The era of the true ‘End of K-pop military service’ has arrived.

Recently, leading K-pop groups such as global group BTS, Seventeen, and NCT have been attracting attention by minimizing the ‘Military Service’ (the gap due to military service) in various ways. This has changed the public perception of ‘military service’ as an obstacle to growth, and has also set an example for junior groups.

Seventeen and NCT 127, considered the next-generation ‘representatives of K-pop’, have recently entered full-fledged ‘military service’, but have decided to maintain team activities for the time being, taking advantage of the advantages of being a multi-member group.

In the case of the 13-member Seventeen, except for Jeonghan, who was the first member of the group to begin military service in late September, the members promoted their 12th mini-album ‘Spill the Feels’ last month. Afterwards, they will hold a large-scale world tour ‘Seventeen Right Here’ and continue with a 4-dome tour in North America and Japan until the end of the year. Next year, he will be the first K-pop artist to appear at Latin America‘s largest festival, ‘Tecate Pal Norte 2025’ in April.

NCT 127’s Jaehyun enlisted on the 4th, following Taeyong in April, but the remaining six members are preparing for a new world tour, ‘Neo City - The Momentum’ in January next year. The members will also be promoting solo activities along with the tour. Doyoung released his solo song ‘Dazzling’ on the 6th, and Yuta released his Japanese solo debut album ‘Depth’ last month. Mark plans to release his first full-length solo album in the first half of next year.

The members who are absent from their posts due to military service are also revealing their presence by sequentially releasing works they prepared in advance before their enlistments. SEVENTEEN‘s Jeonghan not only participated in the recording of all the songs and filming of the music videos for the 12th mini album, but also began to unveil his own pre-filmed ‘self content’. NCT’s Taeyong appeased fans‘ disappointment by releasing the film ‘Taeyong: TY Track in Cinema’, which contained the live footage of his first solo concert, in September.

BTS had previously tried this method of filling their ‘military uniform’ with work prepared before enlistment, to great success. Most of the members are currently serving in the military, and they have been releasing individual albums one after another this year, and have been occupying the top spots on Billboard and other charts until recently.

Regarding this trend, pop culture critic Kim Heon-sik said on the 7th, “After BTS, the idol industry’s prejudice that military service means a hiatus has been broken, and recently, the ‘military leave’ has practically disappeared,” and predicted, “Many groups will likely utilize various strategies to minimize the hiatus and lay the foundation for a quick return.”

Another music insider also tipped off, saying, “The preparation period for ‘military leave’ is trending much earlier than before. These days, there are teams that prepare content one to two years in advance of enlistment.”


Reporter Yoo Ji-hye yjh0304@donga.com