Picture supply, Pledis Leisure
- creator, Mark Savage
- Function, Music reporter
The largest act on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage this yr is not Coldplay or Dua Lipa. The truth is, you in all probability have not even heard of them.
The band in query is Seventeen, a 13-member Okay-pop youth group, which bought greater than 10 million albums final yr.
The one act to promote extra? Taylor Swift.
However regardless of the worldwide success of Okay-pop, the UK has remained chilly to the style.
Though teams like BTS, Blackpink, Stray Children, and Aespa have emerged, their greatest successes have tended to return in collaborations with Western artists like Selena Gomez, Girl Gaga, and Coldplay.
Seventeen isn’t cooperating. In contrast to most Okay-pop acts, additionally they write and produce their very own materials. Now, they’re making historical past as the primary Okay-pop act to grace the primary stage at Glastonbury.
The magnitude of the respect isn’t misplaced on them.
“There’s a nice sense of accountability,” says Choi Seung-chul, also called the band’s chief S Coups.
“We will hold coming again to that feeling and do our greatest to arrange, so we will shock everybody. Not simply our followers, however everybody else within the viewers.”
Picture supply, Pledis Leisure
Seventeen are taking part in the pageant in a yr that sees them shifting additional away from their rock roots than ever earlier than.
Reflecting the viewers’s evolving listening habits, they are going to be joined on the Pyramid Stage by Afrobeat icons Burna Boy and Ayra Starr, whereas pop star Dua Lipa and R&B star SZA will headline.
Seventeen performs shortly after lunchtime on a Friday afternoon. It is a far cry from the late-night units they play in Asia, however the S Coups are unfazed.
“The time of day doesn’t actually matter to us,” he says.
“It is truly higher to carry out within the afternoon as a result of the viewers can see us higher within the daylight.”
This positivity can be acquainted to anybody who has listened to Seventeen’s music.
Refreshing and energetic Lemonade, songs like Shining Diamond and Very Good are welcome reminders that pop music will be enjoyable.
Picture supply, Pledis Leisure
The band’s origins lie within the pistachio inexperienced basement of South Korean leisure firm Pledis.
That is the place members are chosen, rejected, educated and groomed throughout an extended and grueling apprenticeship.
“It lasted perhaps 4 to 5 years,” says rapper Jeon Gained Woo, recognized to followers as Wonwoo.
He was one of many first recruits in 2013 and survived a number of rounds of auditions, all of which had been documented within the Seventeen TV on-line collection.
The present was unscripted and unedited, usually lasting for hours at a time. On the reside broadcast, followers can select digital camera angles and watch the teenage trainees Eat mealsFace Ratings And on one notorious event, they had been Scolded for messing up.
At one level, the collection disappeared for eight months, leaving followers questioning if the group had been dropped.
Trying again, S Coups says the hiatus – throughout which three members had been changed with out rationalization – helped Seventeen take management of their future.
“Our deal acquired pushed again a bit and Woozi, considered one of our members, thought we might come out sooner than deliberate if we made our personal music.”
Woozi, whose actual title is Lee Ji-hoon, seems to be the band’s trump card.
A classically educated musician, he has co-written and produced the vast majority of their output – over 140 songs thus far.
“He impressed the opposite members to take an curiosity in making their very own music, in order that they began studying songwriting and lyric composition as properly,” says S Coups.
“Being concerned in our inventive course of goes a good distance towards making our music extra genuine. So we take a variety of delight in it.”
“That is the nice weapon we have now,” Wonwoo provides.
“No combat”
It appears unlikely that Pledis would relinquish inventive management 4 years after forming its younger recruits – however the band say the connection is constructed on mutual belief.
“Generally we make one thing, and it comes out totally different than what the corporate deliberate, however I would not essentially name it a battle,” S. Cobbs says.
“It is extra like convincing them to facet with us and perceive our imaginative and prescient.”
Seventeen lastly debuted in Might 2016, with an hour-long reside present on South Korean tv, adopted by the discharge of their first EP, 17 Carat.
