History of: DSP Media (1997-2002)

[Teudungi21]

Spoiler: History of: JYP Entertainment Series

History of: JYP Entertainment (1992~1999)

I decided to release the JYP history as I dont know when the next SM piece will be up as it is taking a while as SM is an animal to research. DSP should also be up soon, I just have to edit a few things. I plan to release part 2 for JYP very quickly. Part 3 might come a little later as I will...

hallyuplus.net

History of: JYP Entertainment (2000-2005)

Here is Part 2 for JYP Entertainment. it took me longer than expected but I have finally finished it. The next part for JYP should take longer as I haven't written it yet but you can expect it to run from about 2006 until 2009 or 2010 depending how packed it is. JYP Entertainment: g.o.d and the...

hallyuplus.net

Spoiler: History of: SM Entertainment Series

History of: SM Entertainment (1989~1995)

So some of you might have read this in other forums. I have been pretty inconsistent with finishing this series due to being busy in my personal life. However, with this new forum I plan to make this the new home of this series and finish it here. This is information I have gathered from various...

hallyuplus.net

History of: SM Entertainment (1996-2000)

Previous Entries History of: SM Entertaiment (1989~1995) So here I am back with another update. I got this one out quick because I was already almost done with it. The next one should take a bit longer. This covers up until 2000 and sees SM really hit their stride into the Idol scene. However...

hallyuplus.net

Spoiler: History of: DSP Media Series

History of: DSP Media (1987-1997)

So I thought I would cover the start of DSP Media which was pretty hard to research as they are currently not as big and not as much info was available about the company, at least in English. However the start of the company is just as interesting as is the man behind it Lee Ho-yeon. I was...

hallyuplus.net

So this is part two of my series on DSP Media. I plan to do part three from 2002 until 2007. I found this time in DSP Media history to be particularly interesting as it saw the company go from rivaling SM Entertainment to falling back down to being a somewhat struggling company. This would not be the end of successful group for DSP Entertainment but it would be awhile until they could truly claim to be a top music label again.

Daesung Planning: The Golden Age of Daesung Planning, 1997-1998



1997 would be a tough year for the South Korean music industry as it would be the year that the Asian Financial Crisis would negatively affect album sales. It would also be the year where Korean music labels would begin their move to break into the music markets of various Asian countries. Not looking to go worldwide, Korean labels were instead focusing on the markets closest to them, those markets being in Japan and China. The idol system was also going into effect throughout the music industry as well as countries rushed to emulate the success that the group H.O.T had attained. Daesung Planning would follow this course as well but unlike SM Entertainment and other companies, they tried to make their artists more real along with their music and not focus so much on the character building. Now this is not to say there was absolutely no focus just that it wasn’t as prominent as in other systems. It could be said thus that while everyone was using the Idol system outline, each company would curtail it to their specific wants and what type of music they would produce. For Daesung Planning the results would be put to the test with the debut of Sechskies.

The first member of Sechskies to join Daesung Planning was Eun Ji-won. Ji-won was born in 1978 and moved to Hawaii to attend school when he was in the ninth grade. Eun Ji-won is actually the nephew of two Presidents of South Korea, his aunt being the recently impeached Park Geun-hye and his great uncle being the dictator Park Chung-hee. Eun Ji-won was discovered by Lee Ho-yeon when the latter was on vacation in Hawaii and spotted Ji-won along with future bandmate Kang Sung-hun in a night club. Kang Sung-hoon was born in Seoul, South Korea but went to study abroad in Hawaii. Ji-won and Sung-hoon both joined Daesung Planning and were set to debut as a duo until Lee Ho-yeon changed his mind after seeing the success of H.O.T and decided to debut a six-member boy group. Kang Sung-hoon initially refused to be part of a boy group but was persuaded after he was given the power to block any potential members he did not like. The next members to join Daesung Planning were Kim Jae-duck and Lee Jai-jin. The Busan natives were friends and had formed a dance crew, called Quicksilver. The two were scouted by Lee Juno, former member of Seo Taiji & Boys, and joined his company as trainees. The two would be picked up by Daesung Planning after Lee Ho-yeon asked Lee Juno to recommend him trainees to join his new boy group. The next member to join was Jang Su-won. Jang Su-won decided to audition with Daesung Planning on a whim with his friend and admitted in the audition that he was not good at anything. Su-won believed that he was accepted due to his honesty but member Kang Sung-hoon, who hand-picked the last four members of Sechskies, said that he picked Su-won for his good looks and attitude. The last member, Ko Ji-young was born in Seoul, South Korea and was elementary school friends with future bandmate Kang Sung-hoon before the later moved to the states. Kang Sung-hoon would later call up his friend Ko Ji-young and ask if he wanted to join the new group that was forming in Daesung Planning, Ji-young said yes. Like that all of the members of the Daesung’s new boy group were recruited and the bands final name was Sechskies, which means “six crystals” in German.

