{"id":2443433,"date":"2019-04-25T16:29:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T22:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=827299"},"modified":"2019-04-25T16:29:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T22:29:03","slug":"meet-nct-127-the-next-bts-hits-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/meet-nct-127-the-next-bts-hits-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet NCT 127: The Next BTS Hits America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A wink, a smile, a dance break. A jacket on, a jacket off. There was nothing the Korean boy band NCT 127 did onstage that didn\u2019t elicit a frenzy of screaming, jumping, hand-clasping and stomping. On Wednesday night, the group of nine kicked off their first North American arena tour. Though the band doesn\u2019t have any singles on the U.S. charts and they sing as many lyrics in Korean as they do in English, NCT 127 were given the Beatles\u2019 welcome in New Jersey. The fans seemed genuine, to say the least. When one of the members sat at a keyboard to open a song with a solo, one girl wearing a crop-top and jorts over fishnets shouted to her identically-dressed friend: \u201cDon\u2019t cry. You have glitter on.\u201d If you\u2019ve never been to a K-pop<\/a> show before, that sentiment says it all.<\/p>\n

Based in Seoul, NCT 127 is a sub-unit of another group called NCT, whose name stands for Neo Culture Technology. \u201c127\u201d refers to the longitudinal coordinate of this sub-unit\u2019s home city. NCT 127 are promoting their new EP, We Are Superhuman, which comes out in May and features a blend of pop, hip-hop and Latin trap. Onstage, the members tear through plenty of hard-hitting group choreography, balanced by sensitive ballads sung sitting down. It\u2019s a formula reminiscent of Nineties American boy bands. The group will visit 11 more cities, including stops in Atlanta, Chicago, San Jose and Toronto.<\/span><\/p>\n

The two-hour show included pyrotechnics, costume changes and moving set pieces like a Broadway production. Each of the performers spent several minutes addressing the audience \u2014 most spoke in English, but a few used a voiceover translator \u2014 seeing who could get the loudest cheers. If you\u2019re doing the math, that\u2019s a lot of shrieking.<\/p>\n

K-pop is having a big moment in the U.S.: Girl group Blackpink just played headlining slots at Coachella; BTS\u2019 new album debuted at the top of the charts, notching their third Number One album in less than a year. NCT 127 is the latest competitor. For the uninitiated, these groups seem to come out of nowhere, but NCT isn\u2019t filling arenas with casual listeners or the blithely curious. Fans \u2014 largely high school girls \u2014 have been following them for years.<\/p>\n

Three high-schoolers from Newark tried to explain how a K-pop obsession starts. They\u2019d already been to KCON, a two-day K-Pop festival, in 2018. \u201cAt first I liked BTS and then I heard [NCT 127] and I like their beats \u2014 they\u2019re like EDM,\u201d said Lizbeth Delgado, 17. She was there to see them play their hit \u201cRegular,\u201d a choreo-heavy single, which did not disappoint. In addition to playing all their hits, the group debuted three new songs, including showing a music video for \u201cHighway to Heaven,\u201d sure to be an instant favorite among Nick Jonas fans. They closed the main set with their debut single, \u201cFire Truck,\u201d which has a heavy descending hook reminiscent of Nicki Minaj\u2019s \u201cTruffle Butter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the show, groups of girls were gathered outside the venue taking pictures. \u201cI\u2019m Korean, so I grew up around K-Pop,\u201d said Kathryn Kwon, an 18-year-old from Queens. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of mind-blowing because I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much Asian representation in America, so the fact that K-Pop and Korean culture is blowing up in America \u2026 that\u2019s really cool.\u201d Her friend was excited to see her favorite NCT 127 member, JaeHyun. She likes his \u201cinnocent smile,\u201d said Jaymi Choi, 16. \u201cIt\u2019s bright and bubbly. It attracts the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like [NCT 127] have a connection to their fans unlike a lot of other artists that I listen to,\u201d says 22-year-old Jersey native Kiana Cox after the performance. \u201cThey\u2019re a beacon of light \u2026 Sounds kind of weird, but even though I don\u2019t know what they\u2019re saying, their music still resonates and makes me feel at home and safe and like there\u2019s always going to be brighter days.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wink, a smile, a dance break. A jacket on, a jacket off. There was nothing the Korean boy band NCT 127 did onstage that didn\u2019t elicit a frenzy of screaming, jumping, hand-clasping and stomping. On Wednesday night, the group of nine kicked off their first North American arena tour. Though the band doesn\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 01:21:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}