The Star (stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by Japanese boy band JO1, formed through the reality competition show Produce 101 Japan. It includes all songs from their previous EP singles, Protostar and Stargazer. Lapone Entertainment released the album in four editions on November 25, 2020, with "Shine a Light" serving as the promotional single. It features works by South Korean producers and producing teams, such as KCKT, , 13, Hui, Yoske, among others.
To promote the album, the group performed in several awards ceremonies and year-end music shows, and member Junki Kono did two solo performances on the music YouTube channel The First Take. The group also held online concerts Starlight on December 19, 2020, and Starlight Deluxe on February 20, 2021. The concerts drew over 240,000 viewers from 40 countries and regions.
The album debuted at number two on the Oricon Albums Chart and Billboard Japan Hot Albums, just behind BTS's Be. It was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for over 100,000 units in shipments.
Background and release Seven months after their debut, on October 5, 2020, JO1 held a press conference at Tokyo's Esports Ginza Studio to announce the release of their first studio album, The Star, and their first online concert, Starlight. In keeping with the theme of their previous release, the album's concept images were unveiled on the same day and featured the members dressed in light-colored star-studded costumes, expressing their "shining selves".
The album was released in four editions on November 25, 2020, with seven new songs as well as all songs from previous EP singles, Protostar and Stargazer. The three limited editions (Red, Blue, Green) each has 15 tracks, including "Starlight", "Shine a Light", and a new song that is unique to each edition. The limited edition Red comes with a bonus DVD called JO1 Party, which is a talk segment with the members. The limited edition Green and Blue come with a photo book and an accordion card, respectively. The normal edition comes with a solo poster and features 19 tracks, including all new songs in the limited editions and JO1 version of Produce 101 Japan "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" and "Happy Merry Christmas". It was also released in digital format for streaming and download.
Promotion To celebrate the album's release, JO1 organized a live stream event on their official YouTube channel that day. They also appeared in a special episode of Music On! TV and released their second official Line sticker set. JO1 later released performance videos for "Safety Zone" and "Monstar", both directed by .
JO1 promoted the album by performing "Shine a Light" in several television shows, including the 2020 FNS Music Festival on December 2, 2020. They also performed it alongside "Infinity" at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards Japan and the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) where they won the Rising Star Award and the Best New Asian Artist, respectively. In December, member Junki Kono performed an acoustic solo rendition of "Infinity" and "Voice" on the music YouTube channel The First Take. Both songs were later released as digital singles on January 13, 2021. On February 25, JO1 made their debut performance in South Korea by appearing on M Countdown. On February 28, JO1 headlined for Tokyo Girls Collection for the second time in a row, performing songs from the album. From November 3 to December 6, 2020, a special exhibition titled JO1 Museum: The Star was held sequentially at six HMV Museums across the country.
Singles The album's lead single Protostar was released on March 4, 2020, marking JO1's debut. It was released as an extended play with "Infinity" as the lead track. The single reached number one on the Oricon Singles Chart and Billboard Japan Hot 100 and was certified Platinum by the RIAJ. Earning an estimated 640 million yen, the single helped JO1 become the second best-selling new artist on the Oricon chart in the first half of 2020.
Stargazer was released as the album's second single on August 26, 2020. The single continued the group's number one position on the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts. The music video of its lead track "Oh-Eh-Oh", which was released with the theme of teenagers in distress, portrays members of JO1 fighting against a mysterious group as high school students. Hui of South Korean boy group Pentagon co-produced the song.
The music video for the promotional single "Shine a Light" was released on November 10. Yasuhiro Arafune directed the music video, with "intersecting space-time" as the concept. It depicts the members walking around the same intersection in a fictional city, divided by time and era, with a shining light as the only link between the different timelines. The song peaked at number fifty-eight on the Japan Hot 100.
Concerts Starlight
Starlight (stylized as JO1 1st Live Streaming Concert "Starlight") was the first online concert by JO1, held on December 19, 2020, via . The concert lasted two hours and twenty minutes and included talk and game segments. It attracted an estimated 120,000 viewers from 30 countries and regions besides Japan, including the United States, Australia, China, South Korea, and Indonesia. The concert was broadcast on TBS' cable television channel on January 31, 2021, featuring an exclusive behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with the members.
The set list for the show was the following: "Shine a Light" "Monstar" "Kungchikita" (JO1 ver.) "GrandMaster" (JO1 ver.) "Happy Merry Christmas" (JO1 ver.) "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" (JO1 ver.) "Go" "Oh-Eh-Oh" "Tsukame (It's Coming)" Encore "Be With You" "Infinity"
Starlight Deluxe
Starlight Deluxe (stylized as JO1 Live Streaming Concert "Starlight Deluxe") was the second online concert by JO1, held on February 20, 2021. It was live streamed from Paju, South Korea. The show, themed around the group's journey into space, in space with the group, featured a longer set list, a series of spacecraft-themed VCRs, and a live band. It was viewed by more than 120,000 people from 40 countries and regions, including Japan, the United States, Australia, South Korea, Thailand, India, and France. The band versions of "Oh-Eh-Oh" and "Grandmaster" were released as digital singles on August 8, 2021.
