#nct basics

[hotasfahrenheit]

So you wanna get into NCT eh?

Let's do this.

NCT - Neo Culture Technology - is naturally an intimidating group to get into - there's twenty members but there have been members added and people have left and there's another group set to debut and there's subgroups and everything seems all over the place all the time, but if you're willing to jump into it all it's so absolutely incredibly worth it and less complicated than it seems at first! Let me walk you through some basics- I'll do more posts to get deeper into each group later, but this will be a primer for getting you started.

Where to start? NCT officially debuted in April 2016 with fifteen members after promoting for a while as trainees and with other trainees (including future members of Red Velvet) under the SM Rookies banner. Part of the original plan for NCT as announced at their debut was to continuously add members with no end in sight, and to expand into a group with members from all over the world who could promote in different areas at the same time. This... didn't really come to fruition ultimately, tho they do have members from seven(ish) countries. (Taiwan is a free country y'all, that makes seven. Macau is a "special administrative region of China", that's the ish.) There will be one more unit added to NCT soon, the final new set of members, but this post is going to proceed with only the current groups and subunits since The Babies (as I like to call them) aren't officially debuted yet and I don't feel like explaining them here since this is already going to be long enough. Either way, NCT's unlimited expansion has officially ended which hopefully removes that bit of intimidation.

Now on to some music!

The first song and MV that NCT released was under the broad NCT U umbrella, and started with The 7th Sense. (Wait what the heck is NCT U, you ask? I'll get there, trust me, keep reading)

The 7th Sense unit was comprised of Taeyong, Mark, Jaehyun, Doyoung, and Ten, five of the fifteen debut members.

The next day, NCT U released Without You, sung by Doyoung, Taeil, and Jaehyun, so two boys we saw already plus a new one.

The full list of members (that I and no one else expects you to remember at this point) at debut were Taeil, Taeyong, Johnny, Yuta, Ten, Doyoung, Jaehyun, Winwin, Mark, Haechan, Jaemin, Jeno, Renjun, Chenle, and Jisung.

Since debut, members have been added, growing NCT to 23, and then a few left, dropping it back to 20. In 2018, Kun, Jungwoo and Lucas were added; in 2019, Xiaojun, Hendery, and Yangyang were added; in 2020, Shotaro and Sungchan were added. In 2023, Lucas was removed after being on hiatus for almost two years because of a scandal, and then Shotaro and Sungchan were pulled from NCT and re-debuted in SM's new boy group, RIIZE. (No, we're not going to get into my opinions or emotions about any of this right now, yes, I have a lot of opinions about both things and a lot of emotions about SungTaro. Maybe in a different post if people really wanna know.)

So what do I mean when I call NCT U an umbrella? Is that what the U stands for? No, not really, tho it's a handy way to think of things! U stands for United (or Unlimited, depending on who you ask) and is a flexible title that allows them to release songs using any members of the whole group. This lets them pick from a pool of currently 20 different members with different skills to best fit the concept of a song, and has allowed them to do things like release songs with multiple lead vocalists, songs with a collection of rappers, etc. It's super flexible- some U songs have only two members performing, some have nine, etc. (Once you become familiar with all of the members, the U songs become a lot of fun when it comes to seeing who gets mixed and matched for projects!)

Overall, don't worry too much about NCT U yet. Having the basic knowledge that it could be anyone is really enough to get you going and you can come back to all of the NCT U releases later. NCT has released four albums now as a full group (Empathy, Resonance, Universe, and Golden Age) that have both fixed subunit songs and NCT U songs with mixed members so there's a bunch of fun with all that later once you've gotten more of the basics down.

The key to getting into NCT is splitting it into the sub-units, of which there are currently four, including U.

NCT U - flexible subunit of varying combined members

NCT 127 - 9 member fixed unit, concept being that they're focused on Seoul (127 is the longitude of Seoul)

NCT Dream - 7 member fixed unit, original concept involving the fact that they were the seven youngest members at debut

WayV - 6 member fixed unit, releasing music primarily in Mandarin with a focus on promotion in China

The easiest thing to do if you want to take on learning all 20 members (plus the 3 former members which are at least in past MVs and content so you'll come across them either way) is to pick one of the three fixed units (NCT 127, NCT Dream, or WayV) and learn the members of that group before moving on to the next. NCT 127 and NCT Dream also share two members, which gives you a little leg up when you get to going from one to the other!

I'll make posts getting into each group more in depth soon to talk about members and with my fave songs and recommendations etc, so for each of the fixed units, I'll put in here their debut plus a recent song so you can get a grasp of how each group has grown and changed.

