MUSIC
&TEAM is on a roll with the ‘Wolf’ concept created by Hive.
&TEAM (Uiju, Fuma, Kei, Nicholas, Yuma, Joe, Harua, Taki, Maki) released their first full-length album 'First Howling: NOW' on the 15th and actively promoted with the title song 'War Cry', earning K- It is leaving a strong impression on the pop fandom. The nine members established an unrivaled position with the 'wolf' concept and showed a shining presence in the 'November Comeback Battle'.
&TEAM demonstrated what ‘music that is fun to watch’ is by unfolding the powerful subject of ‘wolf’ through performance and visuals. The performance of 'War Cry' intuitively revealed the concept centered on the 'Wolf Pack' choreography reminiscent of a pack of wolves, including crouching poses and roaring appearances. The music video effectively expressed the song's concept while providing visual fun with a full moon, eye glow in the dark, and animation-like set composition. In addition, &TEAM increased its impact through detailed design, such as creating a full moon with lighting in performance-related content such as Mnet Digital Studio M2's 'STUDIO CHOOM'.
The nine members' outstanding digestion skills were added here, doubling the song's appeal. &TEAM studied rock vocalization for 'War Cry', which is based on powerful rock sound, and completed 'Hive-style synchronized dance' based on flashy large changes and dynamic movements. In addition, they overwhelmed everyone's attention with their unconventional visuals, such as their gorgeous hair color and colored lenses, and their lively facial expressions.
As a result, &TEAM succeeded in imprinting the iconic image of 'wolf'. Recently, in the K-pop community, the story of becoming a fan of &TEAM is changed to “start howling from today” or “become a wolf,” etc., or the members are nicknamed “wolf” (wolf + prince), etc., expressing their concept. A new meme using is attracting attention.
The 'wolf' concept is &TEAM's identity that has been established since the team's debut trailer. In their debut trailer, they pledged solidarity, a 'wolf' habit, with the narration, "The howling of colleagues turns into strength," and through this first full-length album, the nine boys are fully prepared to overcome their fears and speak louder. talks about the beginning of The narrative gradually expanded from the debut trailer to the first full-length album.
&TEAM also created an organic connection between albums, such as using the ending pose of their debut song 'Under the skin' in their 'War Cry' performance. This is a culmination of the storytelling know-how of Hive, represented by BTS, Tomorrow This resulted in a remarkable fandom expansion.
&TEAM's trend is also confirmed by numbers. As of noon on the 28th, the number of subscribers to the official community of &TEAM global fandom life platform Weverse is close to 850,000. This ranks 9th in the number of subscribers among boy groups in the Weverse community, and &TEAM is also the least senior group among the 'Top 10' boy groups.
Meanwhile, &TEAM will perform on the '2023 MAMA AWARDS' held on the 28th. Attention is focused on the first awards ceremony performance of the year, which will be performed by those who are renowned for their 'Hive-style sharp group dance'.
Reporter Junho Yoon, Ten Asia delo410@tenasia.co.kr
