K-pop Stars on New Album, Military Enlistment

There’s mounting proof of Seventeen’s cultural dominance across the planet, from sold-out stadium reveals and chart-topping albums within the U.S. and Japan to festival-headlining units in Mexico and Germany. However nowhere is it extra obvious than within the group’s residence metropolis of Seoul. The world surrounding the headquarters of their label Pledis Leisure’s guardian firm, Hybe, is roofed in Seventeen. The gloomy and humid climate on a latest Could morning doesn’t cease a herd of followers from snapping photos and taking within the espresso store throughout the road, the place the faces of Seventeen — comprising members S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The 8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino — paper the outer partitions. Stretched throughout a close-by bus cease is a banner wishing Joshua a contented birthday. His bandmate DK has his personal birthday banner only a few storefronts down. The 28-year-old’s smiling face might be seen in magnificence advertisements working on a loop in Seoul’s subway automobiles.

The entire metropolis appears to be celebrating the group’s tenth anniversary and the latest launch of its fifth studio album, Glad Burstday. A celebration is held on the man-made islands referred to as Sebitseom, alongside Seoul’s Hangang River, that includes an enormous floating Seventeen gentle stick and a first-of-its-kind efficiency on the close by Jamsu Bridge. Followers who couldn’t snag a seat to the particular efficiency did something they might to see the group, even by leaping in yachts that pulled up subsequent to the stage to observe from the water.

It’s exhausting to think about Seventeen’s world profile getting any bigger, however the group’s ascendance to the highest of pop reveals no signal of slowing. The 13-member outfit was the world’s largest group in 2024, in response to the Worldwide Federation of the Phonographic Business (IFPI)’s state-of-the-industry report, which tracks gross sales and streams. The group ranked Seventeen third in complete, simply behind solo acts Taylor Swift and Drake and forward of U.S. family names like Billie Eilish, The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar. Their 2023-2024 Observe Tour in Asia was the highest-grossing Ok-pop tour of 2024, raking in $98.4 million throughout 24 reveals.

The Hybe constructing is the final word temple to the group’s success, presently wrapped in a message that reads “Seventeen will problem eternity.” Which may be, however there’s little they will do concerning the march of time. It’s a second of transition for Seventeen. On one hand — as all Ok-pop boy teams should do sooner or later — Seventeen is dealing with inevitable change as members of the group start obligatory army service. South Korean regulation states that each one eligible males should enlist earlier than turning 30. Jeonghan, the eldest of the group at 29, and Wonwoo, 28, are presently serving and due to this fact unable to take part in any promotions. (Each carried out on the brand new album earlier than enlisting.)

On the identical time, Seventeen is grappling with change of a extra philosophical nature: wrestling over what the band ought to grow to be. This reckoning maybe is greatest exemplified by Glad Burstday’s monitor checklist, which options 13 solo songs — one for every member — and solely three group tracks. The bandmembers, by their very own admission, have targeted closely on group actions till now, though a number of of them have additionally put out solo releases over the previous decade.

Any boy group that began as younger Seventeen should cope with the quandary of methods to age gracefully alongside its music and followers. Considerably hardly ever for Ok-pop, Seventeen’s members have had a heavy hand within the trajectory of their careers, as their label’s founder, Sung Soo Han (whose official title, tellingly, is Grasp Skilled), explains. “The Seventeen members have been deeply concerned not solely within the artistic course of but in addition in shaping the group’s general path, making choices and guiding the group themselves,” he says. Pledis, which Han based in 2007, has been Seventeen’s label for his or her total profession. Along with Seventeen, the company has produced a number of domestically standard Ok-pop teams like After College and NU’EST, together with their newest boy group, TWS, which debuted to nice fanfare in 2024.

