Another day, another set of Western media desperate to make it seem like BTS isn’t dominating American charts authentically.

For real, though, at this point it’s starting to feel like I should just make a compilation article with all of the incorrect things the media is putting out about BTS this comeback season.

This only shows how popular they’ve become with how much more hate they seem to be getting from journalists who can no longer ignore their existence. That doesn’t make it any less annoying, though.

But it also just shows how biased and prejudiced they are against a group that isn’t your average white artist. In an attempt to “understand” what has made BTS so popular, they’re just flagging their blatant disregard for the facts to give themselves a convenient explanation.

This time it looks like the practice of multiple album versions is under attack, which is actually a common practice for South Korean groups.

However, some are trying to make it out to look like this is BTS’ way of “juicing” fans for more album purchases.

First of all, let’s just touch upon the fact that American artists like to boost their sales through the practice of bundling. The basics of this is that they will include the sale of an album with clothes or tickets or some other kind of merchandise.

This, in turn, will help their album climb the charts because the average American consumer doesn’t just buy whole albums anymore. The Fader has a really interesting article on this for those who want to deep dive into it more.

It should be confusing that journalists are trying to make it look like BTS is doing something wrong by selling multiple versions of the album, when American artists aren’t being shamed for bundling.

But alas, we already know that the media just wants to downplay BTS’ growing popularity and artistry in any way that they can.

The funny thing is that, if BTS’ agency Big Hit Entertainment decided to start bundling their albums with merchandise, they would probably sell an even crazier amount of albums than they already do.

BTS can sell out multiple dates on their stadium tour and are currently the top ticket sellers (beating out Drake, Ariana Grande, and the Spice Girls) of 2019. Imagine if they’d added in an album to each ticket sold? No one would be able to knock them off the charts.

Not to mention how well they sell merchandise — anything they touch sells out faster than the items can be stocked. Some stores were even limiting the amount of albums that ARMYs could buy this year!

That’s beside the point, though. What I really wanted to talk about is why ARMYs actually buy multiple versions of BTS’ albums.

For one thing, Big Hit and BTS put a lot of thought and care into the concept of their albums and in turn the multiple versions that they sell.

Each version of the album has its own concept that will connect to the album. To show this, I’ll briefly break down the different versions of Map of the Soul: Persona and how they show off the four major Jungian archetypes.

Map of the Soul: Persona version 1 shows off the persona, or the different masks that people wear. Here you can clearly see how BTS is displaying their different “masks” with different facial expressions.

Map of the Soul: Persona version 2 shows off the anima/animus. Here you can see how BTS is looking in on themselves in the mirror and showing off both their masculine traits and feminine traits (don’t even get me started on how much hate they get for blurring the lines on what’s an “acceptable” style for men according to Westerners).

Map of the Soul: Persona version 3 shows off the self. Since the self is described as often appearing in dreams, you can see how several of the members are dressed in sleep wear.

Map of the Soul: Persona version 4 shows off the shadow. This is an easy one, as you can literally see each of the members’ shadows in their pictures.

Apologies if I explained any of these Jungian ideals incorrectly; I’m not a psychology expert at all, but you get the idea.

Each version of the album also has a different cover, and if a fan really wants, they can pick out their favorite and just get that one.

Or if they prefer, they can buy the set and they’re designed to look amazing together. Inside, each version of the album has different content that goes with the concepts described above.

Another reason ARMYs are more than willing to buy multiple copies of their albums is the special bond they share with BTS. For some reason this is difficult for the media to wrap their head around, but it’s not the typical artist/fan relationship that one is used to seeing.

ARMYS are a family, and BTS is a family, and together we make one big happy family. When one is down, the other is there to lift them up.

BTS will do anything for ARMYs and they’ve even said that the songs on Map of the Soul: Persona were written for them. Likewise, ARMYs will do anything for BTS.

One of the ways we can show our love back is to support them endlessly. This is why we vote for them with everything we can whenever fan voting is allowed on award shows. This is why we will purchase multiple versions of their album.

It’s not only because we love the music and love the concepts, but also because BTS deserves to top the charts and we know buying multiple versions of the album will help them along the way.

This isn’t something they ask American ARMYs to do. We just do it because we want to. ARMYs have also done something similar with #ProjectBuy23! when the group was facing heat from Japanese media.

Instead of trying to shade BTS, the American music industry would be wiser to take a look at what the group is doing and try to learn from it.