Since the congress, the public has known little about the development of this new subunit. This is the reason Channel-Korea released this article, because it will reveal some important things NCTzens should know about NCT Hollywood. So, without further ado, let’s check them out!
The Label of NCT Hollywood
To create NCT Hollywood, during the SM Congress 2021 Lee Soo-man revealed that SME has partnered up with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), an entertainment company located in Beverly Hills, California, USA. SME has signed a partnership with MGM Worldwide Television Group, an MGM subsidiary that is a television company. Mark Burnett, CEO of the MGM subsidiary, also gave a special message about this collaboration during the congress. Many K-pop fans and observers predict that through its partnership with MGM, SME will create a new sub-label based in the USA, similar to what SME has done with WayV (SME created Label V, its China-based subunit that also houses WayV). However, until now, this new sub-label hasn’t been established.
The Concept of NCT Hollywood
To this day, there’s no definite information about the concept of NCT Hollywood. We only know for sure that NCT Hollywood is a regional-based subunit, same as WayV. The difference lies only in their region. If WayV is based in China, then NCT Hollywood will be based in the USA. Since it’ll be based in the USA, NCT Hollywood will target Western audiences, specifically Americans.
The Members of NCT Hollywood
As a USA-based group, NCT Hollywood will have American male members, aged between 13 and 25 years old. SME will create an American survival show to find the member they’re looking for. The survival show will be called K-pop Goes Hollywood, and will be broadcast in the USA by MGM Worldwide Television Group in mid to late 2022. In July 2021, online media reported that through the survival show, participants of the show will compete against 21 other participants. The goal of this survival show is to find one winner a.k.a. the 24th member of NCT, the one who can “survive” the longest during the show. This news is still very unclear though, because some media reported that through the survival show, SME will be looking for 23 new members of NCT Hollywood. There are also rumors saying that SME won’t be looking for American members, but Asian-American members (especially East Asian-American members), so that they can communicate more easily in both English and Korean. Some rumors also say that the existing Asian-American members of NCT like NCT 127’s Johnny will also join NCT Hollywood.
The Trainers and Mentors of NCT Hollywood
When the show is over and the winner has been found, the winner will become a trainee. This winner then will fly to Seoul, South Korea, and train at the SM boot camp. At the boot camp, the winner will learn whatever he needs to become a K-pop idol, including dancing and rapping skills, voice technique, Korean culture, work ethics, Korean language, the hustle and bustle of K-pop, etc. The winner will get rigorous lessons and training from Lee Soo-man and trainers who have worked with other SME artists. Furthermore, at the SM Congress 2021, NCT 127’s Doyoung also confessed his interest in directly training the new members. He said that he’s a little nervous when mentoring the new member, but he’s also excited as well. Doyoung, with other NCT and WayV members Mark and Kun, said that they are looking forward to the new member. They’ll be very happy to share their experiences of being K-pop idols.
Some Popular Opinions About NCT Hollywood
After SM Congress 2021 was aired digitally through SME’s official YouTube channel, many NCTzens, gave their opinions about NCT Hollywood. Most of them responded negatively to the decision. Here are some posts, tweets, and memes released by NCTzens and media related to NCT Hollywood.
— yves (@jaehyunskeef) July 2, 2022
— D͎I͎A͎ C͎O͎M͎E͎B͎A͎C͎K͎ (@ParkBomsVocalss) July 2, 2022
— M (@myloxnyloto) June 26, 2022
— ًnique (@aericzennith) June 26, 2022 https://twitter.com/bikseustar/status/1542587095478587392
— MySpace (@secrets_uknow) June 30, 2022 https://twitter.com/10velysneedso10/status/1540596754487250944 https://twitter.com/mikeyzzn/status/1541608389821841408
— #LIMITLESSHIVE (@aeyisuh) July 1, 2022 It seems that NCTzens thought that SME made this decision hastily. They believe that SME should maximize the potential of the existing NCT subunits and improve its own management first before expanding NCT to the USA. They also regretted SME’s decision, especially since SME said they wanted to expand NCT to North America. In fact, NCT 127 has been working hard to make English songs and hold concert tours in North America. Also, NCT 127 is the group that SME pushes the hardest to gain Western audiences, harder than any existing SME boy and girl groups. NCTzens believe that if SME wants to expand NCT to the West, then SME should promote NCT 127 more and provide the group with more chances to release more English songs. This would be a better decision to make, than deciding to debut another new subunit. NCTzens also address several issues that exist across all NCT subunits, including: SME should resolve these problems first before creating another subunit, NCTzens said. Some NCTzens also believe that if NCT Hollywood had all-American members, then they would be just the same as other Western boy groups like Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Westlife, and NSYNC. The subunit will lose its Korean essence. Then, people will be confused about whether the subunit can be considered a K-pop group or not. Although the members will be trained in South Korea, it would be hard for people to tell that the group is a K-pop group, especially when they release all of their songs in English. That’s all that you need to know about the latest information about NCT Hollywood! So, what do you think about the new subunit? Do you think that this subunit can be successful in the Western music industry?
