NCT 127
Artist
NCT 127, sub-unit to the group NCT, is a South Korea-based boy group, whose name derives from the longitude of Seoul. The group is managed by SM Entertainment, alongside other four other NCT subunits NCT U, WayV, NCT DREAM and NCT DOJAEJUNG. They debuted in July of 2016 with originally seven members: Taeyong, Mark, Jaehyun, Taeil, Winwin, Yuta, and Haechan, while in 2017 Doyoung and Johnny were added to the line-up, as also Jungwoo in 2018.
On July 7, 2016, NCT 127 released their debut single titled “Fire Truck,” which served as the title track off of their first, self-titled mini album. Since then, they also managed to receive multiple accolades during the 2016 music award show season, notably at the MNET Asian Music Awards and MelOn Music Awards.
On January 6, 2017, they made their first comeback as a nine-pieced group with their second EP—and furthermore their second project to top the Gaon Albums Chart—titled LIMITLESS, featuring the title track of the same name as well as successful B-sides including the fan-favorite “Baby Don’t Like It.” In mid-June of the same year, their third mini album, CHERRY BOMB saw daylight, while the album’s title track gave them their first ever music show win, it also became one of their signature songs and was praised by many tabloids, such as Billboard and Idolator. In early November, the Japanese version of “Limitless” dropped, which in December made the group sign with Avex Trax for future releases in Japan.
In early 2018, NCT 127 released “TOUCH,” the fourth single from NCT 2018 Empathy, a full-length album as a part of a singular-year project by their parental group which brought all of NCT’s three sub-units at the time to perform in mixed formations. Subsequently, in late May, they promoted their first Japanese EP, Chain. Whereas, in October of the same year, the group dropped their debut studio album, Regular-Irregular with eleven new tracks, including the Korean and English version of “Regular,” with the former being the project’s title track and the latter receiving instant recognition amongst the listeners. Its reissue, titled Regulate, featuring “Simon Says,” was released in November. Unfortunately, Winwin didn’t join the promotions of the repackage album and went on indefinite hiatus to focus on his participation in NCT’s China-based unit, WayV. Haechan also halted his activities in the group in late December due to major injuries.
The group began their 2019 activities with releasing their first full-length Japanese album Awaken in mid-April, promoted by the Andreas Öberg and Sebastian Scott-produced title track “Wakey-Wakey,” and earlier embarking on their first concert tour, NEO CITY – The Origin, which visited cities in Asia, North America and Europe. After signing with both Capitol Music Group and Caroline Distribution with the purpose of worldwide promotion, in May, they also released their fourth Korean mini-album, We Are Superhuman with six new songs, making them the second highest charting Korean pop act on the Billboard 200 chart and since then, thanks to their instant success in the western market, the group has extensively promoted and performed at several events and TV shows, mainly in the United States. In August, SM Entertainment announced that member Jungwoo would take a break due to health problems however three months later it was clarified that he would possibly rejoin the group next year after improvement.
On January 27, 2020, NCT 127 uploaded a short version of the music video for “Dreams Come True” to celebrate the annual 127 Day (a reference to the actual name of the group) and furthermore, it marked the return of Jungwoo from his half and a year long hiatus. Two weeks later, it was confirmed that the group would release their second studio album, Neo Zone in early March, supported by the title track “Kick It.” Additionally, they managed to hold an online concert as part of SM’s Beyond Live series, during which the group premiered “Punch,” a title track off of the repackaged version of the album released on May 19 of the same year, The Final Round, they went on to sell more than 1 million copies with two versions of the LP, and later in October, the nine-piece group’s song “Music, Dance” was featured on RESONANCE Pt. 1 and RESONANCE Pt. 2, albums that were the part of NCT’s second singular year project.
On February 17, 2021, NCT 127 made their Japanese comeback with their second EP, titled LOVEHOLIC, which was originally set to see its daylight in December. In June, they collaborated with Amoeba Culture on the single “Save” which promotes Samsung’s Save All The Progress campaign.
However, two months later, after dropping multiple school and technology-themed spoilers as well as a special teaser video, the group announced that their third studio album, STICKER would be released on September 17, 2021. Additionally, the project itself was a massively commercial success, becoming the highest pre-ordered K-pop album within 24 hours of 2021, the first musical project with the highest number of first day sales on Hanteo, and their highest charting album on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 3, while the polarizing and intensively experimental title track of the same name gave the nine-piece group over ten wins on Korean music shows and helped them become the first boy-group to get a music show all-kill since Wanna One’s “Energetic” in 2017 and also made them gain their first ever so-called triple crown.
Furthermore, in late October of the same year, NCT 127 released a repackaged version the album with three brand new tracks, titled Favorite, which helped them accumulate over 3.6 million copies by merging both releases and becoming the best selling album in SM Entertainment’s history, while in mid-November, they announced that they would officially kick off their second concert tour, Neo City: The Link a month later, starting with three stops in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul.
On September 16th, 2022, NCT 127 released their fourth studio album 2 Baddies. 2 Baddies broke their previous sales record held by Sticker by surpassing more than 1.5 million sales their first week of release, simultaneously becoming the artist with the 3rd highest first week sales in Hanteo history.
