Novel Applications Of Music And Digital Media In Global Health Intervention And Education Initiatives During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study Of Bts And Army

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Public Health Theses School of Public Health

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Novel Applications Of Music And Digital Media In Global Health Novel Applications Of Music And Digital Media In Global Health

Intervention And Education Initiatives During The Covid-19 Intervention And Education Initiatives During The Covid-19

Pandemic: A Case Study Of Bts And Army Pandemic: A Case Study Of Bts And Army

Mariko Fujimoto Rooks

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Novel Applications of Music and Digital Media in Global Health Intervention and Education

Initiatives During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of BTS and ARMY

A Thesis Presented In Partial Fulfillments of the Requirements for a Master of Public Health in

Social and Behavioral Sciences with a Concentration in United States Health Justice

Mariko Fujimoto Rooks

May 1

, 2022

Advised by Professor Trace Kershaw

With Professor Grace Kao

Yale School of Public Health, Class of 2022

Abstract

The Korean musical group BTS (full name Bangtan Seoyeondan/방탄소년단) is one of

the world’s most commercially and artistically successful entertainment acts. BTS is primarily

known for their domination of both Western and Korean musical markets, impressive digital

media presence, major role in supporting the South Korean economy, and highly mobilized

400,000 member fandom known as ARMY. BTS and their parent company HYBE’s artistic

creation and marketing model has long focused on creating “Music and Artists for Healing,” or

using music and various forms of primarily digital content to connect with and improve health

outcomes for fans. In response, ARMY have developed significant grassroots public health

organizing to improve health of other fans and general populations. Both BTS and ARMY’s

intervention work regularly reaches global audiences of millions through primarily digital media

delivery mechanisms.

This interdisciplinary, mixed methods study uses qualitative analysis of BTS’ digital

content (n = 478) and an introductory exploration of ARMY public health organizations to

demonstrate that BTS’ music, HYBE’s digital content production and dissemination strategies,

and ARMY’s community grassroots organizing produced one of the largest-reaching public

health interventions in response to the early COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020- December

2021). Major intervention strategies included mitigating negative mental health outcomes,

distributing health information, modeling safe behaviors, and engaging in both mutual aid and

anti-racist health equity work. This exploratory research illuminates new directions in effective,

novel public health intervention and education practices and posits that critical, nuanced study of

BTS and ARMY’s impact on public health may hold important keys to re-imagining digitally

delivered health interventions and their subsequent economic profitability.

Acknowledgements

To paraphrase Kim Namjoon, we are only a small percentage of our overall success. While it is

yet to be determined whether this thesis is a success or not, I have many, many people to thank

for making sure it came to fruition at all. Firstly, to my advisors: Prof. Kershaw, who has been

one of my most flexible and insightful mentors since 2019 and only blinked only once when I

suggested writing my thesis about a Korean boyband, and to Prof. Kao for her eternal patience

with my Jimin-like tardiness and for always reminding me grounding my conclusions in data.

Both of you have drastically shaped this project for the better.

Further thanks must be issued to all the faculty and administration at the Yale School of

Public Health who have led me through this five-year journey to two degrees. Mary Keefe and

Prof. Marney White have both been invaluable every step of the way, and Prof. Ijeoma Opara

makes this space affirming and livable. I’m also indebted to my exemplary, kind, and brilliant

Yale College mentors: Prof. Carolyn Roberts, whose guidance and light is my backbone, Prof.

Gary Okihiro, Prof. Quan Tran, and all the ER&M faculty members. As always, Dr. Simons, Dr.

Gupta, and Mr. Foster are my origin story. A huge thanks to all the ARMY organizations I

interviewed and the ARMY academics who have “paved the way,” especially Dr. Kate Ringland

for her academic brilliance and support.임선생님, 김선생님, 한국어 수업 친구들,

감사합니다! These two semesters of Korean have truly been the best classes I’ve taken at Yale!

The people are truly the best part of this institution, and I’m so profoundly grateful for all

my friends! Biggest appreciation for all the five year mentors who came before me, with special

love to the eternally kind and wise Bri Matusovsky. I’ve been privileged to make my way

through this journey with incredible cohort members. Ruiyan, you are inimitable. Mila, the fact

that you’re literally next to me while I write these words says it all. Shannon, Georgiana, and

Jacob will forever be one of best parts of the MPH program. Abby has taught me how to be a

better friend every day and literally hauled me over the finish line. I’ve already written poems

about Lillian, Alice, Kayley, & Dean. Karen, Hanah, and Lena are the BEST mentees in the

world. Big love to the 20222 Yale Women’s Water Polo team #beepbeep and USA Water Polo.

Finally, this piece bears witness to the life-changing and life-saving experience that is

loving BTS. I wouldn’t have anything to write about, let alone wouldn’t have made it through the

last two years, without all the incredible ARMY in my life (moots and ARMY Magazine

bloggers included!). Kristin Fukushima sent me down the BTS rabbit hole and grabbed a seat

alongside me, and has in a million ways shown me the path to a better self and community for

almost ten years. My B(L)TS friends: Candice, Kari, Mayta, Yuri, Kat, and Steph have all

provided me with an incredibly important connection to HOME when I have often been so far

away. Isabelle, I purple you too, more than you know.

And, of course, to the boys. Namjoon unearths the poetry and beauty of this impermanent

world. Jin shows me how to be fearless and funny and wholeheartedly self-loving. Hobi

demonstrates that working hard to achieve iterative, gentle, and determined excellence in

everything I do is a form of love. Taehyung is my comfort on all hard days. Jungkook shows me

exactly who I want to be. Yoongi puts everything I’ve ever lived into words in ways I didn’t

know were possible. Jimin has taught me how to ask for what I need and how to give and

unapologetically receive the love we all deserve, has shown me the power in gentle growth and

vulnerability, has made me confront and re-confront every part of myself, and makes me

immensely grateful that I am alive to witness and marvel in art. To the end of the rainbow,

always: “어쩜 이 밤의 표정이 이토록 또 아름다운 건 저 어둠도 달빛도 아닌 우리

때문일 거야.”

 
4 
Table of Contents 
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 2 
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5 
Background ................................................................................................................................... 6 
Methods .......................................................................................................................................... 9 
Results .......................................................................................................................................... 11 
Section 1- A Rhizomatic Intervention Model...................................................................................... 11 
Section 2- Music and Artists for Healing ............................................................................................ 12 
1.1 “Our Rock Bottom:” Songs About Pandemic Health Struggles................................................................... 13 
1.2 Cognitive Reframing .................................................................................................................................... 14 
1.3 Temporal Distancing .................................................................................................................................... 15 
1.4 Joy and Comfort ........................................................................................................................................... 16 
1.5 Diversity and Accessibility ........................................................................................................................... 17 
Section 2- “Seven Billion Lights:” Multi-Media Connectivity and Public Health Education ........ 18 
2.1 “Still With You” Through Songs for ARMY ............................................................................................... 18 
2.2 “Extramusical” Content Beyond the Scene .................................................................................................. 20 
Section 3- Fan to Fan Interventions: Grassroots ARMY Health Organizations ............................ 22 
3.1 ARMY Help Center ...................................................................................................................................... 23 
3.2 BTS ARMY Medical Union ......................................................................................................................... 24 
3.3 Disabled Army Advocacy & Support Network ............................................................................................ 25 
Section 4- For a Better World .............................................................................................................. 26 
4.1 One (In An ARMY) For the Money: Mutual Aid and Global Fundraising ................................................. 27 
4.2 Equity and Activism ..................................................................................................................................... 28 
Discussion..................................................................................................................................... 31 
Summary of Findings ............................................................................................................................ 31 
Limitations ............................................................................................................................................. 31 
Conclusions & Implications .................................................................................................................. 32 
References .................................................................................................................................... 33 
Bibliography........................................................................................................................................... 33 
Notes ....................................................................................................................................................... 52 
 
Table of Figures 
 
Figure 1: BTS Digital Media Content Included in Qualitative Analysis ...................................... 10 
Figure 2: BTS and ARMY Health Intervention Model ................................................................ 12 
   

Novel Applications of Music and Digital Media in Global Health Intervention and

Education Initiatives During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of BTS and ARMY

Introduction

Comprised of seven male members who specialize in different combinations of singing,

dancing, rapping, and acting, the Korean musical group BTS (full name Bangtan

Seoyeondan/방탄소년단) is known for their immaculate stage performances, primarily self-

written and produced lyrics discussing their personal experiences, and their incredibly dedicated

and organized fandom of over 400,000 people across the globe known as ARMY (Adorable

Representative M.C. for Youth).

The group’s record-breaking sold-out stadium tours, major

awards across Asian and Western markets, and stretches of #1 Hit Songs on major musical charts

are quantitatively unprecedented for any musical act. Moreover, BTS frequently breaks

language, race, and nationality barriers as the first and only Korean act to accomplish these feats.

BTS emerged from the “K-pop”/ “idol” industry, wherein Korean entertainment agencies

such as the group’s parent company HYBE, scout, train, and “debut” promising young

performers on the Korean musical market.

While most successful K-pop groups are produced by

large and well-known entertainment agencies, BTS was the first group developed by HYBE

(known initially as BigHit Entertainment).

HYBE’s innovative conceptualization, marketing,

and development of BTS and subsequent idol groups has made the entertainment conglomerate

one of the fastest growing and most profitable companies in the world.

Academics and professionals across a myriad of disciplines have attempted to analyze

how and why BTS is so successful. Many have noticed that BTS’ reach and popularity, along

with HYBE’s profits, skyrocketed during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-

2022). The group landed their first five Billboard Hot 100 singles, received their first two

Grammy nominations (the only ever awarded to Korean artists), and were named the world’s

best-selling artists of both 2020 and 2021 by the International Federation of the Phonographic

Industry (IFPI).

Meanwhile, HYBE posted an overall revenue of $1.1 Billion in 2021 after

going public on the Korean stock market in 2020.

BTS also seemed to acquire more fans than ever before, increasing their Twitter

following by almost 20 million users between December 2019 and December 2021.

As a result,

BTS holds the single largest social media engagement footprint on Twitter along with outsized

impacts on other digital media sites.

Any public health intervention work conducted by BTS or

members of their fandom therefore has some of the largest potential reach of any singular entity

in the world (for comparison purposes, BTS recently received 9316.77% more likes than the

World Health Organization when both platforms tweeted about the same topic on the same

date).

Both the group and its fans have used this shared global platform for years to discuss

mental health and critique systemic oppression facing youth around the world.

However, little

to no research has explored the public health implications of their work and how this level of

reach and success might impact population-level health outcomes.

This multidisciplinary study uses a public health lens to explore how BTS’ music,

HYBE’s digital content production and dissemination strategies and ARMY’s responsive

community grassroots organizing, produced one of the largest-reaching public health

interventions in response to the early COVID-19 pandemic (March 2020- December 2021). This

research represents important new directions in exploring effective, novel methods and structures

for widespread public health education and intervention dissemination with important economic,

socio-cultural, and population health implications. While ascertaining the impact of these

intervention strategies is beyond the scope of this study, this introductory exploration

demonstrates that a critical, nuanced study BTS and ARMY’s impact on public health may hold

important keys to re-imagining effective intervention delivery methods, target audiences, and

economic profits.

Background

Music-based public health interventions holistically improve a myriad of mental and

physical health outcomes.

The multi-faceted neural, social-emotional, and physiological

impacts of listening to music allow for effective primary and secondary interventions

addressing

health issues from traumatic injury and cognitive illness to depression and anxiety.

On the

community level, folk religious songs have been used to teach and retain health education

practices across the globe for centuries.

In contemporary practice, public health officials have

successfully utilized the accessibility, relatively low cost, and affective appeal of “culturally

relevant” songs to spread information about health topics ranging from HIV prevention to proper

tooth brushing techniques.

Moreover, artists from many oppressed communities have created and performed “protest

songs to raise awareness of health issues, advocate for social equity, and promote resilience

and

hope, with important health implications for marginalized populations.

Black American music

in particular has been long used to “speak truth to power,” a strategy that historically and

contemporarily has had immense success in improving a myriad of health outcomes for

marginalized populations.

Contemporarily, hip hop has proven effective in fighting for equity

“within and beyond national borders with the incredible urgency of now” in a variety of global

contexts.

More broadly, the commercial music industry mass-produced and disseminated

protest, resilience, “feel good,” and empowerment songs.

However, very little research has

explored commercial music as a strategy for population-wide health interventions, nor the

development of music technology in delivering music-based interventions.

Additionally, few

companies have developed an entire business model based on this premise, with the notable

exception of BTS’ parent company, HYBE.

In the mid-late 2000’s, HYBE’s founding CEO Bang Sihyuk theorized that developing

increased fan loyalty towards musical artists would counteract the drop in physical album sales

that wracked the late 2000’s music market.

After company focus groups demonstrated that

youth felt increasingly isolated and wanted to “connect with” and derive “comfort” from artists,

Bang decided that HYBE would focus on releasing music that would “help and inspire” young

people through providing sincere and emotionally resonant lyrics that were designed to make

fans’ lives better.

This was reflected in HYBE’s original motto: “Music and Artists for

Healing,” a marked difference from most Korean and Western record label slogans that center

around providing quality “entertainment.”

BTS’ subsequent focus on music as a source of health improvement thus represents a

cornerstone of a larger company’s entire guiding philosophy and business model rather than the

focus of a singular song or artist(s).

As HYBE’s first group, the septet initially sought to

exemplify this model through “speaking out against the bullets of oppression, stereotypes, and

prejudice facing youth (hence their Korean name 방탄소년단, which translates to “Bulletproof

Boy Scouts”).

Thus, BTS’ approach to improving public health through music has always been

grounded in attention to structural health (in)equities that shape health outcomes (their first three

albums, for example, explored the toxic mental and physical health impacts of standardized

education and late-stage capitalism in Korea).

This is reflected in genre as well; BTS debuted

as a hip-hop and rap group, not a pop group, and every single full-group BTS song but one has

intentionally utilized a genre built to articulate and challenge systemic marginalization

experienced by Black Americans into a South Korean context.

Over the course of their career, BTS has developed multiple health intervention strategies

in their music. In addition to the societal commentary discussed above, the group has actively

enacted psychotherapeutic methodologies in several songs designed to “comfort” and “heal”

fans.

As a result, a significant body of research has demonstrated BTS’ music has improved

listener health outcomes. Studies have noted that pre-2020 BTS songs emphasize Branden’s Six

Pillars of Self-Esteem, and that listening to BTS music predicts hope, optimism, self-esteem,

self-acceptance, self-forgiveness, perseverance, and happiness in consumers.

