What would be the direction of BTS after 2025 ? Probably away from domestic field

The invitation of New Jeans , who has lost its worldwide luster, to the Presidential Event shows that the leadership of Korea has rejected Hybe and BTS, and has chosen to support Min Heejin and Ador.

BTS' enlistment wsa in vain. It suffered an opportunity cost of at least $4 billion by enlistment, with no recourse possible.

This ends BTS in Korea.

This is how BTS is treated after conquering the world.

The Koreans treated IU, who never really became relevant outside of there, and BtS in the same league, something that is very unthinkable in any other culture around the world.

And, the older population supported Lim Youngwoong, who is even less relevant to KPop's domination around the world than IU, but at least Gallup and the stations did separate him out of KPop. Melon Awards, however, was crazy enough to award him back in 2022.

The above photo shows that Korea has rejected BTS.

It is irrelevant how many loyal Armies might remain in Korea. They now can't beat IU, who will probably have a 4 day concert at the Soccer Stadium next year to have the largest concert in Korean history, for about 220,000 total just to spite BTS, which BTS won't be able to beat now.

In my opinion,at least Jungkook should not have enlisted but try to postpone it till 2028, the latest, since it has now become clear that BTS as we know it will not last beyond 2027. At most it might assemble once in a blue moon, like BlackPink who will have a comeback 'sometime in 2025', which in YG lingo basically means 4th qtr of next year.

It is likely that BTS won't have a domestic promotion ever again, because of the Tokkis and others who will demand explanations on Suga.

Then what would have been the purpose of them enlisting? None. The reason for them to have enlist has disappeared.

The 'longer career' argument is now dead.

Largest tours of 2024

https://www.justjared.com/2024/07/07/top-10-highest-grossing-concert-tours-of-2024-so-far-revealed-heres-why-taylor-swift-isnt-at-the-top-spot-or-on-the-list/2/

I don't know how reliable the data is but it is as good as any.

It is up to end of June

Nikki Minaj 66M (Classic)

Eagles 69M (Classic)

Seventeen 74M

Coldplay 100M (Classic)

Bruno Mars 102M (Classic)

Karol G 111M (Latin)

U2 134M (Classic)

Luis Miguel 169M (Latin, Classic)

Bad Bunny 174M (Latin)

Madonna 178M (Classic)

Except Seventeen, all of them are either Classic acts or Latin acts.

With the explosiveness of BTS now gone, and the entire world having seen how it was treated in Korea, I don't think it will do as good as most remaining Armies hope for, and will probably hit around 200-300m per year in 2026,the only year it is likely to tour, a far cry from the $1bil/year it stood to collect if they decided to jump the draft.

BlackPink now holds the record of the largest tour by an act based in Korea, Born Pink having grossed 147M. BTS will top it, but probably not by that much. The longer career argument didn't stand the test of time - it would have been much better for BTS to realize its full potential, collect about $5 bil. rather than linger on for years like the acts named above. taking 20 years to recoup the opportunity costs, irrelevant from the main Narrative of Pop.

Quote from tetetete

Time to apply for US citizenship

No one will care.

The time to do that was at

No one in Korea, and no one in the rest of the world, will care now after two years in the slammer.

Quote from Afriyieau1

They will be fine. This ain’t their first smear campaign and neither would it be their last. Artistes with worse crimes have survived and you think falling off an e-scooter is what will end BTS lol

At least it ended BTS in Korea, making the entire point of serving in the military moot and an incalculable waste of time.

Quote from Taemin-Identity

They will be fine!

I’m pretty sure they will have 500m$+ tour

No. The ethos has changed. At most they will have $250m, lower than quite a lot of acts

Quote from AyanEva

I don't know how things will go in Korea but BTS will be fine internationally. Most ARMY are adults. Even the new fans who are joining the fandom seem to be mostly adults (and we have a lot of new fans for some weird reason). There have always been more international ARMY compared to Korean ARMY, with Japan and the US remaining the top international markets for years. The fanbase stays pretty stable in those markets, so I think they'll sell and tour well. I do think they'll spend only a little time in Korea but that's been the case anyway for some years now. They don't really promote much in Korea at all. They mostly promote their releases in the US.

If they are fine internationally, why did they waste all these time enlisting?

There was no point of doing so since doing that did NOT increase their respect in Kora.

They should never have returned to Korea in 2021 and they would be much bigger today.

Quote from bbgc

Frankly, the pandemic has more to do with BTS losing critical years than their enlistment

They are already at a point where it is only the existent fandom that would carry them on. It becomes difficult to play "youth rebellion" & dance, as you get further into 30s.

And for longevity, it is necessary to keep up credibility with the Koreans.

I-fans will move on faster, as they too age and Kpop not part of conversation in their adult circles. Happens to everyone, BTS won't be an exception.

Only you think that a non-Western act can build sustained cultural domination, in a world culturally dominated by the West

That's unproven

They can at best catch a moment/wave and have a few good years, that's all.

Jungkook being the youngest, has some more years to try that.

That's all.

Big picture, their enlistment whichever way it was done or not done at all, wouldn't have made much difference

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The Pandemic years also held other acts back, except of course the owner of Edam Entertainment.

after restrictions were relaxed I expected them to do a whirlwind tour of the world before other acts could get their behinds together, stealing the initiative completely and beyond recovery.

Instead they returned to do solo albums, which, in my opinion, are just efforts wasted.

The Koreans already rejected them. Their pop is getting older and leaning more towards trot.

It was probably the once in a thousand years to turn Western Cultural Domination to a different direction, and with at least 2 or 3 years of their domination, the tide would have begun to turn decisively, whether a certain former owner of a company liked or not.

Quote from bbgc

IU is irrelevant to this conversation.

BTS might have had couple of more years at the peak. But nevertheless their career isn't going to be much different.

They need Korea for longevity, i-ARMY for all its boasts today will tend to vanish faster than K-ARMY. that's simply the nature of time.

IU is very relevant in this conversation.

It is like the US declaring the regime of Venezuela invalid, claiming the current ruler's opponent is the legitimate leader.

Because of the presence of IU, BTS or anyone else could not completely dominate Korea, creating a very unnecessary chain of events.

Even if the i-Army disappeared, if its peak were higher, there would have been more diehard i fans who would have stuck with BTS for a longer period of time.

Longevity in Korea is worth much less since it won't give them the revenue it expected during its heyday

Quote from Afriyieau1

Aren’t you embarrassed after claiming BTS will never be successful in chapter 2 and now this? Ah well thanks for giving me more threads to return to

CH 2 will be much smaller than Ch 1