SM Entertainment, the Most Powerful Star Maker

         S.M. Entertainment has been famous formore than 10 years for K-pop lovers. The company is well known for its K-popidol groups, boy bands, singers and actresses; it is one of the largest Koreanpop music record label, producer, publisher and talent agency. “SM” stands for Star Museum now, but it is also an abbreviation of the agency founder's name, Soo-Man Lee. S.M. Entertainment is thought as the creator of first generation of K-pop who started its noted pop music story since 1990s.

Back to 1995, after Soo Man Lee foundedS.M. Entertainment, he brought out H.O.T. (High-five Of Teenagers) as the first “idol group” to shock and surprise Korean pop music industry. The boy band was definitely the forerunners ofthe “idol group” trend in the Korean music industry, and they totally changed the Korean mainstream music at that time. The group H.O.T. contained five teenage members and it was formed to attract young generation fans. Their music style were considered “special” with mainstream Korean music and included rap,ballads, hip-hop, dance and rock. Most of their songs were sung for teenagers and youths; some of the songs expressed “voices of young generation.” H.O.T. also gave the Korean pop music industry and Korean youths a new fashion trend withtheir baggy pants and colorful outfits; they were thought as the “fashion icon”during the 1990s. In other words, H.O.T.’s born means they gave birth to K-pop.

Following by H.O.T.’s big success, S.M.Entertainment continuously formed more young idol groups such as S.E.S, ShinHwa,and Fly To The Sky. The company kept its high music quality as well as it brought more and more fabulous young idols to influence Korean music industry.

S.M. Entertainment is probably the talent agency with the largest number of trainees in Korea. It has notable auditions the best planned training system for young people who want to be singers, actors,models, and songwriters. Of course their auditions are not easy to go through,but they are still fascinated for many young boys and young girls. Currently,the company holds weekly audition in Korea and America, monthly audition in Japan and a annually global audition  across several different countries.

 (credit to S.M. Entertainment)

        All of artists from S.M. Entertainment are known as “SM Town” as a whole with their vacation compilation albums. “SM Town” also stands for the company's famous world tour concerts. Almost in every year, S.M. Entertainment organizes their artists to come together and perform on a four to six hours long concert that tours around the world. During the concert, their audiences and fans would also enjoy several different collaborations across groups and some special songs that were veiled before.