At that time, the lineup was recognized as (deep breath) S Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Mingyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino.
From there, they had been divided right into a vocal crew, a hip-hop crew, and a dance crew. The band’s title is derived from the tripartite configuration: 13 individuals + 3 items + 1 band = 17.
S Coups, born in 1995, is the group’s oldest member and its official chief – a task he approaches with humility.
“I attempt to take heed to what every member has to say and get everybody on the identical path,” he says.
“My purpose is to verify we will hold going so long as potential, so we will produce as a lot music as potential.”
This isn’t to say that the band lacks hierarchy: Woozi is in control of the music and Hoshi leads the choreography, however every member is inspired to contribute.
US-born Joshua performs guitar, Seungkwan is the most well liked vocalist, and The8 is the resident clothier.
Because the title suggests, it’s extra than simply the sum of its components. Every member brings a distinct taste, however after they carry out collectively, they transfer like a bunch.
Followers have even seen that when Seventeen is coaching, their coaches’ squeals are so synchronized that it feels like one shoe, not 26.
But it surely’s not at all times that clean.
The8 (actual title Xu Minghao) threw his again in a follow, Seungkwan underwent corrective surgical procedure on his ankle, and S Coups solely just lately returned to the stage after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament.
“I am positive now,” he smiles, admitting that accidents are an accepted a part of the job.
“Dancing may be very bodily exhausting, our bones, ligaments and muscle mass get drained on a regular basis,” he says.
Picture supply, Getty Photos
Because the band is aware of all too properly, arduous work would not assure immediate outcomes.
Seventeen’s debut EP bought just one,400 copies in its first week and it took them a decade to achieve the purpose the place they might obtain thousands and thousands of gross sales in pre-orders alone.
Alongside the best way, their sound has advanced from the frothy pop of 2015’s Adore U to the syncopated EDM of 2017’s Do not Wanna Cry and the genre-hopping abundance of 2020’s single Left & Proper.
Extra just lately, they’ve been experimenting with amapiano, deep home, and distorted guitars. Final yr’s mini-album FML raised eyebrows for its unusually pessimistic title monitor.
“I’ve turn into so numb to this life that I really feel like I’m shrinking,” The8 sang over an old-school hip-hop beat.
Wonwoo explains, “Once we had been placing collectively the album, a few of the members had been going via a tough time. “Our mentality is mirrored within the songs.”
“However after we discuss brazenly and truthfully about our emotions, it actually helps do away with the negativity.”
As if to show it, FML’s sister single, Tremendous, was an uplifting celebration of the band’s internal power: “I like my crew, I like my crew“.
Talking via a translator in Seoul, S Coups, Wonwoo, and The8 all selected Tremendous as the proper primer for any newcomers (Jeonghan, who additionally joins the Zoom name, opts for the “Very Good” phase).
“It is an intense tune, it actually reveals Seventeen’s presence,” says Wong Wu.
Picture supply, Getty Photos
The 2 singles pushed Seventeen to new heights. The FML EP was the best-selling file of 2023, promoting over 6.3 million copies and profitable Album of the 12 months on the Asian Music Awards.
“I anticipated it to be an excellent efficiency, however not this good,” laughs S. Cobbs.
To convey new followers up to the mark, the band have simply launched a 33-track assortment, 17 Is Proper Right here, gathering all their singles thus far – plus a brand new tune, Maestro, which serves as a press release of their freewheeling sound. .
“Combine and match, that is our factorVernon raps.Loopy is the brand new regular!”
“In a approach, the tune is us applauding ourselves for all of the efforts we put in, and the journey we needed to take to face the place we are actually,” says Wonwoo.
However even the world’s best-selling artists have objectives.
The Glastonbury Competition is a part of a plan to increase their viewers additional – with a world tour on the finish of the yr.
“We need to attain followers in as many international locations as potential, as a result of we do not get to see them in individual fairly often,” says S Coups.
“I nonetheless consider we have now an extended approach to go and we need to turn into extra profitable.”
