Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어), often referred to as SJ or SuJu (슈주), is a boy band from Seoul, South Korea that was formed under SM Entertainment in 2005. With a total of thirteen members, they are the largest boy band in the world.The members are Leeteuk (the leader), Heechul, Han Geng, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kibum, and later, Kyuhyun. The Chinese member, Han Geng, was chosen among three thousand applicants through auditions held in China by SM Entertainment in 2001.
Super Junior has released and contributed in 19 different kinds of records with varying degrees of success. Over the years, they have been divided into smaller sub groups, simultaneously targeting different music industries and audiences. Largely due to Super Junior's success as entertainers, other Korean entertainment managements began to train their music groups in other areas of entertainment, such as acting and hosting. In addition to their commercial success, Super Junior has earned four music awards from the M.NET/KM Music Festival, another four from the Golden Disk Awards, and is the second singing group to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after jtL in 2003.
Musical history
Pre-debut
Since the late 1990s, Korean talent agency and record label SM Entertainment has been holding annual auditions to scout new talents that complemented the success of pop groups H.O.T, S.E.S, and Shinhwa, all of which were created by SM founder Lee Soo-man in the mid 1990s. Leeteuk and Eunhyuk were the first two members of the group to be recruited in 2000 under SM's Starlight Casting System in Seoul.
In 2001, the company held their first oversea casting auditions and discovered Han Geng in Beijing, who was chosen among three thousand applicants. That same year, Yesung was discovered under Seoul's casting system; Sungmin and Donghae were then selected to be trainees after their appearance in an SM-sponsored contest. A year later, Heechul and Kangin was recruited along with Kibum, who was discovered in Los Angeles. Siwon was casted in 2003 and Ryeowook in 2004, in which the latter was discovered through the Chinchin Youth Festival singing competition. In 2005, Shindong was selected.
Not long after boy band TVXQ's debut in 2003, news about Lee's unprecedented plans of forming another boy band quickly spread on the Internet. In early 2005, Lee confirmed the news and announced that an all-boy project group of twelve members would debut near the end of the year, promoting this singing group to be "The Gateway to Stardom of Asia." Lee announced that unlike most debuting pop groups that has members with no pre-debut experience, the members in this group were chosen because of their performing experiences as actors, MCs, models, and radio hosts prior debut. Heechul and Kibum made their first appearances in dramas and films; Leeteuk, Yesung, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, and Siwon have had television appearances, and Han Geng made his first media appearance as a model. Heechul also became an established radio host and MC after his television drama debut in early 2005. Lee also stated, though not directly, that this group would be a rotational group, with a concept very similar to Japan's girl group, Morning Musume. Line-up changes would occur every year, and new members would replace some of the older members.
For a while the group was rumored to be called O.V.E.R, the acronym for "Obey the Voice for Each Rhythm." However, before the group settled with their current name, the company simply referred to them as Junior, a representation of the members' young ages when they first became SM trainees. After the members' showcased their different talents to the company at a picnic, the company finalized their concept name to Super Junior. The group thereafter became officially Super Junior 05, the first generation of Super Junior.
Super Junior 05 made their pre-debut appearance on the Korean channel Mnet on September 11, 2005. At the showcase, they performed various styles of hip hop dancing. The group danced to B2K's "Take It To The Floor." Han Geng, Eunhyuk, and Donghae also performed a separate dance away from the group, dancing to Usher's "Caught Up." However, the performance did not air on television until May 16, 2006 as a segment in the Super Junior Show, the group's first television documentary.
2005–2006: The Super Junior project
Super Junior 05 debuted in SBS's music program Popular Songs on November 6, 2005, performing their first single, "TWINS (Knock Out)." A digital single with "TWINS (Knock Out)", "You are the one", and three additional tracks were released online on November 8. A physical CD single was scheduled to be released in November but a more complete album, SuperJunior05 (TWINS), was released on December 5, 2005 instead. Their debut album sold 28,536 copies in the first month of release and debuted at #3 in the monthly chart of December 2005. In that same month, they released "Show Me Your Love," a collaboration single with TVXQ. "Show Me Your Love" became the best-selling record of December 2005, selling 49,945 copies that month.