NCT 127 was the first of the subunits to debut, releasing Firetruck in July 2016.

127 debuted with Taeil, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, Winwin, Mark and Haechan. The fashion and hair in this MV is uhhhhhh wild? Yeah we'll go with wild.

127 has gone through some lineup changes over the years as they've changed and grown- they added Johnny, Doyoung, and Jungwoo, and then Winwin went on indefinite 127-hiatus when he joined WayV in 2019.

Their most recent release was in October of this year and is so good that it managed to make it into my top 5 songs of this year on Spotify in slightly over a month so uhhhhh yeah here's Fact Check-

NCT 127 is known for having music that's a little more experimental and sometimes just straight up weird, so you'll see a lot of mixed opinions of them on the internet (I've seen people calling some/all of their songs just noise music) but they're ultimately like most kpop groups and have released stuff in all kinds of styles with different mixed influences, so it's worth listening to at least a few things before forming any kinds of opinions about their music if you don't like the first song or two you hear. I mean. It's worth it EXTRA if you do like thier music obviously. Anyway.

Next up!

NCT Dream debuted not long after NCT 127 in August 2016 as a bunch of ACTUAL BABIES, aged between 14-17 at debut. Yeah that's right, Chenle and Jisung were both 14. They debuted with the now iconic Chewing Gum, that involves some wild hoverboard choreography that isn't shown as much in the MV but was probably more dangerous than a bunch of kids should have been doing on stages all the time (especially one time outdoors in the rain???), but they all survived so I guess it's fine?

WHAT A BUNCH OF ADORABLE BABIES.

NCT Dream debuted with Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung. Yes, Mark and Haechan are also in the NCT 127 list! They are workaholics who can't stop won't stop basically. (Yes, we also all worry about their health. It's A Thing.)

The original concept behind Dream was that it would be the youngest members of NCT, and when members grew old enough they would graduate out, and new younger members of NCT would be added in turn as members were added to NCT. The only element of this that was ever put into practice was graduating out Mark in December 2018 as he was the eldest member; no new members were added however, and eventually the whole plan was scrapped and Mark was re-added to Dream in 2020 (back where he BELONGS) and Dream officially became a fixed unit like 127 and WayV.

The boys are now between the ages of 21-24, and their music has grown a lot as they've grown out of their cute concepts and into more mature looks and sounds. Their most recent release was in July of this year, ISTJ.

They're still known for having a more youthful, optimistic vibe, and there's something incredibly uplifting and exuberant about them in general at basically all times. These boys have been together for half of their lives at this point and really grown up together and- yeah I have a lot of emotions about Dream that I'll save for later.

Moving on!

WayV time! WayV officially debuted in 2019 with the Mandarin version of Regular.

(NCT 127 released both Korean and English versions of Regular as well, and they are the last NCT 127 MVs that feature Winwin before he became 127-inactive and became fully active with WayV instead.)

WayV debuted with Winwin, Kun, Ten, Xiaojun, Hendery, Yangyang, and Lucas. Lucas has since been removed from NCT and WayV and the other six members have continued to promote as a six member group.

WayV has hit some snags, especially with things out of their control like the pandemic- they live in Seoul when they're not promoting or touring, and travel into and out of China has been difficult for obvious reasons for the past few years, which has made it harder for them to be pushing into the Chinese music industry when they haven't been able to travel in China as freely as they could have under other circumstances and couldn't do things like concerts or fanmeets. They have started touring and promoting more heavily in Southeast Asia more recently, and some of the members like Winwin and Ten have spent time in China over the past few years working on things like acting in dramas, participating in variety shows, or judging on Chinese dance competition shows as well. Xiaojun is also currently a host on one of the the Korean weekly music shows, SBS's The Show.

WayV's most recent comeback was actually last month but I'm gonna use their comeback from the VERY end of last year (Dec 28) in this post because I'm still obsessed with this song-

WayV mix a lot of different elements into their music and are the most multilingual of the groups- since they're based in Seoul, they've often performed on the weekly Korean music shows with English versions of their songs, and they have the NCT member who speaks the most languages in Ten, who is Thai, and speaks Thai, Mandarin, Korean, English, and Japanese, as well as multiple members who speak four (Hendery and Xiaojun both speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and English; Yangyang speaks Mandarin, English, Korean and German). They also have Kun, who is both a licensed airplane pilot and licensed sky diver (who promoted Phantom by skydiving with a banner for it) as well as being a music producer AND the only member of NCT to have a university degree. Basically WayV is a bunch of overachievers who deserve the whole world.

