What does it take to create an SM Entertainment K-pop star?

[nobodyelse-care.livejournal.com]

SM Entertainment representative Kim Young Min revealed the behind-the-scenes secrets of how girl group SNSD came to be.

SME representative Kim Young Min and SME’s Japanese special advisor Maruyama Shigeo guest-starred on a recent episode of FBS TV ‘Friday Super Prime‘ that aired in Japan. Representative Kim discussed the different reasons on why he felt K-pop has been so successful and the direction it needs to take in the future.

He first credited the K-pop stars’ success on their rigorous practice and training periods. He stated, “When a concept for the group is decided, the songs, dance, and languages that are fitting for the group are also selected and the members go into training immediately… Training periods vary, but they last anywhere from 3-5 years. In the case of TVXQ, they trained for seven years before they made their debut.”

He also garnered much attention from viewers by revealing that it took around $2.5 million USD to train and perfect each SNSD member before they debuted. 300,000 hopefuls audition for SME, and only 100 of them make it as trainees. It takes anywhere from $2.5 – $5 million USD to take care of them starting from the auditions, to the training, all the way to their debut.

Representative Kim remarked, “Our main priority at our agency is to find and discover new talents and to nurture them into artists.” He continued to inform that SME continues to hold auditions not just in Korea but also in countries such as Japan, China, and America.

“Personality and character training are also very important,” he explained. He stressed the importance of training artists to communicate well with elders and their own family members. This way when they suddenly rise to fame, they will not lose their sense of judgment and will not be so quick to make rash decisions that may harm them in the long run. (You mean like, leaving the company?)

Representative Kim also credited the success of K-pop to thorough marketing research, as well as well-utilizing the newest media sources. (There's still some room for improvement. They still haven't fully utilized the use of youtube to it's full potential)

Source: AKP & enews24 via Nate

I'm still not comfortable with them deciding the 'concepts' and songs for their artistes. Don't they give their own artistes the freedom to make their own music?

Discuss this article, OMONA.  

Comments

[maximumtimo.livejournal.com]

in b4 'plastic surgery is expensive'

[geniebsmart.livejournal.com]

L O L
pretty much this~

[stillwaiting.livejournal.com]

It's crazy to know how many years they spend training, and a lot of trainees don't even end up debuting at all. I'd hate spending all those years being hopeful that maybe one day I'll end up an idol only to be left in the dust.

[ebenetwo.livejournal.com]

absolute commitment to IV diet

[icedevil0289.livejournal.com]

lol well not everyone trained seven years. didn't yoochun just train for a few months before the debuted?

[luvey.livejournal.com]

Kyu was just three months I think

I'm curious, OMONA, is this comment I found at AKP true?

[nobodyelse-care.livejournal.com]

"Must've suck to work in the Korean music industry, to have to work off the money they've invested in you from training, knowing that you will most likely never even sell 100k albums, nevermind a couple of millions. LOL

Meanwhile in Japan you have new girls pulled from blogs, and the street joining AKB48, clearly no training, but have the chance to be apart of a group that sells over a million for the past few singles/albums within the release week. LOL

Also it's amusing that training is such a big thing in Korea, when half of these idol groups suck live, can't write, and are half assed "dancers" who repeat the same body 'wave', two steps, and gyrating moves over and over again.

I mean seriously..?

SRSLY

SRS.

NORLY."

Credits: tyounge1991@AKP

Does the difference between Korean idols and Japanese idols are that big? jw

[umbrella-smile.livejournal.com]

"Don't they give their own artistes the freedom to make their own music?"

There are many SME artists that write and compose songs. However, the contract states that any songs created by artists belong to SME, which is how they were legally allowed to sell Jae's song.

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

But isn't it usually like 1/2 songs per album? I'm not sure if I can consider that giving the freedom to make their own music if all they can do is a few songs during all their years of career, tbh :/

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

Side-eeing the "to nurture them into artists" thing. Great performers? Yeah, the majority of SMent idols are great performers. Artists? I don't see it, sorry (for the most part.)

“Personality and character training are also very important,”

This sounded like brainwashing to me while reading it x_D The next sentences make it better, but god, do they make it sound like their creating cylons.

IA on the youtube thing, tho I think SMent does it quite well.

[nobodyelse-care.livejournal.com]

Personally, I don't think it's enough. Their Youtube account is only used for uploading MVs and other types of videos. They never used it to communicate with fans such as listening to suggestions and complaints. If they do, they never tell.

[yuki-yang.livejournal.com]

how can corporate dolls have their "own music and style"
major contradictions tsk tsk

[funkaliciousss.livejournal.com]

precisely. that is basically what most idols are, sad to say.

[himekohimura.livejournal.com]

He also garnered much attention from viewers by revealing that it took around $2.5 million USD to train and perfect each SNSD member before they debuted. that's a lot of plastic surgery.

