Battle of the B-Sides:: Seventeen: Shining Diamond

 I hope some of you figured out the group based on that last little hint that has now been fixed on Angel's post, and I hope at least one of you was able to figure out which song I decided to do. This song sits in a little bit of an interesting spot because while it does technically match the May theme, it's actually fulfilling a much bigger role. If you've been around here for a while, you may know that I've got a massive soft spot for Seventeen that started out because they're NU'EST's brothers (and was resisted for several months even though I'd already attached to SCoups because the jerk decided to shred his knee in a potentially career-ending injury right when I got into K-Pop so that injury was the second thing I learned about Seventeen and resulted in my worry being activated before I ever actually knew anything). So my attachment was inevitable. It has since grown into respect independent of NU'EST, but that's why it's surprising that it's taken me a year-and-a-half to cover one of their songs when I've done (*counts*) three NU'EST songs. Before I decided on the May theme, I decided I was going to do a Seventeen song to celebrate both their eleventh anniversary as an active group, something NU'EST didn't get, and to celebrate their achievement in becoming the biggest, longest-lasting group to have its original line-up at their third contract renewal. It felt like time. So while this song does qualify as part of the May theme, it's not the song in their discography that best or even mostly fits. I picked this instead for the celebration of contract renewal and eleventh anniversary. But the element that qualifies it for the theme is present. Also, this will be updated after all the military discharges because SCoups said he wants the next time they perform this to be with all thirteen. So look forward to that in a few years.

Seventeen debuted in 2015 with thirteen members under Pledis Entertainment. Most of their songs, including this one, were written and/or composed by Woozi, the exact middle child of the members. Every single member of Seventeen has also only been at Pledis and no other company as trainees, with most of them being picked up off the street in street casting. As a practice, I don't know how I feel about that, but I do find it funny that most of them didn't seek after Pledis specifically. Pledis found them. Much like they don't go looking for the comedy life, and yet it finds them.

Shining Diamond is the first track on their debut mini album, 17 CARAT, released in 2015, which feels like a redundant thing to say given the above paragraph, but it's fine. I'm keeping with the pattern. So, for our lyricists, we have SCoups, Vernon (Yugyeom, Omega Sapien, Tiger JK, Jamie, and Bumzu), Kim Minjung (he helped write my favorite Seventeen song!) (EXO, NCT, SHINee, TWS, The Boyz, f(x), Girls' Generation, 8TURN, Jungkey, and Melody Day), and Woozi (I.O.I, xion baek, Punch, Mad Clown, Baekho, fromis_9, Chanyeol, Bumzu, Ailee, Kanto, and Wendy), who also composed it. Other composers are LISHBEATS (Monsta X, GOT7, IZ*ONE, Golden Child, AB6IX, Yezi, JBJ, Heize, MADTOWN, Younite, Cheetah, NU'EST, and INFINITE), and Master Key (BTS, Stray Kids, Swings, Young Posse, X:IN, fromis_9, Vromance, AB6IX, TWICE, Oneus, ITZY, GOT7, NO:EL, EVERGLOW, WJSN, Dreamcatcher, The Boyz, KARD, JO1, BAE173, B.I.G, Monsta X, ASTRO, BIBI, VIXX, MAMAMOO, Swings, Girlkind, Momoland, Loossemble, MCND, Superkind, Bumkey, Secret Number, DreamNote, One Pact, Jun K, Bumkey, One Pact, VIVIZ, Weki Meki, Teen Top, GFRIEND, PinkFantasy, Kep1er, SHINee, Trendz, Saturday, 8TURN, cignature, KIIRAS, EVNNE, 2PM, Alice, DKB, Oh My Girl, MXM, Block B, Vanner, Blitzers, Primrose, BDC, CRAXY, ILY:1, Purple Kiss, THE7, Pentagon, Kim Wooseok, Weeekly, H1-KEY, B.D.U, CIX, Busters, T-ARA, Queenz Eye, LAYSHA, Cheetah, Apink, TAN, Cravity, and M.O.N.T).

