Fandom is not a new concept. So, what exactly is unique about the BTS fandom? In the documentary FOREVER WE ARE YOUNG, directors Grace Lee and Patty Ahn explore BTS’s fan base – the BTS ARMY (short for Adorable Representative MC for Youth) – from its early stages to what it means to be ARMY now.
“We’re ARMY, and have been observing K-pop fans for a long time,” Lee started. “I’d never seen such a diverse group of people in every single way. As Korean Americans, a stadium full of people singing in Korean is just incredible to us.”
“I think both of us really wanted to document that history and just kind of freeze it as a moment in time, having never seen a fandom like this before – this diverse, this geographically vast, this linguistically diverse, etc.,” Ahn added.
Lee’s ARMY journey began in Japan: “All I saw was BTS everywhere. It was so fascinating to me [because] my parents were Korean immigrants who grew up in Japan-colonized Korea. [My mom] had to speak Japanese. So, it was so crazy to see Japan, and basically the rest of Asia, being colonized by Korean culture …. Most of the documentaries I’ve made look at questions like identity, community, and social movements, and ARMY just fit in.”
Ahn, a professor of K-pop, was introduced by a student to BTS song “Spring Day,” which has been connected to the Sewol Ferry Tragedy of 2014 by fans. “[The song] was critical. I had never seen a K-pop group speak about social issues like that, and in such an emotional way.”
For years Ahn has been researching K-pop’s attempted integration into the U.S., but it wasn’t until ARMY that she started to see something click.
“How did American media respond to K-pop’s different attempts to break into the U.S.?” Ahn questioned. “Usually with backlash and ridicule … BTS really shattered that image and [it’s] really on the wings of ARMY who [held] these journalists accountable for talking about BTS, or K-pop, in a culturally and racially narrow way.”
For Lee and Ahn, ARMY is much more than a fan base of young people who are passionate about their favorite band. Forever We Are Young goes beyond the surface level of fandom by tapping into the potential for a body of like-minded individuals to enact change. Many of the subjects in the film aren’t just ARMY fans, but they’ve worked to mold ARMY into the culturally relevant body it is today.
“There is something unique about ARMY and their commitment to social justice issues,” Ahn noted. “Part of it is the scale and the volume with which ARMY can move. But because BTS’s message in their music is about social justice, caring for each other, mutual respect, [and] loving ourselves, it inspires a particular kind of culture of care.”
Ahn added, “I think [ARMY] pushes us to think about fandom as more than just people loving their favorite group, but actually as potential for social movement making, and of community making, of culture making … [it’s] the potential of what fandom can be. It’s not just about loving music, it’s about loving each other, taking care of each other, and what other time than now do we need a story and message like that?”
Forever We Are Young
24 Beats Per Second, World Premiere
Monday 10, 11am, Paramount Theatre
Tuesday 11, 5:45pm, ZACH Theatre
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Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore
The actor, advocate, and first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award reflects on her career and influence, which extends to Deaf actor and first-time director Shoshannah Stern, who appears on camera to interview Matlin in ASL. – Kimberley Jones
This article appears in March 7 • 2025.