K-pop Goes February: Day 8- SEVENTEEN

“Oh my god it’s Monday again”- Me, every Monday, including this one. But, it is also week two of my little K-pop project, and so, as per my plan, we are now dealing with the boys. I’m really intrigued to see how different the musical styles are going to be: from following K-pop to a certain degree, I can already tell that there is quite a big space between the music girl groups produce and that of boy groups. I have never heard any male music that I would really describe as cute (apart from that one song by GOT7 where they’re all mini people in a girl’s bedroom: more on that later), which, I can’t lie, is a blessing for me. From watching various performances, it also seems to be the case that boys get to do far more interesting, challenging and intricate choreography. I’m not 100% sure on why this is, but I would take a guess it largely involves a) the restrictions of female K-pop outfits (short much?) and b) narrower ideals of what is accepted from female expression. If the girls are throwing their legs wide for a certain dance style, they run a risk of exposing more than they want, and to some I guess it’s not ‘ladylike’. Of course, this is horse shit, and luckily groups like ITZY and Dreamcatcher are putting paid to that, but still the general trend remains. The general point, that I swear I was getting to, is that I feel boy groups may have a little more variety, or perhaps flexibility is the better word, around their concepts and presentation that sometimes allows for more interesting music. Whether I am right on this remains to be seen, as I will also admit that my experience in the boy group is very heavily skewed towards just watching BTS, sometimes throwing in Monsta X. There’s a whole world out there, and where better to start than with BTS’ new labelmates, SEVENTEEN?

Who are SEVENTEEN?

Gosh darn it we’re back to complicated origin stories again. SEVENTEEN are a thirteen-member group, who debuted under Pledis Entertainment in 2015 BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. God K-pop loves a gimmick, and with this group it was an online TV show called, perhaps uncreatively, Seventeen TV. This showed trainee members practising, and sometimes delivering, performances, and was followed by a reality show on MBC, the finale of which marked their actual debut. With me so far? Also, the blessed sub-units raise their heads once again. Here, there are three; a vocal unit; a hip-hop unit, and a performance unit, which is somehow not the other two. There is also a subgroup called SEVENTEEN BSS, another combo of three of the total group’s members. I don’t know I didn’t make the rules. Also, you may have noticed the fairly obvious oversight here: the group does not have seventeen members. Apparently, they were originally supposed to have this number so that the group made sense, but when this didn’t materialise, some simple mind-bending K-pop logic created the idea that thirteen members + four sub-units adds up to SEVENTEEN. I mean, sure, OK, you do you.

One thing that I had already heard about this group, and that is confirmed on their Wikipedia page (and in the credits of their videos), is that SEVENTEEN takes quite an active role in creating their work. The hip-hop line write a lot of their own verses, Hoshi choreographs a lot of their routines, and Woozi has even composed and produced a song for girl group I.O.I. This is really exciting to know, though of course one always has to take pop music claims about pop artists being ‘involved’ in their work with a pinch of salt: I somehow doubt they are creating their songs completely alone. But still, props to them. Sadly, this isn’t something I hear about anywhere near as much from with girl groups. Only Moonbyul of Mamamoo and Soyeon of G-Idle really come immediately to my mind, though this, of course, could just be ignorance. Anyhow, this gives me high hopes for what SEVENTEEN can produce.

The First Song

That honour goes to 2015’s Adore U (bless the text speak). It would appear that boy groups, from this example, were not subjected to having exactly the same haircut when debuting, though their outfits for the main dance section of the song are near identical. The song itself is energetic, upbeat and relies on a backing of smooth baselines and funky guitars as opposed to a more EDM sound. There is also significantly more rapping in just this song than there was in most of what I listened to last week, which makes sense when you have a whole hip-hop unit to play with. There is so much confidence and personality here that the song is instantly enjoyable, if not particularly memorable for any one distinct thing. The dancing in the video is also really sharp, with fantastic use of the huge number of members in different formations. It was hard to remember that IZ*ONE and Loona have only one fewer member, and that Cosmic Girls have the same, when comparing (what I remember of) the dance routines in terms of creativity. Kudos to SEVENTEEN, and presumably Hoshi, here.

