BTS

Korean boy band BTS celebrated its ninth anniversary with a shocking announcement: The group is going on hiatus. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, ...

NSYNC has technically been on hiatus since 2002, and members of the band fun. Calling the band successful would be an understatement: In 2019, BTS was the first group since the Beatles to have three No. 1 hits in a year on Billboard’s Top 200. One Direction famously went on an indefinite hiatus in January 2016 and have yet to reunite.

The boy band announced their break during a dinner filmed for social media. The group officially debuted in 2013.

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The K-pop band told fans during a televised dinner celebrating their anniversary they had decided to take an extended break and pursue solo projects.

"I think that's why we're going through a rough patch right now, we're trying to find our identity and that's an exhausting and long process." The singer added that he now wanted to take the time to consider the future of BTS as a group and as individuals. During the conversation, RM said that while they had achieved a great deal as BTS, the individual members needed to grow and mature as individuals.

They just released a three-disc anthology album, "Proof," last week. Band member Suga asked the group if they should talk about why they were going into a ...

"We're each going to take some time to have fun and experience a lot of things," said Jung Kook to their fans. BTS has a global fanbase that follows the group and members online and in recent years the group's profile has risen overseas. They discussed having to deal with Covid-19 interrupting their touring plans and music releases, as well as what each one thought about their individual artistic goals. Suga described an interest in trying out new genres. The seven-member group with hits like "Butter" and "Dynamite" talked about their future in a video posted Tuesday celebrating the nine-year anniversary of their debut release. Global superstars BTS said they are taking time to focus on solo projects, but the company behind the groundbreaking K-pop group said they are not taking a hiatus.

BTS Announces Plan to Focus on Solo Projects ... FILE - BTS arrives at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. ... Global superstars BTS said ...

“We’re each going to take some time to have fun and experience a lot of things,” said Jung Kook to their fans. No details about future BTS collaborations or the solo projects were announced Tuesday. BTS has a global fanbase that follows the group and members online and in recent years the group’s profile has rose overseas. Members will be focusing more on solo projects at this time,” the statement said.

Members of the K-pop juggernaut said in a video conversation that they wanted time to explore their individual artistic identities.

And future solo performances are already on the books: Earlier this month, Lollapalooza, a music festival in Chicago, announced that J-Hope would be a headliner at the event this summer. While chatting and reminiscing over a meal, the members — J-Hope, RM, Jin, Suga, Jimin, V and Jungkook — touched on some of the challenges they were facing as artists, including the pressure to keep churning out hit songs. “We’ve talked among ourselves several times and we believe it’s good to take some time apart,” J-Hope, one of the members, said in the video.

South Korean boy band say in a video they are 'exhausted' and 'going through a rough patch' – but will return 'a stronger group'

The group has twice been nominated for a Grammy but has yet to win. BTS’s label enjoyed a surge in profits during the pandemic, despite holding fewer concerts. “I’ve always thought that BTS was different than other groups,” he continued. J-Hope said that time apart could help BTS “become a stronger group,” and that the time was “important ... for BTS’ second chapter.” Jimin, 26, said the members are “slowly trying to figure things out now” and that “we’re starting to think about what kind of artists we each want to be remembered by our fans”. “But the problem with K-pop and the whole idol system is that they don’t give you time to mature.”

The company behind the group reassured fans they are not taking a hiatus, after an English translation alluded they were.

No details about future BTS collaborations or the solo projects were announced on Wednesday. BTS has a global fanbase that follows the group and members online and in recent years the group's profile has rose overseas. "We're each going to take some time to have fun and experience a lot of things,'' said Jung Kook to their fans. They discussed having to deal with Covid-19 interrupting their touring plans and music releases, as well as what each one thought about their individual artistic goals.

Shares of Hybe Co., the agency that manages the South Korean pop phenomenon BTS, plunged by a record after the band said they'll focus on individual ...

Shares of agency that manages the pop phenomenon tanked a record 28 percent on news members will pursue solo projects.

The slump means that Hybe has given up almost all of its gains since its trading debut. Bangtan Boys, more commonly called BTS, made the announcement to pursue solo projects in a video posted on YouTube, which has already got more than 10 million views. Military service is mandatory for all men in South Korea, which is still technically at war with North Korea.

She was, of course, reacting to the news that the massively successful K-pop group BTS was taking a break for an indefinite period. Titus was not alone in her ...

With the industry’s exponential growth in recent years, there’s now a multitude of rising bands that could quickly fill the gap while BTS takes a break. Lee Jin-hyeong, chief commercial officer at HYBE, told the conference that “the conscription laws continue to change in an unpredictable manner, which actually make things hard for our artists.” Since becoming the first Korean act to win a Billboard music award in 2017, BTS has been one of South Korea’s biggest exports, bringing in billions in ticket sales, sponsorships, music downloads and merchandise. Critics say that proposed exemptions would be bending the conscription rules to help the rich and powerful skip national duty. The venting session was a rare public acknowledgment of the intense nature of the K-pop industry, in which stars — referred to as “idols” — are trained from a young age, taught to look, speak, dress, dance and sing in specific ways. BTS announced during a live-streamed event Tuesday that its members were taking time off to pursue solo projects and take stock of how they could move forward as a group act.