After "TWINS (Knock Out)" and "Show Me Your Love" promotions were finished, Super Junior 05 promoted their second single "Miracle" in February 2006. "Miracle" was the group's first single to peak #1 in online music charts of South Korea as well as the international music chart of Thailand. As promotions for "Miracle" came to an end, SM Entertainment began selecting new members for Super Junior's second line-up project, Super Junior 06. The company even prepared a list of chosen members that were to graduate from the group. However, no members were taken out and a thirteenth member was added instead in May 2006. The line-up project has been abandoned since then, and the group became known as just Super Junior, without the suffix "05".
2006–2007: Breakthrough success
On May 23, 2006, SM Entertainment revealed the thirteenth member Kyuhyun, who was discovered through a singing competition in 2005. They released their single "U" online for free download on May 25, 2006 in their official website. "U" had over 400 thousand downloads within five hours of release and it ultimately exceeded 1.7 million downloads, crashing the server. The physical single of "U" with a total of three tracks was released on June 6, 2006, eventually selling over 81,000 units by the end of the year. During this time, an official fanclub was created for the group, E.L.F., an alphabetism derived from the phrase "Ever-lasting Friends." Super Junior's official color became pearl sapphire blue.
"U" yielded number-one spots for five consecutive weeks on two of Korea's top music programs for the first time in the group's career. "Dancing Out," their first promotional single for SM Town's annual summer album, was released on July 20, 2006 and met similar success, grabbing two single awards in August. Super Junior collected over seven awards in five of South Korea's top music award ceremonies as 2006 came to a close, winning Best New Group and popularity awards.
Due to busy individual schedules, Super Junior promotional activities remained inactive in the latter months of 2006 except for Super Junior-K.R.Y., Super Junior's first official subgroup. The ballad-singing trio debuted on November 5, 2006, with the performance of "The one I love", the theme song for the tvN television drama Hyena (하이에나). A second subgroup arrived in February 2007 called Super Junior-T. The trot-singing group released their first single "Rokuko" in February 23, 2007 and made a debut performance two days later. That following March, Yesung, Kang-in, Sungmin, Donghae, Ryeowook, and Kyuhyun participated in an original soundtrack for the first time, singing the opening and ending themes "Success" and "H.I.T" for the Korean miniseries, H.I.T.
2007–2008: Setbacks
Due to Kyuhyun's severe injury from the April 19 car accident, only twelve members of Super Junior recorded "Full of Happiness" (행복), their next single for SM Town. Released in mid-July 2007, the summer single accelerated quickly in singles charts in both South Korea and Thailand and soon became a number-one hit in Thailand's international charts a month later.
Super Junior's second official album was intended for a late 2006 release, but due to Heechul's injury from a car accident on August 10, 2006 and the April 19 car accident, Don't Don was not released until September 20, 2007. Within the first three days of release, offline album sales for Don't Don passed the 11,000 unit mark, debuting as #1 in all available offline charts. It finished the September monthly album sales as number one. 60,000 units were shipped by the first week of release and additional copies were printed. After three months of release, Don't Don sold 164,058 copies, making it Super Junior's best-selling album. It was also the second best-selling album of 2007, falling 26,940 copies short of SG Wannabe's The Sentimental Chord.[27][28][c]
Super Junior performed their first comeback performance for the album on September 21, 2007, performing the album's first single "Don't Don" at KBS's Music Bank. The single rose quickly in music charts a week after release, winning its first number-one "Mutizen Song" recognition on October 21, 2007 and later on M!Countdown, sharing the #1 song of the week along with "Everyday" by V.O.S on November 1, 2007. Super Junior moved to their second single "Marry U" in mid-November, which failed to meet the same achievements as "Don't Don."
Supported by the release of Don't Don, Super Junior was nominated in seven separate categories at the 2007 M.NET/KM Music Festival that was held on November 17, 2007. Super Junior won three of those categories including Netizen Choice Award and Mobile Popularity, being the biggest winner of the night. The group also won Best Artist of the Year (Daesang), termed by many as the highest recognition of the ceremony. Super Junior collected two more awards on December 14, 2007 at the 2007 Golden Disk Awards. Although defeated by SG Wannabe in winning the Daesang, Super Junior won a Bonsang and the TPL Anycall Popularity Award, which were reported as expected wins for the group by the media after the success of Don't Don.