Sechskies would debut on April 15th, 1997 on the music show Music Bank with their first single, “School Anthem” which was release a month before their first album, titled School Anthem. The group skyrocketed to success and sold 1.2 million copies of its first album (these numbers, along with the sales numbers of Sechskies first three albums, are disputed due to reasons that will be covered later in this piece). Three songs from the album achieved fantastic reviews, “Remember Me,” “School Anthem”, and “The Way This Guy Lives – Pomsaengpomsa”. The group was quickly picked by the Korean press to be rivals to the then popular group H.O.T of SM Entertainment. This was Le Ho-yeon’s plan from the beginning and the immediate success of Sechskies proved to him that the strategy worked. Due to their immense popularity, Sechskies came back with their second album, Welcome to Sechskies Land, later that same year on November 1st. The album contained 20 tracks and were formatted as a tour around an amusement park that was called “Sechskies Land”. The group would soon begin promoting their title track, “Chivalry” on music programs and win their first number one on Inkigayo on December 7th. The group would win several rookie of the year awards at year end shows and would hold their first concert in the Sejong Center of Performing Arts on December 21st, being the first dance group to do this. The year ended as Sechskies were promoting their second album and the final sales for their second album ended up being 700,000 copies. Before the end of the year Daesung would debut a female soloist by the name of Kim Hyo-su, with her debut and final album being called Another Start”. The album did not do well and Daesung decided to focus on Sechskies and the debut of their upcoming girl group FIN.K.L.
Sechskies: School Anthem



Sechskies: Welcome to Sechskies Land

In the meantime, Daesung planning debuted their first female soloist named Kim Hyo-soo. Kim Hyo-soo would debut with her first album titled Kim Hyo-soo Vol 1 in 1997 with the title track named “Keep Me Safe”. This album did not do well and it would be the last album that Hyo-soo had with Daesung Planning.

The year 1998 proved to be the start of a great year for Daesung Planning. The previous year had pushed them to be one of the top entertainment copies in Korea, rivaling SM Entertainment. The popularity of Sechskies did not seem to be slowing down either and the group, after finishing promotions for their second album in February, went on a national tour. In March the group became the first idol group to release their own movie with the release of Seventeen. The group also starred in a musical titled, Alibaba and the 40 Thieves, alongside singer Jin-joo. They would go on to perform in front of President Kim Dae-jong on May 5th. The group would then release their third album titled, Road Fighter, on July 15th. This album would mix hip hop and electronica and would be the first album where a member had a hand in its production, that member being Eun Ji-won. The songs, “Road Fighter,” “Crying Game,” and “Reckless Love” would all gain fame and win music show awards. This album would also be a big hit and record roughly 700,000 physical copies sold. In October the group release their Special Album, which was a soundtrack for their movie Seventeen. Their song “Couple” became a mega hit and won several awards at end of the year awards. This album would be the groups best performing album, selling roughly 1 million physical copies. By the end of the year Sechskies had cemented themselves as H.O.T’s rivals and the two basically split the market when it comes to boy groups. However, in this same year Daesung Planning released their answer to SM’s S.E.S and debuted their first girl group titled FIN.K.L.
Sechskies: Road Warrior



