Welcome back! In our last article " NCT - The Origin: NCT U & NCT 127 " we told you how the biggest K-Pop band in the world came into being. We also introduced you to two of the four sub-units: “NCT U” and “NCT127”.
Today we would like to continue the story and take a look with you at the other two units: “NCT Dream” and “WayV”
NCT Dream
The boy band NCT made their official debut with the first sub-unit “NCT U” in April 2016. The second unit “NCT 127” followed in July and “NCT Dream” in August. Three of the four currently existing sub-units were founded in 2016!
Then as now, NCT Dream consisted of seven members: Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. Mark previously debuted in NCT U and NCT 127 and Haechan is also known to fans from NCT 127.
NCT Dream made their debut with the single "Chewing Gum" on August 24, 2016. Chewing Gum is also included on the first single album “The First”, which was released in February 2017. Unfortunately, Jaemin was not involved in the album due to an injury. At least thanks to Chewing Gum, fans were able to hear his voice in at least one song on the album. On February 14, five days after the album's release, NCT Dream became NCT's first unit to win on a music show!
Almost exactly a month later, on March 15, the unit released the song “Trigger the Fever” for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. This was hosted by South Korea that year and NCT Dream was named ambassador! The unit performed the song at the opening ceremony, among other things.
"Trigger the Fever" is also included as a bonus track on the next album "We Young", which was released in August. Unfortunately, Jaemin wasn't there again. The Christmas single “Joy” was also recorded without him.
So there was great joy when Jaemin returned in March after a year break for the album project “NCT 2018 Empathy”! Fans then had to wait six months, but in September 2018 the time had finally come. NCT Dream released their first album as a seven-piece, “We Go Up”! The album reached number five on the Bollboard World Albums Charts and topped the iTunes Charts in 15 countries!
The first album for the seven was also their last: NCT Dream had a youthful image from the start. The plan called for members who reached the age of 19 to leave the unit and "graduate." New, young members would come in, so that NCT Dream would forever remain the "Teen Unit". Accordingly, it was announced before “We Go Up” that Mark would be leaving the unit after the album. The single “Candle Light” was released on December 27th. It was written by Mark and served as a kind of farewell song.
In June 2019, NCT Dream collaborated with English singer "HRVY" for the single "Don't Need Your Love". It was the first release without Mark. In fact, only five members of NCT Dream were involved because Haechan was active with NCT 127 at the time.
The new album “We Boom” was released at the end of July with six members including Haechan. The Japanese album “The Dream” followed in January 2020, which consisted of all previously released Korean singles. The songs were left in the original Korean language even though it was a Japanese album. Despite this, it was well received in Japan and topped the Oricon Album Charts!
On April 14, 2020, SM Entertainment announced that NCT Dream would release an album titled "Reload" at the end of the month. But that wasn't all! The agency also announced that the graduation system would be abolished. Accordingly, no member will leave the unit and Mark, who graduated at the end of 2018, should return to NCT Dream! In the future, the team will also try out many different concepts, similar to NCT U.
The fans were of course very happy, as many of them had grown fond of the unit. This joy may have had an impact on the desire to buy, as Reload was pre-ordered more often than any album from the unit before. Over 500,000 times!
At the end of the year, all units came together for the second project album “ NCT Resonance Pt. 1 ” and the repackage “Resonance Pt. 2”. The album includes the single “Déjà Vu” by NCT Dream, in which all seven members, including Mark, participated!
In May 2021, fans were finally able to enjoy a new NCT Dream album with Mark! “ Hot Sauce ” is only the second album with the seven-piece after “We Go Up” in September 2018! It was pre-ordered over 1,700,000 times, surpassing Reload's record by more than three times! The fans had made it clear that they would prefer to see the unit as a seven-piece. As if to thank them for their support, NCT Dream released a repackage album called “Hello Future” a month later.
We are already looking forward to the new year with the unit and many more albums together!
NCT Dream Discography
| Album | Release date |
|---|---|
| The First | 09.02.2017 |
| We Young | 17.08.2017 |
| We Go Up | 03.09.2018 |
| We Boom | 26.07.2019 |
| The Dream | 22.01.2020 |
| Reload | 29.04.2020 |
| Hot Sauce | 10.05.2021 |
| Hello Future (Repackage) | 28.06.2021 |
WayV
WayV is the fourth and last sub-unit of NCT. From the beginning they were advertised as a fixed unit, almost like a separate Chinese boy band. This means that, unlike in other units, no members are added or replaced. So WayV consists of seven permanent members: Ten, Winwin, Kun, Lucas, Xiaojun, Hendery and Yangyang.
Four of the members are already known through previous activities in NCT. Ten debuted in NCT U in 2016, Winwin is a member of NCT 127, and Kun and Lucas were involved in the project album "NCT 2018 Empathy". Xiaojun, Hendery and Yangyang were brand new additions.
Attention German fans: Yangyang grew up in Düsseldorf and therefore speaks German in some videos! Sometimes he also teaches German words to the other members of WayV with more or less success.