To know Seventeen, and why they’ve lasted this lengthy, it’s essential to know the Ok-pop ecosystem as an entire. It’s not a style — in reality many teams, together with Seventeen, discover a number of totally different musical types all through their careers — however fairly a selected manner of selling and releasing music. What maybe greatest defines Ok-pop is the depth of its relationship with followers, each on social media and in additional intimate in-person encounters. Communication apps enable followers to “textual content” immediately with their favourite Ok-pop idol. VIP live performance tickets may embrace a send-off, the place followers collect contained in the stadium because the performers stroll via snapping pictures and signing “photocards” (one other Ok-pop specialty; suppose baseball or Pokémon buying and selling playing cards however as a substitute it’s your favourite artist and it comes with every album). Lately, Ok-pop teams have often collaborated with Western artists and launched English-language songs. Glad Burstday alone contains collaborations with Pharrell Williams and Timbaland. The group launched their first English single, “Dar+ling,” in 2022.  

Most members of Ok-pop teams spend their adolescence making ready for this job underneath tightly organized trainee applications. Usually run by Korean leisure corporations like Pledis, these applications require aspiring stars to endure years of grueling vocal, dance and language coaching for the prospect to affix a bunch. Seventeen’s years of apprenticeship have been largely broadcast via the web present Seventeen TV, which showcased and launched Pledis’ trainees. Whereas not all members featured on that present went on to debut with Seventeen, some who left joined different Ok-pop teams or pursued adjoining leisure careers. Seven-year contracts are the usual when beginning out in Ok-pop, and in 2021, all 13 members of Seventeen renewed their contract with Pledis Leisure, a yr sooner than anticipated.

When Seventeen began, Ok-pop was at a nascent section globally. “Since their debut, the Ok-pop panorama has expanded noticeably,” Han says. He provides that the globalization has the corporate “establishing personalized promotional methods that mirror the cultural traits and particular wants of followers in every area.”

Seventeen’s 2015 debut EP, 17 Carat, offered roughly 1,400 albums in its first week on Korea’s Hanteo chart. Against this, Glad Burstday, launched Could 26, recorded greater than 2.2 million gross sales in its first day. As spectacular because the numbers are, the group’s most vital evolution has been the maturation of its “idea” — a key time period on the earth of Ok-pop, the place teams may need an overarching storyline of superhuman powers, pirates or vampires — and their visible path. For many of Seventeen’s profession, the main focus sonically and visually has been on youth. Over the previous few years, because the members grew from youngsters to males, their sound and look have additionally grown.

On Glad Burstday, Seventeen is experimenting with tougher sounds and darker visible themes. “We’re able to reinvent ourselves,” says S.Coups, who sat for an interview alongside three of his bandmates, Joshua, Dino and The 8, in a dance observe room on the Hybe headquarters. The 29-year-old — dressed casually earlier than he rushes off to get into the total glam an 11-member picture shoot requires — serves because the group’s chief in addition to the pinnacle of its rap unit (one in every of three Seventeen groups, together with the efficiency and vocal models). Onstage, S.Coups is a commanding, charismatic presence. Offstage, amongst his fellow group members, he appears lighthearted and playful, laughing all through the dialog. Not like Western boy teams, the chief will not be an unofficial designation (like NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake or One Course’s Harry Types) however a well-defined position usually involving logistical duties. Lately, nonetheless, the rapper says he considers himself “a member of Seventeen fairly than the chief” due to how his group mates have stepped up.

“We’re standing at a brand new beginning line, making ready for a brand new path forward and able to blaze a brand new path,” S.Coups continues. The transfer to incorporate solo tracks on the album was a part of a long-term technique. “A lot of the members are going to enlist within the army quickly. Up till now, we’ve principally targeted on our group promotions,” says 28-year-old Hoshi, the chief of the efficiency unit. One other robust character onstage, Hoshi is calm and unfailingly well mannered, asking his group member Vernon, a local English speaker, to supply this reporter water earlier than he totally sits down. 

