the great post-gundae bts comeback.
in late 2022, i got really into bts, specifically because i got really into yoongi (whom i still love), which was excellent timing on my end because the group was right about to go into group hiatus as the members went to fulfill their mandatory military service. i was excited for their comeback in 2026/2027, and i was looking forward to how they might evolve after a few years away from both the music industry and the spotlight.[1]
wow, did they do a pivot in the wrong direction.
i wrote about this in my book, i’ll love you forever, so my unease at the direction bts seemed to be moving toward in their solo work released during their military hiatus is in the public record. jungkook’s solo, golden, was the album that really got the alarm bells going in the back of my head — jungkook’s solo was the solo i had actually been looking forward to the most, even though he was one of my two least favorite members. jungkook has all the makings of a Pop Star, and his solo track, “euphoria” (love yourself: answer, 2018), was one i’d listen to on repeat. instead of something that felt like an extension of that, though, golden sounded like a compilation of rejects the western boy bands and male pop stars of the late nineties and early aughts, and his attempt to wear this persona of a badass, edgy boy who cusses and has a lot of sex was just too obviously contrived to be convincing. with rm’s rpwp (2024), jimin’s muse (2024), jin’s echo (2025), with each new release, i felt an increasing sense of foreboding at the direction it seemed hybe was pushing bts.
unfortunately, my sense of foreboding was right, and this whole comeback has had me in a snit because it is all clearly for the west. bts has aggressively been co-opting korean culture and massively inconveniencing korean citizens and, even, sidelining their black fans, all to get approval from white people in the u.s., and it’s been incredibly disappointing to see them pander when they’re in a unique, rather enviable position where they can do anything with their music.[2] one of the things i had loved so much about bts was how they seemed to be so secure in and proud of their korean identity, but, starting with dynamite, something shifted, none of it for any good[3] — and the problem, maybe, is that bts never really had a strong musical identity to begin with.[4]
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i have a half-assed theory that an idol group cannot have longevity without its korean base, and i can’t really expound on that because i honestly haven’t really thought it fully through — but, basically, it doesn’t matter how big a korean group gets in the west (or even elsewhere in asia) if it doesn’t have its korean fanbase as a foundation.
the thing i find interesting about bts’ comeback shenanigans is how willing bts (and/or hybe) seems to be to burn through korean goodwill. for the [blissfully] unaware, bts named their comeback album arirang, after the korean folk song, arguably the korean song[5], and they’re staging their comeback performance at gwanghwamun (a public square that leads to gyeongbukgoong) in central seoul on saturday evening, the recording of which will only be available on netflix.[6] The group clearly understands the marketability of leaning into their korean identity; in interviews, they’ve been keen to emphasize the theme of “roots” with this album.[7]
the marketing-speak sounded great, but it was pretty quickly contradicted when bighit released the track list, which showed that all the key producers on this album were western, specifically diplo and ryan tedder.[8] i wonder if hybe thought it could get away with this because, unfortunately, koreans are enthralled by the west and will hold names like diplo and netflix in high esteem. maybe the kinder take would be to say that i think this was more bighit/rm than it was the group as a whole, but, at the end of the day, that feels like splitting hairs, especially when a significant part of the group’s narrative and brand identity is that they’re self-produced, they have a big say in their music, they’re different from other idol groups because of this.[9] i think, however, that this was shortsighted and this gamble is, ultimately, is going to backfire on them.
to be sure, it’s not really possible to get a sense of public sentiment just off the internet; we end up in bubbles based on our behavior on social media as the algorithm starts giving us more of what it thinks we want to see. however, i have been surprised by the range of public anger i’ve been seeing on twitter, outside of stan twitter, from [seemingly] regular korean citizens, especially given what we’ve been learning about how tag pr manipulates online opinion[10].
the album, now that it’s been released, isn’t helping matters – koreans are rightfully upset at the use of arirang as the album title when the album itself is mostly in english and only has a messy, careless sample of arirang thrown in at the end of the first track, “body to body,” and that has added onto disgruntlement with bts’ takeover of gwanghwamun and use of public resources for a for-profit event.[11] at the same time, i honestly don’t think the korean public was angry enough, especially those in seoul.
