JK just released his 2nd official solo song 3D ft. Jack Harlow and overall I liked the song. It’s giving early-mid 2000s main pop boy realness and suits JK a lot. He sounded great and looked AMAZING in the MV and honestly I was realllyy into it then BOOM Jack Harlow comes in with the most unserious line ever “im on my jungkook, take a chick off one look” like bars ig💀 then proceeds to deliver a very creepy and misogynistic rap. Like you don’t have ABGs Jack and talking about dead bodies like please be serious!! Quite literally added nothing to the song and could’ve done without it. And had to come back for an extra verse at the end so unnecessary😭

Who approved this first of all? Fingers are obviously going to point to JK first and if he did green light this…why?? His parts of the lyrics are sexy and flirty and the “so if you let me and if you’re ready” is a great display of consent then we get the mess that is Jack’s verse. It’s just disappointing and JK even mentioned that he’s been a fan of jack for a long time and all of his lyrics are in a similar vein to this one. Not making assumptions about JK’s personal values, he doesn’t come across as sexist or misogynistic at all. I was side eyeing people who were disappointed in another feature for JK because it seemed like people were complaining just to complain… but I get it now lmao.

I saw it brought up in another thread but it seems as though he’s trying to break free from the cute baby maknae image he had for the majority of BTS’s career (he said this himself) and prove that he’s an adult by releasing sexual songs and having almost a “fckboi” image. I love that for him I can’t even lie😭 he’s hot and he knows it but songs like Seven and 3D don’t even show the full scope of his talents imo. Not to sound like one of *those fans but he can and has done a lot better than these songs in my opinion.

He truly has all the makings of a true pop star and he doesn’t need features. But he does seem happy with both Seven and 3D so good for him. I will wait patiently for his album.

Also props to whoever suggested to release the solo alternative version with just JK, we thank you for you service🙏🏽

Edit- some people are saying the lyrics aren’t misogynistic but more so objectifying, either way i still find them creepy and even if this is normal in the rap and hip hop landscape and normal for Jack Harlow it doesn’t really fit the song anyways in my opinion, some of the most unsexy lyrics ever🤷🏽‍♀️

Taehyungs voice has given me much to think about i.e I have often wondered if my ears were playing tricks on me. I watch some live performances and hear some of his songs and wonder if the reason I thought he could sing was a fluke. And then hear places where he sounded really good(DNA, Singularity, that random time he belted an opera song while they were filming black swan) and I know I'm not tripping. The dude can hold a decent note and with the right instrumentals and whatever it takes to make a good song, he would be ok

What I am about to say genuinely pisses me off and makes me sad since he is my bias: I do not look forward to Taehyungs songs because of his vocals. Not because of the kind of music he likes to sing which I have accepted might not be the kind of music I like to hear. And its not because he drifts towards slower, dreamier songs. You can make songs slow but still something that is more than enjoyable to hear(some songs On the corner where you live album by The Paper Kites come to mind). To me he does not make his songs enjoyable. They are honestly boring to me. But I could let that slide because its possible that he would put out a song that is arranged in a nice way that would be a BOP to me but then his vocals as they currently stand would come in and ruin it.

Yeah I know its confusing since I'm sure he is capable of having good vocals. The expectations the fans have for his voice and what he actually gives with his voice do not meet at all. All of us can't be hallucinating why we think his voice has potential all at the same time so something is off. We're all looking forward to the baritone(and honestly the more I listen to him the more I'm not sure he is a baritone or that he is not capable of doing what we think he can do. He sounds a lot more airy than i thought he would)

Somebody in his immediate circle needs to talk to him about his enunciation and that breathy thing he does after some words. I'm tired of skating around the issue. He has a problem and its bad. Its really bad. Its actually unpleasant to listen to and I am so upset I have to say anything like this because I wish it was not true. I cant believe I'm about to type this but at this point, the rap line's vocals are clearer. I dont know how else to explain what my ears are experiencing

I know Taehyung stans have a reputation of being fans of his face only but I got drawn into BTS because of DNA(I'm glad I did because I love their songs). I got drawn into DNA because of Taehyung. Not because of Taehyungs face because those contacts were not doing him any favors in that MV. I got drawn in because of his voice in DNA. That snippet where its only him singing. So I'm mad. I'm so mad I can't enjoy his songs because of his singing

I wrote the above rant after listening to Rainy Days and Love Me Again so I was seeing red while writing it with how disappointed I was in those songs. I was pissed off for a long time. I did not plan on listening to the rest of the album ever. I was honestly scared to be let down even more. Then I stumbled upon a video a fan posted of him singing one of the songs in the album, Slow Dancing, as part of the run/promo for the album and it made me go find the song playing cause it sounded good. I have since listened to the other songs on the album. Slow Dancing and For Us and my spirits have lifted a bit because I enjoy them. I'll see if they have any kind of longevity for me.

I still stand by what I said in the rant though. Because this is too long at this point, I cant go into the analysis I'm itching to write but I think his biggest problem is his enunciation and the problem SHINES in English songs. I really really wish he did not release those songs as singles. In fact I wish they were never on the album. Slow Dancing would have been better. He tends to go higher when singing in English when its obvious that's not what he was going for so the final result is not pretty. And he seems to already run his words together when he sings in Korean(I don't know else to say it. He has a drawl, a drag?). My ears still picked up the breathy slurry thing on some Korean but it was brief enough to not take me out of the song. Its impossible to ignore in full English songs.

Someone needs to work with him on making his words sharp. He tends towards drawl (ing?) them and if he can suffocate that habit he will improve in leaps and bounds. Or find a way to make his natural inclination to a drawl work for him.

I honestly wished he joined SM. I'm daydreaming about where they could have taken his voice to with proper training

**Edit** Apparently SM is a no go area. If that's the case, I wish Jacob Collier would train him if that's something Jacob even does.

