BTS – but K -POP has changed

“I missed them a lot.

Her love for the boy’s band inspired her to move from Brazil to South Korea – so it was not surprising that she appeared last Friday for “BTS Festa”, a big party that is held every year near Seoul on the memory of the group.

Stephanie says, the time to wait has moved “really slowly and quickly”, waving an army bomb, which is the official light used by BTS fans, who call themselves to the army.

Behind it is a huge statue of Lightstick, which is inevitable in the world of K-Pop.

This year happened special because it was not included in the corner. The peak reached the countdown last week, when he completed four of the seven members, RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook, their military service. The waiting ends on Saturday when the last of them is discharged.

“I hope they will rest now, but of course I also want albums, concerts, and everything,” says Stephanie.

The 18 months in the mandatory army of all South Korean men forced the most successful boy group in the world in recent years to stop in 2022. They are now returning, some say, to the K-POP industry completely different from the ones they knew: in the face of sales of the suspended album, vibrating by scandals and increasing the excessive pressure on the stars.

Industry observers say the absence of a leading group was deeply physical.

“Without BTS, it was a missing pillar,” says Kim Yong Day, music critic and author of BTS: The Review:

“There were recent concerns that the K-POP was losing momentum. Right or not, BTS can change this perception.”

There are no plans yet for the emergence of the seven members together, but this did not prevent the army from gathering early in a wet morning in Goyang.

A long, comfortable waiting list extended to the subway station an hour before the opening of the BTS Festa teams. English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish language scraps alongside the Korean have threw a local distance in the past. He asked, “Why are there a lot of foreigners here?”

Inside were more lists – some people were moving with excitement and others were crying after entering the “audio zone”, the phone booth where you can listen to the BTS members. About half of the BBC fans talked about our tears talking about how much they missed BTS.

“I felt that the 18 months lasted forever,” said Voo Matuan, South Africa who was visiting BTS places in Seoul, like their favorite restaurant. “I was crying on every site – it was very emotional.”

Then I saw the live broadcast that was emptying, which was “overwhelming”.

Farra Alaa, who traveled from the Netherlands, says: “Breathing is the same air,” says that you are surrounded by all the things that BTS has done in the middle of the road all over the world worth it.

The South Korean military service is a major test for male celebrities, and many of them have to recruit at the height of their success. In the past, it has been proven that he fought for some professions.

BTS is believed to have fallen into it until all seven members lack work for no more than six months. J-Hope, who was unloaded last October, has since a single world tour. But it can be difficult to break a curse called.

On the one hand, fans loyalty can fade with the appearance of new groups almost every week, as they compete for their attention. The returning idols also face a difficult transition because a military action period and a touch of maturity can reduce the essence of the K-Pop: Young Energy.

But if anyone can break the curse, it is BTS, says Mr. Kim.

Each of them explains individual projects in the past two and a half years, without harming their popularity as a group: “It seems that their military stopping that has passed naturally. Their return is smooth.”

However, the industry that goes beyond the army can pose a challenge.

While BTS was in a break, the other feeling of K-POP, BlackPink, did not fall album since September 2022, as he instead chose individual versions. These were the leaders of the third generation of K-POP.

But they left the fourth and fifth generations that brought a new style to this type. The most recent works – which first appeared after 2018 – lack a prominent name like BTS because K -POP has become more varied than ever. The result is a group of common and experimental groups.

“Most people of my life are like fourth generation idols these days,” says one of the fans of the Gerals Ev collection.

“Some still love the third generation collections, but for young people, it seems that BTS looks like they belong to a bigger generation. Many new idols appeared for the first time during BTS, and they are popular.”

But the biggest challenge of the BTS star is what some people see as slowing in the K-POP.

Revenue from concerts is still strong, but album sales – the main market scale – decreased since its peak in 2023. The recession coincides when BTS and BlackPink were not released albums.

The critic agrees to the culture of the South Korean pop Park, which is that the K-POP has passed “some difficult times” while BTS was far away.

There were also many differences, such as the conflict over the title of the title between the successful girl group Negins and her agent, and the allegations of ill -treatment by strong and harassing agencies by stars by fans and hunting.

Ms. Park said: “The album sales started to decline, and some problems appeared – such as questions about companies that do the right thing -” She adds: Because of all this, as she adds, we saw more “deeper problems in the K-POP industry”.

For this reason, many look forward to BTS’s return, in the hope that this will bring renewed energy – and perhaps even a way forward to this industry.

“Their return will help people focus on the music scene of Korea again,” says Ms. Park, adding that the BTS reunited is great not only for their fans but also for the soft Korean power.

All eyes are now on the next band song.

RM, the group’s leader, said the day he went out of the album and returned to the theater.

But a new group album may not come until early next year because J-Hope still has local concerts, and Jin is scheduled to hold concerts for fans all over the world during the next few months. Soga, who fell in controversy after being arrested, may want to drive a motorcycle last year, may want to lie down for a short period.

For millions of fans like Stephanie, just knowing that BTS has come together enough – at the present time.

“He will feel that nothing changes at all. Kings have returned.”