OVERVIEW
nrg is a south korean boy group that debuted on 10/28/1997 with their album 'new radiancy group'. they rivaled against other groups such as H.O.T, taesaja, and sechskies. with seven regular albums theyve sold over 1,092,541 copies and sold 3 million copies in China. their fan club number is 140,000 in Korea, making them one of the top 10 male idol teams, and to this day, they are called the beginning of Korean Wave idols.
BEFORE
before nrg, sungjin and myunghoon debuted as duo named 'hamohamo' under music factory entertainment. it is known that sobangcha members helped produce the album. while hwansung was in a co-ed group 'kkaebi kkaebi', yoomin and sunghoon were backdancers for hamohamo, they had intented for them to get better stage and dance practice -- it was actually myunghoon who convinced hwansung to join NRG, and yoomin ended up knowing him before debut. after the group was formed they named it NRG 'new radiancy group' meaning ‘newly shining and brilliant group’
EARLY DEBUT
Their first album sold a whopping 400,000 copies and they were notified of being nominated for first place, but unfortunately, the IMF broke out at that time and the music broadcast ranking system disappeared, so unfortunately they did not get first place. Since then, Kim Hwan-seong has always said in broadcasts and magazine interviews that sowon is number one on music shows. Moreover, from this point on, the clothing regulations for idol broadcasting were strengthened, and among the members, Kim Hwan-seong , who had particularly long hair , would often go on stage wearing a wig.
illegal sampling + theft?
NRG's early songs sampled or stole foreign Eurobeat genre songs without permission. There appears to have been no agreement with the original composer, and the name of the original composer is not indicated in the booklet. Most of these are songs included in the SUPER EUROBEAT series released in Japan between 1996 and 1997 . In the 90s, Eurobeat was not known at all in Korea, and plagiarism and unauthorized sampling were bad practices throughout the music industry, with not only NRG but also other groups plagiarizing in similar ways, so this fact was often forgotten. In the end , this problem began to become known only after NRG group activities ended, and in addition, NRG's early songs were not composed by NRG members, and from the 3rd album onwards, the members themselves increased their participation in the album and produced songs of a unique style. Therefore, you should never criticize the members. However, many of the songs the members participated in sampled other songs. A representative example is (hit song) written and composed by Myung-Hoon
ENTERING CHINA
in 1998,nrg visited china for a celebration performance commemorating the 6th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea ad ChinaV and the response at the time was quite sensational. Chinese people who saw NRG's performance were amazed by their performance, and in response to this, NRG began activities in China in earnest in 1999. The result was a huge success. From this point on, the Korean pop music industry began to gradually show signs of expanding overseas. In other words, NRG was the first representative Korean Wave star to enter the Greater China region. In fact, in the Greater China region, NRG enjoyed greater popularity than the most popular groups in korea.. they ened up making chinese versions of songs. that is why they have so many chinese interent fans on her these days! although It is said that they were originally planning to enter Japan. If they had advanced to Japan as originally planned, they may not have achieved as much success as they did in China, but at least Kim Hwan-seong would not have died, so there are many opinions that it is unfortunate in many ways.
MYUNGHOON & SUNGJIN DEPARTURE
at the end of august in year 1999 a press conference was held to announce the departure of myunghoon and sungjin. during the press conference, sungjin stated "It was not a team feud, but Cheon Myung-hoon and I voluntarily leaving the group , and the 3rd album was performed as a three-member system of Moon Seong-hoon, Noh Yu-min, and Kim Hwan-seong". After leaving the group, there was a rumor that Lee Seong- jin and Cheon Myung-hoon had to leave the group because they asked the CEO to change their costumes, but after being rejected, they got angry and tore up their expensive costumes in front of the CEO. However , this is not true. Lee Seong-jin, the main vocalist , left immediately , and Cheon Myung-hoon was also a member who shared the remaining high notes with Kim Hwan-seong. Since these two left at the same time, Moon Seong-hoon was in charge of rapping and Noh Yu-min participated in both rapping and singing, but Kim Hwan-seong, who was the most anxious about live performances because he was strong in the visual aspect, was left alone. It was a big burden for Kim Hwan-seong to carry it alone, so in a way, this was expected. In fact, when Seongjin Lee left the group , there were many concerns among fans about who would be the main vocalist . In the end, the main vocalist was Kim Hwan-seong. Even though the album's performance was not very good, it showed overall improvement in vocal skills compared to the first and second albums.
SAD & SUDDEN DEATH OF HWANSUNG
sadly after wrapping up the promotions of the third albums, kim hwanseong was hospitalized after falling ill, 5 days later he was taken off of life support after being confirmed 'brain dead' which shocked the nation(for respecting purposes i will not go into full detail.. as it is very triggering)
SORROW
in 2001, nrg released an album dedicated towards hwansung, It is also an album that the members consider the most meaningful album in that they remember Kim Hwan-seong and come together again. The title song, sorrow, was written and composed by Kangta , and was chosen after Kangta , whom Kim Hwan-seong particularly liked, offered to write the song first. It is said that he decided that a song given by his friend Kangta , rather than a composer he did not know well, would best serve the purpose of the album. Starting with this album , songs composed by Myung-Hoon Chun began to appear, and as the members' participation became more active, the color of NRG , which had gradually changed since the 3rd album , completely changed. The Eurobeat genre had disappeared The official last performance was on SBS's Inkigayo on October 28, 2001, and since that day was the 4th anniversary of their debut, a fan meeting for the 4th generation of cheonjaeillwoos was held prior to the broadcast recording.
HIT SONG
in early 2003, the album 'hit song' with the hit single as the same name, in fact it is sampled from boney m's 'happy song'. Although it was promoted as a double title song with Forgiveness, it was promoted briefly as a ballad, and it was a hit song and became a big hit. Of course, even though Forgiveness was only promoted briefly, it was popular, and the follow-up song Haru also received a good response. during this era it was revealed that hamohamo's (myunghoon + sungjin) departure was not their idea at all, and that they were not allowed to renew their contract due to the fact that they were a duo before debut.
2005-2006
after sunghoons departure in 2004, nrg went on to release nother album in 2005, although it didnt do as well as the previous albums, it is still a memorable album. NRG Group activities have been discontinued since 2006 (besides the reunion comeback). Although they have not officially declared disbandment, they have stopped working under the name of NRG and are going their separate ways.