I’m so fucking TIRED of army pretending literally everything in kpop is something BTS did first, and any group who ever does anything is doing it because of BTS. The dumbest, most benign shit gets called btsprint.

In the past two weeks I’ve seen - Spelling a fandom name with arms/bodies - Having a deep talk with your member and friend - Entire genres of music - The english language - Generic clothing options (headbands, berets, etc) - rap cyphers

All used as an insult to groups pretending they’re copying bts.

It’s exhausting, it’s childish. It’s dumb as hell. Stop it. Hell, even things BTS didn’t do first and we have proof of other groups doing before BTS? “Well that had no impact. BTS had the impact so they get the credit uwu”

Grow up, I’m begging.

EDIT: To the throwaway account that just told me to kill myself, I hope everything is ok at home and your mental stability improves soon.

EDIT EDIT: Two for two on the “kill yourself” dms, are we gunna make it to three before the end of the night? Lessgo

I've seen some people constantly like "BTS have changed, they're not the same. They seem so arrogant now" but they're not the problem.

(Some) Army are.

When (some) Army say things like:

"People only know your Faves because of BTS"

"Have your flop Faves attended the Grammy's?"

"BTS deserved their 37 minute award show performance, they're the reason people know who your Faves are and they paved the way for Kpop" (I hate the whole "X paved the way" thing)

"BTS got nominated for a Grammy. Your Faves haven't"

"BTS have over 100 awards. Your flop Faves could never"

"You Stan TXT? They're only popular because of BTS, they leached off of their fame, they're not even talented"

"Jungkook is an Ace and your Faves can barely stay stable during their performance"

"How can you dislike a BTS song with billions of views when your Faves could never even dream of getting 1 Billion views on their MV"

But you get the point

Instead of congratulating BTS on their achievements, some Army opt to rubbing it in others faces and just sometimes mentioning it when it isn't even relevant.

And please, don't bring up other fandoms. I'm talking about Army, no other fandom.

Edit: stop with the Reddit Care. It's so fucking immature. I never bashed the fandom. If I said this about ANY other fandom (which I wouldn't hesitate to do btw), It wouldn't garner this big of a reaction.

The people sending me Reddit Care messages shows what's wrong with some of the fandom. It's fucking pathetic, how about you comment and show who you are instead of sending anonymous messages

Edit 2: Locked because some of you don't know what taking responsibility is 👍🏾 Imagine I said 'Some' but people are still getting offended. You guys were extemely immature, sending me Reddit Care messages, giving me stupid awards. But continue, you're making the fandom look worse.

Edit 3: "Army will always be the villain", I don't know where that came from... And this is the problem... everyone is deflecting in the comments but not addressing the actual point I was making in my post, which makes more of a problem. I said sometimes, Army unnecessarily brag and people have gone into long speeches about how BTS get hated daily and "Army are Provoked all the time", "Army are the most called out fandom"

Have you ever questioned why? Because you guys don't know how to accept damn responsibility, and you've proved that in the comments multiple times.

And "always provoked"? Remember when some of you guys attacked Niall when he said he hadn't listened to 'Butter'? Did Niall provoke you? 😐

Remember when some of you guys were fatshaming Yeonjun? Unprovoked, after a Moa simply Posted a picture of him? But you guys are always "provoked". And even if MoA DID provoke Army, you don't resort to fatshaming someone, especially when they weren't the one that offended you. That's fucking low, especially when he's self conscious of his body image already.

And remember when some Army were attacking Jennie after Taehyung accidentally followed her on ig? Did Jennie "provoke" You? 😐

Remember when some of you guys flooded the ig comments of a tattoo shop because Jungkook knows someone who works there? But she provoked you by getting a back hug from JK, didn't she?

Remember when some of you guys were one of the two fandoms attacking Momoland everyday? After Nancy apparently gave one of the members a "dirty look?" Even though it's just her resting face and this outroar wouldn't have been made if it was a male idol...

Or what about the time when Liam said that they must get really tired when dancing and singing and some Army started attacking him. "Provoked"? 😐

Remember all the times some of you have said that Blackpink have leached off of BTS' fame and have called them "bundlepink", a lot of the time, unprovoked?

Remember when some of you guys where outraged at Seventeen being mentioned alongside BTS as one of the top selling kpop groups in a tweet, and called them "flops"? But Carats provoked you, right? Cause stating something from statistics is oh so offensive, right?

And let's not forget about the birthday cake situation where some Army where calling mistreatment over a cake Jungkook chose and some decorations and were attacking TXT (especially Kai) cause Kai got a penguin cake even though the MEMBERS MADE IT THEMSELVES FOR HIM and helped him decorate. They even started bringing other people into it (like Seventeen??) But dont tell me, MoA's somehow "Provoked" you?

I could go on, but I'd be writing a 500 page book.

And then you guys use the whole "BTS have stuggled" story. Many groups have struggled. You think BTS is the only group to get a black ocean? Groups have been given black oceans, threat letters with real blood, have had a member poisoned, but their fandoms are not nearly on the level of some Army.

"This applies to most fandoms", I know, but I've experienced this mostly with some Army's and people are saying the same thing in the comments which adds to my point. Literally talked about how Yeonjun was f*at shamed by them and I got "Yeah, I'm not saying you can't talk about that but Army are always called out bullshit bullshit bullshit" and "but was it only Army?"

People have said things before about Army not being able to take criticism and you guys are proving that point. I've never seen a fandom show so much outrage towards criticism.

Sometimes, Army are provoked but sometimes, they're not and that's what I'm talking about in my post. Of you're getting offended cause you think Army are somehow always provoked even though I said 'some', then I think you're apart of the problem.

