The BTS Machine Lurches Back to Life

On March 21st in Seoul, South Korea, the K-pop group BTS marched from Gyeongbokgung Palace to take the stage in Gwanghwamun Square, for a concert that was to be streamed across the globe on Netflix. It had been three years, five months, and six days since their last live performance. Before going on hiatus in 2022 so that the group’s seven members could complete their mandatory military service, BTS was unequivocally the biggest band in the world. They set ticket-sales and streaming records in South Korea and worldwide; in 2020, “Map of the Soul : 7” was their fourth album to début at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, nearly outpacing the Beatles. After almost four years away—during which members also found time to release a combined ten albums and thirty-eight singles as solo artists—some hundred and four thousand people in Seoul, in addition to a reported 18.4 million tuning in to the live stream, would now witness the birth of BTS 2.0.