Okay, lets talk more about the bond between artist and fan - specifically privacy and boundaries. This is a really interesting topic as kpop idols set their boundaries very differently depending on their personal preferences - some share almost everything about themselves while others have very strict boundaries between their professional identity and their personal identity. As an ARMY this along with many other topics is always fascinating to discuss as the Bangtan Boys also continue to set new standards in this arena - namely JK going live at 4 AM without notifying any managers. Now I haven't double-checked, but it seemed unprecedented within the industry when he did this last year - I definitely saw the Seventeen boys discussing this in shock and Mingyu laughing at JK in disbelief.
When talking about privacy towards fans and the public, I would divide it into three categories: social media (including live streams), private homes and information shared through conversation/interviews.
With the era of smartphones and the internet, we are all facing this question of how much to share online. I remember when my generation used to post all sorts of personal non-filtered photos on facebook. It used to be a tradition that you'd post an ugly/weird-looking photo of your friend on their birthday as a joke. But things quickly changed, now you rarely see people posting intentionally weird or ugly-looking photos on social media. Instagram became a place of filters where perfection thrives and nice flawless-looking skin gets thousands of likes - though I'm starting to see the opposite happen too. It's almost like we've seen our fair share of perfect food shots and perfect holidays and whatnot, and now we want authenticity: what do new sleep-deprived parents actually look like two months in? what do beauty influencers actually properly look like without products on their face? This is what we want. We don't want to see a baby sleeping peacefully in a cot with the dad all proud and joyful on the side. We want the nitty-gritty! This is the actual superpower of social media! It's not perfecting images on our phone and then sharing them with the world for everyone to get wildly jalous, though of course we enjoy that too. No, it's for everyone to realise that they are not alone in their struggling - whatever struggle that might be. Life is really properly hard and ridiculous sometimes, but it always helps to know that your neighboor or even a mum on the other side of the planet is going through the same as you. Humans need humans. We know this. We are social creatures and so we need affirmation. That's just how goes.
Anyway, back to my purpled world. Lets talk about the bangtan boys and how they navigate these boundaries.
Now, I've had this thought ever since I was baby-ARMY (the period where I was getting to know them) - that the rapline shares a LOT of personal details with us through their lyrics. Coming from a hiphop background and being part of that underground community before stepping into the idol-spotlight, Namjoon and Yoongi had already been drawing from their own lives in their song writing. And Hobi quickly learned from the two of them, drawing inspiration from his own street dance background with the beats and rhythm. The idol industry typically does not require you to write your own songs, the label will have song writers attached or have partnered up with experienced writers and producers who undertakes this task. And then the idols will perform the songs given to them with a concept attached that runs through the choreography, fashion and staging. This of course has been challenged by many groups nowadays who does partake in writing and producing - but there's still plenty groups who does not have either writing or producing credits in their songs. And both of these have been normalised to the point that it doesn't necessarily need to be stated by the group themselves - as long as fans know the extend to which the group participates in the song making-process, that is usually all that matters to the members. But this is a tangent, sorry.
Point is that the bangtan rapline shares a lot of very personal thoughts and feelings through their lyrics, but you may be less likely to see them share the same personal details in conversations or through live streams. The opposite almost used to be the case with the vocal line, particularly the maknae line (Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook). Jin is sort of a category in and off himself, but I'll get to that. As the vocal line didn't used to write their own songs, they at most would be discussing the topic in detail of their solo songs with the credited writers - maybe adding certain words they wanted included (like Tae with Inner Child). But they weren't in quite the same position as the rapline. However if you go back and watch the live streams the maknae line used to do back in 2016/ 2017/ 2018, there's a lot of personal information getting shared with ARMY. It's almost fascinating to compare the tour lives they used to do with the solo lives we got last year in 2023. Now this bangtan era we're in currently is very unusual, as we're simultaneously seeing the boys' solo careers unfold while waiting for them to complete their military service one by one. So maybe a comparison isn't really fair. But you could see them changing and adjusting their behaviour according to the context and time period last year. While JK was very much breaking all the barriers he possibly could last year on his live streams (sleeping, cooking, house chores, boxing etc.), Tae seemed to be craving the connection with ARMY but didn't really know what to do once he went live and so often ended it after 5 minutes of greeting. Jimin being Jimin suddenly seemed nervous on live streams, and so he would either do an office live with a particular activity planned or hesitantly converse with ARMY from his house. None of their behaviour was strange or shoking to ARMY, but it was clear that with the adjusting of the exterior framework their live streams also became new spaces to navigate - which was interesting to observe.
