BTS

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RPF Fandom
Name(s): BTS, Bangtan Boys, Bulletproof Boy Scouts, Beyond The Scene, Bangtan Sonyeondan, 875
Scope/Focus: K-Pop
Date(s): 2013-present
See also: ARMY
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

BTS, often known also as Bangtan Boys or Beyond The Scene, is a popular K-Pop group based in South Korea, formed by Big Hit Entertainment.

History

BTS debuted on June 13, 2013, and within the year received several "New Artist of the Year" awards for their album "2 Cool 4 Skool", and also later received major bonsang awards (for notable musical achievements) for their following albums "Dark & Wild" and "The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 1".

BTS rose to popularity with their The Most Beautiful Moment In Life trilogy, including "The Most Beautiful Moment In Life, Part 2" and "The Most Beautiful Moment In Life: Young Forever", which won them the prized daesang ("Album of the Year") award for 2016. BTS' second full album "Wings" broke records; becoming the highest charted K-Pop album ever on the US Billboard 200, and even going on to win the daesang for 2017 consecutively.

Including their next album "You Never Walk Alone", BTS is estimated to have sold over 4 million albums worldwide. BTS ranked #5 in Forbes magazine's Korea Power Celebrity list in February 2017, and in June, Time magazine named the band one of the 25 Most Influential People On The Internet. BTS went on to become the first ever K-Pop group to attend and win an award at the Billboard Music Awards in 2017 (Top Social Artist).

In September 2017, BTS's mini-album "Love Yourself:Her" debuted at number 7 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, which ranks the weekly most popular albums in the U.S. The group broke their own record from the previous album, "Wings", in becoming K-Pop's highest-charting album ever on the Billboard 200, as well as the genre's biggest sales week. Notably, "Wings" and "Love Yourself: Her" are the only K-Pop albums that have ever charted in the Billboard top 40.

BTS made history by being the first Korean artist to perform at a televised American music awards show that November, when they premiered their new single "DNA" at the American Music Awards. The group closed out the year by also being the first Korean artist to perform on the annual New Year's eve American special television broadcast, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

To read a fandom primer from a fan linking out to some key fandom moments til 2019, see The Even More Ridiculous BTS Primer of 2019 by adoremouse (cest_what)

Members

BTS is made up of 7 members. ARMYs generally refer to the members by their give names rather than their stage names.

  • Jin / Kim Seokjin is a vocalist in the group, as well as the oldest member among the 7.
  • Suga / Min Yoongi is a rapper in the group, and is well known for his role in producing and writing lyrics for BTS official and unofficial songs.
  • J-Hope / Jung Hoseok is a rapper in the group, as well as the member in charge of the dance-line.
  • RM/ Kim Namjoon is a rapper in the group, as well as the group's official leader. He is also known for his role in producing and writing lyrics for BTS songs.
  • Park Jimin is a vocalist in the group, and is part of the dance-line and the maknae-line (3 youngest members).
  • V/ Kim Taehyung is a vocalist in the group, and is also a member of the maknae-line.
  • Jeon Jungkook is the maknae (youngest member) of the group, and is a vocalist who is also in the dance-line, who also occasionally raps.

Fandom

Fans using AO3 as a reminder that BTS is releasing a single.
Furthermore, directing people to Spotify.

BTS fans are known as 'ARMY'. BTS was commended for setting the trend of using social media to connect to their fanbase, commonly posting updates and live streams on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and VLIVE. BTS commonly posts short videos of the members behind the scenes at shows and rehearsals on Youtube, known as Bangtan Bombs. BTS is well-liked by their fans for their mischievous personalities, and for the close bond that they share not only with their fans but with each other as well.

In late April 2017, BTS became one of the top 5 fandoms in the Music & Bands category on Archive of Our Own after reaching over 28,800 works.[1] The fandom continued to rise in the ranks until in March 2018 it hit over 52,300 works, becoming second only to K-Pop fandom in the category.[2] BTS reached over 100,000 public works in September 2019, and as of October 2024 it features over 225,000 works on AO3, more than three times as many as the second most popular K-pop fandom. There is heated rivalry between fans of BTS and BLACKPINK, to the point some fans feel you cannot support both; Armyblink would beg to differ.