2008–present: Beyond Korea
On October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment announced a third Super Junior sub-unit Super Junior-M, a subgroup designated for the Chinese market. This announcement had created a controversy between the fans and the management as fans did not support new members for a Super Junior subgroup. Nonetheless, Super Junior-M were successful in China, having the opportunity to hold two sold-out concerts in Hong Kong, top weekly ratings with their appearance on variety programs, and were given endorsement contracts, notably Semir and Pepsi. With the absence of almost half of the members in Korea, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit was created that same year to prevent Super Junior from disappearing in the Korean music industry. With five members from Super Junior-T and Yesung, they formed the subgroup, Super Junior-Happy. Super Junior-Happy released the EP Cooking? Cooking! on June 5, 2008, and promotions ended on September 7, lasting for four months. In November 2008, Super Junior-T returned, this time having their brief comeback as a singing group in Japan, called SuperJunior-TxMoeyan; this group added Moeyan, a famous two-woman comedy group in Japan.
Super Junior's first major tour, Super Show, commenced on February 22, 2008 in Seoul.The tour covered three countries and had shows on six different cities, including Bangkok, Shanghai, and Beijing.[40][34][42] On August 2, 2008, Super Junior expanded their routes to Genting Highlands, Malaysia, being one of the top guest performers at the MTV Asia Awards 2008 along with other international performing artists such as OneRepublic and the Jabbawockeez. They are the third SM artist to win Favorite Artist Korea at the MTV Asia Awards after Kangta and BoA, and the second musical group to win the award after JTL in 2003.
Super Junior's third album, Sorry, Sorry, was released on March 12, 2009. The title single off the album, "Sorry, Sorry" was digitally released on March 9, 2009. In less than a week after preorders were announced, over 150,000 copies were pre-ordered. Sorry, Sorry was their first album to debut at #1 on the Hanteo Charts, and it sold over 29,000 copies the first day, defeating Seo Taiji's record of 25,000. Promotions for the album started March 13 with the performance of "Sorry, Sorry" and "Why I Like You" on Music Bank. Two weeks later, "Sorry, Sorry" became the number one song of the week on the same program. During the group's comeback stage on music program Popular Songs on March 15, ratings went up to as high as 14%, the highest in recent years. "Sorry, Sorry" also won Mutizen Song for three consecutive weeks.
Overseas activities
Since Super Junior's debut in South Korea, the group endeavored to share an equal share of influence across Asia. The group has paid many visits to countries outside of their homeland to promote their music, especially to China and Thailand.
Thailand
Super Junior made their first overseas performance in Thailand on March 9, 2006 at the Pattaya International Music Festival. In effect of their appearance, "Show Me Your Love" moved up to #8 on Thailand's Channel [V] Music Chart. Soon "Miracle" debuted as #1 in the charts on March 21, 2006. "Miracle" was the second song produced by SM Entertainment that topped overseas music charts in Thailand of Channel V after DBSK's "Rising Sun." The song stayed as #1 for four consecutive weeks. A year later, "Full of Happiness" (행복) debuted as #18 on Thailand's International Channel [V] Music Chart on the week of July 29, 2007. The single jumped to #8 the week after, and on the third week the single advanced to #1. Aside the International Channel [V] Music Chart, which it was #1 for six consecutive weeks, it also made it to #1 on the POP Channel International Chart and the MTV International Chart in Thailand. The single strongly stayed as #1 on the charts for almost a month.
Since 2007, Siwon has been the main endorser for Thailand's 12 Plus Powder. Since 2008, Super Junior has been endorsing Yamaha Fino with Thailand popular duo Golf & Mike. Super Junior was also appointed as the goodwill ambassadors for the 2008 Korea and Thailand 50th Anniversary, honoring the good relationship Korea has held with Thailand for the past fifty years.