here’s a short list of some of the inconveniences that were wrought upon central seoul because of this stunt:
the subway did not stop at three stops (each on different lines) for 7-8 hours on saturday.[12]
several businesses in the area closed for the day.[13]
taekbae deliveries in the area were paused.[14]
roughly 10,000 administrative personnel were deployed, including 6,500 police officers, to the question of who would be covering these costs.[15]
businesses closed on friday to saturday because of the expected crowds, allegedly pressuring workers to take paid leave.[16]
weddings held in the jongro area were massively inconvenienced, with security measures making accessing and entering wedding venues difficult.[17]
the police requested the wednesday demonstration, a protest staged in front of the old japanese embassy for years and years and years to demand an apology from japan for forcing korean women into sex slavery in the early twentieth century, move their wednesday protest because it would take place 300 meters from where bts would be performing on saturday.[18]
the unhoused around the area were allegedly removed.[19]
citizens received a barrage of public safety alerts, more than they received during yoon’s attempted coup in december 2024.
the worst of it probably is that, even though gwanghwamun is a public square and the concert is ostensibly free for those who were able to win tickets, the only way to view it is through netflix because a korean terrestrial broadcasting network doesn’t have broadcast rights. further, because the event was licensed exclusively to netflix, even though public funds were used to provide public services, journalists were put under extreme restrictions in what they could report.[20] essentially, hybe has privatized a public space using public services (e.g. police) to make private money.
this past week, for fun, i’ve been half-assedly brainstorming potential lawsuits that could come out of this gwanghwamun stunt. i am obviously not a law student in korea, so i don’t know that much about korean law, so it’s just been something i’ve been mulling over in the back of my brain during classes. the potential fallout from this stunt might be worth following (and i’m going to be honest and say that i really hope there are lawsuits, a lot of them), especially given how much more litigious koreans have gotten in the last few decades.[21]
because here’s the thing — nothing about this comeback is actually for koreans. when we talk about the album being “westernized,” we’re not just talking about the language bts raps and sings in. the album has nothing to do with nationalistic pride or wanting to put korea on the global stage (not that korea needs bts for the latter), and slapping the title “arirang” on it doesn’t make anything about this comeback korean. if it were for koreans, bts wouldn't have snarled up central seoul to put on a one-hour show in front of gwanghwamun. if they wanted to “go back to their roots,” they’d be working with korean producers and songwriters and writing korean lyrics, instead of assembling a team of westerners and working to their own disadvantage by trying to rap in english, a language they don’t speak to a degree of fluency that would allow them to have the same lyricism they do in korean.
the superficiality with which korean elements have been slapped onto this seems to be for bts to get western approval, to win a grammy, to get invited to the super bowl, and they’re currently mimicking bad bunny and k-pop demon hunters to get there. the success of both has shown that leaning into your culture, proudly showcasing your culture, can get mass, mainstream approval and attention in the u.s., but, in unsurprising fashion, bighit seems to have taken these models and figured that they don’t need to try for sincerity – all they need is to get the visuals of bts standing in front of gwanghwamun while promoting an album titled arirang so that white people around the world can ooh and ahh over the visual.[22] i almost have to give it to bts for giving us a master class in how to appropriate and sell off your own culture for white approval over the last month.
co-opting arirang means that arirang will now always be linked to bts, not to korea. getting the visual of bts in front of gwanhgwamun means gwanghwamun will now also always be linked to bts. packaging up korean culture so shallowly and offering it up to the west for white consumption because bts wants white people to like them is a degree of internalized racism that surprises me coming from a korean boy band, especially when many asian americans know that subscribing to the model minority myth won’t get you anywhere – at the end of the day, bts isn’t white, and selling out korean culture like this, ultimately, will do harm to koreans. the ego they’ve displayed with this comeback is astounding, this idea that they are somehow representative of korea just because they’re famous for being famous.
