BLACKPINK’s group activities have been on hiatus for as long as the enlistment time of male idols

Of course, the members were busy with their individual activities during that time. However, it has been so long since fans last saw BLACKPINK perform together.

Amidst the rising era of Kpop’s 4th generation idols, it is undeniable that the 3rd generation idol groups still hold an important position in the K-pop industry. Currently, when mentioning the current’s most popular Kpop girl groups, the names of 3rd generation representatives like TWICE, BLACKPINK and Red Velvet still come up with outstanding achievements in their careers.

However, while TWICE or Red Velvet are still actively promoting and competing with their junior groups of the 4th generation, many people have recently realized the lack of BLACKPINK’s activities as a group. Fans still regularly see BLACKPINK members appearing on various media platforms to promote their individual activities (releasing solo albums, working as brand ambassadors, acting, etc.). But as a complete group, BLACKPINK hasn’t performed together for over a year.

BLACKPINK’s last activity took place in October 2020, when the group promoted the song “Lovesick Girls” from the full album “The Album“. The online community realized how long the YG girl group had “frozen” their group activities when comparing BLACKPINK’s and aespa‘s promotion schedules. In fact, the promotion for “Lovesick Girls” took place just a month before aespa officially debuted with “Black Mamba” in November 2020.

During that 1 year, aespa has had 3 promotions for the songs “Black Mamba”, “Next Level” and “Savage“. Particularly, they even achieved great success with “Next Level” and have quickly become one of the most popular girl groups in Kpop nowadays. In the meantime, a series of equally potential new girl groups have also debuted one after another (STAYC, I’VE, LIGHTSUM, Kep1er,…) or about to debut (JYPn, new girl group of HYBE x Source Music and Min Hee Jin,…). However, BLACKPINK has not released any other song as a group since “Lovesick Girls”.

Considering the absence of BLACKPINK’s group activities, the Korean online community half-jokingly says that they thought the YG girl group was currently “enlisting”. Such long breaks between comebacks also lead to a shocking situation that BLACKPINK only has about 20 songs despite entering the 6th year of their career.

• “No, but… is BLACKPINK enlisted or what? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
• “Assuming that BLACKPINK makes a comeback in March of this year, the break between their 2 promotions will even reach 1 year and 6 months, which is as long as a male idol’s enlistment time. ㅋㅋ Maybe only fans of male idols can patiently endure and wait this long for them ㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
• “Shouldn’t they make a comeback at least once a year? It’s not like they’re busy with overseas tours or anything because the pandemic situation is still very bad”
• “Only BLACKPINK can do that. Any other group that rests for this long will have a 100% chance of failure”
• “When will BLACKPINK be discharged from the army? ㅠ”
• “YG… They never change. The name BLACKPINK has become a brand and a famous name by itself, but if their main job is to become artists, shouldn’t the company at least give the group a comeback? The members released solo albums last year, but at least the company should let them participate in year-end music shows. … But in the end, they don’t let the members do anything”
• “In hindsight, the total number of songs that BLACKPINK has released in their career so far is only 20. That’s not even enough for their own concert. At their first concert, they had to add a lot of cover stages to fill the setlist. Isn’t it too serious that a 7-year-old group can’t fill the concert setlist with their own songs?”
• “Because of “Snowdrop”, the break may be extended for another year…”