While not considered the biggest or most popular group in the K-Pop world, there’s no question that A.C.E has made waves within the industry since their debut in 2017. Forming under Beat Interactive, the five members of A.C.E had a number of interesting pre-debut experiences: Jun trained with VIXX before leaving Jellyfish Entertainment, Donghun competed on Superstar K5, Wow trained alongside WINNER at YG Entertainment, Chan was at JYP Entertainment, and Byeongkwan participated in the first season of K-Pop Star.

The first debut single “Cactus” dropped in May of 2017 and made waves in the K-Pop community for its intense concept and memorable choreography. The heavy EDM track left a lasting impression for its rather unconventional sound, and the sharp choreography movements solidified A.C.E’s proof of talent.

The first comeback single “Callin’” dropped in October, but was not particularly successful and is overlooked even to this day, with the music video sitting at 3.8 million views while “Cactus” has 7.8 and more recent comebacks tend to get well over 10 million views. Part of that may have been due to a shorter promotional period, with the members dispersing to participate in MIXNINE and The Unit. While Chan and Jun went to participate in The Unit, Donghun, Byungkwan, and Wow headed to MIXNINE. Chan made it into the top nine to debut with UNB, and if MIXNINE had not chosen to cancel, Donghun and Byeongkwan would have debuted with that final group.

The next release came in June of 2018 with title track “Take Me Higher” supporting the first repackage album A.C.E Adventures in Wonderland. “Take Me Higher” showed a new side to the boys, placing a more playful and youth-filled image in the music video. The song also went in a different direction from the first two singles, showcasing more of a traditional pop sound. The cute concept and traditional pop sound are a tried-and-true formula, and a concept A.C.E did quite well, but it didn’t garner the group much more attention.

It wasn’t until a year later that A.C.E had another comeback, this time with Chan returning to the lineup after UNB activities concluded. The new concept achieved with “Under Cover” proved to be a smart move, as it brought 10,000 more sales to the album than their previous release. “Under Cover” showed the group going back to the darker type of concept, but this time with a rock influenced track to match rather than the EDM influences in debut “Cactus.” By this point it was safe to say that A.C.E had built a very strong and loyal fan base, and “Under Cover” helped them expand their reach within the K-Pop community. 

Their third mini-album UNDER COVER : THE MAD SQUAD was released October 2019 with title track “SAVAGE,” which continued the darker concept trend. “SAVAGE” as a track had much more hip-hop influence than previous title tracks, showing yet another genre of music that the group masters. Yet another 10,000 sales were made on the newest album, showing even more growth.

It would be another year before the next comeback. September 2020 marked the release of the fourth mini-album HJZM: The Butterfly Phantasy, which gained a striking amount of attention due to the beauty of the teaser photos. The concept mixed old and new, with traditional Korean influences used in both the fashion and set alongside a more modern look and feel.

In 2021, Swing Entertainment announced that they would co-manage A.C.E with Beat Interactive, taking point on domestic broadcasting appearances while Beat covered the rest. Just a few days before this posting, the group returned with a new mini-album SIREN:DAWN and title track “Higher.” The latest comeback features an electro-pop sound that has a smoother feel than previous comebacks and places a lot of emphasis on the visuals of the group, as well as their strength in choreography. Though full numbers aren’t out yet in relation to sales and chart positions, there’s a strong base of fans supporting their latest comeback and it really shows the passion of CHOICE. 

Besides the group’s releases, one of the places they flourish is collaborations with western artists. In 2018, they worked on a single with DJ HCUE, back before it was extremely commonplace for K-Pop groups to collaborate specifically with western artists. At the beginning of 2021, Steve Aoki remixed “Favorite Boys” to new title “Fav Boyz,” and added Nigerian-American rapper Thutmose to the remix. Then, just before the new album was announced, A.C.E released a single with Grey titled “Down.” 

Though A.C.E is only in their fourth year on the scene and despite coming from such a small company, they’ve managed to create a very loyal fan base and hit a number of different achievements in that time. Making an impact on the K-Pop scene is far more difficult if you’re not from a big-name company, but despite that, this group has managed to make a name for themselves. And hopefully as more time passes, they will reach even higher heights in their career.