pink-blooded: thirty years of SM entertainment.
part i: first generation.
members: moon heejun (leader), jang woohyuk, tony ahn, kangta (government name, ahn chilhyun), lee jaewon
fanclub name: club H.O.T.
fan color: white
fan lightstick: n/a — this was the age of balloons
호칭 (introduction): n/a
H.O.T. is recognized as the first idol boy band in k-pop, which isn’t a statement made to diminish how seo taiji and boys, a trio that debuted in 1992, completely turned the korean music industry on its head. H.O.T. is the first proper idol boy band, though, and the H.O.T. formula continues to live on today — each group has a leader, a main vocalist, a rapper, a dancer, a visual, though, obviously, a member can have multiple roles. i have a whole essay dedicated to H.O.T. in my book, so i don’t want to get too into them here, but, basically, H.O.T. was foundational to the idol industry, i loved tony, and “빛,” the title track to their third album, resurrection, which was composed by kangta, is still the SM anthem that they rerecord often.
H.O.T. split up abruptly when their contract expired in 2000, and it came out that SM only wanted to re-sign kangta and heejun, the two most popular members. i believe there were also pay disparities involved, so H.O.T. was also the first group that clued fans in to SM’s unfair, potentially questionable practices. being a SM fan has been a life of heartbreak and rage since the very beginning.
H.O.T. was unique in that the members were all writing and producing their own music by their third album, and it would be a while until SM allowed their artists to have significant involvement in their songwriting again. H.O.T. sang about social issues — “늑대와 양 (wolf and sheep)” is about violence in society, “빛 (hope)” was written by kangta as encouragement against hard times (it was reportedly in response to the financial crisis that was hitting korea at the time), “아이야! (iyah!)” criticizes the government after a 1999 fire in gyeonggido that took the lives of nineteen children — so H.O.T. really paved the way for k-pop. the idol industry as we know it today exists because of H.O.T.
recommended songs:
“we are the future” (wolf & sheep, 1997)
“너와나” (wolf & sheep, 1997)
“빛 (hope)” (resurrection, 1998)
“투지 (git it up!)” (i yah, 1999)
members: sea (bada) (leader), eugene, shoo
fanclub name: friends
fan color: pearl purple
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
S.E.S. was the first idol girl group, and i liked them, but i didn’t stan them like i did H.O.T. i would still fight for S.E.S. out of loyalty to H.O.T., though, because they were labelmates and part of being loyal to H.O.T. was not supporting fin.K.L, the four-member girl group from DSP that was S.E.S.’ rival.
company stans are a part of k-pop culture, and it didn’t come across to me as potentially weird until i was an adult. it made sense to me as an adolescent; being a good fangirl was about being loyal. being loyal to your group meant also being loyal to their company, and, while i don’t believe in company loyalty any more, i do understand where it comes from.
at the same time, it’s not like company loyalty necessarily held because it didn’t stop fans of boy bands from hating girl groups. see: SNSD being black oceaned at the 2008 dream concert by cassiopeia (TVXQ’s fandom) and E.L.F. (super junior’s fandom).
S.E.S. felt like a group built around bada (sea), the main vocalist, because eugene and shoo didn’t get very many lines. line distribution is a point of contention for many fans because there can often be an imbalance that sticks to the specific roles the group members have been assigned. (SNSD’s sooyoung talked about how she tried to fight against it once to no avail.) i think there are things to be said about line distribution, but that said, the thing is not everyone in a group is (or needs to be) a stellar vocalist. an idol group is made up of different roles because, yes, an idol group is meant to sing (and they should be able to sing to a certain level and contribute vocally somehow), but idols are also meant to perform, both on stage and in the public — and so you have your vocalists, your dancers, your visual and center, your personalities.
what i think SM does particularly well is to assemble groups that sound really good together and round each other out. this is a little less obvious in the first generation when SM, too, was new to the idol business, but, over the decades, SM has really honed its sound, both in its production value and in the vocal colors and tones it scouts, signs, and ultimately debuts. more on this later, though.
