SM Entertainment
SM Entertainment is a major producer of
Korean pop music, and is the management agency of several Korean pop stars. Initially standing for the creator's initials, it now stands for
Star Museum, alluding to the fact that their singers have been incredibly successful. The company's current CEO is Kim Youngmin. SM Entertainment also co publishes Japan's Avex Trax albums for J-pop artists such as
Ayumi Hamasaki,
Namie Amuro and
Kumi Koda.
Lee Soo Man, the founder of SM, started out by surveying teenage girls what they wanted to see in music groups. With this information, he started the
boy band H.O.T. and
girl group S.E.S.. Strongly successful from the beginning, both groups managed to become two of the top
K-Pop groups of the 90s.
Problems began appearing in SM Entertainment with the breakup of H.O.T., due to its immense popularity. Rumors spread about the breakup, due to the fact that two members stayed with the company, while the others formed another group with a different label. Financial issues were assumed to be the problem, but the real reasons were never officially disclosed. This began SM Entertainment's slowdown, as his major groups (S.E.S., Shinhwa, Fly To The Sky) all left the label (or in S.E.S.'s case, broke up). However, the company was kept afloat by the success of Asian superstar
BoA, who has successfully entered the Japanese market as well. This
blue ocean strategy (of branching out to Asian countries) is currently being applied to other groups (such as
TVXQ), although only BoA has managed to become immensely popular outside of
South Korea.
Prominent clients of SM Entertainment include:
*
BoA - (shareholder in SM)
*
KangTa - (shareholder in SM)
*
Dana*
Black Beat*
Super Junior*
The TRAX*
TSZX (Cheon Sang Ji Hee, Ten Jo Chi Ki)
*
TVXQ (Dong Bang Shin Gi/Ki, Tohoshinki)
Former clients include:
*
Fly to the Sky*
H.O.T.*
Moon Hee Jun*
S.E.S.*
Shinhwa*
List of Korea-related topics*
K-pop*
Contemporary culture of South Korea*
Korean music*
SM Entertainment Korea official website (SM Town)*
SM Entertainment Japan official website (日本法人)*
SM Entertainment Service website "avex"
