SEVENTEEN just released 17 IS RIGHT HERE, a greatest-hits album encompassing their entire journey from debut to today—”right here.” The compilation album features singles from their Korean releases, Korean-language versions of their Japanese singles, as well as some new songs. Like previous albums, 17 IS RIGHT HERE includes not only a single featuring the entire group (“MAESTRO”) but also a track from the vocal team (“Cheers to Youth”), the performance team (“SPELL”), and the hip hop team (“LALALI”). Carrying this format over to the latest album shows how important the group finds it to always include songs from their three main subunits in addition to those performed by all 13 members together. To mark the release of their latest album, let’s take a look at some of the many ways the group divides themselves up to perform—from the main three teams to the many subunits of SEVENTEEN.

Subunits: groups within a group
Together, 13 members, three main subunits, and one group add up to make SEVENTEEN. The combination of the vocal, performance, and hip hop teams—the three main subunits of the group—is a unique mix that forms the very core of SEVENTEEN’s identity. When the group debuted, each of the members was officially inducted into SEVENTEEN at a ring ceremony. They were then assigned to one of the three subunits based on their position within the group. The vocal, performance, and hip hop teams stand as groups-within-a-group on their own, but boast their own remarkable careers on par with individual idol groups. Having been around the full 10 years of SEVENTEEN’s reign to date, the main subunits have had unit songs on nearly every one of the group’s Korean albums, even making their own music videos and recording Japanese version of some of their tracks. SEVENTEEN’s earliest concerts were specifically planned around these subunits, and the three groups-within-a-group continue to put on their own performances at concerts today. When the whole group performs at year-end events or at awards shows, they also put on unit songs to give audiences an even wider variety of fun-filled performances to watch. When considering how many specially arranged versions of unit songs there’s been over the years for the various shows, it’s absolutely staggering.

As the group members have discussed numerous times, the three main subunits all have their own distinct image and qualities. The different histories behind and relationships within each subunit come through loud and clear in interviews, photoshoots, and the games they play on variety shows and in their own videos. Fans of SEVENTEEN really get to be fans of four different groups thanks to the inclusion of the vocal, performance, and hip hop teams. Some of the songs off 17 IS RIGHT HERE were left a secret when the bulk of the tracklist was first revealed, prompting a lively debate among CARAT, SEVENTEEN’s fandom, over whether the hidden tracks would all be the group’s lead singles or whether they would include both singles and songs from the vocal, performance, and hip hop teams. CARAT took a trip down memory lane while looking through old photos of the group on the album’s promotional website, too.

On top of the group’s main subunits, the members of SEVENTEEN can break themselves down any number of ways, mixing and matching members into mixed subunits. A great example of this from last year is BSS, the subunit consisting of members HOSHI, DK, and SEUNGKWAN, who released the song “Fighting” featuring Lee Young Ji. SEVENTEEN’s amazing achievements are about more than just numbers—it’s about the individual talents of each member and the unstoppable teamwork that allows them to achieve great things together. In a way, SEVENTEEN’s many subunits are a byproduct of their confidence in themselves to keep giving fans new material, even 10 years in. Whatever they set their minds to, SEVENTEEN’s 13 members can find the right combination to make it work.

