History of K-Pop: ONF
Every year, we see a handful of male K-Pop idols enlist in order to complete their mandatory military service per South Korea’s requirement. This process can take up to 21 months to finish, leaving the rest of the members in the respective lineup to carry on with the group’s activities while the missing member takes a hiatus from promoting. At the beginning of this past November, ONF surprised everyone by announcing that five out of six members will be enlisting in the military at the same time. For this month’s History of K-Pop column, The Kraze will be looking back at the history of the WM Entertainment boy group and their achievements in their four years so far of being active in the industry.
ONF’s original lineup was composed of seven members: Hyojin, J-Us, E-Tion, Wyatt, MK, U, and Laun. In 2019, it was announced that youngest member Laun would be leaving the group due to personal reasons and the group has since then continued with the remaining six members. ONF’s name, meaning “on and off,” represents the group’s different charms on stage and off stage. They are also separated into two teams: the vocal-focused “ON'' team consists of Hyojin, E-Tion, and MK while the performance-focused “OFF” consists of J-Us, Wyatt, and U. Hyojin and J-Us are the leaders of the two respective teams. Prior to forming under WM Entertainment, home of B1A4 and Oh My Girl, MK was a trainee at Starship Entertainment, Japanese member U was a trainee at JYP Entertainment, and former member Laun was revealed to be a trainee at BigHit Entertainment and used to train with BTS.
ONF released their debut EP ON/OFF with the lead single of the same name on August 3, 2017. The album debuted at No. 9 on the Gaon Albums Chart, marking a promising and strong start for the rookie group. The breezy tropical house debut song “ON/OFF” caught the attention of not only K-Pop fans but also credible international music outlets such as Billboard as ONF made it to their list of “10 Best New K-Pop Acts in 2017”.
Shortly after their debut, the seven members at the time joined the JTBC survival program MIXNINE organized by YG Entertainment’s founder Yang Hyunsuk, where Hyojin and Laun made it into the final nine-person lineup, placing at second and seventh respectively. Plans for the survival show group to debut eventually fell through due to the inability of the individual companies to form a mutual agreement. In the summer of 2018, ONF made their first comeback with the second EP You Complete Me. The feel-good EDM title track “Complete” incorporates saxophone sounds in the chorus, making it the perfect catchy song to have blasted during the summer time. The group also made their official Japanese debut in 2018, a year after their Korean debut.
In 2019, ONF released two new EPs, We Must Love with an eponymous lead single and GO LIVE with the title track “Why”. “We Must Love” is a track that is widely loved by not only ONF’s fandom FUSE but also by casual K-Pop listeners and even other K-Pop idols. The song was mentioned on MMTG’s K-Pop Renaissance series featuring SEVENTEEN’s Seungkwan and MONSTA X’s Minhyuk, who both expressed their love for the song. Earlier this year, TXT (Tomorrow x Together)’s Taehyun also posted a dance cover to the song on Twitter.
In August of 2018, WM Entertainment released an official statement stating that member Laun had terminated his contract with the agency and therefore would also be leaving ONF. The group’s fourth EP GO LIVE followed Laun’s departure and became their fourth consecutive top-ten entry on the Gaon Albums Chart at No. 8 and also marked ONF’s first chart entry internationally, debuting at No. 38 on the Oricon Albums Chart.
The year 2020 would mark a turning point for ONF when they joined Mnet’s reality competition Road to Kingdom. Showing covers of songs like SHINee’s “Everybody”, RAIN’s “It’s raining,” and BLACKPINK’s “Kill This Love” in a stage collaboration with PENTAGON as well as their own tracks, ONF consistently delivered powerful performances throughout the competition. The group came in second place on the show with the final showcase track “New World (신새계)” becoming their first song to appear on the Gaon Digital Chart and Billboard’s K-Pop Hot 100.
With the momentum from the group’s participation on Road To Kingdom, ONF released a fifth EP titled SPIN OFF featuring title track “Sukhumvit Swimming.” The physical album sold almost 18,000 units on its release date, doubling the amount of first-day sales from the previous album, and reached No. 3 on the weekly Gaon Albums Chart. The apparent growth seems to be derived from the incredible showmanship that the sextet showed during the Mnet program earlier in the year.
2021 has proven to be ONF’s most momentous and busiest year yet with a total of four comebacks. Rolling into the new year, the group released their first studio album titled ONF: My Name. The album features 11 tracks, including lead single “Beautiful Beautiful,” and peaked at No. 3 on the Gaon Albums Charts, proving ONF’s physical sales stability. The colorful and futuristic music video for “Beautiful Beautiful” gained 10 million views in just three days after its release. Increasing almost 100 spots from No. 102 for “Sukhumvit Swimming,” their first full album’s title track peaked at No. 7 on the Gaon Digital Chart. After four years since their debut, the high-energy and catchy as ever electro dance pop track also gave the group their first music show win on The Show.
ONF returned just two months later with a repackaged version of their first studio album, City of ONF, consisting of three new tracks, including lead single “Ugly Dance.” The title track debuted at No. 1 on the Gaon Download Chart following “Beautiful Beautiful” and also marked the first time they entered the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart at No. 8. A summer comeback is always highly anticipated by ONF’s fandom as previous summertime releases have always been loved for being melodic and energetic. Their first special album, labeled as a summer pop up album, gave fans another handful of songs to add to their pick-me-up playlist, including title track “Popping”. Notably, Popping became their first physical release to sell over 100,000 copies.
At the beginning of November, WM Entertainment announced that five out of six ONF members, excluding Japanese member U, would be enlisting in the military together the following month. Before enlisting, the group released their sixth EP Goosebumps on December 3 as a farewell gift for fans before they all return from their compulsory service. “Goosebumps” surely gave fans goosebumps as the group showcased, for the last time in a while, a uniquely-ONF electro-funk sound with a cyberpunk music video to accompany.
After the official announcement, the two sub-unit leaders Hyojin and J-Us expressed in handwritten letters how the decision was made after much deliberation and explained that the group wanted to enlist together to minimize the time they would have to be as an uncompleted group. Instead of dragging on the time if the members were to go one by one, ONF will be able to finish their mandatory service and return to their music activities after only 18 months. “Although I think our FUSE will be very sad, we made the decision to enlist together because we wanted to stay together as six members and because we wanted to sing together for a longer time,” said OFF team leader J-Us in his letter.
Not just for their impressive discography and performance abilities, ONF also deserve praises for their genuine friendship and the commitment to keep promoting and creating music together after fulfilling the duty to their nation. The first member MK enlisted as an active duty soldier on December 21. Members J-Us and Wyatt will follow and report for duty on December 27, and members Hyojin and E-Tion on December 28.
We wish ONF the best of luck and to serve well so they can reunite with U and greet FUSE with more amazing content as a complete sextet in the future!