BTS are as busy as just about anybody in music, but now it looks like they have a period of dormancy coming up: The group has announced they are taking a hiatus. This is a bit of a bad-news-good-news situation, though. The aforementioned is the bad news, while the good news is that the reason for the hiatus is so BTS members can focus on their solo careers (as NME notes).
The announcement was made during the Festa dinner, which the band has annually as part of a celebration of their founding. There, RM said, “I always thought that BTS was different from other groups, but the problem with K-pop and the whole idol system is that they don’t give you time to mature. You have to keep producing music and keep doing something.”
He also said the band would use this time to consider their next direction, both as a group and individually.
Jimin also noted, “We can’t help but think of our fans no matter what. We want to be the kind of artists that are remembered by our fans. I think now we’re starting to think about what kind of artists we each want to be remembered by our fans. I think that’s why we’re going through a rough patch right now, we’re trying to find our identity and that’s an exhausting and long process.”
The gears on BTS solo endeavors started turning before this announcement: J-Hope is headlining Lollapalooza by himself, Suga teamed up with Psy on “That That,” and RM has long kept busy with material outside of the band.