- It is difficult cause being a older army, it's,
you know, it is difficult.
I do go to fa, fan meets with, um, others.
Um, but, um, the, there is an embarrassment to it.
- And he's so missed understood and I love the--
- Hi!
- Welcome to...
- TTK.
(hip hop music)
(pop music)
- A month, or so ago, we made a video
interviewing BTS twitter fan accounts.
And so we decided to continue that trend
by talking to BTS Army moms.
- If you're new here, please make sure
you press subscribe and also the bell notification button
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- Are BTS fans all teenage girls?
(soft tapping)
(soft sighing)
- Hi, I'm Jane.
- Hi, I'm Lorraine.
- Hi, my names Stacey.
- Hi, I'm Sam and I'm 34.
- Hi, I'm Cheryl.
I'm just over 50.
- Hi, I'm Sheila.
- My names Julie.
I'm
56.
- I'm 64.
- I'm Danie.
I'm 33.
- I'm 36 years old.
- Almost 48 years old.
- I'm 44 years old.
I have two children.
- I've got two children.
- And I have one daughter called Jade.
She's 14.
- And I got two children, 21 and 23.
- I've got two children, one 23 year old and 15.
- And I have one boy.
- And I'm a Army.
- And I'm Stacy's mom.
- And I like BTS.
(soft jazz music)
- I'm struggling to remember.
On the way down, I was thinking
what did I do before BTS?
What did I listen too?
- I listen to classical, like, my favourite
composer Ludwig Conadi.
- So, when I was my daughters age,
which is 16, um, I loved Boy George and Culture Club.
- I listen to Rap music, sometimes I listen to Pop.
- I used to go to Download quite often.
So I used to listen to a lot of Rock,
like Slipknot, Papa Roach.
- Jimi Hendrix.
Um, probably Deep Purple.
- The Osmonds, Jackson Five.
- Then you got ya Micheal Jackson,
then you got ya Guns N' Roses.
- I started off listening to K-Pop in 2008.
Weird SHINee.
And then, eventually Big Bang TVXQ.
- But K-pop at the moment seems to be ruling
my house, my car, my life.
(nervous laughing)
- I started venturing into listening to World music,
funny enough, just before I started listening to K-pop.
So I kinda felt like I was gonna venture over eventually.
- Um, probably about seven, eight years ago
I went through a C-pop phase.
- Bruno Mars, love Bruno Mars.
(smooth jazz music)
- Yeah I'm definitely part of it.
And it feels like family.
And I know some people don't get that.
But it really does, and we do look out for each other.
- I must admit being 30, like in my thirties,
it feels a little bit odd saying I'm part of the fandom.
But I think it goes beyond that.
It sort of like community.
- I feel very connected to Army's.
Some of my best friends are Army's,
and, um, I speak to them more
than I speak to any of my other friends in real life.
- I'm on Facebook, but I'm not on anything else.
So, I don't feel part of that fandom base.
But we often, when my husband goes to bed,
we're in the living room watching episodes of
Run or,
um, what's the one?
They live or when they go on holiday?
- [Interviewer] Bon Voyage.
- Bon Voyage.
- I, I know, I do consider myself
to be part of the fandom I think.
Um, um, I keep coming on and off Facebook
because it,
(women mumbling)
But, um, when I was on it, I was, um, in a, um,
senior Army group and to be honest it really
helped me being senior to find other people like myself.
Because to start with, you start to think
you have some sort of mid-life crisis, or a breakdown.
And think why?
Why?
- I'm only able to properly share it with Courtney at home
because everybody else thinks I've, I'm having
a mid-life crisis and I need to get a life.
And, yeah, my friends are saying I'm too old now
to be following boy bands and stuff like that.
But when I go on the social media groups
and you get to meet other people from those groups
and then you meet up at concerts.
And then when you go to another concert
and the same people are there.
You do create new friendships and new bonds with people.
- Because I'm older, I experience it differently as well.
- I'd say I'm more of the fandom.
- I have made quite a lot new friends.
Army friends as well, that I listen to BTS with.
But I do listen to a lot of BTS with my son.
- I mean it is difficult being a older Army...
It's, you know, it is difficult.
I do go to fa,fan meets with others.
Um, but um, there, there is an
embarrassment to it cause you're older.
And you feel like, you know there's all these young people,
but they don't, you know.
Um, I actually, at the last fan meet
I won one of the raffle prizes.
And when they called out my name,
all the youngsters were going Cheryl, Cheryl!
So it was, that was quite sweet.
- And you just, you know you share videos.
You share pictures.
You share funny memes.
It's just...
It's such a lovely feeling, like, to go from
not really having anything to now being a part
of this big thing, and you just, you feel accepted.
- I've met so many people out of it.
It's not just music, its friendship, its acceptance as well.