i miss the days of nonsensical acronyms. S.E.S. was a rare group that made sense; the three members were sea (바다), eugene, and shoo. fin.K.L., though, was short for “fine killing liberty.” H.O.T. stood for “high-five of teenagers.” later, SM would debut a girl group named M.I.L.K. for “made in lovely kin.” koreans still love to make acronyms of everything, but this kind of chaotic naming of groups with random english words is no longer found in k-pop, and i kind of miss it.
recommended songs:
“(‘cause) i’m your girl” (i’m your girl, 1997)
“dreams come true” (sea & eugene & shoo, 1999)
“u” (choose my life-u, 2002)
members: eric mun (leader), lee minwoo, kim dongwan, shin hyesung, jun jin, andy lee
fanclub name: shinhwa changjo
fan color: orange
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
shinhwa is k-pop’s longest-running boy band, though whether they will be active again as a group is up in the air. shinhwa left SM together as a group in 2003 when their contracts expired and signed with good entertainment, and, in 2011, they collectively set up the shinhwa company to manage their group activities while the members took their individual careers elsewhere. this was pretty ground-breaking at the time, and i believe they had to go to court to get the trademark to their group name.
shinhwa was the first idol group to host their own variety show, “신화방송 (shinhwa broadcast),” which aired on JTBC from 2012 to 2013, and, as a group, they stood out for their group camaraderie and hilarious media personalities, capable of carrying a variety program on their own. when shinbang aired, the members were all well into their thirties and had long shed the self-consciousness of being young and famous, and they were willing to make fools of themselves.
i don’t think shinhwa will ever officially disband, but i don’t think we’ll be seeing them together as a group again. lead vocalist shin hyesung was convicted of a DUI in 2023 that led to him being banned from appearing on KBS. (if there are three things koreans truly don’t forgive, they’re driving after drinking, doing drugs, and evading military service.) there are rumors that a few members have had a falling out. i feel like that isn’t really weird — as humans, we change, and our relationships change — but a part of the idol narrative and appeal is that these groups are like family. i can’t recall if that idea was as strong during first-generation k-pop as it is now, but i’m sure fans were just as invested in group closeness then, too. it feels very korean.
recommended songs:
“yo!” (t.o.p., 1999)
“perfect man” (perfect man, 2002)
“venus” (the return, 2012)
members: hwanhee, brian joo
fanclub name: fly high
fan color: sky blue
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
for a while, SM’s ideal male voice was kangta’s, and they kept trying to find another kangta, first with shinhwa’s shin hye-sung then with fly to the sky’s hwanhee. from what i remember, SM tried to get hwanhee to sound more like kangta when FTTS first debuted, whether in his singing technique or in post-production, but, eventually, they had to let him loose in his natural, throaty, deep voice.
fly to the sky was two members: hwanhee and brian. brian was from new jersey and spoke fluent english. they were a R&B duo, hwanhee’s rich, emotive baritone balanced by brian’s higher, thinner tenor. i loved them. apparently, they faced a fair amount of criticism when they were active for not really having a clear identity, which is weird to me because, while FTTS wasn’t releasing ground-breaking music, they straddled the r&b/pop line pretty consistently — and they did it well.
we learned years later that FTTS almost broke up because hwanhee and brian couldn’t stand each other in their early years. like i said above, k-pop fandom tends to be invested in this idea of groups being like family, but i feel like conflicts between members shouldn’t be surprising — it’s kind of what happens when you cram young people together in dorms. key and minho of shinee also famously had a hugely contentious relationship during shinee’s early years.
at the same time, i do understand why we, as fans, get invested in this dream of groups being close “in real life.” i think part of it is definitely grounded in how k-pop, as an industry, is set up to be parasocial, but i think part of it is also just human — we want to believe the fantasies we’re sold because we’re social beings, and the fantasy tells us, in some way, that these deep, close human connections are possible. maybe it’s the lonely adolescent in me speaking, but, like i said, one of the reasons i have stayed with SM for decades is that SM is more than just a single arist — it’s SMTOWN, it’s the sun-/hoobae system, it’s this representation of relationships that i longed for so much when i was so alone and isolated. whether or not SM artists were or are actually close didn’t matter, not then or now, because k-pop isn’t reality, anyway, and the comfort for me as a fan comes from what they present publicly.