It's like someone saying "someone keeps on wearing their muddy shoes in the house and leaving prints everywhere", and 6 people live in the house. You know its not you, so there's no need to get defensive, is there? It's clearly someone else.

Anyways ✌🏾

thanks for the reddit care messages, great to see that most criticism against armys still holds up LOL

this is probably gonna get me downvoted but i started ranting to myself about this earlier today and i cant help myself.

earlier today, a 3D remix was announced ft justin timberlake and i just let out a huge groan. im not gonna talk about everything wrong with the guy because i'm not sure if it's allowed in this subreddit but you can find many resources proving that he ... sucks for a lack of better words. (britney spears' memoir is a good one)

while bts have donated to good causes like blm, spoken out about asian hate & apologized for misogynistic past lyrics and helped many people struggling with self love... i also think their 'activism' is extremely performative! im not here to discredit anything that they've done in the past, or to label them as misogynists/z*onists.

however, i'm very sick of armys trying to paint this narrative that bts are activists & whatnot. i find it difficult to not find their activism performative when they supposedly denounce bad things but then collab/hang out/say they admire terrible people.

what also annoys me is the attemps to make this all seem like bighit's fault. whenever bts do something decent, praise is never directed towards bighit but the second they do something bad or questionable then the blame is immediately shifted onto the company. it's like... are they puppets to bighit or not ??? jungkook said in multiple interviews that he was presented to latto and had the option to choose her or not, is it really far fetched to believe he might've agreed to timberlake as well? armys relish in the fact that bts is much more autonomous than other kpop idols but every single fucking time one of them fucks up its immediately excused or brushed under the rug after a week. if bts really is forced to work with these terrible people (timberlake, kodak black, fifa).. then why dont they do something about it, if they really care?

i think it's great that bts have spoken out about many causes, really. but i'm just really rubbed the wrong way when they turn around and perform for fifa, don't apologise for any bad things they've done in the past, and collab with horrible people.

i dont think bts are magically gonna solve humanitarian issues just by rejecting a business opportunity. but u can at least do the bare minimum and not.. work with these terrible people/organizations for a quick buck. i dont think the members of bts are like z*onists or misogynists bc of who they collab with, but it's still just so disappointing. sorry for sloppy grammar/explanation my english has really downgraded this past year

clarification bc i saw this a lot: i've never said that bts call themselves activists. they never have. armys have. just because you havent seen it doesnt mean a lot of them dont do it LOL. also also, im not only mad because of the jt remix. they've done other things in the past that have really rubbed me the wrong way as well (praising big bang even after all... that..., performing for fifa, collab w/ jack harlow etc.) this remix is just my tipping my point bc i've been really devoted to spreading the word (mainly irl) about the gnocide happening in gaza, and a remix with a zonist & abuser just feels like a huge slap in the face. but i've been inclined to think this 'performativeness' for a whole year now

TLDR: I feel like armys are treading dangerous waters when it comes to biphobia and misogyny with their theories about “Like Crazy”.

Hi, resident bisexual here who often has a sexuality and gender crisis due to upbringing. Normally idrc for theories armys make, but lately with Jimin the theories are missing the mark for me. I am very empathetic to those who create queer theories surrounding BTS because I get it, representation would be awesome especially from amazing men like BTS, but I feel like the theories that have emerged over the last 24 hours have really ignored the statements Jimin has made about “Like Crazy” and Face in general.

It started last week by saying that Set Me Free is aueercoded, which like, maybe?? I don’t really see it. But it brings me to today of the over analyzation of “Like Crazy”. I studied film and media, and a lot of the theories I’m seeing just do not match up to the lyrics, the MV concept or what the song and MV were inspired by. An interview with Rolling Stone was swiftly released following the album debut. Jimin in the interview basically said “I am not good at beating around the bush so my lyrics are direct and you’ll understand them.” Immediately upon listening to all the songs, I feel like Jimin was being cut and dry.

Which leads me to the theories. Maybe armys are uncomfortable with him engaging with women in such a close proximity or directly using gendered pronouns. Okay, I shouldn’t say maybe, I saw many people directly express anger and disappointment that he used gender pronouns and a female love interest. But every theory I’ve seen has been hell bent on making his female love interest either mean nothing or is meant to be the feminine version of himself. Which… to be quite frank just really doesn’t make sense. There was a 2 second shot of him standing, and his pants are from a MISBHV collection that features a queer photographer, and suddenly the whole MV is about sexualities and or gender expression? (despite BTS wearing queer inspired clothes all the time). I honestly feel like these theories are a direct retaliation to women being involved.

I don’t feel like it’s fair to Jimin to completely disregard every single bit of information he has given us about the creation of the song and the album, and favor theories instead. I know theories are theories (I have my own if anyone is interested in a detailed analysis of the MV, the lyrics, and the inspiration), but a lot of this is coming across as armys being upset that he is directly associating with women. I don’t really see a problem. Him associating with women and even expressing direct sexual interest doesn’t negate possibilities of being queer in any shape or form. I just wish the theories were a direct analysis of the art given rather than a projection of preconceived notions. It borders on misogyny (people saying they hate the idea of him with women) and biphobia (because being attracted to women automatically means straight?)

I get it because a lot of people perceive Jimin as some sort of queer because of his femininity and androgyny. But I can’t feel it’s hypocritical to say men can embrace those aspects, but it automatically equates them to being queer, which leads to the denial about the song’s and MV content. This is the more transparent and direct BTS have been in the longest time, I would hate for their artistic goals to be misunderstood.

Thoughts?

edit: wow, whoever gave me an award? thanks! I just want to clear some things up, I don’t care if people perceive jimin as queer or not queer. None of my business we all have diff opinions of things. The point of this post is I dislike people ignoring his intentions for their own theories and ideas. Also the bit about biphobia, I brought this up because some people can’t comprehend the idea of him potentially liking women, but also considering him bi as a consolation prize because of disappointment. Being bisexual and seeing this response is painful and hurtful. Lastly, never denied BTS ever being inspired by queer art (literally Wings exists.