fans have long used the alleged boost to the korean economy as the reason to tolerate bts’ shenanigans, and, even when i was a fan, i was never fully comfortable with using economics as a reason to hold up the group.[23] for one, it only furthers the way that idols are treated as a commodity and a product, valuable mostly for the money they bring in, and, for another, the argument isn’t actually necessarily good — amazon, for example, has used the “we will boost the economy” as reason for why cities should welcome their new headquarters, even though amazon was also demanding massive tax breaks and other benefits that would actually work against the overall benefit of the host city.[24] in this case, sure, bts is bringing a lot of foreigners into the country because of their comeback, but at what cost? the argument would have been different had they been like every other idol group and held their comeback stage in a concert venue that already has the infrastructure in place for such an event.
and that, truly, is the stupidest part of all this. bts didn’t need to shut down gwanghwamun for almost a week to build an ugly stage. they didn’t need to require thousands of police officers and firefighters who were diverted away from other parts of seoul and the country.[25] they didn’t need to inconvenience the public and disrupt weddings and shut down the subway for eight hours. they didn’t need to do any of this to make the money and get the global attention they so desperately want, but they chose to because they could. again, the ego is astounding.
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as a k-pop fan based in the u.s., i’m always curious about how the korean general population (“gp”) feels about idol groups, and i’m constantly asking my korean friends for information on the ground. my general takeaway is that bts is largely famous for being famous — they did have a peak, but you don’t really hear their music around the country, and, yes, they’re ranked up there in status alongside son heungmin and faker, but they’re not necessarily known for what they do as they are for who they are. there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, and i’m certainly not trying to downplay their fame. bts did indeed achieve a scale of fame globally that another korean idol group had not reached previously, but it’s disingenuous to try to rewrite history or claim that they’ve somehow paved the way for korean idols in the west. bts hasn’t done anything to pull other idols up behind them — i mean, they barely do anything to help their own hoobaes in korea.
bts also notably doesn’t have a national song in their own home country, which i think is telling and goes to show that they really are a group that’s famous for being famous. i think the closest they got was maybe “봄날 (spring day),” which honestly lowkey annoys me because of the way bts quietly just rode the public assumption that the song was about the sewol ferry tragedy, but bts doesn’t have a song that gets the korean gp going like snsd’s “다시 마난 세계 (into the new world)” (“ITNW”) exo’s “으르렁 (growl),” or big bang’s “bang bang bang.”[26]
(someone tweeted that they would have been fine if snsd performed ITNW in front of gwanghwamun, and a few people tried to argue that that was a double standard. [27] i don’t think so, though, namely for three reasons: (1) i think SM has more political savvy to know that they shouldn’t try to privatize a public space for private profit using public services; (2) snsd was the nation’s girl group for a generation, and (3) snsd’s ITNW is korea’s unofficial national anthem and protest song.[28] in 2016, ewha students sang ITNW to protest unfair admissions that set things in motion to lead up to park geun-hye’s impeachment; attendees sing ITNW at pride parades; and protestors sang ITNW when protesting for yoon’s impeachment in 2024-25.[29] Not only that, snsd member yuri gifted protestors gimbap and told them to sing ITNW well in a bubble message.[30] snsd performing ITNW in front of gwanghwamun, where hundreds of thousands have sung the song to call for justice, would actually have a lot of meaning and significance for koreans. that is the key difference.)
again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being famous for being famous. in today’s attention economy, where everything is a race to the bottom, you might argue that the most important thing is to get people’s on you, no matter what.
the problem, though, is that, when the best thing anyone has to say in defense of you is the scale of your fame, that kind of means you have nothing of substance to support you when the viewership fades. i think that’s one reason hybe is chasing the grammy so badly; they want that sense of external validation; and the thing that makes me sad about this comeback is how much it reeks of insecurity, mostly on hybe’s end, partly on some members’ end. bts is the biggest boy band in the world. they don’t need to prove themselves to the west. they could do anything, but all they seem to be obsessed with is trying to prove to the world that they are the biggest thing to come out of korea, they are korea’s representative, they are the best, the most popular, the most-insert-superlative here.
