Augusto 1

Alexandra Augusto

Professor Gardiakos

ENC1101

08 November 2021

The Stan Twitter “Army” Discourse Community Ethnography

On June 13, 2013, a new South Korean boy group named “Bangtan Sonyeondan” (BTS)

had debuted and would garner fans almost a decade later listed in plenty of articles as one of the

“Top 10 Most Loyal and Craziest Fans in the World.” It took the world by storm when this group

and fandom grew seemingly out of nowhere in 2017, and rivaled the strength of those from the

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé fandoms. As of April 2021, it has been estimated that BTS has 90

million fans worldwide, and to put it into perspective, that is more than the population of

Australia, Canada, and Taiwan combined (Thomas).

As the title of the article suggests, the common conception people have of BTS fans is

negative. People have corresponded adjectives like delusional, crazy, annoying, toxic, and

dedicated to a very specific and loud community of BTS fans that many identify to be the entire

fandom. Those fans are the Stan Twitter Armys. The word “Stan” was coined by Eminem in his

song “Stan,” which combined the words “stalker” and “fan” (Arasa). In current years, the term is

used synonymously with super fans. In the case of BTS, the word “Army” is the name of BTS’

fandom, and together the phrase “Stan Twitter Armys” is in reference to the focal discourse

community. John Swales, a linguist specializing in discourse analysis, identifies a focal discourse
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community as a community with a wider scope of participation regionally (551). In this instance,

this focal discourse community is online.

Swales is well known for his 6 original characteristics that make up a discourse

community, and one of his main characteristics is a discourse community’s genre. In this

particular community, the genre – mechanisms of intercommunication among a discourse

community’s members – used is the app Twitter (Swales 547). Twitter is a minimalist appearing

American microblogging social media application used worldwide. Users of this genre create

accounts and are able to freely post (Tweet) anything in its 280 character limit. Although there is

no guide or formal training on how to navigate this genre, it is important to be literate in the

genre’s way of expressing opinions and support (Tweets, Retweets, Likes). This is especially true

in the Stan Twitter Army discourse community in which it is vital to have one’s identity and

values align with the masses. To analyze the Stan Twitter Army discourse community, I utilized

articles and discussion posts to understand and determine the values and goals the community

wants to achieve affected by its environment. Also, it is important to note that throughout the

paper I will use words like “fans” and “Armys” interchangeably with the phrase “members of the

(discourse) community.”

Through research, it is easy to identify that one’s image is highly valued in the

community – both to members of the community and the group itself. On Twitter, fans have a

smaller number 7 in their display name to denote that they are fans of the group (Yeo). If an

individual lacks this trait on their Twitter account, they are viewed as a fake fan and often

shunned when communicating with members of the community. It is an intense reaction that

stems from the community’s high possessiveness and protectiveness of the group. An additional
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value that the community has is their pride in BTS’ achievements, and this often develops into

what many people outside of the community identify as a sense of entitlement (Panda7733). This

pride usually expresses itself in boastful tweets of the group’s achievements when comparing the

success of BTS to other groups. With these values, the members have a goal to protect BTS’s

image as the “World’s Biggest Boy Band” through supporting and praising their current and

future achievements, and working hard to help them achieve new accomplishments.

This strong emphasis of “image” that is present in the community can reflect the Korean

Pop industry as a whole. The K-Pop industry has labelled celebrities as “idols,” and this is a very

harmful title to have when considering what the definition of an idol is. An idol is defined as,

“An image or representation of a god used as an object of worship” (The Oxford Dictionary of

Phrase and Fable). To hold any individual to such a high standard is very concerning, especially

in Stan culture. Some extreme fans who worship Korean idols – or any celebrity – have been

found to put moral and logic aside in exchange for their blind and unwavering support. The

K-Pop industry is not only aware of this, but they utilize the dedication fans have for promoting

and protecting the well-crafted image companies have made of their idols.

As mentioned previously, members of this discourse community possess an unhealthy

protectiveness towards BTS. With the manipulation from BTS’s entertainment company – Big

Hit Entertainment – fans have dangerously become BTS’s own PR team. Many actions of the

group that can be viewed in a negative light have been reported or taken down, and the truth that

remains for the public is often distorted to preserve an image that their idol is perfect. This is also

found true in instances of negative comments or criticism made towards BTS.

