S.E.S. (band)
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S.E.S. is a popular Korean pop group. The group was considered the female version of another kpop group called "H.O.T" because of their popularity in the 90's. In fact, both groups were the creation of Lee Soo Man, head of SM Entertainment. These groups were created after Lee went to teenagers and surveyed them as to what they wanted in their music groups. Bada/Sea was chosen first and was originally supposed to be a solo artist. However, Lee figured that a girl group would fare better, so after auditions and intensive training, Eugene and Shoo were chosen, not only for their looks and singing/dancing ability, but also for their proficiency in other languages (English and Japanese respectively). Lee Soo Man planned in advance to have these Korean groups branch out to other nations, and having members speak in other languages helped his cause. S.E.S was the first outstandingly successful female pop groups of K-pop, although they did not survive unchallenged: groups like Fin.K.L and Baby V.O.X were always waiting in the wings. Although an intense rivalry developed between S.E.S. and Fin.K.L fans, members of both groups have always stated that there was no rivalry and that they in fact were friends. However, while S.E.S. managed to consistently have high sales numbers for their albums (beating out all other female groups), it was Fin.K.L who went away with the 대상 (Daesang), the Korean equivalent of the Grammy for "Artist of the Year". Since breaking up at the end of 2002, they have since gone solo, to varying degrees of success. However, news reports indicate that they will regroup and release a concept album sometime this year. Perhaps the return of S.E.S. is not too far away....
Their members are:
- Choi Sung-Hee, (최성희; 崔盛希), "Sea" (a.k.a. Bada)
- Kim Yoo-Jin, (김유진; 金流真), "Eugene"
- Yoo Soo-Young (유수영; 柳水永), "Shoo"
Contents |
History
They released their first album in 1997 under SM Entertainment, and had their public debut in November of 1997. Their look at the time was very, very cutesy, with their songs being cute little ditties about love. "I'm Your Girl" and "Oh, My Love!" became huge hits for S.E.S., and they quickly became one of the top-selling groups in K-Pop. It was fairly obvious from the beginning that Sea/Bada was the main singer, usually taking the choruses of songs and having solos in which she could show off her vocal range. Eugene was quickly considered the prettiest member of the group, while Shoo, although having her fans, was not really noticed for anything.
Their second album, "Sea & Eugene & Shoo", was released in 1998. They changed little from their first album, although for their first single ("Dreams Come True") they had a very "space"-y look with funky hair and shiny outfits. This song also became a huge hit, along with "너를 사랑해" (I Love You), which had them go back to their cute look. They also managed to release a Japanese album, "Meguriau Sekai", in 1998, although it fared fairly poorly. In between their Korean albums, S.E.S. would continue to release Japanese singles and albums, but they were never as widely received as their Korean material.
At the end of 1999, their third album "Love" was released. It was their best-selling album, selling over 762,000 copies; this is currently the record for best-selling album in Korea by a girl group. This album also saw a marked change in their image, away from cutesy girls into mature women. All of them dyed their hair and had fairly extreme leather looks. In fact, Bada bleached her hair blonde without the knowledge of her management, thinking that it would fit the album concept well. Their fans ate this up, and "Love", a R&B/techno-y song, became a huge single for S.E.S. This was helped by their sophisticated video, which was made in New York City and cost over a million dollars US, being a large amount spent on a music video at the time. Their second single, "Twilight Zone", which was a techno-dance song, also saw the continuation of this edgy, grown-up theme, although all of them changed their hair colour into darker shades. However, this was abandoned at the tail end of their promotional activities, reverting back to a cute look.
December of 2000 saw the release of S.E.S.'s fourth album, "A Letter From Greenland". This again was accompanied by a change in image. This album saw them move away from the cute image entirely, having instead a "mature women" concept. All the members wore suits for their performances, and their look was significantly more sophisticated. The music was also more mature: instead of having cute poppy songs (like their first two albums), or techno-lite songs (like their third album), this album was very jazzy. "Show Me Your Love", their first single from this album, was a slow, jazzy ballad that was technically one of their best singles, showing off the vocal abilities of all three singers. This single and album continued S.E.S.'s winning streak, helping to cement their status as K-Pop's reigning queens. They also promoted a second single, "Be Natural", which did fairly well but was underpromoted in comparison to Show Me Your Love.
In the summer of 2001, a special album was released (receiving the ".5" label). Called "Surprise", their 4.5th album was a collection of their Japanese songs re-recorded in Korean. The first single, "Just In Love", had them back to their happy, poppy roots, although they were still womanly. The video was filmed in Thailand, and it matched the sunny theme of the song quite well. All in all, it was a very popular song, although Bada also collapsed from exhaustion from this time. At least partially because of this, S.E.S. cut off promotional activities early and released other singles without real music videos or any promotion. This helped the album to (comparatively) underperform, selling "only" more than 300,000 copies.
Their last major album ("Just A Feeling-U")was released in early spring, 2002. This was a continuation of their sophisticated theme, with the album booklet full of suggestive pictures of the girls. Their first single, "U", was also quite different. It was very dance-intensive, and the video showed the girls in dominant roles and positions, with Eugene even becoming some sort of dominatrix for one scene. At any rate, this song also did well and returned S.E.S. to the top of the charts. "Just A Feeling", their second single from the fifth album, was a happy dance track with an equally happy video. However, it seemed as though S.E.S. stopped caring around this time, as their live performances were quite mediocre; performances were also stopped early, preventing "Feeling" from hitting the top of the charts.
Their last album as a group, "Friend" (their "5.5"th), was released at the end of the year. Their single was titled "Soul II Soul (S.II.S.)", which was a play on words (as the number 2 can be pronounced as "E" in Korean). The music video, though, was quite dark, as Bada is seen writing letters while crying, Eugene is cutting up bunnies in room (suggesting mental instability), and Shoo is seen caressing a large ball of light. However, it did not create much controversy, because it was officially announced that S.E.S. was breaking up at the end of 2002. According to news reports, the girls promised each other at the end of 2000 that they would break up in a couple of years, no matter what. This disappointed a lot of fans, but the news failed to jump-start sales: final sales ended up being under the 100,000 mark.
Currently, Shoo is the only member still with SM Entertainment, although she has not done much other than contribute to the SMTown albums; she has instead gone into acting in musicals. The other two have since signed with other record companies. Bada/Sea has released three albums, with varying degrees of success. Her latest, "Made In Sea", has seen her change her image from innocent femininity (which marked her first two albums) to some androgynous, rocker look. However, the music has remained the same, with bouncy dance tracks and strong power ballads being her trademark. Eugene has released two albums, which were fairly (but not astoundingly) popular. Her first album saw her, like Bada, being an innocent female ballad singer, but she quickly changed her image into a sexy one for her second album. This did not help album sales, but it did increase her popularity; her song "Windy" stayed on the charts for a fair amount of time.
In spite of, or due to, their moderate success as solo singers, all three members are on record as saying that S.E.S. will regroup sometime in the near future. Only time will tell if this will actually happen, but the three of them are still together in some capacity. In fact, when receiving a special award from KMTV, the three re-united and sang a song in November of 2005, to the surprise of thousands of fans. Their popularity even to this day shows that even if S.E.S. is officially no more, they are still alive in the hearts of their fans.