VOCAL TEAM
Led by WOOZI, the vocal team—consisting of himself plus JEONGHAN, JOSHUA, DK, and SEUNGKWAN—specializes in expressing their emotions through the power of their voices. From youthful excitement and mature introspection, to the solace and love that can only be found in the wake of breakups and growing pains, the vocal team can sing it all. While the five of them provide backing vocals for SEVENTEEN songs where all members are present, the vocal team’s harmonies alone have the power to transform a concert into a soft, sweet, even sentimental experience. When they’re offstage, though, these five get fans rolling with laughter. Seeing them become immersed in their singing as they follow the movement of the camera or a “tired” DK challenges the other members to a three-on-two game of jokgu, it’s no wonder performance team member DINO always says “the vocal unit members are fun.” The team, who describe themselves as “talkative” and “on another level,” are perhaps best summed up in the video “SEVENTEEN WITH CARAT 800DAY❤”. Though the video was streamed seven years ago, the way they suddenly pop out from behind their posters and how they never stop laughing as they talk shows they were the same back then as they are today. It’s the same when they’re doing a “unit reverse” at SEVENTEEN fan meeting events, where they perform songs belonging to the other two subunits; the five members overflow with creativity and passion. Ever since the one-year anniversary of the vocal team, they’ve made a point to spend mealtimes together as bonding time—so much so that they find themselves refreshed from sharing a bowl of Agwi-jjim at five in the morning, immediately after touching back down in Korea.

But, in SEUNGKWAN’s words, the vocal team is “really serious when it comes to vocals, or anything to do with music.” The practice of getting together to discuss things over food all started when WOOZI suggested grabbing a bite to eat after a particularly grueling rehearsal. “Yawn,” one of their latest songs and the opener for their FOLLOW AGAIN TO INCHEON concert in March, once again proves the fivesome’s singing skills and emotional depth. Like “Yawn,” their songs “Pinwheel,” “Hug,” and “Second Life” give listeners a chance to focus on how talented the vocal team is at conveying the emotion behind lyrics through their voices. “Don’t listen in secret,” “Habit,” “Come To Me,” “Same dream, same mind, same night,” and “Imperfect love,” plus the live rearrangements of “Dust” and “We gonna make it shine (2017 ver.),” all pack the kind of emotional punch that the five members have when they harmonize their unique voices together. These songs make it clear why people also refer to them as the lovely vocal team with songs that sound like a choir of angels. To get a real sense of their youthfulness and charming voices, be sure to check out “20,” “When I Grow up,” and “Chocolate” from the February edition of Monthly Yoon Jong Shin. Listening to music starting with their older songs like this gives a true sense of just how far they’ve come.

PERFORMANCE TEAM
HOSHI leads JUN, THE 8, and DINO as the performance team. Together, the four of them take the lead on making choreography and expanding what SEVENTEEN can do in their performances. Adding to their intriguing history, all of them were already physically inclined in their own ways before becoming trainees: HOSHI in Taekwondo and K-pop dance, JUN in martial arts, THE 8 in b-boying and acrobatics, and DINO in a style of pop music dancing similar to Michael Jackson’s moves. Their diverse backgrounds open the team up to a wide range of creative options and the ability to try out new ideas. But they’ve had their share of conflict as well, as pointed out by THE 8. “I don’t remember our first time bonding,” he says, “I just remember we kept fighting.” Still, despite their differences in opinion, their shared attitude toward and passion for performing meant the four of them were “destined to become one.” The “teamwork” and “loyalty of the performance team” even extends to them visiting HOSHI while he was busy shooting the “Fighting” (feat. Lee Young Ji) music video with BSS—another SEVENTEEN subunit—to offer him their support. Every time SEVENTEEN puts on a concert, the performance team tackles what both they and the other two subunits consider to be the most difficult, most physically demanding setlist. In spite of this, they put everything they’ve got into concerts, quick to insist that people aren’t there “to see us struggle—they come to see us perform,” and that “being onstage is so fun.” And even once they’re offstage, they’re always looking for new ways to put on bigger, better shows. When they were in Los Angeles and working on their album Al1, they headed over to Millennium Dance Complex on a free day for dance lessons (as seen in the first episode of GOING SEVENTEEN 2017). Not only are they constantly brushing up on their dance skills, but they’re ambitious when it comes to their vocals, too, with SEVENTEEN producer WOOZI complimenting them on their singing prowess on their vocally challenging recent track, “Back 2 Back.” While performance is often discussed solely in terms of dance, the performance team takes a more holistic approach to performance, seeing it instead as an artform that combines everything from dance to singing, rapping, and posing, as JUN explained in an interview for SEVENTEEN POWER OF LOVE: THE MOVIE. Thanks to them, SEVENTEEN as a whole has been recognized for the strength of their performances since day one. But while the affectionately nicknamed “smooch unit” might have total command of the stage, it’s a completely different story when it comes to gaming—where they’ve earned different nicknames for their unimpressive win rate and tendency to live and die by the principle of “divided we stand, united we fall.