“We want to present extra of our individualities, every of the members’ personalities and capabilities, in order that when the time comes and we get again collectively once more as a bunch, we‘ll be capable of showcase ourselves as a greater Seventeen,” provides Hoshi. The group has already begun this course of via subunit releases, through which smaller configurations of the group will launch a single or EP separate from Seventeen albums. Hoshi is a member of the unit BSS, together with vocalists DK and Seungkwan, and not too long ago launched a single album underneath the two-person unit HxW with Woozi. Jeonghan and Wonwoo launched a subunit single album final yr, previous to enlisting, underneath the title JxW. 

“I simply tried to make music that was real, that mirrored our wholeheartedness and that was what our followers cherished greatest and what we choose to do as nicely,” says Woozi. The 28-year-old is arguably Seventeen’s “maestro,” to cite the title of the group’s 2024 single, as he’s spent the previous decade shaping the group’s id as Seventeen’s lead producer. The bleached-blond Busan native, who in our interview sits contemplatively amongst group members Mingyu, Jun and Seungkwan, is the chief of the vocal group. The unit construction is tied to the group’s title: 13 members, three models and one group, totaling Seventeen. Though the members are assigned to a selected unit, every member may sing, rap and dance within the group; their unit is their specialty.

The tribulations of adolescence have been the central theme of Seventeen’s music from the start, however they’ve additionally outlined the members’ relationships with each other as they’ve spent their total younger maturity collectively. “We have been housemates at one level for a very long time, and meaning we needed to undergo the great moments, unhealthy moments, completely happy moments, offended moments on the identical time,” says Dino, a member of the efficiency unit.

Regardless of being one of many eldest in his household, Dino is, at 26, the youngest in Seventeen. When he debuted with the band, he successfully gained 12 older brothers, who alternately tease and look after him. S.Coups, sitting beside Dino for this dialog, breaks into giggles once I ask Dino about a few of the ribbing he’s been the goal of over the previous decade. “I feel it actually helped me develop extra mature in a short time, and I feel I realized many extra classes than a traditional child my age would study at that age,” he says.

Regardless of having not chosen their bandmates — that was Pledis’ job — the members of Seventeen say they share an ironclad bond to 1 one other, and an equally robust dedication to the group, which stays their anchor. Final yr, Jun, the one one severely pursuing an appearing profession, needed to sit out the North American leg of their 2024 Proper Right here World Tour and the group’s Lollapalooza Berlin gig as a result of he was taking pictures a movie and tv collection in China. But regardless of his appearing ambitions, he was decided to return for the group’s newest launch. “I had my alone time for a while, and now I’m again with the group once more,” the 28-year-old says. “Within the lead-up to this album, I put numerous thought into how I can showcase a brand new aspect of myself throughout this promotion.”

The bond could by no means have been damaged, however it’s certainly been strained, as would any relationship that entails seeing each other practically day-after-day for a decade. Mingyu, a member of the rap unit, jokes that they’ve labored issues out “via infinite fights,” which causes fellow group mate Seungkwan, a member of the vocal unit and subunit BSS, to leap in to make clear. “We’ve by no means taken it bodily or hit one another,” the 27-year-old explains.

Provides Mingyu, “Scars must be made and healed, made and healed.”

“There isn’t an age hole [anymore],” Joshua, a member of the vocal unit and an L.A. native, says. And, provides Seungkwan, “Regardless that it was [Pledis] that introduced us collectively, we’re now virtually like household.”

Practically all of the members of Seventeen have been youngsters once they debuted. As optimistic as they’re, they acknowledge the difficulties of rising up within the public eye. “We’ve been doing this since we have been youngsters, so we don’t know a lifetime of being unknown all through our 20s,” says Vernon, a member of the rap unit who was born in New York earlier than transferring to Korea at a younger age. The totally bilingual 27-year-old repeatedly intervenes to make clear a translation for his group members, Hoshi and DK, and even stops the dialog briefly to reward the translator on how expert she is. 