ARMY on Twitter

ARMY makes up the largest porton of K-Pop Stan Twitter.

Trending

The fandom often trends key words and hashtags both intentionally and accidentally. The names of the members JIMIN and TAEHYUNG are so commonly used that they no longer trend because of Twitter's algorithm. Hashtags are used for multiple reasons:

  • BTS members' Birthdays
  • Song/Event Anniversaries
  • Donations
  • Criticisms Against Media
  • And More

Since June 2018, the Twitter account BangtanTrends has been keeping track of hashtags related to BTS. As of December 2021, they have accumulated over 220.4k followers. The duo running the account were interviewed by TIME Magazine in 2020.

Data-oriented accounts dedicated to everything from calling for fan votes to tracking the band’s position on music charts have also been an intrinsic part of the fandom. Monica Chahine and Maggie Su, both 21, are university students in Toronto who run one such account. Chahine and Su both became fans of BTS in 2017 and connected with each other on Twitter. Along with another ARMY who has since stepped back due to school responsibilities, they started @BangtanTrends the following year. With more than 130,000 followers, the Twitter account focuses on creating and trending BTS-related hashtags. “The goal is to get either more ARMYs to see it or to get BTS to see it, or to get new fans,” Chahine explains. In the past, when ARMYs were using too many hashtags at the same time, fewer of them would appear in the Twitter trends chart. “As the fandom got bigger, it was harder to coordinate,” Su says. So for BTS Festa in 2018—the fifth-anniversary celebration of the act’s debut on June 13, 2013—the @BangtanTrends team posted special hashtags. One of them was #5thFlowerPathWithBTS, which references lyrics in the song “2! 3!” in which J-Hope’s rap thanks ARMY “for becoming the flower in the most beautiful moment in life,” as well as the idea of a flower road being one of success and happiness. The hashtag became the No. 1 Worldwide trend on Twitter with more than 800,000 tweets. Its visibility was amplified when UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore used it in a post about the organization’s #EndViolence campaign with BTS. Now, as ARMYs around the world join from all time zones, BTS hashtags dominate the Worldwide trends list for longer periods of time.[3]

Inside the BTS ARMY, the Devoted Fandom With an Unrivaled Level of Organization by Kat Moon

Many publications have claimed the overwhelming trending power of ARMYs and other K-pop fandoms are due to bots and other methods of inflating social media interactions. These are their comments:

Controversies

  • Please see here for BTSARMY controversies

Tropes & Fanon

  • Sportsgore - "the athlete-brain condition of knowing your worth is your body and that your time is limited, and weighing both physical and psychological wounds against the ticking clock". Used in BTS to describe the limited clock for the members to dance at peak levels and how they balance that.

Hybrid Fanfic

Crime AU/Mafia AU

Crime AU/Mafia AU fanfics are popular across the fanfiction platforms of Fanfiction.net, Archive of Our Own, Tumblr, and Wattpad.

On Archive of Our Own, the most hit work for BTS House of Cards by sugamins is a Gang AU. Other popular works in this category are refrigerator humming, chewing gum and instant karma by locks, lover not a fighter, but i'll fight for what i love by suninhersmile, and I'm Your Umbrella and the Rain by GalsaegPiano.

Chatfic

Alpha/Beta/Omega

Alpha/Beta/Omega fanfics for BTS are most popular on Archive of Our Own.

The fanfic if i get in, i just might drown by fatal (cumrich) is the third most popular A/B/O fanfic on the site and It Might Just Come Back To Bite You by Arobeebee is the fifth most popular.

