[CELEB] Tomorrow X Together shows its darker side in new album

K-pop

Published: 11 May. 2022, 13:58 Updated: 11 May. 2022, 15:16

[CELEB] Tomorrow X Together shows its darker side in new album

The members of Tomorrow X Together pose during Monday's showcase event for its new EP "minisode 2: Thursday's Child." [BIG HIT MUSIC]

The five members of boy band Tomorrow X Together — Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and Hueningkai, with their names officially stylized in all capital letters — are the center of an awful breakup, but they refuse to back down in new song “Good Boy Gone Bad.”

With a mix of rock and hip-hop sounds, it was dubbed a “Gen Z breakup song” by the members themselves during a showcase event on Monday. It’s the lead track for the band’s new EP “minisode 2: Thursday’s Child,” which dropped the same day.

“minisode 2: Thursday’s Child” follows “minisode1: Blue Hour” (2020), which dealt with the isolation and emotionlessness from the perspective of a teenager during the pandemic. “minisode 2: Thursday’s Child,” on the other hand, is much darker and expresses the rage felt from a breakup.

The music video for Tomorrow X Together's newest song "Good Boy Gone Bad" [HYBE LABELS YOUTUBE]

According to local album sales tracker Hanteo Chart, the EP sold a total of 918,413 copies on that day alone.

“Tomorrow X Together is the only K-pop group to sell more than 900,000 copies on the first day of an album’s release since BTS,” agency Big Hit Music said in a statement.

It’s already well past the numbers for the band’s previous release, the second full-length album “The Chaos Chapter: Freeze” (2021), which took a full week to sell 630,563 copies.

“minisode 2: Thursday’s Child” also topped the Worldwide iTunes Album chart as well as the iTunes Albums charts in 43 regions on Tuesday, with “Good Boy Gone Bad” topping iTunes song charts in 19 countries.

Tomorrow X Together debuted with the EP “The Dream Chapter: Star” (2019). From left: Beomgyu, Taehyun, Yeonjun, Soobin and Hueningkai [BIG HIT MUSIC]

Tomorrow X Together debuted in March 2019 with the EP “The Dream Chapter: Star.” The band received attention from the media as Big Hit Music’s second boy band, following the global phenomenon BTS.

The band has seen steady success from the start, sweeping numerous new artist awards or rookie artist awards at the Golden Disc Awards, Melon Music Awards, Gaon Chart Music Awards and the Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2019.

The band is known for its lengthy, descriptive Korean song titles — for instance, the lead track for its debut EP is called “Crown” (2019) in English, but its Korean name translates to “One day, a horn grew on my head.”

Its other songs, “9 and Three Quarters (Run Away)” (2019) is named “Waiting for you at platform nine and three-quarters” in Korean, “Can’t You See Me” (2020) is “The night the world burned down, we…” and “Blue Hour” (2020) is “You and I who were discovered at the sky of 5:53.”

A concept photo for "minisode 2: Thursday's Child" (2022) [BIG HIT MUSIC]

The title and lyrics of each song have been introduced by the members in interviews to be narratives that usually relate to the growing pains in the life of a teenager, like the process of falling in love or feeling neglected in a friendship.

“We try to tell stories only we can tell, so I think our albums to date naturally have contained a lot of emotions and thoughts from the teen perspective,” Yeonjun told Rolling Stone in June last year.

Such stories proved to be successful in touching the hearts of its fans, MOA, which stands for “Moments of Alwaysness.” The band has established a reputation in the media, by outlets like Rolling Stone and NME, as the “it boys” of K-pop, to being an iconic representation of fourth generation K-pop groups.

Yeonjun (stylized as YEONJUN) of Tomorrow X Together [BIG HIT MUSIC]

YEONJUN (Choi Yeonjun)

Date of birth: Sept. 13, 1999
Zodiac sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Undisclosed
Debut: March 2019 through the EP “The Dream Chapter: Star”
Agency: Big Hit Music

Yeonjun, officially stylized as YEONJUN, debuted as the eldest member of boy band Tomorrow X Together in March 2019 through the EP “The Dream Chapter: Star.” Yeonjun is an all-around entertainer: he can dance, sing, rap and produce songs. Some songs in which he is included as a composer or lyricist are Tomorrow X Together’s “Maze in the Mirror” (2020), "MOA Diary (Dubaddu Wari Wari)" (2021), “LO$ER=LO♡ER” (2021) and its latest song “Good Boy Gone Bad.” Yeonjun has also collaborated with other artists and featured on their songs, like in boy band Enhypen’s “Blockbuster” (2021) and American singer Salem Ilese’s “PS5” (2022). Currently, he is one of the hosts for SBS’s weekly music ranking show “Inkigayo” (2000-).

This information was confirmed by Big Hit Music on May 9, 2022.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]