On Friday, January 16, BTS’s long-awaited upcoming album’s details were unveiled, revealing its name, pre-order details, and more. The group’s first album in almost four years, ARIRANG, is expected to be released on March 20, 2026, at 1 PM KST, with pre-orders and pre-saves for the album across multiple platforms like Weverse, Target, Barnes & Noble, Spotify, iTunes, and morealready kickstarting as of January 16.
As these details landed on the internet, many fans noticed the category placement of the album on Apple Music. While all of BTS’s albums and releases to date were placed under the K-pop category, ARIRANG was positioned under Pop, garnering diverse reactions from netizens. On one hand, fans have been skeptical about the unusual placement, wondering if it was a mistake or a technical error that was classified as a Pop instead of K-pop.
On the other hand, fans were beyond thrilled about the same and celebrated the recent recognition of BTS as worldwide pop artists by the music industry. For many years now, following the immense impact created by the K-pop boy group, fans have been demanding BTS’s representation under pop, highlighting that their influence has well-passed the boundaries of K-pop. Therefore, they explained that being classified as K-pop artists is limiting and undermining their positions in the music industry.
With the recent placement of ARIRANG under Pop, fans cheered about the group’s recognition as more than K-pop artists. Additionally, the classification also increased fans’ anticipation for the album. Given that the members expressed that the upcoming album stands as one of the larger-scaled comebacks they’ve prepared so far, ARMYs have been eagerly awaiting the official release of ARIRANG, especially after its Pop categorization.
Here are a few fan reactions regarding the same:
“‘ARIRANG’ is listed under ‘POP’ where as BTS latest albums are listed under ‘K-POP’ 👀 Is it just a mistake or….?” said a fan on X
More fans and netizens expressed their reactions to BTS’s upcoming album being listed under the Pop genre.
Others also shared their thoughts and opinions regarding the same.
BTS members discuss album details via Weverse livestream following ARIRANG announcement
On Friday, January 16, soon after the name reveal for BTS’s upcoming album, all the members kick-started a group livestream on Weverse to further discuss the elements added for the album. The members explained that they went through fans’ interpretation of the album’s logo, which was released a few days before the name announcement.
They revealed that the logo stands as a stylized version of the Korean characters used for the word “ARIRANG“. It was also explained that the word, in itself, doesn’t hold meaning and is considered gibberish. However, the three syllables used for the name, 아, 리, and 랑, mean sorrow, separation, and reunion, respectively. The main theme of the album is around the versions and journey of human feelings.
The members also revealed that Jungkook was the mastermind behind the album’s logo and had hand-sketched multiple versions for the same. Additionally, the members also stated that they created over 100 songs for the album, and from the lot, they chose 14 songs for the album. They also expressed much excitement for ARMYs and other netizens to hear the album and shared their thoughts.
Therefore, fans adn netizens are eagerly awaiting ARIRANG to drop on March 20, 2026.
Edited by Aishwarya Sai
