7 BTS things for 10 years....

It's a special FESTA, and we've all been in our feels over the Bora world coming together. Here are the 7 things I am celebrating about Bangtan Sonyeondan.

There have been so many touching things this week, marking BTS’ 10th anniversary since they debuted. I was so moved by Joon (Nam June, haha), Jimin, Hobi, and JK’s letters, really written from the heart. The Take Two single release, and video, were lovely.

I’ve been thinking about what it means to survive in a deadly music and media landscape, a world that moves onto the next in a flash. The music business is littered with those who crashed under the weight of pressure, bad luck, mental illness and substance abuse, and the overall chicanery of being all things for all people.

BTS is 10, which is remarkable. And they are still them. Richer, shinier, quirkier, cooler, older (save for the eternally-youthful Jin), and smart as hell about showbiz/music.

Here are my 7 reasons why they are still standing, with no signs of slowing.

1. Emotional Intelligence on high levels: Stan people who do good things and make a difference in this world. BTS has never been the source of negative energy or high-key petty when it would have been easier to take those roads. They came from nothing, suffered a lot from the internal politics of Korea’s entertainment and governmental scenes and the outside world’s anti-Asian biases and toxic masculinity. Being authentic always comes at a price. The drive to achieve fame and wealth often delivers the toll of losing oneself to the machine. BTS, especially some of the individual members such as Jimin, have carried the burden and found the path of light to move to the other side. BTS does not suffer fools, they will throw shade when needed, but it is never cruel. Just karma.

2. Laughter, laughter, laughter: The Bangtan world has one constant - laughs. Getting through the hard work, drama, and stress requires a lot of good humor, and BTS has mastered the art of laughing at themselves, with themselves and for themselves. Hobi and Jin laugh frequently, hard, and bring everybody with them. Their humor is never mean. Just friends roasting each other, and we all are in the the private jokes too. I’m sorry for my fault….Rock Bison….it goes on and on.

3. Talent means nothing without commitment: The unfathomable part of BTS making it to 10 years and being on top of their game is this - Hitman Bang put together 7 young men and teen boys who had little professional experience, never sang live, some had zero dance training, and were the roughest diamonds to be mined. But he picked them because he saw their “it” factors and talent. It just needed to be honed and packaged through experience and education. He gave them both, and they chose to be together and survive the boot camp hell. They wanted to quit. They wanted to go home. They were starving, living in cramped quarters, and missed their families. They had zero guarantees this would work. But it did, because they survived and found a way to bloom.

4. Kick down the doors: Some of the best elements of the BTS multimedia kingdom come from the genius of Big Hit. They were not getting booked early on to the TV shows they needed for exposure, thanks to being industry outsiders. Big Hit was a rogue operation, nearly bankrupt at times, so booking a boy band on Korean TV from a non-big label was not a priority. Big Hit did not wait around for the phone to ring, instead using their own resources and creating Run BTS. Yep, there is no off position on the genius switch (quoth Dave Letterman). They had online channels, and they used them well. The Run BTS dynasty deepened their reach and fame, developed their characters for the public, and is some damned fine reality TV. I hope it comes back in some form after the hiatus. Our Tuesday’s are less rich without fresh episodes.

6. Yeah, I kick out the door, yeah, I kick out the door (part 2): BTS has forged an effective marriage of social media and fan community, using fancafe/message boards, Weverse, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Their personal posts, videos, photos, memes and content has built the connection with ARMY, and in turn, given them a direct line of communication. We know they know our inside jokes, and they know we know they tinies details about them. They have essentially lived a lot of their lives in front of the camera for the last 10 years. Like a rolling vlog. This is the only fanbase in the world where a global megastar like JK does the following: goes live in an app without set-up or crew, from his own home, from his own bed, while he is trying to sleep…and then does sleep….and it all seems perfectly normal to the 6 million of us who tuned in for this spectacle. All social norms aside, any social media manager would kill to get 6 million rolling up for a live. JK just did it by showing up, unannounced. The social media power of BTS is unmatched right now.

7. Them. That’s the secret: The BTS rabbit hole is no joke, and I’ve wondered why we are all in this Bangtan shit (for life). The answer is clear, they’re super talented people, elite at what they do, but also good people. You can’t fake any of that over 10 years. The wanna-bes are long gone, called one-hit wonders. It doesn’t matter what language they are communicating in, people get it. I don’t know much Korean, hey trying to get better here, but I know the sincerely and realness of what BTS is doing. They have enough gravitas to be individual superstars in their own lanes. RM and prod. by Suga are in hot demand from other artists to work on their music. Yoongi is setting records for his concert grosses and streams. JK, Jimin and Tae are musical forces/fashion muses and set off shockwaves when they show for events. Hobi is carving his own lane of hip-hop, dance and creativity. And Jin, Jin, Jin, we can’t even calculate what is possible for him, deploying his beauty and voice when he is done with the military next summer. The Astronaut jam with Coldplay was just an appetizer. They are seven accomplished, educated, talented, philanthropic men from Korea who are still figuring out life in real time, with us alongside. We’re all trying to figure out our lives too, with them alongside as the soundtrack.

Happy FESTA everybody! What’s your reason for being ARMY?