Here’s an open secret: society doesn’t like teenage girls and the things that they’re interested in. If you need proof of that, just rewind the little clock in your brain to the far back year of 2008. Justin Bieber was fresh on the scene, Twilight was digging it’s fangs into the cultural consciousness, and One Direction were reminding us that we were sexy (but only as long as we weren’t aware of it, because women being confident about their looks is a turn off for some reason…but I digress).
Problematic aspects of the respective pop culture phenomenons aside, all three things had two things in common: they were widely loved by mostly young girls, and the general public had a huge issue with this. “They’re rotting the minds of our youth”, they said (dramatically). “They lack any type of substance”, they said (pretentiously). “It’s just really gay lol”, they tweeted (homophobically).
It’s been years since I’ve been that invested in an artist’s work, but when I look at the way people discuss K-pop and the people who enjoy it, I feel a sense of deja vu. Especially when it comes to BTS, arguably the most prominent and globally successful K-pop group in history. Despite the language difference, the music is literally designed to be appealing to most audiences. Most K-pop acts will blend up to four or five genres of music in one song, though the main sonic influences for most groups are hip-hop and dance-pop.
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Just last summer, you couldn’t escape BTS’ Dynamite, and that’s not even their first song to have that kind of mainstream appeal. Despite the fact that most people can admit that BTS makes good music, their fans- known as “ARMY” – are still viewed as hysterical girls who just want to see pretty boys sing silly love songs. From conversations I had with Nigerian ARMY, I found that the appeal of the group was a lot deeper than that.
Firstly, unlike a lot of pop acts, BTS (comprised of seven members: Jimin, RM, Jin, J-hope, Suga, Taehyung and Jungkook) has a very politically charged message. They have their fair share of songs about love and partying, but those kinds of songs are actually a departure from their usual style. “They make music about standing up to authority, about how younger generations are carrying the weight of previous generations’ mistakes…” said Jennie*, a 23-year-old Nigerian ARMY. “They use hip-hop to deliver the message, so you enjoy the music and the beat and then when you look into the lyrics you can see how deep it is”.
When asked why a group that performs most of their songs in Korean would appeal to young Nigerian women, I received similar answers. “They just make really good music”, said Jennie. “A lot of their music is uploaded on Youtube with the lyrics in English, so non-Korean fans can appreciate the message, but it goes past the language thing…”.
A close second to their appeal is the community aspect. ARMY is a global phenomenon, with fans from all over the world coming together (mostly on social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok) to share their love for the group with each other. “It was around last November that I found other ARMY’s on Twitter…” said Duke. “At first I was overwhelmed, but then I got comfortable, and that’s where I found a lot of queer Nigerian ARMY. Some of us are non-binary, some are bisexual”.
In fan spaces, people like Duke have found a safe space to share not only their love of music but also their experiences as queer Nigerians. According to Uche (who identifies as a cis-woman), there’s also comfort in being around other Nigerian women who have such a niche interest. “There are a lot of Nigerian women who are ARMY,” she said. “I didn’t realize this until last year…I recently joined an ARMY group for Nigerians and they’ve been super supportive…I wish I’d joined sooner”.
A lot of people write female and queer stans off, but ARMY have been able to do incredible some incredible things, both in the name of and with the support of their idols. Just last year, at the height of the protests in America against police brutality, BTS donated a million dollars to the Black Lives Matter organization. In just 48 hours, through collective donations, ARMY all over the world were able to surpass that donation by about two hundred thousand dollars. “ARMY is well connected”, said Jennie. “We’re probably the most well-connected fandom. We organized the hashtag #BlackOUTBTS last year to highlight Black ARMY who are sometimes neglected in the fandom, even though we make up a large population of fans. We were top of the trending topics for at least two days”.
Within Nigerian ARMY spaces, mutual aid is also very important. “We have a specific Instagram page for Nigerian BTS fans, and we organize for every comeback. We raise funds so that everybody can have a Spotify account, or somebody might make a Spotify family account so that up to 6 other ARMY can join their plan for free. It’s the same for Apple Music. For Butter (the most recent comeback single from BTS), we raised about 50,000 naira. Even during the End SARS protests, we came together to raise funds”.
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Organizing and fundraising within the K-pop community (and specifically BTS fans) seems to be second nature and is as important to fans as analyzing music videos and making photocards. The general public seems to either be unaware of this fact or willfully ignorant of how much deeper this goes than a simple enjoyment of fun music and pretty boys. For Nigerian ARMY especially, the responses they receive from non K-pop fans ranges from confusion to outright hostility, fueled by a toxic mixture of sexism and nationalism. “So many Nigerian men come on Twitter and say stuff like, ‘why are you following those *insert racist term for East Asians*?’ or ‘Why don’t you follow Nigerian artists like that’”.
Despite this hostility, sometimes from even within the fandom, for Nigerian ARMY the sense of community is worth it in the end. “Weird reactions are a given because they don’t understand why we love this group the way we do.” said Jennie. “They feel we’re just being too much…but we just come together to express our love for the music. We support each other as women and queer Nigerians, listen to each others stories, and provide solice. It’s awesome.”