- I'm part of the fandom definitely.
- My whole family's into BTS, including the dog.
Which we didn't realise until we had
Jungkook and V doing a cover and
we were playing it through the telly
and the dog howled at a certain point
and literally will do it to Kino.
(foreign music)
(dog howling)
- I do like, get some massive stig, because of the
age that I'm at and I shouldn't be perving
over boys that are in their 20's
and their 18's and all this.
But it's not that, it's what they, its the energy they give.
The commitment they give, and the
performance that they give.
It makes you want to go an watch some more
and they work hard.
- But that's, um, my wristband from the senior Army group.
On, at Wembley we all got together
outside and we had a meeting point at
Wembley stadium on both days.
We all got together and we had the flag and everyone
was sharing this little gifs together
and, and networking.
We also had, um, on the Facebook group, there was, um,
a mum and daughter that were going to the concert.
And the mom had hit some hard times and was devastated
that on the day of the concert,
she couldn't get her daughter a light stick.
So I went on the Facebook group and I set up a fundme thing
for all of the Army to, anyone who wanted to donate.
They didn't have to.
So we could raise money to buy her a light stick and we did.
We bought her a light stick and some merchandise on the day.
- So because I'm part of this
international global community.
Um, I've, er, made friends with a lady
who lives in the Philippines.
Um, her name is Gaye.
So, hi Gaye.
And she has a daughter called Louisa.
Hi Louisa.
Um, who's a similar age to my daughter.
Um, and, we're learning a lot about each other.
So we talk about BTS, but we also talk about,
she tells me an awful a lot about their culture.
The way of life over there.
Um, so, we are, you know, we'll message each other
from time to time to support each other
and what we doing.
And that was just because of our mutual interest.
- I've met so many people.
I've become friends with so many people.
People, my age, as well as people who are younger
because of this group.
- And what is lovely to me, is it, the three of us
can sit and watch them and enjoy them.
And I think that's quite remarkable.
Um, you know, for the three generations to do that.
- If it gives you happiness, there's so much in the world
that is miserable and stressful and just horrible.
So when you find joy and happiness grab it with both hands.
(smooth classical music)
(music drowns out woman speaking)
- We missed our bus stop once because we were
watching Singularity.
- We've had some really difficult times
and with going to the concert.
It's given us something to really look forward to.
- Its really special, it's one of the few things
that we have in common.
Er, that we get to enjoy the music,
enjoy the meme's.
- Its also brought me and my daughter
a lot closer together.
So, you know, we will sit there, and we'll watch like
the V Live or you know, I bought, um, the Wembley
concert off V Live and we sat there
several time looking at it.
- I think it has been a nice
bonding experience with my daughter.
And obviously it's a bit hard on the bank balance.
- With the from BTS and being able
to watch the videos together, spend time together,
listening to their music, going to the concerts,
collecting merchandise, rearranging the bedroom
with
countless albums
and posters, of photo cards
and everything else.
It's just given us a shared interest.
- We love making crafts.
We like ma, designing our own things.
Hence, where the T-shirt came into it.
So, I wanted the concept of mike, mike, Bungee.
As you can see, the cleft, its got BTS.
- One of my, so like, most defining memories that night,
is sort of turning around.
Looking at my daughter just in lots of tears.
And, her face was really, really lit up.
I took her for her 14th birthday.
So it was going to be special anyway.
- We make...
(woman mumbling)
silly references together.
Um, talk about the, the band together.
Um, so it does help us keep us connected.
We are very fortunate, anyway,
to have a very close relationship.
Um, and she's a lovely girl.
But, yeah, it does just help bring, you know,
make that a bit more special.
- Cause he's a boy, he does have
other interests in sports and video games,
things that I'm not interested in.
But to have BTS.
Its our own special thing that
we can talk about all the time.
Er, just kind of, oh did you see this today?
Did you see that?
It's really nice and its very special.
- And then we've got the album, um, artwork there,
with the hearts and there's the mike.
So, there's my Mike, Mike, Bungee T-shirt
and at the back I have all their names put in there as well.
- If we buy any CD's, which I've been doing recently.
We have arguments about whose gonna open them.
(loud laughing)
Whose going to open what one because we want to
have a quick look at the photo card
and the books that come with it.
- The bonding over that,
and you know all of that came together
simply because we have a love for BTS.
- She's at that age where they'll say its natural
for children and parents to start growing apart
and you know, become secretive.
It's a normal part of being a teenager.
- Um, so it's really nice actually,
to have my mum interested as well.
And again, you know, we can share things.
You know, and I can send her little emails
and say have you seen this?
Or, it's just lovely to share it with someone who gets it.
- Its something that, at any point, we can talk about.
And it's actually like the past few months
the guys have been putting out so much content.
There's always something there.
- Yeah, cause your father probably hide em or burn em.
