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From office buildings to residential homes, the look of management agency’s buildings have been a hot topic for netizens for some time now. Recently, the pictures of major agencies have been making the rounds on the Internet with the title “Idols’ Office Buildings.”

Check out the buildings of the SM Entertainment, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, Loen, Cube Entertainment, Core Contents Media, Star Empire Entertainment, Dream T and Starship Entertainment.

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If you don’t receive attention, you are turned away - that is the harshness and the reality of the entertainment business. It’s even harder for those who are working in similar fields with similar concepts, especially in the world of idol groups. There has already been a huge wave of idol stars in the past year, but we can expect to see even more in the new year of 2012. 2012 will be filled with battles after battles amongst the fresh, new faces that will be presented to us. The fierce competition that is to arise among these new idol stars is already a hot topic.

SM Entertainment’s EXO-M and EXO-K

SM Entertainment will produce a new boy group for the first time since SHINee debuted four years ago. SM will execute this debut with a brand new plan that hasn’t been done before. The two groups, EXO-K and EXO-M will separately debut in Korea and China, respectively, on the same day, at the same time, with the same song.

The names EXO-K and EXO-M come from “Exoplanet,” which is an outer planet in the solar system, meaning that the two groups will be a new star from the unknown. EXO-K will be performing in Korea (hence the letter”K”) and EXO-M will be performing in China (the “M” stands for “Mandarin”).

With idol groups such as H.O.T., DBSK, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee and others, SM Entertainment truly knows what it takes to produce a successful idol group.

Hyori’s Management B2M’s Girl Group SPICA

It has been known that Lee Hyori has put a lot of interest in SPICA, who are her direct juniors in the same management company. There has been a lot of talk about SPICA  before their debut because of the fact that Lee Hyori has been giving them guidance and advice.

The SPICA members also have an interesting past. Yang Jiwon was part of the almost debuted Five Girls (the group also consisted of Secret’s Hyosung, After School’s UEE, Wonder Girls’ Yubin and G.NA). Park Narae previously saw her fame through Superstar K in 2009. They will debut with title track “Potently” on January 10.

Cube Entertainment’s “Invincible Chung Dam”

Last year, Cube Entertainment found huge success through their boy group BEAST and now they will be presenting us with a new group. The seven-member group ranges from ages 17 to 23. Out of those seven, five members are already acting in a sitcom called, “Living In Chungdamdong.” Their group name in the sitcom is “Invincible Chung Dam” (though that will not be their real name) and they play the roles of trainees preparing for debut.

In current times, it is known that idols need to have multiple skills and talents in order to truly shine. All of the members of the group have exceptional foreign language skills and there are 2-3 members who are skilled in making rap and writing songs. Cube Entertainment boasts that they are a group with strong vocal and performance skills. They are planning to debut sometime in February.

Rapper Idol Group B.A.P.

B.A.P. is ready to take on the K-Pop world in a storm on January 26. B.A.P. (Best, Absolute, Perfect) is a six-member group under TS Entertainment, which is also home to Secret.

B.A.P. member Bang Yong Guk had already been featured in Secret’s Jieun’s song “Are You Crazy.” Himchan and Zelo have also already shown their faces through album releases and TV variety shows. The rest of the three members will be revealed through a reality show from SBS-MTV called, “Ta-Dah, It’s B.A.P” and it is said that all members have exceptional rap skills. TS Entertainment has increased our anticipation by revealing that B.A.P.’s debut showcase will be a grand, big-scale performance.

The Male Version of After School: Pledis Boys

There is already a huge wave of interest and anticipation for Pledis Boys, which is the male version of After School. The exact name and headcount of the group is not yet known but they will debut sometime in February. They have already shown their faces through the “2011 Happy Pledis” project last month.

Pledis Entertainment states, “Their skills are a given and we believe that their visuals are the best among all the groups so far.” Even during their trainee days, fans would gather around the Pledis building to catch a glimpse of the boys. Pledis Boys also showed off their dance skills at the “SBS Gayo Daejun” by doing the “shuffle dance” last month.


Which idol group are you most anticipating?

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It’s that time of the year again, when everyone starts looking back at the past year and compiles their own “Best of the year” lists. Soompi also brings you its own “Year-in-Review” in eight different categories starting from today. The first topic of this eight-part series is the “Most Shocking Scandals of 2011.”  

From SNSD’s Taeyeon getting pulled off stage by a stranger to Seo Taiji’s divorce lawsuit with Lee Ji Ah, 2011 saw some of the craziest events take place in K-Pop’s history. It was almost impossible to trim down the list to only seven top scandals, but we went with the ones that were most controversial/popular among our Soompi readers. Please let us know if we missed anything!…


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(View the article at soompi to see all the pictures)

On November 28, an interesting post surfaced on an online community board, with a complete list of upcoming male idol groups from major agencies scheduled to debut next year. With leaked images and names, the post gives a full guideline to which new idol group is debuting under each agency, although most of them are not official yet.

SM Entertainment is coming out with a 12-member male group with members from Korea, Japan, and China. They will split into two groups, M1 and M2 (tentative names). M1 will be comprised of seven members and run most promotions in Korea, while M2 will have five members and mostly work in China. They are rumored to have planned promotions running at the same time, with the same exact songs, only in different markets. They would be SME’s first idol band since f(x)’s debut in September, 2009.

JYP Entertainment is rumored to have a new six-member boy band named 2THE.O. Contrary to earlier reports that said they were fake, online rumors say they already appeared in a Wonder Girls showcase in the past. Despite not being more actively promoted, they are expected to debut sometime next year.

YG Entertainment has already made it official that they will debut a new boy band and girl group next year. The online post says YG is planning to debut “A YG-version SNSD and a male idol group in 2012, but nothing has been confirmed.” It is unclear whether “Superstar K2” contestant Kang Seung Yoon will be part of the male group, but Kim Eun Bi, another contestant of the audition show, will be one of the new girl group members.

TS Entertainment, the agency for Secret, has confirmed Bang Yong Gook as the leader of their new group. He’s already made an appearance on KBS “Immortal Song 2,” released “I Remember” featuring BEAST’s Yang Yo Seob, and is scheduled to debut in a unit duo with Zelo on December 2. Another member to join him is Him Chan who currently hosts MTV’s “The Show.”

Pledis Entertainment has already released some photos of their new boy band, Pledis Boys, who were long rumored to be the “After School Boys.” The seven member group will have Jang Do Yoon, who made an appearance on MBC “Star Audition,” and will make their official debut on December 1.

Cube Entertainment, Key East Entertainment, and Sidus HQ have not revealed much information yet. The online rumor mill says Cube will come out with a seven member group, and Key East is working with Bae Yong Joon and Kim Hyun Joong for a new male group, while Sidus might debut a new male idol group somehow featuring Jay Park.

Which new group are you most looking forward to?

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