the album itself demonstrates just how hollow their marketing was; the album, unsurprisingly, turned out to be mostly in english, with the music video for the title track, “swim,” predominantly showing a white actress instead of the seven members; and a sample of “arirang” was lazily tacked onto the end of the first track, “body to body,” literally just copy-pasted in there with no integration with the rest of the music, lyrics, or theme.
i started writing this before the album was released.[31] in the lead-up to march 20, i wondered how i might think if the album did end up sounding very “korean,” with almost exclusively korean lyrics or elements of traditional korean music or just the sound and feel that makes k-pop k-pop. would that somehow redeem everything in the lead-up to it? would it justify the name of the album? the gwanghwamun stunt?
my conclusion was no. if anything, the album sounding korean and drawing in more korean elements when its list of producers and songwriters was heavily white/western would make things even worse because it would just show that, to bts, to bighit, korean culture could easily commodified and allowed to be appropriated by white people.
(i wonder, constantly, what it means for k-pop to sound like k-pop. the idol industry has been using western songwriters for decades, and the thing is that i have a feel for what makes k-pop, k-pop, but i don’t quite know how to articulate it. that is a discussion for another day. maybe. putting this post together was exhausting and time-consuming, and i’m kind of hating myself right now.)
at one point, someone will have to break down the myth that is bts. a lot of what fans spout has been distorted just enough to feed into this narrative of bts as being an underdog that came out of a no-name company, struggled for years as they were bullied by other groups and fandoms, then suddenly achieved fame. while it’s true that bts didn’t debut from big three, bighit wasn’t a no-name company; it was founded by bang shikyuk, a big-name producer who had cut his teeth at jyp; and even bang dispelled the myth during his 2023 appearance on you quiz on the block, stating clearly that bts actually did succeed upfront – it just makes for a better narrative to say they struggled.[32]
i don’t want to get into the bts narrative-making – this is already too long as it is – so i’ll stop yapping with this theory: i think this is the last [major] bts comeback. everything about bts has frankly been weird since they all returned from military service, from the lack of group content[33] to their changing faces[34] to both rm and jk crashing out on weverse live[35] (also with the rumors of jk dating aespa’s winter being allowed to run as rampant as they did[36]). this is purely subjective, but, to me, at least, the group’s dynamic has been off ever since all the members returned, and there seems to be a tension between them that makes me wonder how they’re going to get through their upcoming tour. add on the investigation into bang shihyuk[37] and the ongoing lawsuits with min heejin and newjeans[38], and i imagine things have been tense at hybe for some time now. in addition, hybe’s number one priority right is to profit as much as they can while spending as little as they can (a so-called scarcity model[39]). hybe needs this comeback to generate as much income as they can, to be big to ease any nervousness their shareholders may have, and to let bts out with a big unofficial finale.
i do think hybe has enough sense to have known that there would be at least some degree of public backlash from the korean gp with this gwanghwamun stunt. at the end of the day, their P&L balancing had them come down on the side that said that it would be worth it to get netflix money, get koreaboos in the west the aesthetic shots of bts in a black box with gwanghwamun in the background, and position bts as the biggest thing ever to come out of korea, even if it meant burning through the goodwill of the korean gp. hybe’s media play has already started, claiming an attendance of 104,000 to the BBC[40], having the CNN report that this was allegedly the biggest public concert held in korea[41], while the seoul metropolitan government reported an estimate of 40-42,000 in attendance at 20:00 when the concert was scheduled to start.[42]
again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with being famous for being famous, but, when your fame is the most important and valuable thing about you, when you lose public opinion, you don’t have anything to fall back on, and, honestly, i think hybe knows this. i just hope the members do and have their own legal counsel.
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[1] hybe’s attempt to reassure the public by claiming bts would be back as a group in 2025 never made sense to me, timeline-wise.
