{"id":367940,"date":"2026-03-27T11:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367940\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T11:31:09","slug":"btss-arirang-comeback-was-supposed-to-be-a-triumph-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367940\/","title":{"rendered":"BTS\u2019s Arirang comeback was supposed to be a triumph. What happened?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BTS<\/a>, the juggernaut K-pop boy group that has greatly contributed to the genre\u2019s global popularity, is back. After a four-year hiatus, during which the seven group members\u2014Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook\u2014completed their mandatory South Korean military service, the boys have returned with their sixth Korean-language (and 10th overall) studio album, Arirang<\/a>, which was released last week. However, the prodigal return, a full rolling out of the red carpet for what many had hoped would be a major triumph, has so far fallen short, tainted by an alarming amount of controversy, from accusations of \u201cwhitewashing\u201d to financial troubles for the group\u2019s record label.<\/p>\n

Considering the sky-high expectations for the reemergence of the biggest boy band in the world, BTS\u2019s less-than-stellar comeback is surprising. But given the<\/a> current<\/a> state<\/a> of K-pop<\/a>, it\u2019s perhaps less shocking that a firestorm was waiting just around the corner, even for one of the undisputed greatest acts of the genre. So what exactly happened here? And is this just a stumble or a full fall from grace? Let\u2019s break it all down.<\/p>\n

Where has BTS been?<\/p>\n

Given South Korea\u2019s conscription laws, all able-bodied male adults are required to enlist for a minimum of 18 months of military service by the age of 28 (though, because of BTS<\/a>, the age limit has been legally extended for specifically awarded entertainers). Therefore, all K-pop boy groups must go through a period of inactivity when members either all enlist at once or stagger out their service across a longer duration of time. In the end, BTS opted for the latter, announcing a full-group hiatus in 2022<\/a>, at which point the eldest member, Jin, first enlisted. The final two members to enlist completed their service in June of last year<\/a>. Over the New Year holiday, after all the members were officially done with their civic duty, the group began to drop hints to fans<\/a>, who are known by the fandom name BTS ARMY, about a March return.<\/p>\n

BTS wasn\u2019t entirely absent from the spotlight during this break, though; the members continued to release solo projects before and after their turns to enlist. This not only kept up interest in the band but also allowed the members to explore more personal sounds, some of which became popular in their own right. (You might recognize this song<\/a> from Jungkook, for example.)<\/p>\n

Still, despite there being a somewhat consistent stream of BTS-related content in recent years, fans were still fervently awaiting the moment the full group would reconvene. It felt as if, from a cultural standpoint, the whole world was waiting to see what the most globally famous K-pop group of all time would return with.<\/p>\n

Four years is pretty long! I can understand why fans would be antsy for more content with all seven members. So what is this comeback project?<\/p>\n

In January, the group revealed that the upcoming BTS album would be titled Arirang and would drop on March 20. The title, taken from the Korean folk song<\/a>, connotes themes of reunion, creativity, and resilience and nods to traditional Korean culture and national pride. In short, the title alone signaled a potential return to the group\u2019s roots, which were overshadowed when the band began dominating international charts with more Westernized singles, like \u201cButter<\/a>\u201d and \u201cDynamite<\/a>.\u201d The group also announced a massive 2026\u201327 world tour<\/a> with more than 80 dates. In a scramble for tickets, the group sold out<\/a> all the North American and European tour dates before any new music was even released.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the verdict on Arirang?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shockingly, it really depends on who you ask. Arirang, which dropped at the same time as its lead single, \u201cSwim<\/a>,\u201d was a touch more Westernized than most fans expected, given the album\u2019s title. Though elements of the folk song \u201cArirang\u201d and Korean culture are incorporated within<\/a> the album\u2019s 41 minutes, the credits still boast a set of international writers and producers, and more of the lyrics are in English than in Korean. This discrepancy has launched opinion pieces and social-media debates<\/a> about what makes a K-pop release \u201cKorean enough<\/a>.\u201d And that wasn\u2019t the album\u2019s only contentious debate. When a promotional video for Arirang was released\u2014an animated short<\/a> that highlights the history of the first seven Korean students<\/a> to study at Howard University (who created the first known recording of \u201cArirang\u201d)\u2014it was dinged by critical fans for \u201cwhitewashing\u201d the school<\/a> by seemingly portraying the student body of one of the most prominent historically Black colleges in the States with more non-Black faces than Black faces.<\/p>\n

