BTS propelled K-pop to global stardom. Nearly four years later, they’re back

By Jessie Yeung, Yoonjung Seo, Gawon Bae, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — When the world’s biggest K-pop group announced their hiatus in late 2022, they were at the height of superstardom. They regularly topped music charts, won prestigious awards, and arguably transformed the genre into a global cultural phenomenon.

Now, BTS is back – and coming to a city near you. As the clock strikes midnight on Wednesday in Seoul, the group will announce the dates and locations of a highly anticipated world tour, with their new album expected to release in March – the band’s first in nearly four years.

The group’s fans, known as ARMY, have been fervently awaiting their idols’ comeback since the last of their members completed mandatory military service last year – though the speed of the announcement came as a welcome surprise to some.

“It’s like the gods are coming down from Mount Olympus,” said Carla Nicholson, a fan from San Diego who currently studies in Seoul and visited a BTS promotional installation in the South Korean capital last week. When the album releases, she plans to rent an entire cinema to watch the music videos with her friends, she said.

Another fan, Jing Lee from Taiwan, said that when she heard of their impending comeback, “I couldn’t sleep for two nights because I’m too excited, but also scared that I won’t be able to get a ticket.”

“I gave all my three birthday wishes to BTS, just hoping to get at least one concert ticket,” she said – adding that she is ready to travel to the US if the group performs there. “I’m just going to follow them wherever they go.”

Fans have also pored over a cryptic image teased by the band, depicting three red circles – with theories about what it means ranging from “hello” to the symbols on the South Korean flag.

But the group is returning to a very different landscape than the one they left. K-pop is no longer a novelty, with the “Korean wave,” also known as Hallyu, bringing the country’s cultural exports to every corner of the globe. And for the past year, the industry has been rocked by a high-profile legal battle involving BTS’ parent company Hybe.

“The challenge isn’t just exposure, it’s really about how to stand out, and also earn trust among global fans,” said Ray Seol, an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, who researches K-pop. “It’s quite a different game now.”

Rise to global stardom

When BTS debuted in 2013, K-pop was already popular across Asia – but had only made limited progress breaking through Western markets.

That began changing with Psy’s 2012 smash hit “Gangnam Style,” whose viral popularity was an early precursor of what would come.

In the following years, BTS skyrocketed to global recognition, with their arrival in American pop culture hailed as a major breakthrough for the genre. They were the first K-pop act to win a Billboard Music Award in 2017, to perform on “Saturday Night Live” in 2018, and to earn a Grammy nomination in 2020.

Experts say several factors contributed to their runaway success. Of course, there’s the catchy music and detailed choreography – but also innovative songwriting that tackled social issues, and an active social media presence that set them apart from other K-pop groups and attracted an international fanbase.

But that journey came to a pause when the members – known by their stage names V, Jin, Jimin, RM, J-Hope, Suga, and Jung Kook – began their military service.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 to 28 are required by law to perform 18-21 months of military service under a conscription system.

The group had already managed to postpone their service once, thanks to South Korea’s parliament passing a bill allowing top pop stars to defer their service until the age of 30. But that deadline arrived in 2022 for the oldest member, Jin – and the others soon followed.

All seven finished their service by 2025, and began making new music soon after – though each member had also released solo work during the hiatus years.

Evolving industry

However, a lot has changed from 2022 to now.

For one, South Korea has cemented itself as a cultural powerhouse – the source of K-beauty, K-pop, K-dramas, and more. What was once new and foreign to Western audiences is now widely beloved – think of last year’s “KPop Demon Hunters,” which became Netflix’s most-watched film of all time.

Seol, who teaches a course on K-pop at Berklee, says each semester his classrooms are “full with non-Korean students” curious about the industry. When walking through his neighborhood in the Boston suburbs, he hears children belting songs from “KPop Demon Hunters” — the soundtrack dominated Billboard’s charts for weeks, with one track winning a Critics’ Choice Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

“In 2022, when BTS paused their group activities, K-pop was still in a phase of global expansion,” Seol said. “Now it is a different place. Mega hits like ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ really showed how deeply K-pop culture has entered the global mainstream.”

The genre itself has gone global, too – in language, nationality and style.

Take Katseye, an LA-based group that bills itself as “the first-ever global girl group formed using K-pop artist development methodologies.” Created through a reality competition series partly produced by Hybe, its members hail from four different countries and often incorporate their respective languages into their songs – a multicultural approach that could hint at the future of K-pop.

It’s also increasingly common for Korean stars to collaborate with artists outside of their genre. For instance, the 2024 hit song “APT” was a collaboration between Bruno Mars and Rosé of the hugely popular girl group Blackpink.

At the same time, the K-pop industry has faced its own challenges – reflected in the legal battle between girl group NewJeans and their label Ador, a Hybe subsidiary, that shook up the entertainment world last year. The controversy raised questions of artists’ limited agency under major labels.

Many fans, as well as spooked investors, are “looking forward to seeing how BTS can actually reset the industry. It’s been quite noisy, especially what Hybe has been facing,” said Seol. For the sake of their financial stability, “Hybe has to do something, and BTS could be the answer,” he added.

And despite the saturated market, he said, BTS has the distinct advantage of being the first to transform the industry — an impact that has elevated them in status, longevity and influence despite their long hiatus.

“I think that they’re coming back more strong and more relevant,” Seol said. “BTS is not just a regular K-pop group. They are really the engine of the industry itself.”

The-CNN-Wire
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