So there's a hilarious amount of high drama in BTS fandom right now involving one member, his inexplicable black sheep treatment by the band's management, and a really ugly truck. No like look at this truck lol, it's so ugly.

I am gonna tell you guys about this truck, for fun.

This is Jin, a member of BTS. He's generally considered one of the hottest people in the universe, and he's a very good singer. He wrote and sang what is IMO the best song off their recent album: "Moon." It's been a huge international hit and has literally broken world records.

But Jin keeps getting shafted in all the band's major single releases. In 2018 someone actually went through all their MVs and over 5 years he only gets 7 minutes of total solo time. Why? Who knows, but this is far, far less than the other 3 vocalists.

In fact, last year, someone tallied up *every* line Jin sang in *every* BTS song recorded over their career, and it totalled less than half an hour. Out of 8 albums! It really makes you wonder what this guy did to warrant this perpetual backseat. Especially since "Moon" is a hit.

So the new single comes out, and this time Jin fans are incensed, because once again, Jin only has like half a solo line in the chorus. No one knows why! But again, it's much less than the other vocalists.

So a group of his fans got together to... rent a truck.

This truck was hired to to drive around the block outside the BigHit office (BTS's studio) in Seoul. And it did! And it's hideous!

But its goals are pure! The fans just want to express their positive support for Seokjin!

This isn't the first time fans have rented trucks like this to yell at BigHit. It's a thing.

Except this time, this truck has split Jin's sub-fandom right down the middle, because half the fans are utterly horrified at this shameless display of entitlement.

The logic is: What if Jin himself sees it and feels like he hasn't been working hard enough to please his fans? What if Big Hit punishes him for the fans' bad behavior?

This has split the fandom; fans have gone from being furious with the company to being furious w/ each other.

And I find this really fascinating not only because I genuinely wonder what's up with Jin's limited singing time, but because this whole conversation represents very different ways of thinking about the fan/creator relationship.

The truck represents a fan-as-equal-investor mode of engagement, where the power of the consumer gives them the power to talk back and be heard. But within idol culture, agitated fans can reflect badly on the idol themselves, even if they've done absolutely nothing wrong.

And all this is playing out as the band and fans are aggressively gunning for the Hot 100 top spot. If they fail to hit it, or god forbid chart higher than #5 (which is where "On" placed in March), this entire scandal could get part of the blame for consuming/diverting energy.

I am so fascinated by all this and by the competing narratives about fan responsibility and fan accountability within this subculture. The truck messaging is actually super respecful! If that's not acceptable, then how do fans more effectively talk back to studios?

TLDR stan Moon, it's my favorite song of the year https://open.spotify.com/track/1xfXXujIlLZAx5wpu46Nyk?si=X7T5VMjQS66cEQaEULVK_w