Just days after releasing a retrospective three-disc compilation of Proof’s career, BTS K-pop icons shocked the ARMY nation on Tuesday (June 14th) with the surprising announcement that they were taking an indefinite “break” to give each man time to focus. on solo endeavors.
Take a look
Take a look
Check out the latest videos, charts and news
Check out the latest videos, charts and news
The revelation by the seven-man boy gang came about 20 minutes after a one-hour FESTA dinner, during which members RM, Jin, SUGA, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook casually sat around the dinner table and joked as they decided what to do. to drink, remembering the rocket’s path to fame and playfully annoying each other.
“Now we’re going to pause,” Suga said casually at one point about nothing else they were talking about in a segment that suddenly made the tone more sober. “Do we need to talk about why we don’t do FESTA or create content?” He added.
“Should we get into this?” RM wondered.
“Yes, we need to talk about the direction we are heading,” Suga confirmed. And as Suga picked him up, RM felt free to expose the apparent upcoming break, following the band’s relentless pace since its inception in 2013.
“Gathering like this today and shooting content, I’m glad we’re BTS… what would I do if we weren’t BTS?” RM asked. “It simply came to my notice then that I was happy to be together. I started music and became BTS because I had a message for the world. ” He added that he did not know what he would do after the band released “On”, the second single from their album Map of the Soul: 7 for 2020.
But then the COVID-19 pandemic closed everything and the band focused on recording new singles, including their hits № 1 on Billboard Hot 100 “Dynamite”, “Butter”, “Permission to Dance” and “Life Goes On” and he I realized that “the band has definitely changed.”
“We have to accept that we have changed,” RM said as his bandmates looked on with more serious faces than during the earlier part of the holiday dinner. “To me, BTS seemed to be on my band next to On and Dynamite, but after Butter and Permission to Dance, I didn’t know what kind of band we were.” the story and the message he wants to spread are very important, “but it was as if that was no more. I don’t know what story to tell now. “
The 27-year-old RM said he had always considered BTS different from other bands, but that the “problem” with K-pop and the idol system was that they didn’t give you time to mature. You have to keep producing music and keep doing something. ” He described how he gets up in the morning and puts on make-up and feels he has no time to grow.
“And it’s not just about music and work,” he added, noting that he has also changed “as a person” over the past decade. “So I have to think and spend some time alone, and then those thoughts can mature into something unique of mine… I can’t mature physically anymore.” He said he feels he needs to contribute more to the world right now, but he doesn’t really know what it is, so he just needs some time to think and figure out who he is and what he wants from BTS.
“Somehow,” he said, frowning, “it’s become my job to be a rap machine and remake music and speak English for the band.” he said he felt “trapped in himself.” He continued to want to take off this mantle and show his true self, postponing his efforts to think a little, but the BTS machine continued to release more product as members became “more exhausted.”
He promised that he would still look forward to dancing and rehearsing with the rest of the BTS and that when they reunite, they will do great performances. “But right now we’ve lost our way and I just want to take some time to think,” he said.
ARMI, of course, came first for every man, and Jimin, 26, said: “We can’t help but think of our fans, no matter what – we want to be the kind of artists our fans remember. I think we’re starting to think about what kind of artists each of us wants to be remembered by our fans. I think that is why we are going through a difficult period at the moment, we are trying to find our identity and it is an exhausting and long process. Our fans know us and we know us. ”
The 29-year-old Shuga noted that the “hardest thing” lately is writing lyrics and that “we need to say something” – you can’t force it. I have to talk about something that I really feel, but at the moment I’m just squeezing it, because we have to satisfy the desires of people and listeners … it’s so painful. “
His biggest hope, he said, is to finally try genres other than hip-hop, in fact “many genres.” Because, he added, if he had a solo show in which he rapped for two hours, “it would be boring… so boring.” To be honest, he wants to learn how to dance better and “dance freely and be as fashionable as Bruno Mars.”
The 28-year-old J-Hope gave ARMY hope that this definitely did not mean the end of the band, even when he revealed that he had already started working on his solo material. “I think this change is what we need right now,” he said. “It’s important for BTS to start our second chapter.”
RM then announced that their individual mixtapes would now be treated more like the right albums, with J-Hope being the first member to officially come out on their own as the band began to “show off our individual colors”.
The disclaimer at the beginning of the video reads: “It is NOT a script! NOT staging! It’s all the BTS sincerity of ARMI, from ARMI, to ARMI. ”
A spokesman for the group clarified BTS’s description of the break in a statement to Billboard: “To be clear, they are not pausing, but it will take time for them to explore some solo projects at the moment and stay active in various different formats.
As early as 2019, the band took a one-month break from the spotlight, which a spokesman said at the time was “an opportunity for BTS members, who are tirelessly striving for their goal since their debut, to recharge and prepare to present again as musicians and creators. “
They also took an “extended rest period” at the end of 2021, which their management company said in a statement that it aims to allow them to “re-inspire and recharge with creative energy”. All seven members have released solo projects over the course of the band’s career, and during dinner they did say that they are all in the process of recording solo projects. J-Hope seems to be the first to come out of the solo door when he plays without his colleagues at Lollapalooza next month.
Watch the dinner video and the break message below.
Add Comment