The most

comprehensive study conducted to ascertain the impact of listening to BTS music (n = 1,190)

showed that BTS music helped the study participants feel “‘safe’ and ‘understood’ during

situations that were challenging, frustrating or unfulfilling,” served as a catalyst to release

emotions that participants were unable to verbalize, and made listeners “feel more focused,

empowered, and persistent, helping them deal with real-life challenges” while still helping them

“forget about their troubles or worries. As a result, listeners found certain songs led them to

challenge their way of thinking, change their behavior, or “take concrete actions to better their

mental health,” including seeking professional treatment.

Through creating a musical and digital media presence that emphasizes genuine and

honest communication of emotions, experiences, and struggles between fans and artists, BTS and

ARMY have developed a mutual relationship of love, care, and respect that challenges

conceptualizations of one-sided “parasocial” celebrity-fan relationships. BTS frequently credit

ARMY with not just their professional success, but with improving the members’ own mental-

emotional health, self-esteem, and happiness.

The result is what Dr. Jiyoung Lee calls a

“rhizomatic” fan-artist relationship, in which no study of either is complete without examining

both constituent entities.

This relationship is centered in BTS’ creation of music as a source of public health

intervention.

Several BTS “fan songs” remind ARMY of their powerful and affirming impact

on BTS’ lives to give listeners hope and purpose.

In one such song, the members tell ARMY

that “you've shown me, I have reasons I should love myself…me, who used to be sad, me, who

used to be hurt” to remind listeners that community love and support (exemplified by ARMY

themselves) can be used to overcome mistakes and insecurities.

This process is further

employed during concerts, where audiences physically sing with both BTS and each other in an

experience that actualizes health outcomes. As one fan wrote in 2018:

“The first time hearing Epiphany [a song about self-love] live in concert was LITERALLY

life-changing. Somehow, in that stadium, him [the BTS member who sings the song]

telling me that I'm the one I should love and me singing that so loudly with a bunch of

others, internalized it and made it real and practicable. It was magical.

As this tweet demonstrates, concert spaces can be powerful sites of community health

intervention work that deeply impact individual attendees, though further research would be

needed to ascertain impact and efficacy.

However, BTS’ public health impact isn’t limited to producing and performing music. A

long attributed major factor in BTS’ meteoric rise to success is the scaffolding and integration of

their value-based music with innovative and accessible digital media content production,

particularly their utilization of social media to interact with fans and promote their work.

This

social media-focused strategy was in part borne simply as a result of BTS and HYBE’s relatively

marginalized position in both the Korean and Western music markets, but was also an incredibly

intentional part of HYBE’s “horizontal” leadership model wherein artists are marketed as

“relatable” rather than being “placed on a pedestal.”

Increasing artist social media presence and

developing a wide variety of “intellectual property” related to the “message and personality” of

their artists, e.g. graphic novels, video games, brand deals, has significantly increased fan

engagement and overall profit for the company.

Examples of BTS’ diverse digital media content production abound. Beyond the auditory

tracks for each of their songs, BTS has been heralded for developing “dance moves, strong visual

language in music videos and…additional content,” creating an “immersive world” of

“transmedia storytelling”

that is “dense with intertextual citations” and cross-media connections

to a wide variety of current events, literary and artistic works, and psychological practices.

This

complex, cross-platform content production underscores the lyrical health-centric themes

discussed in the previous section, and pre-pandemic music videos have tackled themes from

domestic violence to mental illness and suicide.

Additionally, BTS members and their

management are routinely active on a variety of social media platforms and consistently deliver

video, picture, and text content to ARMY.

As a result, BTS fans are a highly engaged and digitally activated fandom driven by

shared values of world betterment. Both researchers and public media outlets frequently examine

how ARMY uses digital media to promote BTS’ work and increase the group’s power and

influence globally.

In addition to streaming, viewing, and voting for BTS to support their

musical work, ARMY engage in transformative practices of “remixing” and “re-imagining”

BTS’ media content to communicate with and increase “affective bonds” with both BTS

members and other fans.

“Fandoms,” or “communities built around a shared enjoyment of an aspect of popular

culture,” can be generative strategies of public health interventions and campaigns.

research has posited that K-pop fandoms can be considered “communities of practice,” or

“group[s] of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and

who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.”

Communities of practice,

including digital communities, are well-demonstrated important and useful public health

intervention sites.

Because “fan engagement” can be “a site of renewal and optimism,” the

“experience of joy leads to further investments that transform one’s life and others, including the

possibility of struggling and resisting…oppressive power structures.”

This is evident in studies

of several other fandoms.

Successful fandom-based public health campaign models include artist-driven campaigns

to support causes such as queer rights or autonomous, fan-driven fundraising campaigns inspired

by the fandom’s subject of interest.

Brough and Shrestha have classified some of these

practices as “fan-activism,” or “fan-driven efforts to address civic or political issues through

engagement with and strategic deployment of popular culture content” and transformative,

participatory campaign engagement.

However, most fandom efforts are temporally limited

campaigns surrounding specific causes (e.g. natural disaster relief, existing fundraisers) rather

than a primary, sustained aspect of fandom involvement.

In recent years, fandom participation has been marked with high levels of media

engagement and mobilization. This is particularly prevalent in “K-pop” (Korean language pop

music) fandoms, where digital media is a primary source of artist exposure and engagement for

global audiences.

Despite sometimes toxic online fan environments, this primarily digital

participation in K-pop fanship has been shown to be a “significant predictor of…psychosocial

outcomes” including “happiness, self-esteem, and social connectedness, pointing to positive

psychosocial benefits to fandom participation.”

Moreover, K-pop fanship inherently challenges

the privileged position of Anglophone pop stars by creating a counter-hegemonic culture focused

on non-English, non-Western musical and artist content.

The rise of digital media and communication has also allowed for faster and more

expansive real-time public health organizing across national and organizational borders. The lack

of in-person health services during COVID-19 has made these digitally delivered public health

campaigns and healthcare services essential to strengthening the contemporary public health

landscape.

With regards to mental health specifically, quarantine and isolation protocols have

“disrupted the delivery of…services globally” during a time of heightened “psychological and

mental health responses including the spread of fear, stress, and anxiety, which also impact the

spread and containment of infectious diseases.”

Research studies have unanimously

demonstrated significant mental health burdens in regions affected by COVID-19 outbreaks as a

result of the pandemic, particularly in adolescents and youth.

Several technologically-based preventive and rehabilitative interventions have been

shown to alleviate pandemic-associated anxiety and depression and improve quality of life.

Additionally, providing “reliable COVID-19 information sources “may assist in

alleviating…anxiety and fear” surrounding the pandemic, as pandemic-specific “health literacy”

is associated with decreased depression and increased health-related quality of life.

Only one

digital intervention model reported the successful integration of music in promoting “COVID-19

prevention and control as well as hope,” though many original and re-written popular songs were

digitally disseminated to provide information about COVID-19 prevention in the early days of

the pandemic.

BTS’ digital media-focused content dissemination structures and value-driven musical

output thus represent a nexus of technology, art, and health that are uniquely suited to addressing

new challenges presented in delivering effective public health interventions in response to

COVID-19. Given that ARMY has one of the biggest digital media presences of all time, any

exploration of BTS and ARMY’s health intervention work also represents an important and

understudied exploration of alternative pathways to increase global health intervention

scalability.

Methods

To illustrate the processes by which BTS, HYBE, and ARMY sought to improve health

outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, a health intervention model was designed to illustrate

the complex, multi-dimensional system of intervention delivery methods and sites developed

over the course of BTS’ nine-year career. This model was then applied to BTS and ARMY’s

digital content released between March 11, 2020-November 21, 2021, the period when BTS was

unable to perform for or meet their fans in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative

parent-child iterative coding was used to ascertain COVID-19-specific intervention approaches

and methods found in digital media content, including songs, livestreamed and pre-recorded

video content, and interviews, produced by BTS and HYBE (n =478). Video content was

obtained using the “BTS Road Map” online database produced by ARMY digital creator Landon

Mark.

Lyric translations, when needed, were obtained from the ARMY website “doolset lyrics”

that provides both direct lyric translations and relevant Korean socio-cultural context.

Print content was limited to materials produced directly by HYBE and a small sample of

major magazine covers (TIME, Vogue, Variety, and Esquire magazines). Short social media

posts on Twitter, Weverse, TikTok, along with shorter behind the scenes and Korean culture

YouTube video series, were excluded due to volume and overall relevance. Shorter interviews

conducted by third parties and print, video, and audio advertisements aired on non-BTS or

HYBE platforms were also excluded from primary analysis due to volume and theme saturation,

as most short interviews involved answering similar questions about music releases.

Figure 1: BTS Digital Media Content Included in Qualitative Analysis

Additionally, demographic, informational, and quantitative data was solicited from three

major ARMY public health-oriented organizations that operate using primarily Twitter-based

platforms. Organizations were selected through conducting Twitter searches for the key words

“BTS” and “ARMY” combined with “health,” “public health,” “medicine,” and “global health,”

and via previously published articles in both academic and popular media. ARMY organizations

were then chosen for inclusion based on relevance of mission statement to public health

intervention work. Each organization was contacted by either Twitter direct message or email,

after which interested administrators provided information about the organization’s purpose,

reach, and strategies via email correspondence. Given the frequency with which ARMY

organization statements and testimonies are manipulated by academic researchers and popular

media, Zoom calls were also held to further explain study purpose, develop trust between

organization and researcher, and gain clarity regarding organizational purpose and history.

All

community organizations were given the opportunity to review this study before publication to

ensure that they were appropriately represented in the final work.

Results

From March 2020-December 2021, BTS and ARMY synergistically developed one of the

largest digitally delivered public health interventions in the world in response to COVID-19,

focusing primarily on mitigating negative mental health outcomes, health information

distribution, safe behavior modeling, mutual aid, and anti-racist health equity work. The

following analysis first provides readers with an overall model of BTS and ARMY’s health

intervention work that has been developed over the course of the group’s career, which serves as

the foundation for the pandemic-time analysis that comprises the greater part of this project.

“Section 2: Music and Artists for Healing” then discusses how BTS, to great commercial and

financial success, openly discussed mental health struggles, employed psychological techniques

such as reframing and temporal distancing, and increased accessibility in their original

discography during this time. The third section, “Seven Billion Lights: Multi-Media

Connectivity and Public Health Education,” discusses how BTS and ARMY used music and

digital media to form and maintain community and model best health practices during periods of

intense physical isolation. The final two sections outline how ARMY, inspired by BTS, have

built community health organizations that provide mental health assistance services, fundraising,

health advocacy and education resources, and health-based activism efforts to both fans and the

public.

As will be demonstrated across these five sections, BTS and ARMY’s synergistic

relationship drives digital media-driven health intervention efforts across languages,

nationalities, and identities, fundamentally restructuring the contemporary public health

landscape at a remarkably broad scale. This has a myriad of important implications in public and

global health, including potential solutions and strategies for subverting hegemonic power

imbalances (West/non-West, provider/recipient), economic gains, and intervention strategies that

resonate with large numbers of people.

Section 1- A Rhizomatic Intervention Model

Unlike many organizations, movements, and communities, BTS and ARMY’s digitally-

driven model of digitally delivered health intervention and education work was well-established

before the advent of COVID-19. In fact, HYBE, BTS, and ARMY developed an iterative,

rhizomatic model of “healing” based on reinforcing and reflexive digital engagement and

advocacy work over the course of 2013-2020 that provided an unusually strong springboard

upon which all three parties transitioned to the “digital only” era of early COVID-19. Previous

mixed methods systems thinking and information studies have also used modeling to understand

and conceptualize BTS’ overwhelming success; this model draws upon these studies but

provides new connections between existing variables through connecting them via a public

health lens.

The model below illustrates the interdisciplinary structural, economic, and creative

factors that shaped the development of both BTS and ARMY as public health interventionists,

much of which were discussed in the Background section. Highlighted purple sections represent

elements of the model that gained and/or maintained significant importance in intervention

content and delivery during COVID-19. Of particularly important note is the reinforcing

feedback loop created by BTS and ARMY wherein each party is inspired by the other to

continue improving public health.

Figure 2: BTS and ARMY Health Intervention Model

As demonstrated, BTS and ARMY engage in three major modalities of public health

interventions across music, digital media content, and social media interaction: (1) awareness of

mental health issues driven by personal experience-sharing, (2) actual health-based interventions

through music, and (3) societal commentary and critique of systemic injustice. In addition,

ARMY have developed both lasting public health-focused organizations and campaign efforts

aligning with these three themes. As the following sections will demonstrate, several elements of

this model were particularly useful and effective when applied to addressing health outcomes of

COVID-19 pandemic during forced isolation.

Section 2- Music and Artists for Healing

While artists of all mediums and styles generated creative work to process the COVID-19

pandemic, HYBE maintained a distinctly unique approach at the production company level that

led to impressive and unprecedented commercial results.

Prior to the pandemic, BTS primarily

released music using the “album cycle” strategy, releasing clusters of thematically interrelated

works over the course of multiple months or years. During the pandemic, however, HYBE and

BTS shifted their focus to releasing two types of songs in smaller, more frequent installments

that directly addressed the health effects of the pandemic: “emotionally honest songs” that

reckoned frankly with the impacts COVID-19 and “songs to give the hope and comfort needed to

overcome this moment together.”

The former were predominantly found on the group’s LP BE,

and the latter produced in the form of predominantly English language singles.

In addition to being novel intervention techniques and delivery modalities in and of

themselves, BTS’ pandemic-time discography demonstrates the unprecedented commercial

power and potential of this model. All six lead singles BTS released during the pandemic have

premiered at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for a total of 16 weeks at #1.

Despite being

almost entirely in Korean with a November release date, BE was still the fifth best-selling album

Fans draw comfort,

“healing,” and joy

from all BTS content,

(also expressed on

digital media)

BTS self-produces value-

based music designed to

“block out stereotypes,

criticisms, and

expectations that aim on

adolescents like bullets.”

BTS inspired by

fans, group

feels “sense of

responsibility”

to continue

helping people

through music

BTS creates music

to improve fan

health that utilizes

psychotherapeutic

techniques

Early 2010’s:

Decreased physical

sales, low digital

presence in music

market

Development of

“Music and Artist for

Healing” model that

provides connection

and comfort to fans

via “relatable” artists

Reduced

broadcast time

and advertising

for BTS

BTS generates high

levels of artist

relatability, empathy

and authenticity

K-pop industry ruled by

“Big 3 Companies”

Mid-2000’s: Bang Si-

Hyuk creates BigHit

Music (HYBE), forms

BTS

Community-level

culture and

infrastructure to

support intensive,

global, digitally

coordinated fan

mobilization

Asian and non-English

underrepresentation in

Western music

industry

Grassroots, fan-

driven organizing

essential to

commercial

success

ARMY inspired to

develop digital

public health

intervention,

education and

advocacy

organizations and

campaigns

Bang theorizes that

increasing fan

loyalty will offset

drops in record sales

HYBE identifies

increased isolation

in digital age,

youth oppression

as customer pain

points

HYBE focuses on developing

BTS’ relationship with fans

via high volume of digital

media content &

instantaneous two-way

communication

BTS extends health

work through

partnerships with

United Nations,

UNICEF, etc. and

advocacy work

Fig. 2: BTS and ARMY Health Intervention Model

*Purple: elements explored in-depth during COVID-19 pandemic

: Reinforcing Loop

in the United States and topped South Korean sales at almost 3 million copies in four months (for

context, South Korea only has around 52 million people).

