Risaborahae's BTS Blog: Casual ARMY vs Core ARMY controversy: Why it's not as serious as some are making it

Disclaimer: Before I even get into this I'm going to say this is not just my opinion. This is how many other more seasoned/ experienced ARMY feel about voting and streaming. You don't have to agree. Do you and go be you but we're also going to do our thing and be us and you will eventually get over it if you don't like it. Don't come into my comments here or on Threads or any other social media overreacting or getting an attitude because I won't have it. You'll be blocked. This isn't meant to put anyone down or be "toxic" which is being overused now. It's just to clarify what was taken out of hand and twisted by some who don't get it.

Edited: 11/23/24 Jimin won the daesang Visa Fan's Choice Award at the MAMA Awards which is fan voted and an award BTS has won as a group for the past several years in a row. His thank you letter to ARMY has been added at the end of this post.

The other day on Threads an ARMY made a post about voting and streaming telling newer ARMY not to stress about it and that they don't have to worry about trying to keep up. I think her intentions initially were to get people to stop worrying about it so much. I don't typically see people stressing about either on my feed because we know it comes with the territory. Beginning intentions aside, she showed her true nature later when she snapped and posted this.

Now, no one cares how many concerts you attended or how many albums you have. That's not what makes you an ARMY. There are people who buy albums and get barricade at concerts and don't know a single lyric. I'm reminded of a Coldplayer post where a Coldplayer was at barricade next to a "fan" who didn't know the words to their songs that were 15 or 20 years old. The Coldplayer was just surprised this person had gotten great tickets but didn't know the songs when they were used to being in front with die-hard fans singing songs back to the band. Having merch and going to concerts just means you have money. Not even that really. You choose to spend what you do have on those things is how I'll put it, because what it really comes down to is priorities and opportunity. My priorities lie in making sure there's a roof over my head and my child is fed and clothed. If I have disposable income after that then fine. I'm not in a position where I can fly across the country to see concerts so I vote and stream to support all 7 and the group as a whole. That makes me ARMY.

So this was probably in response to my comments on the post because I commented that there is nothing wrong with being a casual fan or casual ARMY. The terms casual ARMY and core ARMY were used in a recent Boracity Magazine YouTube video and I liked the way they explained it.

Let's back up a bit. This was all because there were people who responded to the Threads poster saying that they don't have time to stream, see streaming as "cheating the system" (I'm sorry what?!), and someone who said they don't participate in mob mentality type things and no one can make them do anything. No one is making them do anything! Core ARMY put out calls to vote and stream and that's what we've always done. We just had a comeback and we're still in tracking week 1 for that. Why would you make a post encouraging people not to stream or vote two days before a comeback and during end of the year voting season when daesangs and bonsangs are being awarded?

I explained my perspective which is similar to Boracity's that there are core ARMY who vote and stream and that's how BTS wins awards. Korean awards shows rely heavily on fan voting and if ARMY wants BTS to win we have to vote for them. When I was first ARMY I didn't know this and it's likely that others don't either. When we post calls to go vote a lot of times those posts are as much to remind each other to vote as they are to recruit new voters. If you don't vote keep scrolling. There's no need to comment or get defensive and angry about something that you've made clear does not concern you.

There's nothing wrong with being a casual fan if you choose not to vote and stream or one or the other. The poster bragging about concerts... she streams. She puts out posts encouraging people to stream. She just doesn't vote. That's the funny thing. No one ever called her casual ARMY. I commented it in general in response to the rude comments throughout her Thread. She took casual ARMY as an insult. Being that she's gen X as am I, I assume she thinks casual ARMY means poser (fake fan posing as a real one for attention) and it does NOT. Casual ARMYs still contribute in the ways they choose to participate. Had she watched the Boracity video she would have understood that.

Why We Stream

The reason streaming is so important is because BTS does not get much airplay if any on US radio. I can only speak for the US because that's where I am but other International ARMY have also said BTS doesn't get much airplay on the radio where they live either.When I say airplay I'm not talking about satellite radio because that's a little different. I'm talking about terrestrial radio, AM and FM frequencies. There are a few messed up reasons for this but the main ones are payola and racism/xenophobia. Major labels pay radio stations to play their artists or make deals for artists to appear at events like I Heart Radio things if the stations play their artists. The same artists get played over and over in a rotation. That rotation is often set by the station and they don't try to deviate from that because they're being paid to stick to it.

In the US, Clear Channel, now I Heart Media, owns 860 or more radio stations. Clear Channel was a right-wing owned company. Clear Channel has been around since the 70's buying up stations and has faced financial hardship over the years because of it. They were bought out in 2008 and became I Heart Media in 2014. They are Republican based, headquarters is in TX, and they have censored and blacklisted artists before for speaking out against the Republican Party. I'm not going to go into detail here for the sake of space and time but The Chicks (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks) were blacklisted by Clear Channel when they spoke out against Republican President at the time George W. Bush. These same radio stations will play "Despacito" (the Justin Bieber version) but won't play BTS Korean songs and will barely play their English ones. If you know why you know why.

