YG’s ‘TREASURE’, “End of Trainee Days, We’ll Grow”
[뉴시스=이재훈 기자] “I’m happy that it’s a moment which I’ve dreamt of, making debut, turned into reality. It’s exciting to think of living as an artist, not as a trainee. We’ll do our best to become artists who can grow”.
YG Entertainment’s TREASURE BOX finally opens on the 7th. It is a team formed through YG’s boy group survival program, ‘YG TREASURE BOX’, which ended last year. They will release ‘THE FIRST STEP : CHAPTER ONE’ today at 6 PM.
Their single album is composed of two tracks, ‘BOY’ and ‘COME TO ME’. The physical copies of the album will also include instrumental versions of the two songs.
TREASURE is YG’s rookie group being announced in 4 years since BLACKPINK, who are currently creating global syndromes, and is the agency’s fourth boy group following BIGBANG, WINNER, and iKON.
At the press conference held in Yeongdeungpo CGV Starium, Seoul, BANG YE DAM revealed his determination by stating, “Thanks to BLACKPINK’s global success, people have higher expectations towards us even before making debut. The nicknames sometimes feel overwhelming, but we would like to show ourselves grow. We will not let you down”.
TREASURE, originally scheduled to make debut last year in the summer, went through ups and downs for the past year and 6 months. They were originally planned to make debut as ‘TREASURE 13’, with 7-member unit TREASURE and 6-member unit MAGNUM combined. While their debut schedule got delayed, 12 final members were confirmed, and the team name stuck to TREASURE.
TREASURE, the group with an average age of 19, is composed of members BANG YE DAM, CHOI HYUN SUK, JIHOON, YOSHI, JUNKYU, MASHIHO, YOON JAE HYUK, ASAHI, DOYOUNG, HARUTO, PARK JEONG WOO, and SO JUNG HWAN. 4 of these members including YOSHI, MASHIHO, ASAHI, and HARUTO are Japanese, which allows the group to receive lots of attention in Japan as well.
What grabs the people’s attention is that 12 members is the biggest number among all groups presented by YG. The group even has two leaders. CHOI HYUN SUK and JIHOON are the ‘double leaders’. CHOI HYUN SUK emphasized, “I’m grateful to lead TREASURE with JIHOON. We are like minded and are moving forward together”.
JIHOON also added, “Since we have many members, we have varied character and create great synergy effects when we work together”.
The other members also revealed their passion rather than being nervous. They could’ve felt nervous or anxious as their debut schedule got delayed but stated that it made them “Want more”. It means that “It became an opportunity for them to grow as they’ve worked hard”.
Since TREASURE has worked on teamwork for a long period of time, they are expected to present strong group dance moves. They are expected to present differentiated products from that of YG’s existing boy groups including BIGBANG, WINNER, and iKON, who presented lyrical songs in medium tempo based on Hip-hop.
Regarding the title song ‘BOY’, YG explained, “It has a fierce beat and an impressive dance break drop which make the listeners feel the music with their bodies”. On the other hand, the lyrics of the song contain a boy’s emotions. It presents a boy’s pure yet passionate love story as he rushes towards an attraction, which he feels for the first time of his life.
TREASURE has been raising their tension before making debut. They’ve became the fastest K-Pop rookie group to enter Billboard’s ‘Social 50’ chart and has successfully charted in for 6 consecutive weeks. They’ve also been ranked on Billboard’s ‘Emerging Artists’ chart for 2 consecutive weeks, although they are yet to make debut.
Furthermore, their physical album, which became available for pre-order last month on the 29th, already surpassed 170 thousand orders, setting the biggest sales record in YG rookie history. Their YouTube channel with contents such as ‘TREASURE MAP’, ‘TMI’, and ‘A 3 Minute TREASURE’ released to communicate with the fans has over 1.38M subscribers and a total of over 100M views.
SO JUNG HWAN hoped, “It is our goal to enter the Top 100 of Melon(Korea’s biggest music platform). Moreover, I don’t want our fans to be disappointed”.
TREASURE will say hi to their fans today at 4 PM, 2 hours prior to the release of their album, through their debut countdown V LIVE broadcast. They will have their music broadcast debut on the 9th through SBS ‘Inkigayo’.
2020. 8. 7.