Following “Jam Jam” and “OMG,” the song that truly solidified the performance team’s style, according to HOSHI, was “HIGHLIGHT,” off the group’s third mini album. You can see just how much the team’s performances have developed over time by looking at how the track was inspired by everything they felt and experienced meeting CARAT during Shining Diamond, their first Asian tour. Every member of their subunit helps out not just with the choreography but the lyrics as well, and they butt heads throughout their tours as they work through their contrasting ideas. They released “Lilili Yabbay” the following year—a milestone in terms of performance, and the start of the performance team’s tendency to tell their own story in their work. HOSHI says he envisioned the lyrics of “Lilili Yabbay,” “MOONWALKER,” “Shhh,” and “247” as one interconnected whole and reflected details from them and their overall emotional impact in the choreography. While the songs are connected by one continuous narrative, the different genres of the four tracks demonstrate the performance team’s inclination for musical experimentation. We also get glimpses of their subtler, dreamy side in songs like “Wave,” “I Don’t Understand But I Luv U,” and “WHO,” while their effervescent cute side comes out in tracks like “Swimming Fool” and “PANG!” And if you’re looking to see a display of the team’s sheer power and flair, the recent release “Back 2 Back” is a must-see—and must-listen. Make sure to check out “HIGHLIGHT” first so you can fully appreciate just how far the performance team has come.

HIP HOP TEAM
SEVENTEEN’s hip hop team—sometimes affectionately referred to as the “god pop” team—is made up of WONWOO, MINGYU, VERNON, and their leader, S.COUPS. They handle most of the rapping in SEVENTEEN’s group songs and focus on a variety of styles of hip hop in their unit songs. The four of them gained extensive experience in the biz, writing and releasing their own rap mixtapes while trainees, and putting on hip hop shows before and after their debut. WONWOO has even previously said that it only made sense for them to be grouped together as a subunit thanks to having learned about music and performed together in the past. To get a sense of their chemistry, check out To Your Ears #14, “CARAT LAND Day 1,” or the hip hop team’s “Rock with you” 100-million-view pledge. It’s hard not to fall in love with them as you listen to the talkative S.COUPS and MINGYU, “the slow one” WONWOO, and “the guy who doesn’t know anything” VERNON, with the first two bickering away as the other two watch on as the familiar scene unfolds, piping up with the occasional interjection. As the ones who take charge in rap matters, the hip hop team writes more lines for SEVENTEEN’s group songs than the other two major subunits, sometimes facing surprising challenges from producers BUMZU and WOOZI. Take the song “Campfire,” where they were tasked to “describe what would happen after handing over the letter,” or “Thinkin’ about you,” where they were asked to “describe, in rap format and without being negative, someone suddenly having fond flashbacks about a person who left them.” When the producers provide prompts that sound like they belong on a literature exam, it reveals how much trust they place in the rappers’ lyrical abilities. When it comes to unit songs, the four of them land on a theme and give themselves a fixed period in which to split up and write their own lyrics, after which they get back together to share their output and discuss. This hallmark of the hip hop team gives listeners the opportunity to enjoy the unique approach each of them takes, even when writing on the same theme, giving an even better glimpse at the same sense of freedom within the hip hop team that keeps them from dividing themselves up into main and lead rappers.