In November 2019, BTS member Jeon Jungkook was reported to have hit a taxi driver

while violating a traffic law. The discourse community’s response? Armys had used a tactic on

Stan Twitter referred to as “clearing the searches.” When fans “clear the searches,” Twitter’s

algorithm pulls words that have been recently and frequently associated with the searched

keyword(s) (Antlobo). This tactic is used to purposely trend with a fake cover, and hide the true

event(s) that the fans do not want others to learn about. In this instance, YouTube commentator

Pierce Kavanagh (Kavos) explains in his YouTube video how he had seen Jungkook trending on

Twitter and was interested in finding out the reason why. Upon clicking the Jungkook trending

tab, Kavos was met with a bunch of tweets from the discourse community of varying positive

phrases or comments. Examples of some of the tweets are, “Jungkook cute,” “Jungkook kind,”

and, “Jungkook talented.” The repeated tweets had successfully “cleared the searches” and

Kavos, like many users after believing they had seen why something was trending, was about to

leave the trending tab until he noticed a tweet announcing to other members of the community

helpful keywords to use to help clear the searches. This piqued his interest and after further

research, he was surprised to unveil the buried truth of the car accident.

Kavos tweeted his opinion of the danger in fans, “...See[ing] no wrong in their idols and

[doing] anything to cover up their mistakes.” Kavos’ tweet quickly went viral with 9.5 thousand

likes, however, he had been met with harsh backlash from the discourse community. Many of the

members commented negatively on Kavos’s views, reported his tweet, and emailed BTS’s

company to report and sue Kavos for “malicious activities” against the group. The last action is a

common occurrence within the discourse community fostered by BTS’s company when they had
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released a legal proceeding document and encouraged fans to report and alert them of any

negative comments towards the group (US BTS Army).

Not only are members of the discourse community protective towards the group, but they

are also very protective of their image as it reflects on BTS. In September 2021, James Corden

on his “The Late Late Show with James Corden” referred to members of the discourse

community as “15 year old girls” alongside making some comments about BTS’ presence as

“unusual” at the United Nations General Assembly. In an article by Cosmopolitan, they explain

how Corden’s words set a fire to the discourse community, especially since BTS had previously

attended his show alongside other activities of his. Members of the community repeated the

actions they had done to Kavos, however, the one different and biggest retaliation of the

community was to quickly and effectively plunge the ratings of his late night show from a rating

of 4.2 to 1.6 (Cosmopolitan). As of November 2021, the show’s ratings have further declined to

1.2 and comments are still being made expressing their discontent.

Referencing back to the term idol, this view of perfection and “BTS being so great” is

reflected in some of the community’s lexis. Lexis refers to the specific terminology used by a

discourse community (Swales 554). A perfect example of this is the term “BTSpopper.” K-pop

fans have been referred to by the public as “Kpoppers” and many members of the community

believe that BTS has transcended the genre of K-pop with their music and created their own

genre of music (Urban Dictionary). This genre of music is “BTS-pop” and they, in turn, are

BTSPoppers. Another lexis of the community is the phrase “BTS paved the way” and it is often

used to say that BTS paved the way for other K-pop artists to do well internationally. While there

can be arguments both for and against the statement, this phrase is applied to call for the public
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to “give credit where [they believe] credit is due, ” and, as explained by Reddit user

ChewingSeok, to downplay the achievements of other artists that have had success

internationally, like Blackpink, NCT, and – arguably the most famous for his impact – PSY with

his song “Gangnam Style.”

The final lexis that research has identified to be popularly used is the phrase “I Purple

You.” I Purple You is a saying in exchange for the phrase “I love you” by BTS’s member V (Kim

Taehyung). This phrase has become so meaningful to the fans that its use is more common than

“I love you,” and the purple heart emoji has been claimed by the community as the “BTS Emoji”

(Mendez). In the comments of any posts from BTS’s Twitter account, it is more likely than not

for people to see the phrase and emoji used as a pair.

