Monday 6 February 2017

NCT 127: NCT #127

Hello
Annyeong
Konnichiwa 
Ni Hao


With today's K-pop Monday I wanted to introduce a rookie group that are up to their 1st year anniversary yet as there is still 2 month left to go for the group as a whole, before I get into the main unit of today's post let me give you some background on the group as a whole.

NCT are a group formed by SM Entertainment, their group name stands for Neo Culture Technology, the group was created as part of a project through SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man. His purpose of NCT is that they will have an unlimited number of members that will be divided into multiple sub-unit groups, each unit will be based in various cities around the world, with the project starting in South Korea.

So far 3 sub-unit groups have debuted which are: 
NCT U - consisting of 6 members.
Google Images

NCT 127 - consisting of 9 members (originally 7, 2 members added in latest comeback).

Google Images
Google Images

NCT Dream - consisting of 7 members.

Google Images

With each sub-unit members can be switched, added and removed, so far 15 members have made their debut through NCT, with a majority of them being taken from SM's Rookie's, a group of trainees that perform but have not yet made a debut. Out of all the 15 members, Mark has debuted as a member of all 3 of the sub-unit groups.


NCT U made their debut in April 2016 with 2 digital singles The 7th Sense and Without You, a Korean & Chinese version was released for Without You with SM Rookies member Kun appearing on the Chinese version. Members for NCT U are: Taeyong, Doyoung, Taeil, Ten, Jaehyun and Mark.
The 7th Sense
Owned by SM Entertainment
Without You (Korean)
Owned by SM Entertainment
Without You (Chinese)

NCT 127 made their debut in July 2016 with their Single 소방차 (Fire Truck) which was followed by their first mini album (more of that later). Members for NCT 127 are: Taeyong, Taeil, Jaehyun, Mark, Haechan, Yuta, WinWin, members Johnny and Doyoung were added January 2017 for their latest comeback.

NCT Dream made their debut in August 2016 with their digital single Chewing Gum which was released in both Korean and Chinese. Members for NCT Dream are: Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. NCT Dream is SM's youngest group to debut with the groups age averaging at 15.6 years with Mark being the oldest member at 17(18 in Korean age) and Jisung being the youngest member at 14(15 in Korean age) at the time of debut, he's now 15(16 in Korean age).
Chewing Gum (Korean)
Owned by SM Entertainment
Chewing Gum (Chinese)
Owned by SM Entertainment


On the 30th of June 2016 SM announced that NCT's 2nd unit would be making a debut and that they would be called NCT 127 and would consist of Taeyong, Jaehyun, Mark and Taeil from NCT U as well as debuting with new members Yuta, Haechan and WinWin, they explained that NCT 127 would be based in Seoul with their unit name being the longitude of Seoul.
On the 5th(6th in S.Korea) of July an M/V teaser was released revealing their title track to be called 소방차 (Fire Truck).
Owned by SM Entertainment
On the 6th(7th in S.Korea) of July the M/V for 소방차 (Fire Truck) was released.
Owned by SM Entertainment
The music video for 소방차 (Fire Truck) shows the 7 members protecting the same girl as she grows up from situations that would affect her life until the end of the M/V where she passes away from old age and they move on to protect her grandson.
Their first mini album NCT #127 was released digitally on the 10th of July and physically released the 11th of July. On the 20th of December 2016 SM Entertainment released a new M/V which is a bonus track on the mini album called Switch which featured members from SM Rookies that members from NCT 127 had trained with.
Switch ft SR15B
Owned by SM Entertainment

For NCT #127 3 of the members participated in co-writing some of the lyrics on the album, with Taeyong, Mark and Jaehyun co-writing the lyrics for 소방차 (Fire Truck), as well as both Taeyong and Mark co-writing lyrics for track Mad City.
NCT #127 did well in the charts for 2016, it peaked at No.1 on the Gaon Weekly Albums Chart, No.40 on the Oricon Albums Chart, No.22 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart and No.2 on the Billboard World Albums Chart. The album peaked at No.3 on the Gaon Monthly Albums Chart as well as peaking at No.32 on the Gaon Yearly-end Albums Chart.
Gaon Physical Sales:
83,272+
The M/V for 소방차 (Fire Truck) so far has gained 13,756,661 views since July 2016 and each day the view count increases, in the space of 24 hours the M/V has gained an extra 32,000 views.

The mini album is set out in the usual hardback book style case, with a red, black and white camouflage cover. Over the top of the cover there's a paper cover that is loose which has the members on both sides, on the main side it has the album name as well as a picture of the group and on the opposite it introduces the members. The camouflage theme follows throughout the album as well as the concept from the 소방차 (Fire Truck) M/V.

Track List:
소방차  (Fire Truck)
Once Again (여름 방학)
Wake Up
Another World
Paradise
Mad City
Switch (Ft. SR15B)

 




 





 










I downloaded this mini album onto my iPod before I decided to buy a physical copy and even though at first I wasn't a big fan of 소방차 (Fire Truck) when it was first released, I really liked the mini album as a whole, if I had to pick 1 track as a recommendation it would be Switch, but each track on the album is amazing and different from the track before it. I wasn't really a fan of the styling for this concept for the fashion as it all looked a bit mismatched and that they didn't want to put much effort into it with them being a rookie group. I liked how they had styled Mark's hair as the colour actually looks like it's representing fire, Yuta looks rather adorable with his Afro hair style and WinWin is a cute blonde but I can't deny his hair suits him better darker. Taeyong seems to suit any style and colour they put him in, so far I've not disliked any style or hair colour they've stuck him in. I have followed NCT since they made their debut with NCT U and from the start Taeyong caught my eye and I have 3 biases for NCT: Mark, Jaehyun and Taeyong. As I get used to new groups and watch them in variety shows my favourites tend to change and it's strange how a few months can change your choices. I always find it odd that Mark was placed in NCT Dream after debuting with songs like The 7th Sense and Fire Truck, but I guess with those songs you can forget that he's still really young, I mean he's not classed as an adult yet in South Korea, the UK or even in his home country Canada, his age fits Dream's concept but it's just odd watching him be cute when you've seen him be bad ass in other concepts. This was also the first time that I got my main biases photocard in the first album I purchased, I recently watched Jaehyun say what his members were good at and Mark's was that he is the noona killer, which I didn't want to admit him as either hot or my main bias as there is an 11 year gap. I think I've rambled on too much so get stuck in and check out the tracks from NCT #127 below now.

Once Again (여름 방학)

Wake Up

Another World

Paradise

Mad City

Switch Ft. SR15B

소방차 (Fire Truck)

I'm sorry for the extremely long post for today's K-pop Monday but with NCT there's A LOT to go through with there being 3 sub-unit groups, so far only NCT 127 has physically released albums but NCT Dream are making a comeback in a couple of days with their first single album and I'm curious to see if it differs from Chewing Gum. 

So are you interested in the new make group from SM Entertainment? 
Have I got you interested to check out more from them?
Which sub-unit's debut did you prefer?
Whats your favourite track from NCT #127?
Let me know in the comments below.

See you soon!


Annyeong
Sayonara
Zai Jian
Bye

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