FTIsland

Delivering riff-driven anthems infused with pop appeal, Korean rock outfit FTISLAND diverged from the prevailing K-pop template embraced by peers through their expressive 2007 debut Cheerful Sensibility, which assembled expansive ballads alongside stadium-scale singalongs. Balancing output in both their native Korea and Japan, the band issued more than a dozen projects throughout the 2010s, among them three number-one albums: Five Treasure Box (2012), I Will (2015), and Where's the Truth? (2016).

Assembled under FNC Entertainment (CNBlue, SF9), FTISLAND—its initials denoting “Five Treasure” in reference to the founding five members—originally featured vocalist Lee Hong-gi, bassist Lee Jae-jin, rapper/guitarist Oh Won-bin, multi-instrumentalist Choi Jong-hoon, and drummer Choi Min-hwan. The quintet launched its first album, Cheerful Sensibility, in June 2007; a December reissue titled The Refreshment added three fresh tracks. As visibility extended across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, the group entered Japan via the debut EP Prologue of F.T. Island: Soyogi. Subsequent years saw alternating releases between the two markets, with Colorful Sensibility and its follow-up Colorful Sensibility, Pt. 2 appearing in 2008, followed by the Japanese-language debut So Long, Au Revoir and a third Korean album, Cross & Change, in 2009. That same year also saw the short-lived creation of sub-group FT Triple, while Oh Won-bin exited and was succeeded by rapper/guitarist Song Seung-hyun.

Chart momentum intensified by 2011, delivering the band’s first in a string of consecutive number-one releases with the Japanese-language bestseller Five Treasure Island. Korea’s Five Treasure Box arrived the following year and ranks as the group’s second-highest-selling album. Focusing temporarily on Japan, FTISLAND produced one Top 10 album annually: 20 (Twenty) in 2012, Rated-FT in 2013, and New Page in 2014. Their official Korean return in 2015 with the fifth studio album coincided with growing audiences in Europe and the Americas; I Will entered the Billboard World Albums chart at number seven while leading the Korean rankings. During that campaign they also issued the Japanese collection 5.....Go. The pattern continued with paired releases in 2016 (Where’s the Truth? and N.W.U.) and 2017 (Over 10 Years and United Shadows). Further Japanese activity closed the decade via Planet Bonds (2018) and Everlasting (2019). In the month of the latter album’s release, Choi Jong-hoon departed, leaving the lineup at four members. ~ Neil Z. Yeung