With the success of their boy group Sechskies, Daesung Planning and Lee Ho-yeon now turned to the girl group market and planned to debut a girl group to rival SM’s S.E.S. During this time cute and catchy songs were the trend when it came to girl groups but Lee Ho-yeon hoped that putting out a group with a more R&B ballad songs along with the typical pop song. To do this Lee Ho-yeon scouted the first member of the new group, Ock Joo-hyun. Ock Joo-hyun was born in Seoul, South Korea and was discovered by Lee Ho-yeon when he heard her singing on a radio singing contest. Ock Joo-hyun encourage her friend Lee Jin to audition as well and she passed Daesung’s audition process by singing Eco’s “Blessed Me”. The next member to join was Sung Yu-ri; Sung Yu-ri was born in Germany but moved to Korea at the age of 4. Sung Yu-ri would be scouted by Daesang Planning while on a field trip and would quickly go on to join the company. A fourth member, Annie Lee, was slated to join the group but she decided not a to join after a few months and a different member, Lee Hyori, was chosen instead. Lee Hyori was discovered while taking sticker pictures with a friend at a mall months before the debut of FIN.K.L. With the addition of Hyori the group was complete and the group would make their official debut on May 22, 1998 with the single “Blue Rain”. Fin.K.L, the name meaning FinKilling Liberty, would promote three singles with the release of their first album. These singles include the previously mentioned R&B ballad “Blue Rain”, pop song “To My Boyfriend” and finally to end their album promotions, “Sad Tears”. The album would find moderate success, selling 291,000 physical copies. The year 1998 was very friendly to Daesung Planning as it saw their boy group Sechskies become the rivals of H.O.T and debuted a girl group to moderate success and a promising start. Overall in little over two years Daesung Planning went from a suffering entertainments agency to one of the most well known in the industry. The next year would see Daesung Planning undergo a name change in light of their new-found success.
FIN.K.L: Blue Rain

DSP Entertainment: The Stumbling of an Entertainment Empire Part 1, 1999-2002



With the success of their new boy group Sechskies and the promising start of their girl group Fin.K.L, Daesung Planning and Lee Ho-yeon decided that a renaming was needed to recognize this new status. Thus, in February of 1999, Daesung Planning went through legal actions to change their name to DSP Entertainment. During this time Sechskies also toured throughout Korea and in April released their first concert video. On April 10thSechskies also released their first live concert album to great success, the album selling over 80k copies. The group would also sell a compilation album later that year titled 1020 Mix that would sell 30k physical copies. After the release of their live concert album, the group returned to the studio to get ready for their fourth and what would turn out to be final album with DSP Entertainment. This fourth album was titled Comin’ Back and would find great commercial success selling roughly 700,000 physical copies. On December 5th, Sechskies would be one of the first K-pop dance groups to perform in North Korea as they went there for the 2000 Peace Friendship Music Concert. Sechskies would end the year riding high but tensions between the company and the group were semiring behind doors and this would come to a head in the following year.
Sechskies: Comin' Back

Fin.K.L would begin their year by releasing their 2ndalbum titled White in May of 1999. The songs that gained popularity during this comeback included “Everlasting Love” and “Pride”, both of which were songs that moved away from the traditional ballad focus that the group pushed during their first album. This album continued Fin.K.L’s success and sold over 700,000 physical copies. The group would again release a “half” album titled S.P.E.C.I.A.L in November which contained two songs which found wide success, those songs being “To My Prince” and “White”. During the promotions of “White” snow would usually fall on the performers while the song was played and this often caused the members and back-up dancers to fall on stage. This album did very well and sold 340,000 physical copies. This year FIN.K.L also released a video of their first solo concert titled, FIN.K.L First live Concert. With this year coming to a close, Fin.K.L was strongly consider to be a close rival to the SM group S.E.S.
FIN.K.L: White

With the success of both of their new groups DSP Entertainment’s status was on the rise and they took this opportunity to debut a new 7-member boy group titled Click-B. The group would have a different concept from their labelmate as they would start by combining both rock and dance music into their releases. Click-B would debut in August 1999 and was made up of seven members named; Woo Yun-suk, Oh Jong-hyuk, Kim Sanh-hyuk, Kim Tae-hyung, Ha Hyun-gon, Yoo Ho-suk, and No Min-hyuk. The band would debut with their first album Click-B 1stwith the title track “Promise” which had some success but not nearly to the extent of their brother group Sechskies or their sister group FIN.K.L. In the first month the album would do poorly commercially selling roughly 8,845 physical copies.[1]The album would eventually go on to sell roughly 43,483 physical copies by the end of the year.[2]DSP Entertainment would also debut a group titled Leeds but this group would find even significantly less success than Click-B and disband the following year.
Click-B 1ST: Promise

Overall 1999 was a great year for DSP Entertainment as it saw their groups continue their great success and rival the giants of the industry while at the same time debuting a group, in Click-B, that while not finding the great success of their label mates still didn’t not completely fall on their face. With the year 2000 approaching, DSP Entertainment had just experienced the zenith of the influence they would have on the industry. While the company would have success in the future never again would they rival the top label in the industry to the extent that DSP Entertainment did in 1998 and 1999. In fact, 2000 would be the beginning of the end for the first generation of successful groups from DSP Entertainment.