Mainland China
In April 2006, Chinese member Han Geng visited China for the first time since his debut to promote Super Junior. Since then, he and the rest of Super Junior continuously visited China. On June 12, 2006 Super Junior made their debut performance in China performing "U" and "Miracle." After filming the Hong Kong war film A Battle of Wits in 2006, Siwon heavily promoted the film in China. Along with the rest of the cast of the film, he toured four major cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. On August 8, 2007, Han Geng and Siwon traveled to Changsha to participate in a variety show, Happy Base Camp, being the first K-pop idols to appear on Chinese variety shows in TV history, simultaneously establishing a ratings hit for the program.
Super Junior released a Mandarin Chinese version of "U" on June 15, 2007 and various sources have stated that the group would release a Mandarin-language album. Instead of the entire group, a subgroup was created for the market instead. On April 8, 2008, Super Junior-M, a subgroup that is specifically designed for the Chinese music industry, debuted with their first music video, "U". The subgroup's debut album, Me, was released in different regions of Mainland China in April 2008. The Korean version of the album which has three bonus Korean tracks, was released in South Korea that same month. Me was released throughout the rest of Asia in May 2008. The album debuted as #1 in all major album charts in China.
Taiwan
Super Junior's first visit to Taiwan was on June 16, 2007 as guest performers and presenters for the Golden Melody Awards. They presented the Best Vocal Group and Best Performance Album awards. They also performed the songs "U" and "Miracle" at the awards ceremony.
Their visit to Taiwan helped increase the sales figures of Don't Don which was released in Taiwan on October 19, 2007 under the Avex Trax label. It broke the record for being the highest ranked Korean album on the G-music Combo Billboard Chart, surpassing the albums of TVXQ and Shinhwa. Super Junior's album also ranked above Taiwanese boy band K One, whose album debuted at #6. The album peaked at #1 in Taiwan's Five Music J-pop/K-pop Chart and the G-music J-pop Chart in Taiwan within the first week of release.
Super Junior visited Taiwan a second time on January 5, 2008 for Taiwan's "Music in Harmony" concert as a beginning step to have a closer approach to the Chinese market. They performed in the concert along with Taiwan's Show Luo and Energy. Korea's Baby Vox Re.V and PARAN were also invited to perform. Popularity won Super Junior to have over 500 fans welcoming them at Taiwan's airport. On May 2, 2008, Super Junior-M's first Chinese-language album Me was released in Taiwan, debuting on the charts as #2, with only Sodagreen's new release above theirs.
Japan
From July 8 to July 9, 2008, Super Junior held their first Japan fanmeeting in the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo as a celebration for the grand opening of their official Japanese Homepage that was opened on April 1, 2008. 12,000 tickets to the fanmeeting were all sold out in several days. The group released a compiled Japan single the following day, entitled "U/TWINS", which includes the Japanese version of "U" in the limited release, to complement the event. The single peaked at #4 on Japan's Oricon Daily Chart in its first day of release, and dropped down to only four places in its second. The single broke a new record for being the first Korean single to have made within top 10 on Japan's Oricon Weekly Chart.
On November 5, 2008, Super Junior-T released their first Japanese single, "ROCK&GO" in Japan, with the support and featuring of Japanese comemdy duo, Moeyan.The collaboration was the duo's official debut as singers and Super Junior-T's entrance in the Japanese market.[ The single debuted at #19 on the Oricon Daily Charts and jumped to #2 three days later.
Notable events
April 19 car accident
On April 19, 2007 at 12:20 am KST, Super Junior and two of the group's managers became victims of a car accident. The driver lost control of the vehicle and the van flipped over on its right side, colliding with the sidewalk.
Kyuhyun, who was sitting behind the driver's seat when the accident occurred, was severely injured with a fractured hip, pneumothorax from broken ribs, and deep scratches and bruises. Leeteuk had severe scratches on his back and face, and had to receive stitches. He had a successful operation removing the glass shards on his back, and received a total of 170 stitches on both his back and face.
Shindong and Eunhyuk, the least injured with only a few cuts, scratches, and bruises, were both discharged on April 23, 2007. Leeteuk and Kyuhyun recovered faster than expected,and Leeteuk was discharged from the hospital on April 30, 2007. Kyuhyun was discharged two months later on July 5, 2007.
