After Korean pop group BTS swept the second half of 2017, becoming the first K-pop group to perform at the American Music Awards, even more Americans have begun to take note of Korean music.
Subsequently, a second K-pop group has emerged in the American scene: NCT 127. With their sharp dance moves and stunning visuals, the all-male, 10-member group has begun to further challenge stereotypes of K-pop and set new standards.
The group charted on Billboard’s top 200 albums in the U.S., taking No. 86 during their first week of Oct. 27 and No. 60 on the top 100 artists chart.
As Apple Music’s Up Next artist, selected on Oct. 1, they’ve made headlines and even received a surprise video call from record producer DJ Khaled. They’re the first ever K-pop artist to be featured on Apple Music and had their Up Next documentary released on Oct. 9.
Their Oct. 9 performance at the AMAs was followed by the release of their “Regular-Irregular” album on Oct. 12.
The group made their debut on U.S. television with an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Oct. 8, performing their newest English song “Regular” and their 2017 hit “Cherry Bomb.” The performance garnered 2.24 million viewers, and the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” ratings increased to 0.41 from 0.37 the week before.
The group also appeared in ABC’s Mickey’s 90th Spectacular on Nov. 4, where they performed “Regular” with Mickey Mouse himself.
Their album, “Regular-Irregular,” contains a total of 11 tracks, including NCT 127’s first English single and a bonus track.
“Regular,” which has both an English and Korean version, was released as a part of their recent effort to spread their influence around the world and allow global fans to connect with them.
“NCT stands for ‘Neo Culture Technology’ and 127 is the longitude of Seoul,” explained Johnny, the American member of the group, in an interview with Billboard. “From Seoul, we want to spread our K-pop music around the world.”
However, NCT 127 is only a sub-unit of a larger group called NCT, also known as NCT 2018. NCT has 18 members in total, but NCT 127 only houses 10 of them. Members can be in multiple units, and Canadian member Mark Lee is in all three units. The two additional sub-units, NCT Dream and NCT U, each have seven and 10 members, respectively, and has different music and performance styles.
The “Regular-Irregular” album scored No. 1 album on iTunes in 22 countries and the English version of “Regular” No. 1 song on Apple Music in seven countries and No. 1 music video on Apple Music and iTunes in 12 countries.
With their unique musicality and impressive performance, NCT 127 has fans waiting to hear what they next have in store and what future collaborations they will do with American artists.