Behind the Asian Pop Culture Otaku: Entertainment Companies 101! (K-POP)

An nyoung ha seh yo (formal Hello!) fellow C.A.G.Ers! :3

Since I’ve finally taught you the general knowledge of K-Pop and J-Pop in my last previous posts, I figured I’ll teach you the basics on Entertainment Companies.

In Japan and Korea, I’ve noticed that entertainment companies play a major part in music. It’s not like our Western parts, where we can care less on which company is debuting which group. Most K-Pop and J-Pop stars are under an entertainment company/record label. They would normally be the ones taking care of behind-the-scenes work such as organizing their schedules, advertising, making sure they’re at the hit spot, making them sexy so us Otakus can freak ourselves out at great nights when we need some fan service…AHEM .  SOOOO, we’ll start taking a look at Korea’s TOP record labels.

The three major entertainment companies in Korea are, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment. However, we’ll include some of CUBE Entertainments stuff as well because they’re on a rise.

First things first, SM Entertainment

SM (Star Museum) Entertainment is one of the most profitable entertain agency in Korea. It was founded by Lee So Man in 1995. In the opinions of many, SM Entertainment has trained and produced the most major talents of Asia. Some of these talents include, BoA, H.O.T, Shinhwa, SNSD (Girls Generation), Super Junior, TVXQ and even recently, f(x) and EXO.

Here are some examples:

BoA – Eat You Up

 TVXQ – Mirotic

Girls Generation – Gee

Super Junior – Sorry Sorry

 

JYP Entertainment

Originally called “Tae-Hong Planning Corporation” in 1997, JYP was later changed to its current name in 2001. It was founded was Park Jin Young (You get it?!? J.Y.P?). Park Jin Young is still an active mentor and trainer for JYP. He holds some of the top idol groups in Korea. This includes 2PM, 2AM and Wonder Girls.

Wonder Girls – Tell Me

2AM – I Wonder If You Hurt Like Me

2PM – Again & Again

YG Entertainment

YG (Yang Goon) Entertainment is another famous entertainment agency of South Korea. It was founded by Yang Hyun Suk and is known for their top artists SE7EN, Big Bang and 2NE1. It has a real Hip-Hop, R&B feel to their music, so they’re real unique in the music biz-zzz!

SE7EN – Better Together

Big Bang – Lies

2NE1 – Ugly

 

And last but not least, CUBE Entertainment!

CUBE Entertainment was founded by JYPE’s former employee Hong Seung Sung in 2008. I respect this label because even though they were found only a few years ago, they have incredible talents! These talents include BEAST, 4MINUTE and G Na. They’ve even done their own joint concert last year (2011).

4MINUTE – Muzik

BEAST (B2ST) – FICTION

G Na – Black & White

 

Well, that’s the basics on the top entertainment companies in Korea. Funny enough, that doesn’t exclude some other companies.  DSP Media (SS501, KARA), J.Tune Entertainment/CAMP (Rain, Miss.A, MBLAQ) are a few examples! I’m happy to see some of you making it this far in my article. There are so many good music videos in this article, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got distracted. But I hope you have a happy time listening!

SARANGHEEEE!!! <3 <3 <3