The team’s “understanding of hip hop has broadened in scope,” according to MINGYU, to include a variety of genres and messages. The early mixtapes they worked on before debuting and the hip hop team’s debut song, “Ah Yeah,” are characteristic of the intense energy that comes to mind when you first think of the genre. They continue to play with that sound on “Back it up” and “Fire,” then explore a more emotional side on “Lean On Me” that can also be heard on “IF I,” “Chilli,” and the vocal-driven “I can’t run away.” And as you might expect from a subunit of rappers, its members lean into the autobiographical even more than the rest of the group. There’s songs like “Eon Haeng Il Chi” (“30 to 100, 300, 800, then 3,000, 7,000, 13,000 right in front of my eyes”) and “Sukyeo” (“You didn’t know us three years ago / You didn’t know we’re gonna be like this”) that touch on the group’s past thoughts, feelings, and experiences, as well as “Space,” “TRAUMA,” and the hip hop team’s other SoundCloud mixtapes, all taking a look at their innermost feelings. Another unforgettable track overflowing with thorough explorations of complex emotions and good vibes is “What’s Good.” You can get an even better idea of their character by checking out “Check-In,” “GAM3 BO1,” and “Monster.”

Mixed subunits
We’ve covered this in Weverse Magazine before, but the 13 members of SEVENTEEN can be mixed and matched into 8,177 different groups of two to 12 people, each with its own background and special charm. It doesn’t matter which combination it is—thanks to all of them being incomparably talented, they’ll keep things fun, and their singing and dancing will be the best, bar none. And that’s what gives rise to mixed subunits within SEVENTEEN. We get to see the group’s mixed subunits in everything from their own official albums to appearances on SEVENTEEN’s group albums and special performances. SEUNGKWAN, DK, and HOSHI compose the official subunit BSS, spreading their positivity through songs like “Just do it” and “Fighting.” Not only has BSS gained recognition for all their songs, but another track they worked on, “The Reasons of My Smiles,” was recently featured on the popular tvN drama Queen of Tears. There’s also SVT LEADERS, made up of the three main subunits’ heads: S.COUPS (hip hop and SEVENTEEN overall), HOSHI (performance), and WOOZI (vocal). As SVT LEADERS, the three of them say the name SEVENTEEN at crucial times for the group, releasing songs like “CHANGE UP” and “CHEERS” in advance of SEVENTEEN album releases. And let’s not forget the subunits based on birth year. On the special album ; [Semicolon], we get “AH! LOVE” by the ’95z (S.COUPS, JEONGHAN, JOSHUA), “Light a Flame” by the ’96z (JUN, HOSHI, WONWOO, WOOZI), “HEY BUDDY” by the ’97z (DK, MINGYU, THE 8), and “Do Re Mi” by the Maknaez (SEUNGKWAN, VERNON, DINO), each representing different interpretations of youth.

Then there’s the aptly named randomly mixed subunits. No combination of SEVENTEEN members is ever awkward, but there can be unexpected results when certain new subunits come together to make songs and choreography—results that bring a fun new angle to the table and demonstrate even more of what SEVENTEEN’s capable of when it comes to music. Between the songs the artists did as mixed subunits on SEVENTEEN PROJECT: Debut Big Plan—pre-debut and before being assigned to the vocal, performance, and hip hop teams—and all the hidden gems on the albums the group’s put out since debuting, there’s just too much good material to list in full, but here’s a reasonably organized look:

• Team A (JEONGHAN, HOSHI, WONWOO): “NO F.U.N” (later given an official release as a SEVENTEEN song)
• Team B (S.COUPS, WOOZI, DINO): “OMG” (later given an official release by the performance team)
• Team C (JUN, DK, MINGYU): “Hello” (later given an official release with the same members)
• Team D (JOSHUA, THE 8, SEUNGKWAN, VERNON): “Drift Away” (later given an official release with other members)
  JUN, HOSHI, WONWOO, WOOZI, DK, VERNON, DINO: “Still Lonely”
• S.COUPS, JEONGHAN, JOSHUA, MINGYU, THE 8, SEUNGKWAN: “Drift Away”
• JOSHUA, HOSHI, DK, MINGYU, THE 8, DINO: “Beautiful”
• S.COUPS, JEONGHAN, JUN, WONWOO, WOOZI, SEUNGKWAN, VERNON: “I Don’t Know”
• S.COUPS, JEONGHAN, WONWOO, THE 8, SEUNGKWAN, DINO: “Flower”
• JOSHUA, JUN, THE 8, VERNON: “Network Love”

