JUNG YEON-JE/Getty Images
On 24 October 2022 BigHit Music – a South Korean record label, and subsidiary of the K-Pop entertainment behemoth HYBE Corporation – announced that all seven members of K-Pop group BTS would be completing their mandatory service in the South Korean military. After years of tedious politicised debate, uncertainty and talks of potential exemptions, ARMYs (BTS fans) worst nightmare had come true: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook were off to serve their country. It was the Weverse post felt around the world; there would be no new tours or group music for 18 months, curtailing the group’s momentum at the height of their career. Fans were wrought with grief.
Since 1957, South Korea has been one of 80 countries around the world that has an official mandatory military conscription requirement by law. The Military Service Act was borne out of the Korean War to function as a display of strength against North Korea and states that all able-bodied men between the ages of 19 and 28 are obligated to serve out their term for a year and half minimum. Despite there being much discussion about letting K-Pop idols receive an exemption from military service, fear that allowing artists to be excused would be viewed by the public as an abandonment of responsibility has meant that all idols (and their fanbases) have had to brace for a mandated two-year pause in activity to fulfil military duties and avoid being labelled a “draft dodger”. Jay B and Jinyoung of Got7, EXO’s Kai and Taemin of SHINee are among some notable names who have all served their time.
Since their debut in 2013, BTS have made waves in South Korea, and across the globe. Their status as both a cultural and economic powerhouse is undeniable: BTS reportedly contributes over $3.6 billion (around £2.6 billion) annually to the South Korean economy and is responsible for an estimated one in every 13 tourists visiting in the country. In 2021, the band were recognised as honorary diplomats by the former Moon Jae-in administration, and represented their country at both the UN and the White House. They were the first South Korean group to headline Wembley Stadium (two nights, both sold out within three minutes, no less) and to be nominated for a BRIT Award. They were the first K-Pop act to be nominated for a Grammy in 2021, to perform on SNL and the first to top the Billboard 200 chart with their third album. They became the first K-Pop group to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the first band in US history to debut a song and an album at number one at the same time.
With that in mind, it’s safe to say that their two-year absence left a huge void. And, as a result of their mandatory military service, the industry immediately set about looking for the next big thing. HYPE, their label, spent the last few years trying to diversify its portfolio by debuting other groups – probably in hopes of landing a major BTS replacement. In 2024 alone, the label debuted four new groups – including boyband TWS, and girlband ILLIT – arming them with tried and true pop debuts that didn’t do a huge amount to push the needle musically. Waning album sales across K Pop, post-BTS enlistment, could be seen as proof that shallow mimicry is easy to spot by audiences, especially when the music itself takes a backseat to hype and chasing Western validation.
Now, BTS returns to a wildly different landscape to the one they left behind. K-Pop is no longer on the fringes of pop music, and new-gen groups are using BTS as a roadmap to manoeuvre the music industry in the English speaking world. ENHYPEN, a boyband active since 2020, for example, made headlines with their Coachella debut in April, taking the US by storm following promotions of their English language single “Loose” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Jennifer Hudson Show. Collaborations with Western artists are now common and expected, as are English versions of key singles. Award shows like the Billboard Music Awards have now started to invite (and nominate) K-Pop artists as the genre grows with the debut of ‘global girlgroup’ KATSEYE being further evidence of this West-oriented market push.
Perhaps BTS’s long-awaited return will remind the ever-changing industry what made them the gold standard to begin with. Their solo releases are proof of a newfound audacity and artistic independence. V, the group’s resident jazz crooner, forwent the expected music show press tour for his mixtape Layover, opting instead to do a bunch of intimate, band-centred live performances to promote his work. RM’s Right Place Wrong Person (which featured the likes of Little Simz and Moses Sumney) was a genreless mirage of madness and frustration, laden with experimental production and cutting writing that couldn’t have been more different to the group hits he’s known for penning. J Hope’s solo work showcased a darker, sexier concept that allowed the artist to step beyond the often boyishly charming image he had in the group, his latest single “Killin It Girl” cementing his status as a multidimensional rapper capable of adapting to any sound. He is now the K-Pop idol with the most songs to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. They’ve proven themselves to be limitless; a group of aces unwary of experimentation and artistic risk, something that sets them apart from the repetitive, ‘fast fashion’ cycle many K-Pop groups find themselves in.
On 14 June, the group reunited as a unit of seven for the first time in nearly two years at J Hope’s HOPE ON THE STAGE tour, coinciding with their 12th anniversary as a band. And now, with all members having completed their service, and after playing a completely sold-out stadium show, with fans flying in from across the world, it looks as though the OG K-Pop powerhouse could very well pick up right where they left off.
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