The set list for the show was the following: "Shine a Light" "Monstar" "Running" "Go" "Yancha Boy Yancha Girl" (JO1 ver.) "My Friends" "Young" (JO1 ver.) "Voice" "Be With You" "Tsutaerareru Nara" "Safety Zone" "So What" "Grandmaster" (Band ver.) "Oh-Eh-Oh" (Band ver.) Encore "Tsukame (It's Coming)" "Infinity"
Reception Azusa Takahashi of Real Sound praised the group's rapid growth, which is visible throughout The Star, particularly in singing. She also stated that one of the album's charms is the amount of possibility shown by the wide range of tastes in the songs. Although some tracks were performed in Produce 101 Japan, she described them as "cohesive while retaining the freshness of the time." Takahashi closed her review by writing that the album is good in showing "factors that makeup JO1 as an artist", which include the bond between members, the "spices" found in the songs due to the members' uniqueness, and gratitude to their fans.
Commercial performance The Star debuted at number one on the Oricon Daily Albums Chart with an estimated 114,560 copies sold. It eventually peaked at number two on the weekly chart behind BTS' album Be, selling 158,333 copies and earning a Gold certification from the RIAJ. The album also peaked at number two on Billboard Japan Hot Albums and topped the sales component chart on its release week. The album's commercial success also propelled JO1 to third place on Billboard Japan Artist 100. By the end of 2020, the album has sold 173,753 physical copies, placing it at number twenty-one on the Oricon's annual ranking.
Because its release date did not occur within the aggregation period in 2020, The Star ranked number ten on the Billboard Japan album sales chart in the first half of 2021, with 195,255 physical copies sold. It eventually ranked twenty-second on the 2021 Year-End Hot Albums chart.
Track listing "Starlight", "Shine a Light" and "My Friends" are common track 1, 2 and 15, respectively, for all limited editions.
Credits and personnel Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. Track listing is based on The Star normal edition.
Musicians
JO1 – vocals Yoske – chorus Lee Min-young (Eastwest) – bass , drum , computer programming , guitar , piano Yeul (1by1) – piano , computer programming Mook – chorus Score (13) – piano , drum Esbee – chorus , piano , drum Megatone (13) – guitar , bass Yhanael – Japanese translation KZ – MIDI programming , synthesizer , drum , bass , chorus , electric piano , guitar B.O – chorus Nthonious – MIDI programming , synthesizer , drum , bass , guitar Kim Seung-soo – MIDI programming , synthesizer , drum , bass Kim Hye-kwang – chorus , vocal editing Who's H – vocal editing Young Jay (KCKT) – bass , chorus , drum Buggy (KCKT) – drum , chorus , keyboard , bass , synthesizer Ven (KCKT) – synthesizer , chorus , guitar , bass Teito (KCKT) – chorus , vocal tuning , synthesizer , keyboard , bass , drum Kohway (KCKT) – chorus Minit – acoustic piano , synthesizer , electric guitar , bass , drum , string , sound effect Airair – acoustic piano , synthesizer , electric guitar , bass , drum , string , sound effect Lazier – chorus Onestar (Monotree) – chorus Ryan S. Jhun – producing , vocal directing Andrew Choi – vocal directing , background vocals Eunsol (1008) – producing , keyboard , bass , drum Seo Yi-sung – producing , drum Sun – tune Dono – chorus Coach – guitar , chorus Sendo – bass Yuki – chorus Ji Seung-gyu – chorus Bae Jae-seok (Solcire) – chorus , digital editing & tuning Jkun – guitar Ouow – producing Nile Lee – string arranging Yundak – piano , drum Last P – piano , drum Lee Tae-wook – guitar Yinail – string arrangement On The String – string
Technicals
Osamu Shiota – recording Kim Min–hee – recording Jang Woo-young – recording Min Sung-su – recording Eugene Kwon – recording Kwon Yoo-jin – recording Gu Jong-pil – mixing Master Key – mixing Teito (KCKT) – mixing , asst. mixing Hong Sung-joon – mixing Jennifer Hong – asst. mixing Jeung Eun-kyung – mixing Park Seong-min – mixing Coach & Sendo – mixing Ko Hyun-jeong – mixing Lee Gun-ho – mixing Kwon Nam-woo – mastering Jang Seung-ho – asst. mastering
Locations
Recording Sound Valley Doobdooob Studio 821 Sound Studio A-tone Studio Fine
Mixing Klang Studio Ingrid Studio Mesunshine Studio C Koko Sound Studio Team N Genius Gaenari Sound 821 Sound
Mastering 821 Sound
Vocal editing Kwang Sound
Visual
Cho Dae-yong (Rainbowbus) – album design Shin Hyo jin (Rainbowbus) – album design Shim Jee-hee (Rainbowbus) – album design Min In-hong – style director Takashi Kamei – photographer VITA – retouch LiNK-UP – retouch Shohei Fujinaga – stylist Cheeks – hair & make–up Tamzin (Choi Young-joon) – choreography Sorr (AP) – choreography You Seung-hyun – choreography
Charts
Weekly charts +Weekly chart performance for The Star Chart (2020) Peakposition Japanese Albums (Oricon) 2 Japanese Combined Albums (Oricon) 2 Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) 2
Year-end charts +2020 year-end chart performance for The Star Chart (2020) Position Japanese Albums (Oricon) 21 Japanese Combined Albums (Oricon) 23
+2021 year-end chart performance for The Star Chart (2021) Position Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan) 22
Certifications
Release history +Release dates and formats for The Star Region Date Label Format Edition Catalog Japan November 25, 2020 Lapone Entertainment Limited red YRCS-95102 Limited green YRCS-95103 Limited blue YRCS-95104 Normal YRCS-95105 Various
References