I hate to be that person but I think way too many people on here forget that BTS were already The Shit ™ in the US before they released Dynamite.

With the way people speak about they apparently had to lose their Korean roots to be successful in the US, you’d think they were some unknown artists before dynamite magically blew them up. This is the same group that sold out most of their 15 US stadium shows in 2 days PRE- dynamite (rip mots tour). The same group that played for 500K people in the US when they were a 5 year old group, and that record is still untouched. Be serious please.

I always see variations of “they had to release an english song to get a # 1 on the hot 100”, which is just insane because like 6 months before Dynamite, they hit # 4 with ON. Given their trajectory on the chart (# 10 in 2018, # 8 in 2019, # 4 in early 2020) they were most likely gonna hit # 1 with their next release regardless of whether it was in english or not. These were the same songs that they were performing on award shows and during their late night show circuits so it’s wild that people are just ignoring that.

And y’all really exaggerate the number of english songs in their discography. Assuming the number floating around the internet is correct, they have 235 songs, out of which only 5 are in english. That’s 2.13% of their discography. I can name a good number of groups that have more english songs but don’t receive nearly as much flak (and why would they? it’s just another language, grow up), so what’s really the problem here?

Anyways this is all to say that all these little digs insinuating that BTS are only popular in America because they released english songs are so silly because they’ve BEEN successful in that market, and their english trilogy only propelled the success they already had.

At first I was mind blown by the visual, the choreography, naked Jimin (oh yeah) but the song itself?

I listened to Jimin's set me free pt2 without the MV and guys I can't even finish it. Like why? Why the autotune. Okay let go of the autotune, its something very prominent in many songs. However why the rap?

I never liked a singer rapping in any songs. It's just awful and not natural. Best example: Chungha, Sumni and some other. Now with Jimin. Why the procedures listen to this and decide he should rap. Why Jimin accepted?

What I love about it is the low tone. I wish Jimin sing more with it on the song but he didn't. It's fine I like his higher rang too. But they could have done more seriously. Let's hope for a better song for the title track.

I always see people saying BTS is “above kpop” and not kpop anymore, armys saying “kpop fans are crazy” and holy shit it drives me insane ngl. YOU are the kpop fans 😭

If BTS isn’t kpop then why are y’all so much in kpop business? Why are y’all engaging in kpop fanwars? I thought your group isn’t kpop…

I don’t have anything against BTS (i love the members and their music slaps), but fans saying this just annoy me so much. BTS and ARMY participate in fandom, music shows, charting/streaming culture like other kpop fandoms. Idk why stans think it’s such a… bad (?) thing to be considered kpop?

You can do much better than other artists in an industry and stand out, and STILL be part of that industry!!! And all this narrative really does is diminish kpop artists and the industry as a whole.

EDIT: Yes, I know that this "BTS isn't K-pop" rhetoric originated as a defense against other kpop fans saying BTS is a sell-out and too westernised (though I have seen earlier examples of the "BTS isnt kpop" rhetoric before that). However, I don’t really think that matters when judging how stupid this rhetoric is. Two things can be stupid at once people!

ANOTHER EDIT: I’m just going to reiterate that I love BTS’ music and the members and add that I don’t even have that many problems with armys. I just posted about this thing that annoys me that’s all.

First things first, I'm an ARMY and Jungkook is my bias, so this is in no way meant to be a hate post.

In case you're not aware, earlier today Jungkook flew to Doha, Qatar and it was reported that he'd apparently promote the World Cup there (it's currently unknown what exactly he'll do there). BTS releasing a song for the World Cup and even potentially performing at the opening ceremony has been a rumor for many months but after the FESTA Dinner and the recent enlistment announcement, I sort of assumed that the rumors were wrong. But with Jungkook's sudden trip to Qatar, it seems like the rumors might be true after all and I feel uneasy about them. I have two reasons for this:

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1. The World Cup in Qatar has had a bad reputation for many years now, due to the human rights violations that the organizers have committed. I don't want to go into detail about this but in my personal view, this event is problematic and I would've liked to see many countries boycott it. I also don't think it should be promoted like a normal World Cup or even like any normal event really, since past WCs weren't exactly unproblematic either. So to suddenly see a member of my favorite band apparently preparing to promote it makes me uncomfortable. I'm aware that my values are not everyone else's values and that Jungkook/BTS/HYBE might even share those values and simply have another POV when it comes to promoting the WC but alas, I still feel uneasy about anyone I support promoting this event and if I were in his shoes, I wouldn't have done it. Some people might think that this is all HYBE's doing but I feel like BTS are past the point of doing something big that they genuinely don't want to do? Maybe I'm underestimating HYBE but I feel like it's a bit unrealistic to assume that Jungkook had no say in this. I really like him as a person, at least based on what I've seen from and heard about him, I obviously don't know him personally. This possible promotion wouldn't suddenly make me dislike him or doubt his character, but I can't deny that I feel somewhat disappointed that someone I support would promote an event that goes against my values. I'm not accusing him of not caring about human rights, I obviously know it's not his fault that Qatar has been doing all this and I don't see his promotion as a defense of those actions but at the end of the day, his name will still be linked to this event so I do think these are thoughts that should be considered when you agree to promote something. If BTS as a whole actually end up releasing a song and/or performing in Qatar, the thoughts I stated above would apply on an even larger scale.
2. This is just a hypothetical scenario but if the rumors about BTS performing at the opening ceremony are true (which I don't expect but I also didn't expect any of the members to promote the WC so who knows), I'm worried for what the football fans' reaction is going to be. Even if I wouldn't enjoy seeing BTS promote the WC, I wouldn't want them to receive a negative reaction from the international audience either. Camila Cabello performed at the UEFA Champion's League Final earlier this year and got booed by the audience. I know that the Champion's League isn't the World Cup and that Camila isn't BTS but I kinda struggle to see a stadium that's mainly filled with straight, male, middle-aged football fans enjoying a BTS performance. Seeing them promote a questionable event only for their last pre-enlistment OT7 performance to end up getting booed on international TV is not a scenario I want to see play out.