[2] on march 12, 2026, bighit dropped a promotional animation video on youtube that implied bts were the seven korean men who wrote arirang while at howard university in the late 1800s. i’m going to be honest and say i did not watch it; i saw one screencap of the crowd – all white with two token black figures – and refused. howard is a HBCU. the presence of the seven korean men there during the time speaks to how koreans weren’t welcome elsewhere in the U.S., but black americans welcomed them. the whitewashing of a HBCU, with the sad disclaimer card at the beginning trying to distance themselves from responsibility, is so incredibly gross. see cedric mobley et al., before bts: how howard university helped elevate korean culture and how black culture influenced k-pop, the dig (march 20, 2026), https://thedig.howard.edu/all-stories/bts-how-howard-university-helped-elevate-korean-culture-and-how-black-culture-influenced-k-pop; karis lee, before k-pop there was … the arirang? the first korean students at howard university, boundary stones (feb. 12, 2020), https://boundarystones.weta.org/2020/02/12/k-pop-there-was-arirang-first-korean-students-howard-university.
[3] in a march 28, 2019, interview with entertainment weekly, rm said, “we don't want to change our identity or our genuineness to get the number one. like if we sing suddenly in full english, and change all these other things, then that's not bts.” see leah greenblatt, the greatest showmen: an exclusive look inside the world of bts, entertainment weekly (march 28, 2019), https://ew.com/music/2019/03/28/bts-exclusive-cover-story/. “dynamite,” the group’s first fully english song, was released in august 2020.
[4] yes, they started as a hip hop group, but bts was so strongly modeled off big bang and b.a.p. in their first few years, before they started hitting wider popularity with “I need u” (the most beautiful moment in life: part I, 2015). musically, bts has not done anything revolutionary that shaped or changed the industry at-large.
[5] “아리랑,” 한국민족문화대백과사전 (last visited march 21, 2026), https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0034277; anne seong eun bae, arirang: folksong beyond the lyrics, the kraze (aug. 29, 2021), https://thekrazemag.com/latest-updates/2021/8/29/arirang-folksong-beyond-the-lyrics-1. on a personal note, it makes me furious how searching “arirang” now automatically turns up bts.
[6] nina corcoran, bts announce live comeback concert on netflix, pitchfork (feb. 2, 2026), https://pitchfork.com/news/bts-announce-live-comeback-concert-on-netflix.
[7] 이민지, “’설레고 떨리고 감개무량해’ 새 챕터 여는 방탄소년단 [일문일답],” nate (march 20, 2026), https://news.nate.com/view/20260320n03883?mid=e1200. (rm on the decision to add korean elements: “한국적인 요소는 일곱 명을 묶을 수 있는 중요한 키워드라고 생각한다. 우리가 출발한 곳, 뿌리와도 맞닿아 있기 때문이다.” j-hope, “다시 돌아와 있는 그대로를 보여준다는 것은 결국 뿌리에서 시작하는 일이라고 생각한다. 그 뿌리가 함께 견고했기에 지금의 우리가 있다고 본다.”)
[8] bts (@bts.bighitofficial), instagram (march 3, 2020), https://www.instagram.com/p/DVbWZMgE7iP/?img_index=1. diplo has come under controversy for alleged sexual assault and shared a photo of himself raising the rising sun flag on mt. fuji recently. tedder is known to be very pro-israel.
[9] to be honest, i don’t believe bts has as much agency over their music as their branding claims, more than the average idol does maybe, but not significantly so. i also don’t believe that a singer has to write and produce their music to be considered a serious musician, and i have a lot of problems with how western fans weaponize songwriting as some kind of higher standard and use it to put down other idols. some people are meant just to sing; that is their primary skillset; and they can express their musical identity in other ways. the problem with bts, though, is that they cannot have it both ways; they can’t get the credit for being self-produced and hide behind their agency when it’s convenient.
