On one hand — as all K-pop boy groups must do at some point — Seventeen is facing inevitable change as members of the group begin mandatory military service.
Somewhat rarely for K-pop, Seventeen’s members have had a heavy hand in the trajectory of their careers, as their label’s founder, Sung Soo Han (whose official title, tellingly, is Master Professional), explains.
To understand Seventeen, and why they’ve lasted this long, it’s important to understand the K-pop ecosystem as a whole.
Offstage, among his fellow group members, he seems lighthearted and playful, laughing throughout the conversation.
The bleached-blond Busan native, who in our interview sits contemplatively among group members Mingyu, Jun and Seungkwan, is the leader of the vocal team.
Seventeen’s global cultural dominance is becoming more and more evident, as evidenced by their sold-out stadium performances and number-one albums in the United States. A. and Japan to the main stages of festivals in Germany and Mexico. Seoul, the group’s hometown, is the place where it is most noticeable. Seventeen covers the neighborhood around the headquarters of Hybe, the parent company of their label Pledis Entertainment. Despite the gloomy and muggy weather on a recent May morning, a throng of fans continued to snap photos and enjoy the coffee shop across the street, where Seventeen’s faces—which include members S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, The 8, Mingyu, DK, Seungkwan, Vernon, and Dino—paper the outer walls. On a nearby bus stop, a banner wishing Joshua a happy birthday is stretched. A few stores down the street is his bandmate DK, who has his own birthday banner. Seoul’s subway cars are constantly playing beauty advertisements featuring the 28-year-old’s beaming face.
The city appears to be celebrating the group’s tenth anniversary and the release of Happy Burstday, their fifth studio album. A party is hosted on the artificial islands called Sebitseom along the Hangang River in Seoul. There will be a first-of-its-kind performance at the nearby Jamsu Bridge and a giant floating Seventeen light stick. Fans who were unable to attend the special performance made every effort to see the group, including jumping in yachts that swam up alongside the stage to observe from the water.
Although Seventeen’s global profile is unlikely to grow further, the group’s ascent to the top of the pop charts appears to be unstoppable. In 2024, the 13-member group was the largest in the world, according to the state-of-the-industry report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which keeps tabs on sales and streams. In terms of overall ranking, the group came in at number seventeen, just ahead of U.S. and behind solo artists Drake and Taylor Swift. S. famous people like Kendrick Lamar, The Weeknd, and Billie Eilish. They made $98.4 million from 24 shows on their 2023-2024 Follow Tour in Asia, which was the highest-grossing K-pop tour of 2024.
With the words “Seventeen will challenge eternity” currently surrounding it, the Hybe building is the ultimate temple to the group’s success. That might be the case, but they are powerless to stop time from passing. For Seventeen, this is a time of transition. Seventeen is going through an inevitable transition as its members start mandatory military service, something that all K-pop boy groups eventually have to do. According to South Korean law, all eligible men must enlist before their 30th birthday. Wonwoo, 28, and Jeonghan, 29, the group’s eldest, are unable to take part in any promotions because they are currently serving. Both of them contributed to the new album prior to joining. ().
At the same time, Seventeen is battling a more philosophical kind of change: arguing about what the band ought to become. Happy Burstday’s track list, which only has three group tracks and 13 solo songs (one for each member), may be the best example of this reckoning. The band members acknowledge that, despite a number of solo releases over the past ten years, they have up until now primarily concentrated on group activities.
Any boy band that began as Seventeen must deal with the challenge of being able to age gracefully with its fans and music. According to Seventeen’s label founder Sung Soo Han (whose official title, tellingly, is Master Professional), the members of the group have had a significant influence on the course of their careers, which is somewhat uncommon for K-pop. The group’s overall direction, decision-making, and team guidance have all been greatly influenced by the 17 members, he adds, in addition to their deep involvement in the creative process. Seventeen’s label throughout their career has been Pledis, which Han founded in 2007. Along with Seventeen, the agency has produced a number of domestically successful K-pop groups, including After School, NU’EST, and their most recent boy group, TWS, which made its highly anticipated debut in 2024.
The majority of K-pop group members go through rigorously structured trainee programs during their adolescence to prepare for this role. To be eligible to join a group, aspiring stars must complete years of demanding vocal, dance, and language training through these programs, which are usually run by Korean entertainment companies like Pledis. Seventeen TV, an online program that introduced and featured Pledis’ trainees, was primarily responsible for broadcasting Seventeen’s years of apprenticeship. While not every member who appeared on that show went on to make their Seventeen debut, some of the departing members went on to form other K-pop groups or pursue careers in related entertainment. In 2021, all 13 members of Seventeen extended their contract with Pledis Entertainment, one year ahead of schedule. In K-pop, seven-year contracts are typical for new artists.
