History of K-Pop: ATEEZ
Having solidified themselves as one of the quintessential fourth generation boy groups, ATEEZ is one of the few popular groups of the latest generation hailing from a smaller company. KQ Entertainment houses Block B, and that is the reason for the formation of ATEEZ, interestingly enough.
For the creation of ATEEZ, you can thank one Kim Hongjoong. The future leader sent a letter and mixtape to KQ in 2016 expressing an interest in joining as a trainee. He became the first official trainee at the company, with Yunho joining him six months later. The rest of the members would join later, with a few coming from different companies, most notably Yeosang and Wooyoung from BigHit, Jongho from TOP Media, and Mingi from Maroo Entertainment. Their first public appearances came while participating in MIXNINE in 2017, with Hongjoong, Mingi, Wooyoung, and Jongho competing on the show.
The eight finalized members promoted as KQ Fellaz during their pre-debut, with their first performance video releasing on May 18, 2018. The performance video “KQ Fellaz Performance Video I” showed the boys dancing to the song “Pick It Up” by Famous Dex, and currently sits at 15 million views. It’s still a popular performance for the group to this day.
Web series KQ Fellaz American Training premiered shortly after the first teaser video with an added ninth trainee, Lee Junyoung. You will see him featured in a pre-debut music video for the single “From,” but he was ultimately not added to the group’s final lineup. After a second video teaser released in July, the official group name ATEEZ was revealed, along with Mnet show Code Name is Ateez. All this content gave fans the ability to really get to know the members of the group, which built quite a bit of hype surrounding their official debut.
That would come in October of 2018, when their first mini-album TREASURE EP.1: All To Zero dropped along with title track “Pirate King.” The album peaked at No. 7 on the Gaon Album Chart and No. 12 on the Billboard U.S. World Albums Chart.
Not even a full three months later in 2019, ATEEZ released their second mini-album TREASURE EP.2: Zero To One with lead title “Say My Name.” The album charted higher at No. 6 on the Gaon Album Chart, No. 5 on the Billboard U.S. World Albums Chart, and a new position on the Heatseekers Album Chart, debuting at No. 5. A music video for “HALA HALA (Hearts Awakened, Live Alive)” was released a month later, just about two weeks after the announcement of the group’s first world tour. Even though it was only their first comeback, ATEEZ proved to have star power, as their first tour was sold out in all American venues and European venues, with the European dates added later onto the agenda after the success in America. Dates would later be added to Australia as well, which helped to solidify ATEEZ’s reputation of being a very internationally recognized group. During that time, they still had not gotten much recognition in Korea yet.
For the third mini-album TREASURE EP.3: One To All, ATEEZ employed a new, fun tactic that they became known for. When it came time to decide on the title track, fans voted between two potential titles for a certain period of time, and the most popular single served as the title. For the first round, it was “WAVE” vs. “ILLUSION,” and with short previews of each track, fans chose a favorite. The first winner was “WAVE,” which had a much more upbeat sound compared to their previous releases. “WAVE” would bring the group their first music show win on M!COUNTDOWN on June 20, with a second win on The Show five days later.
The first full-length album TREASURE EP.FIN: All To Action rounds out a very busy first year for the group. This was the first album for the group that reached No. 1 on the Gaon Album Chart, and it charted in five different countries as well.
The final addition to the TREASURE series launched on January 6, 2020 with mini-album TREASURE EPILOGUE : Action To Answer and title track “Answer,” which continued their trend of success, getting the group another peak spot of No. 1 on the Gaon Album Chart. COVID destroyed the next scheduled world tour, which still remains indefinitely postponed though it came about in this era.
The next return for the group would come in July in the form of their fifth mini-album and new saga in ZERO: FEVER Part.1, bringing back the fan voting system for the title of either “INCEPTION” or “THANXX.” ZERO: FEVER Part.1 became the first album to certify platinum for the group, with sales skyrocketing as the boys took home two more music show wins during this era. This made them the second fourth generation boy group to generate one million sales as rookies.
ATEEZ began building more popularity domestically after appearing on Immortal Songs 2, where they performed a cover of Turbo’s “Black Cat Nero” and led to more collaborations with Turbo member Kim Jongkook. They also made a second appearance on the show for the Seo Taiji episode. They became the first fourth generation group to win on the show, and only the sixth idol group overall to do so as well. As 2020 came to an end, they took home the “Discovery of the Year” and “Worldwide Fans’ Choice” awards at the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards.
As we roll into the current year, ATEEZ returned to Immortal Songs 2 in February and won the program once again, this time with a rendition of legendary soloist Rain’s “It’s Raining.” A month later they returned with ZERO: FEVER Part.2 and took their fifth music show win with the title “Fireworks (I’m the One).” Yunho, Jongho, San, and Seonghwa made their drama debuts in Imitation, with Yunho playing a major character role as the second male lead. They also gained more notoriety with their appearance on Kingdom, where they finished third overall. They would also return to Immortal Songs 2 for a fourth time and take yet another win, this time with a performance of PSY’s “Right Now.”
In August, the group released a collaboration track with Kim Jongkook, and just a few days later another collaboration was announced with American group Pentatonix. In most recent news, the third installment of the FEVER series, ZERO: FEVER Part.3, dropped on September 13. For the third time, the fan voting system was used to determine the title track, which ended up being “Deja Vu.” Pre-orders surpassed 800,000 copies, which was more than double their last release. This also marked the group’s first appearance on the Billboard 200.
While active for just under three years, ATEEZ has already proven their staying power in the industry with a huge rise even just within the last year. Having been able to walk this journey with ATEEZ has been nothing short of a wonderful experience, and with time there’s no doubt that they will continue to grow even larger. 2021 has been a momentous year for the group, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.