BTS. South Korean K-pop band BTS have announced a “break” after nine years of career and numerous successes.
[Mis à jour le 15 juin 2022 à 15h05] BTS “is going through a difficult patch”. After announcing that they were taking a break to devote themselves to other projects, the BTS group saw their label, Hype, fall on the stock market: Wednesday June 15, the day after the surprise announcement of the boy band, the action of Hype fell by nearly 27% at 10:40 a.m. (01:40 GMT). The stock, which has been falling since early 2022, saw its market value slashed by $1.6 billion, according to Bloomberg News, as reported by AFP.
On Tuesday, June 14, the K-pop phenomenon group announced during a dinner broadcast on YouTube that they would be taking a “hiatus” from their career, even as BTS celebrated their ninth anniversary. The seven members of the South Korean formation say they are “exhausted” and “no longer know which group they form”, explains the leader of the group, RM. “I’ve always thought BTS was different from other groups…but the problem with K-pop and the whole ‘star system’ is that you don’t have time to mature,” he continues.
At 27, RM, who says he needs “time to [s]oi”, questions the pressure of the music industry on their group, which “must constantly produce music and do something.” The objective of this break is “to reflect on the memory that everyone wanted to leave to their fans”, adds Jimin, 26. And to Suga to conclude: “It’s not that we are ending the group. We’re just living apart for a while.”
Needless to say, this unexpected announcement created an earthquake on social networks. Especially since BTS had unveiled proof, a new compilation, on Monday. If the group had already announced to take a break in 2019, it is this time to “start a new chapter”, according to J-Hope. The HYBE label, for its part, assures AFP that everyone is preparing to “launch individual and team projects in parallel.