Side Note

BTS and Beyoncé’s stan armies teamed up to game the charts

Online fandoms go by many names — Rihanna Navy, Swifties, Beliebers, the list goes on — but all share a common, valiant goal: to do whatever it takes to boost the profiles of their favorite artists. This can mean anything from sharing updates about the artist’s life and music to fighting online with anyone who dares speak ill of them. Sometimes, too, this can mean coordinating with other fans to stream a new album or single in the hopes of helping it earn a spot on the Billboard charts or just rack up streaming numbers in general.

On Wednesday, however, Beyoncé fans, commonly referred to as the BeyHive, and fans of the mega successful Korean boy band BTS, known as the ARMY, took fan streaming campaigns a step further by collaborating to lift up both artists. Occurring around the hashtags #ARMYHiveProject and #ARMYHIVEStreamingParty, so many fans of the artists joined in on the listening party (a flyer for which was circulated on social media by major fan accounts like @BeyLegion and @USBTSARMY) that, according to Billboard #ARMYHiveStreamingParty managed to become a trending topic on Twitter. It��s unclear just how much Wednesday’s inter-fandom listening party will impact the charts. But judging from posts being shared under the hashtags, several BTS and Beyoncé fans are growing much closer. More fanbases should follow suit, and make some chart magic for their favorite artists.