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| SuperM, a seven-member K-pop idol group produced by SM Entertainment, poses at the press conference held at Seoul Dragon City, Yongsan, Wednesday. / Yonhap |
By Jung Hae-myoung
SM Entertainment has launched a new K-pop idol band, "SuperM" for K-pop fans abroad. Its first album, "Jopping" ― a new Konglish word they created, combining "jumping" and "popping" ― was released Friday. It has already been given the nickname "K-pop avengers," as SuperM is made up of members from popular K-pop groups.
The seven members include Tae-min from SHINEE, Baek-hyun and Kai from EXO, Mark and Tae-yong from NCT, Ten and Lucas from Chinese group WayV. During the press conference held at Seoul Dragon City grand ball room, Wednesday, SuperM members spoke about how they feel about getting into the global music scene.
"It has long been a dream for me to join the U.S. music market. When I debuted in 2008, we mainly targeted Asian countries such as Japan and China. When we went to the U.S. for the first time, we were surprised by how people from western countries were enjoying our performances," Tae-min said. "Now this is a dream come true for us. Some people call us the K-pop avengers, and we would like to live up to that expectation."
The group was formed following a suggestion by Steve Barnett of Capitol Records. The U.S.-based label has been working with SM Entertainment as a partner for NCT 127's overseas expansion. After watching their performance, Capitol Records asked Lee Soo-man, the head of the K-pop giant agency, to make an idol group.
Lee said he happily accepted the suggestion and has been working for over a year, meeting with various artists numerous times.
Barnett and Lee sent a video message for the debut encouraging the members to work hard. Barnett explained SuperM will hold a showcase Saturday at Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood. Their U.S. debut will be live-streamed.
SuperM's first album and title song also shows strong performance in their music videos. It has strong beats which is also shown in the powerful choreography with visual effects like in the film "The Matrix." Indeed, "M" in the group name also stands for "Matrix" and "Master."
"In this group we mix and match with powerful SMP. We tried to reflect and emphasize this by using big hand and feet gestures in the dance movements to present ourselves like warriors," Baek-hyun, the leader of the SuperM, said.
"As the members in each group also show great SMP themselves, the members gathered is like a full package," Kai said.
The members of SuperM said they will continue performing in their original groups without disbanding. Kai, one of the members of Super M and EXO, said EXO will be able to release an album before this year ends as planned, while him and Baek-hyun being members of SuperM.
"As this group is named Super, we will show that by not hindering our original groups," Kai said, comforting the fans.
"Jopping" was released on music streaming websites on Friday, 6 p.m.
