Super Junior-T

Infobox musical artist
Name = Super Junior-T


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Background = group_or_band
Origin = Seoul, Republic of Korea
Genre = K-pop, trot
Alias = SJ-T, SuJu-T
Years_active = 2007–present
Label = SM Entertainment
Avex Asia (ROC)
Associated_acts = SMTown
Super Junior
Super Junior-Happy
URL = http://t.super-junior.co.kr/
Current_members = Leeteuk
Heechul
Kang-in
Shindong
Sungmin
Eunhyuk

Super Junior-Trot (Korean: 슈퍼주니어-트로트), officially known as Super Junior-T (Korean: 슈퍼주니어-티) is the second official sub-unit of Korean boy band Super Junior, established in February 2007. They are one of the few new generation singers known to have been capitalizing trot music, the oldest form of Korean pop music. Super Junior-T contains six Super Junior members, Leeteuk (the leader), Heechul, Kang-in, Shindong, Sungmin, and Eunhyuk.

Super Junior-T has released only one single in the short span of their career before they were announced to be on hiatus in 2008. The single "Rokuko" was Korea's sixteenth best-selling record and the number one best-selling single of 2007, according to the Music Industry Association of Korea. [cite news | author= | title=Music Industry Association of Korea | date= | work=MIAK | pages=1 | url=http://www.miak.or.kr/stat/kpop_2007_2.htm | accessdate=2008-01-15 | language=Korean]

History

Pre-debut

Noticing the dying trend of trot music, Lee Soo Man decided to revive the style by producing an idol band that capitalizes this genre. Three months before Super Junior-T's official debut, they performed "Don't Go Away" at the M.NET/KM Music Festival on November 25, 2006 with Super Junior's Donghae.

2007: Commercial success

In early February, SM Entertainment made the official announcement of a second Super Junior subgroup, Super Junior-T. The group released their debut single "Rokuko" on February 23, 2007 and on February 25, 2007, they officially debuted on SBS's "Popular Songs", performing "Rokuko" and "First Express" with famous trot singer Bang Shilyi. The debut was also marked as Heechul's comeback performance after his injury from a car accident that occurred in August 2006.

"Rokuko" topped music charts three days after release.cite news | author= | title=Super Junior-T's new single tops music charts within three days | date=2007-03-01 | work=Sina | pages=1 | url=http://ent.sina.com.cn/y/2007-03-01/10551463273.html | accessdate=2007-11-12 | language=Chinese] Two months later, the single topped Thailand-based music stations and remained in the same position for several weeks.cite news | author= | title=Super Junior-T dominates Thailand | date=2007-05-16 | work=Sina | pages=1 | url=http://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2007-05-16/15381556176.html | accessdate=2007-11-12 | language=Chinese] By the end of 2007, the single sold almost 46,000 copies and was Korea's best-selling single of the year.

Two months later, Leeteuk, Shindong, and Eunhyuk were injured in a car accident, and all of Super Junior-T's schedules were completely canceled for two months.cite news | author= | title=SM Ent cancels all of SJ-T's schedules; give the members a good rest | date=2008-04-29 | work=Sina | pages=1 | url=http://yule.sohu.com/20070419/n249557611.shtml | accessdate=2008-08-30 | language=Chinese] However, pre-recorded performances, such as the group's parody "Palace T", continued to air on television and their single continued to top music charts.cite news | author= | title=Super Junior-T plays with "Palace T"; arrival of the tomboy queen | date=2007-05-17 | work=MOP | pages=1 | url=http://star.ent.mop.com/starnews/jp_kr/2007-05-17/51577.shtml | accessdate=2008-08-30 | language=Chinese] Schedules resumed in June, but only lasted a month.

2008: Performance tours and Japan

On April 29, 2008, it was announced that Super Junior-T would make a comeback later in the year with their second single.cite news | author= | title=Male comebacks: MC Mong, Epik High, SG Wannabe | date=2008-04-29 | work=YTNStar | pages=1 | url=http://www.ytnstar.co.kr/_ln/0103_200804291144198887 | accessdate=2008-04-29 | language=Korean] However, a fourth Super Junior sub-unit, Super Junior-Happy, debuted instead, putting Super Junior-T in partial hiatus. Nonetheless, Super Junior-T remained partially active throughout the year as they still appear as a group in Super Junior's concert tour, "Super Show" and other similar functions. Despite the debut of Super Junior-Happy, a future full-length album is still in the works and is expected to arrive in the future.cite news | author=Lee Hye Rin | title=SuJu-Happy: "Singing is the happiest thing."| date=2008-06-25 | work=Asia Economy | pages=1 | url=http://www.asiaeconomy.co.kr/uhtml/read.jsp?idxno=347490&section=S1N99&section2=S2N600 | accessdate=2008-06-27 | language=Korean] Super Junior-T's latest appearance before the debut of Super Junior-Happy was on May 17, 2008, performing as the opening act at the 6th Korean Music Festival in Los Angeles, California.

On November 5, 2008, Super Junior-T will re-release "Rokuko" in Japan. Presenting this project to the Japanese comedy duo Moeyan, who are skilled in combining comedy with song and dance, Super Junior-T hopes that the duo will help them localize the single into Japanese. The collaboration will also be the duo's official debut as singers and Super Junior-T's entranced in the Japanese market.cite news | author= | title=Comedy join forces, a Korean and Japanese collaboration | date=2008-09-25 | work=Sanspo | pages=1 | url=http://www.sanspo.com/geino/news/080925/gnf0809251130002-n1.htm | accessdate=2008-09-25 | language=Japanese]

Musical goals

Super Junior-T's music style is a distinctive style of trot, an old-fashioned style of Korean pop music. Their revised style of the genre includes mordernized K-pop melodies and also fast rap, notably performed by Shindong, Eunhyuk, and sometimes Heechul. Super Junior-T's goal is to evade the fading genre in Korea's current music industry and to introduce the young audience to a traditional style of music, hoping to increase awareness of older trot musicians and bring hopeful comebacks of trot to mainstream music. Emergence of Super Junior-T is also due to a strategy that Super Junior has been using, which is to show that they can accommodate many different musical genres.

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Super Junior-T is well-known for their parodies, such as the short miniseries "Palace T", a parody of the popular Korean drama, "Princess Hours" which aired on the channel M.NET, as a part of "Idol World".

Due to Super Junior-T's active participance in trot music and their comedic appearances, the group gained outstanding attention from the older audience despite their well-known young idol images that was created for them in the main group Super Junior.cite news | author= | title=Super Junior-T "competing with trot, wants to change idol image" | date=2007-03-12 | work=Sina | pages=1 | url=http://ent.sina.com.cn/x/2007-03-12/17241475770.html | accessdate=2007-11-12 | language=Chinese] Members of Super Junior-T explained that they wanted to change their idol appearance and hope that they would gain different fans from their new trot image.

Discography

ingles

Variety shows

References

External links

* [http://www.smtown.com/ SM Entertainment Official Webite]
* [http://www.super-junior.co.kr/ Super Junior Official Webite]
* [http://t.super-junior.co.kr/ Super Junior-T Official Webite]