The new millennium started out normally enough for DSP Entertainment. Their most successful boy group Sechskies held a 1000thday celebration with their fans in January of 2000 and the group followed this up with a sold-out concert at the Olympics Gymnastics Arena in Seoul. Then the members of Sechskies held a sudden press conference in May of 2000 and announced that they planned to disband that year. Fans of the group were enraged and attacked a car they thought held the President of DSP Entertainment Lee Ho-yeon and completely destroyed the car. The car in fact did not hold the president and instead it held a reporter. The group would have their final performance on May 20that the Dream Concert and on may 31stthey would release a final compilation album titled Blue Note which contained the “Best Of” songs. This album would sell 86,000 physical copies. The group would end their time at DSP Entertainment by releasing a free online song titled “Thanks” in August of 2000 and then formally disband. The disbandment announcement of Sechskies would shock the industry as it simply did not make sense to many why this seemingly mega success group would choice to disband. Various members have stated different reasons for the disbandment, with Lee Jai-jin saying that the group wanted to continue but under a different agency, that agency rumored to be YG Entertainment. Member Eun Ji-won would state that the members decided to disband at the top of their careers as they felt that was better than doing so when they were on the decline. Kang Sung-hoon would later agree with this but also say that he disagreed with the disbandment. Members would explain how the company did not treat them well and how there were tensions with the type of music that the members wanted to do and the type of music that the agency wanted to do. In 2016, the rumors were laid to rest when the members finally explained that they had a vote on whether to continue and in the end a majority wanted to disband with member Lee Jai-jin being one of the members to disagree with the disbandment.

In August of that same year DSP Entertainment would be investigated for underreporting the album sales of Sechskies for the purpose of tax evasion. For instance, it is estimated that the first and second albums of the group sold well over a million copies, but official reports only confirm 400,000 to 500,000 copies sold. A reporter also reported on DSP Entertainment’s reported history of tax evasion, embezzlement, underpayment, and lack of written contracts. The same reporter also accused the company of intimidating him after the release of the report. However, after an investigation it was determined that none of these allegations could be proven. However, the National Tax Service did an audit of DSP Entertainment and collecting hundreds of millions of won which seems to point to some kind of malpractice on the part of DSP Entertainment. This is the reason why it is difficult to ascertain how many copies Sechskies sold as it is suspected that DSP Entertainment underreported album sales to evade taxes.

In October of 2000, Fin.K.L would continue their success with the release of their third album, Now, which strived to display the physical maturity of the members. The group would promote two singles along with the album, the title track, “Now” and the secondary track, which was promoted very lightly, “Feel Your Love”. The single “Now” had the members dress in almost formal attire while the single “Feel Your Love” had the members in school uniforms. The album would find great success selling 400,000 physical copies. The group would also record a song titled, “True Love” for the drama All About Eve.
FIN.K.L: Now

The group Click-B would also comeback with their second album Volume 2- Challenge I June of 2000. This album would also find moderate success, though in light of the disbandment of the radically successful Sechskies it could only be seen as a disappointment. The album would sell an impressive 47,288 physical copies in its first month.[3]This year also saw DSP Entertainment try for the solo market by debuting a female soloist named Eom Ji-seon with her album Even if it’s a Dream. The album did not see much success and it continued DSP Entertainments unlucky history of solo releases. Overall, the year 2000 could only be described as a disappointment for DSP Entertainment. The company had lost their most successful group and had been accused of tax evasion and a variety of lesser crimes and had to pay millions of won to the National Tax Service. The company also tried to get into the solo market again only to fail. Going into 2001 the company hoped to turn things around and thus they began to push their last remaining boy group, Click-B.

Fin.K.L would start out 2001 for DSP Entertainment by releasing a “half” album titled Melodies & Memories which contained hit Korean songs from the 80s and 90s. This album was geared towards older fans instead of the teenage fans that currently dominated the market. The game that DSP Entertainment was playing was hoping to sell albums by the nostalgia that the songs made the adults feel. The album would find a good amount of success selling 259,000 physical copies. The music video for one single on the album, “You Wouldn’t Know” would draw praise at it perfectly recreated scenes from four popular movies including Pretty Woman.