I cannot tell you how often I start randomly whispering "Slip into the diamond life". Anyway, the song is good. But you know what's better? An eleven-year-old blast from the past.

This was one of three potential debut tracks from Woozi that Pledis had selected. It obviously didn't end up becoming their debut track, and the other was the song that got them their first win, but it does get the distinction of being part of their debut promotions; namely, Shining Diamond was the literal introduction of Seventeen. And this was before Carats got their name.

I'd also like to point out that After School, Pledis's first group, had their fandom name come from their debut single from a b-side, NU'EST, Pledis's second group, had their fandom name literally come out of the group name, as did TWS, the fifth group, and Seventeen, Pledis's third group, got theirs from the title of their debut album, as did Pristin, Pledis's fourth group. As a naming scheme, that's so ludicrously satisfying because it inexorably ties the fans to the group's beginning, so even if one comes late to the party, they still belong to the entire group's heritage, rather than just the era they join the fandom. 

It's also almost certainly a coincidence, but there's a close tie here to SHINee, who most if not all of the members are fans of, Hoshi most of all, but who also celebrated the important seventh anniversary the day before Seventeen debuted. 

I would just like to point out that it's such an important song for the group that it was The Song for the teaser for a concert DVD where the concert was literally named after the song.

As always, I come with receipts. There's the teaser. Despite being ludicrously broke, Pledis did their best to give a good concert for Seventeen with multiple different costumes. Considering they've now hit eleven years, I'd say that the investment was a good one.

And while we could just talk about the track, there was a video that was released as part of the pre-debut promotions that introduces each member very clearly. Thank you to the Carat who re-uploaded it after Pledis took it down at some point (and for including the lyrics and naming each member; you're the real MVP). The comments weren't super clear about exactly when this was released and where, but it was definitely part of their debut promotions because I remember them talking about the concepts on After School Club, I want to say.

Jun looks ludicrously like early TVXQ! here. And we're not going to comment on Wonwoo's hair. There's literally nothing I can say in defense of his hair. 

Anyway, this is baby Seventeen, and we get both versions of their debut concept: the original, slightly emo look that was popular at the time and then the brighter schoolboy version that they went with. This apparently was also directed by Woozi because Pledis only managed to debut the group because the vice president of the company sold his house to fund it. 

This song is such a bold declaration to say "You should pay attention to us. We come from nothing, but we already know we shine," and at debut, that's one of those things that's easy to dismiss. As I often say, where is the street cred? The thing is, though, that Seventeen had, as a group, spent roughly the past year-and-a-half with their training and bonding and effort being broadcast on what could be considered the longest kpop survival show. They didn't stroll into the industry after being hidden from view making these claims. Their progress, their failures, their survival in a company that other trainees considered "the evil company", they were all broadcast in a way that even the other debuted idols, who also struggled with intense training, implied was a bit much, as is evidenced by Suga.

Of course other idols and groups are well-trained.

Of course Seventeen is not the only group to deal with cameras during training before debut.

Of course survival shows in general are unpleasant for all the trainees involved.

If I could go to every trainee and every idol, I would tell them "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that." I knew what I would have to do to try to make it as a professional tennis player, and there were things I wasn't willing to give up, so the K-Pop trainees and idols all have my respect for that as well as my anger of some of the requirements, especially with regards to the teenagers and children.

But Seventeen is in the somewhat unique position where almost everything was streamed live for over a year, almost two in some instances, which gives them the street cred to back up their b-side claims because all that hard work was aggressively displayed. 

I have feelings about this, if you can't tell.

But there's a part that makes me smile here, and technically this would be part of the choreography, but I think I want to mention it here to lighten the mood a bit. Seungkwan has a line of "I'll give you this shining promise on your finger", and he holds a hand up. He's not holding up the left hand where a wedding ring would go; instead, he's holding up his right hand and specifically holding up his left hand to highlight his right hand, where the Seventeen ring and the promise between the members, lives. That's so soft. 