When Seventeen began, K-pop was still in its infancy around the world. The K-pop scene has grown significantly since their debut, according to Han. As a result of globalization, he continues, the business is “developing tailored promotional strategies that represent the cultural traits and particular requirements of fans in each region.”. “”.
About 1,400 albums were sold during the first week of Seventeen’s 2015 debut EP, 17 Carat, on Korea’s Hanteo chart. On the other hand, Happy Burstday, which was released on May 26, sold over 2.2 million copies on its first day. Despite the impressive numbers, the group’s most notable development has been the development of its “concept,” a crucial term in the K-pop industry, where groups may have a central plot involving superhuman abilities, pirates, or vampires, as well as their visual direction. Seventeen has emphasized youth both sonically and visually for the majority of their career. Their sound and appearance have evolved over the last few years as the members have matured from teenagers to men.
Seventeen is trying out more difficult sounds and darker visual themes on Happy Burstday. “We are prepared to reinvent ourselves,” S.Coups says as he sits for an interview in a dance practice room at the Hybe headquarters with three of his bandmates, Joshua, Dino, and The 8. The 29-year-old is the group’s leader and the leader of its rap unit, one of three Seventeen teams along with the performance and vocal units. He is seen here in casual attire before rushing off to get into the full glam an 11-member photo shoot requires. S.Coups is a charismatic and powerful presence onstage. He appears to be playful and lighthearted when interacting with his fellow group members offstage, laughing all through the conversation. In contrast to boy groups in the West, the leader is a clearly defined position that usually involves logistical duties rather than an unofficial title like that of NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake or One Direction’s Harry Styles. However, the rapper claims that because of the way his group members have stepped up, he now views himself as “a member of Seventeen rather than the leader.”.
“We are at a new starting line, ready to blaze a new trail and prepare for a new path ahead,” S.Coups adds. A long-term plan was behind the decision to include solo tracks on the album. “The majority of the members will shortly join the military. We’ve primarily concentrated on our group promotions thus far,” says Hoshi, 28, who leads the performance unit. Onstage, Hoshi is a calm and consistently courteous individual who possesses a strong personality. He asks his group member Vernon, who speaks English as his first language, to offer this reporter water before he sits down completely.
When the time comes for us to reunite as a group, we’ll be able to present ourselves as a better Seventeen. “We would like to show more of our individualities, each of the members’ personalities and capabilities,” Hoshi continues. The group has already started this process with subunit releases, wherein smaller group configurations will release an EP or single apart from Seventeen albums. Along with vocalists DK and Seungkwan, Hoshi is a member of the unit BSS. Most recently, he and Woozi released a single album under the two-person unit HxW. Under the moniker JxW, Jeonghan and Wonwoo released a subunit single album last year before enlisting.
“I just tried to make music that was real, that represented our wholeness, and that’s what our fans loved the most and what we also like to do,” Woozi says. According to the title of the group’s 2024 single, the 28-year-old is arguably Seventeen’s “maestro,” having spent the last ten years forming the group’s identity as lead producer. In our interview, the vocal team’s leader, a bleached-blond native from Busan, sits thoughtfully with Mingyu, Jun, and Seungkwan. The group’s name is linked to the unit structure, which consists of three units, one team, and thirteen members, for a total of seventeen. Even though each member is assigned to a particular unit, they may all sing, rap, and dance in the group; this is their area of expertise.
From the start, Seventeen’s music has focused on the struggles of adolescence, but they have also shaped the relationships between the members as they have spent their entire young adulthood together. As a member of the performance unit, Dino explains, “We had to experience the good, bad, happy, and angry moments simultaneously because we were housemates for a long time.”.
Dino is the youngest in Seventeen at the age of 26, even though he is one of the oldest in his family. He essentially gained 12 older brothers when he made his band debut, and they take turns making fun of and taking care of him. As I ask Dino about some of the teasing he’s received over the last ten years, S.Coups, who is seated next to Dino for this conversation, bursts into laughter. “I believe it contributed to my rapid maturation and taught me a lot more lessons than a typical child of my age would have learned at that age,” he says.
