Thread by @odettemarch

[THREAD] Fans Vs. Followers Part II:

Why Those Who Crave Pay0la-Based Clout Are Destroying Careers

First and foremost, if you missed Part I, you should definitely check that out first!

II. REMINDER: ARMY IS *EVERYWHERE*...AND THAT'S ON PURPOSE!

I previously wrote a #TinfoilHatTime thread where I predicted that BTS and ARMY were going to run into issues with the "Fake Internet."

In that thread, I observed that BTS's popularity and demand were easy to prove away from the increasingly fake Internet. And getting easier, not harder, to prove as time progressed.

Remember the sold-out stadium stops across the globe? Hell, BTS went on a STADIUM TOUR where multiple nights were not only sold out but there was MORE than enough tearful evidence that they could have sold out additional days and stops.

Consider that Hyundai, A MAJOR CAR COMPANY, saw a massive uptick in demand with car sales. Cars represent a major purchase, one that the average pre-teen can't afford.

Seriously, how many spokesmen do you know of that are out here selling out CARS?

BTS can bring famed locations in Western countries to complete standstills while not even being present...but nobody knows who they are?

BTS isn't known...but they're bringing populated areas to a standstill while not even being present...but they're totally anonymous?

Mmmhmm.

Now I'm sharing these receipts for a couple of reasons. First, I love seeing ARMY show up and show out. And second, to help people clear the air and stop breathing in all that gas(lighting).

ARMY has always had a real-world presence. We are a force on and offline.

I don't know if it's because some people are just joining us post-COVID or they're still hung up on the same emotional manipulations used against them by bullying K-pop stans but...these people have never had anything on us. Not our numbers. Not our spending.

We are everywhere. We KNOW we are everywhere because we are moving money in a manner that affects multiple industries.

Why do y'all think McDonald's, Hyundai, Louis Vuitton, and the entire marketing world go running after BTS in the middle of the night in their underwear?

ARMY, we have more than enough receipts that BTS is the biggest and most influential group in the world right now. Despite what some have claimed, they are beyond social media. And the music industry. So-called kingmakers can't get in the way anymore.

Now, because ARMY and BTS are beyond the power of industry gatekeepers and treachery, it means we can make our own path. And it means that casual social media followers masquerading as stans can't follow us. I mean they can loudly observe from Twitter...but they can't follow us.

A major, likely unintended consequence of music media talking heads and pressed social media stans being all in our business is that they already let slip that ARMY do not need industry antics to get #1; we had the power to do so.

And it's knowledge that we ran with.

III. FVCKED AROUND, FOUND OUT

I guess it's preaching to the choir at this point, but I suspect certain people severely underestimated how ARMY would react when radi0 ignored "ON" and our streams were discounted by BB without any explanation.

And yes, I'm still pissed. Speaking for myself, I always will be.

I think that there was an expectation that we would see "ON" as the peak. We would accept BTS's "place" and not go any further. Because we would, somehow, understand that we didn't get to decide how high BTS could climb.

Hmm, I guess that really was our villain origin story.

I actually view the shady shenanigans with "ON" as the catalyst for what followed. And by "what followed" I mean ARMY stomping all over Billboard and holding BTS at the top of the Hot 100 charts for weeks and later months at a time.

Viral songs and industry 🌱 be damned.

All of this was possible because, at our core, ARMY is an active, evolving, problem-solving fandom. That is, we look at problems and members of the fandom will emerge with solutions that are ultimately streamlined into successes.

What they expected was a fandom that would be limited to social media tantrums and hashtags. What they got was a fandom that takes fcking over our faves VERY damn personally.

(We also turn into happy gelatinous crybabies who make seal noises when our actions make BTS happy.)

^^^
Or maybe that's just me. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Continuing!

It's not just that ARMY is tired of being fvcked with by members of an Industry that is substituting genuine star power with internally crowd-funding a rigged system.

We're tired and we're not afraid to fight back any way we can. And we give zero fvcks what bystanders think.

We're not perfect, but we're dauntless. Even if things don't go our way today, we are not afraid to try again tomorrow. And the next day.

...And the next day...

Not only did the industry fvck around and find out that ARMY isn't to be trifled with...we've all seen for ourselves (a) the general public isn't going to go above and beyond for anyone and (b) neither will the social media followers that everyone mislabeled as dedicated fans.

IV. YOU CAN'T CALL ON A CAVALRY THAT DOESN'T EXIST!

We already established in Part I that though streaming is popular and dominant for music consumption, it's not a platform through which artists get paid their fair share.

I also asserted that the combination of streaming & social media created an environment of selfish comfort.

When you purport to be a fandom but you unironically claim that your faves' careers are meant to be kept afloat indefinite by casual listeners? Or only get vocal with claiming artists when they're hyped and reject them & refuse to fund new singles when they "fall off?"

That's

Bringing back my earlier point of the Fake Internet: I think that between aspects of the music industry and clout-hungry bystanders, these people are DESPERATE for some way to save face, to the point of insisting pay0la, playlist rigging, and media play are organic.

These social media followers can hide behind a lopsided industry where the bundles reality is barely behind us because it allows them to feel like they've accomplished something by stanning someone whose success they never contributed to.

It was inevitable these types of people would lash out at us. It's just like with K-pop stans who were pressed when ARMY was suddenly too big to bully and our behavior pushed BTS so far to the top, they knew they could no longer be passive and enjoy clout by association.

So here's ARMY, buying all the damn music, and rather than see that as something to be inspired by...they see it as unfair.

As "cheating."

IMHO, they see it as a sign that their passive best is no longer good enough.

This is why you have people begging others to stop us. Probably by re-rigging the music industry. Imagine being so pathetic, so selfishly clout-driven, you want to see the system robbing people that, let's be real, they only ironically stan, win by defeating music fans.

...LMAO!

As much as I laugh at the stupidity of it all, I must also shake my head, because that is really REALLY dark.

What kind of self-respecting fandom relies on the label that has no emotional investment in their faves? A fandom that's too dead to financially and emotionally invest.

We even have people so pressed they are buying BTS's music to...show us...something? I don't know. But I laugh at people who give money to BTS, a group they claim to hate, before giving it to any of the artists they say "deserve."

They are a fun kind of stupid, I must say. 🤣

We know the secret to ARMY + BTS is a mutual and emotional investment.

The industry kills this by packaging acts for music listeners & building hype through artificial means, whether that's paying for stream playlisting or radi0 ad time (pay0la).

Between people who won't leave social media and streaming platforms and labels who pay out of pocket for fake hype...there's no one coming to the rescue for these artists. They have no backing. When things go left, they "fall off."

And there's real fandom waiting to catch them.

CONCLUSION: FOLLOWERS ARE NOT FANDOMS, AND PRETENDING OTHERWISE WILL HAVE FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES!

I need people to take a deep breath, step back, and read the receipts. ARMY is a hardworking fandom made up of creative, invested, amazing people who give their all.

We are in no danger. Neither is BTS.

But let me pull back the curtain on those who *ARE*.

These labels are spending a lot of money for hype that must be paid back. It's hard to pay back any of that initial funding if these artists lead themselves to believe that millions of social media followers automatically translate to sales. That is NOT reality.

At some point, a lot of these music acts are going to be revealed as broke or not as wealthy as one would assume. Why? Because social media followers aren't automatically fans and customers.

They're not even rivals. They're the equivalent of opinionated ghosts.

/thread