A myriad of less public health-

focused factors, including ARMY’s comprehensive buying and streaming strategies and HYBE’s

well-thought out marketing plan, contributed to the group’s overwhelming success; regardless,

the fact remains that this health-based musical model has been the key to breaking open a

notoriously xenophobic Western musical market and continuing to reign on Korean charts.

The following section discusses how BTS used their music to normalize negative health

impacts of the pandemic and incorporated joy and comfort, cognitive reframing, and temporal

distancing into lyrics and performance as helpful coping and processing mechanisms for their

audience. Additionally, BTS expanded the accessibility of their music and performance by

incorporating sign language into their single “Permission to Dance.” These themes were

underscored in BTS’ public addresses to the United Nations and UNICEF, interviews, and other

public-facing statements, and ultimately represent an unprecedented and unrecognized scale of

multi-layer COVID-19 mental health intervention delivery.

1.1 “Our Rock Bottom:” Songs About Pandemic Health Struggles

Throughout the pandemic, BTS released both group and individual songs that explicitly,

often painfully, discussed the negative impacts of the pandemic on the members’ mental health

and overall well-being. The group’s critical, reflexive articulation of ongoing, evolving,

pandemic-induced depression and anxiety provide important contributions to the normalization

of mental health struggles, with potentially important impacts on improving population health

outcomes among fans.

A large body of literature demonstrates that increased awareness and normalization of

mental health issues is crucial in reducing negative mental health outcomes, particularly among

youth.

Notably, “pop music artists who open up about mental health difficulties may have

potential as novel message sources in communication campaigns designed to improve mental

health outcomes among college students.”

In particular, songs discussing artists’ “mental

health difficulties'' are “associated with increased mental health empathy [and] mediate outcomes

including reduced mental health stigma, increased support for public mental health resources,

and increased willingness to support others struggling with their mental health.”

This is

supported by BTS-specific research; one study examining BTS music listeners in 2020 found

that the group’s pre-COVID-19 lyrical messages pertaining to mental health were strengthened

through the perceived authenticity of the artists’ experiences.

These study results have been

echoed in public statements made about BTS by several mental health professionals.

BTS was well-known for explicitly discussing personal mental health in their music far

before the pandemic, writing about lived experiences of depression, anxiety, and OCD.

In these

songs, powerful lyrics are underscored through “sonic vulnerabilities,” a composition technique

that invokes and expresses these feelings through specific key choices, tonal centers, and

melodic progression.

The members have explained that these songs are designed to comfort

and console fans by demonstrating that mental health challenges are “not things that need to be

hidden.”

By creating an environment where people “can ask for help” when they are “suffering

and lonely,” BTS has “innovated a major paradigm shift in mental health discourse” wherein

personal authenticity and vulnerability enhances public health messaging about help-seeking.

BTS continued to normalize the discussion of mental health and well-being

during the

pandemic, frequently talking and singing about the difficulties they experienced as artists whose

vocation and livelihood is primarily dependent on large-scale in-person performances. A handful

of songs explicitly address broad depression and anxiety brought upon by the pandemic, with the

goal of “making it obvious…everyone was having a hard time.”

Most of these songs rely

heavily on metaphor; rapper and group member SUGA references being “deserted on an island”

without escape

throughout his songs and speeches, vocalist Jin compares depression to a “deep

sea” in the song Abyss, and all of the group members compare depression and anxiety to the

colors “blue and grey” in the song of the same name.

These songs are supported with sonic

choices that convey these emotions to the listener. HYBE’s official magazine explained, for

example, that the song Blue & Grey uses “long melodies [with] no clear ending…distant rapping

delivered through left and right on stereo” and vocal echoes to trigger “an image of a lonely

winter night” for listeners.

Similarly, some of the vocals in Abyss sound almost muted to give

the listener the sensation of listening to the song underwater, as the song’s narrator compares

depression to being “submerged” in “my ocean,” unable to surface.

BTS further discussed these themes in their public-facing interviews and speeches, often

mentioning that they felt “hopeless,” “bewildered,” and “frustrated” about the “current

situation.”

During these speeches, members also acknowledged that they “were not the only

ones feeling like this,” acknowledging that the entire world needed “time to mourn for the things

that COVID-19 took away from us.”

Through sharing these feelings on global platforms, such

as in addresses to the UN and UNICEF, BTS served as an important ambassador for youth

mental health concerns on prominent global stages that far extend beyond the normal realm of

pop music.

1.2 Cognitive Reframing

BTS also used several clinically identified psychological techniques to re-frame feelings

of “entrapment,” helplessness, depression, and anxiety during the pandemic through re-

imagining physical space.

Throughout much of BTS’ pandemic-time discography, geographic

isolation is represented by the word “room,” an all-encompassing term that is understood to

represent a variety of quarantine situations. Songs, music videos, and online concerts then

reframe and reconceptualize one’s room as a communal place of exploration, adventure, and

connectivity for both fans and artists, creating an “imagined space” grounded in physical reality

where listeners and artists can process the pandemic together.

Clinical psychologist David A. Clark writes that cognitive reframing (referred to

cognitive restructuring in clinical settings) consists of multiple “structured, goal-directed, and

collaborative intervention strategies that focus on the exploration, evaluation, and substitution

of…maladaptive thoughts.” Through “reframing…. inflexible, closed, impermeable, and

relatively concrete” thought patterns such as “everything is hopeless” or “I am a failure” into

more balanced “schema” (e.g., “I am a person who recently experienced failure, but also has had

many successes”), patients increase coping and resilience in the face of adverse circumstances.

The most prominent example of cognitive re-imagination can be found in “Fly to My

Room,” the second track from BE. The song’s first verse begins with the previously discussed

normalization of pandemic-induced negative mental health outcomes, specifically widely-

experienced feeling being trapped in one’s home (“this room is all I have”).

In order to cope,

the song’s narrator then “generate[s] alternative[s]” and decides “well then, I'll change this room

into my world” in order to “get me outta my blues” so that “I'm feelin' brand new.”

Through

actively telling listeners that “you can change the way you think” (an example of “positivity

reorientation”), BTS encourages cognitive reframing of physical space and isolation.

The members then offer listeners several imaginative reframing strategies. One member

personifies the “room” as a figurative rather than purely literal support structure that can “hug

you” and “hold…happiness and sadness, all emotions.”

Another reimagines physical elements

of being trapped in one’s room as aspects of a trip or vacation (i.e., “the toys in my room greet

me again like people, the TV bustles like I'm out in the city”). This development of a “secure

base” relies heavily on “directed, intentional imagination,” which “is pivotal for self-regulation

in the form of escapism.”

Interestingly, music as the mode of intervention may also enhance

the effectiveness of this imagination-driven cognitive reframing, as “musical auditory

stimuli…induce higher vividness ratings” in directed interventions designed to alleviate anxiety

and depression.

These strategies were also demonstrated and amplified through the production of digital

multimedia content accompanying BE. The music videos for Dynamite and Life Goes On, for

example, demonstrate the members modeling these techniques through example: members

literally perform the lyrics in both songs that talk about using daily activities to ground oneself in

the pandemic.

Another particularly novel approach was the “Curated By BTS” project, a

participatory multi-media digital installation wherein the members collaboratively created a

bedroom filled with items to “comfort ARMY.”

Released over the course of several days in

February 2021, the project began with a simple drawing of a bedroom that could be found on

BTS’ official blog. Every day, a new member-designed “special object” was added to the room,

accompanied by an explanatory voice recording.

Users could then manually move the objects

around the “room” to create unique design configurations (which, perhaps unintentionally,

resulted in a plethora of humorously unrealistic room designs shared on Twitter).

Lastly, BTS’ online concerts focused on re-imagining one’s room as a concert space.

Instead of the group’s normal pre-concert announcements about safety and proper decorum, a

similarly designed animated text series tells viewers to “get comfortable” and reminds them that

“all food and drinks are allowed!” to emphasize the perks to having an at-home concert

experience.

During multiple concerts, the members remined the audience members that they

were connected to the artists through “each of your own rooms,” often joking that audience

members should “make some noise in your room.”

At the end of 2021’s Sowoozoo, members

encouraged the audience to turn on their phone flashlights and hold the light by their windows to

see if any other ARMY were watching nearby “from their own rooms,” and many ARMY

reported their success via social media.

Thus, BTS engages in communal cognitive reframing

that encourages both singer and listener to re-imagine the enclosed physical space of a “room”

into a space of community. Through these techniques, and many other content production

strategies, BTS co-creates and re-negotiates the new boundaries of the physical space wrought by

the pandemic as a real-time coping strategy.

1.3 Temporal Distancing

BTS prominently employed temporal distancing in song lyrics, speeches, performances,

and interviews, jointly encouraging both themselves and their audience that “life goes on” to

cope with the negative effects of the pandemic. The pandemic’s abrupt cessation of human

activity created a sensation for many that the “world stopped” or was “frozen in time,” which the

For example, one member added a clock to the room because “listening to the ticking of the clock when everything

is silent can…bring some calm to your mind.” The clock was set to 6:13 to represent the date of BTS’ first public

appearance (6/13/2013) so that “every time you see it, you’ll think of BTS.”

members discussed in multiple songs and interviews.

BTS knowingly and deliberately draws

heavily on “temporal distancing” in lyrics and speeches to increase psychological resilience.

Previous research has demonstrated that temporal distancing, a behavioral technique

focused on “imagining oneself in one’s future” that “can play an important role in emotional

coping with negative events” by “directing individuals’ attention to the impermanent aspects of

these events.”

100

Actively distancing through language specifically has been shown to help

improve emotional regulation.

101

Notably, some interventions featuring temporal distancing have

“decrease[d]...negative affect” driven by the COVID-19 pandemic specifically.

102

RM, BTS’

leader and one of the group’s main songwriters, learned about this technique from a

“psychological counselor” as early as 2016, and applied this technique in the lyrics in both

individual and group songs around this time.”

103

This strategy is heavily utilized in BTS’

pandemic-time music.

A key phrase through which the group enacted temporal distancing through music

appears to be “Life Goes On,” the title of the lead single for BE and the theme of their Fall 2020

UN address.

104

In addition to constant refrains of the phrase itself, the chorus of “Life Goes On”

points out that everyday activity markers such as eating, sleeping, and watching the seasons pass

demonstrate that “time goes by on its own” even though it “feels like there is no end in sight.”

105

Another song entitled “A Moment” in Korean was written to remind ARMY that “we’ll be able

to meet each other after a moment,” another attempt to linguistically reframe the pandemic’s

temporality as passing rather than permanent.

106

Lyrics in the single “My Universe,” released

almost a year later, similarly remind listeners that “these hardships are just temporary.”

107

The

pre-chorus of “Life Goes On” actually prompts the audience to partake in temporal distancing

with the singing artists, inviting the listener to “hold my hand [and] run away” to a “future

[where] the day will come back around as if nothing has happened.”

108

Similarly, the group’s

2020 UN General Assembly address ended with the members calling the audience to “dream of a

better future” and “re-imagine the world.”

109

This temporal distancing was visualized in several performances of “Life Goes On,” most

notably the Melon Music Awards 2020 performance that featured masked dancers frozen and

painted in all white who transform in a burst of color and perform everyday activities joyfully

(but still masked) at the end of the song.

110

Similarly, the song’s music video shows a transition

from the BTS members at home in pajamas to the group in concert (though sans audience).

111

Lastly, BTS members engaged in mutual temporal distancing directed towards

themselves and their fans, primarily, during concerts and speeches, by frequently envisioning a

future in which “we will all be able to meet again.” In fact, some of the lyrics for “My Universe”

were written “while picturing the day we reunite with ARMY.”

112

Members connected this

reminder of delayed gratification to engaging in “more careful” health practices and continued

motivation to “practice” and “get better” even without immediate upcoming concerts.

113

The members also encouraged ARMY to “wait” and “stay healthy” to actualize this future

reunion.

114

These statements provide important implications for the use of temporal distancing to

encourage health-positive and COVID-19-risk decreasing behavior.

1.4 Joy and Comfort

Though many of the group’s lyrics were oriented towards processing and addressing the

painful and difficult health impacts of COVID-19, BTS’ most commercially successful singles

were upbeat, cheerful songs designed to combat these health issues through providing “comfort

and joy” to listeners. Sung in English to increase international accessibility, “Dynamite”

(released September 2020), “Butter” (released May 2021), and “Permission To Dance” (released

July 2021) are all upbeat, pop singles released as standalone “comebacks,” the K-pop industry’s

term for new release. The simple and peppy English lyrics combined with brightly colored high-

energy performances might seem like substance-light “bubble gum” pop at first listen; however,

this attention to joy and happiness is an intentional, calculated public health intervention

designed to deliver “hope” and “strength” to those struggling in the face of the pandemic.

115

In interviews and public appearances, BTS frequently discusses that the “bright and

refreshing energy” of “Dynamite” was cultivated intentionally to “shake off the low spirits” of

summer 2020. Rather than writing a “serious and difficult song,” HYBE and BTS sought to

“cheer ARMY up as soon as possible” and provide “real, substantial hope” through a brighter,

more upbeat disco-pop track.

116

While “Butter” can be described as a more “cheeky, self-aware

tribute” to the group’s own “irresistibility” (see lyrics such as “When I look in the mirror / I’ll

melt your heart into two / I got that superstar glow”), the group’s general philosophy about

producing a “fun song” that “reach[es] out to as many people as possible” remains a consistent

theme throughout their press releases.

117

While it would be difficult to ascertain the efficacy of this strategy without more in-depth

study of song listeners, these three singles were BTS’ most wide-reaching and record-breaking

pieces of music. “Dynamite” earned the group their first solo Hot 100 #1 song, followed by both

“Butter” and “Permission to Dance,” which reigned at the top the charts for a combined eight

weeks in May-July 2021. “Butter” holds records for largest YouTube video premiere (3.9 million

viewers) and most watched video on YouTube in 24 hours (108,200,000 views), both of which

were previously held by “Dynamite”. “Dynamite” and “Butter” earned the group (and Korean

artists at large) their first two Grammy nominations and performances, along with sweeping most

major Korean and U.S.-based awards shows.

