Before BTS or SuperM: Shinhwa, S.E.S, H.O.T and 4 more first generation K-pop legends you should know
Before BTS and Super-M, K-pop bands such as S.E.S and Baby V.O.X. performed with Michael Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Tupac Shakur and sold millions of albums – have you heard of them all?
BTS may be the hottest K-pop group today, but before it and its army took over the music world, these were the seven legendary, first generation K-pop groups that dominated the music scene – in a time before digital sales – and paved the way for future K-pop idols to come.
H.O.T.
SM Entertainment’s first-ever idol group, a quintet including Kangta, Moon Hee-jun, Tony Ahn, Jang Woo-hyuk and Lee Jae-won, saw their 1996 debut album, “We Hate All Types of Violence”, sell a whopping 1.5 million albums. Many of its songs, including Descendants of Warriors, Candy, and I Yah, are constant fixtures in tribute performances by later idols.
H.O.T. was also one of the earliest groups to appear in America, receiving an International Viewers Choice Award for their song Killing in the Name at the 1999 MTV Music Video Awards. Together with label mates S.E.S, the band was also invited to perform with Michael Jackson at a benefit concert in Seoul the same year, and was also the first K-pop group to perform at the Seoul Olympic Stadium.
After releasing five albums, it disbanded in 2001 due to contract disputes, reuniting in 2018 for variety show Infinite Challenge, before holding concerts in Seoul in 2018 and 2019.
S.E.S
The original “nation’s fairies”, Shoo (Yoo Soo-young), Eugene (Kim Yoo-jin) and Bada (Korean for “sea” and née Choi Sung-hee), released their debut album “I’m Your Girl” in 1997, under SM Entertainment.
The titular track was one of the most requested music videos at the time, staying on the charts for around 13 to 14 weeks, selling more than 650,000 albums – still the highest number of albums sold for any first generation female group.
While the group disbanded in 2002, the band members reunited first in 2016 for the single Love Story, and then for its 20th anniversary in 2017 with the album, “Remember”.
g.o.d
When Park Joon-hyung recruited his cousin Danny Ahn, Son Ho-young and Yoon Kye-sang to form g.o.d (groove over dose) in 1997, they could never have expected to be the highest-selling first generation group. After the addition of Kim Tae-woo, g.o.d. debuted in 1999 with the song and album “To Mother” (Park Jin-young, singer and founder of JYP Entertainment, was the group’s producer and songwriter).
Its third album, “Chapter 3” (2000), and R&B song Lies, saw the group hit peak popularity, selling more than 1.8 million copies (the highest for any first generation group). g.o.d was invited to perform at the inaugural MTV Asia Awards in Singapore as the Korean representative, later being interviewed for the Asian edition of Time.
The group moved from label Sidus HQ to JYP Entertainment in 2004, with Yoon leaving the group to pursue acting. The group never officially disbanded but went on hiatus in 2006, reuniting in 2014 to release album, “Chapter 8”, followed by a concert tour celebrating its 15th anniversary.
Baby V.O.X