True Taste Korea

SEVENTEEN

  • Why Jeonghan and Joshua? SEVENTEEN’s New JxJ Unit Already Has Fans Guessing

    SEVENTEEN has another subunit coming.

    But this one immediately feels different.

    Jeonghan and Joshua are officially teaming up as JxJ, with their first mini album, DREAMSCAPE, arriving on October 19.

    For longtime CARATs, the pairing itself is enough to get attention.

    Both are members of SEVENTEEN’s vocal team. Both are known for softer vocal colors and delicate emotional delivery. And both have been part of SEVENTEEN since the group debuted in 2015.

    So the obvious question is:

    What happens when Jeonghan and Joshua finally make an album together?

    JxJ Is Not Just Another Random Pairing

    SEVENTEEN has always been unusually comfortable with units.

    There is BSS with Seungkwan, DK and Hoshi.

    Fans have also seen Jeonghan X Wonwoo, Hoshi X Woozi, S.Coups X Mingyu, DK X Seungkwan and other combinations explore sounds and concepts that would be difficult to fit into a full 13-member SEVENTEEN release.

    Now it is Jeonghan and Joshua’s turn.

    And their first concept already gives us a clue that JxJ may not be aiming for the obvious.

    Their mini album is called DREAMSCAPE, literally a “landscape of dreams.”

    According to PLEDIS Entertainment, the album explores two different kinds of dreams: the unconscious fantasies that appear while we sleep and the ideals we consciously try to make real.

    The two worlds collide until the line between fantasy and reality begins to disappear.

    That sounds considerably more mysterious than a simple “two vocalists singing a ballad” project.

    The First Teaser Made Fans Even More Curious

    The first JxJ teaser doesn’t explain much.

    That may be exactly why it works.

    The short visual uses a mysterious monochrome atmosphere and nature imagery before the two “J” initials overlap to create the unit’s symbol.

    There are no big spoilers.

    No obvious chorus.

    No clear genre announcement.

    Instead, fans were left trying to decode the mood.

    On Reddit, one CARAT wrote that the teaser’s aesthetic and album description gave them ambient or industrial vibes.

    Another fan simply admitted:

    “I’m so curious what their music style is going to be like.”

    That uncertainty may be JxJ’s biggest advantage right now.

    We know who Jeonghan and Joshua are.

    We don’t yet know what JxJ sounds like.

    Their Recent Solo Work Makes It Harder to Guess

    Jeonghan recently covered Japanese singer-songwriter tuki.’s hit “Bansanka,” bringing his own vocal color to the song.

    Joshua, meanwhile, released “Baby Come Home” in both Chinese and English versions.

    Neither move gives us an easy answer about DREAMSCAPE.

    If anything, they show why the pairing could be interesting.

    Jeonghan’s voice can sound light and almost dreamlike, while Joshua has a smooth tone that works naturally in softer pop.

    Put those voices inside a concept built around dreams, fantasy and reality, and JxJ could easily go in several directions.

    Dream pop?

    Atmospheric R&B?

    A vocal-heavy ballad?

    Something experimental?

    Right now, PLEDIS isn’t giving away the answer.

    SEVENTEEN’s Subunits Have Become Their Own Experiment

    There is also a bigger story behind JxJ.

    SEVENTEEN no longer needs every release to involve all 13 members doing the same thing.

    The group has increasingly used smaller combinations to show different sides of its members.

    And that strategy has already produced international results.

    S.Coups and Mingyu’s CxM unit, for example, debuted at No. 71 on the Billboard 200 with HYPE VIBES in 2025, at the time setting a new record for the highest-charting K-pop subunit on that chart.

    So JxJ isn’t starting from zero.

    It is arriving in a SEVENTEEN universe where a subunit can now become a serious project of its own.

    So Why Jeonghan and Joshua?

    Maybe that’s the wrong question.

    The better question could be:

    Why did it take this long?

    They debuted together in 2015.