118

Spotify reported a 300% spike in new listeners

after “Dynamite” was released.

119

That these songs are historic is generally noteworthy, but that

each was developed as a pandemic-specific health intervention makes each and every award

intimately connected to advancements in and the prominence of public health as a field.

Lastly, BTS expressed at length that online concerts were designed to “be healing for

ARMY,” and that the members “hope[d] we could comfort and make you happy through…

online concerts.”

120

While the members expressed their continued frustration about a lack of in-

person concerts, they also acknowledged how lucky they were to continue performing thanks to

technology and felt that “we were comforted by this, it really feels like there is hope.”

121

BTS’

four online concerts hold worldwide records for number of attendees and virtual concert profits

that only increased over time. One showing of BangBangCon in June 2020 generated $20

million in tickets from around 756,600 viewers, “Map of the Soul: ONE”’ generated at least $43

million over two performances. 2021 MUSTER: Sowoozoo earned an estimated $71 million

over two performances thanks to 1.33 million viewers from 195 different countries, which means

that BTS attracted least one viewer from every country in the world. These metrics demonstrate

once again the unparalleled size, scope, and profitability of BTS’ health-based approach to

making and performing music.

1.5 Diversity and Accessibility

In addition to discussing and responding to health issues through their musical career,

BTS also uses their platform to actively create a more inclusive space for marginalized

populations.

122

This trend continued during the pandemic with the group’s use of sign language

and disability-inclusive imagery in their English language single “Permission To Dance.”

BTS

has a reputation for intricate, complex, and show-stopping dance moves; however, “Permission

to Dance” instead incorporates American and International Sign Language words for “dance”

and “enjoy” into the “beautifully simple” chorus choreography, designed so that “people of all

ages with a full range of (dis)abilities” can “learn…and participate” in the dance.

123

Deaf and disabled ARMY responded with overwhelming, but thoughtful and critical

positivity, and the entire fandom trended #DeafARMY on Twitter to commemorate the

occasion.

124

Popular media articles across multiple countries discussed the importance of BTS’

inclusivity, and the director of the WHO commended the group for their actions on Twitter,

linking the use of sign language directly to large-scale accessibility in an audio-driven field that

can be uniquely inaccessible for deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

125

HYBE and BTS also

premiered an online dance challenge that quickly accrued thousands of submissions, some of

which were included in both a YouTube compilation video and onscreen at their Los Angeles

concerts.

126

Lastly, the group performed the song at the United Nations General Assembly in

New York when the group addressed the Sustainable Development Goals Summit in October

2021.

127

Through targeting a population often excluded by the hearing-centric music market,

BTS proactively centers marginalized identities in their music making to ensure that their health-

based interventions can encompass a larger and more diverse audience.

Section 2- “Seven Billion Lights:” Multi-Media Connectivity and Public Health Education

BTS, like the rest of humanity, quickly and drastically ceased person-to-person

interactions in March 2020 due to COVID-19. As BTS are performers whose livelihood, well-

being, and financial success is greatly dependent on large-scale live performance, the members,

ARMY, and HYBE rapidly developed alternative forms of fan-artist engagement to counteract

the socio-emotional and financial impacts of this newfound separation. BTS and ARMY utilized

song lyrics, cutting-edge online concerts, and non-musical video and social media content to

ameliorate the negative physical and mental health effects of increased isolation during COVID-

19.

128

Given evidence that social isolation during the early pandemic was robustly linked with a

variety of negative physical, mental, and emotional outcomes and that “online contacts seemed

crucial in protecting mental health….when offline contacts were limited” during this time, BTS

and ARMY’s innovative uses of music and digital media to build community represent a unique,

large-scale intervention combatting social isolation.

129

2.1 “Still With You” Through Songs for ARMY

BTS unquestionably struggled with their extended separation from their fans. Lyrics in

songs such as My Universe, Still With You, Telepathy, and Stay compare their pre-COVID-19

experiences with ARMY to a “dream” that evaporates “when I open my eyes,” underscoring the

ways in which isolation challenged conceptualizations of lived reality.

130

Perhaps the most

obvious example of these sentiments was the group’s cover of I’ll Be Missing You. In this re-

imagining of Puff Daddy’s tribute to the late Tupac, the titular refrain is dedicated to BTS’ fans,

and the members changed the lyrics to COVID-19-specific sentiments such as “give anything to

see half your face.”

131

The members also frequently mentioned how much they missed and

wanted to perform for ARMY in concert speeches, with one member even breaking down in

tears at the end of the Map of the Soul ON:E online concert.

132

As a result, BTS sought to affirm connections with ARMY through their music and

digital media presence. Throughout their pandemic-time discography, BTS constantly assured

ARMY that “even when you’re not next to me, even when I’m not next to you, we all know

we’re together.”

133

Songs such as “Stay” and “Still With You” need little explanation beyond

their titles, while “Your Eyes Tell” promises the audience that “wherever you are I'll find you.”

The bridge of “Butter” reminds not only the group’s fans, but the entire world, that BTS “got

ARMY right behind us when we say so,” a line accompanied by YMCA-style choreography that

spells out the letters “A-R-M-Y” with the members’ bodies.

134

One of BTS’ self-stated main themes in creating pandemic-time music was “telepathy,”

or the concept that two parties can understand, empathize, and communicate with each other

without interacting face-to-face.

135

While telepathy in modern media often falls into the realm of

supernatural or magically ordained, BTS instead deliberately constructs this form of

“togetherness” through intentional acts of emotional vulnerability, empathy, and community care

across multiple digital platforms.

One such instance of vulnerability can be found in how BTS used their music to

explicitly affirm ARMY’s positive health impacts on the members’ own well-being during the

pandemic. The actual song “Telepathy” opens with the lines “In the days that feel the same, I’m

the happiest when I meet you…you are the most special person to me.”

136

The lyrics of “Snow

Flower” inform listeners that “your warmth will melt my blue and grey away,” implying that the

anxiety and depression that the members experienced during COVID-19 can be and were

alleviated through ARMY’s support.

137

Pandemic-time lyrics frequently call upon the group’s

long-used comparison of ARMY to stars in the night sky (i.e. “My night is adorned with stars of

love made of you”),

with the group extending this metaphor by referring to ARMY as “my

universe” in their song of the same name.

138

Online concerts expanded the platform through which BTS and ARMY could facilitate

pandemic-safe “togetherness” through constantly evolving real-time communication pathways.

In their first online concert in June 2020, the members were able to read live comments from

viewers, though it was difficult for the software platform to keep up in real-time. At Map of the

Soul: One in October 2020, fans entered a lottery to have their faces displayed in real time during

a portion of the concert, and live fan cheers were piped into the stadium. June 2021’s Sowoozoo

represented the pinnacle of digital audience participation: fans were placed onscreen where the

audience would normally sit for the entire duration of the show, allowing BTS members to

interact with specific audience members. ARMY could submit recordings of “fan chants”

(company-designed audience call and response cheers that accompany most K-pop songs) that

were played in real time during performance, and applause and cheering were piped in

throughout.

139

Additionally, BTS and HYBE used social media to interact with ARMY in live-streamed

concert spaces, engaging in cross-media communication to demonstrate artist engagement in fan-

created digital content. During Sowoozoo, a concert catered specifically to fans, the members

noted that “since we haven’t met in a while, we may feel like we’re further apart. But in order to

get to you…we’re continuously seeking and following your signals.”

140

The “signals” in

question were ARMY’s various hashtag events, where the fans trend a particular hashtag on

Twitter and/or Weverse for mass impact. A particularly moving example was the group’s

discussion of #SkyforNamjoon, which trended #1 worldwide on Twitter for around a day in July

2020.

141

On July 15, 2020, BTS’ leader Namjoon, stage name RM, commented on a fan’s

Weverse post of a sunset that “sky always gives us the reasons to live.”

142

Moved by the

sentiment, ARMY mass-posted pictures of skies around the world to share with RM. During

Sowoozoo, RM thanked ARMY for their participation and warmly stated that “I was so happy to

see so many beautiful skies.”

143

He then showed the audience his in-ear microphone monitors,

which were newly painted sky blue with clouds and his name in tribute. These cyclic, reciprocal

interactions merged digital communication with embodied reality to produce stronger bonds of

connection between BTS and ARMY both during the hashtag event and during BTS’ online

concert.

Lastly, BTS reframes COVID-19 as an event that will bring the members and ARMY

closer to each other throughout their concerts, songs, and interviews. “In a world of uncertainty,

we must cherish the importance of ‘me,’ ‘you’ and ‘us,’” because the “reason we can endure this

situation is that we are in this together,” remarked several members.

144

The members reflected

several times that the pandemic showed the group that ARMY was what was “really important,”

and frequently emphasized that they will never be able to take concerts and in-person

interactions “for granted” again.

145

In these ways, the group suggests instead that “someday the

sadness will wind us together” instead of merely keeping the artists and their fans apart.

146

Thus,

“even the darkness we see is so beautiful” because “[I’m] looking straight ahead, only at you.”

147

Through this reframing of separation, BTS helps listeners re-imagine and cope with separation

while still acknowledging the painful, difficult reality of isolation.

2.2 “Extramusical” Content Beyond the Scene

In addition to connecting with fans via music and online concerts, some of BTS’ most

novel sites of digital media-delivered health interventions can be found via what I dub the

group’s “extramusical” digital content, or that which is not explicitly produced to create,

promote, or perform the group’s discography. BTS’ extramusical content spans many formats

and platforms, from the group’s self-produced weekly variety game show that premiered in 2015

and livestreamed videos to engaging with fan posts on Twitter and HYBE’s social media

platform Weverse. During the early days of the pandemic, BTS and HYBE “gave a lot of

thoughts on how we could keep communicating with ARMYs and share emotions even though

we cannot meet in a close distance so that we can give more energy to all of you.”

148

Their

solution: developing regular, pandemic-specific extramusical content to connect to, comfort, and

communicate with ARMY during the early days of the pandemic in hopes of improving the

health of both artists and fans.

It is important to note that this content strategy did not emerge in March 2020, and is

rather the product of ten years’ worth of development courtesy of HYBE, ARMY, and BTS.

Beginning with vlogs (video logs) that expressed the members’ fears, hopes, and dreams for their

careers before the group even released their first single in 2013, HYBE and BTS have used

digital media platforms to increase artist relatability through giving ARMY structured insights

into the members’ complex internal thoughts and feelings.

149

ARMY in turn have taken to

various social media platforms to share their stories (life experiences, worries, struggles) through

posts, pictures, and videos, often expressing their gratitude to BTS for improving their lives and

overall health. BTS members then directly respond with words of encouragement, advice, and

affirmation; they have also discussed in both interviews and music that reading these posts gives

the members themselves comfort, happiness, and inspiration to continue making value-based

music.

150

BTS and HYBE also create entertainment rather than musical content, including full-

length variety show episodes and documentary series that are designed to bring joy and

happiness to viewers through showing fans a “different side” of BTS.

151

Variety show episodes,

for example, regularly feature the members playing all age-appropriate board and card games,

learning new sports, and completing challenges. Some members also maintain regular individual

content series, such as the food-focused “Eat Jin” mukbang show.

152

ARMY often meme,

parody, and amplify this content, which BTS members often directly respond or refer to in

subsequent posts and videos, resulting in what Ringland et. al refers to as a reciprocal “culture of

play” in digital spaces.

153

As Ringland et. al discusses, “play has real world impact and

consequences—not the least of which is to support coping, meaning-making, and sense of

connectedness, thus improving quality of life and well-being for ARMY.”

154

Moreover, multiple

public health scholars have observed that play is vital for a culture of health for both adults and

children and that play enhances physical and mental well-being.

155

Both playful and emotional

“bi-directional interaction” between BTS and ARMY also regularly occurs in real time via video

streaming platforms when ARMYs leave comments for BTS via live text chat.

156

BTS, HYBE, and ARMY have clearly worked together to “construct safe and enjoyable

online places” for humor, empathy-building, and community support.

157

As a result, BTS exert a

“profound, intimate influence at… a massive and diverse scope” through social media

interactions with ARMY that increase perceived relatability, accessibility, and vulnerability

while also improving the members’ own mental health.

158

These spaces became an invaluable

lifeline for both BTS and ARMY during the pandemic and provided a wide-scale platform for

developing artist-fan interpersonal connections and deploying innovative pandemic-specific

public health education strategies.

Throughout the course of 2020-2021 BTS members maintained regular livestreamed

video sessions where members talked directly to fans, celebrated birthdays and major

professional milestones, engaged in leisurely everyday activities (e.g., bracelet making and

cooking), and showed glimpses of their work on the BE album. This content production was

particularly prolific during the complete global shutdown that marked the earliest days of the

pandemic (March 2020-August 2020), where members would host multiple livestreams per week

that were often serial in nature. For example, Rapper SUGA maintained a weekly fake radio

show dedicated to “ARMYs who must have felt bored,” where he gave life advice and invited

other members to read children’s stories.

159

In SUGA’s episodes, and in most livestreams, the members expressed their gratitude that

they could remain connected to ARMY through these forms of technology. “The distance has

widened between people, but we are getting closer to each other, too,” reflected SUGA in one

episode.

160

The group’s most active Weverse user, V, similarly remarked in several interviews

that reading and responding to fan posts helped reassure them that ARMY were real, living

people (particularly as critics argued that ARMY were electronic “bots” rather than real humans

to justify BTS’ dominating streaming successes during the pandemic).

161

As he reflected:

“Somehow, I feel better when I hear their stories. When I end up reading things about

how ARMY are living…I can’t help but write a response, and because of that ARMY

respond…I want to be ARMY’s partner, their best friend, the friend who’s always by their

side when we’re not on stage…. It’s been a long time since I could see my friend, ARMY.

Usually when friends can’t see each other they keep in touch all the time.”

162

As can be seen from V’s quote, V conceptualizes social media as an avenue for a diverse array of

global communication for both the members and fans to communicate feelings and experiences.

In response to pandemic-induced separation, both BTS and ARMY drew mutual support from

sharing stories and experiences.

Additionally, BTS both modeled and encouraged pandemic-safe behavioral practices,

including masking, social distancing, safe at-home activities, and vaccinations primarily through

pre-recorded and livestreamed video content. Pre-recorded content was often adjusted to

showcase safe behaviors to a large audience; for example, BTS replaced their travel documentary

show “Bon Voyage” with a new show entitled “In the Soop” that featured the members traveling

into the forest and engaging in “everyday activities between life and leisure.” Throughout the

show, the members demonstrated isolated, safe outdoor activities (i.e., hiking, bike riding,

fishing).

