#bts and army is the closest thing we have to achieving world peace

[swiftful-thinking13]

“the intersection of souls we've created over the years”

[im20iguess-blog]

One year as ARMY; 4/26/2017;

I originally posted this on Army Amino a month ago, but I will also post it here I don’t care.

It has already been a year…

It seems like only yesterday when I watched the “Youtubers react to K-Pop 3” and got interested in one specific boy group from Korea called BTS…

The night after I watched the video, I watched Dope music video for like 25 times, admiring their dance moves and trying to understand the message they were trying to convey through their music. Dope was what got me into their music. :D

The few following days I was kinda obsessed with them. Since I’m a guy I didn’t really care about their looks (They are quite beautiful, don’t get me wrong), what I really liked about them was the depth in their storytelling through music and the fact that they looked like a family. I listened to literally every song they put out and decided that, even though Dope was the one that got me into K-Pop, Danger was my favorite one. Of course, I still could not tell which member is which and was still learning their names and learning about their lives.

It was around then when they released their compilation album Young Forever, and it was like a blessing for me. It had all their amazing songs, plus some new ones, one of which became my favorite BTS song at the time - Epilogue: Young Forever. Also, I remember just blasting Fire for the next couple of days non-stop.

So that all happened at the start of May. Soon, I decided that Jungkook was my, what other fans called, bias. That was mainly because he was closest to my age (2 months younger) and, I guess, I related to him the most. Soon I started watching Army bombs, V live videos, I learned all their names, learned who was who and I felt like they were my friends…

Of course, my real friends judged me at first, since it was a language neither I nor them could understand, but I did not really care. Whenever I went to my best friends house I would always blast Run and Fire (Since they were, in my opinion, the most catchy ones), and soon, my best friend started humming along, occasionally singing Run, run, run. I spent the whole summer listening to, what I believe is their best album to date, and one of the best albums in general, Young Forever.

As I got more and more into BTS I, of course, started to care more about them, about what they were doing, if they were healthy and not tired and stuff and about the awards they were winning and so on. It was, really, the first time I actually got into a fandom and really cared about someone that doesn’t even know I exist.

August came around, and with it a lot of changes in my love for BTS. Suga released his mixtape under the name Agust D, and that was what made me change my bias. Min Yoongi’s music was just beyond touching and amazing. You could feel the heart and effort he put into each and every verse in that mixtape. You could feel his pain, his emotion, his need to tell us how he feels. One thing I am extremely sad about is my inability to speak Korean, and inability to truly understand his music. Of course there were English translations, but i felt like it was not the same. Agust D, as well as, So Far Away became my new favorite songs, and Suga became my most favorite part of BTS.

So, at this point, I was pretty much obsessed, I checked Tumblr and Twitter for any news about them and was I always felt extremely bad when they got hate for no reason, or when they were mistreated by their own fans (they are called saseangs ir something) but, i never, EVER started any “fan wars” or heated discussions, because I believed that BTS would recieve everything they deserve and more (And I was right!).

It was September when my best friend just gave into the K-Pop “thing” and started listening to Korean music, his girlfriend and her best friend also started listening to BTS. I like to think that it was all because of me lol. Up until that point all I listened to was BTS, but I also started ti listen to other groups like GOT7 and Blackpink. I rememver one night, I had a couple of my friends over and we got drunk and while they were just laying around I just watched Eat Jin and played Run over and over. Amazing experience, they claim.

At the end of September, they started teasing their new album, Wings. We learned that each member would get their own song, and, of course,I was excited the most for Suga’s solo. October 10th came around and Wings was released. It was actually October 9th, Sunday, where I lived and it was 5 pm. Their live stream was a bit late, since we overflooded the servers. But, at exactly 5 pm, the music video for Blood Sweat and Tears was released, as well as the album.

It was a magical, but also a hard week for me, I had just started college and was getting used to the college life and everything new that came with it. I was still, so happy. BTS recieved 6 weekly show awards and I really liked the new concept.

First Love, was a masterpiece, it IS a masterpiece. It tells a story so universal that even though you don’t understand the language, you feel the power, you feel the emotions that we all, well most of us, went through at some point in our lives. It is, to this day my favorite Korean song.

Blood Sweat and Tears was well recieved by the audiences. When I got together with my friends I showed them the music video, and one of them said - Play it again. Literally all of my closest friends knew Namjoon’s part (Since it was in English) and the Wonhe Manhi Manhi part, since it was so catchy. We all appreciated the aesthetics of the video and the deep messages it carried along with it. BST became my favorite group song of theirs, and I believe it is their best song in terms of quality.

The year was nearing its end, and the big award shows came along. It was the most important time of the year for all ARMYs and for BTS themselves. Of course I believed that they would win a Daesang, but I also knew (from what I’ve read online) that the shows were quite unfair in giving out the main awards (Catering more to the Big Three). But, as we all know, BTS won their first Daesang for the Album of the Year for Young Forever. I was SO happy. Firstly, because it was my favorite album of theirs, and secondly, because it was an amazing album worthy of an award. Imagine my dissapointment when all of those people pressured the organizers to take the Daesang away from BTS. But we prevailed, and we would later go on to achieve even greater hights. At the beginning of December, BTS recieved Daesang for the Artists of the year. Just seeing them cry on stage realising what they’ve accomplished and how far they’ve come I was brought to tears.

In February they released You Never Walk Alone, which was as I expected just a repackaged version of Wings. But it also had Spring Day and Not Today. BTS never dissapoints, since Spring Day became one of my favorite songs. It looks like with each new release, they bring out even better songs, as expected. They truly are legends.

Nowadays they are touring the world, not coming to Europe, where I’m from, of course. But i still have hope, and dream that one day I’ll get to see my favorite artists performing live, and I’ll get to see them express their feelings in person.

This sure is a long post, but I feel like I said everything I wanted to say. Stan Legends. Stan BTS. I love y'all, spread love and not hate, and support BTS always.

Peace.