[10] i am not even going to start summarizing the issue with tag pr; there are lawsuits going on right now; and i’m sure a lot more about tag — and hybe, in connection — is going to come out in discovery. see complaint for defamation, nikolas v. freedman, no. 26smcv00684 (super. ct. cal. feb. 5, 2026); gary baum, inside the secret smear machine that’s targeting hollywood, hollywood reporter (feb. 11, 2026), https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/inside-hollywood-smear-campaign-scandals-1236501807/; kim jae-hun, former ador CEO to speak on ‘smear campaign’ on friday radio show, korea herald (dec. 19. 2025), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10640372.
[11] i actually don’t think this was on the korean government. this was hybe’s idea, and the korean government tagged along and gave more than i think they wanted.
[12] choi jae-hee, seoul tightens security ahead of bts comeback, korea herald (march 20, 2026), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10699178.
[13] [good god, it is 21:18 on a saturday night for me. i cannot find my links for this and am tired. naver this.]
[14] [see above.]
[15] 박현정, “[단독] bts 공연에 광화문광장 일주일 쓰고 3000만원 낸다,” 한겨례 (march 20, 2026), https://www.hani.co.kr/arti/area/area_general/1250371.html. (hybe paid a total of 90 million won to use the space, but the article raises the question of invisible fees as the city likely spent more than the fees they received, given that the use of the space was discounted because they are public spaces.) see 조연지, “bts 광화문 공연, 경찰 6500명 투입…비용은 누가내나,” lawtalk news (march 16, 2020), https://lawtalknews.co.kr/article/KJSY07XZNS96 (the seoul metropolitan government anticipated 260,000 to attend the event and deployed 6,500 police officers, raising public criticism. the cost of the 6,500 deployed police personnel is covered by taxes, not charged to hybe, though it’s the city/police that would be held liable if they didn’t intervene in such a public event for crowd control and to prevent a major disaster.)
[16] 한영혜, “bts 공연 때 무조건 연치 쓰래요” … 광화문 직장인들 울분,” 즁앙일보 (march 18, 2026), https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25412729; 손수형, “bts 공연 앞두고 반차 강요·출근 금지 통보한 광화문 회사들…근로기준법 위반입니다,” lawtalk news (march 18, 2026), https://lawtalknews.co.kr/article/67VO1DBPDDO1.
[17] choi jae-hee, bts’ big comeback show puts some wedding plans on edge, korea herald (feb. 18, 2026), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10677822; 김명일, “‘살다 살다 경찰버스 타고 결혼식을’…bts 공연이 만든 '진풍경',” 조선일보 (march 21, 2026), https://www.chosun.com/culture-life/k-culture/2026/03/21/S5VCREUBRRG3ZDWDVGQS5EAQEA/; 손수형, “’1년 전에 잡은 날짜인데’…BTS 광화문 공연과 겹친 결혼식, 위약금 감액 가능할까,” lawtalk news (march 19, 2026), https://lawtalknews.co.kr/article/K8A9G4RLGQ98. (some couples are exploring options to see if they can get damages.)
[18] 최원정, “bts 컴백에 광화문 집회는 '스톱'…’기본권 침해’ 우려 목소리도,” yonhap news (march 18, 2026), https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20260318074500004?input=1195m. (the protest was held as usual.)
[19] 이영일, “‘bts 공연 앞두고 사라진 광화문 노숙인들’···'자발'일까 '강제'일까,” 한국NGO신문 (march 20, 2026), https://www.ngonews.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=226619.
[20] 장민경, “’넷플릭스 독점' BTS 공연 ‘10분만 촬영 가능’에 취재 보장하라,” media today (march 17, 2026), https://v.daum.net/v/8auW706ble.
[21] youngjoon kwon, bridging the gap between korean substance and western form, in law and legal institutions of asia 151, 176 (e. ann black & gary f. bell eds., 2011).
