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For a time BTS’s careerone of the most popular K-Pop bands on the planet (if not the most popular), seemed unstoppable. Their sales added millionslike his Fans legions Inside and outside South Korea or its fame in the music industry, which soon extended to the Anglopartla market. The Septeto broke barriers, crowned in the Billboard 200 And even posed with Joe Biden In the White House. In 2022 however things changed. At its peak, the Boy Band advertisement A temporary pause forced by something that had little to do with music: the mili.
Now its seven members have fulfilled the obligations with Seoul and You talk already next resentment With a background question: what will you mean for the K-Pop, a cultural industry Milmillonaria In full transformation?
When BTS hung the rifle. In South Korea the law is relentless: all men between 18 and 28 must Comply with mandatory military service (or social volunteering) for a period ranging between 18 and 21 months. The rule provides some exemptions for athletes, dancers or young people who have achieved large awards in their disciplines and suppose a pride for the country.
The same does not happen with K-pop singers. At most they can, thanks to a reform approved in 2020, delay recruitment up to 30 years. Hence In 2022 BTS members did something strange in a formation uploaded to the crest of the wave and with a growing fame both inside and outside Korea: they announced a break to do the mili. Its seven components do not have the same age or enlisted at the same time, hence the band’s reunion It was announced already by then by 2025.
And the date came. The oldest component, Jin, was enlisted in December 2022 and ended his service in June 2024which has allowed him to return to the stage and resume his solo career. In recent weeks, RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook have also graduated. The last to fulfill its obligations with the South Korean state, Suga, did it Just a few days ago. In practice, Remember Nikkeithat means that (if there are no surprises) in July all members of the Boy Band They will be able to resume their joint career. And, as expected, that has unleashed the expectation of the international press and its fans.
The agency that represents the band has confirmed to The New York Times That he still cannot relieve any return plan, but that has not prevented BTS fans from being celebrated and some leaks jump. A few days ago Variety It echoed of an exclusive of The Korea Herald That states that the group will return to the stage in more or less nine months, towards March next year. Nikkei does not specify so much, but reveals That the band’s environment rules out that a stage is once again on the stage.
Much more than pop music. That BTS’s return plans (despite being diffuse still) have monopolized holders in the means of reach of The BBC, CNN either Tnytreveals that Boy Band South Korean is much more than a popular group. BTS is relevant for several reasons. And not all strictly musical. Beyond its success in the West or to break molds by crowning the Billboard 200, BTS is a key exponent of Hallyu, The “Korean wave” that has expanded the culture, music and cinema of the country far beyond its borders.
In 2024 Asia Fund Managers assuredciting a survey of the South Korean government itself, which the Hallyu wave added around 225 million fans throughout the world, far from the 9.26 million that its first survey had shown, made in 2012. According to its calculations, in 2023 there were more than 1,700 Hallyu fans clubs in 119 countries and much of them (68%) focused on the K-Pop.
It’s culture … and it’s money. Asia Fund Managers remember Also that the influence of the K-Pop is not limited to the music industry or the concert circuit. That there are more pending people of South Korean groups translates into greater interest in the country’s culture, their language, kitchen, tourism or fashion, which has a measurable impact on Wones. Wion ensures that the global value of exports of products and services related to the K-POP exceeded 5,000 million dollars in 2018, a stratospheric figure compared to 40 million only two decades ago.
The figures should be handled cautiously, but give an idea of the mayor of the K-Pop as a cultural industry. There is Who esteem which in 2018 contributed 1.7% of South Korea’s GDP. “K-pop has become an important cultural force, influencing fashion, beauty and language trends,” Reflect ROMADHONI FAILUATE IN MEDUM. “This has contributed to promoting South Korean culture and tourism, generating an increase in income in these sectors.”
And what does BTS suppose? In 2022 Korea Science published A report which reflects that in full international expansion the “BTS effect” came to boost exports of consumer goods of South Korea worth $ 1.1 billion. In 2021, during An interview In the NPR, Vanek Smith went even further and estimated that the Boy Band It contributes hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the South Korean economy. Its effect reminds in a way that of Taylor Swift, whose activity reverses in thousands of millions of dollars for the United States, according to the Federal Reserve.
The K-Pop in crisis? Yeah Filtration of The Korea Herald It is correct and BTS returns to the stage in March 2026, the big question is … will it meet the same K-Pop in 2022, when the group announced its temporal break?
During this time already measured, some members have continued with solo careers and during these last years their agency has strategically launching issues and videos to keep interest in the Boy Band. The K-POP scene also has other outstanding representatives, such as Blackpink, Seventeen either Newjaans. However, during the last years There has been multiple voices that have identified symptoms of Crisis in the K-Pop.
A genre in reinvention. Not all They share that the K-Pop is in crisis, but what seems evident is that the industry faces A transformation which affects both how music is consumed and its background. The first sign of change leaves the puncture in the commercialization of albums. Nikkei precise That sales last year fell by 17% and exports stagnated, with a testimonial increase, of just 0.5%. And the percentage could be reduced even more if the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump make their articles more expensive.
In a recent article about the K-Pop phenomenon, the BBC Slide another key: The industry, its artists and the public are changing. The genre has seen how generations of musicians and bands happened without the new niches having great representatives such as BTS in their day. Also the Boy Band It is not the only star of the genre that has taken a break. Blackpink, another international sensations, does not take a new album since September 2022.
Lights and shadows of the genre. The K-Pop still has in any case A prominent weight In reproductions in streaming, Channel in which he has lived a notable growth over the last years. Last week Yonhap revealed that between 2014 and 2024 K-Pop listening in Spotify multiplied exponentially (470 times), with millions of reproductions. Hybe agency has also achieved Expand your income Annual in 2024 despite the break of BTS, although that data was accompanied by a fall in the operational benefit.
Another revealing sign about the interest that K-Pop continues to generate is the expectation generated by BTS’s next return to the stages. However, not everything is positive signs.
Some analysts have recognized their fear that the septeto has lost part of their hook after its long break and Remember Recent launches in the K-POP industry unable to match the overwhelming success of topics such as “Dynamite”the first K-Pop song in Head the list Billboard Hot 100. There are even those It goes further and slide that Internationalization and the jump to the issues in English is taking its toll to the genre. The big question is … Will the reborn BTS achieve a new milestone in the industry?
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