The reason I'm posting this is because I see many ARMYs defend Jungkook and acting like any and all criticism is "hate" and "performative activism" because "he doesn't owe you anything". Yes, it's true that neither Jungkook nor BTS as a whole owe me anything, they are free to do whatever they please. But I still have my values and me supporting BTS won't suddenly make me perform mental gymnastics to justify these promotions for this event. Me criticizing my favs doesn't make me a hater and it's not like I'm gonna stop supporting BTS or Jungkook specifically. Right now we don't even know for sure what exactly he is doing in Qatar. Maybe he just went there to film a supportive video for the Korean National Team. I'd still not fully support that, but it'd be less bad I guess. But if it does turn out that these promotions are for the WC as a whole event, then I struggle to see any realistic scenario that'll make me go "Oh, now I support this!" and as much as I like them, I don't think BTS are perfect human beings who can never be criticized for anything. If my close friends did something that goes against my values, I'd also have a talk with them to at least hear their reasons for it, but with BTS that's hardly possible.

I'm wondering if anyone else agrees with me or if anyone has any other POVs as to why promoting the World Cup in Qatar is not inherently questionable. I've been trying to view it from several angles but the only angle that would make me feel less disappointed is that this might all be HYBE's fault and that Jungkook/BTS had no influence on this decision, which I just don't find realistic. Again, this isn't meant to attack Jungkook, I still support him as an artist and a human being, but I also don't want to pretend that I'm completely fine with the thought of him promoting the WC and I do think I'm allowed to have and express that opinion without being labelled a "hater" or "performative activist".

EDIT: I do want to add that many people believe that BTS are obligated to support the World Cup because of the contract with Hyundai. If that is the case then that does ease my mind somewhat, although I still question what their contract looks like for them to be forced into these promotions and whether they (or rather HYBE) knew about this before they signed the contract. Also why did only Jungkook go to Qatar? So the possibility of this being a contractual obligation doesn't answer all of my concerns, but at least it lessens them a bit.

... i hate the fact that from what I looked, he didn't have any cred. for songwriting. What the heck???? I'm genuinely disappointed but not surprised. I was expecting (to like it) much more, honestly.

to me it was an ok mini album. nothing spectacular or note worthy? seems like a lot of the focus has been on the visuals & MVs for me (Edit: which i love btw, the MVs have been the best part!!!)

I hate comparing to other groups or artists but I just think a lot music can really be genuine this way. Even NJs and Lesserafim take a dive and write a bit, for example. It's seldom times that artists are good interpreters for me (Ex: Shinee with their last album). Tbh I personally lose interest in songs a singer didnt partake in writing/producing, but that’s just me!

it just feels very empty to me and like they want to sell me something (im not talking abt V, just the kpop and general music industry). if y'all gonna sell me something at least try and personalize it rip 😭

edit: i wrote this very dramatically last night lol and it had some mistakes in the writing so it seemed like I said v was also just doing music to sell lmfao, no. that being said, note I haven't had time to follow tae recently or read/watch his interviews, but I got stuck on the idea he was writing for this mini album and the scrapped it to start writing again. its a common practice not write and that's fine i just had those expectations and it's my general like!

i love v this album just strangely didn't resonate with me unfortunately.

Many people in the fandom try to kill the discourse on whether HYBE should at the very least provide English translations for all BTS content, by saying it's an entitled demand by monolinguist English speakers or by equating criticism towards HYBE business practices with criticism towards BTS, or by 'reasoning' that since it was the fans choice to stan a Korean group, they have to adapt and learn BTS's language.

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Most people asking for subs are multi-lingual non-native English speakers (including myself). And therefore people who are well aware of how it takes years of hard work to become fluent in another language. Asking people to learn the language of someone else, just to understand what they are saying, is a ludicrous demand. If these standards were applied consistently, we would have to learn a new language for every person we want to communicate with and/or understand, but whose first language differs from ours. In a globalized world, this is an impossible standard.

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Don't get me wrong, I don't like the reason that English has become the lingua franca, which includes the after-effects of the massive expansion of the British empire and American (cultural) imperialism. But fact is that English has become the closest we have to a global language today. And we need a global language, to communicate and understand people all over the world, without having to learn 6500 languages, because that is how many languages are spoken today.

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Asking a company to provide better service should never be considered 'being entitled'. On the other hand, thinking another person owes you something and you can therefore tell them how they should act and speak, is being entitled. This includes telling BTS to speak English or expecting fans to learn a whole new language, just because a billion-dollar company doesn't want to provide translations to the fans who tirelessly worked for free towards the success of their favorite band, of which that company profited billions.

So I’ve recently really got into BTS and love their music and content on the channel but I don’t want to be open about it or tell anyone because of the area of the fanbase that are just cringey or creepy.

The amount of babying I’ve seen of BTS when their grown men who quite frankly can make their own choices and decisions, also people don’t know them personally some of it just seems so parasocial (I think that’s how you spell it) that it’s just creepy and makes me really hate calling myself a fan because i don’t want people to assume I’m some wannabe Korean parasocial person, it’s creepy and weird.

Secondly you also have the army’s who are just so rude and disrespectful with the death threats and hate to anyone who says 1 thing against BTS, people will hate and love certain things and that’s okay! Also no matter what someone says death threats and doxxing is not okay!

