A.R.M.Ys Share Their First Impressions Of BTS
1. Who are these people?
“I followed someone on Tumblr who turned into a kpop blog overnight and after I got tired of trying to filter out their faces off my dash I decided to see why everyone were so amazed by them. Mic Drop was just enough to get me hooked.” — jotak7
2. Bias alert!
“Thanks to a YT channel called FBE, which was doing reaction videos of YouTubers reacting to Kpop. One of these videos was a reaction to BTS music videos, and I was intrigued by BST, Not Today, Fire and No More Dream (partly due to the name Rap Monster). Anyways, that video, plus their win at the BBMA, made me look for their videos on YouTube (I had not listened to Kpop much by this point). Not Today was what dragged me down the hole, because I thought RM looked so hot :-D” — Deedeekui
3. A voice that can’t be ignored.
“When I saw the MV of Fire RM caught my attention, his voice is so deep…” — Geovannia
4. The YouTube trap.
“They kept popping up in my recommended on YouTube. I guess YT remembered I used to stream kpop on the regular and when BTS blew up, their algorithm was like ‘Hey, you know what might really throw her back into kpop and probably down a rabbit hole from which she’ll never recover? BTS.'” — vixen-vengeful
5. Hello BTS, goodbye productivity.
“A coworker showed me Save Me. My first impression was “Well aren’t they very pretty?” Then I promptly forgot they existed for the next year. I didn’t fall down the hole until I randomly discovered them again a year later. I waver between being highly upset I missed a year of being an ARMY and being grateful for an additional year of productivity.” — eloisemollywhacker
6. Suga. Warning: may be a “Fire” hazard.
“I Youtubed BTS and the first thing that came up with Not Today. And as soon as that sweet beat dropped, and Suga jumped out and growled at me, I was like, holy shit, these guys are fire. I get it now.” — a_softer_world
7. Sometimes, all it takes is one interview.
“I’m almost like a reverse Bangtan fan – I watched a bunch of interviews before I finally watched Blood Sweat and Tears, my first MV. And here I am 6 months later.” — emkh22ot7
8. One fan club leads to another.
“So I had just gotten into kpop as a whole and VIXX was my ultimate bias group at the time. I already had Danger and Boy in Luv is on my phone and found Just One day and died because it was so cute and started to research them more.” — ktlee414
9. From “oh, they’re pretty” to “thirsting to death”.
“Watched DNA randomly. One second I thought they were (EXTREMELY) nice to look at and listen to but nothing overly special. Next second I’m buying all their albums and burning my eyeballs watching vids of them on youtube and devouring any and all BTS content like I’m thirsting to death and they’re a cold glass of water in the middle of the desert and I still have no idea how any of it happened so fast” — reinakun
10. Did he just kill somebody?
“I watched [“I Need U”] and was like “uhhh… did that guy just murder that other guy??? I guess k-pop has angsty dark stuff too.” (I enjoyed the song haha, I was just kinda ??? about the video at the time).” — yeon_kimin
