While Big Bang vocalist Taeyang calling out his peers for not sticking around to see the group win Artist of the Year was clearly the most discussed event of the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) held in Hong Kong on Wednesday, something else he said could have a much greater impact on fans of the superstar K-pop group.
"It may be difficult for all five of the Big Bang members to attend MAMA all together from now on," Taeyang told the crowd as the five members of Big Bang accepted the award.
"It was an honor to be able to put on the kind of performances we wanted to through MAMA and thank you for the great award."
In terms of media and fan reaction across the Internet, the seemingly earthshattering ramifications of that statement were overshadowed in favor of what the singer said next.
"If there's one thing that leaves much to be desired, it's that we wished for the award ceremony to be a place of celebration until the end, but many singers aren't at their seats," Taeyang griped, referring to the AsiaWorld-Expo's near-empty VIP section.
A rep for Mnet told the website Kpop Fighting, one of the few to pick up on the significance of Taeyang's ealier line, that the reason for the mass exodus, reportedly leaving only the members of MONSTA X as the only artists watching Big Bang receive the award, was beyond their control.
"Many wanted to stay, but they had no choice but to leave early for other schedules or catch a plane," The rep said.
"Big Bang's juniors iKON also had to leave in the second half of the awards ceremony, because they had other schedules to attend to."
Of the major Korean entertainment websites in the West, eNEWS, a subsidiary of Mnet which runs the awards ceremony, was one of the few news outlets giving the issue any prominence with an article Thursday entitled "Was Taeyang Hinting At Big Bang's Army Enlistment In Acceptance Speech?"
It's a reasonable question, particularly in light of the fact that all eligible males in South Korea between the ages of 18 and 35 currently must enroll for between 21 and 24 months of military service in South Korea (the length of mandatory enrollment changes by several months depending on which branch of the military that they serve in).
Any consistent observer of the K-pop scene knows that Big Bang would be far from the first band to be derailed by their country's ongoing conflict with the North. And with four of the members in their late 20s, it is really a matter of when rather than if they will have to (at the very least) put Big Bang on hold in order to serve their country or risk prosecution from the federal government.
Big Bang fan Susanna Lam, only one of two eNEWS readers to comment on the story, was crushed by the revelation.
"I feel so sad," she wrote. "You guys are always the best. I love you."