And then there was the all-important question: Is the album actually good? Despite Arirang\u2019s record-breaking streaming numbers<\/a> and sales<\/a>, the answer was unexpectedly mixed. Since its release, the album has been mocked<\/a> online<\/a> for<\/a> its experimental nature<\/a> and (via Photoshopped posts<\/a>) its lyrics<\/a>, particularly in the rap verses<\/a>, which some listeners view as being out of touch<\/a>. While many<\/a> fans<\/a> were<\/a> disappointed<\/a>, dedicated<\/a> ARMYs<\/a> still lauded it<\/a>. Even critics are deeply unaligned on the project\u2019s artistic merits. Despite positive reviews from outlets like Rolling Stone<\/a>, NME<\/a>, and the Guardian<\/a>, not all critics enjoyed Arirang. Notably, a Pitchfork review<\/a> from Joshua Minsoo Kim, wherein Kim gives the album a 5.3 out of 10, is gaining traction not only for its low score but for Kim\u2019s accompanying tweet dubbing the record \u201cpointless\u201d and \u201cpassionless.\u201d<\/a> Since the review was published, Kim has been beefing with<\/a> (and<\/a> ragebaiting<\/a>) disgruntled ARMYs<\/a> left and right on X.<\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019m more on Kim\u2019s side than the others. I find the album to be largely uneven from track to track and between the lyrics and production. Some songs, like \u201cFYA,\u201d have great beats but lyrics that sound like the embodiment of that Steve Buscemi 30 Rock meme<\/a>. I yearn for the group\u2019s earlier Korean-dominant stylings. However, there are still a couple of standouts in the track list, like \u201cBody to Body\u201d and lead single \u201cSwim.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has all this messiness affected the rollout? I imagine the promotional budget was huge!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Considering how the BTS boys have been put to work for weeks as if they have debts to pay, it\u2019s evident that this release had a massive promotional budget. There have been tons of promotional events and materials already conducted and released for Arirang, with more likely to come, but even those had some snafus. There was an interview with Apple Music\u2019s Zane Lowe<\/a>\u2014par for the course for any established artist promoting new music\u2014and a livestreamed chat on WeVerse<\/a> that unwittingly sparked rumors of bad blood<\/a> between some of the members. The day after the album\u2019s release, the group performed live<\/a> in Seoul, South Korea, at the historic Gwanghwamun Square. Though the performance drew more than 18 million views<\/a> while being livestreamed on Netflix, the in-person turnout didn\u2019t quite meet expectations. While 100,000 fans did indeed show up, South Korean officials had anticipated a crowd of about 260,000, a difference that resulted in shares in Hybe, the entertainment parent company that manages BTS, falling by 15 percent<\/a>, and public apologies from both the group<\/a> and the company<\/a>. The massive success of the livestream didn\u2019t prevent people online from pointing and laughing at awkward moments<\/a> during the broadcast either.<\/p>\n

All of this is still in the lead-up to BTS: The Return, a Netflix documentary premiering on Friday that will chronicle the group\u2019s creative journey while making Arirang.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Carl Wilson
\n She Made the Greatest Song of the 2010s. Now She\u2019s Back With Her First Album of the 2020s.
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Does the documentary reveal anything that might speak to the more divisive aspects of Arirang?\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A Self-Published Book Became the Bestselling Novel in America. After Reading It, I Think I Know Why.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

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Netflix\u2019s New Crime Thriller Is So Deep in Sicko Territory It\u2019s Almost Funny
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She Made the Greatest Song of the 2010s. Now She\u2019s Back With Her First Album of the 2020s.
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A little! It shows the members disagreeing with their management about how to use the \u201cArirang\u201d sample in the album\u2019s intro track \u201cBody to Body,\u201d with Hybe Chairman Bang Si-hyuk telling the bandmates to think of how impactful it would be to spread Korean culture to the world in this way. Additionally, in another scene, Suga and RM (the group\u2019s main rappers) bring up concerns about the lack of Korean lyrics. However, their management team mentions that their main issue at present is reaching (or maintaining) a global audience. Outside of these specific conversations, most of the movie focuses on the guys\u2019 reunion, the pressure the members feel to get this comeback right, and how they see themselves now as compared to both before their astronomical success and before their hiatus.<\/p>\n

How is Hybe taking this? It\u2019s bananas that one single group could heavily change the financial outlook for a major company, especially one that has produced popular groups like NewJeans and Katseye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And look how those are turning<\/a> out<\/a>! But to your point, this comeback was meaningful not only for ARMY but also for Hybe, a corporation that has recently battled a number of legal issues<\/a> and a consistent churn of allegations from the rumor mill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, with a massive tour on the horizon and the well wishes of their fans, I think that Hybe and its crown jewel BTS will be OK. BTS is widely considered the biggest group in the world right now, so I think the guys have made enough right moves to survive one divisive album, even if the stock markets seem to think otherwise. They\u2019re still going to be performing for hundreds of thousands of screaming fans on their lengthy world tour. Plus, if there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s true of K-pop, it\u2019s that there\u2019s always a new release waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n

Get the best of movies, TV, books, music, and more.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BTS, the juggernaut K-pop boy group that has greatly contributed to the genre\u2019s global popularity, is back. After…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,641,541],"class_list":["post-367940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-pop","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}