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South Korean band BTS is set to reunite after its members completed their military service, fuelling excitement about a new album that analysts hope will reinvigorate K-pop, one of the country’s biggest cultural exports.
Five members of the band — RM, V, Jimin, Jung Kook and Suga — were discharged from military service this month, joining j-hope and Jin, whose service ended last year. “Thank you for your patience,” Suga wrote in a social media post, vowing to “try our best to repay the love you have given us”.
“I will quickly make an album and return to the stage,” RM, the group’s leader, said on his discharge.
The boy group’s reunion comes at a critical time for the K-pop industry. Korean music sales worldwide rose 7 per cent last year to Won13.5tn ($10bn), but the rate of growth was less than half that of 2023.
Physical sales of South Korean pop albums — which are still vital sources of revenue and profit for the country’s music labels — fell 17 per cent last year, according to music information website Circle Chart, sparking concern that the genre’s popularity may be waning following several scandals.
Monthly active user numbers of leading K-pop online fan platforms also fell in 2024.
“The return of the most influential K-pop idols will help create another wave of Korea’s soft power and will have a positive impact on exports of the country’s other consumer-facing industries,” said Jeong Kwang-woo, an independent analyst and former fund manager.
South Korea’s cultural exports, including music, films and broadcasting, have surged in recent years, reaching an estimated $13.6bn in 2024, according to the state-run Korea Creative Content Agency. The music industry, which accounted for 13.6 per cent of total cultural export value, soared 51.5 per cent to $1.85bn last year.
Since BTS’s debut single in June 2013, the band has released a series of hit songs, including “Dynamite” and “Butter”, becoming the first K-pop act to top the Billboard album charts in 2018 and to receive a Grammy Award nomination.
But the group has been on hiatus for the past two years as the band members completed their 18-month mandatory military service.
Shares of Hybe, the band’s label, have surged 57 per cent this year on expectations of a comeback. Hybe has said BTS will return as a group, but the timing is “still under discussion”. Each of the group’s members has pursued solo projects during their break.
“Even during their military service, the BTS fandom kept growing,” said Im Soo-jin, an analyst at Daishin Securities. “New boy bands like the Stray Kids, Seventeen [and] Enhypen partly filled the vacuum, but they have failed to replace BTS.”
Jin is starting his first world tour with a domestic concert on Saturday, while j-hope has just wrapped up a solo tour, raising expectations among fans that the reunited band might go on tour and release an album early next year.
Jeong, the analyst, suggested it would not be long before BTS’s return to the top of the charts. “BTS is the K-pop icon. They made K-pop a genre and an industry.”
Despite a recent dip in album sales, Jeong said interest in K-pop remained strong, referring to the Netflix animated fantasy drama Kpop Demon Hunters. “K-pop remains hot. But the quality of their next album will be the key for BTS to continue their success.”
A documentary about BTS’s devoted legion of followers, known as ARMY, will be released next month, showing how the group’s supporters helped push the band towards global stardom.
One such fan is Mimi Kim, a 38-year-old South Korean housewife who attended a BTS concert in 2019, a day before her wedding ceremony. “I am so excited that they will be reunited soon,” she said. “Two years have passed so quickly.”