163

Similarly, the group’s weekly variety show “RUN BTS” included a two-episode

series released in early 2021 that focused specifically on easy “games you can play at home”

because “people still can’t go outside.” In addition to also showcasing safe activities in their

livestreamed content during early 2020, BTS members went a step further and encouraged

ARMY to participate in said activities alongside the members.

Livestreams also provided opportunities for BTS members to directly deliver COVID-19

health advice to ARMY in real-time. “You need to wear a mask. Even though the weather is

nice, the pandemic has not ended yet. Please make sure to wear a mask,” one member stated

emphatically in May 2020.

164

When the group appeared in front of the United Nations in October

2021, member Jin emphatically confirmed that “all seven of us, of course, have received

vaccinations.”

165

Given evidence that the general public are conditioned to react positively to

celebrity advice, and that celebrities can heavily influence health-related knowledge, these

strategies were likely helpful in encouraging mask adherence and physical activity during the

pandemic.

166

The WHO certainly capitalized on BTS’ social media impact when Director-General Dr.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to Twitter to share BTS content with the hashtag

#WearAMask after the release of “Dynamite” and again after the group’s United Nations

General Assembly Speech in the fall of 2020. One study demonstrated that not only did ARMY’s

interactions with Dr. Tedros both greatly increased the overall virality of the #WearAMask

hashtag, but that specifically increased the depth of viral diffusion “toward more diverse and

traditionally underserved areas both globally and domestically.”

167

Specifically, these tweets

“elicited heavy responses from countries in Southeast Asia and South/Central America, as

compared to messages that did not. Within the US, we found increased K-pop-related responses

in densely metropolitan States that are highly susceptible to disease transmission, and rural states

that are often neglected….by mainstream social media campaigns and news.” Thus, BTS and

ARMY’s social media presence can be used to engage with vulnerable populations that are

difficult to reach via traditional information dissemination methods.

In providing accurate, safe health advice and incorporating appropriate behavior into their

programming, BTS served as a uniquely wide-reaching ambassador for COVID-19 safety

procedures. While the impact of their words and actions is difficult to ascertain without further

research, the delivery of this information from a “trusted messenger” to the millions of viewers

around the globe that consistently watch BTS’ content represents an important and understudied

audience for mass intervention deployment.

Section 3- Fan to Fan Interventions: Grassroots ARMY Health Organizations

BTS’ public health work has an iterative impact far beyond their primary targeted

audience of music listeners due to the efforts of their fanbase, ARMY. This is in large part

because ARMY conceptualizes their identity as “more than…fans of BTS…we want to become

a fandom that cares for the people…just like BTS who wish to bring hope for everyone through

their music.” Thus, the “participatory culture” of BTS and ARMY “gives the fandom and their

messages [a] bigger effect on social media beyond the idol’s commercially-crafted public

image.”

168

ARMY in particular excels at developing a wide variety of digital spaces through

which individuals can interact with and support both BTS and other fans. Like many other

fandoms, ARMY curates a multitude of social media accounts, websites, and in-person

celebratory events dedicated to BTS’ music, performances, streaming and buying goals, fashion,

linguistic translation, and creation of fan-driven content such as fan art and fan fiction. The

primary audience for these accounts is normally other fans who appreciate and support BTS,

rather than the public.

Where ARMY diverges from other fandoms, however, is in the prolific number of cross-

disciplinary professional, cultural, and social platforms for fans that are not directly related to

BTS’ music, but are related to BTS and HYBE’s public health-oriented approach of creating

music to better the world. This “larger ecosystem…includes expertise- and culture-based

accounts” with thousands of followers that provide access to employment opportunities, free

legal education, recipes and Zoom cooking lessons, free tutoring, hobby and interest groups, and

geographic, identity, and cultural affinity spaces.

169

The fandom maintains a peer-reviewed

academic journal and an annual interdisciplinary conference, a quarterly magazine, and

regional/national accounts that organize in-person events for thousands of local constituents.

170

The over 2,000 member “Bangtan Academy” Discord teaches a variety of BTS-themed Korean

language classes for fans around the globe.

171

Notably, all of these organizations offer their

services and products free of charge, and are run primarily by volunteers.

The following section will examine three ARMY organizations devoted to fan-to-fan

public health intervention, education, and advocacy work. This in-depth discussion of each

organization’s inception, structure, and intervention methodologies will demonstrate how BTS’

public health-oriented musical platform produces sustained, global grassroots public health

organizing and intervention work among fans. As discussed by Min et. al, ARMY affinity spaces

are “learning environments where differences of age, class, race, gender, and education level are

relatively unimportant” in the dissemination of information and content.

172

Therefore, models

facilitated by each organization also represent important disruptions in practitioner-

patient/recipient hierarchies that challenge the borders of both national and international health

infrastructure to produce more wide-reaching and inclusive public health interventions.

3.1 ARMY Help Center

Multiple ARMY organizations focus specifically on public health and healthcare, with

three main platforms focusing on mental health advocacy programs, disability advocacy, and

health education for the general ARMY population. One of the largest ARMY public health

organizations is the ARMY Help Center, a network of over 200 trained volunteer mental health

advocates that span across 15 Twitter accounts operating in multiple languages.

173

Those seeking

mental health assistance can direct message one of these accounts, where an advocate will

“provide our users with a listening ear.”

174

Though the Center volunteers are not a substitute for

professional help, advocates are also trained by full-time mental health professionals using a

standardized curriculum to assist with in-the-moment crises and connect help-seekers to

appropriate professional mental health resources.

175

The Center’s accounts also host events and

campaigns providing mental health advice and resources to a combined following of over

100,000 across both Twitter and Instagram.

As of 2022, the Center engages with around 1,000 unique Twitter users over a three

month period, according to internal reports. While the group prioritizes anonymity and privacy

over robust user data collection, the Center’s lead U.S. moderator noted anecdotally that many

messages in 2020-2021 were written by Twitter users struggling with the mental health effects of

the pandemic. The moderator also noted that, internally, volunteers used the space as a coping

mechanism for their own pandemic-related stresses, in addition to the often difficult or draining

experience of communicating with users. This moderator, who is academically trained in

psychology, noted that BTS’ discussions of “stress, depression [and] anger'' during the pandemic

“solidified…their sincerity” and uniqueness as artists and public figures in a way that affirmed

the Help Center’s overall purpose.

176

The existence and success of the AHC demonstrates that BTS’ model of both delivering

and encouraging mental health interventions through music has created tangible, actionable

international public health infrastructure. This level of actionability is highly unusual and

unprecedented, and merits further study and examination.

3.2 BTS ARMY Medical Union

Another large health-focused organization is the BTS ARMY Medical Union (BAMU),

which provides community support systems for healthcare workers and cross-disciplinary health

education to a primary audience of over 30,000 followers via Twitter.

177

Around 30 “admins”

(account administrators) are subdivided into teams by field (e.g., dentistry, nursing, sciences),

and each team produces healthcare-centric content within the team’s wheelhouse. Educational

topics are often inspired by BTS members themselves, from breaking down the muscle activation

needed for specific choreography moves or highlighting the health benefits of cooking in

celebration of the members who prepare the most food on camera.

178

Interestingly, the account itself was created during the pandemic to provide support to

healthcare students and workers within the fandom. The organization’s founder explicitly

connected BTS’ public health-based musical model to BAMU’s creation, writing that:

“BTS has always been my source of comfort whenever I started to doubt myself… I

wanted to spread that kind of positivity and so I created BAMU with the intention to be a

haven for all the medical student ARMYs who need a bit of a boost from other ARMYs

who relate to what they're going through.”

179

The anecdotes of several account administrators echo these words. Some chose to be

involved in BAMU because BTS inspired them to give back to ARMY at large, and almost every

single testimony found on the group’s administrator directory mentioned that BTS’ music and

message had a positive impact on their lives and world outlook. Professionally, several

administrators attributed BTS’ work to increasing their motivation and performance in healthcare

spaces. “Compassion fatigue did hit hard for me, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic,

and these boys help me to relearn the real reason why I become a nurse, to help others,” noted

one administrator in the nursing department.

180

These testimonies demonstrate that BTS has a

large perceived impact on the development of both resilience and overall well-being for

individual healthcare workers, as well as the development of widely consumed health

information resources.

Given the level of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 masking, transmissions, and

vaccines and the high levels of healthcare worker burnout during the early pandemic, the BAMU

served as an important space that addressed both issues. The account regularly provided

scientifically accurate, easily accessible information about COVID-19 safety protocols during

2020-21. Additionally, the group launched Jimin’s Promise Campaign in October 2021, which

was a “a COVID-19 vaccination campaign to address vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and

inequity” created to celebrate vocalist Jimin Park’s birthday.

181

This four-pronged campaign

featured educational content, a vaccine donation fundraiser that raised money for 660 vaccine

doses for vulnerable populations, a forum through which over 270 ARMYs shared vaccination

stories and asked questions, and the #ARMYpromise challenge, which called upon ARMY to

commit to raising awareness of vaccine efficacy and getting vaccinated.

182

Jimin’s Promise Campaign illustrates the sheer scope of audience reach in ARMY-to-

ARMY initiatives, as seen by the 435,000 views obtained by the initial campaign promotion

tweet.

183

Additionally, the #ARMYpromise hashtag trended on Twitter under the topic of

“Music” for several hours shortly after the campaign launched, demonstrating both ARMY’s

collective investment in improving public health and ARMY’s ability to spread health

information and awareness to broader media spaces.

184

These developments represent significant

strides in digital communication avenues and demonstrate the potential for community-driven

social media-based public health awareness campaigns operating through fandoms rather than

traditional sites of public health information dissemination.

3.3 Disabled Army Advocacy & Support Network

The Disabled Army Advocacy & Support Network Twitter account combines the AHC

and BAMU’s models to provide both resources and support for disabled ARMY and disability

education information for the larger fandom. While slightly smaller than the BAMU and AHC in

both follower numbers (almost 5,000) and moderators (a single academic and lived experience

expert as opposed to a larger team), the account provides a myriad of digitally-delivered services,

which have had important real-life impacts during BTS’ return concerts in the winter of 2021.

The Network originally began in April 2021 due to a lack of disability-focused affinity

spaces within the fandom, though it was preceded by the Deaf ARMY Education account.

185

Moreover, the moderator noted that the group’s work always felt disability-friendly even though

BTS did not explicitly address disability in their music until July 2021. “I put mental health

under the same umbrella as disability…I really read a lot of their mental health campaigns and

all the comments they've made around those things…as also including disability,” the moderator

recalled.

186

In addition to providing comprehensive Twitter threads around a variety of disability-

centric topics (like the BAMU), the Network also reflects the AHC’s model in that the account

moderator frequently answers personal questions about disability status, diagnosis, and

navigation via direct message. Additionally, the account crowdsourced a “Comfort Songs for

BTS” playlist for ARMY “who need a tool to calm down and/or come out of a meltdown,”

providing more intentional intervention services directly centered in BTS’ music.

187

Lastly, the account performed a significant amount of advocacy and community

organizing work around BTS’ first in-person concerts after the start of the pandemic. This began

during ticketing, as Ticketmaster (the concert’s third party ticket purchasing site) employed

several ableist practices in ticketing that led for decreased accessibility and equity for disabled

fans. The most prominent example was the site’s failure to clearly mark and reserve Wheelchair

Accessible and ADA seating, allowing many abled ARMYs to buy seats that should have been

protected under federal law. Additionally, dynamic Ticketmaster fees that automatically doubled

and tripled resale prices made site-mediated ticket transferring of ADA seating financially and

logistically infeasible. Moreover, the site neglected to include screen reader-friendly

programming for those buying or selling tickets, making site navigation broadly inaccessible for

many disabled ARMYs.

In response, the Network facilitated fan-to-fan resales and ticket trades. The Network

conducted ticket trades through individual private Twitter messages and by re-tweeting trade and

sell requests from both abled and disabled ARMY. Ultimately, the account ensured that hundreds

of disabled fans were able to obtain accessible seating accommodations for BTS’ four Los

Angeles concerts in 2021. The Network also posted detailed explanations of the concert venue’s

accommodation policies and resources, and provided live updates from the concerts about the

(very poor) actualization of these policies.

Unlike the AHC and the BAMU, the Network intentionally focused on re-imagining a

health-focused digital space that exists outside the bounds of medicalization. As the Network’s

moderator observed, “A lot of disabled people face mostly medicalized experiences in their

lives…I'm the account that fills in the gap of the non-medical and talks about the social aspects

in a very disability-centered space rather than medical.” As many disability advocates have

discussed, “medicine and the health-related professions have contributed to the oppression of

people with disabilities, including the maintenance of a 'medical/knowledge power differential,'

reinforcement of the 'sick role,' and objectification of people with disabilities.”

188

Thus, the

Network demonstrates that intra-fandom ARMY health organizing not only improves

accessibility and health education but also dismantles and challenges oppressive hierarchies

within the fields of public health and medicine. Like the Network, all three ARMY health

organizations participate in re-imagining sites, sources, and structures of healthcare information

and service delivery to increase the bounds of both access and provision.

Section 4- For a Better World

In addition to fan interventions targeted towards other fans, both ARMY and BTS engage

in extensive organizing to improve broader population health. The lines between “internal” and

“external” interventions enacted by BTS and ARMY are not particularly clear-cut; after all,

anyone can listen to a singular BTS song or receive health information from an ARMY health

organization if they come across one on the Internet. However, “deep and horizontal

comradeship” between BTS and fans has been “actualized via transnational social media in

seeking various values, including social justice” through wider public health organizing designed

to impact broader populations.

189

As previously discussed, BTS’ purpose has always been to criticize and challenge

oppression facing youth and marginalized groups around the world. In the United States, simply

being a fan of BTS has generated counter-hegemonic “tactics and practices….in the realm of

civic and political engagement….given that most BTS fan activities …have been designed to

empower the status of the non-English speaking, small-agency-affiliated, K-pop group in the

advanced pop industry.”

190

That being said, ARMY across the entire globe have long dedicated

themselves to actively engaging in social justice work, from supporting pro-democracy protests

in Indonesia to speaking out against Japanese imperialism in Korea.

191

During the COVID-19 pandemic, BTS and ARMY continued to engage in anti-prejudice

work through increasing sign language and disability inclusion in their choreography, directly

addressing the racialization of COVID-19 and subsequent anti-Asian violence, and financially

supporting Black Lives Matter. In addition to supporting BTS, ARMY have also engaged in

digitally organized anti-policing, protest, and pro-democracy efforts. All of these actions seek to

address the negative impacts of systems of oppression such as racism and disability on health

equity, with important implications for marginalized populations.

