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BTS was the first South Korean music group to win the American Music Award's Artist of the Year K-pop sensation BTS on Tuesday made a surprise announcement that it will temporarily split up, saying its seven members need time for personal growth and will perform individually until they reunite. The announcement briefly drove the shares of its label HYBE Co. to their lowest point of 139,000 won ($108) since its stock market debut in October 2020. In afternoon trade, the stock pared its losses, down 23.58% to 147,500 won.The band's decision to take a hiatus comes just as it marked the ninth anniversary of its debut this week and followed the release of its new anthology album Proof with the title song Yet to Come.The latest album, which BTS said wrapped up the first chapter of its performances over the past nine years, has already sold more than 2 million copies around the world.Performing as a team for almost 10 years, their biggest regret is that they couldn’t pursue their own personal growth, the idol group's leader RM said during its annual FESTA dinner aired online.“Now we’re in our prime … But we lost our direction. We want to come back after having some time to look back on our lives,” RM said.“The K-pop idol system gives us no time for us to mature. We have to keep releasing something new." HYBE headquarters SECOND CHAPTERThe second chapter of the global superstar group will likely be launching the solo careers of the seven members. The group’s rapper J-hope said that its members are preparing their solo debut albums.On top of their flashy dance and the growth in the global streaming market, BTS has attracted global fans with strong social messages contained in the songs written by its members. The songs expressed their resistance to social stereotypes.BTS rapper and songwriter Suga confessed to the group's current difficulty in writing songs, which he compared to squeezing his head. "Now we have no more stories to tell and don’t know what to say," he said at the annual event.The mandatory military service requirement for all able-bodied South Korean men appeared to affect their decision to have a temporary hiatus as well. BTS’ oldest member RM, born in 1992, has deferred his service until the end of this year.South Korean lawmakers are sitting on the hotly debated topic of military exemption for BTS. Without knowing the outcome, it is difficult for the group to set global tour schedules for the coming years. In response to the band's temporary split, its global fan club ARMY with about 40 million members expressed their sadness, but voiced their support for the BTS members’ new chapter as individual artists.By Hee-Kyung Kimhkkim@hankyung.comYeonhee Kim edited this article.
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