So there's no way I'm allowed to keep em in my room.
(loud laughing)
- So it's really nice to be able to, to share it properly.
And, um, talk about them and
yeah, its just lovely.
- You know, I've actually thought about this before.
I think I would just...
I would say thank you.
- How would you even speak to start off with.
- Thank you for what you've done.
And that you're incredible.
- You've given so much to so many different people.
- Um, I think I'd be speechless.
But if I had to say something.
I would say thank you and
please be happy.
(women speaking in foreign language)
- Er, sincerely thank you.
- And from a motherly aspect, I would be, hey are you okay?
Have you eaten?
Are you resting?
- Just give them all a big hug first of all.
Thank em for what they've done for my daughter.
Which I know is a cliche.
I know you hear it so many times with people.
That how much they've helped and everything else.
They truly are...
A beautiful set of human beings.
- I would ask them to carry on as long as they want to
but also when they've decided enough is enough.
(women mumbling)
- Just, yeah, thank you.
- They're real.
There's something about them that is real.
They're true to themselves that way.
- I would say thank you.
Um,
and I'd want to thank them for...
bringing world wide brightness
to what sometimes can be a bit dismal world.
- You know, we watch them cry, we watch them upset,
some people are like should we see that?
But I just think it helps to make them real people.
- For allowing me to accept that, I don't have to be
who I'm told to be.
And they kinda gave, they spoke to that part of me
that just questioned convention I suppose.
And let me
become, and becoming who I am.
- So that's why I would day thank you, for they not hiding
they being who they are.
- Then I'll say can you come home.
(loud laughing)
Come home and move in with me, and I'll look after yeah.
(loud laughing)
(classic music)
- I complete disagree is young screaming girls.
- People of all ages, genders, colours, cultures,
it just crosses boundaries completely.
- Fans can be screaming teenagers, but fans
can also be screaming adults,
mothers, grandmothers, fathers, grandfathers.
- There was a complete mixture.
When we were on the pitch on the second day,
there was a couple in front of us, that were
probably a man and woman, that were older than me.
Um, they were screaming and dancing,
you know as much as all the others.
So there was a complete mixture there.
- It was a really big mix.
Obviously there was a lot of teenagers
and a lot of young girls but I also found
there was a lot of adults there as well.
And actually quite a lot of boys, men.
And that really surprised me.
- The youngest I've seen was
probably about six with her mum.
Not many.
And I would say the majority, oh wow, well over 20.
- To be honest, there was a lot of teenage girls
but there was loads of em with their families as well.
As in brothers and dads and they were all into the music.
Everybody was a BTS fan at that concert.
- Without sounding sexist, most people, when you think
of a Korean Pop band, you expect the following
to be girls.
Its the teenagers.
(loud screaming)
- I found a difference between, we went to see Stray Kids,
and at Stray Kids concert, I definitely felt old.
Because it was all young girls.
But at BTS, not so much.
- You can always tell if someones there
cause they've been dragged.
But no, you actually have this people up, singing along
to it, even knowing some of the dances.
Which I really like.
- I can't put them into a box.
I wouldn't want to.
We're just, we're everywhere.
- Just because they from South Korea, doesn't mean
their music can't reach people of all age groups.
Micheal Jackson could do it.
Bruno Mars can do it.
- You can see how big we are.
Why would you want to limit us like,
don't try and limit us.
- We're so much more than that.
And if the teenagers want to scream, let them.
Come on, look at them, look at them, why wouldn't you?
They're amazing.
- Tonnes of screaming.
But not from teenage girls necessarily.
Young ones anyway.
- But yeah we exist.
And we don't have to be acknowledged
but don't pick on the teenagers that's not fair.
We were all teenagers.
[Interviewer] When we were at Paris,
I saw this man with a suit on.
- Yes, there was.
Yeah, when we were in Paris, there was a man with a suit.
He looked like he just come out the office
and he walked straight into the BTS concert by himself.
He must've been in his 40's.
- Um, I struck a conversation with ladies my age and older.
Um, who was just as much a fan, as, er, they were
also sharing with their daughters, with their friends.
- I don't have social media, or anything.
But my daughter tells me there
is a small band of Silver Army.
Um, so, um, older, much older people like me.
- I must say I did feel quite excluded.
And I did feel quite, nah, I'm here for my daughter,
not really about me.
- Um, and then, I think it was the second day at Wembley.
And Suka said they did seen so many diverse ages,
nationalities.
And he said it's all good.
and I thought, you know what, it is all good.
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Thank you for watching.
- Let us know down below, are you an Army Mum?
- Is your mum, um, Army mum?
- Are you a Army Daddy?
- How would they have answered this question?
How would you answer this questions?
- Let us know your thoughts down in the comments
and we'll see you guys again next time.
- [Men] Bye!