192

The two interconnected

methods of public-facing interventions utilized by BTS and ARMY (both individually and in

tandem) are 1) enormous, conceptually driven, and ongoing fundraising efforts to improve

global, community, and individual health, and 2) developing “cyber power against social

injustice and youth struggle[s]” through enacting digital media-based campaigns in response to

prejudice and oppression.

193

4.1 One (In An ARMY) For the Money: Mutual Aid and Global Fundraising

ARMY and BTS consistently make popular media headlines for their consistent, large-

scale charity and mutual aid work.

194

As a group, BTS explicitly began building long-term health

fundraising infrastructure in 2017, reaching out to UNICEF to develop the “Love Yourself”

campaign “against violence toward children and teens around the world, with the hope of making

the world a better place through music.”

195

As of August 2021, the Love Yourself campaign has

raised approximately $3,724,580 through merchandise sales and donations from BTS, HYBE,

corporate sponsors, and individuals (including ARMY). Proceeds from the campaign go to

UNICEF’s global #EndViolence initiative, which works with community partners to develop

risk-informed child-protection systems in response to violence.

196

Notably, ARMY is not the

main population that benefits from Love Yourself campaign donations. Instead, BTS re-directs

profits and resources towards improving health outcomes for broader vulnerable populations, and

moreover calls upon individuals and communities in the world to “speak yourself” through

discovering individually meaningful avenues to improve the world.

197

This emphasis on “empowerment rather than direction,” particularly in comparison to

other financially-based “celebrity activism” initiatives contribute to the ARMY culture of

consistently “actualizing donations” to support BTS’ message.

198

ARMYs regularly organize

short-term fundraisers that contribute to bettering health outcomes across the globe, from helping

individuals recover from surgery to replanting an entire coral reef to funding supplies for an

entire hospital. Often, these campaigns are centered around important events in the fandom such

as member birthdays.

199

Additionally, ARMYs who are unable to attend concerts also regularly

donate the cost of their tickets towards an important cause, i.e., COVID-19 relief efforts or

supporting Ukrainian refugees in 2022.

200

In addition to this practice, which can be found across multiple fandoms, BTS also

maintains a global organization whose sole purpose is to regularly engage the fandom in

charitable fundraising. Started by one fan who was inspired by the Love Yourself campaign to

send medical supplies to Syria, “One In an ARMY'' organizers partner with mainly smaller

“non-profit organizations worldwide and harness the power of ARMY into giving micro-

donations over a one month period.”

201

Like other ARMY health intervention organizations,

OIAA maintains a complex internal structure: over 40 participants from various countries

participate in teams including research, social media/graphic design, and translation. OIAA

chooses organizations by polling ARMY interest, and its first poll in 2017 narrowed focus to

four main categories: human needs, human rights, health, and nature. Money is sent to

organizations directly from individual fans, and OIAA keeps track of donations through an

external submission process that verifies unique user identity and amount donated and provides

submission instructions for each non-profit.

202

According to OIAA’s official interactive map,

OIAA, BTS, and various independent campaigns combined for a total of 1,275 donation projects

across all seven continents between 2015-2022.

203

In the first year of operation (2018-2019),

“One in an ARMY” raised around $46,000 for a variety of health-related causes (i.e. cleft palate

care, meals for LBGTQ+ refugees, etc.).

204

During COVID-19, One in an ARMY (OIAA), along with many other ARMY accounts,

shifted their focus to COVID-19 relief efforts. For the month of April 2020, OIAA wrote that

they “followed a different format than our usual campaigns,” donating to nonprofits “we worked

with before” because “groups of people that were already in precarious situations are extremely

vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 and are more likely to be hit harder with the economic

fallout,” and thus these non-profits “ were in dire need of donations.”

205

According to OIAA’s

official summary, “690 ARMY from 44+ countries were able to raise $11,559.10 USD for

COVID-19 relief efforts!”

206

Additionally, OIAA teamed up with a Tunisian fanbase account to

host #ARMYCharityCon, an event that rewarded ARMY who engaged in charitable activities

using the app FreeRice with opportunities to win BTS merchandise.

207

According to OIAA’s official interactive map, OIAA, BTS, donated up with a Tunisian

fanbase account to host #ARMYCharityCon, an event that rewarded ARMY who engaged in

charitable activities using the app FreeRice with opportunities to win BTS merchandise.

208

These

efforts were mirrored by BTS and HYBE, who donated $1 million to Crew Nation, a campaign

to support live-entertainment personnel impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

209

Additionally,

Korean media reported several members making personal donations to COVID-19 relief efforts

to celebrate their birthdays.

210

4.2 Equity and Activism

Recent studies and media coverage have explored ARMY as a site of political and social

activism as the increasingly large fandom has used its media presence and economic power to

advocate for social justice.

211

BTS’ larger stance against prejudice has played a significant role in

why ARMY spaces are such rich spaces for advocacy and activism work. However, some of

these campaigns have originated via necessity, as BTS has faced a significant amount of

interpersonal and structural racism and xenophobia throughout their career.

212

ARMYs have also

been stereotyped and dismissed by popular Western media and other social media users as

“hysterical teenage girls” or, more recently, “AI/bots” used to boost BTS’ streaming numbers.

213

As a result, ARMY has a long history of general and BTS-specific advocacy and activism

campaign work; a particularly large body of research has examined the fandom’s actions

supporting Black Lives Matter and various democracy movements during the COVID-19

pandemic. Additionally, BTS has worked to make their music more accessible to the hard of

hearing community through incorporating sign language and disability-inclusive language into

their choreography and lyrics.

#StopAsianHate

While some of BTS’ diversity and inclusion work was proactive, the group also

responded to active racial discrimination on multiple fronts during 2020-21. The racialization of

COVID-19 as the “Chinese flu” or “China virus” by prominent Western leaders and media has

resulted in a steep increase of hate crimes and violence against Asian people, particularly in the

United States and other Western countries.

214

In response, Asian American organizers and anti-

racist allies have fought back under the broad campaign umbrella of #StopAsianHate. BTS has

long been a victim of interpersonal and structural racism at the hands of the Western music

industry and global media, including well-publicized incidents over the course of 2020-21,

including media outlets comparing BTS’ increased success to the virus itself or publishing

brutalized caricatures of the members.

215

In response, BTS condemned anti-Asian racism and publicly re-affirmed the members’

commitment to explicitly creating anti-racist music, culminating in the creation of the song “My

Universe.” During March 2021, BTS faced a significant wave of racism after performing their

first Grammy-nominated song at the awards show, and the world grappled with the Atlanta

shooting of eight Asian women.

216

On March 29, the group released a statement on Twitter

expressing their “grief and anger” over anti-Asian violence, sharing some “moments where we

faced discrimination as Asians” and asserting that “what is happening right now cannot be

disassociated from our identity as Asians.”

217

This statement was the most shared tweet of the

entire year and trended for several days, demonstrating the group’s outsized ability to amplify

and bring awareness to issues of discrimination.

218

BTS’ strategy to combat oppression has always been to produce music directly

responding to these issues. The group’s work prior to the pandemic has addressed issues ranging

from governmental corruption and political polarization to homophobia and body shaming.

219

The group continued this approach during the pandemic, stating in a November 2021 press

conference that “when we talk about Asian hate, our path, all the words, our music—I just hope

that this could truly help every Asian in the world, especially those who live in countries

abroad.”

220

One such piece of music was the late 2021 single “My Universe,” a collaboration

with the band Coldplay that reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.

221

As “My Universe” was developed in large part because a German DJ made racist

comments about BTS and mentioned Coldplay in the same segment, HYBE officially stated that

“social awareness found its way into the final product.”

222

In a short behind-the-scenes

documentary released on BTS’ YouTube channel, Coldplay’s Chris Martin states that “the song

is about how the power of love transcends all things, borders and rules and genders and race and

every sexuality. If you look at people right now who are divided by a border or can't be together,

that's what the song is about.”

223

Thus, “My Universe” not only addresses anti-Asian racism

through promoting love, solidarity, and community-building, but actively links this issue to both

LGBTQIA+ equity and border and immigration policing.

Black Lives Matter

BTS’ anti-racism work was not limited to communities with whom they directly identify.

As previously discussed, BTS’ core focus on rap and hip-hop has given the group long-standing

ties with the Black diaspora, particularly in the United States, and both BTS and ARMY have

long focused on “organizing flexible solidarity” even as both groups have had to reckon with

internal anti-Blackness.

224

After police officers and white supremacists murdered George Floyd,

Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery during May-June 2020—adding to the long

history of discriminatory structural and interpersonal violence against Black people via law

enforcement—BTS and ARMY engaged in significant political support of the

#BlackLivesMatter movement through monetary contributions to Black organizing efforts,

politically disrupting police surveillance, and “hashtag hijacking” several white supremacist

publicity campaigns and events on Twitter. Additionally, Korean ARMY trended the hashtag

#WeLoveYouBlackArmy to show support for Black ARMYs around the world.

225

In doing so,

both BTS and ARMY utilized digital media-organized protest work to advocate for increased

health equity and safety outcomes for Black people around the world. Importantly, many

ARMIES connected Black American struggles against prejudice directly to BTS’ musical

content, as seen through their use of specific songs and “fan cams” in disruptive tactics.

On June 6, 2021, Variety broke the news that BTS and HYBE (then still known as BigHit

Music) had donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter organization. Like many other artists

and public figures in both the K-pop and Western industry that made donations around this time,

the company released an accompanying statement recognizing that “Black people all over the

world are in pain at this moment from the trauma of centuries of oppression. We are moved by

the generosity of BTS and allies all over the world who stand in solidarity in the fight for Black

lives.”

226

In addition, “One In An ARMY” quickly led a response fundraiser entitled

#MatchAMillion, where ARMY raised an additional $1 million for the same cause.

227

Where BTS perhaps diverges from other pop musicians is in their recognition that Black

Lives Matter related intimately to their personal experiences and broader platform, as well as in

their acknowledgement that their actions represented a larger, synergistic effort to stand against

oppression with their fans. As the group discussed when interviewed,

“When we’re abroad or in other situations, we’ve also been subjected to prejudice. We

feel that prejudice should not be tolerated; it really has no place. We started to discuss

what we could do to help…We were aware of the fans, the hashtags, and their

participation. It was a decision we thought about very carefully: what could we do, as

part of our overall message of speaking out against prejudice and violence? We

discussed it very carefully with the company and that’s how this came about.”

228

These statements illustrate BTS’ recognition of personal anti-racist solidarity, fan

activism efforts, and the group’s larger, inherently anti-racist platform in supporting the Black

community. In a survey about the #MatchAMillion fundraiser (n = 216), 49% of ARMY

similarly credited “shared values and compassion” as bringing the group and the fandom

together in fundraising efforts, also citing “BTS’s explicit stance” against racism and the

fandom’s “well-established infrastructure” for mass organization as key factors behind

participation and success.

229

67% of responses mentioned that this success would encourage

them to participate further,” demonstrating again the success of BTS and ARMY’s iterative

approach to social justice work that centers self-driven participation over direction.

ARMY also participated in several more radical digital organizing efforts that were

successful in disrupting anti-Black surveillance and white supremacist rallies. One common

method ARMY utilized was “hashtag jacking” or “meme warfare,” wherein fans spammed

hashtags such as #WhiteLivesMatter and #MillionMAGAMarch with “fancams”—fan-made

videos of K-pop idols singing and dancing.

230

By flooding white supremacist hashtags generated

by the organizations such as Q-Anon and the Trump campaign, with unrelated and/or disruptive

content, ARMY and other K-pop fans effectively neutralized the power of these hashtags to

amplify harmful and racist content.

231

Fans also employed this strategy to crash the Dallas Police

Department’s iWatch civilian crime reporting app after the department requested that citizens

upload “illegal activity from the protests” in Dallas surrounding George Floyd’s murder.

232

Lastly, ARMY joined a large coalition of youth organizers on TikTok to falsely register

for Donald Trump’s June 2020 rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, contributing to a significant gap in

expected versus actual seat count. As one protester observed, “K-pop Twitter and Alt TikTok

have a good alliance where they spread information amongst each other very quickly. They all

know the algorithms and how they can boost videos to get where they want.”

233

Information

about how to sign up for the rally, including instructions on how to successfully register using

fake names and phone numbers, was quickly mass disseminated and then deleted to keep the

Trump campaign from discovering ARMYs’ efforts. The subsequent lack of attendance resulted

in significant media coverage across the nation.

234

All these efforts were large-scale coalitional campaigns that relied upon a wider K-pop

fanbase; the Twitter instigator of the Dallas Police iWatch intervention, for example, is a fan of

several K-pop groups but posts little to nothing about BTS. However, one study of ARMY

fancams directly linked BTS’ pro-equity messaging to fancam content. In May 2020, BTS rapper

SUGA released a music video for an individual single entitled “Daechitwa” that depicted a

peasant killing a tyrannical king in the style of a Korean historical drama.

235

This footage was

frequently repeated in BTS police-disrupting fancams, explicitly “adapting Daechwita’s

commercialized images of populist, youth rebellion into the repertoire of contemporary protest

techniques.”

236

BTS’ anti-discrimination musical content was linked to cross-national and cross-

racial struggles against oppressive governments, demonstrating global solidarity in response to

Black Lives Matter.

Discussion

Summary of Findings

BTS and ARMY have maintained a complex, multi-layered model of health intervention

through the channels of music and digital media. The synergistic infrastructure built between the

group and its ever-increasing fan base was uniquely suited for the “digital age” of COVID-19,

during which HYBE, BTS, and ARMY continued to innovate and developed pandemic-specific

interventions. BTS created music that openly discussed mental health challenges, engaged in

cognitive reframing and temporal distancing, provided joy and comfort, and increased

accessibility for deaf and hard of hearing listeners. ARMY and BTS also utilized a variety of

digital mediums to maintain connection and community during global isolation, encourage

pandemic-safe behaviors, and perform anti-prejudice health equity work. Additionally, ARMY

created and expanded grassroots community health organizations to further improve the health of

other fans. The resulting size and commercial success of this model has important implications in

the fields of health economics, healthcare delivery, and global health at large.

Limitations

The most obvious methodological limitation to this study is an inability to rigorously

ascertain the impact of BTS and ARMY’s intervention work on target audiences. Though many

published testimonies discuss how BTS’ music positively facilitated coping during the pandemic

and ARMY health organizations can provide both engagement metrics and observational

evidence of effect, further directed study is needed to reach substantial and evidence-based

conclusions about intervention efficacy. Other limitations include limited Korean language

proficiency and subsequent lack of access to non-English language secondary and primary

sources, particularly academic papers written in Korean and ARMY Twitter accounts and

organizations operating in non-English languages. Additionally, not all BTS-produced content

was coded for the purpose of this study, as discussed above. Finally, not all ARMY organizations

had the same level of data management and archival capability, resulting in differing levels of

information provided by each organization.

