K-Pop News: Big Bang On Hiatus To Serve Korean Military Duty
In recent K-pop news, popular band Big Bang just celebrated their 10th anniversary as a band with a pair of concerts at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. ABS-CBN reported that, following the final concert on Jan. 8, Big Bang is taking a hiatus from the K-pop music world in order to fulfill their required Korean military duty.
The back-to-back concerts on Jan. 7-8 was the end of the 10th-anniversary tour for the K-pop band, who played a tour of shows in Korea, China, and Japan. The band hit the stage for the first time back in 2006.
In South Korea, all male youths between the ages of 18 and 35 must serve mandatory military service for between 21 and 24 months. The Army, Marines, and conscripted policemen are in for 21 months, the Navy serves for 23 months, and the Air Force serves for 23 months.
T.O.P. (29), Taeyang (28), G-Dragon (28), Daesung (27), and Seungri (26) were groundbreakers when they became one of the first majorly successful K-pop hip-hop bands and led the way with the Hallyu Wave. Through their 10-year career, Big Bang have influenced such K-pop and American pop stars like Pixie Lott, Jaden Smith, Teen Top, and Chang Kiha.
Despite their legendary status as a K-pop band, that does not excuse them from the mandatory Korean military service requirements. This will likely keep Big Bang out of the world of K-pop for the next four years at the minimum.
According to Sporela, T.O.P. (Choi Seunghyun) enlisted in 2016. G-Dragon (Kwon Jiyong) and Taeyang (Dong YoungBae) both will enlist in 2017. D-Lite (Kang DaeSeong) will enlist in 2018. Seungri V.I. (Lee SeungHyun) will enlist in 2019. That means that, by the time that Seungri V.I. is finished with his military duty, it will be 2022.
Soompi reported that T.O.P. took his exam to become a conscripted policeman in October 2016 with the hopes to start his work at the beginning of 2017. After passing his test, the K-pop star learned that he will start his duty on Feb. 9.
They are just part of the K-pop movement that has signed up for the Korean military. The hugely popular band Super Junior will see Kim Ryeowook and Cho Kyuhyun enlist. The fact that both bands are extremely popular and successful in no way keeps them from fulfilling their duty to their nation.
Big Bang released their brand new album Made in November 2016, which should give their fans some great K-pop music to enjoy as they start their hiatus. They also made sure to finish up some big anniversary concert shows before leaving to start their military duty.
Made sold over 2 million copies in China alone since coming out and peaked at No. 1 on both the Korean and U.S. World music charts. It even entered the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts, reaching 172nd. This was the first Big Bang K-pop album to chart in America.
Their previous two albums, Bigbang Vol. 1 and Remember, both also hit No. 1 in Korea. Big Bang also released five albums in Japan, with two of them hitting number one in that country and all of them reaching the 13th spot or higher on that country’s music charts.
On top of their three studio albums, Big Bang also released five extended play albums and each of those hit No. 1 on the Korean charts as well, including their 2012 release Alive, which peaked at fourth on the U.S. heatwave and world music charts.
On top of the brand new album in November, Big Bang also released three new singles to K-pop radio. “Fxxk It,” “Girlfriend,” and “Last Dance” all reached their fans on Dec. 12, 2016. The last song was especially poignant with the K-pop superstars singing that “I will return to you,” almost a message to their legion of fans.
With Big Bang influencing so many young upcoming K-pop bands today, there will no doubt be a huge desire to see them reform and return once their military service has ended.
[Featured Image by Kin Cheung/AP Images]