[22] honestly, one of the reasons this comeback annoys me so much is that yoongi incorporated korean elements, like a korean palace setting, traditional korean clothing, korean instruments with “daechwita” (D-2, 2020), but he did it in a thoughtful way. he didn’t sell off korean culture in “daechwita” but brought it into his work that was natural and centered on his koreanness, not done with a white audience in mind. bts’ stage costumes at gwanghwamun annoyed me, too, because yoongi did this before – he had a whole range of hanbok-inspired coats he wore for “daechwita” during his 2023 solo tour. In my opinion, hybe/bts should have let yoongi take the reins on this comeback.
[23] stacey vanek smith, how bts is adding an estimated $5 billion to the south korean economy a year, NPR (aug. 6, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/08/06/1025551697/how-bts-is-adding-an-estimated-5-billion-to-the-south-korean-economy-a-year. (it’s been argued that the bts comeback will bring in much-needed tourism revenue at a time the korean economy is struggling because of the conflict in west asia instigated against iran by israel via the u.s.)
[24] colin fitzgerald & collin mcdonough, why AOC was right about HQ2, data for progress (jan. 28, 2020), https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2020/1/28/why-aoc-was-right-about-hq2.
[25] a really bad factory fire broke out in daejeon on march 20, 2026, with a final death toll reported at seventy-four deaths. i don’t think this has anything to do with bts’ stunt, but it’s a catastrophe that i want to mark because of all the lives lost. see 김소연, “대전 안전공업 화재 실종자 모두 숨져…사상자 74명 참사로 기록,” yonhap news (march 21, 2026), https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20260321050700063?input=tw; shin jin-ho et al., 14 missing, dozens hospitalized as fire rips through daejeon plant, korea joongang daily (march 20, 2026), https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2026-03-20/national/socialAffairs/14-missing-dozens-hospitalized-as-fire-rips-through-Daejeon-plant/2550094. (
[26] in my opinion, it’s really gross to capitalize on such a horrible tragedy, given that, as far as we know, the song wasn’t actually written as a tribute to the lives lost. see dave holmes, the boundless optimism of bts, esquire (nov. 22, 2020), https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a34654383/bts-members-be-album-interview-2020/. (when asked obliquely if the song were about a “specific sad event,” jin answered just as obliquely, “it is about a sad event, as you said, but it is also about longing.”)
[27] 위근우 (@guevara_99), twitter (march 18, 2026), https://x.com/guevara_99/status/2034340107239686576.
[28] yim hyun-su, “into the new world”: girls’ generation’s debut song lives on as millennials’ anthem of solidarity, korea herald (april 14, 2022), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/2842607.
[29] song seung-hyun, girls’ generation 2007 song resurfaces as protest anthem, korea herald (dec. 6, 2024), https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10399844.
[30] shon duk-ho, yuri, IU support impeachment rally with food, song contributions, chosunbiz (dec. 14, 2026), https://biz.chosun.com/en/en-entertainment/2024/12/14/NAS3QRGLAFB5TIF7RZKHOGUIUA/.
[31] i did listen to the album (via youtube) when the album was released, and, if i were to bulletpoint my main takeaways: (1) the careless sample of “arirang” at the end of “body to body” was incredibly insulting and terrible; (2) “hooligan” is such a bad, wannabe NCT song that I physically burst out laughing (the song felt like a draft, but bts just does not have the neo energy or vocal skills to pull this off as it is); (3) the best parts of the whole album are when yoongi is allowed to do what he does well – rap in korean; (4) “swim” should have gone to exo (with korean lyrics, SM production, and exo harmonies, that song would be a banger); (5) i basically kept skipping through the second half of the album because the vocals simply aren’t there (jungkook really messed up his voice smoking, jimin and jin have both regressed, and they were all autotuned to oblivion); (6) “into the sun” should have gone to txt to rework and produce; and (7), basically, this album was poorly written, poorly recorded, and poorly produced and recorded.
[32] you quiz on the block, “(bts 미방분 포함) BTS 준비할 때 엔터 사업을 접으려 했던 방시혁 자기님,” youtube (nov. 2, 2023), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6YP66cjN-0.
[33] most groups do full-group content upon returning from the military, but it was rare to get anything from bts.
