The Rise of RIIZE

RIIZE is a new 7-member K-pop boy band under the SM company. With Sungchan, Shotaro, Seunghan, Sohee, Anton, Wonbin, and Eunseok as the names of the members. They made their debut on September 4, 2023, with their ‘Get a Guitar’ M/V. They were first officially introduced by SM on July 31, 2023.

All members are young and in their prime, their age ranging from as young as 19 to as old as 23 years of age. All of them are Korean except for their youngest member, Anton, who is an American and Shotaro, who is Japanese.

Even before their debut, they were already very famous, and there were many different reasons why. Two of their members, Shotaro and Sungchan, debuted as part of NCT U on October 12, 2020. You see, NCT is a very popular K-pop band also under the SM company, and during their debut, fans were captivated by both Sungchan’s and Shotaro’s visuals and talents. They then left NCT on May 24, 2023. This was the result of them both only debuting in NCT U, a sub-unit consisting of a random selection of members to make a new released song. Without a fixed and frequent release showcasing both Sungchan and Shotaro, they were cast aside and decided to leave NCT.

As for Seunghan and Eunseok, they were also introduced as NCT members. They first planned to join NCT as a new unit of the group. However, after a few weeks without any notice from both the members and the company, fans got a post revealing the decision of Seunghan and Eunseok to debut in a new group.

Both of these interactions the members had with NCT attracted many NCT fans, or rather, NCTzens, to support them on their debuting journey. With the first release of Siren as a performance video displayed on SM’s Youtube account, views kept swarming in, making the video a trending hit. Dancers and fans both learned the dance and publicized a recording of themselves covering it. They performed on the popular Korean TV program called ‘Music Bank’, gaining attention from Korean fans.

With their rising popularity, they finally released their debut song, ‘Get A Guitar’, gaining a total of 24 million views as of September 14, 2023. Using Tiktok as a trending social media platform, they film dance covers with both influencers and dancers around the world, such as Badalee, a popular dance choreographer and dancer in SWF2, as well as Merrick and Nic Kaufmann, popular influencers on Tiktok.

With this ascending and stable popularity, some people wonder how they are going to continue their careers. Will they continue with their trending hits, or will we see their downfall later on in their K-pop idol career?