Conclusions & Implications

BTS and ARMY’s “music for healing” model maintains multiple intercessions within

several fields including health economics, accessibility studies, and intervention design, all of

which maintain rich avenues for future study. From a healthcare economics standpoint, any

“intimate link between artists and fans…is forged within the terrain of capital,” from the

affective and creative labor of the artists to the consumption of creative products and

merchandise by fans.

237

If BTS and HYBE’s work is viewed through a healthcare/public health-

based model, this in and of itself lends important dimensions to understanding new avenues for

healthcare consumerism and the economic “market” of health.

As previously stated, BTS is the one of most profitable musical acts in the world, and

HYBE one of the fastest growing multi-billion dollar companies. Importantly, their economic

impact extends far beyond the artists and their company’s shareholders: a 2020 Harvard Business

Review case study estimated that BTS generates about “$4.9 billion of South Korea’s GDP,” and

the Korean tourism industry estimated that BTS topping Billboard Charts with “Dynamite”

generated roughly $1.5 billion to the country’s economy during one of the toughest years for

tourism in recent memory.

238

Just four 2021 concerts in Los Angeles may have injected upwards

of $100 million into an urban economy struggling to recover from the pandemic.

239

BTS also

regularly sells out a variety of consumer goods via official corporate sponsorships; even products

casually mentioned, worn, or used by BTS members are often sold out for months thereafter.

240

HYBE has continued to provide a variety of virtual options for fans even as BTS has

transitioned to in-person concerts. The group’s three day run in Seoul during March 2022

grossed over $90 million in ticket sales from a combination of in-person attendance and global

online streaming, and hybrid movie theater screening tickets sold to 2.46 million fans worldwide.

Their success has important implications for the profitability of increased concert and

performance accessibility for disabled and other marginalized fans.

This is but one example of how BTS and ARMY complicate the dichotomization of

healthcare as a consumer product and community-based, not-for-profit grassroots initiatives.

High-profit healthcare corporations have often been justly accused of enacting and furthering

existing health(care) disparities and structural inequities including racism and socio-economic

disparities.

241

However, even though BTS’ “affective labor falls within the mechanisms of

capital” and HYBE is a multi-billion dollar corporation, both “produce collective subjectivities

and sociality…which can possibly be liberating and empowering” through “challenging the

hegemonic cultures and views in the western world” that negatively impact health equity.

242

ARMY grassroots organizing demonstrates a model of sustained, large-scale intervention

and education that thrives because, rather than despite, a “reported lack of a central hierarchical

structure.”

243

These interventions have reached not only thousands of other fans, but have had

important implications for even larger vulnerable populations. Future research to ascertain

intervention efficacy, more robust associations between BTS’ public health approach and

economic impact, and deliberately engaging BTS and ARMY to scale up existing interventions

are but a few directions of potentially important further inquiry.

Placing BTS, ARMY, and HYBE’s health intervention work into a public and global

health context makes it clear that all three entities have collaboratively re-shaped the field at

large across several planes and platforms, disrupting structural and international hegemonies of

power, language, and access. The nexus of these three entities marks an exciting and

understudied site of both current and future mass interventions that can be easily and cohesively

implemented at a global scale.

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Notes

A census in 2020 for and by ARMY gained over 402,000 self-reported responses over the course of around a

month. BTS ARMY Census Project, “2020 Results,” BTS ARMY CENSUS, accessed April 28, 2022,

https://www.btsarmycensus.com/2020-results.

Significant debate persists around the usage of the term “K-pop” as both a genre and an industry, particularly

within the Anglophone musical market. Genre-wise, framing all commercial music exported by Koreans as

“Korean” pop has been used to sideline and dismiss artists such as BTS on the Western musical scene, as seen by

the development of a separate “K-pop” category at the VMAs in 2018. Moreover, it should be noted that despite the

association of idol groups with “pop” specifically, many idol groups often hybridize and re-imagine Western

categories of genre within their discographies. That being said, Korea as a nation-state has claimed the idol industry

as a cultural export used to increase the country’s soft power through emphasizing rather than downplaying the

“Korean-ness” of K-pop in appealing to a global market. Therefore, BTS’ member SUGA’s definition of K-pop is

likely the most helpful in providing broader context about the industry. As he discussed in a 2018 interview, ‘K-pop

includes not just the music, but the clothes, the makeup, the choreography…all these elements I think sort of

amalgamate together in a visual and auditory content package, that I think sets it apart from other music or maybe

other genres so again, as I said, rather than approach K-pop as its own genre I think approaching it as this integration

of different content would be better.” See Aja Romano, “MTV Added a K-Pop Award to the VMAs. BTS Fans

Think It’s a Way of Excluding the Band.,” Vox, July 24, 2019, https://www.vox.com/2019/7/24/20707906/vmas-

awards-k-pop-category-bts-fans-backlash-racist; Bangtan Seoyeondan, BTS Grammy Museum Full Conversation,

October 23, 2018, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=498570413954851; Ioana Raluca Bãjenaru, “Bangtan Boys

(BTS)- Part of South Korea’s Cultural Diplomacy Strategy,” SOUTH KOREA, n.d., 26; Youna Kim, ed., The Soft

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Korea’s idol industry is known for its unique intensive training system, wherein companies train teenage recruits in

singing, dancing, performance, and acting sometimes for years before top candidates are selected to join idol groups.

Most major idol companies retain significant control over the professional and personal lives of both trainees and

idols when under contract. In recent years, a rise in idol suicides has prompted investigations into the industry’s

often non-existent handling of idol mental health. For more, see Christopher Zysik, “K-Pop and Suicide:

Marginalization and Resistance in the Korean Pop Industry,” German Society for Popular Music Studies 19

(September 2021): 18; Crystal Tai, “Exploding the Myths behind K-Pop,” The Observer, March 29, 2020, sec.

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on @Twitter and Counting!  Https://T.Co/LVR3cG7cgi,” Tweet, Twitter, December 12,

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world-sets-most-retweeted-tweet-in-2021/; World Music Awards [@WORLDMUSICAWARD], “#BTS’s

#Jungkook Has the Most Liked Artist Tweet of 2021 with 2.8 MILLION Likes!,” Tweet, Twitter, January 30, 2021,

https://twitter.com/WORLDMUSICAWARD/status/1355550405774737409.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [@DrTedros], “Great Meeting with @MOPHQatar’s Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari,

@FIFAcom’s Gianni Infantino, Hassan Al-Thawadi, and @WHOEMRO’s Ahmed Al-Mandhari about the Sport &

Health Project & Our Joint Commitment to Leverage the @FIFAWorldCup 2022 as a Global Platform for

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갈 @McIlroyRory 구해요 https://t.co/dk825MOD2V,” Tweet, Twitter, April 1, 2022,

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sports on April 1

, 2022; BTS’ tweet received 1.5 million likes over the next 12 days and the WHO received 161

likes.

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Health,” JISIP (Jurnal Ilmu Sosial Dan Pendidikan) 5, no. 2 (March 1, 2021),

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Level Cognitive Brain Networks,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

116, no. 24 (June 11, 2019): 12103–8, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817536116; Carolyn J. Murrock and Patricia A.

Higgins, “The Theory of Music, Mood and Movement to Improve Health Outcomes,” Journal of Advanced Nursing

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and Wellbeing in Health Settings,” Perspectives in Public Health 138, no. 4 (July 2018): 209–14,

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See, for example: Claudius Conrad, “Music for Healing: From Magic to Medicine,” The Lancet 376, no. 9757

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“The Neuroscience of Music; a Review and Summary,” Psychiatria Danubina 30, no. Suppl 7 (November 2018):

588–94; Joke Bradt, Cheryl Dileo, and Minjung Shim, “Music Interventions for Preoperative Anxiety,” The

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 6 (June 6, 2013): CD006908,

https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006908.pub2; S. Evers, “Music for rheumatism--a historical overview,”

Zeitschrift Fur Rheumatologie 49, no. 3 (June 1990): 119–24; Lisa Gallagher, Ruth Lagman, and Lisa Rybicki,

“Outcomes of Music Therapy Interventions on Symptom Management in Palliative Medicine Patients - PubMed,”

American Journal of Hospital Palliative Care, February 2018, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28274132/; Joke

Bradt et al., “Music Interventions for Improving Psychological and Physical Outcomes in Cancer Patients,”

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 8 (2016), https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006911.pub3; Sofia

Monsalve-Duarte et al., “Music Therapy and Music Medicine Interventions with Adult Burn Patients: A Systematic

Review and Meta-Analysis,” Burns: Journal of the International Society for Burn Injuries, November 16, 2021,

S0305-4179(21)00310-7, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.burns.2021.11.002; Joke Bradt and Cheryl Dileo, “Music

Interventions for Mechanically Ventilated Patients,” The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, no. 12 (2014):

CD006902, https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006902.pub3; Ritva Torppa and Minna Huotilainen, “Why and

How Music Can Be Used to Rehabilitate and Develop Speech and Language Skills in Hearing-Impaired Children,”

Hearing Research 380 (September 2019): 108–22; Katlyn J. Peck et al., “Music and Memory in Alzheimer’s

Disease and The Potential Underlying Mechanisms,” Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 51, no. 4 (January 1, 2016):

949–59, https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-150998; Jihui Lyu et al., “The Effects of Music Therapy on Cognition,

Psychiatric Symptoms, and Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease,” Journal of Alzheimer’s

Disease: JAD 64, no. 4 (2018): 1347–58, https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180183; Amee Baird and Séverine Samson,

“Chapter 11 - Music and Dementia,” in Progress in Brain Research, ed. Eckart Altenmüller, Stanley Finger, and

François Boller, vol. 217, Music, Neurology, and Neuroscience: Evolution, the Musical Brain, Medical Conditions,

and Therapies (Elsevier, 2015), 207–35, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2014.11.028; Aleksi J. Sihvonen et al.,

“Music-Based Interventions in Neurological Rehabilitation,” The Lancet Neurology 16, no. 8 (August 1, 2017):

648–60, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(17)30168-0; Sini-Tuuli Siponkoski, “Music Therapy Enhances

Executive Functions and Prefrontal Structural Neuroplasticity after Traumatic Brain Injury: Evidence from a

Randomized Controlled Trial,” Journal of Neurotrauma 37 (February 20, 2020),

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/neu.2019.6413?url_ver=Z39.88-

2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed; Aleksi J. Sihvonen et al., “Vocal Music

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Social Communication and Auditory–Motor Connectivity in Children with Autism,” Translational Psychiatry 8

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2016): 272–78, https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2016.1182195; Itsuko Yoshida et al., “Evaluating Educational

Media Using Traditional Folk Songs (‘Lam’) in Laos: A Health Message Combined with Oral Tradition,” Health

Promotion International 27, no. 1 (March 1, 2012): 52–62, https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dar086; Jill B. Hamilton

et al., “‘You Need a Song to Bring You Through’: The Use of Religious Songs to Manage Stressful Life Events,”

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Rosenberg, “The Soundtrack of Revolution Memory, Affect, and the Power of Protest Songs,” Culture Unbound :

Journal of Current Cultural Research 5, no. 2 (2013): 175–88, https://doi.org/10.25595/1470; Camellia Webb-

Gannon and Michael Webb, “‘More than a Music, It’s a Movement’: West Papua Decolonization Songs, Social

Media, and the Remixing of Resistance,” The Contemporary Pacific 31, no. 2 (2019): 309–43,

https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2019.0025; Andy Brader, Songs of Resilience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).

Msia Kibona Clark, Mickie Mwanzia Koster, and Amentahru Wahlrab, “Speaking Truth To Power: Hip Hop and

the African Awakening,” in Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati (Lexington Books, 2014); Tyler

Hayes, “New Songs of Hope, Awareness, and Protest Are Not New Messages,” Shondaland, June 19, 2020,

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House,” New England Journal of Medicine 359, no. 11 (September 11, 2008): 1085–87,

https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp0805482.

Clark, Koster, and Wahlrab, “Speaking Truth To Power: Hip Hop and the African Awakening.”

Chris Malone, “25 Empowerment Anthems: Songs for an Extra Boost of Confidence,” Billboard (blog),

November 28, 2017, https://www.billboard.com/culture/pride/25-empowerment-anthems-songs-extra-boost-

confidence-8013886/; Jennifer Welsh, “Jolij Created the Most Uplifting Playlist,” Tech Insider, accessed April 29,

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Kat Bein, “10 Dance Songs For Mental Health Awareness Month,” Billboard (blog), May 19, 2020,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/dance-songs-mental-health-awareness-month-9386206/; R. Serge

Denisoff, “Protest Songs: Those on the Top Forty and Those of the Streets,” American Quarterly 22, no. 4 (1970):

807–23, https://doi.org/10.2307/2711871.

Kat R. Agres et al., “Music, Computing, and Health: A Roadmap for the Current and Future Roles of Music

Technology for Health Care and Well-Being,” Music & Science 4 (January 1, 2021): 2059204321997709,

https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204321997709.

KOREA NOW, [FULL VER.] BTS Hitman Bang Si-Hyuk’s Speech on Good Content at ASEAN-ROK Culture

Innovation Summit, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U66rRd3PgG8.

Rebecca Davis, “BTS: How Its Fans, ARMY, Could Change the Music Industry - Variety,” accessed April 29,

2022, https://variety.com/2020/music/asia/bts-fans-army-music-industry-1234786977/.

For example, Atlantic Records’ motto is “Over 70 Years of Recorded Music History,” Sony’s is “Make.Believe,”

and Korean idol powerhouse agency JYP touts the phrase “Leader in Entertainment.” “Atlantic Records,” accessed

April 29, 2022, https://www.atlanticrecords.com/; Jeff Benjamin, “J.Y. Park’s Inspirations to Lead & Perform in K-

pop for 25 Years: Exclusive Interview | Billboard – Billboard,” accessed April 29, 2022,

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Message,” accessed April 29, 2022, https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/News/Press/200909/09-100E/.

Recently, BigHit’s re-brand into the more expansive HYBE has resulted in a motto change to “We Believe in

Music.” That being said, BTS’ direct management still maintains that the main goal of all musical creation is

“creating the music…that can resonate with fans across the world.” “HYBE,” accessed April 29, 2022,

http://www.hybecorp.com; “Artists | BIGHIT MUSIC,” accessed April 29, 2022, http://www.ibighit.com.

Raisa Bruner, “J-Hope of K-Pop Sensation BTS Discusses His New Solo Mixtape | Time,” accessed April 29,

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Magazine,” Tumblr, Bts-Trans (blog), accessed April 29, 2022, https://bts-

trans.tumblr.com/post/56148920646/interview-130722-cuvism-magazine.

