NCT And their Endless Subunits
It might be hard for a newbie NCTzen to comprehend all the subunits and the concept of the group itself. Here’s a quick guide for SM Entertainment‘s largest boy group to date.
The entertainment debuted the group in 2016 explaining the “unlimited” number of members within the group who would go on to debut in subsequent units. In the same year subunits, NCT U, 127, Dream were launched and in 2019 a Chinese sub-unit debuted called WayV.
NCT U
NCT’s first unit, “U” standing for United. Originally consisted of Taeil, Taeyong, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, and Mark. NCT U released their debut singles “The 7th Sense” and “Without You”. This subunit’s lineup can change every comeback.
NCT127
The second sub-unit to debut with “Fire Truck”. NCT 127 is a Seoul-based unit of the group and the ‘127’ in their name refers to the longitude coordinate of Seoul. As of today, 127 consists of Taeil, Johnny, Taeyong, Doyoung, Yuta, Jaehyun, Jungwoo, Mark, Haechan. NCT127 is the group’s first million-seller with “NCT #127 Neo Zone” with 817,000 copies and its repackaged version with 400,000 copies, adding up to 1.2 million in 2020.
NCT Dream
The third subunit launched in the same year with their first single, “Chewing Gum”. The unit debuted with seven members: Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung. Originally, the unit adopted a graduation system: a member will withdraw from the unit once they turn 20, and new members would be added. Mark was the first member to graduate but returned in 2020, abolishing the graduation system of NCT Dream. The unit became a million-seller in 2021 with 1,010,766 copies of their first full-length album ‘맛 (Hot Sauce)’.
WayV
In 2018, NCT’s fourth unit, WayV was launched. This unit is based in China with 7 members: Kun, Winwin, Ten, Lucas, Hendery, Xiaojun, and Yangyang. Managed by Label V, a Chinese label collaborating with SM’s production. The unit officially released a Chinese version of NCT 127’s “Regular” in 2019.
NCT Hollywood
In 2021, SM announced their partnership with MGM Worldwide Television Group to cast teens ages 13 to 25 from America to debut a US-based NCT unit, to be identified as NCT-Hollywood.
Special Units:
NCT 2018
In 2018 SM Entertainment revealed a project involving all 18 members of NCT. NCT released its first full-length album: NCT 2018 Empathy. Featuring all the singles of each unit: “Boss”, “Baby Don’t Stop”,”Yestoday”, “Go”, “Touch”, and “Black on Black”. NCT 2018 debuted the members Kun, Jungwoo, and Lucas.
NCT 2020: Similar to 2018’s, NCT 2020 is a collaborative project from the group with “NCT 2020 Resonance Pt. 1″ as their second album featuring all 4 units, and 2 new members, Shotaro and Sungchan. NCT 2020 consists of 23 members from all the sub-units of the group.
