World famous K-pop band BTS is making a big return this April. The band is releasing their first album in over 4 years, as well as announcing a world tour planned this April. This marks the end of the band’s four-year hiatus, caused by South Korea’s compulsory military conscription of males between the ages of 18 and 28. BTS has frequently been cited as the most popular K-pop band of the early 2020s. However, there are questions about whether this level of popularity is still obtainable after such a long disappearance from the media, especially in a music industry as quickly moving as K-pop. Spotify reported that the group’s global streams dropped by 24% in 2023 and an additional 30% in 2024.
However, K-pop is still extremely popular in the media, with seven of the top 10 highest-selling albums in America last year being K-pop, as well as the massive success of the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters, which received a Grammy as well as several Oscar nominations. With the announcement that their new album ARIRANG will be releasing March 20, 2026, there is no doubt that the return of BTS is lined up to receive massive media attention, but the question remains whether they can return to being the most popular K-pop band after their prolonged absence. There is also the aspect of BTS being from an earlier generation of K-pop. BTS is widely agreed to be a third-generation K-pop band, but emerging K-pop bands are currently in the fifth generation. BTS is not the new band on the block anymore.
Many Kpop fans hold the same opinion: BTS just is not as cool as the new fourth and fifth generation bands like ATEEZ. They also believe they will not be able to live up to what they once were, and that the new album “ARIRANG” will not be able to live up to the band’s older work. Despite this, they still hold the firm belief that BTS will reclaim their place as the #1 K-pop band.
The band is following the album release with a worldwide tour, with one stop being at Stanford stadium, only 14 miles away from Fremont. With only a month until the album release and tour kickoff, the question of whether BTS will be able to reach the same heights of popularity will soon be answered.
