Lee Soo-Man ( , born June
18, 1952) is a South
Korean
entrepreneur and the
founder & chairman of S.M. Entertainment Co.,Ltd. Group, including two
subsidiaries (SM Academy, SM TinTin Entertainment), also
specializing in
K-pop groups. He co-founded
the agency in 1995 that has taken place an important position in
the South Korean entertainment.
Lee started his career a singer while
attending Seoul National University
. He moved into the business side of the
industry once his popularity had faded, after graduation.
SM became
one of the biggest record labels in
South
Korea, due to the success of such groups as H.O.T, S.E.S. and the
longest-running boy band Shinhwa.
Lee has produced many popular artists under SM Entertainment. Due
to its history and the strong position it has in the industry, it
is assumed that being part of SM will guarantee instant stardom,
although the lack of success by groups such as
Shinvi have proven otherwise.
Although his creations have been successful, Lee has been unable to
escape the rumours about the company's harsh treatment of its
stars. However, only
JTL, the group created from
the H.O.T. members who left SM, has mentioned this publicly,
talking about how members were not given their proper dues in one
of their songs as well as his tyrannical way of running his
singers. The fact that groups have left after the end of their
contract (Shinhwa, FTTS) have only furthered these rumours.
Despite
all this, SM has continued to be a successful company, with the
popularity of artists such as BoA, TVXQ, Girls'
Generation, Super Junior, SHINee, The Grace and Zhang Li Yin who are well-known in South Korea, Japan
, Thailand
, China
, Hong Kong
, Vietnam
, Singapore
, Indonesia
, Taiwan
and many
other countries including the United States
.
Production
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