BTS confronted tears and sympathy from fans however anger from shareholders of their administration firm on Wednesday, a day after the band, pleading exhaustion, introduced a break from group musical actions to pursue solo tasks.
Many in South Korea reacted with shock and dismay at Tuesday’s information that, with a few of its seven members approaching navy service age, additionally triggered hypothesis about the way forward for a band whose upbeat hits and messages of youth empowerment have turned them into world stars.
“I might relate to them as they shed tears and truthfully instructed us how they felt,” fan Nini Lee instructed Reuters from a restaurant in Seoul the place she had gathered with different fans.
“Their voice gave me large power once I had robust instances, and I’m now not afraid of such headwinds … Now I need to give my voice of braveness to them.”.
Kim Young-sun, who runs the cafe, stated she felt sorry that she as a fan had solely wished extra from BTS at a time once they had been struggling, wishing them a well-deserved break to recharge their batteries.
BTS Leader and rapper RM, in a tearful video launched on Tuesday on the ninth anniversary of a bunch that final yr grew to become the primary Asian band to win artiste of the yr on the American Music Awards, stated he had “felt responsible and afraid” to ask for the remainder that he desperately wanted.
Singer Jimin stated they had been struggling to seek out their identification in what he known as an “exhausting course of,” whereas RM additionally lamented that the Ok-pop business couldn’t present younger artists with “time to mature”.
On social media, another fans blamed BTS’ administration group Hybe for relentlessly pushing for brand new albums and different moneymaking alternatives.
The firm didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“The Ok-pop and idol business had lengthy been operating on a profit-making system the place the celebs can not take a relaxation even once they burned themselves out,” stated Jung Duk-hyun, a South Korean cultural critic.
A poster exhibiting Ok-pop group BTS members is displayed at a vacationer data centre in Seoul on June 15, 2022. Photo: AFP
Shareholder ‘Dynamite’
Tuesday’s surprising announcement fuelled anger amongst buyers in Hybe, which went public two years in the past and whose shares plunged 25% on Wednesday, wiping almost 2 trillion received (US$1.55bil) off its market worth.
“They’ve planted ‘dynamite’ within the hearts of shareholders,” one wrote on a Samsung Securities inventory buying and selling platform, referring to one of many group’s hit songs.
Hybe shares had carried out comparatively poorly in latest months, and the corporate’s chief government and a few BTS members unloaded inventory totalling 10 billion received (US$7.75mil) in December.
All able-bodied South Korean males are topic to about two years of navy service, and the oldest member of BTS, Jin, is required to start his responsibility subsequent yr.
A invoice pushing for offering navy exemptions to globally famend artistes is pending in parliament, amid extended debate over whether or not BTS deserves comparable advantages that sport athletes take pleasure in.
Lee Ki-hoon, an analyst at Hana Financial Investment Co. Ltd., wrote in a report that BTS’ lack of public exercise together with the impression of navy service might end in a 750 billion received income loss in 2023. – Reuters