I should mention though that once they feel confident in their role towards ARMY - and are also supported by their brothers, their live streams light up and they seem as casual and comfortable as ever (even in this Chapter 2-era). Their Busan live stream in October of 2022 was very much like that (JK, Jimin, Tae and Hobi). Joking around while sharing a bowl of ramyeon and looking as grateful as ever with the presence of soooo many ARMYs at their concert a couple of hours prior. THIS is the bangtan that we love the very most, although of course it would have been even better if the remaining three members were also there. You sense the very same sincerity that they emanate on stage - which is at the heart of anything and everything these guys do in the name of B T S. It is truly incredible how they're able to be this sincere with an audience of several millions on these live streams. And this feeling isn't lost when they do solo live streams, they may seem a little more awkward or guarded - but you know that the intent is genuine, you know that they randomly went live because they wanted to connect with us. And you know that they always try to answer the questions in the live chat as honestly as possible.
Right before they entered this era we're in now, which the boys like to refer to as "Chapter 2", they got their own individual instagram accounts. And during the covid years they bought their own places, which meant saying goodbye to 10+ years of living together in various dorms. Both of these were also new spaces to navigate in terms of the public/private debate. And again the members have dealt with these very differently. Hobi was the first to properly take to instagram - we all know he's obsessed with aesthetics and fashion and so it wasn't really a surprise to see him regularly upload his polaroid-styled posts. The remaining members seemed more hesitant with their posts, mainly sticking with the professionally taken concert shots - which nobody would ever question.
But slowly and surely Namjoon seemed to find his place on the platform too. He has had a particular interest in visual arts for a while and so he would post tons of photos of paintings and sculptures from recent museum visits. Soon there were articles going around of him being a new "art patron" as ARMY made sure that his posts were heavily liked and shared - getting the attention from various art institutions. This was another interesting development that I attempted to keep up with as baby-ARMY, the accounts were made in the beginning of 2022 and I started watching them in november of 2021. Namjoon's interest in visual arts had really started back in 2017 or 18 when they were touring the US and he suddenly decided to visit a museum in Chicago I believe (?). In this world he found refuge, encouragement and inspiration - just like he did (and still does) in the world of music. But unlike the music world he didn't have to compete or survey the industry in quite the same manner as you somewhat have to as a musician. He could let go of his jalousy and solely focus on the art before him. With my own interest and passion for the visual arts world this fact about Namjoon made me even more curious about him as a person. But I believe that it wasn't quite till he started explicitly supporting visual artists, galleries and museums that he started getting invited to exhibitions, art-centric podcasts and art fairs. Now two years later he has very much stuck to this "format" of sharing his museum visits, bike rides and temple visits. We all know that Namjoon is very fond of (and I believe very much in need of) a quiet and simple life style, when he is not touring around the world or making music in his studio. He has a brain that works faster than basically any human I've ever come across - he calculates everything and sees everything. This makes him an incredible leader both of BTS and of ARMY. But this is also a burden that he has to carry around. Being able to see everything is both a blessing and a curse. We know this to be the case of any extraordinary intellectual. If you then combine this aspect with a warm heart and a kindness that I continue to be equally as astonished by - you get this honestly ridiculously wonderful human that is Kim Namjoon. Why or how he decided to be an artist and not a scholar is really our luck. I have learned so many things from him already and I'm convinced that he'll continue to teach me things about life, that will help me on my own path forward and onwards..
It's very difficult not to talk more about the members when discussing this topic of private versus public spaces and how to navigate them in this day and age. But this post is already too long, so I'll continue in a another one.
BORAHAE 💜
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