Duo subunits
While there’s something new and thrilling about each mixed subunit with three or more of the SEVENTEEN members, there’s something equally exciting but also somehow familiar and comfortable with subunits composed of just two people. When it’s just two of the members collaborating together, it’s a better reflection of their personal styles, tastes, and what they share in common. The song “Say Yes,” for example, written by SEUNGKWAN and DK during their trainee days, embodies their similar personalities, shared history, and equally outstanding vocals. It’s beautiful to see the way they bring back old memories on the big stage of when they were trainees and would hang back after group practice to sing together. Teary-eyed, the two share a beautiful moment as they sing with their pitch and emotions in perfect harmony. JUN and THE 8, both Chinese and both part of the performance team, put their very best talents to the test on “MY I.” Their dedication to bring both Korean and Chinese versions of the song to life, and the accompanying choreography where they dance together while bound by a single ribbon, says so much about the pair of artists. Oh, and, “have you heard of the HOSHI WOOZI combo?” The music and the lyrics to HOSHI and WOOZI’s song “BRING IT” reflect the long friendship between the pair since their trainee days, their pride in SEVENTEEN as leaders of its main subunits, and their love of their fandom, CARAT.

JOSHUA and VERNON’s song “Rocket” reflects how accommodating and flexible they always are. Having both been born in the United States, they show off a completely different side of SEVENTEEN in the group’s first English song, “2 MINUS 1.” JOSHUA and JEONGHAN, the two oldest members of the vocal team, demonstrate the beauty of their vocal timbre and their impressive falsetto on their track “Falling For U,” with lyrics about CARAT that reflect how warm and caring they are as people. In a first among SEVENTEEN’s duo subunits, MINGYU and WONWOO released “Bittersweet” (feat. Lee Hi) as a digital single with a music video. As a duo who spend a lot of their time together—both as members of the hip hop team and as roommates—this, surprisingly, is their first time singing together alone. This, plus the depth of the emotion between them captured in the video, has made the song very popular.

Unit reverse
Not only does SEVENTEEN explore their diverse array of strengths and selling points through different combinations of their 13 members, but they also hold a special event called the unit reverse at their fan meeting events in Korea (SEVENTEEN in CARAT LAND), where the subunits swap songs and perform each other’s tracks. The vocal team has performed performance team songs (“Jam Jam,” “MOONWALKER,” “PANG!”) and hip hop team songs (“Eon Haeng Il Chi,” “Check-In”); the performance team’s done songs from the hip hop (“Lean On Me,” “What’s Good,” “Back it up”) and vocal (“Habit,” “Chocolate”) teams; the hip hop team has performed songs by the vocal team (“Don’t listen in secret,” “Hug,” “Imperfect love”) and the performance team (“Swimming Fool,” “Lilili Yabbay”). In 2019, for their third fan meeting, the idols applied the reversal angle to mixed subunit songs and solo songs. Then, in 2022, they made one of CARAT’s wishes come true by focusing their unit reverse on the age-based subunits and their tracks off ; [Semicolon]. SEVENTEEN shows genuine passion during these reversals for the same reasons that CARAT loves to watch them: group members applying their unique style of expressing themselves to a different set of songs, changing up the lyrics, pairing them with new choreography, and more. Thanks to SEVENTEEN’s love for one another and all the time and effort they put into each subunit and unit reverse, they continue to evolve endlessly.