FTTS didn’t renew their contract with SM when it expired after their fifth album, gravity, and they signed with pfull entertainment. i didn’t realize this until october 2025 because i thought gravity was their last album. FTTS isn’t active as a duo anymore, but i believe hwanhee is still singing and brian is doing his variety show thing.
recommended songs:
“day by day” (day by day, 1999)
“missing you” (missing you, 2003)
“취중진담” (recollection, 2008)
fanclub name: jumping boa
fan color: yellow
fan lightstick: jumping boa
호칭 (introduction): n/a
boa is the undisputable queen of k-pop. a soloist who debuted at the young age of twelve, boa is the k-pop star who blew open the path into japan. she is the reason all k-pop idols debut in japan, and boa is one of the rare figures in k-pop whose contributions to the industry truly cannot be overstated. she was a large part of the hallyu wave, and no one who has come after her has replicated her impact because she opened up a path into a major foreign market for other artists to follow.
pop soloists are pretty rare in korea’s idol industry, so boa’s success is also incredibly unique in that context. sure, many members in groups release solo projects and maybe eventually go solo, but i don’t know that any soloist has become bigger than their group, except for maybe big bang’s g-dragon.
i won’t say too much about boa because there’s also an entire essay dedicated to boa in my book. i get cranky when boa doesn’t get her dues, though, and my ongoing gripe with young k-pop fans, specifically western k-pop fans, is their lack of awareness of k-pop history. it’s bad enough that so many western fans have a narrow view of k-pop that’s often largely relegated to a handful of artists, but, truly, the number of times i’ve had to defend g-dragon and big bang’s impact — bangtan and blackpink did not come out of nowhere. they have built off the foundation that artists before them have built, and to remove them from the greater context of the korean idol industry and act as though they exist outside that ecosystem is to do them an injustice. that mentality is also rooted in white imperialism that puts proximity to whiteness on a pedestal and seeks to cut off the ones deemed exceptional from their “inferior” roots. (don’t even get me started on katseye, not the members but everything around them, including western reception to the group.)
recommended songs:
“no. 1” (no. 1, 2002)
“spark” (my name, 2004)
“girls on top” (girls on top, 2005)
“only one” (only one, 2012)
“who are you” (kiss my lips, 2015)
recommended japanese songs:
“moon & sunrise” (valenti, 2004)
“lady galaxy” (made in twenty, 2007)
“best friend” (the face, 2008)
“neko love” (identity, 2010)
“first time” (who’s back?, 2014)
members: park heebon, kim bomi, bae yumi, seo hyunjin
fanclub name: n/a
fan color: n/a
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
i think MILK was technically under a sub, but they were included in SMTOWN albums, so i’m including them here. (for example, SM also debuted girl group SHINVI under a sub, but they did not appear in SMTOWN albums — ergo, not included here.)
over the course of writing this monster of a post, i went back to watch old SM music videos, including MILK’s “come to me,” and, you know, i really miss when idols didn’t all look the same and didn’t look so fine-tuned and perfect. i’m not going to sit here and make judgment calls about plastic surgery, but i struggle with how much fine-tuning is being done on such young faces, whether it’s actual surgery or “just” fillers or veneers.
