NCT (group)
NCT is a South Korean boy band formed and managed by SM Entertainment. Introduced in January 2016, the group consists of 25 members divided into seven different sub-units: NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Dream, WayV, NCT DoJaeJung, NCT Wish, and NCT JNJM. They are known for their versatility in music, vocal and rap abilities, and powerful performances, and have been cited as K-pop's "most experimental boy band" due to their concept of having limitless members. As of June 2024, NCT has recorded more than 45 million album sales in Korea across all sub-units, making them the best-selling K-pop artist of all time.
The group debuted their first sub-unit, the rotational NCT U, on April 9, 2016, with the double digital single "The 7th Sense" and "Without You". It was followed by the Seoul-based sub-unit NCT 127 on July 7, 2016, with their eponymous extended play and the then-teenaged sub-unit NCT Dream on August 24, 2016, with the digital single "Chewing Gum". WayV, a seven-member sub-unit based in China and NCT's first overseas sub-unit, debuted on January 17, 2019, with the single album The Vision. On April 17, 2023, a fixed sub-unit featuring members Doyoung, Jaehyun, and Jungwoo debuted as NCT DoJaeJung with the EP Perfume. NCT's last overseas unit based in Japan, NCT Wish, debuted with the single "Wish" on February 28, 2024. Jeno and Jaemin formed NCT JNJM and will debut on February 23, 2026, with the EP Both Sides.
Although each sub-unit promotes separately, NCT has united four times as a group to record four full-length albums: Empathy, Resonance, Universe, and Golden Age. Within two months of release, Resonance sold over 2.6 million copies across its two parts, becoming the highest-selling physical album released by an act from SM Entertainment at the time and earning the group their first Daesang Award at the 2020 Asia Artist Awards. Universe, which was released in December 2021, became their most pre-ordered album at 1.7 million copies, and later surpassed 1.8 million sales after its release.
Background and name
In January 2016, SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man delivered a presentation at the SM Coex Artium titled "SMTOWN: New Culture Technology 2016". The label planned to debut a new boy group that would "fall in line" with their culture contents strategy, one that would contain an "unlimited" number of members that would debut in separate sub-units within the group. Furthermore, the members would form "sub-unit teams" and have "collaborations" with each other. The name of the group was later revealed to be NCT, an acronym for the presentation title. NCT as a whole was SM Entertainment's first idol group to debut in nearly two years since Red Velvet in 2014 and SM Entertainment's first boy group to debut since Exo in 2012.History
2013–2016: Formation and pre-debut activities
Prior to joining SM Entertainment, some of the members were already involved in the entertainment industry. Jeno appeared in various commercials as a child. Jisung was a child actor and filmed movies such as Boys, Be Curious and Go, Stop, Murder. Chenle was active on the Chinese music scene as a singer from 2009 to 2015; he released three albums and headlined a concert in China. In 2011, Yuta participated in the singing competition "Juice Winter Collection" in Japan, while Ten competed on the Thai TV show Teen Superstar under the name TNT. Xiaojun was a singing contestant on the Zhejiang TV program X-Fire in November 2015.Johnny, Yuta, Ten, Mark and Renjun joined the company via SM Global Auditions, while the remaining members were discovered through street casting, personal recommendation, community entertainment shows, and local auditions. Prior to their debut as members of NCT, 19 of the 23 overall members of NCT were introduced as part of SM Rookies, a group of trainees under SM Entertainment created in December 2013. The first members of NCT to be introduced were Taeyong and Jeno. Sixteen other members were introduced through SM Rookies until early January 2016.
Taeyong released the short rap track "Open the Door" in July 2014 and featured on Red Velvet's second single "Be Natural" in October of the same year. He appeared alongside Johnny, Yuta, Ten, Jaehyun, Mark, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin and Jisung on the Mnet-produced Exo 90:2014, a show starring labelmates Exo, where they performed dances to K-pop songs from the 1990s. Some members appeared in various Exo music video remakes in the same year. From January through June 2015, Doyoung and Jaehyun were the hosts of the music show Show Champion; from July through December of that year, Yuta was a Japanese representative on Abnormal Summit, a series in which non-Korean men debate Korean culture. Mark, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin and Jisung were Mouseketeers on Disney Channel Korea's The Mickey Mouse Club. SM Rookies Boys held their first concert, titled SM Rookies Show, which started in Seoul in September 2015 and expanded to Bangkok, Thailand in February 2016. Taeil released his first solo soundtrack "Because Of You" for the series The Merchant: Gaekju 2015 on January 26, 2016. In April 2016, Kun sang with NCT U on the Chinese version of "Without You" and joined them for the song's promotional stages. Winwin performed NCT U's "The 7th Sense" at their first live performance in China at the 16th Music Feng Yun Bang Awards that same month. In October 2016, Johnny participated in the music festival "Spectrum Dance Music Festival" as an SM Dreamstation Crew DJ.
SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man held a presentation at the SM Coex Artium titled "SM Town: Neo Culture Technology 2016" on January 28, 2016, where he outlined the company's plans for a new boy group in line with their "culture contents" strategy that would debut different teams based in different cities and countries around the world.
2016–2018: Debut of NCT U, NCT 127 and NCT Dream and first collaborative project
On April 4, 2016, SM Entertainment announced NCT's first sub-unit would be NCT U, meaning "NCT United", which then consisted of six members: Taeil, Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun and Mark. NCT U released the digital singles "The 7th Sense" on April 9 and "Without You" in two versions on April 10. On April 9, NCT U made their first broadcast appearance with NCT On Air on V Live hosted by Super Junior's Kim Hee-chul. The same day, they had their first live performance in China at the 16th Music Feng Yun Bang Awards alongside Chinese rookies Kun and Winwin. On April 15, the group made their debut in Korea on Music Bank.On July 1, SM announced NCT's second sub-unit, NCT 127. The unit would be based in Seoul, the number "127" representing the longitude coordinate of the city. The unit debuted with seven members: Taeil, Taeyong, Yuta, Jaehyun, Winwin, Mark, and Haechan. On July 7, they had their official debut performance on the music program M Countdown, performing debut single "Fire Truck" and "Once Again." Their debut EP, NCT#127, was released digitally on July 10 and physically on July 11. On August 18, SM announced that NCT's third sub-unit would be NCT Dream. The unit debuted with seven members: Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle and Jisung. Their first single, "Chewing Gum", was released on August 24, and the group had their debut performance on M Countdown the next day.
On December 27, 2016, NCT 127 announced they would be making a comeback with two new members, Johnny and NCT U's Doyoung. On March 8, NCT 127 members Johnny and Jaehyun were announced as the DJs for SBS Power FM's new program, NCT's Night Night, which began airing on March 20. In January 2018, Taeil, Doyoung, and Jaehyun released the single "Timeless" under NCT U as part of the SM Station project.
Later that month, SM Entertainment unveiled NCT 2018, a project involving all 18 members of NCT at the time. On January 30, SM released a video titled "NCT 2018 Yearbook #1", which featured all prior members and introduced new members Kun, Lucas, and Jungwoo. In February, NCT released a series of online documentary videos titled NCTmentary as part of the NCT 2018 project. NCT released their first full-length album, NCT 2018 Empathy, on March 14. The album featured six singles, showcasing each sub-unit of NCT: "Boss", "Baby Don't Stop", and "Yestoday" by various NCT U lineups; "Go" by NCT Dream; "Touch" by NCT 127; and "Black on Black" with all 18 members. NCT topped Billboard Emerging Artists chart on May 5, marking the first time that a K-pop act had led the list.
Mark graduated from NCT Dream after the release of their second EP, We Go Up, in September. On September 11, Xiaojun was the first of the then-undebuted WayV members to be introduced through SM Rookies, with Hendery and Yangyang following on September 13 and September 15, respectively. Jungwoo was added to NCT 127 in October, with the release of their first studio album, Regular-Irregular. Winwin did not participate in promotional activities of the album's reissue, Regulate, in order to prepare for his debut with WayV, and his activities in NCT 127 have been discontinued since then.
2019–2020: Debut of WayV, NCT Dream restructure and ''NCT 2020 Resonance''
On December 31, 2018, SM Entertainment announced NCT's fourth sub-unit, WayV under Label V. The unit would be based in China and consists of seven members: Kun, Winwin, Ten, Lucas, Hendery, Xiaojun and Yangyang. The sub-unit officially debuted on January 17, 2019, with a Chinese version of NCT 127's "Regular". Their debut single album, The Vision, was released digitally and included a Chinese version of NCT 127's "Come Back" and an original song titled "Dream Launch". On December 13, NCT U released "Coming Home" as part of the SM Station X project. After wrapping up album promotions for their EP Reload in April, NCT Dream abandoned their original concept in which members "graduate" from the sub-unit upon reaching age of majority and continued as seven members, with Mark returning to the lineup.In September, NCT announced a reunion for a second group project, NCT 2020, in October 2020. The first part of their second album, NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 1, was released on October 12. The record featured all four existing units and two new members, Shotaro and Sungchan, who are set to debut with a future NCT unit. NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 1 garnered more than 1.1 million stock pre-orders ahead of release, making it NCT's first million-selling album without repackaging. NCT released NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 2 on November 23.
On December 4, NCT released the single "Resonance" as the finale of their second group studio album. The single combines the tracks "Make a Wish ", "90's Love", "Work It", and "Raise the Roof" from their second studio album and features all 23 members. They held their first concert as a full group, titled NCT: Resonance "Global Wave", on December 27 through Beyond Live, which attracted more than 200,000 viewers.