⟭⟬ kei⁷ is normal ⟬⟭ ⊙⊝⊜

STREAM ARIRANG

[SL²³⁸ @Look4SD]

A collection of

"Haters gon' hate
Players gon' play"

[BTS Daily⁷ @btsdaily77]

Jungkook’s 7kg boba eyes trying to find whatever was bothering Yoongi’s eye. 😭🥺

[🏡 @homeisjungkook]

IM CRYINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[𝐒𝐨𝐚𝐡⁷🥢𓊝 @Yoon_kookie97]

When Louder Than Bombs First time got performed BCD was there & when Paradise First time got performed Doolset was there

I don't mind it all , they deserve it 😭😭

[tan into the sun⁷ @taesl0ver]

diabolical of him to recreate his iconic glasses flip move a whole decade later

[⭒ @knjpagee]

"Haters gonna hate and we players gonna play! We don't say 'Hello', We say 안녕하세요(annyeonghaseyo) "

NAMJOON😭😭😭

[yaz⁷ @_sgminseven]

33 WITH NO KIDS

[BTS_official @bts_bighit]

[#오늘의방탄]
260805 BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' IN FOXBOROUGH

#방탄소년단 #BTS #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG
#BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_NA
#BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_FOXBOROUGH

[isa @solmerv]

BTS's concepts are incredibly versatile and deeply layered, and every era tells a different story.

[mon⁷ @knjgIoss]

this is my new favourite video of jungkook

[BTS_official @bts_bighit]

[#오늘의방탄]
260802 BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' IN EAST RUTHERFORD

#방탄소년단 #BTS #BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG
#BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_NA
#BTS_WORLDTOUR_ARIRANG_EASTRUTHERFORD

[Pop Core @TheePopCore]

Forbes on the Grammys' new “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” category:

— “Nobody created a ‘Best European Pop Music Performance’ category for Dua Lipa or Ed Sheeran.”

[colin @colin_goldmund]

My Friends' and Former Students' Reactions to BTS's Decision

I have to admit, many of my male friends and former students, especially my old SNU buddies, have spent years busting my chops for being ARMY. To be fair, I probably deserve some of it. There aren't many middle-aged men who openly tell everyone they love BTS. Every chance I get, I talk about their music, their lyrics, or another charitable project they had supported. I even managed to convert a few of them into BTS fans, if not full-fledged ARMY.

After BTS announced that they wouldn't submit their music to the Grammys, I've never received so many phone calls and Kakao messages about BTS in my life. The Kakao group chat with my former students exploded. The reactions ranged from, "그 형들 시발 멋있다 (Those hyungs are f***ing awesome)," to "They're choosing principles over awards," to "I've always liked the way they operate, but this makes me admire them."

One wrote, "BTS is probably the only artist with guts that could pull something like this." Another simply said, "BTS가 BTS 했네." In other words, "BTS did what BTS would do." But my favorite message was this: "Now I finally understand why you like BTS so much." I smiled when I read that.

My friends, much older and professionals, reacted a little differently. They were less emotional and more philosophical, but they arrived at the same conclusion. One friend who is a business journalist called me, and we ended up talking for quite a while. He told me that many of his fellow journalists had been surprised by BTS's decision. But the more they talked about it, the more they came to admire the group for willingly giving up the possibility of winning an award in order to stand by what they believed was right.

And among the messages from my old SNU boarding house friends, one of them, a lawyer, said BTS's decision reminded her of what happened at Korea's oldest film awards, the Grand Bell Awards, in 2015. That year, the organizers announced that actors who did not attend the ceremony would not receive their awards, regardless of whether they had won. The policy caused such outrage that every nominee for Best Actor and Best Actress refused to attend and declined the awards altogether. It was one of the best examples of artists standing together against an institution they believed had become authoritarian and unfair.

She told me that it takes real courage for entertainers to do something like that. The people with power don't usually appreciate being challenged. Actors may stop getting cast. Musicians may stop getting nominated. In BTS's case, who knows if they'll ever receive another Grammy nomination after this? But all seven members stood together anyway. She ended her message by saying that she was finally going to listen to the BTS albums I had been recommending to her for years.

I also spent some time in an online community made up mostly of middle-aged professionals. The day the news broke, there must have been 50 posts about BTS. At least a dozen made it onto the HOT board, where the most-read discussions appear. One post alone was viewed nearly 15,000 times.

I read almost every post and comment, and I could not find a single negative reaction toward BTS. People, nearly all of them not ARMY, all praised the members for standing by their principles. They admired their courage. Some joked that the Grammys had just created the world's biggest BTS promotional campaign. Some, well, let's just say the creativity of the cursing directed at the Grammys was quite impressive..

One comment made me laugh the most. A member wrote that not only was everyone at his company talking about BTS's decision, but even his parents, both in their seventies and about as far removed from pop music as you can get, had asked him what had happened. BTS had become the topic of conversation for everyone in Korea.

Then, on Friday, the short-sighted music critic I wrote about on Wednesday appeared on Kim Ou-joon's program alongside two other music critics and argued that BTS probably wasn't going to win anyway, and that this was merely a power struggle between BTS and the Grammys.

The community completely lost its mind. People tore the argument apart, and there was a lot of profanity involved. Some even said they had emailed the program asking not to invite those critics back because they had completely missed the point, and are incompetent. Some even lamented that if Kim Young-dae were still alive, he would have been the one sitting there, giving us the thoughtful, nuanced perspective that only he could.

Judging by what I've seen here in Korea, and by the reactions I've been reading from around the world over the past few days, I believe BTS made exactly the right decision.

By choosing principles over trophies, they earned something that can't be placed on a shelf: the respect of people who had never considered themselves fans.

[marissa⁷ I ⊙⊝⊜ @ohmanunot]

Every line here is beautifully incisive.

"You negotiate with an institution whose judgment you still need. The one whose judgment you have outgrown, you simply inform."
https://t.co/XkROAzFlv5

[K⁷ | 13TS @tksovers]

He made a post again on this situation

[Bangtan⁷ @Soft4BTS_]

@amlysbang The response from this ARMY totally ATEEE her up

[🍓🍊Jacqui⁷ ⊙⊝⊜ | 보라해 💜 아포방포 @taegi_queen]

OUCH.

"Each of the seven members posted the same brief statement announcing that the group would not submit its music to the Grammys this year, adding a hope that music might be heard and loved for what it is rather than sorted by region or language.

Big Hit Music asked that the statement be taken as written, and taken as written it is remarkable, because it asks for nothing. A boycott makes demands. This made none, set no conditions, named no grievance, and offered the Recording Academy no way to win them back. You negotiate with an institution whose judgment you still need. The one whose judgment you have outgrown, you simply inform.
[...]
An award has no value of its own; it is worth exactly what the wanting of it is worth, and the wanting must be freely given. For five years the biggest band on earth gave it freely, showing up, performing, losing, returning, lending the ceremony the one asset it cannot manufacture, the sight of someone enormous still hoping.

That hope was always the Grammys' property more than BTS's weakness. It has now been withdrawn, without anger, without demands, in a statement short enough to fit on a phone screen, by seven men who knocked at a door for years and were at last, generously, offered a smaller one."

[dictator mbapbella @7adorablereps]

ART HAS NO ALIENS!

[LaurenQᴼᵀ⁷💜 ⟭⟬ ⟬⟭ @BTSn8tion]

https://t.co/XT3MhZw5oo

[Borahae PH⁷ ᥫ᭡ is seeing BTS 🇵🇭🇦🇺 ⟭⟬ ⟬⟭ ⊙⊝⊜ @BorahaePh7]

WHO IS THIS DIVA 👏🏼