And I have to laugh that SCoups's line "I'll catch your eye" ended up being prophetic in my case. "Make everyone jealous of this body." He grew up well, let's just say. I'm not jealous, per se. Just appreciative. I'm going to pretend that I'm calm and normal about this man. It's fine.

I love the trumpet throughout this. It gives the song such a bright sound and warm energy. And if you listen to it, you can hear the strains of musical lineage from the aforementioned "most of the members are fans of SHINee" because if you listen to this and then listen to Sherlock (Clue + Note), the influence there is strong. 

I also love how The8 regularly gets very highlighted parts, even when they're small. Aurally, that spot is a shift, which makes him stand out in that way, but also the fact that he's got the cotton candy hair makes him stand out visually as well. 

The song has clever little folds where some lines are started by a different member than they end with, or lines get handed back and forth between members, and then at the end, the rappers get put together (including Dino, who SCoups wanted in the hip-hop unit because he loves the way he raps) to finish the song with an extra dose of volume and complexity at the climax interspersed with DK popping in as big vocal emphasis. Dino and Vernon, the youngest two members, are together, and then SCoups, Wonwoo, and Mingyu are together. And then there's the contrast between Woozi's high, sweet voice and Wonwoo's deeper rapping. It's a great textural contrast there as well, and it's something that comes up over and over all over this song. The rapping and the vocals are locked together so that you can't just remove one part without the other. 

It's very cleverly written and distributed to maximize the amount of impact each of the thirteen members has, even when some of those parts are smaller. Thirteen members is a lot, especially when they perform as a full group often rather than being broken up into promoting subunits. 

I also have to laugh a little bit because several of them here look like other members would look in the future. It's the classic case of spending too much time together. You know the old saying "Couples that live together start to look like each other"? It's that, but thirteen young men. 

Okay, so moving forward a few months (I think), this was part of the seven episode survival reality created between Pledis and Mnet and this performance was from the last episode, airing the day of debut. And I just realized something about that relationship and timelines, but it's not relevant, so carry on. 

If you look at their ears, they don't even have earbuds in, unlike their performances on the music shows. The rappers, as standard, have hand mics. Woozi does not (he apparently hadn't started singing along with every song yet). But not even earbuds. They're doing this about as old school as you can get, which I'd be willing to hazard a guess that they're singing this live. 

I love the progression of Woozi to Wonwoo (same age), Wonwoo to SCoups (younger rapper to elder rapper) and then SCoups to Joshua to Jeonghan (the inseparable 95z trio).

Jeonghan was so pretty at debut. I mean, he's still pretty. But Debut Jeonghan (like Debut Ren) just hits differently.

We've also got the pairing of Hoshi and Woozi (HoWoo) together a couple of times, Jun and The8 (the Chinese line) starting off the "Slip into the diamond life" parts, Vernon and Joshua (the American line) paired up in the choreography, and Wonwoo and Mingyu (roommates) paired up with their verses. You can see a lot of the "extra" subunits and groups paired up together. At one point, I think we've got BSS together as well.

I love how smiley Dino and DK are the entire time. The two of them are practically glowing, which is what you want at debut. You want brightness and energy and hope. 

There's a short scream from someone in the audience at 1:38 for SCoups and it makes me laugh. 

I also love Woozi's expressions at 2:42. He looks away and twitches an eyebrow and it's so arresting that I'm glad the cameraman caught it. 

I paused the video on :44 to talk about something else that is technically choreography related when they're stacking their thumbs, but all four of them are just grinning. You can practically see DK's molars and Woozi has his eyebrows up and you can almost see his molars too. That's such a good, joyful look on Hoshi, DK, Woozi, and SCoups. But what's cooler is that those are the original unit leaders: Performance, BSS, Vocal, and Hip-Hop. I don't know that BSS had officially formed yet, but if they hadn't, that's an impressive coincidence from Hoshi.

Both SCoups and Mingyu look a little like they stuck a finger in a socket. It's the hair. 2015 was a different time.

