Introduction to SEVENTEEN!

Introduction to SEVENTEEN!

Jenieke Calloway, Writer

With recent events of BTS performing at the grammys and topping billboard charts, I feel it’s just as important to share another K-Pop group full of talented members – Seventeen.

 

SEVENTEEN is a 13 member South Korean boy group that debuted in 2015 with their title track ‘Adore U’. From then on, they became the 3rd biggest selling boy group, triple million sellers, received the President’s Commendation Award and has 1+ billion streams on spotify. With so many achievements to their name it’s hard to not want to check them out.

 

Seventeen’s thirteen members each are involved with “units” for their specific skills but all are able to do each skill perfectly. The units and respective members are: Hip Hop Unit- S.Coups, Vernon, Wonwoo, and Mingyu. Vocal Unit- Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, Seungkwan, DK. Performance Unit- Hoshi, Dino, The8 and Jun.

 

Even while having those units, the members have gone outside of the titles and have performed pieces special in other areas, like a hip hop unit member doing a ballad or a vocal unit member giving breakdances in concert. With such talents in a group, their able to explore outside of their specialties and have creative freedom.

 

The leader of Seventeen, S.Coups, says this on their powers as a group, “I think the greatest strength of SEVENTEEN is the combined energy of all thirteen members. I strongly believe that we are consistently telling our personal stories through music and performance, further solidifying SEVENTEEN’s identity. Candid and genuine storytelling is one of the essential elements of K-pop, I reckon, and we are not different from that.”

 

Their most recent album is named ‘Semicolon’ which represents a letter to their youth and their continuous journey of staying youthful. It features six songs, two full member songs and the other four being separated into units. My personal favorite would be ‘Hey Buddy’, a song about seeing your favorite friends and spending the most time together that you can. 

 

Seventeen has begun their promotions in western audiences, with their first performance here being on the ‘The Late Late Show With James Corden’ performing their title track ‘Home Run.’ From then, they performed on the ‘Kelly Clarkson Show’ and are performing on Ellen April 1st! 

 

“K-pop has become a truly global phenomenon,” says Aja Romano, writer for Vox. “Thanks to its distinctive blend of addictive melodies, slick choreography and production values, and an endless parade of attractive South Korean performers who spend years in grueling studio systems learning to sing and dance in synchronized perfection.”

 

As a lover of music from all over, sharing this powerhouse of a group felt extremely important to me! Feel free to look into one of the top boy groups right now.