Gotta Appreciate the Past to Appreciate the Present

Yes, the glory of K-Pop is shooting up day by day and our artists are finally getting the appreciation they deserve. But would this have been possible without the early K-Pop that polished the way before the 4th generation groups active now? As the global attention toward Korean pop music is growing SM Entertainment, one of the biggest entertainment companies in Korea, thought this was time to shine some light on the top hits of the past K-Pop. With the “Remastering Project” that SM Ent. started by collaborating with YouTube, they aim to raise awareness about the history of K-Pop and further contribute to the growth of the Korean music industry for the future.

SM Entertainment

So what’s being “remastered” in this project? The music videos and songs of the most loved Korean pop songs in the 1990s and early 2000s. The music videos of past K-Pop could only be found in less than 240p, and that was if you had any luck even finding any to start with. There are so many old K-pop videos that couldn’t even be found on online platforms as they were all streamed on television back in the day. Starting in November, SM Ent. started releasing the remastered music videos every Thursday with the resolution of up to 4K, starting with the legendary song, Age of Violence (1996) by H.O.T.

YouTube | SMTOWN

Not to mention that fans were excited to see their oppas and unnies in 4K 😂, but this project gained much interest from K-Pop all around the world! Top comments say that “SM created the formula and made the blueprints for Kpop groups,” and “I feel like K-pop fans today have to know that K-pop isn't just music, but a culture.” After the first remastered MV release, hits such as Only One (2000) by SHINHWA, Day By Day by Fly to the Sky, ID; Peace B (2000) by BoA, and more! It was so funny how K-Pop fans were calling S.E.S members Aespa’s ‘Naevis’ after watching the MV for Dream Comes True (1998) and seeing that the futuristic concepts have been rooted from way back in time 🦋 For those of you not familiar with ‘Naevis,’ according to the fictional concept of Aespa and Naevis is the AI that guides Aespa’s AI friends, the ae’s (honestly, the storyline of Aespa’s concept is pretty overwhelming, so watch this fan-made video to learn about the SM Culture Universe).

YouTube | STMTOWN

SM Ent. and YouTube have announced that they’re planning to remaster around three-hundred music videos and songs of Korea’s past top hits. All songs and videos being remastered will be those of the SM artists, produced and performed in the past 20 years. I was excited to see the main SM producer Yoo Young Jin’s MV remastered a couple of days ago, and am thrilled that I got something to look forward to on Thursdays! The remastered classic K-Pop MVs are uploaded on the SMTOWN YouTube channel every Thursday at 10am KST (2pm NZDT), so be there xx