BTS Begins Again

In the nearly four years since they went on hiatus for mandatory military service in South Korea, the members of BTS have grown as artists and men, launching distinct solo careers to huge success. Now, the biggest band in the world is reuniting with a fifth studio album, a massive global tour, and a definitive answer to whether they're stronger alone or together.

- Raymond Ang

In mid-2025, right after the final member of BTS, the biggest band in the world, had served out the mandatory military service required of every able-bodied male in South Korea, the seven members of the group decamped for Los Angeles to reunite under one roof.

The seven—RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook—had been in the band together since the early 2010s, when they were all still teenagers, but had not lived in the same place since 2019. After a few years apart, fulfilling their service and tending to solo careers, it was time to get back to work.

“We'd do six days a week, like businessmen,” says RM, the band’s leader. They followed a strict routine: training together in the gym in the morning, coming back home for lunch, reporting to the studio by 1 pm, and working with various songwriters and producers on new songs until about 8 pm, after which they'd all go back home.

Living in one house as roommates once again, BTS were inadvertently doing a simulation of life before superstardom, back to their days as trainees for Big Hit Entertainment (later rebranded as Hybe Corporation) when they would've given anything just to debut. This was before they sold over 500 million units and racked up over 104 billion streams worldwide. Before they became the first Korean band to be nominated for a Grammy, to top the Billboard 200 album chart and the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, to speak at the United Nations. Before they became a global cultural force, the bestselling Asian act ever, and one of the bestselling groups—of any genre, any nation, any time-period.