On the same day we heard the sad news of X1’s disbandment came happier news that Treasure, the group formed by YG Entertainment via the survival show, “Treasure Box,” will finally debut after a year spent locked in YG’s Treasure Box.
I don’t know whether YG’s CEO at the time, Yang Hyun Suk, had any plans to actually debut the group. He had an alleged history of taking easy money from survival shows and gambling it away, leaving his groups in the lurch. He was forced to resign last year after a series of scandals.
Since then there have been some changes to the Treasure concept, with the boys finally being allowed to write their own music. The group, originally to be called Treasure13, a combination of the two units formed from the show, Treasure and Magnum, will now consist of one 12-member unit called Treasure.
Ha Yoon Bin’s profile photo from May 2019. He left YGE last month to pursue a solo career.
Members of the original Treasure unit are Haruto, Bang Ye Dam, So Jung Hwan, Kim Jun Kyu, Park Jeong Woo, Yoon Jae Hyuk and Choi Hyun Suk,
Members of the original Magnum unit are Mashiho, Kim Do Young, Yoshinori, Park Ji Hoon, Asahi, and Ha Yoon Bin, a rapper who left the company last month to launch a solo career.
Treasure is set to debut this month. Looking forward to seeing what they will come up with.
By Nadine Kam I When I started watching “YG Treasure Box I had no intention of getting completely sucked in by it. I assumed it would be like any other American talent competition in which I never formed any kind of attachment to the contestants.
I just thought it would be interesting to watch the process that trainees go through en route to Kpop stardom. I knew it would be brutal, but intensity of the TV competition also turned out to be downright cruel, especially when friends teamed up because they thought they would be performing as a duo, only to find out later they would be in a competition with each other to stay or leave.
I’ve become quite accustomed to crying over the trials of idols I already know, but it was new to be crying over and worrying about these strangers I got to know over 10 weekly episodes.
The difference between the Korean and American shows is that in this country, there is the feeling that there is an element of luck involved in becoming a successful performer. You can work hard, but unless you get that lucky break or meet the right person, you may continue to work in obscurity. But you will be able to find work. There is also the feeling that if you don’t make it, you can find success on some other path. In Korea, these individuals train toward their goals from childhood, like elite athletes who give up friendships, love, normal schooling and other activities to make it in the industry. Because they give up so much, there is a feeling that they can’t reclaim that time or change course easily if they don’t succeed. Their destiny rests in only a handful of entertainment companies and the pain and anxiety they feel is palpable.
There were 29 candidates up for what would become seven spots in YG’s next boy band, and they were all so talented.
A couple were obvious choices who made it to the final team, such as the sweet voiced six-year YG veteran Bang Ye Dam, and the YG Japan team’s Haruto, a baritone rapper who sounds like YG’s rival to BTS’s Kim Taehyung, known throughout the industry for his deep, sultry voice, unusual in the high-pitched world of Kpop.
Many people were rooting for Treasure J’s Mashiho, who is shown in this video wearing a pastel sweater. Now that I watch this video again, maybe his voice is too close in tone to Ye Dam’s for them to be in the same group.
Along the way I appreciated the talents of the Team J’s Keita and Mashiho, and prayed there would be a spot for talented rapper, singer, dancer Choi Hyun Suk, who seemed to get verbally pounded by the main producer Yang Hyun Suk at every turn. It made me sad to see this bright boy crying so much.
Seeing Hyunsuk cry is so heart-breaking.
I thought my ordeal and the suspense over who would make the final team would be over when the program ended Jan. 18. But to keep the attention and hype going, The company took a week longer to announce the winners one at a time, every other day. The waiting was killing me because I was so invested in seeing Hyun Suk, a three-year trainee win a spot.
When the show ended, we were left with four winners: the expected Ye Dam and Haruto, Junkyu, and unbelievably to fans, newer trainee So Jung Hwan, who beat out much more polished Team A treasures, called the Silverboys. They are talented individuals who had spent the most time as YG trainees.
How fans felt about YG producer Yang Hyun Suk due to the show’s outcome.
Even then, all hell was breaking loose for YG, with friends calling for the agency to debut all the Silverboys they had been rooting for since the start of the competition and calling for #justiceforsilverboys.
The first of the post-show winners to be announced was another young trainee, Park Jeong Woo. There were few quibbles over his selection. Though green, he has a pretty voice and the kind of sweet disposition that drives fans to want to take care of him. Plus, there were two spots left for my favorites, Hyun Suk and wildly popular Mashiho.
Baritone rapper Haruto had an easy victory, performing here as a team with Park Jeong Woo.