Click-B would start the year by releasing their 3rdalbum titled Volume 3 – Click-B3. This album would continue the moderate success of Click-B but in no way would signal that the group could replace the recently disbanded Sechskies. The album would sell roughly 72,868 physical copies in its first month and would finish the year with roughly 120,825 physical copies becoming the 61stbest-selling album of the year.[4] This year Click-B would also release their first “half” album, titled You, in November of 2001. This album would also find moderate success selling 78,889 physical copies by the end of the year.[5]To compound the group started to form tensions and the future of the group did not look particularly bright going into 2002. In 2001, DSP Entertainment again tried to get into the solo market this time with a male soloist named Travis and with an album titled Yesterday. However, this album continued DSP Entertainments unlucky streak when it comes to solo debuts and the artist did not survive out the year. Overall, the year 2001 was a humbling one for DSP Media as their most successful group, Fin.K.L only had a “half” album comeback and their remaining boy group Click-B still had not been able to fill the massive shoes of Sechskies and to add onto that fact tensions were forming in the group. The company had also again failed to debut a solo artist which served as somewhat of an embarrassment. No longer could DSP Entertainment claim to be a rival to SM Entertainment and its golden years of the late 90s were seemingly behind it and the company was experiencing a rough patch. This was the worst time this could have happened as companies like YG and JYP were hitting their stride and the modern day Big 3 was beginning to form. DSP Entertainment, a giant of the industry just a few years previously, was looking like it was losing its footing. The year 2002 would not prove to be a reprieve for the struggling company.
Click-B: Challenge

The year started out with Fin.K.L releasing what would turn out to be their final studio album titled, Eternity. The title track, “Forever” would be a ballad that would be about waiting for eternity for a lost love. The track would become very popular but would not be heavily promoted. The second track to be promoted, “Don’t Go Away,” was picked by fans due to its upbeat nature but the promotion of the song was suddenly stopped. The album would see good success but the height of Fin.K.L popularity had seemingly passed as the album sold 261,518 physical copies. The group would also release an OST for the SBS drama Bad Girls which starred bandmate Sung Yu-ri. After the release of this album the members agreed to go on hiatus and focus more on their solo activities with Lee Jin and Sung Yu-ri focusing on their acting careers, the former starring in the MBC drama Nonstop 3 in 2002 and the latter in the SBS drama Bad Girls, and members Lee Hyori and Ock Joo-hyun beginning their solo singing careers. Thus, the year 2002 would close for DSP Entertainment as their last mega successful group decided to go on hiatus to focus on solo careers.
Fin.K.L: Forever

Click-B while not promoting this year would still make news as members Ha Hyun-gon, Yoo Ho-suk, and No Min-hyuk would leave the group forcing the remaining members to promote as a four-member group. This year DSP Entertainment would also venture into the movie industry by helping to release a satirical film titled Emergency Act 19, the movie starred several K-pop acts such as FIN.K.L, Click-B, Baby V.O.X., and Shinwa.

Overall through the years 1997 to 2002 DSP Entertainment would see both its rise to extreme popularity and its fall into struggle as its most popular groups either disbanded or went on hiatus. It also saw its less popular group, Click-B, struggle to replace Sechskies and instead lose almost half of its members due to tensions within the group and company. These five years were truly a rollercoaster for the company. A thing that must also be noted is that while other companies were beginning to spread into other Asian markets, DSP Entertainment focused almost solely on the Korean market and did not try and push into other Asian markets in a major way. This could be explained that by the time this was happening DSP Entertainment was struggling after losing their biggest group and thus simply did not have the capital to expend on such ventures. The year 2003 could not come fast enough as DSP Entertainment hoped to regain its footing by pushing the now four-member Click-B and the solo artist Lee Hyori and Ock Joo-hyun.

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[1]http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_199908.htm
[2]http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_199912.htm
[3]http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_200006.htm
[4]http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_2001_2h.htm
[5]http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_2001_2h.htm

 

[UMJI MOODS]

Keep them coming. So incredibly fascinating.

 

[Happy]

I'm really enjoying your threads.

 

[anh]

very fascinating to read about

 

[DramaDramaDrama]

So YG was under the disband drama of Sechskies in 2000? During that time the actually YG wife was trainee so Yang Hyunsuk and Lee Jaijin were closed since these times.

 

[Pyron]

Very good read, especilly for kpop novices like me!

 

[rektinq]

DSP warriors !!!! - dongpyo