Hello and welcome to my first series! An Introduction: things that I enjoy but aren’t very well known in my area. Yet.
After too many brainstorming sessions trying to choose the best way to begin this series, I’ve decided to start with an in-depth look into one of my favorite artists: Seventeen.
Seventeen is a K-pop idol group comprised of 13 members that debuted on May 26, 2015 in South Korea under Pledis Entertainment. Their fans are called Carats and their official team colors are rose quartz and serenity. Among K-pop fans, they are one of the most well known, respected, and celebrated groups. Nevertheless, I am continuously met with blank faces when I bring them up in groups without many established K-pop fans. As K-pop continues to gain global and “mainstream” popularity, I hope to be able to share the artists and music I am a fan of, beginning with this blog post on Seventeen.
(Note: the name of this blog is, in fact, a reference to Seventeen.)
After debuting in 2015, Seventeen soon gained traction for their incredible live performances, complex and perfectly synchronized choreography, and outstanding vocals. They were also dubbed as the leading “self-producing idols,” as they largely create or contribute to their own lyrics, music, production, and choreography. Outside of their strictly artistic work, they are known among their fans for their chaotic sense of humor and the healing they provide through their messages. Although it was an upwards battle, coming from a middle-sized company and facing many obstacles, Seventeen has grown to become one of the most successful K-pop groups of the third K-pop generation.
The name “Seventeen,” comes from their structure of 13 members + 3 units + 1 team = Seventeen. The thirteen members of Seventeen are (real names first, stage names in parentheses), in order of age: Choi Seung-cheol (S.Coups), Yoon Jeong-han (Jeonghan), Joshua Hong (Joshua), Wen Jun-Hui (Jun), Kwon Soon-young (Hoshi), Jeon Won-woo (Wonwoo), Lee Ji-hoon (Woozi), Lee Seok-min (Dokyeom/DK), Kim Min-gyu (Mingyu), Xu Ming-hao (the8), Boo Seung-kwan (Seungkwan), Chwe Han-sol (Vernon), and Lee Chan (Dino). S.Coups, the oldest member, serves as both the leader of the entire team as well as the leader of the Hip Hop Unit.
There are many units within Seventeen such as the China-line (composed of Chinese members Jun and the8), the 95-line (those born in 1995, S.Coups, Jeonghan, and Joshua), and more. As a team with members born between 1995 – 1999 and international members from America and China in addition to the majority from South Korea, it is inevitable for a wide variety of these sub-units and lines to form. However, the team is formally divided into three units and based on their primary role in the group:
- Hip Hop Unit: S.Coups (leader), Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon
- Performance Unit: Hoshi (leader), Jun, the8, Dino
- Vocal Unit: Woozi (leader), Jeonghan, Joshua, Dokyeom, Seungkwan
(Note: there is an official sub-unit, BooSeokSoon (BSS), comprised of Dokyeom (leader), Seungkwan, and Hoshi.)
Over the course of my next few posts, I will go into each of these units to detail the stories, characteristics, and specifics of each member within the unit. It can seem intimidating at first for those who are new to larger groups, but rest assured that all 13 members are incredibly essential and fun to get to know. It’s a lot to learn in a singular session, especially for anyone who is new to K-pop, but I’ll do my best to act as your guide in a helpful and exciting manner!
It may seem odd that I care enough about a group to make my first series of posts entirely about them. Odd or not, Seventeen’s music, messages, and content continue to help me and comfort me in my times of need. They never fail to make me smile (or sometimes cry), and I believe that anything able to evoke such a response is necessary to be shared.
To close out this introductory post on the basics of Seventeen, I’ll include a list of seventeen of my favorite Seventeen songs in no particular order:
- Smile Flower
- Hug
- Kidult
- Together
- Without You
- Thanks
- Pretty U
- Love Letter
- Hit
- Our Dawn is Hotter than Day
- Campfire
- Lie Again
- Simple
- Beautiful
- Pinwheel
- Run to You
- Fear
I was so excited to see Seventeen while scrolling down the dashboard! I’ve been a carat and jeonghan stan since like 6th grade. I agree with you: they are easily the most talented in the game. It’s so impressive how they produce and choreograph their own music, especially considering how they are still so young. Their last comeback was literally mind-blowing, especially the stage for Ready For Love. I’m super hyped for their comeback in October!! Also I am a little disappointed to not see Adore U or Mansae on your list?
I’ve been on the lookout for other Carats!! Jeonghan is my bias-wrecker but I’m a DK bias 🙂 Jeonghan’s recent solo song is impeccable though I love the vibes.
I also loved their last comeback! The contrast between the Ready to Love and Anyone stages was so good, I can’t believe their next comeback is coming out so soon. Agh I love Adore U but every time I listen to it I get a little bit hurt by the memory of Jeonghan lip-syncing to Seungkwan and the imabalance of line distributions (I love his voice when he sings it in recent performances though!) I wanted to avoid overloading on title tracks… maybe might create a more well-rounded playlist in the future though?
Haha, I didn’t think you were being serious when you said you would write about Seventeen for your blog post. I’ve actually listened to a few of Seventeen’s songs (mostly by chance though as I scrolled through BTS and Stray Kids) and watched some of their videos. But, I never really understood why they were called Seventeen if there were thirteen members? It was nice to finally know the answer to that question 😂). I caught something really interesting about the official team color being serenity, which I did not know was a color at all? Official colors aside, I want to ask, do you agree with the color of serenity being an almost gray, misty, purplish-blue color? For me, I feel like green can also match the serene feeling?
Oh, and if you could choose an official color for Seventeen, what would you choose?
Of course I would! Yes, their official colors are rose-quartz and serenity which is like a pale rose pink and a greyish blue? I personally really like our fandom colors, they’re very aesthetic and multi-purposeful for art designs:). I also think that they suit the fandom and group pretty well, at this point I couldn’t really imagine any other colors being our official colors! I think serenity could be a lot of different shades, I definitely see what you mean by green. I lean a little more towards blue but that also might just be conditioning from mood rings that insist blue is the shade for calmness. Maybe a pale, dusty purple? Something that’s not super bright and on the cooler side I’d guess.