So..... that's all the subunits! I hope this breakdown gave you a place to start with. Feel free to use this as a base to go look up more information about each subunit, or watch the videos I included here and the ones I linked throughout in the text in various places to get started. I will also make some more posts about each subunit to get into more about the members and more songs by each so you can hang out and wait for those too!

Related things to come from this? More NCT posts, possibly more kpop posts in general like this? I've talked to a few people about how to get into NCT in basics, and this post is dedicated to @catatonicrainbow most specifically as being the most recent internet pal to want to get into NCT and being the one who finally got me to make some kind of thing like this. Meanwhile, @poetry-protest-pornography and I have been discussing starting a kpop podcast where I teach her about different groups as my knowledge is vast and deep and has been accumulating in my brain since around 2008 and she's MUCH newer to kpop than me, and I often infodump at her already about various groups. So like. Now that we're both talking about that publicly I guess we really gotta do it. Maybe I'll make companion posts on here to go with the podcast? Or something. We'll see. But there will be more of this stuff coming! So hopefully if you've read this far and enjoyed this content, you'll be excited for more? Whee!

Also like yes obviously I know other people have probably made these kinds of posts and there's videos and podcasts and etc out about this kind of stuff already, but I figure since everyone processes information differently, having multiple sources for this kind of information and different ways it's presented will probably be helpful to SOMEONE so I'm gonna make the content I feel like making either way. :) Cheers!

[So you wanna get into NCT eh? 1 | 2 | 3]

[hyuckfest]

maybe (most definitely) i'm fucking delusional,,, but watching tv (mark's song with crush) doesn't used gendered pronouns for mark's love interest and explicitly references Thelma and Louise, a film frequently seen as a queer version of bonnie and clyde,,,

fellas is it gay...

[librarisxng]

can't believe doyoung told his fans to take a shower after the concert. I would be humiliated if an idol from my favorite group told me that.

[snoozebin]

🎀 ﾞ⠀๑⠀εїз⠀꒰⠀tap, tap, tap⠀꒱

ֹ⠀. tappin' 𒄬 on ꔫ me - 🎟️

[babyblizzard27]

Haechan just confirmed that it was on the lips 🥹

[yewshi]

hypothetically.. if we have half a baddie, how many porches would we need?

[wickedwitchofthesouth]

I did think

[globaldanseur]

[lunabug2004]

I hate people. (My Addressing of Recent NCT Rumors)

I don't understand why some people just want to ruin lives for no reason! Who is so bored that they will make up some baseless rumors about idols who are just trying to live their lives like the rest of us?!

I feel awful for both Johnny and Haechan and having to go through all of this because some women girls though it would be fun to start a scandal. I've seen the recent pics of Haechan at the airport and he looks so tired (I mean, who wouldn't be after two different awful rumors are started about you in the span of 2 days), I just hope that the boys are okay and know that these supposed "fans" are crazy people who have nothing better to do with their time!

Fr this is so damaging to not only them and their company's reputations but also their own mental health and even feelings of safety in their own fanbase/community! I'm glad SM addressed the allegations but I also know there are some people who will never believe the debunking because it came from SM. As much as I don't like SM and wish they would do more protecting their idols, I believe their announcements about things like this. I just hope other people can do the same.

I wish the best for NCT and both Haechan and Johnny individually. This is all so messed up.

[hotasfahrenheit]

So you wanna get into NCT, eh?

Part 2 - NCT 127 - Introduction and MVs

I promised I would do more of this and the holidays are done and today is the first of the year so that seems like a great time to get to it!

Tumblr has a 10 video limit so I'll actually make a second 127 post tomorrow(?) with some more MVs, but these are my personal picks for 10 most crucial 127 MVs so that's what we're starting with.

I mentioned in my intro post to NCT that NCT 127 debuted in July 2016, on the 7th, after the larger whole group of NCT had debuted in April of that year. 127 is the longitude of Seoul, and with the original intent of NCT to have a multitude of subgroups focused on different parts of the world, 127 were established as the first of these groups with a focus on Seoul and South Korea.

NCT 127 debuted with seven members:

Taeil, Taeyong, Yuta

Jaehyun, Winwin

Mark, Haechan

In December of 2016, two ungrouped, already debuted members of NCT were added to 127, Johnny and Doyoung, and then the final member, Jungwoo, was added in September of 2018 after he joined NCT earlier that year.