[34] this is subjective, but i swear jungkook and j-hope are unrecognizable. rm and jimin’s faces have changed a lot, too.
[35] yoon so-yeon, rm says bts considered disbanding, but ‘love and respect’ for each other and fans keeps them together, korea joongang daily (dec. 7, 2025), https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-12-07/entertainment/kpop/RM-says-BTS-considered-disbanding-but-love-and-respect-for-each-other-and-fans-keeps-them-going-/2471625. (the actual live was on weverse on dec. 6, 2025, and it was interesting because rm basically threw the other members under the bus and ranted about hybe. hybe went into full damage control mode, having the members all post photos on social media of them together and going on live as a full group, and rm issued an apology shortly after.) kim ju-yeon, jungkook expresses frustration over censorship in pulled weverse live, korea joongang daily (feb. 26, 2025), https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2026-02-26/entertainment/kpop/Jungkook-expresses-frustration-over-censorship-in-pulled-Weverse-live/2532354.
[36] choi hye-seung, bts jungkook, aespa winter dating rumors emerge, chosun daily (dec. 5, 2025), https://www.chosun.com/english/kpop-culture-en/2025/12/05/2VCD4572TNEVVLQYNGN5YIRCXU/.
[37] i am not getting into this here, but, basically, bang is basically under investigating for manipulating stocks. it seems serious but is allegedly being downplayed in korea because of bang’s powerful familial connections. don’t quote me on that.
[38] oh god, i am not going into all this in a footnote.
[39] lee yiseul, jaesang lee, CEO of hybe: ‘2026 marks the first year of “hybe 2.0” results realization, asia business daily (jan. 2, 2026), https://view.asiae.co.kr/en/article/life-general/2026010210453259652. (in his 2026 new year’s address, the CEO of hybe announced that securing profitability was the top priority of the company in 2026 and “presented 'scarcity' as the core keyword” when it came to the fan experience.)
[40] yuna ku & jake kwon, first photos as bts make live return in front of huge crowd, BBC (march 21, 2026), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cge0dyjwezgo.
[41] kati chitrakorn & hanako montgomery, k-pop phenomenon bts’ first concert in years sets record for largest-ever public concert in south korea, CNN (march 21, 2026), https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/21/style/bts-arirang-comeback-concert-korea-intl-hnk. It’s really funny because you can see hybe media play kick in after the seoul metropolitan government by looking at two articles posted on the chosun daily. compare kim myeong-il, bts concert draws 40,000 in gwanghwamun, below expectations, chosun daily (march 21, 2026), https://www.chosun.com/english/kpop-culture-en/2026/03/21/K23S5JDE7JCLBIS3BNKLA5SN7U/ (“according to the seoul metropolitan government on the 21st, between 40,000 and 42,000 people had assembled near gwanghwamun and deoksugung as of 8 p.m. on that day when the concert began. the population congestion level was at a "crowded" level, significantly below initial expectations.”), with yoon soo-jung, bts’s ‘arirang’ concert draws 104,000 fans at gwanghwamun square, chosun daily (march 21, 2026), https://www.chosun.com/english/travel-food-en/2026/03/21/G2NBLN5QGNACVJC7IE75KVQQ2A/ (“according to estimates by the seoul metropolitan government and HYBE, there were 104,000 attendees. most fans gathered around the stage and eight large video screens installed nearby.”).
[42] 김효정, “’생각보다 안 붐비네?’…4만명 모인 광화문, 안전은 '양호',” 주간조선 (march 21, 2026), https://weekly.chosun.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=49896. (“21일 서울시 실시간 도시데이터에 따르면 이날 오후 8시 기준 광화문광장과 덕수궁 일대 체류 인원은 약 4만~4만2000명 수준으로 집계됐다. 인구 혼잡도는 ‘붐빔’ 단계였다.”) i want to know where they got the anticipated 260,000 in attendance, but, from what i’m seeing on twitter, pyeonejeoms in the area relied on that estimate and stocked up on more food than usual. because turnout wasn’t what the media was hyping up, these businesses have to face the loss.