Artistry
Musical style
As a whole, Super Junior has released three studio albums and one official single, including contributions of songs in the soundtracks of H.I.T and Attack on the Pin-Up Boys. They are acclaimed for their vocal harmonization and unison as each member contributes a different voice range in their music. Some members are credited for their vocal belting techniques, notably Yesung.Leeteuk, Heechul, Han Geng, Sungmin, Donghae, and Ryeowook sing within the stretch of a high baritone range to the tenor range, while Kang-in and Siwon sing in a lower baritone range. Shindong's, Kibum's, and Kyuhyun's vocals lie in the bass range. Shindong, Eunhyuk, and Kibum are also the known rappers of the group due to their rhythmic vocals and quick tongue. Heechul and Donghae consistently rap as the supporting vocals.
Super Junior's music falls into the category of mainstream Korean pop. Songs of this genre are usually mixed with different branches of electronic instruments, with heavy emphasis on urban contemporary, dance pop, and rap. Super Junior has been notable for their light, bubblegum pop dance mixes, such as "Miracle" and "Sapphire Blue," but with the release of Don't Don, they began to incorporate a more mature style of composition into their music. The album's first single "Don't Don" includes a balanced infusion of rock, R&B, and rap, along with other musical elements like the electric guitar, bass, and other different percussion instruments, adding to a mixed genre labeled as SMP. Classical instruments are also woven into their music, such as the violin in "Don't Don" and the African djemba and Indian tabla in "A Man In Love." They have also released songs that are solely focused on rap and hip hop. An example is "One Love", a song that Eunhyuk wrote for their first concert.
Super Junior has covered quite a few song in their albums. Their debut single, "TWINS (Knock Out)" is a cover of Triple Eight's "Knockout," which was released in 2003. While the musical style is mostly maintained as the original, "TWINS (Knock Out)" touches closer to rap rock, with quicker rap and more emphasis on the bass instruments. In most of their covers, the original titles are kept. Examples include Cape's "L.O.V.E" and Exile's "Believe." However, most of these covers are re-arranged to different accompaniments, such as H.O.T's "Full of Happiness" (행복).
Heechul, Shindong, and Eunhyuk are credited for their rap lyrics in their co-single with TVXQ, "Show Me Your Love". Eunhyuk is also the main contributor for the rap lyrics in the group's single, "U". After the release of their second album, Don't Don, more members began to contribute in writing. Leeteuk, Sungmin, Eunhyuk, and Donghae wrote the lyrics to the pop track, "I am," a song talking about the ordinary man in a celebrity's life. Eunhyuk remains as one of the main writers for most of Super Junior's rap lyrics in the second and third album.
Dance style
Super Junior has done performances centered heavily around their choreography. The group's pre-debut appearance was a hip hop dance performance and they have also joined B-boy battles and performances throughout their career.
Their dance styles are widely termed as street dancing, with a majority of their dance choreography containing hip hop dance moves such as popping, waving, sliding, and liquid dancing. Most of their songs usually contain a music bridge where two to six members from the group do a dance performance. Han Geng, Shindong, Eunhyuk, and Donghae are reportedly the most skilled dancers of the group, where the four of them are usually seen leading group dances and also performing solos. Dances in the form of martial arts are widely used in their dance routines as both Han Geng and Sungmin are professionally trained in that area. Some of the members also participated in creating their dance choreography, such as Shindong who was the main choreographer for "U" and for most of the group's other dance sequences. The members were also responsible for the dance choreography of "Don't Don."
Image
Super Junior frequently changes their image with each musical release. Super Junior's debut image softly leaned towards a rock appearance to complement "TWINS (Knock Out)." During their promotion of "Miracle," many of the members displayed a youthful and cute image with their lighter hair color and funny dance style. The group soon transitioned to a more mature, preppy style with "U", where the members changed their hair to a darker color and wore darker, more flamboyant outfits.
With the release of Don't Don, the group surprised the media with an edgy transformation. Some members bleached their hair, wore dark makeup, and had temporary tattoos . Kang-in had a hairstyle that was a buzz cut with scratched designs, Sungmin's hair was bleached blond and half shaved, while Heechul, Han Geng, and Kyuhyun sported with bright-colored hairstyles, which were all inspired by punk fashion, as well as modifications of hip hop fashion. Their outfits also became more revealing as a part of their new image. However the group's image was changed to a more classic image for performances of "Marry U" and "Sorry, Sorry."