Fun fact: other songs that were promoting around this time were BTS's I Need U, BIGBANG's Loser, EXID's Ah Yeah (which I believe is one of the EXID songs I still need to do), EXO's Call Me Baby, UNIQ's EOEO, and SHINee's View, which was the winner for this episode of Show Champion. So Seventeen was bumping elbows with all sorts of heavyweights right at the start. 

And right at the start, Vernon proves those are live mics. He lets the backtrack take part of one of his lines, and it sounds distinctly different from when he has the mic up to his mouth. Could it be live AR? Absolutely. I'll never discount that as a possibility. But that doesn't sound like their previous performance and I doubt the company had enough money to have multiple versions of the song given the issue with the earbuds and lack of in-ears. The necessity alone inclines me toward live vocals.

Mingyu makes me laugh at 1:06. Hoshi's got him by the jaw, per the choreography, and Mingyu is singing when it is very much not his part. But the expression he's got is priceless.

I also kind of love how The8 looks in blond hair when he's backlit by blue. If I remember, I want to talk about how brilliant Hoshi is right there for the choreography, but I can't guarantee I'll remember I want to talk about it. So I'm going to briefly point out the way the lines of the formation should force your eye to The8 in the center to leave him literally highlighted. And that's the start of the bridge as well. He gets some amazing parts even if they're often small.

I'm going to talk about why I love this particular bridge later with a newer performance, but I'm really appreciative of the way the song fully just kind of stops and waits with anticipation at the bridge. The members stop moving. The instrumental settles into basically just a beat. And everything gently simmers with bright eyes and coiled ferocity.

Welcome to the aforementioned Shining Diamond Concert from 2016! They did two versions, one sweet and one dark. The concerts were the end of July, so that means that they were after they got their first win with Pretty U and also after the song Seventeen will forever be associated with: Aju Nice. This video does include the opening VCR, and I did not jump to the start of the performance because I happen to enjoy the VCRs at concerts normally. If you do want to jump to the start of the performance, that is at 1:18.

That crowd is so loud.

We've got a few tiny choreography changes, most obvious of which is the very beginning. Adding in the Seventeen hand motion is also one of those changes. But the feeling is completely different. These aren't hungry, terrified young men anymore, desperate to prove to themselves, the company, and the fans who have been watching and supporting them for years, that debuting this many was not a mistake. They are so much more settled and confident, it's ridiculous. Still hungry, but confident in their hunger and ambition now.

And I wish I had a specific moment where I was like "That's it. That's what I want to see in the progression of a group." But it's just the way they're carrying themselves. I suppose if I had to pick a spot that feels most clear, that would be at 4:28 during the bridge and then following it into the start of the final chorus.

It's really cool how the song starts with Seungkwan's end-of-the-bridge punctuated by the fireworks. It starts the song (and concert) off explosively, pun absolutely intended, and does well to keep the energy going.

Let's fast forward to 2021 and their IN-COMPLETE online concert. 

Vernon is changing up his lyrics. DK is ad-libbing to harmonize during most of the song as an ad-lib machine. SCoups has grit and power in his mature voice. Hoshi is shouting and hyping. This is Seventeen having come into their own and fully out of the rookie era.

I could use this as a dance practice since it's a static cam, even though this is from the concert. But I'm not going to because I found one I'd like to use more. I will say however that I paused at 2:10 to check leg angles, and it looks like they're all perfectly matching. I'm not pulling out the protractor to check, but just eyeballing it, they look like they're fully in sync. 

A lot of the comments are pointing out how different Vernon's line "I'm only seventeen, I only got a few dollars" hits when he's in his twenties and the group had become a double million seller. From writing this song at a broke company, their debut date repeatedly getting pushed back, not knowing if they were ever going to debut, let alone be successful, to 39 music show wins (at the time of the concert in 2021) and multiple bonsangs from multiple years and multiple award shows. 

But you know what's the better progress? They're playing on stage. DK at :25 smiles because his silly ad-libs during Vernon's rapping made Woozi laugh. We don't see that in earlier performances too much, but that's one of the things I associate with Seventeen. 