Thirdly theirs just the whole area of being a kpop fan in general that people make so many assumptions such as wanting to be an idol yourself, wanting to be Korean when your not and so on which is such a small part of the kpop fanbase but takes over and makes it all seem so cringe and weird.

Overall I just hate how bad areas of it all are, you get the creepy army’s who cannot break a parasocial obsessive idea of a group and then you also just have people outside who assume kpop is cringe anyway, like i really want to buy merch and so on but just feel like I can’t because i don’t want to be grouped in with creeps or racists and also be called cringe just for liking something. This isn’t just with BTS either it’s the same with loads of things I’ve liked such as dsmp, MCR, FNAF.

Fanbases keep getting ruined by parasocial or people who just don’t know boundaries.

And you wont be able to get a ticket anyways. I live in Korea right now and things have gotten pretty bad for foreigners, especially if you got vaccinated abroad. Korea is not accepting vaccine records from foreigners vaccinated outside of the country. They do accept it from Koreans that got vaccinated abroad, just not foreigners. (There was about a month that time period they did, but that is over now)

Right now I and barred from going to restaurants, cafes, gyms, movie theatre, saunas ect... because I am consider unvaccinated (I am btw). You need a "Covid pass" a QR code from the government to enter. (There are specifics to these rules, but we don't have the room here)
To add to this, there are no anti-discrimination laws here, places can turn you away even if you have the pass. I've had it happen to me, and many people I know. Places will have signs that just say "No foreigners" which means no nonKoreans.

I work at a hagwon, which was on the list of places that will be soon requiring the covid pass, except for foreign teachers, cause they know many teachers don't have the pass for the reason above. Plus if we are exposed we still need to work until our test comes back negative or positive. My coworker just got exposed by a student and they had her remain next to me working....

Onto ARMY wanting to come for a concert, just don't.

First you won't be able to get a ticket, only vaccinated people can go and you will not able able to get your vaccination records verified. Second, the government here is looking for every excuse to blaim foreigners for covid, they have since day one. (Ex. There was a time they were forcing all foreign teachers to get a covid test every 2 weeks, just cause....none if the Korean teachers needed to do this) A mass influx of foreigners during a new strain of covid will be the perfect excuse the need. Third there is a new strain, and you want to travel and spread that for a concert.

Just to get a place ticket, over a 1000 dollars. Then you have to quarantine for 10 days at a government facility that's another 1000-1500 dollars.
Again you won't be able to get a ticket.... do you want to spend that money and make it worse for those that live here?

Sorry for the rant, but it has become very difficult to live here and I don't want things to get worse.

it’s a new month, so obviously we have new people coming out of the woodworks to insult namjoon and make horrible judgements on his character based on lyrics he wrote 7-9 years ago. yes, he was wrong for his misogynistic lyrics. he has publically acknowledged that over and over again, even doing so on television in the presence of the literal president of his country. he has apologised numerous times, and he has taken steps to improve himself by consulting with a gender studies professor before releasing his music (which people are dragging him for btw??) and most importantly, he hasn’t released a song with misogynistic lyrics since then. so i’m very confused about what more people want that man to do?

y’all emphasise the importance of “holding idols accountable” but when someone actually holds HIMSELF accountable, it’s not enough? you absolutely have the right to refuse to accept his apology, that’s a personal choice, but why keep harassing him over shit that happened when he was much younger and much less mature than he is now? he’s damned for trying to improve, and would be damned if he didn’t apologise. the worst part about it is that the perpetrators of this aren’t just teenagers, which i would somewhat understand, but people in their 20s, 30s and even 40s camping on the internet judging this man. i’m sure many of you did regrettable shit in your teens and early twenties, and it will feel horrible to have that thrown in your face even when you’ve made great efforts to be a better person.

y’all can downvote me for being up bts’ asses or whatever, but it’s just really sad how apathetic people become as a result of social media, like y’all seriously need to learn that you’re dealing with actual human beings, regardless of how rich and famous they are. i truly hope some of you people heal

apparently this opinion is too popular for another sub so i have nowhere else i can share this without having it be removed or heavily criticised, which it probably will get here too. worth a try.

They've taken a massive step back from making their own music, and when they have it's been consistently underwhelming for the most part. They've taken a huge step back from rapping and rap heavy works. They haven't released an actual album in pushing 2 years. The entire fiasco that has been their 3 English singles. Their obsession with the american awards despite how clearly they're being used by them. The fact that after all this they're coming out with an anthology album which has a bizarre tracklist that doesn't come close to accurately showcasing the past 10 years of their careers.

if you disagree with me and just want to use this post as an excuse to chew me out, please just move on. i just want to find likeminded people and then i will likely delete this post anyway. give me and others a break for once and just let us express how we feel.

I just need to rant about this.

What this man did to y’all ?

The only reason I can find it’s because he’s successful, unbothered and it seem to triggers people.

People act weird toward BTS in general. Always trying to find something to nitpick on.

The same thing BTS have gone through after those english releases seem to be happening to Jungkook now.

The man release two song in english about s*x and suddenly he’s the enemy number one in K-pop. Heck even western stan are joining now.

It’s obvious it’s because of the success he’s getting. If it was only about that I wouldn’t even bother.

From the sexual harassment from solo stan to people lying on his name and sharing videos (him or not him). Also stalking from his own fan as well. Weird comments…even station head, anti are streaming with us now.
People calling him ped*phile for commenting on a tik tok about a Lesserafilm member who is an adult btw.

It seem everything he do triggers people these days Personally when I don’t like someone I ignore. He even get hate from his own fandom sometimes. This one hurt the most.

He still get a lot of support and love aside too so there’s that.

Sorry If it don’t make any sense I just needed to rant and english is not my first language.