So ARMY streams. For those who don't know what streaming is--because these extreme reactions suggest that some people apparently don't--it is literally just listening to music. That's it! I stream everyday almost as soon as I wake up. I open Apple Music and I find a playlist or I put on an album and hit play. Do we have goals? Yes but that's just a guide so you know where we want to be collectively. I hope no one is looking at these streaming goals and thinking you need to hit those individually on your own. I mean I'm having trouble trying to figure out what the issue is and why people say things in my comment section like Texastish on Threads did this week regarding me writing this blog post, " You actually don't need to explain anything to anyone. People can be fans in the best way they are comfortable. You or nobody else has the right to try to dictate what makes someone "core ARMY." It's stuff like this that makes people view the fandom as toxic. You have time and energy to stream? Great! Not everyone does. It's fine." She went on and said a few more things I found ignorant because if she read for comprehension she would know that the first part of what she is saying is exactly what I am saying as well. ARMY how you ARMY but you don't need to bitch about not streaming. Sorry not sorry. She has time to do unboxing videos on her IG of the same name but not stream. Make it make sense. She also made comments intended to be digs at me about her having a career and not having time. Sweetheart we are all busy, time is what you make it. Streaming is literally putting on background music. You may need to eventually interact with your playlist but that's hitting pause or changing the playlist when it stops. It's not that hard.

One thousand five hundred streams is roughly the equivalent of one album sale. ARMY is known as monster streamers so this was an interesting stat for me knowing that BTS has numerous songs in the millions of streams. Streams are part of the criteria for winning Korean music shows which count towards end of the year awards as well. Streams take up some of the slack for us not having airplay needed to get onto Billboard charts too. So don't complain about not wanting to stream and then whine about the guys not making Billboard. You don't get to have it both ways.

Why We Vote

Voting is to help BTS win awards. If you are the type of "ARMY" who says "BTS has enough awards" you're not ARMY to me. Not sorry. ARMY that knows the struggles BTS has been through in the past know that they deserve every single win, period. They give us their whole heart and blood, sweat, and tears, to make sure we are entertained and we love them for it. If you can be that casual about it then you're not one of us. Period. And about me not being able to say if you're ARMY or not, you can call yourself the Queen of England but that doesn't make it true.

That being said, if you don't vote just because it isn't your thing then that's your business. You don't need to broadcast that on social media because you could be wrongly encouraging other newer ARMY not to vote. Maybe that's your plan anyway and in that case you have other issues. If they want to vote then we can show them how. If you don't want to then you have the option of scrolling, muting, and blocking accounts that talk about voting and streaming and leaving the conversations up to those of us who want to do the work and those who want to learn how to do the work. Many times when we put out posts about voting it's to remind each other that voting has reset for the day because timeline differences can be tricky. Of course we put calls out for others to join in as well but if you don't want to, keeping quiet is free. Your opinion is not needed.

BTS has a long running legacy with the MAMA awards and I have linked this mini documentary done by the MAMA awards on their YouTube in comment sections only to be ignored. I will link all 3 parts in this post. Going back and watching early footage of them winning their first awards and reading about or watching videos about the hardships they went through with the company nearly going bankrupt, the bullying from antis (other groups and companies as well), the death threats they got when some were still minors (I mean death threats are horrible either way but they faced this as teenagers), and watching the clips of practices will let you know why we are so dedicated as core ARMY to helping them win whenever we can. I got more involved with voting as I saw how they were treated in the past and still are treated. Voting and trying to get them more and more wins is our love language with them. We can't go to concerts if they aren't touring. We still have 5 members enlisted till the end of June 2025 and it won't be till 2026 most likely that we get a concert so showing up and showing support in person is mostly out of the question. We don't all live in South Korea so when it comes to special stages international ARMY are left out of that. We show them that we are here through voting and winning awards for them. Given that most of these awards are fan voted we show up for them as a team and vote.

In conclusion, no one is saying at all that you aren't ARMY if you don't vote and stream. There are levels to this and I didn't come up with it. I'm just using terminology that was already there. Casual fans usually don't vote or stream. Are they still important? YES! No one said you weren't, people assumed that. My issue lies with the people who are casual fans and will complain about the ones doing the work and act like we have all the time in the world to vote and stream while they have lives and can't. It's wrong first of all and just rude. Just saying you don't want to is sufficient. Better yet don't come into our comment sections complaining at all just keep scrolling. Better even just block me because you can't ever contribute to a conversation I'm having with anything I would want to hear. I'm here for BTS, to support BTS. I'm not here to amass a ton of followers and be popular so the ones trying to be snarky downers about the work we do as core ARMY can either join and help or shut up.