SEVENTEEN is a group which you cannot escape in Korea, especially due to their music’s extreme omnipresence in Korea—from VERY NICE(아주 NICE) or even SUPER(손오공). Their origins however, are extremely interesting and apart from many of their peer K-pop groups, in the fact they started from a small company and that they are one of the only ultra-successful boygroups from the 3rd Generation.
Origins and Name
Seventeen was first formed in 2013, in a series of live broadcasts by PLEDIS Entertainment, called Seventeen TV. The show aired multiple seasons, with a rotation of members. The name of the show originally referred to the seventeen members which formed its cast: Seungcheol Choi, Jeonghan Yoon, Joshua Hong, Junhui Wen, Soonyoung Kwon, Wonwoo Jeon, Jihoon Lee, Seokmin Lee, Mingyu Kim, Minghao Xu, Seungkwan Boo, Hansol Vernon Chwe, Lee Chan, and now disbanded members, Doyoon Jang, Samuel Kim, Dongjin Shin and Mingming Yao.
Debut and Rookie Era
On May 29th, 2015, SEVENTEEN officially debuted as 13 members, which were divided into 3 main units. The name SEVENTEEN was rationalized retrospectively as being 1 group, 3 units and 13 members (1+3+13=17).
Hence, released their first debut extended play, 17 Carat, with its leading track Adore U(아낀다), a boyish and naïve love song. Not only is it an iconic track, but it is also one which is vocally taxing for a rookie group, which cast them instant renown. Due to their coming from a rookie company, SEVENTEEN is also known to function with taped earphones on their ears during performances due to their company’s lack of budget for in-ear headphones.
The album moreover, became the only rookie album to appear on Billboard’s 10 Best K-pop Albums of 2015. The momentum continued in their later 2015 releases, with their second EP, Boys Be with the title track Mansae, which became the highest-selling rookie album of the year. Mansae’s success led to SEVENTEEN bagging awards at the Seoul Music Awards, Gaon Chart Awards, and Golden Disc Awards.
In 2016, SEVENTEEN would release some of their iconic magnum opuses. They released “Love & Letter” with the title-track Pretty U(예쁘다). This song not only was a success in domestic and Japanese charts, but also led SEVENTEEN to win their first award show win. This was followed by their arguably most iconic song, 아주 NICE, with its iconic bridge, and explosive chorus which is even still effervescent in the Korean psyche, played at parties, events and even protests.
The Momentum and Seasoned Idols
In 2017, SEVENTEEN marched into another iconic K-pop track, Don’t Wanna Cry (울고 싶지 않아) which featured a turn from their naïve boyish concept. It was subdued but powerful in its lyrics and performances. What makes SEVENTEEN special in this aspect, is that most of the times, the members have significant input in their music, which lay credence to their success and the uniform growth of their concept. WOOZI (Jihoon Lee) is a producer in most of their songs and is a part of the Korea Music Copyright Association, wherein he holds some of the highest numbers of copyrighted tracks. This song was followed by another beloved song by K-pop fans, CLAP (박수), their Japanese debut, CALL CALL CALL!, and later in 2018 with THANKS (고맙다).
Later in May 2018, with the release of Oh My! SEVENTEEN would embark on another tour due to their immense commercial success during this era. On January 21st, 2019, SEVENTEEN would release HOME, which became another commercial success, bagging 10 trophies and climbing domestic charts. Later that year, the Ode to You World Tour was announced but its last leg was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The Best of the Best: SEVENTEEN and their Current Exponential Success
In 2020, SEVENTEEN released their 7th EP Heng:garæ, which sold 1,000,000 copies in one week, with their title-track, Left & Right. Later in October, SEVENTEEN released their 10th EP, Semicolon with yet another iconic track, HOME;RUN. On October 22, SEVENTEEN released its 8th EP, Attacca with its pop-rock anthem Rock With You.
Later that year, a digital single Bittersweet was released by MINGYU and WONWOO, ft. Lee Hi. SEVENTEEN is known for its dynamic unofficial subunits, which started from BooSeokSoon (BSS) in 2016, and includes the SVT Leaders (S.Coups, Woozi and Hoshi), JxW (Jeonghan and Wonwoo), CxM (S.Coups and Mingyu), HxW (Hoshi and Woozi, and the latest announced, a subunit with the main vocalists DK and Seungkwan set to debut in 2026.
In 2022, SEVENTEEN released their album Face the Sun, with the digital single Darl+ing and the viral lead-single HOT. Later, SEVENTEEN announced their 4th world tour, Be The Sun with multiple sold out shows which causes their trajectory to hike even more. Later in 2023, they released their 11th Korean EP, FML which recorded 4,500,000 first-week sales, with their iconic title-track SUPER(손오공), a song about their own success and hardwork, named after the mythological character Sun Wukong from the 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West.
Their next album, Seventeenth Heaven would become an especially famous album in Korea and worldwide, with its congratulatory and gratitudanal song, God of Music(음악의 신)۔ It became the most pre-ordered album in history, with 5,200,00 copies sold and topped major Korean charts. This album won them their first daesang from the MAMA Awards for Album of the Year. Following successes at year-end award shows, SEVENTEEN released a compilation album, 17 is Right Here, with a single Maestro and 3 sub-unit songs. Hence, SEVENTEEN’s members starting with Jeonghan would commence their mandatory military enlistment.
What start[ed] as an introduction to a group largely unfamiliar to the crowd end[ed] in giddy jubilation, with the previously uninitiated leaving the field swept up by the boundless energy pouring off the stage. -NME
Following the announcement of their 5th world tour, Right Here World Tour, they released their 13th EP, Spill the Feels with the lead-single, Love, Money and Fame, featuring DJ Khaled. Later, SEVENTEEN would work with American producer Pharell Williams for the song, Bad Influence which would be featured for the soundtrack of the Louis Vuitton FW 2025 show in Paris.
On May 26th, celebrating their 10th anniversary as a group, they would release their album, Happy Burstday (a play on the Korean mispronunciation of the word, Birthday) with the lead-track THUNDER. The track would go on to bag 8 music-show wins, the most for a SEVENTEEN title this decade, and would top many charts.
Conclusion
Accelerando, 절정으로 올라가자높은 곳에서 울리는 소나타. Maestro의 지휘에 맞춰.
SEVENTEEN has now become a household name at any household which fancies itself K-pop. They have been labeled “Performance Kings”, “K-pop Performance Powerhouse” and “Kings of Synchronization” by domestic and international media outlets, and fans alike, and have grown a reputation for excellent lyricism and production. With some of the best vocalists in K-pop, best dancers of Korea, and best lyricists and producers in the world, SEVENTEEN has cemented what is fact: perseverance and merit surpasses privilege and aristocracy. Everyone can learn something from SEVENTEEN—never give up, and you will surely be seeing your MAESTRO moment!
SEVENTEEN CxW Pretty Woman streaming now. Tune in for “Seventeen: Our Chapter” on Disney+ chronicling more of the group’s ten year history.