    They have sung together as part of SEVENTEEN’s vocal team for more than a decade.

    Now, for the first time, fans will get to hear what happens when an entire project is built specifically around the two of them.

    And judging by the reaction to a teaser that barely revealed anything, curiosity is already doing much of the promotion.

    DREAMSCAPE arrives on October 19 at 6 p.m. KST, with pre-orders opening September 23.

    Until we actually hear the music, however, one question will probably keep following JxJ:

    What does a Jeonghan-and-Joshua album actually sound like?

    That answer may be exactly what makes this SEVENTEEN unit worth watching.

  • SEVENTEEN Made $88 Million From Touring—Just How Big Have They Become?

    SEVENTEEN just put up a touring number that is hard to ignore.

    According to Billboard’s 2026 Midyear touring data, the K-pop group grossed an estimated $88.1 million from just 25 shows, drawing approximately 574,000 fans.

    That was enough to place SEVENTEEN at No. 7 among the world’s highest-grossing tours for the first half of 2026.

    For a K-pop group already more than a decade into its career, those numbers raise an interesting question:

    Just how big has SEVENTEEN become?

    25 Shows, 574,000 Fans, $88.1 Million

    The numbers tell the story quickly.

    SEVENTEEN’s “NEW_” world tour generated $88.1 million, with 574,000 attendees across 25 concerts counted in Billboard’s midyear report.

    That works out to roughly 23,000 attendees per show on average.

    And the tour wasn’t competing only against other K-pop acts.

    Billboard’s global list included some of the biggest touring names in music, with Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and Paul McCartney occupying the top three positions.

    SEVENTEEN landed at No. 7.

    SEVENTEEN Was K-Pop’s Highest-Ranked Tour

    There was another notable detail.

    Three K-pop acts made Billboard’s global Top 15 for the period.

    SEVENTEEN ranked No. 7 with $88.1 million, TWICE came in at No. 12 with $58.3 million, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER ranked No. 15 with $53 million.

    That put SEVENTEEN at the top among the K-pop tours included in the ranking.

    On Billboard’s separate Top Ticket Sales ranking, SEVENTEEN placed No. 9.

    For a group that debuted back in 2015, that longevity may be just as interesting as the dollar figure.

    The Reddit Reaction Says Something Interesting

    SEVENTEEN fans have been watching this touring growth for several years.

    When Billboard’s 2025 midyear numbers were discussed on the SEVENTEEN subreddit, fans were already surprised by the scale of the group’s touring business. Some celebrated the fact that the group was still expanding roughly a decade after debut, while others immediately began wondering how much bigger a future tour could become.

    That enthusiasm matters because SEVENTEEN’s story doesn’t look like the typical pop-group cycle of debut, rapid peak and decline.

    Their touring power has remained substantial deep into their career.

    At the same time, not every online discussion has been uniformly positive. Other Reddit conversations in 2026 have questioned the strength of K-pop touring demand in parts of the U.S. and debated SEVENTEEN’s performance in that market specifically. Those discussions are fan interpretations rather than Billboard’s global Boxscore results, but they show that regional demand and worldwide touring scale are not necessarily the same thing.

    So, How Big Is SEVENTEEN Now?

    Maybe $88.1 million is the simplest answer.

    But the more interesting number might be 574,000.

    That’s more than half a million people attending SEVENTEEN concerts during the period counted by Billboard.

    And this isn’t a newly debuted group riding its first viral hit.

    SEVENTEEN debuted more than a decade ago.

    Yet in Billboard’s 2026 midyear touring report, they were still sitting among the world’s major touring acts.

    K-pop conversations often revolve around streams, album sales and chart positions.

    SEVENTEEN’s latest numbers offer another measurement:

    How many people will actually buy a ticket and show up?

    For SEVENTEEN, the answer in Billboard’s midyear data was 574,000 fans — and $88.1 million in ticket revenue.

    That’s a difficult number to overlook.