SundayNewspaper

2 R SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2019 | | The Mix E7 MUSIC ture savvy. She still has trou- ble remembering all the groupmembers’ names—she repeatedly refers to Jungkook as “John Cook“—but has grown to appreciate the group, and not just because my sister and I like them. Sowith the tip frommy dad, my sister and I decided to takemymom to a BTS concert forMother’s Day. I flewdown to L.A. a few days before the show. When I arrived at my parents’ house from the airport, mymom loudly declared “I KNOW WHO J-HOPE ISNOW!” Over the course of the weekend, my sister and I showedmymommore BTS music videos and quizzed her onwhichmember was which. In someways it changedmy appreciation for BTS; of course I liked theirmusic, but now it was something that I could sharewithmy family. At the concert, I was sur- prised to see howdiverse the crowdwas. Boy-band fans are often unfairlywritten off as hysterical teen girls, but here I sawpeople of all ethnicities, genders and ages. There’s something inher- ently communal about the BTS fandomexperience. Frequently fandoms can devolve into gatekeepers, reserved for only “true fans,” but ARMY actively pushes against this notion, welcom- ing everyone to appreciate BTSwith them. ARMY prides itself on being an inclusive group, encouragingmembers to respect each other and practice one of BTS’ mottos: “Love yourself.” I could dedicate an entirely separate article to describe the concert, but for the sake of brevity, BTS is a perfor- mance powerhouse, with eachmoment curated down to the finest detail. I thought that maybe I could hold it together since I was withmy mom, but once Jungkook started flying over the stage, we both lost ourminds. I never thought that screaming at the sight of a bunch of talented, beautiful Korean boys would be an experience that I would ever sharewithmymom, yet there wewere. By AMY WONG Seattle Times features producer Mother’s Day gifts are so easywhen you’re a kid. Whether it’s amacaroni neck- lace, a homemade card or a book full of “Use this to re- deem(1) free hug” coupons, literally anything you give yourmom is automatically cute because you’re a child. It’s not until you get older that Mother’s Day gifts turn into a daunting task. Forme, getting oldermeant under- standing howmuchworkmy momput into being a parent, and howmuch she andmy dad sacrificed to raiseme and my two siblings. I’ve always been very close withmy family, andmymom in particular. Although since my brother and I moved away fromhome years ago, andmy sister started her first year of college this past year, it has becomemore andmore rare that we’re all in the same place at the same time. So knowing all of this, how could one annual gift repay mymom for the entire life- time she’s givenme? I think I figured it out this year: tickets to a BTS concert withmy sister andme. OK, let’s backtrack a little bit. For starters, if you’ve never heard of themega-su- perstar, global phenomenon, Korean pop group BTS, here’s a primer: BTS (which is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan, rough- ly translating to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”) is a Korean pop group that debuted in 2013, but has recentlymade a huge splash in theAmericanmusic scene. This year alone, they’ve beennominated for aGram- my, won twoBillboardMusic Awards, performed on “Satur- dayNight Live” and surpassed 8 billion views onYouTube. The group comprises seven members: three rappers and four singers. Rappers include RM(KimNam-joon), Suga I never thought I’d see K-pop group BTS with my mom. It was amazing. K E N T N I S H I MU R A / L O S A N G E L E S T I ME S / T N S K-pop band BTS performs at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, this month. to see the concert withmy sister, and also have an early Mother’s Day celebration withmy family. I floated the idea bymy dad, who then asked, “Do you think you could get three tickets?” I was confused, who would the third ticket be for? “Yourmom,”my dad re- sponded. Unbeknown tome, while my sister and I werewatching BTS videos together and cracking inside jokes, my momwas doing some re- search on her own. Last Christmas she hadmade small BTS-themed pins for my sister andme, when she stumbled across some inter- views with the group on YouTube. “I mean of course at first I was just trying to understand what your sister was so excit- ed about,”mymom toldme. “But themore I watched their music videos and interviews, I became intrigued about theirmarketing and how everything is put together. Andwhen you, my older daughter, started liking BTS, I knew I had to figure out what made themso special.” I was taken aback because as brilliant asmymom is, she is generally not very pop-cul- (Min Yoon-gi) and J-Hope (JungHo-seok). Singers include Jin (KimSeok-jin), V (KimTae-hyung), Jimin (Park Ji-min) and Jungkook (Jeon Jung-kook). The official fan base of BTS is called ARMY, and they pride themselves on being an inclusive group that spreads positivemessages and gener- al love for BTS. BTS has hadmainstream success for quite some time now, but it wasn’t until a year agowhenmy younger sister Julie started talking about them that I knewwho they were. I thought my teen fandom years were behindme, but BTS provedmewrong. I was in pretty deep, but it also became a fun thing forme to bondwithmy sister over. We’ve had some overlapping interests in the past, but this was the first timewe both really shared a love for some- thing. When I sawJulie over the holidays, we’d crack jokes andwatch BTS videos togeth- er. When I saw that BTSwas playing a concert at the Rose Bowl theweekend before Mother’s Day, I knew it was perfect: I could take aweek- end trip home to Los Angeles AMY WON G / T H E S E A T T L E T I ME S Amy Wong, right, with her younger sister Julie, left, and their mom at the BTS concert. 9THAVE&PINEST NOW PLAYING! SEATTLEREP.ORG “A Moving and Gorgeous Testimonial” - STAR TR I BUNE NINA SIMONE FOUR WOMEN CHRISTINA HAM BY VALERIE CURTIS-NEWTON D I RECTED BY MEDIA SPONSOR SEASON SPONSOR PRODUCING SPONSORS