Volume 01 Issue 15 part 2
Reflections after 3 months of being baby ARMY (ONLY? Has it been so short?)
Some of my friends have told me that they forward these newsletters, and that there are some of their friends who want to connect with me - so if that’s you, add me on my ARMY Twitter account (@misswanderlust_) or use this button below to subscribe to this newsletter :) Thank you for forwarding/reading! The archive for everything I’ve published about BTS is at this link and you can share that consolidated link with your friends who are just starting their baby ARMY journeys.
Over the weekend, my friends and I watched back-to-back K-pop award shows - MMA and MAMA. Coming into the experience with zero K-pop background apart from BTS, it was interesting for me to be exposed to other K-pop groups and enjoy the spectacle. MAMA was six hours okay!! With no subtitles! How did I survive? Lainey Gossip’s write-up of the weekend was really great, definitely worth a read; I was particularly struck by her insight that BTS puts in just as much effort into their stages on Western TV appearances (BTS Week on Jimmy Fallon’s show; Life Goes On + Dynamite on James Corden’s show) as they do for their Eastern appearances. The Black Swan part of their MMA performance blew my whole dang mind, and they backed it up with a Michael Jackson-inspired dance break for Dynamite? Come on now. Then the next day: the MAMAs performance with of ON marching band version and Suga appearing through augmented reality, Avengers portal style; it’s absolute madness. They’re just killing the game at this point.
I keep thinking back to the Esquire write-up by Dave Holmes (also very much worth your time):
Sometimes there is a whole universe alongside your own, bursting with color you’re too stubborn to see, bouncing with joy you think is for someone else, with a beat you thought you were finished dancing to. BTS are the biggest thing on the planet right now, yet the job of introducing them to someone new, particularly in America, seems like it’s never done. Maybe it’s because they are adored by screaming teenagers and we live in a society patriarchal enough to forget that screaming teenagers are nearly always right. Maybe it’s the cultural divide, in a moment when our country is unashamed enough of its own xenophobia to get openly bent out of shape when it has to press 1 for English. Maybe it’s the language barrier, as though we understood a single word Michael Stipe sang before 1989.
Whatever the reason, the result is that you might be missing out on a paradigm shift and a historic moment of pop greatness.
Becoming a baby ARMY last September felt like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia for me: suddenly, I realized that some of my friends have been posting about them for ages. BTS had been under my nose all along. All this joy had been right there for the taking, waiting for me; I only had to open my mind to it. Sometimes I wish I found them much earlier, so that I don’t constantly feel like I’m behind and need to catch up. But a specific and significant component of the joy is how thrilling it is to be hand-in-hand with Aia, Rica, Trish, Raissa - all friends I now talk to daily, who started their baby ARMY journeys at around the same time as I did, who fell hard and fast for BTS with the same intensity and velocity as I have. Being a baby ARMY has also given me avenues to bond with acquaintances and make new friends, especially on ARMY Twitter. Aia’s newsletter talks about the same thing (because we are the same person):
There is so much joy. And I think that for me, a big part of it is really being on this journey with Pinky and fellow baby ARMYs on stan Twitter. It’s not without flaws, but I didn't have this kind of community through all the other artists that I have obsessed over. My small and precious group of mutuals on stan Twitter are so engaging, and it's more than enough for me to really give into my full blown joy and excitement without being shamed for being too loud or annoying. I will really never shut up about the things I love and everyone on stan Twitter is exactly the same way. They just get it. This mix of old online friends and new acquaintances seem to understand me best. It’s so hard to explain BTS and kpop outside of this bubble. And it's so fun because we are a mix of new and veteran fans, so it feels like we're virtually holding each other's hands as we experience this new chapter of Bangtan. I love this for us. We all share the same level of enthusiasm for our faves. And even though it's technically new, it still feels very, very familiar. We’ve been here before. Only it was 2008. And it was Tumblr. I am home.
(Except mine was Livejournal!! I was too old when Tumblr happened! LOL.)
The other day, I randomly saw a post by author Matt Haig that I haven’t stopped thinking about since:
It’s not an official therapy and I don’t know the science to back it up, but never underestimate how much being INTO STUFF can help anxiety. Find a passion the size of fear. Movies, music, books, whatever. Be a geek. I find digging deep into an interest is a tunnel out of fear.
Being enthusiastic and unapologetic about what brings me joy, even when it may seem frivolous to others: that’s something that I’ve always tried to live by. This was so difficult to practice with intention this year. There’s so much weighing us down. I don’t always succeed at looking at the bright side. But discovering BTS and ARMY was the life preserver I needed when I was drowning. This universe continues to be an easy escape from the mundanity (and yet.. relentlessness) of 2020. With just a few clicks, I’m consuming BTS content again; I’m laughing my head off; I’m smiling, silly and smitten; I’m with my people. I am home.
A few decades from now, God willing, this pandemic will be a blip in our memory. I’ll be able to look back on this year with some fondness and remember that I was happy and I survived thanks to BTS. For that, I am already so grateful. I wish this joy for everyone.
Read part 1 of last week’s newsletter here (regular non-BTS content) and everything I’ve published about BTS here. The next issues will land in your inbox if you subscribe using this button. Thanks for reading!
I purple you,
Pinky