Vernon says the unrelenting highlight has made the group extra “reserved,” a phrase that feels at odds with Vernon’s present punk-inspired look however consistent with his pensive character. “I do know I had a tough time making an attempt to know myself on this course of, and I’m positive the members did as nicely,” he says.

Vernon considers each query fastidiously earlier than answering, weighing his phrases. Which is why it’s a lot extra significant when he expresses the fact of stardom’s often choreographed nature: “Truly, being restricted of free speech in a manner, it does form of block our technique of making an attempt to know ourselves, so I suppose that was the toughest half.”

Practically all of the members of the group should full their 18-month-minimum army service within the coming years. The exceptions are Joshua (a U.S. citizen), The 8 and Jun (Chinese language residents), and S.Coups, exempt due to an ACL damage. “We’re doing our greatest to adapt to it,” DK says of the altering dynamics as members start to enlist. Provides Hoshi: “That is one thing that has been inevitable for us all alongside. Now we have been ready. Now we have numerous initiatives that we’ve got mentioned with the corporate very totally up till now.”

Woozi and S.Coups are optimistic concerning the group’s future. “We perceive that the followers are very unhappy that a few of us are going to be away, however amongst ourselves, [we] don’t think about this to be a extremely large deal as a result of we all know that we’re going to keep collectively,” Woozi says. “We must always think about this as fairly a protracted preparation section for the subsequent album that’s going to be even higher and higher.”

However, on the flip aspect, says S.Coups, “I feel this generally is a nice alternative for the members who’re nonetheless remaining; [they] can stick collectively and make one thing nice to showcase to the followers. It will also be a good time for members who’ve been mentally or bodily exhausted to recharge themselves.”

Seventeen seemingly thrives underneath high-stress circumstances partially due to their concentrate on psychological and bodily well being. When this topic is broached, S.Coups, Dino and Joshua excitedly level to their bandmate The 8 as their skilled of wellness. “I do numerous rehabilitation. I hit the gymnasium fairly often [and] obtain private coaching,” says The 8. “For my psychological well being, I do numerous meditation, and every member has their very own manner of relieving stress,” provides the 27-year-old.

“On my off days, I attempt to not take into consideration work in any respect and simply keep at residence and calm down,” DK explains of his routine.

Provides Joshua: “We even have numerous hobbies that we attempt to discover to recharge. Mentally, we additionally do counseling, too, to assist us out,” noting that the bandmates have all the time been given the sources to seek the advice of knowledgeable once they’re having a tough time.

When requested how Pledis can guarantee the security and sanity of younger performers, Han says the corporate has persistently provided support to its artists once they want it. “We’re dedicated to supporting our artists to allow them to develop into wholesome, well-rounded people, each bodily and emotionally,” he notes, including that Hybe operates in-house clinics for all artists and trainees.

Whereas Western music markets nonetheless haven’t totally discovered how Ok-pop acts match into the general panorama — which ends up in teams like Seventeen arguably not getting the identical recognition as different acts with equally stratospheric gross sales and affect — the band stays unfazed. “We strive to not dwell on these issues as a result of [the] individuals who would acknowledge us [will] acknowledge us sooner or later. On the finish of the day, all we’ve got to do is simply strive our greatest,” Woozi says. “What we’re making an attempt to do is simply inform our personal private story for the people who find themselves listening and the individuals who love us.”

The reflective Vernon echoes that sentiment. “Actually, I don’t actually care if everybody understands it or not as a result of we’re simply completely happy and very grateful to be the place we’re proper now,” he says.

Provides Woozi: “Relatively than arguing with individuals who don’t like us and asking why they’re not liking us, I feel we should always simply concentrate on our factor and run our personal race. Individuals have their very own preferences and their very own style, and also you simply have to go away it as much as them. There’s no purpose asking them why they like a sure particular person — that’s too immature.”