5 K-Pop Groups That Debuted Differently Than What Was Originally Planned
Many K-Pop groups are defined, at least for some time, by their debut concept and line-up. Whether the debut is excellent or not so great, it can impact the artist’s success for a while, which is why it’s so important to have a strong start in the K-Pop industry. There’s no doubt, therefore, that a lot of time, effort, and brainstorming goes into each artist’s debut, and it would be interesting to know how many ideas end up getting scrapped and never seen! The following 5 groups were originally supposed to debut differently in some regard, whether it be a concept, the member line-up, or something else in that regard.
1. NCT DREAM
NCT DREAM was the third sub-unit of NCT to debut, after NCT U came out with “The 7th Sense” and NCT 127 released “Fire Truck”. Interestingly, however, NCT DREAM was actually originally planned to be the first sub-unit of the entire group to debut!
Along with this, their infamous hoverboard dance was also not part of their original plans, which is hard to imagine, given how iconic it was and how much praise they received for incorporating such a difficult style of dancing into their debut as rookies. Considering that many people struggle to even move in a straight line on hoverboards, it just showed how talented they already were at their young age!
2. TREASURE
Instead of being one group of twelve members, TREASURE was originally supposed to be split into two groups — one with the name TREASURE, comprised of seven members, and one called MAGNUM, which was going to have six — together called TREASURE 13. The members of each group were determined by YG Entertainment‘s competition show, Treasure Box, which included all of the 12 members now in TREASURE as well as a 13th person, Ha Yoobin, who was supposed to be a member of MAGNUM.
However, before either group debuted, Yoonbin ended up cancelling his contract with the company. Instead of keeping the two sub-units of TREASURE 13 separate, the company decided to merge them into one 12-member unit that is known as the TREASURE it is today!
3. BTOB
BTOB is known these days mostly for their incredibly powerful ballads, and rightfully so — there are few artists in the industry that do it like they do! However, they actually went through a couple of different concepts before they debuted: First, they were supposed to debut as a band, but when CNBLUE came out with this concept first, they considered acapella, and after that, even acrobatics.
It’s likely due to these various trainings they went through that BTOB ended up having so much versatility and variety in the K-Pop industry for the first several years of their career, and even continue to do so today! Despite being known for their ballads, there’s no doubt that these talented men could pull off nearly any concept without a problem.
4. TXT
Given how bright, cheerful, and unique TXT’s debut with “Crown” was during an era where young boy groups were leaning more towards darker and edgier concepts, it’s probably hard to imagine that they were apparently trained to be prepared to do a darker debut concept as well! In fact, they even said that they had trained in hip-hop the longest and had to switch gears in order to prepare for “Crown”.
There are remnants of this that can be seen in their debut, most notably in the surprisingly dark and emotional lyrics of “Crown”, with lines such as, “Oh, I’m the only evil thing in this world
Save me, maybe I have turned into a monster”. Of course, they have done darker concepts since then, and have pulled them off very well!
5. GOT7
Did you know that GOT7 was actually supposed to be a 6-member group when they were first being created? In fact, BamBam wasn’t supposed to debut with them at all, and would likely have ended up in Stray Kids instead, although he expressed his desire to be in a group with fellow foreign trainees and friends Jackson and Mark.
Despite being considered part of the “kids” trainee group due to his age, BamBam was able to be part of a competition between JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment trainees on the survival program WIN: Who Is Next?. After performing with future GOT7 members Yugyeom, Jackson, and Mark, he received so much praised from YG Entertainment’s CEO Yang Hyun Suk that J.Y. Park changed his mind and had him debut earlier than planned with GOT7.