[umbrella-smile.livejournal.com]

lol you say that with an Eeteuk icon.

[orenji13.livejournal.com]

I always curious about how much so they spend for training cause it was such a big issue with dbsk where they play it like a debt that dbsk will never able to pay..

There are no room for improvement in SME. Yes, they are allowed to write some music, but only 1 or 2 can be put into the album. Not to mention that you don't have any right in your composition, cause it was owned by sme.

They treat human like commodity..

[mishi07.livejournal.com]

DBSK actually has considerable musical freedom compared to their peers. As long as they produce music that is commercially viable, it can be included in the album. Its the monetary distribution that's painful.

Training for that long and spending such ridiculous amounts to create an image makes their artists so contrived imo. At the end of the day, its all about marketing. They can work with makeshift talent and sell it like its God's gift to mankind. The exaggerations by the media also plays a part (Korea's standard of 'journalism' is appalling). This system is not sustainable in a world stage that celebrates artistry and individualism.

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

LOL Seven years? The guy is a liar. And I'm always creeped out how SME thinks their trainees and idols as robots and takes credit for all their talents even if some of it was in-born or from training before SME.

Anyhow, I always wonder why these companies don't audition kids from some top performance arts schools (or don't those exist in Korea?) and just put them on diet and give them plastic surgery as for instance their own in-house vocal trainers seem to suck (just compare how much better non-idol singers, who have got proper singing lessons, are). Give me an idol who dances decently, and can sing at Gummy level, ktnx.

[strawberry-efeu.livejournal.com]

A lot of their vocal trainers are actually idols who were under SM in the past (eg Bada from SES and Dana from CSJH) so it's not really surprising that they're not great vocal trainers considering the fact that they're not really professional vocal trainers.

[beatification.livejournal.com]

I don't like the word artistes.

It's not just SME. It's not just Korean music industry. It's not just Korea.

Not saying it's what we want for our girls and boys, but they signed those dotted lines.

[nobodyelse-care.livejournal.com]

Sorry, is it a typo? I always thought it's 'artistes' not 'artists'. Should I change it?

[amandaplan.livejournal.com]

I think SM is more focused on training singers/performers vs artists so I don't mind their singers not writing their own songs unless SM said that they wanted to create artists in the mission statement or smth. Also it actually might be better for the company to decide /group/ concepts since it would be hard for all the members to come to agreement on a song or concept when you think about it.

[amandaplan.livejournal.com]

opps. they actually said they wanted to nurture artists, well now I do kind of mind that they don't let them create their own music :P

[hoyah.livejournal.com]

Ok I think this needs to be cleared up.

At best, only Junsu trained 7 years. Yunho joined the company after him, maybe by a year or two. He was a trainee, though it took a year to sign a contract officially. So he was probably training 5-6 years prior to debut. In that time, he vecame a back up dancer for Dana. Jaejoong joined after him, some time later. Then I believe Changmin and finally Yoochun. I forget how many years those three trained exactly but I thought Min had for only two years.

[fibres.livejournal.com]

i think jaejoong and yunho met when they were around 15, so i always assumed jaejoong had 3 years.

[rosetta16.livejournal.com]

freedome of music and concept is something u win in kpop

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

omg ur comments crack me up

[english-01.livejournal.com]

A+

[scubajr.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know where I can watch that video in the screen shots?

[episkia.livejournal.com]

if they were given freedom, they wouldn't be the perfectly manicured, ridiculously well practiced, robots they are. they wouldn't have hook songs and aegyo and come on a million talk shows.

aka they wouldn't be idols, really.

[nobodyelse-care.livejournal.com]

What would they be called, then?

[geniebsmart.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of money o__O Not surprised though
Thanks for the interesting read, OP ^^

[boba-holic.livejournal.com]

A+ comment

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

lmfao this guy is hilarious tbqh.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

why so surprised with them having nothing to do with the choosing of their music? I thought this was common knowledge of the SME factory. o:

[setsuna16.livejournal.com]

Ritual sacrifice.

No, seriously.

[taylorniw.livejournal.com]

I don't see the problem with the lack of musical freedom. Just because you CAN make your own music doesn't mean it's any good. I've been pretty unimpressed with most of the stuff idols have done themselves. It's all been pretty uninspired, particularly by the way of lyrics.

[twinkystar16.livejournal.com]

it depends on the their talent..
like for me, i prefer the stuff cn blue and ft island wrote/composed themselves as compared to other composers in their albums..theirs are way better even though it's kinda raw and unpolished

[tippani.livejournal.com]

lol some comments

w/e i love my nine robots, they make me so happy :)

[funkaliciousss.livejournal.com]

mte. i mean i like it the way it is now and i don't really expect anything else. if they want to compose or write lyrics then it's just an added bonus.