Close Your Eyes Sets New Standard for Audition Boy Groups

By Jieun, Baek

Apr 13, 2025

Close Your Eyes Sets New Standard for Audition Boy Groups



The rise of the group Close Your Eyes is unusual. Ten days after his debut, he broke the record of Zero Base One, which is considered the best among the survival audition groups, signaling a turmoil in the music industry.

Close Your Eyes is a team formed by JTBC 'Project 7'. It consists of seven members, including Ma Jingxiang, Jae-min, Kenshin Sakurada, Seo Kyung-bae, Song Seung-ho, Jang Yeo-jun, and Kim Sung-min.

'Project 7' ended with a low audience rating of 0.2% (Nilson Korea, based on paid platforms), but interest in Close Your Eyes was hot. The teasing content, which was released even before its debut, went viral among industry officials, and the jackpot exploded as soon as it debuted on the 2nd.




Close Your Eyes Sets New Standard for Audition Boy Groups
The debut album Eternality exceeded 100,000 album sales on the first day of its release, and surpassed 310,000 copies at the beginning, ranking fifth in the boy group's debut album at once.

In general, boy groups often focus on core fandom rather than popularity, and their record performance is superior to that of music. However, Close Your Eyes' title song 'All the Poems and Fictions in Me' recorded a chart cut to 18th place in the first week of its release on Melon's latest chart, the nation's largest music site. On the Bucks, it rose to No. 2 on the real-time chart.

The music broadcasting record is even more surprising. On the 8th, Close Your Eyes topped the music program for the first time on SBS M 'The Show'. This is the first time in six days since its debut, and it is the shortest music broadcasting record among boy groups that debuted in the 2020s. The previous record for first place was held by Zero Base One. With this momentum, on the 11th, nine days after her debut, Kluya also reached the top of KBS2 'Music Bank', beating Tours to break the record of the shortest period of terrestrial music broadcasting among boy groups debuting in the 2020s.




Close Your Eyes Sets New Standard for Audition Boy Groups
Analysts say that a clear differentiation strategy was effective in enabling Close Your Eyes to show such a steep rise.

After the success of EXO and BTS, the boy group used 'Worldview' to target fans with music, lyrics, and performances that were somewhat difficult to understand unless they were fandom. Such storytelling and sword dance have established themselves as representative images of K-pop, leading to the globalization of K-pop, but it is also true that there were limitations that the general public accepted.

However, Close Your Eyes put forward music and natural concepts that can be comfortably hummed and listened to. An extremely rare concept boy group was born that not only the fandom but also the general public could enjoy. In addition, Lee Hae-in, who produced Kiss of Life, which is considered the "last miracle of small and medium-sized", added a more sophisticated Gen Z-mi.




It is the birth of a mega-dino that has secured solid teamwork and core fandom, the strongest point of audition programs, and added popularity. Attention is focused on the records that Close Your Eyes will write in the future.



silk781220@sportschosun.com