Common characterizations of members in A/B/O fanfics (Order of type indicates which is more common. Alpha/Beta/Omega = Member most popularly written as an alpha, then second most popular as a beta, then third most popular as an omega. Data from number of "Alpha/Omega/Beta Character Name" tags for each member on AO3):

  • Kim Namjoon = Alpha/Omega/Beta
  • Kim Seokjin = Omega/Alpha/Beta
  • Min Yoongi = Alpha/Omega/Beta
  • Jung Hoseok = Alpha/Beta/Omega
  • Park Jimin = Omega/Alpha/Beta
  • Kim Taehyung = Omega/Alpha/Beta
  • Jeon Jungkook = Alpha/Omega/Beta

Crossovers

OT7

Self-insert

Self-insert fanfics are most popular on Wattpad.

The most prominent example of a self-insert fanfic for BTS is Blood Ink by pocketbangtan. The fanfic won at the 2020 Wattys and ranks #1 in Fanfiction.

Popular Pairings

  • Min Yoongi | Suga/Park Jimin (Yoonmin)
  • Jeon Jungkook/Kim Taehyung | V (VKook)
  • Kim Namjoon | Rap Monster/Kim Seokjin | Jin (Namjin)
  • Jeon Jungkook/Park Jimin (Jikook)
  • Jung Hoseok | J-Hope/Min Yoongi | Suga (Yoonseok)
  • Kim Taehyung | V/Park Jimin (Vmin)
  • Jeon Jungkook/Min Yoongi | Suga (Sugakookie)
  • Kim Taehyung | V/Min Yoongi | Suga (Taegi)
  • Kim Seokjin | Jin/Min Yoongi | Suga (Yoonjin)
  • Jung Hoseok | J-Hope/Kim Taehyung | V (VHope)
  • Park Jimin/Kim Taehyung | V/ Jeon Jungkook (Vkookmin)
  • Everyone/Everyone (OT7)

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

VKook:

Sugakookie:

Vmin:

Yoonseok:

Taegi:

Yoonmin:

Namjin:

Jikook:

Yoonjin:

Vkookmin:

Yoonminkook:

Jinkookmin:

OT7:

Collections

Harry Potter AU

  • Spells of Seven Series- Seven students of Hogwarts meet each other through a mystery that takes place in the castle, after which they become best friends. Life seems to continue on as normal, but they don't know that one carries a secret with him; a secret that eventually leads them into something grave outside the walls of their beloved school. (SilverAndGreen)
  • Of Quaffles, Bludgers and Snitches- The International Collegiate Quidditch Tournament is a pretty big deal, and becoming the team captain at Hogwarts is something of a coup but it wasn't something Hoseok expected. His team? A Slytherin Keeper with a nasty reputation and a powerful return. Two Ravenclaw Chasers; one a Third Year hothead and the other his clumsy best friend. A shy Gryffindor Beater who doesn't live up to the stereotype. A Seventh Year Gryffindor Chaser who's been relegated to second string because of his Prefect duties. An insomniac of a Hufflepuff Beater who has more than a knack. And himself, one of the best Seekers since Harry Potter himself. He's not quite sure what's going to happen, but he sure hopes for the best. (Alternatively, Bangtan re-imagined as an inter-house Quidditch team. A story about a modern Hogwarts, their developing friendships and teamwork, and a lot of broom physics. (lost_things)
  • You're Stronger Than You Seem- There's a new program at Hogwarts to bring seven kids from South Korea to build stronger relations with Asia. Min Yoongi is one of the lucky few. (Peque)
  • All I Want (Is to Get a Little Bit Closer)- The first time Taehyung set his eyes on Jungkook during his second year at Hogwarts, he knew there was something different about him. BTS Hogwarts!au in which a very insecure Jungkook pretends to be someone he's not and a pure hearted Taehyung is infatuated with the one person he can't stand the most. (Lunabunni)