As aforementioned, the values of the community are present in the way people speak and

interact. To put it simply, anyone who wants to flourish in this community must dedicate a lot of

their time into learning everything about the group, talk positively about the group, discard those

who speak negatively, and stream their music. It is a very demanding community – so much so

that some members leave as a result – and it is present in its cost of affiliation

(Mysummerdream). In the recent sentence listing the demands of the community, it discusses

how members of the community must talk positively about the group. That only touches the

surface of how demanding it is as people in the community must be constantly conventional by

agreeing with the popular opinion and never sharing or liking a Tweet that may shade the group

in a negative light – even if the statement is not harmful and factual. Acting in any

anti-conventional way, which would be expressing an opinion that does not help perpetuate the

image that BTS is such an incredible group, will result in immediate conflict with the individual
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and members of the community. In an article by New York Post, Zachary Kussin notes the

“toxicity” of those who are in the fandom, and it is those who are “toxic” who will be quick to

report a member’s account and have it suspended from Twitter.

To express the intensity of this, there are even accounts created by members of the

community to alert others of members’ accounts that have expressed an opinion that diverts from

the popular, agreed opinion and have instructions on how to take down their comment

(Mysummerdream). It begs the question, is being in the environment worth it when members

must sacrifice their opinion? That is for the individual to decide, however, it is important to

mention the next extreme action of this community that also requires some sacrifice: streaming.

Streaming of music refers to when fans of artists listen to songs or albums repeatedly.

The purpose of this, as explained by the US BTS Army website, is for companies to gauge their

artist's popularity, have their music reach out to people all over the world, and create more

exposure for them. With BTS having a lot of success and achievements in their views and

streams, there is a high value placed on streaming. To get the millions of views and plays on

songs that BTS has, there are community created websites – like US BTS Army – and Twitter

accounts on Twitter – like the account “btswings_views” with 225,100 Followers” – that

dedicate their entire page to instruct to others how to correctly stream and streaming goals.

This is very negative in the community because with the members being so dedicated,

they dedicate hours of their life where they could be sleeping, showering, eating, and working in

exchange for helping increase the statistic. Many fans compete with one another on how long

and hard they stream a song or album and shame others for not streaming as hard or at all. It

would be safe to say that many community members are number hungry and thrive in seeing the
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product of BTS’ success. On Twitter, there is an account with the username “charts_k” who

dedicates their page to posting translations and chart results (from streaming). This account has

1.1 million followers and it is one of many.

In the Stan Twitter Army discourse community, there are 2 recognizable groups. The first

are the more casual fans – in comparison – who spend their time Tweeting about ongoing events,

posting edits, fancams (videos of idols performing from YouTube), photos, and their own

opinions. The other group are fans who take their role in a more business-like fashion with many

admins running the account and perceive it like a job. An example of this is the translation and

chart results account mentioned previously. There are also accounts that post updates of BTS’s

every schedule, appearance, and future events. Other less informational, but still business-like

accounts are BTS picture accounts. On these accounts, new and old photos of members are

constantly posted in group photos and photos of specific members. These accounts usually

remain neutral, but have a lot of authority with the amount of followers they have.

In this community, authority and influence is derived from how long an account has been

established and how many followers they have – not assigned. The more casual fans have only a

handful of viral accounts with thousands of followers who are constantly online expressing their

own opinion (which sets the tone for others). Despite not having any influence outside the

community, fans look up to these accounts and follow their word (bandwagon). Usually these

fans have been in the community for a while – either the start of BTS’s career or the first couple

of years – and since this community views those who have been longer as more “superior,” it is

because of that how they get their authority and influence. Unlike the casual fans, the

business-like accounts have gained respect for their dedication and reliability. What still remains
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true, however, is that the accounts that have been established for a lot longer will have a lot more

followers and, therefore, more authority and influence.

After reflecting on this discourse community, it can be concluded that the Stan Twitter

Army discourse community is a very intense focal community. A combination of the K-pop

industry’s desire to succeed and idolization in addition to Stan culture perpetuates the beliefs and

actions of the members in the discourse community. Many people are quick to blindly judge and

have a negative perception of the community and their actions, however, after understanding the

environment of the community and the industry that they are supporting, there is a level of

understanding provided to explain their values and goals that makes the community as intense

and demanding as it is.

Appendix

Figure 1. Kavos’s response to community’s backlash on his original tweet.

Figure 2. The Late Late Show with James Corden’s ratings.

Figure 3. Tweet by an ARMY expressing their values through a daily reminder.

Figure 4. Tweet by an ARMY encouraging others to stream.

Figure 5. ARMY fan account recording music chart statistics and translations.
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