Criticism
Super Junior has been criticized in the past for lip-synching and lack of vocal skills, specifically for shaky pitch and heavy breathing, The criticisms worsened in July 2006 when they lipsynched on Show! Music Core of MBC, a show that guarantees all live performances. Though fans have defended them saying that Heechul was ill, their critics do not accept this explanation. They argue that since the band contains thirteen members, one ill singer should not necessitate lipsynching by the entire group. Despite this, they have still remained popular through their large fan base and their album sales have been strong. Pushing back the criticism, Super Junior's second album comeback performance, "Don't Don," was a live performance instead of lipsynched. Out of the thirty-six songs that were performed at the group's first live concert tour Super Show, only six songs were lipsynched, acclaiming positive reviews for the concert. Some members have also been performing a cappella versions of their songs.
Discography
Albums | Singles - 2006: "U"
- 2008: "U/TWINS" (Special Japan release)
- 2008: "Marry U" (Special Japan release)
|
Extended plays
Tours
Subgroups
Since debut, SM Entertainment has created four subgroups for Super Junior. Every member was put into different sub groups, Kibum being the only member not involved in any sub group activities due to his busy acting schedule. The intentions of the subgroups were part of SM's strategy to not limit Super Junior's activities, and the goal was to show that the group could accommodate different musical genres. However, this strategy was later challenged by critics, as it has influenced an overwhelming amount of music groups to create official and unofficial subgroups alike. SM announced that Super Junior will form more subgroups in the future, and possible focuses of these subgroups include a variety of genres such as rock and hip hop. Previous Super Junior subgroups will also make comebacks in the industry along with appearances of new subgroups.
Film and television career
Debut
Prior to the group's debut, the members had individually appeared in television dramas, with Leeteuk being the first member of the group to act; he made a very brief cameo appearance as a moviegoer in All About Eve in 2000. Heechul, Siwon, and Kibum are still frequent television actors after Super Junior's debut in 2005, especially Kibum, who starred in four long television dramas after Super Junior's debut.
Siwon was among the first of Super Junior to have participated in silver-screen productions, appearing in the Hong Kong historical action drama film, A Battle of Wits as the supporting role of Prince Liang in 2006. In 2007, Heechul, Kang-in, and Shindong lent their voices to the three chipmunks in the Korean release of Alvin and the Chipmunks. In 2008, Kang-in had a major role in the Korean-language film, Pure Manhwa (tentative title).
As a group, Super Junior starred in Super Junior's Mini-Drama, a television program hosted by the group that was released in late 2006. The group wrote, produced, and acted in the separate mini dramas. The subject matters of the dramas were chosen from the top three choices from viewers. They also participated in comedic reality shows such as Super Junior Show (2005-2006), Super Junior Full House (2006), Super Adonis Camp (2006), and other similar shows. In contrast, the group released a horror documentary, Mystery 6 in early 2006 that tells a story of a ghost. The members also starred in various music videos of artists under SM Entertainment. The most notable performance was in Zhang Liyin's debut music drama video, "Timeless" (2006), featuring Han Geng and Siwon.
Masters and jockeys
Few days prior to debut, Heechul became the co-DJ with Park Heebon for SBS's Youngstreet Radio Show. He had been the DJ for five more months until busy schedules required him to leave the show when he became an MC for SBS's Popular Songs and KM'S Show Music Tank. Leeteuk, Kang-in, and Shindong made their debut appearance as MCs for M.NET's M!Countdown five days after Super Junior's music debut. The three members remained together as the hosts throughout the year until Kang-in was replaced by Eunhyuk due to his busy schedule for hosting MBC's radio program Good Friend Radio and music show Show! Music Core. Leeteuk and Eunhyuk also host their own radio show, KBS's Super Junior Kiss the Radio, and usually invites singers to discuss their musical career. Sungmin was a DJ with Sunny of Girls' Generation for Reckless Radio before the program ended in July 31, 2008. Shindong is also a regular DJ for MBC's Stop the Boring Time Radio.