See, for example: Bangtan Seoyeondan, No More Dream, 2 Cool 4 Skool (BigHit Entertainment, 2013); Bangtan

Seoyeondan, N.O., Song, O!RUL82? (BigHit Entertainment, 2013); Bangtan Seoyeondan,

등골브레이커

(Spine

Breaker), Skool Love Affair (BigHit Entertainment, 2014); Bangtan Seoyeondan, If I Ruled The World, O!RUL82?

(BigHit Entertainment, n.d.).

RM and Wale, Change (BigHit Entertainment, 2017), https://genius.com/Rm-and-wale-change-lyrics.

B. William Brennan, “The Korean Boy Band BTS Mapping the Soul,” Journal of Analytical Psychology 65, no. 5

(November 2020): 937–43, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5922.12635.

Laiba Afrakh and Naeem Aslam, “Impact of BTS Music on the Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing of the

Youth” (National Institute of Psychology, 8th International Conference, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, n.d.);

Diana Achmad, Siti Sarah Fitriani, and Dini Hanifa, “Love Myself Campaign: Exploring Branden’s Six Pillars of

Self-Esteem in BTS Songs,” Proceeding of The International Conference on Literature 1, no. 1 (August 27, 2019):

129–36, https://doi.org/10.24815/.v1i1.14409.

Jin Ha Lee et al., “Finding Home": Understanding How Music Supports Listeners’ Mental Health through a Case

Study of BTS,” in Proc. of the 22 Nd Int. Society for Music Information Retrieval Conf, vol. 8, 2021.

See, for example BANGTANTV, [2021 FESTA] BTS (

방탄소년단

) ‘

아미

만물상점

’ #2021BTSFESTA, 2021,

8:24, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRWMeT6ykFU.

Jiyoung Lee, BTS, Art Revoluton, trans. Stella Kim Shinwoo Lee, 1st edition (Seoul: parrhesia, 2019).

“The BTS Sphere: Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth’s Transnational Cyber-Nationalism on Social Media -

Dal Yong Jin, 2021,” accessed April 29, 2022, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20570473211046733.

Many artists of all traditions have dedicated creative pieces to their fans, and K-pop is no exception. Known as

“fan songs,” most idol groups produce tracks designed to thank their fans for supporting them. Genius Korea,

“Lyrics Dedicated to K-pop Fandoms: K-pop’s Best Fan Songs,” accessed April 29, 2022,

https://genius.com/discussions/404687-Lyrics-dedicated-to-K-pop-fandoms-K-pops-best-fan-songs.

doolsetbangtan, “Answer: Love Myself Korean to English Translation,” accessed April 29, 2022,

https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com/?s=answer+love. Translation note: when the author was unable to directly

translate BTS’ lyrics from Korean to English, translations were obtained from doolset lyrics. A fan-run website that

provides both Korean to English translations and cultural context and background for BTS’ lyrics, doolset lyrics

provides a more comprehensive approach to translation than mainstream lyric translation sites such as Genius

Lyrics.

Ace Jung Hoseok

[@SierraNicoIe], “The First Time Hearing Epiphany Live in Concert Was LITERALLY Life-

Changing. Somehow, in That Stadium, Him Telling Me That I’m the One I Should Love and Me Singing That so

Loudly with a Bunch of Others, Internalized It and Made It Real and Practicable. It Was Magical.,” Tweet, Twitter,

May 25, 2021, https://twitter.com/SierraNicoIe/status/1397265843680124929.

Marian Liu, “K-Pop Group’s Record Breaking Album Conquers Three Continents,” CNN, September 21, 2017,

https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/asia/bts-kpop-rap-monster-interview/index.html.

“HYBE”; KOREA NOW, [FULL VER.] BTS Hitman Bang Si-Hyuk’s Speech on Good Content at ASEAN-ROK

Culture Innovation Summit.

Bruner, “HYBE’s Bang Si-Hyuk Explains His Vision For the Company Behind BTS.”

Brennan, “The Korean Boy Band BTS Mapping the Soul,” 940.

See, for example, Bangtan Seoyeondan, “BTS (방탄소년단) ‘I NEED U’ Official MV,” YouTube, April 29,

2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOuhvBJqKVY.

HYBE’s position as a small company in the Korean idol music industry limited early opportunities for official

promotion through Korean broadcast media, e.g. performances, news articles, and reviews (add citations).

Meanwhile, the Western music market’s long history of xenophobia and racism makes it difficult for non-English-

speaking artists to break into the market. ARMYs method for overcoming lack of radio play and other forms of

institutional recognition has been voting, streaming, and viewing BTS’ work with such high numbers that the

Western industry has been required to take notice. Breakthrough artist PSY attributes YouTube in particular to

creating alternative avenues for streaming. Hyejin Huang, “‘“강남스타일” 당시 피폐’ 싸이, BTS 슈가 손잡고

5 년만 컴백[종합],” accessed April 29, 2022, https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/609/0000568621; bora 

[@modooborahae], “More from the Press Conference...,” Tweet, Twitter, April 29, 2022,

https://twitter.com/modooborahae/status/1520041183870922753. For example, BTS’ first major breakthrough in the

Western music awards scene was their win of the fan-voted “Top Social Artist'' award at the 2017 American Music

Awards. Lauren Rearick, “BTS Just Shut Down the 2017 AMAs With Their Mindblowing Performance | Teen

Vogue,” accessed April 29, 2022, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/bts-shut-down-amas-2017-performance.

So Yeon Park et al., “Armed in ARMY: A Case Study of How BTS Fans Successfully Collaborated to

#MatchAMillion for Black Lives Matter,” in Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in

Computing Systems, CHI ’21 (New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, 2021), 1–14,

https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445353.

Anna Lee Swan, “Transnational Identities and Feeling in Fandom: Place and Embodiment in K-Pop Fan Reaction

Videos,” Communication, Culture and Critique 11, no. 4 (December 1, 2018): 548–65,

https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcy026.

Swan.

Zunera Malik and Sham Haidar, “Online Community Development through Social Interaction — K-pop Stan

Twitter as a Community of Practice,” Interactive Learning Environments 0, no. 0 (August 25, 2020): 1–19,

https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1805773.

Lady Flor Partosa, “We Are Not Robots: A Preliminary Exploration into the Affective Link between BTS x

ARMY,” The Rhizomatic Revolution Review [20130613], no. 2 (20210329), https://ther3journal.com/issue-2/we-

are-not-robots/.

Partosa.

See, for example, “GLAAD Saw a ‘Large Spike’ in Donations after Taylor Swift’s Music Video,” GAY TIMES,

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video/; Jackson Bird and Thomas V. Maher, “Turning Fans Into Heroes: How the Harry Potter Alliance Uses the

Power of Story to Facilitate Fan Activism and Bloc Recruitment,” in Social Movements and Media, ed. Jennifer Earl

and Deana A. Rohlinger, vol. 14, Studies in Media and Communications (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017), 23–

54, https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020170000014002; “‘If We Stick Together We Can Do Anything’: Lady

Gaga Fandom, Philanthropy and Activism through Social Media: Celebrity Studies: Vol 5, No 1-2,” accessed April

29, 2022, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19392397.2013.813778.

Melissa Brough and Sangita Shresthova, “Fandom Meets Activism: Rethinking Civic and Political Participation,”

Transformative Works and Cultures 10 (January 1, 2011), https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2012.0303.

Dal Yong Jin, “An Analysis of the Korean Wave as Transnational Popular Culture: North American Youth

Engage Through Social Media as TV Becomes Obsolete,” International Journal of Communication 12, no. 0

(January 16, 2018): 19.

Jin.

“BTS as Method: A Counter-Hegemonic Culture in the Network Society - Ju Oak Kim, 2021,” accessed April 29,

2022, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0163443720986029; Benjamin Han, “K-Pop in Latin America:

Transcultural Fandom and Digital Mediation,” International Journal of Communication (Online), May 1, 2017,

2250–70.

Lola Kola, “Global Mental Health and COVID-19,” The Lancet. Psychiatry 7, no. 8 (August 2020): 655–57,

https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30235-2.

Sophie Soklaridis et al., “Mental Health Interventions and Supports during COVID- 19 and Other Medical

Pandemics: A Rapid Systematic Review of the Evidence,” General Hospital Psychiatry 66 (2020): 133–46,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.08.007.

Soklaridis et al.

Ning Wei et al., “Efficacy of Internet-Based Integrated Intervention on Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in

Patients with COVID-19,” Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B 21, no. 5 (May 2020): 400–404,

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Araz Ramazan Ahmad and Hersh Rasool Murad, “The Impact of Social Media on Panic During the COVID-19

Pandemic in Iraqi Kurdistan: Online Questionnaire Study,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22, no. 5 (May 19,

2020): e19556, https://doi.org/10.2196/19556; Jessica Marian Goodman-Casanova et al., “Telehealth Home Support

During COVID-19 Confinement for Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment or Mild

Dementia: Survey Study,” Journal of Medical Internet Research 22, no. 5 (May 22, 2020): e19434,

https://doi.org/10.2196/19434; Lyu et al., “The Effects of Music Therapy on Cognition, Psychiatric Symptoms, and

Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease”; Hoang C. Nguyen et al., “People with Suspected

COVID-19 Symptoms Were More Likely Depressed and Had Lower Health-Related Quality of Life: The Potential

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https://open.spotify.com/track/0t2q2c43AATY4z1GI883Be; Taylor Swift, Folklore (Republic Records, 2020),

https://open.spotify.com/album/2fenSS68JI1h4Fo296JfGr; TOMORROW X TOGETHER · Song · 2020, We Lost

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For example, the last five albums have included deliberately gender neutral love songs to include LGBTQIA+

identifying fans, the group’s merchandise is deliberately gender neutral, and the performance and fashion aesthetics

of several members challenge gender presentation and masculinity. For more on BTS, gender and sexuality, see

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https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/bts-love-yourself-her-album-rap-monster-interview-analysis-

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Dance, there is a short clip showing what is likely an HR office with a notice posted to the wall of a cubicle.

Considering how deftly the music video included disabled people, with both American and International Sign

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#weverse Message That ‘Sky Always Gives Us the Reason to Live’󰦵󰦶󰦷󰦸󰦹󰦺󰦻󰦼󰦽󰦾󰦿󰧀󰇻󰇼󰇽󰅍󰅎󰅏󰅐 @BTS_twt

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See, for example: DOOLSET, “봄날 (Spring Day),” Doolset Lyrics (blog), June 28, 2018,

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DOOLSET, “BTS Cypher Pt. 4,” Doolset Lyrics (blog), June 30, 2018,

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Coldplay X BTS Inside “My Universe” Documentary - BTS (

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224

On solidarity: Park et al., “Armed in ARMY”; “BTS 아미, 팬덤 넘어 국경 없는 공동체로 진화중,” 한국일보,

September 9, 2020, https://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/A2020090709320000045?t=20220430140949. On

interrogating and mitigating anti-Blackness: Claire H. Evans, “The BTS Fandom Needs to Check Its Anti-

Blackness,” Teen Vogue, June 3, 2020, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/bts-fandom-needs-to-check-anti-

blackness; “J-Hope’s ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ Is Raising Concerns About Cultural Appropriation,” Koreaboo (blog),

September 27, 2019, https://www.koreaboo.com/news/j-hope-becky-g-black-cultural-appropriation-hair/; Monique

Jones, “Respect Must Be Earned: BTS’ Journey Towards Gaining Its Stripes in Black America,” Reappropriate

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Wonseok Lee and Grace Kao, “‘Make It Right’: Why #BlackLivesMatter(s) to K-Pop, BTS, and BTS ARMYs,”

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Jeff Benjamin, “BTS and Big Hit Entertainment Donate $1 Million to Black Lives Matter,” Variety, accessed

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Park et al., “Armed in ARMY.”

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Bangtan Seoyeondan, Butter; HYBE LABELS, BTS (

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Park et al., “Armed in ARMY.”

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Parker Molloy, “QAnon Followers Melt down after K-Pop Fans Take over Their Hashtag,” Media Matters for

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“K-Pop Stans Crash Dallas Police Department’s IWatch App with FanCam Videos,” Consequence (blog), June 1,

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Lorenz, Browning, and Frenkel.

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Lorenz, Browning, and Frenkel.

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Michelle Cho, “Pandemic Media: Protest Repertoires and K-pop’s Double Visions,” PANDEMIC, 2020, 339.

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“Economic Effect of BTS’ Conquest of Billboard Hot 100 Chart,” accessed April 29, 2022,

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“Drawn By BTS, ‘ARMY’ of Fans Inject Millions of Dollars Into LA Economy,” LAist, December 2, 2021,

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“BTS’s Endorsement Was So Powerful That Hyundai Is Literally Struggling To Keep Up With Demand,”

Koreaboo (blog), February 20, 2019, https://www.koreaboo.com/news/bts-hyundai-palisades-demand-struggle/; HT

Tech, “Samsung Galaxy S20+ BTS Edition Sells out in 1 Hour,” HT Tech, June 19, 2020,

https://tech.hindustantimes.com/mobile/news/samsung-galaxy-s20-bts-edition-sells-out-in-1-hour-

71592570859385.html. For accidental and non-partnership demand, see Vibhuti Sanchala, “BTS’ Jungkook Named

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https://www.republicworld.com/entertainment-news/music/bts-jungkook-named-sold-out-king-after-helping-sell-

out-a-months-supply-of-a-drink.html; Erica Kam, “8 Products That Sold Out Simply Because BTS Was Pictured

With Them,” Elite Daily, accessed April 30, 2022, https://www.elitedaily.com/p/8-products-bts-sold-out-because-

of-their-golden-touch-18229780; Celine Tan, “7 Times BTS Unintentionally Caused Products To Sell Out,” Tatler

Asia, accessed April 30, 2022, https://www.tatlerasia.com/culture/entertainment/bts-effect-members-sold-out-items-

merchandise. Sometimes BTS’ brand power actually contributes to developing secondary intervention sites; when

member Jungkook’s casual recommendation of Teazen lemon kombucha caused over a 500% growth for the small

company, the company donated a large portion of their profits to COVID-19 relief efforts in Korea.

241

See, for example, inequities in private insurance and drug pricing and access: Samantha Artiga et al., “Health

Coverage by Race and Ethnicity, 2010-2019,” KFF (blog), July 16, 2021, https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-

health-policy/issue-brief/health-coverage-by-race-and-ethnicity/; U.S. House of Representatives Committee on

Oversight and Reform, “Drug Pricing Investigation: Majority Staff Report” (U.S. House of Representatives,

December 2021).

242

Partosa, “We Are Not Robots”; “BTS as Method: A Counter-Hegemonic Culture in the Network Society - Ju

Oak Kim, 2021.”

243

Park et al., “Armed in ARMY.”