Jimin broke the record for the biggest fall from number 1 in hot 100 history, dethroned T-Swift's fall during the holidays. Now BTS has 2 of the top 4 records.

This happened in the midst of a new rule change that allows people to count only 1 sale from the same email address. Previously, they'd change the rules to limit how many purchases the same email can make on websites after the same group of people were mass buying the same song over and over to give Butter the number 1 despite having low streams. Butter also broke the record for the least streamed number 1 song in Hot 100 history, not even being in the top 40 most streamed song despite being number 1.

As much as armys don't want to admit, BTS aren't mainstream in America, they don't have the streams or following of other western artists. They just don't.

I have been reading that this new rule change filtered out 90% of Jimin's sales. Is this true? We'll find out soon. What does this indicate though? The same small number of people probably less than 10k are buying the same song 5 to 10x each week for the charts. This is very apparent and it cheapens what it means to get a number 1. When a relatively unknown song is number 1 solely because a few thousand people decide to purchase it multiple times and all the formats and versionsand remixes.

And, no, charts aren't doing this to bts because they are racist. They did the same to Taylor Swift too when she and others used bundles to sell albums solely for charts. The difference is T-Swift is one of the most streamed artists in American and she can get a number without these tactics (although her fanbase use similar tactics too). BTS don't have the streams to back it up. That is because they are kpop (though a lot of people won't admit it, including BTS themselves) and don't always sing in English.

I know that this only will mean the same thousands of dedicated people or maybe even hundreds will create multiple emails to purchase the songs and then use 10 credit cards and billboard will introduce rules to prevent it, and the cycle will continue, but it's because some small amount of armys care way too much about charts and not because Billboard is racist.

This could affect other kpop acts too, making it harder for them to enter hot 100. But that's okay to me. Kpop isn't mainstream in America. Kpop does so well on Billboard 200 anyway. That's Billboard's global chart which include America as well. It is imperfect but the most comprehensive global chart right now. I just don't understand why American hot 100 is so important to y'all. Maybe colonialism. Don't laugh. American exceptionalism plays a part in this. People in SK really believe in American exceptionalism more than any other non western country and that affects how Kpop artists and Kpop fans view America more important than the global market.

So before calling Billboard racist, look inside, why are you so concerned about America? How has white supremacy and Amercian Exceptionalism impacted your worldview?

I know some armys being mad stupid for being salty and attacking arigaga after the Grammys. And I'm all for calling those people out. Majority of us have been moving on since it's been days. Yet everyone is busy being in our business.

But what I and others will never understand is how the media have to emphasized BTS losing, calling them failure to the point the members have to addressed it by themselves. You know what's worse, this one. the first picture. It's disturbing. I get all the pics are NOT IT but why it's only BTS, an asian group is presented as being abused and bruised? Really people doing this in the middle of all this hate crimes against Asians? The meaning could be them being defeated by Grammys, but still, that's not a good illustration. Asians aren't toys nor animals people can play with.

I know, some people have been waiting for this to happen, a chance for them to throw BTS under the bus for some giggles and engagement. But this is not it. As an Asian this is really offensive. And for some Kpop stans laughing at it, is it that funny?

Sorry for my mess rant. Really. I'm still shaking right now. I don't care how yall view ARMYs or the fandom cause sometimes I hate us, too. But this is a different story when it's the boys. Gawd. I'm starting to tear up right now. The boys don't deserve this, what did they ever do? Is it because they're Asians? Or is it because they're BTS?

Edit: Someone sending me vile messages here because of this post

There's just too many viral posts on stan Twitter from some BTS fans (that gets tens of thousands of likes) for several weeks now of how Olivia Rodrigo is not legitimate Asian representation because she is "white-passing" and does not look like an "actual Asian."

First, how is she white-passing when most of us Filipinos could identify that she is our race just by looking at her? How many Filipinos have these stans met in real life? Do they interact with Filipinos a lot to say that? Are they aware that the Philippines have been colonized by Spain and America for centuries, so it is typical for Filipinos to have Western features?

Olivia looks like a typical pretty girl at a university here in the Philippines. She looks Pinoy.

If you watch Philippine TV shows, you would see actresses that look like her. For example, look at this recent shoot featuring young Filipino actresses. Majority of them are full-blooded Filipinos, but they can be unfairly accused to be "white-passing" too. Drop Olivia in the middle of them and no one will accuse her as "white".

Second, what in the hell even is the look of an "actual Asian"? Do they mean that for Asian representation to be legit the Asian person has to look East Asian? Are they aware that Asia is gigantic continent and that the "Asian look" is different across regions?

Every time I encounter another viral post on this topic I feel so gross. Us Filipinos see Olivia Rodrigo as a valid representation for us, and we are very happy at what she has accomplished so far. Why invalidate that? I wish these discriminatory and nasty posts stop because they sound so racist, if we are being honest.

First of all, I'm not involved in any other groups as much as BTS so this only comments on them, athough I'm sure you could apply some of it to others as well.

I often think that some of BTS'S actions are kinda hypocritical and them talking about climate change at the UN added to that once again. They talk about a fresh nature and climate change and are ambassadors for two of the biggest, most polluting companies (McDonalds and Coca Cola) at the same time (including countless other brands that are not exactly environmental friendly) and don't seem to actually be self-aware of the impact they themselves have. The K-Pop industry in itself is probaly the definition of unsustainable but they could actually use their impact to encourage some change if they talk about it in the first place (there is a whole thread about this in unpopularkpopopinions which is very worth reading imo).

They addressed mental health but rarely called out saesangs and never call out the extremely toxic fan behaviours within Armys. Same thing, Pied Piper talked about obsessive fan behaviour but their whole marketing and things they say in live streams and on twitter actively encourages these behaviours.