And once again, we've got the fireworks during Seungkwan's end-of-the-bridge. 

We're having to go with a fancam of Caratland 2024, but that's okay because the recording is stable, you can hear the live vocals against the backtrack, and I like the angle because I'm seeing some details I didn't notice from front on. 

Now, I've actually spent this entire time thinking that they're all singing during the bridge following The8 and Hoshi doing their "Slip into the diamond life" while Seungkwan vocalizes behind them part. I wasn't hearing a thirteen part harmony (which would have been wild and something I would never expect but that would turn me into a puddle if Woozi ever gives us that), but I was hearing at least three notes and I figured they'd gone for the full choir effect of having multiple members singing.

Nope. I was so completely wrong. That volume is from BooSeokSoon, AKA BSS, AKA Seventeen's performance leader and the two main vocalists. They tricked me into thinking it was all thirteen. Insert Doctor Who reference because "Day of the Doctor" is one of my favorite episodes because I love crossovers. My flabbers are a little bit gasted. I'm not going to lie. But I can't even be mad that they tricked me. 

But the thing about this performance is that it made me cry every time I watch that Caratland. Not as much anymore as it did the first time, but this is the last OT13 performance until they're done with the military, and if I remember correctly, other than the encore songs, this song was Jeonghan's last song with the group before he enlisted. He's down under thirty days as of posting this. 

It's at this point that I remind you that this post will be updated in several years when we've got them all back and SCoups makes good on his promise that this song will be on the setlist for whatever their first performance is as thirteen members following the military discharges for the relevant members.

You know what? Since we don't have a dance practice for this (sadness), I'm going to use this 2015 mini fanmeeting fancam.

The quality is good and we'll go back to long-haired Jeonghan. Also I need to point out the crowd singing along at the unit leaders' "하나 둘 셋 넷" and their volume at :40. I'm so happy about that.

Okay. Choreography time. 

Hoshi is the choreographer for this, so he gets full credit for this. 

I have to point out how smooth their spins are at the very beginning. I'm impressed every time I see it. They also spend a lot of time sitting on each other, but their legs have to be pretty strong to make that look so effortless. 

But this song is almost constant movement. My joints hurt just watching this, which is why it's so nice that Hoshi built into the song moments where members can rest and they don't have to have their legs flailing about as if independent from their bodies. Which, again, is most of the song.

Also the switch from Joshua to Jeonghan where Joshua replaces Jeonghan as Jeonghan turns out of the kneel he's in. It's so seamless. 

The bridge is one of the only places where they're still moving but it's calm. 

Right up until DK and Seungkwan's duet where it's such sharp movements. The group is in full full-group sync and it's so clean, and then the chaos bursts and they're once again thirteen people and it's almost too much to keep track of. 

Oh! I just remembered. The8's opening to the bridge. It actually mirrors the beginning of the song, with the members moving out of the way to reveal the whispering one, but calmer and with a lot less spinning, which matches the vibe of the bridge. Then, because of how still and slow the choreography is while The8 comes out from behind and because of how lines work, you're automatically drawn to both the movement and along the line the other members make directing your eyes to him.

And then right at the end, the other members are crouched down briefly so you register SCoups, Wonwoo, and Mingyu where they're standing, and then their movement.

And poor Dino. He's got two of the Big Boys on either of his legs in the ending position, and if SCoups or Mingyu forget to keep their weight off him, especially in more recent days where they look big and solid from the muscle, they're going to take their maknae out.

And that just won't do.

Happy Anniversary, Seventeen! I hope you've been enjoying the last eleven years. I'll come back to this post once we get the post-military performance. In the meantime, I hope everyone enjoyed this! If you want a pretty cool video, a fan did a mix with the left channel being the 2015 version and the right channel being the 2024 version from Caratland. It's fascinating to listen to.

If you've got a song you'd like me to cover, feel free to drop a comment or you can fill out The Form if you'd prefer that. Thank you for trusting me with the song. I'm happy to write them from a specific angle if you give me one. English literature major here. I like my writing prompts.

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