On November 11, 2007, the premiere of Explorers of the Human Body aired on SBS. The show introduced the thirteen members of Super Junior as regular guests for the program. Kyuhyun, who was recovering from a car accident during the first half of the show's filming, joined the show in the later episodes. The show aimed to answer questions about the human body with a total of thirteen episodes. Super Junior members experiment with their own bodies to verify answers. The first season ended with thirteen episodes on February 3, 2008. A second season is considered.
Attack on the Pin-Up Boys
Eleven members, excluding Kyuhyun and LeeTeuk, appeared in the group's debut film Attack on the Pin-Up Boys. The first film released by SM Pictures, it premiered on July 26, 2007 in Korea. "Wonder Boy", performed by Super Junior, is used as the theme song of the film. Although the film was promoted as a typical high school comedy, the movie gained positive reviews from critics[citation needed], praising that the movie had a well-oriented plot unlike most idol films. However, ticket sales remained low in the premiere month despite it's unexpected success in the sales the first week.
Throughout the remaining of the year, the film failed to attract more than 102,600 viewers and was proven to be a big loss for SM Pictures. However, both versions of the film's DVD became a best-selling record and were sold-out in both Korea and oversea markets, which is more than enough to make up for the production loss of 8.5 billion won.
Influence and impact
Super Junior is credited as literally the biggest boy band in the world and the largest group SM Entertainment has ever created. When Super Junior was formed, successful boy band acts such as TVXQ and Shinhwa were already in fame, and many doubted Super Junior would reach the same notability in the industry because of the overwhelming amount of members. I-13, a thirteen-member girl group that debuted on the same day as Super Junior, received very little commercial success, and later disbanded.
During the course of Super Junior's career, a fair amount of similar musical groups were formed, in hope to reach the same success. SM Entertainment created another group, the nine-member Girls' Generation, and marketed them as the female version of Super Junior. JYP Entertainment also recruited thirteen boys to be in a boy band, which were all revealed in the show, Hot Blood Men. However, not all thirteen debuted, and the members were split into two smaller splinter groups, each debuting at different times: Four members in 2AM and seven members in 2PM. Together, the two groups form the eleven-member boy band, One Day. Ast'1, a boy band under DSP Entertainment, released a promotional video in March 2008. In the short preview the boy band expressed that they would "Knock Down Super Junior", which resulted in a lot of criticism lashed into the group. However, they clarified that they had no means to create conflict, and explained the reason why they want to defeat Super Junior is because they see Super Junior as their answer of success.
Controversies
Super Junior China
After the subgroups Super Junior-K.R.Y. and Super Junior-T, on October 2, 2007, SM Entertainment announced the birth of another Super Junior sub-unit project that would begin activities in China starting 2008. Along with Han Geng, SM Entertainment's new Chinese trainee Henry Lau, who was also featured in the music video of "Don't Don", was said to be one of the core members for the subgroup.
The announcement brought in a huge wave of dissatisfaction and opposition from fans of Super Junior after the announcement of a new member. Initially fans were planning to boycott the company's products, however, most fans agreed on a silent protest instead. Thousands of fans from Super Junior's official fanclub E.L.F. silently sat in front of the SM building and held signs that supported the group to have only thirteen members.
After more rumors regarding adding an extra Chinese member to the subgroup, the fans decided to gain a legal representation as part of SM Entertainment's stockholders. As of March 20, 2008, Super Junior fans purchased 58,206 stocks of SM Entertainment, holding 0.3% of the company's entire stock.They released a statement that they will obtain all chances to prevent SM Entertainment from adding new members and to keep Super Junior as only thirteen.
MBC vs. SM
For more details on this topic, see
Kang-in.
A time-slot dispute occurred between SM Entertainment and MBC when SM insisted to have Kang-in stay on SBS's Explorers of the Human Body instead of MBC's Sunday Night Dong-An Club (동안클럽) where Kang-in has been a regular host. MBC temporarily banned the rest of Super Junior from appearing in any future performances and shows hosted by MBC.Kang-in also lost his MC jobs to T.O.P of Big Bang for the music show, Show! Music Core and also two more variety shows, which both soon canceled after Kang-in left.MBC demanded an apology from SM Entertainment in order for Super Junior to appear on shows hosted by the channel again. However, MBC concluded that Super Junior's ban was never official, but just a decision for shows' producers to decide.