Johnny, Doyoung, Jungwoo

(All pictures taken from the NCT official Facebook page from the Golden Era promo posts, so these photos are all from summer 2023 and I'll use the same set of photos for the other subgroup posts to be consistent)

If you're interested in putting in the effort to learn the members and looking at this single set of photos isn't going to get you there (how could it?) my pro tip for learning kpop group members for ANY group is to pull off a split screen or makeshift split screen and make use of the many many fan-made lyric videos on Youtube. If you have a computer, have two windows open on Youtube with one having the official MV and the other a lyric video (you can find these by typing in the group name, song name, and "lyric video" and trust me, you'll find plenty). Mute one, compare the video lengths, then time them to coincide- the lyric videos will typically light up a picture of the member singing as well as have their name at the bottom of the video with the lyrics, so you can have a constant guide to who is singing what throughout. Makeshift split screening can be done by watching the MV on your TV while watching the lyric video on your phone at the same time. I've done both of these and it's helped me a lot!

Okay, back to 127 members specifically- despite the focus on Seoul, 127 is an international group member-wise, with Winwin coming from China, Yuta being the first SM artist to come from Japan, and members Mark coming from Canada and Johnny from America. Jaehyun also lived in America for four years growing up, so they started out with a pretty solid English speaking base.

They debuted with Fire Truck (소방차) in July 2006 as we've already covered, and their first EP which was just titled NCT #127 - The First Mini Album. They've released a whole pile of albums, mini albums, various singles, special releases, and several Japanese albums over the years so there's quite a big pile of songs and material to go through.

Now a factual, historical way to get into discussing them here would be to list songs in order of how they were released and talk about how successful songs and albums were and etc, but I don't really feel like doing things that way so I'm just going to follow my heart and list them in the way that feels right to me to talk about them. These posts are a formalized version of the spam of messages that friends of mine have gotten when they dare tell me they want to get into a kpop group, so I'm going to follow more of that kind of format where I'm going to post the songs that I think will hook you with only a few bits of info between most of them so you can just get into the music. If you really want info about album successes and statistics, Wikipedia and other websites have got you. I got you for the music videos and fun facts instead.

HERE WE GO.

Kick It (Mar 4, 2020) reigns supreme as NCT 127's most viewed song on Youtube, and is one of NCT's top viewed MVs overall out of all releases. This song has a grip on everyone after almost 4 years and it's not letting go anytime soon. They've performed it live at all kinds of big awards shows and music festivals and still do, including a few days ago at the big SBS Gayo Daejeon festival, and Taeyong is famous for complaining about his older sister watching one of their award show performances and him discovering later that all the screenshots she took were of shirtless Johnny and none of him or anyone else dancing or singing.

Listen, I wasn't going to include songs I put in the intro post, but Fact Check (Oct 6, 2023) made it into my top 5 Spotify songs of the year in barely over a month so like I had to include it anyway, and I figure some people will see this post first without seeing that one or whatever. This song feels triumphant and bombastic and the number of times I've blasted this while cruising down the highway recently is HIGH so you get it again. A fun fact I didn't include in the other post is that Taeyong did some of the choreography for the song, so uhhh yeah that can justify me posting it again I guess.

Ahhh Superhuman, my criminally underrated beloved. I'm constantly waffling on what my favourite NCT 127 track is, but Superhuman is definitely one of the top contenders. It's such a gem and I managed to miss it when it originally came out since I wasn't super into NCT yet at the time, which is a shame since it came out the day after my birthday (May 24, 2019) so it was a birthday gift I didn't even realise I was getting. The MVs always cover a decent amount of the choreo up with other things happening but it has some of my absolute FAVOURITE choreo that 127 has ever done which thankfully someone preserved the dance practice video of so you can appreciate it fully. Stellar song, stellar vibes, stellar choreo, it's perfect, thank you.

If you're newer to kpop and you haven't learned about repackage albums yet, it's something that happens where a second version of an album will be released usually a month or two after the initial release. A few songs will be added, a new lead single MV will be released, and a new theme will go with the whole thing. Punch (May 19, 2020) was the new lead single on the repackage for the album that Kick It was the lead single off of (Neo Zone) and is one of the many NCT 127 songs that a lot of people have lumped into being so-called "noise music" since it has some less traditional sounds with the electronic, synthy bits in it but it's honestly amazing with layered sounds and textures and very much worth taking the time to give it the chance it deserves.

