q
Super Junior is the world’s largest boyband, and they’re also SM Entertainment’s biggest group. This group that debuted in 2005, whose orginal name was Super Junior 05, but after some changes in members, were officially renamed as “Super Junior” in 2006. The final 13 members were: Leeteuk, Heechul, Hankyung, Yesung, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum and Kyuhyun.
As SM Entertainment was well-equipped with knowledge they have gained from experience, they split up the 13 members, into 4 sub-groups Super Junior- T, Super Junior- H, Super Junior- K.R.Y (with R&B as their main genre, to attract noonas and hyungs as fans), and Super Junior-M (5 members plus 2 who are not SJ members- Henry and Zhoumi), to target Asia’s various markets, for example Super Junior-M entered China’s music industry, and there are 3 members who can speak fluent Chinese, which closes the gap between the Korean idols and fans who lived in other countries.
In SJ, because of Kibum’s busy packed schedules, he is the only one who does not belong to any sub-group.
In this 2 years, the Korean Wave has had many classic “infectious songs”, which include Super Junior’s March 2009 release of Sorry Sorry, Super Girl (by SJ-M), U (in 2006) and It’s You made many K-Pop fans go crazy. (Hoobae SHINee’s Ring Ding Dong and Wonder Girls’ Nobody were also among those songs).
Sorry Sorry, a song that has excellent tunes and choreography, let it remain very popular in the whole of year 2009, and that brought the Korean wave slowly spread to all the Asian countries, from stars in the entertainment industry, singers, actors, fans and even political figures, almost everyone can sing or dance a short verse of “Sorry Sorry”, and that proves SJ’s immense popularity!
Actually, when SM Entertainment was planning for SJ, they were similar to Taiwan’s HIM International Music when they were planning for SHE. They all tried to make use of every member’s unique voices, and produce songs that complimented all of their voices, so that they could show the fans and the medias SJ’s prowess when they sang together.
In the group, Leeteuk (Leader), Heechul, Hankyung, Sungmin, Donghae and Ryeowook focus on mid to high range pitch, while Yesung, Kangin and Siwon were in charge of the low pitch range, whereas Shindong, Kibum and Kyuhyun had to focus on the mid to low range pitch. Last but not least, Eunhyuk, together with Shindong and Kibum, were in charge of rapping. Eunhyuk was also the main composer of the raps in the second album. {Minor correction here: Donghae also raps for some songs, but I guess they missed that out}.
As long as there are many members, in terms of dancing, they need to have 2 things: neatness and harmony. But from the start, SJ’s performances’ focus has always been the choreography.
No matter what, from debut’s hip hop dance performance, to now’s synchronized dancing (mainly hip hop’s popping, waving, sliding, liquid dancing etc.), most of their choreography has 2-6 members mostly in the center.
In SJ, Hankyung, Shindong, Eunhyuk and Donghae’s dancing skills are the best, so they are always at the front leading or performing dance solos. Not just good in dancing, Shindong is the main choreographer for the dance steps of “U”.
Super Junior also has ever changing styles. When SJ debuted, their concept was that of “rocker”, but only after 2-3 years, they have turned into stylish suit-wearing gentlemen.
In this year’s 19th Seoul Music Awards, SJ nabbed 3 big prizes, “Top 10 Artists”, “Hallyu Wave Special Award” and “Most Popular Award”, and that temporarily masked the Kangin incident and Hankyung’s contract termination.
And for example, Kibum had a role in “Jumunjin” and also Choi Siwon who will be a main character in a new drama serial “Oh! My Lady” once again appear through drama serials to bring up SJ’s popularity!
And after the concert tour that they have been having all over Asia which will be ending soon, they are slated to make a comeback this year with their 4th album, and we just know that they’ll be kings of the K-Pop industry in the year 2010!
Credits: Singapore’s You1Zhou U Weekly issue 226
English translation: Gemmi (listentokyu) @ TwELFs.com
TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS WITHOUT EDITING