A few days after releasing a retrospective compilation of three Proof career records, K-pop BTS icons surprised the ARMY nation on Tuesday (June 14th) with the surprise announcement that they are taking an indefinite “pause” to allow every man time to focus on solo business.
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The revelation of the band of seven men came about 20 minutes after an hour-long PARTY dinner, during which members RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook sat down casually. around a table joking as they decided what to drink. , remembering his journey with rockets to fame and joking between them.
“We’re taking a break now,” Suga said casually at one point about nothing else they were talking about in a segment that suddenly made the tone more sober. “Should we talk about why we’re not having a party or content?” added.
“Should we get into this?” asked RM.
“Yes, we need to talk about the direction we are taking,” Suga confirmed. And since Suga raised it, RM has felt free to expose the seemingly imminent breakup after the relentless rhythm of the group since it was formed in 2013.
“Gathering like this and recording content today, I’m glad we’re BTS … what would we do if we weren’t BTS?” asked RM. “It made me think I’m happy to be together. I started music and became a BTS because I had a message for the world.” He added that he did not know what he would do after the group released “On”, the second single from their 2020 album Map of the Soul: 7.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic shut it all down and the band focused on recording new singles, including their No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits “Dynamite”, “Butter”, “Permission to Dance” and ” Life Goes On “and, he realized,” the band has definitely changed. “
“We have to accept that we have changed,” RM said as his bandmates looked on with decidedly more serious faces than during the previous part of the celebratory dinner. “For me, it was as if the BTS group was within my reach to ‘On’ and ‘Dynamite’, but after ‘Butter’ and ‘Permission to Dance’, I no longer knew what kind of group we were.” He said that whenever he writes lyrics and songs, the story and the message he wants to spread is very important, “but it was as if he had now disappeared. I don’t know what kind of story I should tell now. “
RM, 27, said he always thought BTS was different from other bands, but that the “problem” with K-pop and the idol system is that “they don’t give you time to mature. keep producing music and keep doing something “. She described getting up in the morning and putting on makeup and feeling like she didn’t have time to grow up.
“And it’s not just about music and work,” he added, noting that he has also changed “as a human being” over the past decade. “So I need to think and have some time alone and then those thoughts can mature into something exclusively mine … I can’t physically mature anymore.” He said he feels like he should bring something more to the world right now, but that he doesn’t really know what that is, so he just needs some time to think and figure out who he is and what he wants BTS to be.
“Somehow,” he said, frowning, “it’s become my job to be a rap machine and make music and speak English for the band.” While praising the excellent performance skills of his teammates, RM said he felt “trapped inside me”. He continued to want to undress from that mantle and show his true self, postponing his efforts to do some reflection, but the BTS machine continued to launch more products as members “ran out”.
He promised that he would still feel like dancing and rehearsing with the rest of BTS, and that when they get together, they will do great performances. “But right now we’ve lost our direction and I just want to take a moment to think,” he said.
ARMY, of course, was the most important thing for every man, with 26-year-old Jimin saying, “We can’t stop thinking about our fans, come what may: we want to be the kind of artists “I think we’re starting to think about what kind of artists we want our fans to remember. I think that’s why we’re going through a difficult patch right now, we’re trying to find our identity, and that’s a long process.” Our fans know us and we know each other. “
Suga, 29, noted that the “hardest” thing lately has been writing letters and that “we need something to say … you can’t force it. I have to talk about something I really feel, but right now. I am squeezing because we have to satisfy the wishes of the people and the listeners … it is very painful. “
His most cherished hope, he said, was to finally try other genres than hip-hop, “many genres,” in fact. Because, he added, if he had a solo show that was two hours away from him shaving, “it would be boring … so boring.” If he’s honest, he wants to learn to dance better and “dance freely and be modern like Bruno Mars”.
J-Hope, 28, gave ARMY hope that this will definitely not mean the end for the group, although he revealed that he has already started working on his solo material. “I think this change is what we need now,” he said. “It’s important for BTS to start our second chapter.”
That’s when RM announced that their individual mixtapes will now be treated more like appropriate albums, with J-Hope expected to be the first member to officially come out on their own when the band starts “showing our individual colors”.
The disclaimer at the beginning of the video reads, “NO script! NO staging! It’s all ARMY’s BTS sincerity, for ARMY, for ARMY.”
A spokesman for the group clarified the description of the BTS break in a statement on Billboard: “To be clear, they are not paused, but it will take time to explore some solo projects at this time and remain active in different formats.”
In 2019, the group took a month-long break from the spotlight that a representative said at the time was an “opportunity for BTS members, who have been steadily pushing towards their goal since their debut, to recharge your batteries and prepare to present yourself again as musicians and creators ”.
They also took a “long rest period” in late 2021 that their management company said in a statement aimed at allowing them to “re-inspire and recharge with creative energy”. The seven members have released solo projects throughout the group’s career, and during dinner, they did say that they are all in the process of recording solo projects. Apparently, J-Hope will be the first to leave the door alone when he performs without his bandmates in Lollapalooza next month.
Watch the video of the dinner and the break announcement below.