Although the bond has never been severed, it has undoubtedly been strained, as is the case with any relationship that involves seeing each other almost daily for ten years. Rap unit member Mingyu jokes that they have resolved their differences “through endless fights,” prompting vocal unit and subunit BSS member Seungkwan, a groupmate, to step in and provide clarification. The 27-year-old clarifies, “We’ve never hit each other or taken it physically.”.
“Scars must be made and healed, made and healed,” Mingyu continues. “.”.
According to Joshua, an L and member of the vocal unit, “there isn’t an age gap [anymore].”. A. “Native,” says. “Even though [Pledis] was the one who first brought us together, we’re now almost like family,” Seungkwan continues. “”.
At the time of their debut, almost every member of Seventeen was a teenager. Despite their positive outlook, they recognize the challenges of growing up in the spotlight. Vernon, a member of the rap unit who was born in New York before relocating to Korea at an early age, claims, “We haven’t known a life of being unknown throughout our 20s because we’ve been doing this since we were teenagers.”. The 27-year-old, who is fully bilingual, frequently steps in to explain a translation to Hoshi and DK, two members of his group, and even pauses the conversation to compliment the translator on her excellent work.
According to Vernon, the group has become more “reserved” as a result of the constant attention, which is inconsistent with his current punk-inspired appearance but consistent with his thoughtful disposition. “I’m sure the members struggled to understand themselves during this process, and I know I did,” he says.
Vernon weighs his words and gives careful thought to each question before responding. He captures the reality of stardom’s sometimes choreographed nature in this way, which makes it much more meaningful: “Actually, being restricted of free speech in a way does kind of block our process of trying to understand ourselves, so I guess that was the hardest part.”. “”.
The upcoming years will see almost all of the group’s members finish their 18-month minimum military service. The one exception is Joshua, a U. A. citizen), S.Coups, and the Chinese nationals Jun and 8 are exempt due to an ACL injury. As members start to sign up, DK remarks, “We are trying our best to adjust to it.”. Hoshi continues, “This has always been a given for us. We are ready. We have talked in-depth with the company about a number of our projects thus far. “.”.
With regard to the group’s future, Woozi and S.Coups are hopeful. “Although we know that the fans are devastated that some of us will be leaving, we don’t think this is a big deal because we know that we will be staying together,” Woozi says. The next album will be even better and bigger, so we should think of this as a lengthy preparation period. “”.
However, S.Coups asserts that “I believe this can be a great opportunity for the members who are still remaining; [they] can stick together and make something great to showcase to the fans.”. Additionally, it can be a fantastic opportunity for members who have been physically or mentally worn out to rejuvenate. “.”.
Part of the reason Seventeen seems to flourish in high-stress situations is their emphasis on both physical and mental well-being. Dino and Joshua enthusiastically call out their bandmate The 8 as their wellness expert when this topic is brought up in S.Coups. I’m a rehabilitation specialist. “I go to the gym a lot and get personal training,” The 8 says. “Every member has their own method of reducing stress, and I meditate a lot for my mental health,” the 27-year-old continues.
DK describes his routine as follows: “On my off days, I try not to think about work at all and just stay at home and relax.”.
Joshua continues, “We also try to find a lot of hobbies to help us decompress. In order to support ourselves mentally, we also seek counseling,” adding that the band members have always had the means to seek professional advice when they’re struggling.
In response to a question about how Pledis can protect the mental health and safety of young performers, Han states that the organization has continuously provided assistance to its artists in times of need. He adds that Hybe runs in-house clinics for all artists and trainees, demonstrating their dedication to helping their artists develop into physically and emotionally healthy, well-rounded people.
The band isn’t deterred, even though Western music markets still don’t fully understand how K-pop acts fit into the larger picture. As a result, groups like Seventeen may not receive the same recognition as other acts with similarly stratospheric sales and impact. “The people who would recognize us [will] recognize us at some point, so we try not to focus on those things. Ultimately, we simply need to give it our all,” Woozi says. Our goal is simply to share our own story with those who are interested and those who care about us. “.”.
Vernon’s introspective tone reflects that opinion. We are simply content and incredibly thankful to be where we are at this moment, so I don’t really care if everyone understands it or not,” he says.
“I think we should just focus on our thing and run our own race,” Woozi continues, “instead of arguing with people who don’t like us and asking why they’re not liking us.”. Individuals have their own tastes and preferences, so you just have to let them make those decisions. Asking them why they like a particular person is pointless because it is too immature. “.”.