Market value of group's agency Hybe falls $1.7bn as singers choose to pursue solo projects.

Fans react to news that biggest boy band in the world is going on hiatus.

But members of BTS have already been releasing solo material. Lucy says all seven members of the group have "a lot to offer" as solo artists - but believe Jungkook could go on to a career that rivals some of the biggest names in pop. The seven members of BTS - Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook - are aged between 24 and 29, and Lucy says one of the key points made in the announcement was that the K-pop industry "doesn't really create space for maturity." In the group's statement, which was made during a televised dinner to mark their anniversary, BTS acknowledged they had been going through a "rough patch" and said that trying to find their identity had been "exhausting." She believes speaking honestly shows the groups "bravery" but also their "power" in the K-pop scene. "In K-pop, it's really not uncommon for groups that have seven, eight or nine members for the individuals in that group to have thriving solo careers but still very much be in their groups," she tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

South Korea grants exemptions from military service to some elite athletes, such as Olympic medallists, and classical musicians -- but pop stars do not qualify.

And as I have always said, I will answer the country's call whenever it comes," Jin said in 2020. even if this news feels more ominous." Who does -- and does not -- undertake military service is a highly-charged issue in South Korea and suspicions of evading active duty can sound a death knell for careers. But the draft bill went nowhere in parliament, and with mandatory service looming, the band made a "sensible decision to halt their group activity", Lee said. Allowing the band members to focus on their solo careers was a "logical move", said Lee, as successive stints of military service look set to disrupt the septet's globetrotting schedule for the next several years. "The issue of military service was clearly involved in the announcement," Lee Moon-won, a K-pop culture commentator, told AFP, adding that it seemed clear the band did not want to continue making music unless all members were available.

They became the world's biggest pop group, and a multibillion-dollar asset in their native South Korea. But by going on hiatus, BTS are refusing to lose ...

J-Hope, a rapper and dancer with effervescent stage presence, will release his in July, ahead of his first solo headline set at Lollapalooza – another record broken, as he’s the first Asian artist to headline Chicago’s longstanding festival. “We can’t tell you everything directly,” he says to the camera, “and that’s very sad and difficult at times. Around the dinner table, each of the seven members begins to describe – hesitantly at first, and then with confidence – that they are all working on individual albums. Dynamite, a sugary disco-pop track and their first fully English-language single, earned them their first No 1 in the US and their first Grammy nomination. And more than that, they have the emotions of their deeply passionate global fanbase, BTS Army, to contend with – as well as the weight of a nation’s expectations on their shoulders. In reassurance, Suga offers: “But when we look back on the past nine years, almost nothing went to plan. But at some point I haven’t been sure what kind of group we are [any more] and for me, it was a big deal that I didn’t know.” Despite their label’s humble origins, and in a K-pop industry then dominated by the “Big Three” music agencies, BTS set themselves apart from their peers through ferocious performances, a warm yet rebellious spirit, and a deeply tangible love for music backed by the underground hip-hop credentials of several of their members. They won their first major award in 2015, for the bitterly romantic pop track I Need U, and began a steady climb towards industry domination with introspective, philosophical lyrics and a knack for twisting their hip-hop beginnings into a number of global pop genres. After I get up in the morning and get makeup done there’s no time left for growth. They spoke at the United Nations assembly in 2021 after travelling there on diplomatic passports, and earlier this month visited the White House to discuss Asian inclusion and representation with President Biden, as well as the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Breaking so many records that yesterday the Guinness World Records tweeted, “BTS we’re going to miss you”, the group are the first Grammy-nominated K-pop group, the first to chart a primarily Korean-language single at No 1 in the US, and grossed $33.3m from just four gigs in Los Angeles last year.

Popstars, diplomats, activists: South Korean megastars BTS are like modern day Renaissance men, dominating the charts even as they represent their country ...

Although the group are currently at the "very peak" of their success, RM said he "didn't know what kind of group we were any more." "I don't have time to grow because I have to keep filming and keep doing something," RM said, referring to the team's busy work schedule. "The symbolic meaning of them is believed to embody to some extent the zeitgeist of the present era." But at the height of their powers, the band said Tuesday that they were "exhausted" and would take a break, telling their fans that they needed time apart. And they spoke in Korean at the White House on May 31 seeking to raise awareness of anti-Asian racism in America -- a phenomenon many blame on fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. But at the same time, they and their fans supported anti-racist movements," he said.

HYBE swears the word "hiatus" was a mistranslation, as its stock plummeted this week.

BTS would also like you to know that they are absolutely not disbanding, so no members of the dreaded BTS Army need to mobilize at this time. But a “hiatus?” Who said anything about a hiatus? HYBE, the South Korean music label whose portfolio includes 7-person money machine/music group BTS, has issued an emergency disclaimer today: BTS is not, repeat, not going on hiatus, despite a public message yesterday that said they were.