Five of the Big Hits

Here, I plumped for Don’t Wanna Cry, Clap, Very Nice, Home and Oh My! (lions, tigers and bears sold separately). Just looking at the view counts for these videos on YouTube lets me know I’m dealing with a group I probably should have heard of: Don’t Wanna Cry has nearly one hundred and ninety million. It’s slightly odd to me that this seems to be the most popular song, as, of the five listed, it was easily the least interesting, with a steady mid-tempo EDM backdrop to fairly standard melodies. By far the most impressive part of the video is the dancing, and how creative it manages to be given the standard fare of the song. Again, the formations are really clever, and the synchronisation is stunning. Oh My! Is more engaging, playing around with fun little piano riffs in the pre-chorus, and using backing vocals to create an almost gospel-like sound in the bridge. Also there are some lovely shirt prints on display. Home is SEVENTEEN in full soft boy mode, with a minimal beat, soft harmonies and some nice high notes. Also, you can tell when a boy group is doing soft mode, because there are jumpers. And boy there are some stellar jumpers here.

When we get to Clap and Very Nice. For me, these two were absolutely the standouts. In Clap, there are electric guitars to provide the song’s backbone and fun tone, whilst 90s sound effects periodically emphasise the key beats. The chorus, as you may expect from the song’s name, is catchy and repetitive in the right way, of course supported by amazing dancing, and wonderful colour blocking. Very Nice, while it sounds like something your Mum says about something you like that she doesn’t understand, comes from the Uptown Funk school of: up the tempo, whack some brass on it and give it all the charm you can find. The energy of the chorus’s refrain, combined with that brassy, jazzy riff, is just so much fun, with the perfect build up from the verses. Structurally, it feels similar to the equally funky Sax by Fleur East, and in the videos we get our matching outfits fix with the boys all in short-sleeved shirts and red braces. Very nice indeed.

The Latest Song

The most recent release by SEVENTEEN is October 2020’s Home; Run. Again, you can hear the Bruno Mars influence here, with ample use of sax flourishes in the instrumentation and a fast, bouncy beat. The rhythm here is almost swing or rockabilly style, and is complimented in the video by some more retro colour blocked suits. Where BTS’s Dynamite nods to 70s disco, SEVENTEEN reach a little further back to the teenage diner aesthetic of 50s America. The song is breathlessly entertaining, the natural descendant of Very Nice.

The Latest Album

In October 2020, SEVENTEEN released their tenth EP in just five years, Semicolon. The name is unfortunate in how dull it is, but don’t worry, it luckily isn’t reflective of the mood here. We open with Home; Run, a great opener to any show. The following track, Do Re Mi, is in a much more straightforward electronic style, though the next song, Hey Buddy, takes up the same spirit as the EP’s leading track. There are jazzy instruments playing sharp funky melodies, electric keyboard motifs, gospel-esque backing vocals at one point, and a charming central refrain of ‘Hey Buddy’. Once again, the Mars/Ronson fanboys are jumping out here, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If Uptown Funk is Hey Buddy’s Dad, then the next song, Light a Flame, is unashamedly in the Havanna/Senorita family. The Latin flavours run through the entire backing track, the slow and seductive rhythm, the similarly paced vocals, and even the use of the Spanish word ‘despacito’, in case you forgot what territory we were in. It’s a nice change of pace, and a strong style flex. The EP finishes on more standard, slower, ‘anthemic’ style tracks that didn’t really hit in the same way for me: the party attitude of the first two thirds was much more exciting.

Thoughts?

Wow this is a big jump from the music of the girl groups I listened to last week. I didn’t really detect any overt cuteness here (except in the figure of Woozi, and that’s just because he so smol), and the rapping felt so much more significant after not hearing anywhere like as much from the girl groups I chose. SEVENTEEN are clearly an extremely talented group of guys, and the dancing in particular stood out country miles for me. The songs are, for the most part, bursting with energy, and whenever they swerve into the more funky or swing style songs, I am completely on board. For a group with thirteen members, I felt a distinct sense of personality and charisma from each one, a testament to their performance skills. I will absolutely be listening to more of what they have to offer, which is pretty prolific given they have been active for just over five years. Though of course, in K-pop terms, that’s about twenty years. The cycles move fast. SEVENTEEN: y’all are an absolute treat, and I will be coming back for more.