these idols are so young, and i’m tired of the same k-pop look. i’m also really over how plastic surgery has amped up beauty standards by (1) reinforcing conformity through preferred certain features (e.g. the V-line, the Nose) and (2) likely heightening body image issues and dysmorphia. here’s my disclaimer that i can’t actually quantify this with data, but it’s not a stretch — there have been many studies done about the impact of media and social media on girls and their self-perception, and very little of it is positive. with plastic surgery becoming so prevalent and accessible (and filters on social media apps so normalized and difficult to distinguish), it isn’t difficult to imagine how that accessibility wouldn’t make things even worse, and i really hate to see young female idols particularly debuting with their perfect faces and perfect teeth, looking like uncanny copies of each other because they all have the same big, double-lidded eyes, the same straight nose, the same V-lines. it’s incredibly depressing to think of it from the perspective of the harm being done to young people, both physically and psychologically, and, frankly, it’s boring from the perspective of the consumer.
i honestly don’t remember much about MILK; they were four members with a sweet vocal tone; and they disbanded fairly quickly. the most significant thing to note about them is that the actress seo hyunjin debuted as a member of MILK; i think seo is a massively underrated actress.
recommended songs: n/a
fanclub name: n/a
fan color: n/a
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
dana was meant to be the “second boa,” but she didn’t hit the success that SM had been hoping for because, while her first album had moderate success, but her second album did not. it’s been a while, but my lasting memory of dana was that she also was very young and came across as sweet but underwhelming. she had a pleasant voice with a huskier tone, but she lacked the natural charisma and vibrant energy that boa had.
dana is like lee hi to me — both have good, warm voices, but they’re both missing that oomph that makes their singing compelling. i love lee hi’s voice tonally, but there’s a flatness to her singing that honestly makes it pretty boring. i wonder if it is a personality thing because both dana and lee hi seem kind of flat and stone-faced personality-wise, which is fine (that is not a criticism), and that translates into a stiffness when they sing because they both seem to hit a limit when it comes to emoting and being vocally expressive. they both go to show that being a singer isn’t just about having a good voice or being good technically (i would actually also cite aespa’s winter as an example); the best singers have an energy that, yes, can be trained to a certain extent but ultimately has to come from within. like, as counterexamples, SNSD’s taeyeon, exo’s baekhyun, chen, and kyungsoo, red velvet’s wendy, and NCT’s doyoung aren’t great singers just because they’re technically well-trained and have naturally good voices but because they’re equally expressive.
dana only released two solo albums but re-debuted a few years later as part of four-member girl group, CSJH the grace, which was active for five years. while writing this, i was surprised to learn she stayed with SM until 2021. i highly doubt her initial contract lasted that long, so i’m surprised she stayed with the company for twenty years.
recommended songs: n/a
members: lee somin, hwang sanghoon, jung jihoon, shim jaewon, jang jinyoung
fanclub name: n/a
fan color: n/a
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction):: n/a
honestly, i did not know much about blackbeat and still don’t. i know there were six of them, that they released one album, that member shim jaewon has stayed on at SM as a choreographer. that’s about it. i think they made me think too much of shinhwa when they debuted for me to pay a lot of attention.
recommended songs: n/a
members: isak, jiyeon
fanclub name: n/a
fan color: n/a
fan lightstick: n/a
호칭 (introduction): n/a
i also did not know that much about isak n jiyeon, a duo who sang R&B-inflected songs. they were part of a line of female vocalists in SM with richer, fuller voices, something that didn’t last very long — and, when i say “richer” and “fuller,” i strictly mean in the context of SM voices. (more on the SM female voice when we get to SNSD because SM really figured out its female voice with them and has maintained that color since.) i’m not personally a fan of big, chesty, deep female voices, so i wasn’t particularly taken by isak n jiyeon, but that is entirely a subjective, personal taste thing!
isak n jiyeon only released one album. jiyeon re-debuted a few years later as a member of CSJH under the stage name lina, and isak stayed with SM until 2012 and is now an announcer on the arirang network.
recommended songs: n/a