each and every single bts members not having main character syndrome is honestly one reason why they’re able to keep going for as long as they have been tbh
👤 In a group of seven members, there’s only so much sonic real estate. Does ego ever get involved — "I would like to be more on this song," or "This song where I’m featured more didn’t make it"?
🧸Well, I think I was more worried about being able to do a good job. Because no matter how much I listen to what I like, it's a totally different game to perform it myself. So even if I love something, I have to try very, very hard to interpret and reimagine it in a way that makes sense for me to do. But if I ever have fewer parts or I’m taking a less central part in a song, I don’t feel bad about that. Because another member will take that place. I just feel…relieved, in a way. The only thing is, if the seven of us don’t mesh, we just pass on that song.
At Coachella, The Strokes projected footage of the bombings in Gaza and Iran while repeating, “What side are you standing on?” Exposing their government’s crimes during thier biggest music festival.
Meanwhile in India, celebrities lick government’s boots in fear of backlash, raids and boycotts.
kpop twt isn’t actually reacting to bts, it’s reacting to status anxiety. (they actually don’t care if they had a lot of choreographies today or not) ;
when one act grows beyond the system and stops operating within the same ceiling (kpop), it disrupts the entire hierarchy people built their identity around.
success in kpop is comparative, so when bts reaches this god level that reframes what success even looks like, it creates a sense of relative loss for everyone else even if nothing was actually taken away (you are fairly still allowed to beat bts if you can). that discomfort is normal, it’s basic social psychology. what isn’t normal is the projection that follows (the discourse & hate trains we have been seeing since march 20 and way before).
people aren’t mad about what bts are doing, they’re mad that everything they do is intentional and keeps working. that kind of trajectory feels threatening because it isn’t easily replicable or dismissible.
but at the end of the day this isn’t about music for kpop stans (it hasn’t been for a long time), it’s about relevance, and bts exposed just how fragile that sense of status really is.
if this cycle keeps going, kpop stan spaces are going to look smaller, louder, and way more insular. you’ll also get stagnation. k-pop stans are ruining their own reputation globally as a space that centers around bts. u can’t say that about armys bc armys center around bts 🤷♀️
👤: you as the person, what is your biggest fear?
🐨: My biggest fear is, of course, like losing these guys. I mean, they bother me really much, but I love them, and they’re my endorphins.
Dude my last fuckin straw 😭