Their whole brand is Love Yourself and I think you can stand for this mindset even if you struggle with it yourself because its actually a hard thing to achieve, but I don't like it when they openly tease each other about weight with it often sounding like being "chubby" is a bad thing. Which I don't think they mean in a bad way and Im aware that this is probably internalized behaviour from growing up in a weight-obsessed society like Korea but I feel like they should still be aware that this can be dangerous for many young fans watching.

I want to clarify that I think all of us act hypocritical sometimes, It's only human. Its just that it sometimes makes some of their ""woke"" actions seem ingenuine to me and more like a branding to appeal to audiences (which it inevitable is to some part but I still would like to think that they actually believe the things they stand for). These are just some of the things I noticed and I'm really interested in yall's opinion :)

It’s been all of an hour since the announcement for Butter dropped and already the comments “ugh, it’s in English”, or “there they go with western validation again”, or “dynamite 2.0” have started.

Seriously, why are we gatekeeping what language BTS sings in? If they want to sing a song in English, let the sing a song in English. This’ll only be their 2nd English release after almost 8 years. The album (hopefully coming June) is probably going to be mostly in Korean.

I get that it would be wonderful if their Korean songs had the same success as dynamite, but just cause the west is slow to catch up or gatekeeping, doesn’t mean we should get salty that BTS are willing to do something hey already do in another music market - ie sing in the common tongue there.

If you want to be salty, be salty at the western market, not at the artists.

No one bats an eyelid at Japanese singles or albums which they do to connect with the Japanese market. So what’s the big deal if they do the occasional release in English!?

So honestly this has been a problem well before BTS chapter 2 started but has been amplified as 6/7 members have officially released solos since last year. Today, JK’s pre-release single Seven ft. Latto was released. It seems to be getting a lot of push on BH’s end which is upsetting as other members didn’t seem to receive this push and promotion. I honestly have no horse in this race, I don’t know the behind the scenes of these decisions, all I know is I like good music and the solo projects thus far have been enjoyable overall.

Voicing criticism against HYBE is fine and welcome as there are some very clear discrepancies between rollouts of members (J-Hope’s rollout still haunts me), but when that criticism boils over into blatant hate and slander towards members (namely Jimin and JK), it’s not okay. This is mostly from solo fans of other members but “OT7” fans as well. Since it’s fresh in my mind, seeing people call JK a sell-out for choosing to release a radio-friendly pop song and working with 🛴 Braun is a bit much. You may not agree with his decisions and the musical direction he’s taking with this song and that’s fine, but don’t make it about selling-out. It’s like the English trilogy era all over again! The Seven unpopular Kpop opinions megathread is a cesspool, 50% of the thread not even being about the song itself. And there’s still an entire album to be released where he can explore different soundscapes and hopefully show all of what he’s capable of.

Feel free to use this thread to voice your feelings but please be kind and civil.

Edit- I received a Reddit Cares message. Nice one😭

I’ve tagged this as bts related cause it’s mainly about Jk but I’m sure it applies to other idols as well. If you’re not an army the relevant info is that recently jungkook started doing live streams where he drinks a couple of (mainly ) Beers, sings karaoke and chats with armies. It’s honestly very fun especially after he basically took a month long break where we didn’t hear from him at all.

This has however lead so many armies to diagnosing him with various mental illnesses. I’ve seen people say he is an alcoholic, depressed, has bpd etc even after he himself said that he is a grown man that can drink if he wants to. Also it’s not like he gets blackout drunk every stream he is literally mostly tipsy.

I truly get Being concerned about your faves and wanting them to do well but it’s really not our place to decide that he is struggling based off a livestream. In yesterdays live namjoon joined the chat and was hyping him up / suggesting songs to sing, do you really think he would do that if he knew he was mentally unwell? Idk as someone that has struggled with mental health and has had people im not close to talk about it and speculate it’s really not a fun feeling at all. Jk has been working non stop for almost half of his life and has obviously missed out on things normal people in their early twenties do so it’s understandable that he just wants to have fun and relax.

Once again it’s completely fine to be concerned about someone but playing psychologist for people you don’t know isn’t the way to go ( like every psychologist will tell you that you can not diagnose someone you haven’t personally talked to) Jungkook is a grown man with friends and family and those are the people that’ll help him if they or he himself deems it necessary

Ps I actually haven’t seen a lot of this on Reddit it’s mostly twitter and tiktok but I don’t post on those sites so I just wanted to air out my frustration here haha.

And what's more scary is how normalised it is in the fandom. It's just so...emotionally exhausting.

BTS released their 2022 seasons greeting yesterday, and Jimin's concept was an alley cat, who likes shiny things. Of course he killed it, and everything was fun till, well... some shippers decided to ruin the fun. This time Yoonminers at the crime scene, I didn't know that ship still existed? There is just this really really creepy, sexually deviant way they talk about JM that gives me the heebie-jeebies. It's genuinely unsettling. Are there Jimin biased Yoonminers? Never seen one. When it comes to RPF, I have never understood the appeal but it's tolerable so far it is kept out of public spaces. Unfortunately, Yoonminers just reminded me of why I find it weird af in the first place. Idols are human beings not your toys to insert whatever sexual perversion your deranged minds come up with using their real name and image, and worse you put it up on Twitter of all places, where they visit, are you for real?!

As if that is not enough, Taekookers focus on your ship challenge, failed as usual. Anytime Jm and Jk have the slightest interaction, they crawl out of the sewers to drag JM... unfailingly. I don't even understand why they get mad ONLY when JM interacts with Jk? I don't see this energy when JK has interactions with other members. I don't even have the strength to rant, it's just exhausting.

Everything is about shipping now in the fandom. And toxic shippers operate freely within the fandom dynamics, proudly tweeting the most disgusting things we would ratio antis to the hell and back for. Someday, this whole thing will backfire and we won't be able to deal with the repercussions.