“Ready to Love” by Seventeen

According to S.Coups, who is recognized as the overall leader of Seventeen, what the lyrics of “Ready to Love” are about is basically falling in love with a friend. And such is pretty much ascertainable even without resorting to his explanation. For instance, as the title implies, whereas the vocalist may not have been “ready to love” previously, he is now. 

And where it is overtly revealed that he and the addressee are currently “just friends” is in the first verse. Moreover, it is also in the same line that the vocalist lets it be known that he is no longer content with the friend zone of things and wants to take this relationship to another level. Or as he puts it, after actually getting acquainted with the addressee, his feelings for her “grew”.

But as for the rest of the track, it’s pretty much a straight-up love song. And besides being an expression of the vocalist’s feelings, the piece is also indicative of a fantasy he has of “run(ning) away to the other side of the world” with the addressee. So it’s like he’s shooting his shot, as some would say – or making his move in the name of romance. But at the same time he’s letting it be known that these feelings aren’t trivial.  Rather for all intents and purposes he is already in love with the addressee, with said “emotions… growing” on a daily basis. And the way he is idealizing the situation is that if she does accept his hand, it’ll be sort of a “forever” type of romantic relationship.

Thesis Sentiment of “Ready to Love”

So in terms of a thesis sentiment, we can conclude by saying that the singer is thoroughly smitten with someone who at this current point in time is a friend, not a lover. In fact he is so taken aback that he can no longer keep her feelings for her bottled up.

SEVENTEEN

Like most of their K-pop counterparts, Seventeen hails from Seoul. And the current state of the genre is such that groups tend to be a lot more popular than individual artists. So sometimes, as far as we in the Western world are concerned, certain acts may get lost in the crowd. But there are a couple of things which make Seventeen unique. For instance, the group consists of 13 members, all being males.  (We have yet to come across a co-ed K-pop group.) Also unlike most K-poppers, what reportedly makes this crew different is that they tend to produce their own music.

And on that note, now is a good time to reveal that three members of the group, Woozi, Mingyu and S.Coups, served as co-writers of “Ready to Love”. But none of the members are actually credited as producers. That distinction rather goes to Wonderkid, Bumzu and Hitman Bang. And the latter two are also co-writers, as are Danke and Kyler Niko.

Facts about “Ready to Love”

The label behind this track is Pledis Entertainment. The aforementioned Bumzu is also one of their artists, as are Seventeen.  Additionally, Hitman Bang may be an artist you’re familiar with. He has made a name for himself working for Big Hit Entertainment and more specifically contributing to the composition of quite a few BTS’s hits. 

And as far as this particular tune is concerned, on top of being co-producer and co-writer Bang is actually the founder of the company, HYBE, which owns a majority stake in Pledis Entertainment.

Seventeen, which has been around since 2015, may not be as popular as BTS, but they’re still doing their thing. This particular track, which was released on 18 June 2021, is the lead single from an EP entitled “Your Choice” which came out on the same day. And this is their ninth mini-album, with the last seven having topped South Korea’s Gaon Albums Chart.

As of the writing of this post the other members of Seventeen, besides the three aforementioned, are:

• DK
• Dino
• Hoshi
• Jeonghan
• Joshua
• Jun
• Seungkwan
• The8
• Vernon
• Wonwoo 

Apparently they have all been members since the band’s inception, as the group’s moniker translates to “13 (members) + 3 (units) + 1 (team)”. And those three subunits, as they’re referred to in K-pop, are the Performance Unit, Vocal Unit and Hip-Hip Unit. Also the writing of this post, the members of Seventeen range in age from 23 to 25, with Dino being the youngest and S.Coups the oldest. And for the record, Seventeen’s fandom are actually referred to as “Carats”.

The director of this track’s music video is Han Sa Min.