BTS is now very well known throughout the continent. In 2018, BTS placed #1 on Forbes’ Korean Power Celebrity list, which ranked South Korea’s most influential and powerful celebrities, and #1 for the most loved Korean artist in 2018 through a poll conducted by Gallup. In December 2018, BTS won many awards, for example, they got the Daesang award at the 2018 Melon Music Awards, in MAMA 2018 (Japan and Hong Kong). All of that was made possible due to their struggle and the support of ARMY, who they love.
BTS Black Ocean
For a big fan of K-Pop, joining an idol fandom can really make one feel very proud. This sense of pride in belonging to a fandom can sometimes be found offensive by another fandom, causing something that has come to be known as fanwars. Fanwars among K-Pop fandoms can be triggered by many different things. Starting from the actual idol, to trivial things, such as the color similarity or choreography, anything can be used as an excuse that can trigger war among different fandoms. So that is how it’s possible for the haters to make Black Ocean. So, what does Black Ocean mean? Black Ocean is one of the boycott actions performed by one or several fandoms, turning off the lightstick while the idol is performing on a concert or performing on stage. Not only turning off the lightstick, but they will also even shut up without giving any support or response to the idol they hate. This was done by haters as proof of their dislike of idols. Black Ocean has befallen famous idol groups, such as SNSD, EXO, Super Junior, TVXQ, Twice, 2NE1, and also BTS. BTS has experienced this in an award event. What did they do?
Melon Music Awards
In 2016, BTS got the Black Ocean while performing at the Melon Music Awards. Appearing second from the end, Bangtan Boys sang their hits. But fans found many of the spectators turned off the lightstick when Bangtan Boys were performing. This was evidenced by a fan who uploaded a comparison photo of the amount of lightstick when BTS were performing. They claimed that Black Ocean is doing it by EXO-L which is an EXO fan and ARMY’s rival. The two fandoms blamed each other, EXO-L said that “BTS deserves the Black Ocean because they (ARMY) often do that to EXO but because ARMY is too small in size then it doesn’t look like the Black Ocean.”
Golden Disk Awards
Korean netizens claimed to have found irregularities when Bangtan Boys appeared on the 30th ‘Golden Disc Awards’ stage. Bangtan Boys (BTS) and EXO were two of singers who were present and performed that night. Netizens later discovered that EXO-L turned off their lightstick when BTS was performing. This is a photo of BTS’ performance. And this is a comparison photo of EXO’s performance. Netizens commented that EXO-L intentionally turned off their lightsticks for 10 minutes, during BTS’ performance, but when EXO appeared they turned on their lightsticks. Then, came the statement that this was only a rumor. EXO-L stated that there was no 10-minute break, they claimed that indeed they turned off their lightsticks, but that it was done at the beginning of the event. They also said that when BTS appeared members of EXO-L also shouted and cheered, but TV capture turned out to be different from reality. Even so, until now, it is still called the Black Ocean. At its conclusion, BTS had indeed received the Black Ocean carried out by EXO-L.