But all hope was dashed with the next unpopular announcement of Soon Jae Hyuk. Nobody could see what he could contribute to the team. He was ranked last in the first assessment of the competition. Even toward the end, he had trouble singing the right notes. And although a lot of the other trainees thought he might have been selected as a visual, I don’t consider him good looking at all, and neither do most international fans from what I have read in IG and Twitter comments.
Choi Hyun Suk rap battle against his friend Jung Jun Hyuk.
By this point I had nearly lost hope that Hyun Suk would make it because the producer seemed to be favoring younger, newer trainees. I thought if the choice came down to him or Mashiho on this basis, Mashiho would win. The only case for Hyun Suk would have been his status as a rapper in a lineup that at that point only had one rapper. I crossed my fingers.
As soon as Jaehyuk was named the sixth member, the pleas for Mashiho flooded YG’s IG feed. Oh there was plenty of venom too. Edited images of the YG building going up in flames, and the burning of Yang’s photo, etc. They threatened to abandon YG and the Treasures and vowed to follow Big Hit’s new boy group TXT instead.
Sadly, Team J’s Keita (in blue) was sent home all too soon because he chose to take on the No. 1 rank singer Bang Ye Dam. He thought there was no honor in the easy victory of challenging weaker members.
I hope there is a secret plan to debut two bands at the same time. Certainly the Team A treasures are all so deserving and were a tight, ready-to-debut ensemble before the series ever started.
Finally, the last announcement came yesterday and Choi Hyun Suk was named as the last member. I was so happy and stayed up until 2 a.m. to watch them come together and talk about their experience on Vlive. By the time I went to bed an hour-and-a-half later, they had generated 1.1 million views and more than 10 million hearts, phenomenal numbers for a group that has yet to debut.
By Nadine Kam I YG Entertainment, one of the big three K-pop star makers opens the doors to its brutal training program via its reality survival series “YG Treasure Box,” which has racked up 25 million international views in its third week.
The series shows YG CEO/producer Yang Hyun Suk going through the process of selecting members for YG’s first new boy group in four years, from the company’s so-called “Treasure Box” of 29 promising trainees. From this field, only five to seven will make the final cut.
Treasure Box A’s performance of Wanna One’s “Energetic.”
Each trainee is already assigned to a group. Group A comprises long-term trainees. Singer Bang Ye Dam and Kim Seung Hun have the dubious distinction of being YG trainees the longest, at six and nine years, respectively. At that point, with advancing age, there must be the worrisome doubt as to whether one will ever debut.
Group B consists of relative newcomers to the company, with the least amount of experience. They reflect the company’s new initiative in putting a focus on beauty first, with Yang saying that YG had passed on too many success stories such as Rain, by focusing first on ability over looks.
Group C are the youngest and most uninhibited, at ages 14 and 15.
Group J was a surprise hidden team, arriving from Japan.
YG photos Only about five to seven of 29 hopefuls will be selected for YG’s next boy band.
The series shows the company’s grueling assessment sessions in which each member performs before a panel of judges and their fellow trainees. It often pits trainee against trainee in categories of voice, rap and dance. It’s impossible to not feel for the trainees who often lose confidence in light of the competition for a limited number of debut spots.
When they fail to meet expectations, they can be brutally dismissed from the company, walking out the door on the spot after perhaps years of training. One member—though a talented vocalist—felt the pressure and chose to leave after spending 2-1/2 years in the trainee program. I can only hope some other company might reach out to him, because he is certainly deserving of the spotlight.
It must be so frustrating to be in that type of situation. It was the type of circumstance that pitted BTS’s Kim Taehyung and Park Jimin against each other for so long and had them depressed because neither was certain he would debut. Tae was said to be a secret member, though fans are uncertain whether that meant he was kept under wraps because of extraordinary beauty that would wow the industry when he first showed his face, or whether that meant producers were unsure he would make the cut. His lyric baritone voice is certainly unusual in K-pop, which favors tenors. That made him a bit of a risk to cast, but certainly rewarding to Big Hit Entertainment in the long run.
Bang Ye Dam has waited six years to debut.
As expected, group A put on the best live performance for the judges. They are so polished, I thought they are all so deserving and could easily debut as a group right now. But they could not escape the vagaries of the company’s producers. It broke my heart to see them split apart when they are already a pretty tight family.
At the end of the third episode, two trainees each were selected from groups B and J for Team Treasure. Three more were selected from both groups A and C.
Watch to see what happens next. YG artist BlackPink will appear in the next episode to offer input. Episodes air 10 p.m. Friday nights (KST) on Naver’s V Live, and again two hours later at midnight on YouTube.
