Lee Soo Man

Infobox Korean name
hangul=이수만
hanja=李秀滿
rr=I Su-man
mr=I Suman

Lee Soo Man (born June 18, 1952) created the well-known Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment, specializing in K-pop groups. When he was younger, he was a singer, but moved into the business side of the industry once his popularity had faded, after graduating from Seoul National University. SM became one of the biggest record labels in South Korea, due to the success of such groups as H.O.T, S.E.S. and the longest boy band Shinhwa.

Lee has produced many popular artists under SM Entertainment. Due to its history and the strong position it has in the industry, it is assumed that being part of SM will guarantee instant stardom, although the lack of success by groups such as Shinvi have proven otherwise.

Although his creations have been successful, Lee has been unable to escape the rumours of harsh treatment of its stars. However, only JTL, the group created from the H.O.T. members who left SM, has mentioned this publicly, talking about how they were not given their proper dues in one of their songs and his tyrannical way of running his singers. The fact that groups have left after the end of their contract (Shinhwa, FTTS) have only furthered these rumours.

Despite all this, SM has continued to be a successful company, with the popularity of artists such as BoA, Super Junior and TVXQ who are well-known in Korea, Japan, Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, and many other Asian countries.

Produced

*Yoo Young Jin
*H.O.T.
*Kangta
*Moon Hee Jun
*S.E.S.
*Shinhwa
*S#arp
*Fly to the Sky
*BoA
*M.I.L.K
*Black Beat
*Shinvi
*Isak N Jiyeon
*TVXQ
*TRAX
*The Grace
*DANA
*Super Junior
*Super Junior-K.R.Y
*Super Junior-T
*Super Junior-M
*Super Junior-Happy
*Zhang Li Yin
*Girls' Generation
*SHINee

External links

* [http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/1101020729/story2.html Time Asia Article] , dated July 29, 2002.