WayV debuted the digital album “The Vision” on January 17, 2019. The title song is a Chinese version of NCT 127’s “Regular”. In addition to Regular, the album also contains two other songs: a Chinese version of NCT 127's “Come Back” and the new Chinese song “Dream Launch”. All three songs placed in the top ten of the Billboard World Digital Song Charts!
Four months later, in May, the first physical album “Take Off” was released with the title song of the same name. It topped the iTunes Top Album Charts in 30 regions!
On October 29th, WayV released their new album “ Take Over The Moon ”. The group performed the title song “Moonwalk” a day later on the music show “Show Champion”. This performance was WayV’s first appearance in Korea!
An English version of “Love Talk” was released in early November.
In March 2020, the unit presented the repackage album “Take Over the Moon: Sequel”. It contains the six songs from the previous album, the English version of Love Talk and a spoken track titled “WayV.oice #1”.
In May, the members of WayV gave their first concert, which unfortunately only took place online due to the corona pandemic. At the concert, the group presented a mashup of two new songs “Turn Back Time” and “Bad Alive”. Both songs were released on the new album "Awaken the World" at the beginning of June!
Both the album and the music video for the title song “Turn Back Time” had to be postponed. Fans had previously asked the group's agency to remove problematic accessories that were visible in the teaser images and the album cover. On June 18th, nine days after the album's release, a Korean version of "Turn Back Time" was uploaded to YouTube with its own music video!
The two music videos are very similar, although not entirely identical. An English version of “Bad Alive” was also released in July.
WayV then joined forces with the other three NCT units for the project albums “NCT Resonance Pt.1” and Pt.2. WayV recorded the song “月之迷 (Nectar)” for this.
At the end of the year, WayV was honored at the Mnet Asian Music Awards and the Asia Artist Awards.
WayV started the new year in March with the release of the album “ Kick Back ” in March. Winwin and Lucas were not involved in the promotions because they were under quarantine at the time. Kick Back was the group’s first album to top the Korean Gaon Album Chart and earned them a certificate for over 250,000 copies sold in South Korea!
Most recently, the unit released a new song called “Everytime” as the soundtrack for the Chinese drama “Falling Into Your Smile.”
WayV Disco
| Album | Release date |
|---|---|
| The Vision (Digital) | 17.01.2019 |
| Take Off | 09.05.2019 |
| Take Over the Moon | 29.10.2019 |
| Take Over the Moon: Sequel (Repackage) | 13.03.2020 |
| Awaken The World | 09.06.2020 |
| Kick Back | 10.03.2021 |
Members of NCT
As promised in Part 1, here you will find a list of all 23 members of the boy band! When listing the units, we omitted NCT U because all members of NCT can now be considered part of the unit.
| Artist name | Debut by: | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Taeil | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | NCT 127 |
| Taeyeong | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | NCT 127 |
| Doyoung | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | NCT 127 |
| Ten | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | WayV |
| Jaehyun | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | NCT 127 |
| Mark | NCT U - 7th Sense (2016) | NCT 127, NCT Dream |
| Yuta | NCT 127 - Firetruck (2016) | NCT 127 |
| Winwin | NCT 127 - Firetruck (2016) | NCT 127, WayV |
| Haechan | NCT 127 - Firetruck (2016) | NCT 127, NCT Dream |
| Renjun | NCT Dream - Chewing Gum (2016) | NCT Dream |
| Jeno | NCT Dream - Chewing Gum (2016) | NCT Dream |
| Jaemin | NCT Dream - Chewing Gum (2016) | NCT Dream |
| Chenle | NCT Dream - Chewing Gum (2016) | NCT Dream |
| Jisung | NCT Dream - Chewing Gum (2016) | NCT Dream |
| Johnny | NCT 127 - Limitless (2017) | NCT 127 |
| Kun | NCT 2018 Empathy (2018) | WayV |
| Lucas | NCT 2018 Empathy (2018) | WayV |
| Jungwoo | NCT 2018 Empathy (2018) | NCT 127 |
| Xiaojun | WayV - The Vision (2019) | WayV |
| Hendery | WayV - The Vision (2019) | WayV |
| Yangyang | WayV - The Vision (2019) | WayV |
| Shotaro | NCT Resonance Pt.1 (2020) | |
| Sungchan | NCT Resonance Pt.1 (2020) |
Future activities
On December 14th, a new project album entitled “Universe” will be released. The members of the various units will be coming together again one year after “NCT Resonance”! The first teasers have already been uploaded on Twitter.
It was already announced in 2020 that Sungchan and Shotaro, who debuted in NCT through the Album project, would become part of a new unit in the future. We hope this happens very soon so we can see more of these two!
This year, SM Entertainment announced that 21 candidates selected through castings will soon compete in a survival show. The winners of the show will then debut in a new American unit called “NCT Hollywood”.
As you can see, we have a lot coming up! What are you most looking forward to?
Future activities
Before their debut, most of the members of NCT were active as members of a trainee team called “SM Rookies”. The trainees made smaller appearances or even recorded soundtracks. The trainees were introduced to the fans before their debut. The SM Rookies no longer exist, as almost all of them have now made their debut. They are now members of Red Velvet, Aespa and NCT. In fact, 19 NCT members used to be SM Rookies! Everyone except Renjun, Chenle, Shotaro and Sungchan.
