At first they weren’t mainstream enough. Weren’t global enough.
Then bts became the most successful global act across the board, breaking barriers, records, claiming longevity and relevance and still they weren’t “enough”. They were instead used for their reach, used for their name and their global fandom.
Now with Arirang, an album that has yet to reach its peak bc it’s quite literally peaking every single day, an album that has world-renowned producers who worked on it singing praises months after its release, an album about roots, identity, separation, overcoming adversity, resilience, reunion and legacy, an album only 3 months into its existence demanding the level of recognition that can’t be ignored.
So, what do they do to acknowledge it?
They create ridiculous categories in the name of diversity which to me feels like just a fancy word for exclusion.
When Namjoon said about the change of rules by the music industry back in 2021:
🐨"I don’t know if that’s right … It just feels like we’re easy targets because we’re a boy band, a K-pop act, and we have this high fan loyalty.”
The music industry has been always feel intimidated by BTS impact, for that reason they always try to diminish them
Thank you for reposting Taehyung’s letter when he so gently broke the news about Tannie’s passing. For the sake of those among us who came to the fandom after military service, here is a timeline of what happened.
Taehyung didn’t want us to be sad, so he waited until the memorial was coming out in the beautiful animated MV for White Christmas, a posthumous collaboration of Tae (V) with Bing Crosby. Precious little Yeontan was depicted as a constellation of stars and it was necessary to tell us the news ahead of the release.
Many of us suspected Tannie may have passed away because of the Instagram comment Tae left the first week of Oct. 2024 on his Feb. 4, 2022 post in which he was seen making a wish with Tannie for long life. Tannie was born with small airways, and as he grew, he began passing out when he ran because he didn’t get enough oxygen. Tae learned to do mouth to nose breathing to help Tannie breathe, which was misunderstood by some fans jumping to conclusions when he shared a video with us.
Tannie had several surgeries, but the procedures failed to correct the problem. When Taehyung enlisted, many of us worried that Tannie would not survive until he completed his term of service. Out of the blue one day, Tae came online and left this comment on that old post from Feb. 2022, “I love you so much Tanah❤️” and in that moment I suspected what my heart didn’t want to face. Dec 2, 2024 we got the photo dump post of memories with Tannie, just ahead of the Dec. 5, 2024 release of the video.
Kim Yeontan was beautifully memorialized along side Bing Crosby, a multi media Jazz legend, as he played Santa, and Tannie rode along in his sleigh as his little helper. Not only was Tannie the first K-pup star to be memorialized in such a profound way, but he was also the first ever to have his own fancam when he made his stage debut in front of Army as part of Layover promotions.
As Taehyung performed Slow Dancing for a LIVE audience, Tannie pranced about, looking straight into the camera like a pro, as though he had learned to do that from his Daddy. He was also the pixelated album cover image for Layover, and a doggie double named Rocky was hired to give Yeontan’s presence a place in the Layover MVs as he was not able to travel to Spain for filming. This was Taehyung’s way of insuring Yeontan would never be forgotten! He features in 4 of the 5 MVs of the visual album, and also appears in the Slow Dancing FRNK remix MV.
This was most likely the last photo taken of Yeontan in Taehyung’s embrace. It can be found in that final photo dump. There are 3 posts in all dedicated to Tannie, and the first one on @ thv boasted 20M likes. (Dec. 7, 2021) I wish that we could get enough fans to like that post to exceed “the egg” photo someone set up to be the most liked on Instagram as a blow to a celebrity who once held that record. I think the egg has 55M likes.
We should be able to give that honor to Tannie as a show of our love to Tae, who asked us to remember his sweet fur baby…often called the 8th member of BTS…the original Tannie…loved by all the members of Bangtan.
What a stupid take.
ARMY is ARMY, regardless of nationality. Without global support, BTS wouldn't be where they are now. Without foreign concert goers in KOR, they'd play at smaller venues, not stadiums.
BTS only talk about their love for ARMY, all ARMY, as is the Bangtan way.
It literally felt like a stab to my heart in the cinema when Namjoon said he doesn't open up about his inner thoughts easily anymore. Just as when he said he hasn't come live in a long time bc his words always get twisted, taken out of context & torn apart.
I'm so sorry, Joon 😭
Please RT to help find the owner!
I found an Army Bomb at a bus stop. A credit card was also inside, so I am taking it to the police station.
#ArmyBomb#BTS#LostAndFound
Keep climbing 📈 we need to maintain an upward trend whether we get a #1 or not because with a big drop, a #1 means something else 👀 we should maintain consistency, that’s far more credible.
KEEP PUSHING ‼️
the city can absolutely be held accountable btw. they halved the staff that were supposed to do safety management & traffic control just days before. if their own officials don't wanna be deployed for concerts then they gotta stop renting out the stadium for "commercial events"🤷♀️
TAEHYUNG'S WORDS TO ARMY WHO DIDN'T LEAVE AND WAITED FOR THEM 😭💜
🐻: All right! Even though we've returned after so long, you have stayed right there by our side, always the same and that makes us so happy and grateful. I'm sure you waited so long for us but we also waited so long for this moment
🐻: There are a lot of events coming up and I hope we can enjoy each one together and wrap up the "BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG'" happily and successfully