social interaction — K-Pop stan twitter as a community of practice” uncovers the community practices of Stan Twitter. The researchers found: “The members of K-Pop stan twitter engage in online interactions, form interpersonal relationships owing to their shared interests, and perform several goal-oriented activities as a group” (Malik & Haider 2). In my experience on ARMY Stan Twitter, I have found this statement to be true. The root of these interpersonal relationships begins with BTS; however, it becomes personal when one can expand into everyday conversation with a mutual Twitter follower. While I have not experienced that myself on Stan Twitter, I’ve seen it happen in my observations since my purpose in having an account is to stay updated on BTS. The “goal-oriented activities” I have seen mainly include streaming the band’s music and putting together a donation project on each member’s birthday. For instance, September 12th is BTS leader RM’s birthday and this past year an ARMY in China put together an RM-themed book exhibition with all the books he has recommended to fans (@Baidu_RMbar). The event not only celebrated the group leader but provided book donations to local charity organizations. Furthermore, the fandom has been able to globalize on Twitter by creating interpersonal relationships and achieving various goals that support the band and good causes.
Admittedly, the fandom is not always glorified. There are times when Stan Twitter can get out of hand; however, it’s common for the fandom to agree on taking action, not only to support BTS but as activists. In 2018, BTS appeared at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. The group has a partnership with UNICEF through their “Love Myself” campaign to protect young people from violence because “true love first begins with loving myself” (Kim). RM, BTS’s leader, gave the speech, using his narrative to convey the importance of self-love. At the end of the speech, he challenged fans to reflect, “I have many faults and I have many fears, but I am going to embrace myself as hard as I can, and I’m starting to love myself, little by little. What is your name? Speak Yourself!” (Kim). The phrase “speak yourself” has empowered fans to learn to engage in self-love; thus, leading to helping and loving others. This is prevalent when considering the events from this past summer. The Black Lives Matter movement gained necessary traction on social media after George Floyd’s death; however, racist tags opposing the movement such as “#whiteouttuesday” and “#whitelivesmatter” arose. These tags were flooded by K-Pop stans on Instagram and Twitter to prevent the tags from gaining attention with racist information. This online-based activism was plausible because “With tens of thousands of K-pop fan accounts posting over six billion tweets last year, they have become one of the strongest forces on social media” (Lee). This shows the fandom is not only sizable but can mass-coordinate their actions over social media.
Moreover, ARMY Stan Twitter proves to be culturally significant because it has brought people from diverse backgrounds together thanks to commonalities that are discovered through BTS. With the messages of self-love and self-reflection ladened in BTS’s music, fans feel empowered to share their stories. From my experience, I’m not as inclined to share my story through Stan Twitter; however, I have turned to ARMY Stan Twitter to gain essential information on BTS and constantly note my observations for the series of undergraduate projects I have completed on the group due to my fascination with BTS’s rising popularity. The group has taught me how to embrace my uniqueness, as well as the uniqueness of those around the globe who each have their own stories to share; thus, Stan Twitter is a culture of sharing interpersonal stories, in part because of BTS’s messages on self-love and self-reflection.
Word Count: 1,264
Works Cited
Kim, Nam Jun. "We have learned to love ourselves, so now I urge you to 'speak yourself.'"
UNICEF, 24 Sep. 2019, https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/we-have-learned-love-
ourselves-so-now-i-urge-you-speak-yourself.
Kim, Suk-Young. K-Pop Live: fans, idols, and multimedia performance. Stanford University
Press, 2018.
King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Narrative. University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis, Dead Dogs Café Productions, Inc., 2005, pp. 1-29.
Lee, Alicia. “K-pop fans are taking over 'White Lives Matter' and other anti-Black hashtags
with memes and fancams of their favorite stars.” CNN, 8 June 2020,
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/kpop-bts-blackpink-fans-black-lives-matter-
trnd/index.html.
Malik, Zunera, and Sham Haidar. “Online Community Development through Social
Interaction — K-Pop Stan Twitter as a Community of Practice.” Interactive learning
environments, 25 Aug. 2020, pp. 1–19, doi:10.1080/10494820.2020.1805773.
Perry, David. “What happens when the BTS Army adopts you.” The Current, 4 Jan. 2019,
https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2019/01/04/what-happens-when-the-bts-army-
adopts-you.
(@Baidu_RMbar). “2020 RM BIRTHDAY PROJECT. Part IV. Kyobo Bookstore Main Store
RM Subject Book Fair. To celebrate Nam-Jun’s 27th birthday, we prepared Nam-Jun’s
Theme Book Fair.Period: 9/9-9/15 2020. Location: B1, Kyobo Bookstore, Jongno 1,
Jongno-gu, Seoul. Love from aRMy China. @BTS_twt. #김남준#RM#金南俊” 23 August
2020, 1:17 a.m. Tweet.
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