The benefit of coming to a post like this instead of only listening to released albums is you get the overlooked masterpieces like Save (June 4 2021) thrown at you! Save was a special collab with Amoeba Culture, an independent record label in South Korea, so it didn't get regular promotion and it's not on any of 127's albums but it is SO CATCHY and such a treat. It's got heavy dance beats and it's so hard to not move while listening to it. I DARE YOU TO TRY.

Cherry Bomb (Jun 14, 2017) is close behind Kick It as 127's second most viewed MV and is an absolute classic from the song itself to the iconic choreo. You'll understand why the choreo is iconic after you watch it, trust me. They've ripped a lot of pants for this song over the years. Mark has an epic rap break, Winwin was still around, Taeil hangs from a giant hook in the middle of a warehouse, Johnny gets dragged around on a couch, there's a lot going on.

Simon Says (Nov 22, 2018) is another repackage album song (from the repackage of Regular-Irregular, Regulate) and is from the brief, sweet spot where 127 had all ten members active, making it one of only two MVs with everyone before Winwin debuted as part of WayV and became inactive in 127. Haechan and Taeil always crush high notes but something about their section that starts with Haechan at 2:53 and has Taeil right at 3:00 always gives me goosebumps.

The original version of Highway to Heaven was released on the Superhuman album, but the English version got an MV (Jul 22, 2019) so that's the one you're getting here. Just 127 playing around in the American desert with a sparkly jangly feel good song with immaculate vibes, what more could you want?

Limitless (Jan 4, 2017) has some truly tragic hair and was one of the worst eras for 127's hair health, and this MV is a really weird assortment of incredibly random nonsense (what is even GOING ON in this entire video) but the song itself is another one of my favourites so I usually just try to pretend the MVs don't exist (yeah there's multiple) and appreciate the song itself for what it is and try to forget Mark's ramen hair and Winwin's dreads (that I think are mainly only in the second MV) and Jaehyun's icicle hair and whatever it was that they did to Taeyong.

READY TO GET DIVISIVE? Either you're going to love Sticker (Sep 16, 2021) or hate Sticker, there is no middle ground. This song SPLIT the fandom and general public, but according to Wikipedia, the album sold "a combined 3.58 million copies [and] broke the record for the best-selling album of all time by an act under SM Entertainment and earned the group the Daesang award at the 31st Seoul Music Awards". Internationally, it "debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, becoming the longest and highest-charting K-pop album in the US in 2021", so obviously some people loved it (it's me, I'm people). This is peak 127 being weird and experimental and there's viral memes of the boys reacting to the demo of the song before recording their version of it that are hilarious. I think it's great. You might not. That's okay.

Okay that's the 10 song limit so you'll have to come back for more MVs hopefully tomorrow. The next post is going to include some more divisive stuff, some softer things, and some Japanese releases so stick around for that! (haha get it, stick around, since I just posted Sticker, see what I did there?)

This post is the second in a series of posts introducing new fans to NCT in a way that makes sense, by getting familiar with one subgroup at a time before moving on to the next. Linked down at the bottom is the intro post, and the rest will be linked as they're added.

Still to come about 127? More MVs, then a guide to some of the fun stuff like their extra content they post on Youtube, before we move on to NCT Dream!

Dedicated as ever to @catatonicrainbow and @poetry-protest-pornography 💖

[So you wanna get into NCT eh? 1 | 2 | 3]

[cadeswater]

i have been getting hit with sickness after sickness and i feel like declan lynch the way i’ve been crunching away at tums literally out in public

[ashmp3]

PSA! I feel very silly announcing this but i got a user tag (it’s #heyteo) so please please please. If you want me to see something be it your gifs, fanart, silly posts or selfies use it 🥹😭 i love you guys and i do feel like i’m intruding a bit but all i needed was Zaynab’s reassurance SO! this is my PSA 💖

[secretary-of-corvids]

i think im going to be watching kpop demon hunters.... it seems like a cool movie....

[johnnysuhbmarine]

My parents are finally letting me paint my room and my mom keeps coming with samples and painting to see how it looks, but she’s fallen into the habit of ONLY caring about how it looks next to the Dreamies and now I listen to her talk like this:

“Okay little guy, let me just paint right here”

“Ooooo, that one doesn’t go with your skin tone. We can’t use this color”

“Hey! I like this with your hair! Look at you!”

“Aw, little guy 🥹”

Anyways, if one of these colors speaks to you, let me know. I have like- fifteen different colors on my walls right now and I can’t decide I just KNOW I can’t have my walls be purple anymore 🫠

[yunogf]

theyre playing the kim possible theme at the gym