Chatfics

MommaJin: There, all done
DomJoon: uhh...hyung...aren’t you going to change mine
MommaJin: Oh! Right!
{MommaJin changed DomJoon to SubJoon}
Hobi: Oh damn…
  • The Magnificent 7 Idiots- (kthlimitless) Aka where Taehyung denies his obvious crush on Jungkook, Jimin is taekook's biggest fan, Jin gets involved with Jimin and Yoongi's non existent love life too much, Hoseok's struggles as a tour guide and Namjoon tries to be the calm one but ends up getting exposed constantly.
soulmate #1: thanks tho kookie i appreciate it a lot (((':
soulmate #2: coughsTAEKOOKcoughs
soulmate #1: JIMIN
the only hope: ok but does nobody care that yoons literally puked on my bed
eat sleep repeat: ill buy you new sheets don't worry
eat sleep repeat: also whens the taekook ship gonna officially sail cause im ready to tag along on the honeymoon
soulmate #2: ahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA
soulmate #1 has left the chat
taetae: ITS JUNGKOOK
taetae: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A MORE PERFECT NAME TO MOAN
taetae: IM DEFINITELY MARRYING HIM NOW
taetae: OUR SHIP NAME WOULD BE TAEKOOK
taetae: IM WEEPING
Kim Taehyung had already more than a few things to worry about, trying to get better at modeling, keeping up his grades good at uni, dealing with his ass of a soulmate. Well, let’s just say that meeting the cutest photography student Jungkook and the dance king Hoseok was definitely not going to make his life any easier.
xxminxxsugaxx: shut up you grammar nazi
xxminxxsugaxx: before i block you
Joonie♡: Wow, okay??
Jungkookie♡: why did we ever give yoongi hyung admin rights?
xxminxxsugaxx : why did we ever give you speaking rights?
mini: oh god
mini: oh no oh god oh please no
mini: PLWASE NOBODY READ THAT NOBODY SCROLL UP PLEASE
mint yoongi: did you seriously just sext the groupchat
mini: EJHAJNF NOT ON PURPRSE
In which Jimin accidentally sends a sext to the groupchat, chaos ensues, and a group of very determined boys trys to figure out who exactly that text was meant for.

Alpha/Beta/Omega

  • Oh Darling, Stand By Me- Kim Taehyung had never coped well when there was an angry alpha around, no matter that he wasn't the object of their fury. Wisely choosing to keep his mouth shut, he ignored the flaring annoyance building up inside his chest at being treated like a frail and delicate porcelain doll who didn't know any better, once again. He wasn't frail. He wasn't delicate. And he also wasn't anywhere near ignorant. "And how do you suggest we do that?" Alpha Jeon asked eventually, tiredly taking a seat when he realized Alpha Kim was not about to open his mouth any time soon. "How else, Alpha Jeon," Alpha Park said easily, an eerie smile taking over her lips as she regarded both the kings levelly, "Just like we have sealed our alliances with one another, of course." (Beatitudinem)
  • Everything Gone Wrong- The first thing that went wrong in Yoongi's life was when his parents signed him up as a volunteer for the new governmental genetic experiment. Then he woke up as a sort of human-wolf hybrid. And got stuck with six idiots under the same roof. All of them are eager to find out their ranks, and Yoongi specially wants to Alpha them all. He should have known that nothing would go as he desired. (Alexxy)

Gang/Mafia AU

  • The Accidental Princess- Moonbyul always thought her life was normal. That was until she discovered that her mother was the leader of the infamous Bangtan mob. And with her father missing, the only people who can help her are her estranged mother and her seven trusted generals. A normal girl, with a not so normal family history, amidst a world she doesn't understand but isn't scared of.(Mulberrydreamz)

Fanart

Gifs

Fanvids

Fanzines

See List of BTS zines

Meta

Video

Fannish Links

Resources

Official Accounts:

References

  1. ^ Fandoms on AO3, archived Aril 24 2017
  2. ^ Fandoms on AO3, archived March 12 2018
  3. ^ Inside the BTS ARMY, the Devoted Fandom With an Unrivaled Level of Organization by Kat Moon, Archived version
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