Bang PD - founder of HYBE and father of BTS is clearly the leading entertainment business in Kpop today. During the 10-year journey with BTS and witnessing many changes in this industry, Bang PD has a lot of experience and insight.

So, he spoke at the Kwanhun Forum as a keynote speaker and mentioned the decline of Kpop after a long period of prosperity. The notable point in his speech was when he mentioned BTS's unbeatable influence globally and the future of Kpop when BTS enlists. Although he received a lot of praise for the group he founded, in the end, netizens still commented many mixed opinions about his speech.

What made Bang PD's speech so controversial? Let's see netizens' reactions after his statement below:

As the President of HYBE - the largest Kpop empire today that owns the world's top Kpop superstar BTS, Bang Shi Hyuk has an in-depth perspective on the outstanding issues of Kpop and how they relate to it. even BTS's activities. Specifically, the problem here is the decline in Kpop's influence globally since BTS temporarily suspended activities to perform m̴i̴l̴i̴t̴a̴r̴y̴ service. It is not only a difficult problem for Bang PD and HYBE but also for Kpop.

Therefore, when appearing at the meeting of Kwanhun Forum, Bang PD did not hesitate to mention the crisis of K-pop in the near future when there will be a shortage of BTS because they have all enlisted in the army. Chairman Bang said, “The slowdown in K-pop growth indicators is obvious.” Negative growth of K-pop in Southeast Asia, such as K-pop's share of Spotify in Indonesia, is down 28% year-over-year.

Besides, he also said that "Numbers don't lie" and the decline of K-pop globally is clearly visible based on the export growth rate of K-pop artists' albums from 2015 to 2020. Since last year, the number of times K-pop appeared on the US Billboard main chart 'Hot 100' has decreased by 53% year-over-year.

Chairman Bang emphasized a sense of crisis and mentioned examples of Hong Kong films and ̾j̾a̾p̾a̾nese animations that enjoyed their golden age until the 1990s and declined. On the other hand, as a producer and person who has been behind BTS's global success, Bang PD expressed his desire not to expect the value and energy of the K-pop industry to be remembered only as future memories.

In addition, Bang PD also pointed out that the biggest reason why K-pop, which are growing at a high speed, are raising red flags is because BTS is absent from group activities. BTS stands out with its golden age from around 2015 until now. Even when going through the most difficult times, such as during the pandemic or since last year the group started solo activities, the group's activities still reached their peak.

However, the disadvantage of BTS's gradual m̴i̴l̴i̴t̴a̴r̴y̴ enlistment has caused the limits of the K-pop industry growing based on BTS's influence to appear. "The trickle-down K-pop effect due to BTS suspending group activities" was also mentioned. He said: "The influence of the intellectual property (IP) held by BTS globally is truly unmatched. BTS's global reach is broader than the reach of the K-Pop industry alone, and without BTS in this industry, the scale of K-Pop would be greatly reduced. Therefore, the actual situation when BTS does not carry out activities in this industry is a big cause. And the real threat we can see is that even if BTS continues to promote the group tomorrow, there's no guarantee that the industry will ever recover its influence and reach."

Faced with this problem, the solution given by Bang Shi Hyuk is the need to leverage the platform and communicate with fans so that the artist can go further. He said: "We need to find a way to keep K-Pop going, even without BTS. It will be extremely difficult to find a specific cause, a specific solution. Music consumption occurs when the consumer of music is also a consumer of culture. We need to study and evaluate what factors affect consumers of different regions and countries. We've already seen the trickle-down effect of global consumer exposure to K-Pop through BTS. We must make use of fan platforms as a place of interaction, so that more K-Pop artists can enter the global market and awaken declining fandoms around the world."

At least in the next 6 months until Jin - the first member of the group is discharged from the army, Kpop will face a huge void left by BTS. Bang PD understands this problem better than anyone and has already prepared strategies to fill the group's void as HYBE has debuted many new groups in the past few years and even plans to debut rookies in early 2024. But it seems that the strategy of Bang PD and HYBE is not too effective.

While netizens left mixed comments after his speech was realeased:

-  This is what journalists and industry experts always say. He's talking about what everyone already knows…Please take good care of your singers

- He should have treated BTS better ㅋㅋㅋ

- Actually, he's right, but fans of other idols don't want to hear this… And overseas, BTS is not cla̾s̾sified as a K-Pop group.

- He's right, to be honest, BTS seems to be bigger than K-Pop...

- Shut up…please

- Hold on, he only mentions BTS when necessary, all the stupid games with these.

- Didn't NJs replace BTS? Just push NJs

- Knowing that, why don't you treat BTS well?

- Seriously, this guy really has no shame

- Shut up or I'll call the authorities

- He's also right, but I just want him to stop saying anything...

- Foreigners don't think BTS is K-Pop, BTS is completely different

- Stop talking and support Bangtan's solo activities more