H.O.T. Events

Event announced

The blueprint that K-pop now exports to the world, with its casting and training pipeline, its fixed member roles and its official fan club carrying a designated color, was drawn up in under five years by a group of teenagers who introduced themselves to the nation on live TV. That was 30 years ago. On Sept. 7, 1996, a group of five male high school students — Moon Hee-jun, Jang Woo-hyuk, Tony An, Kangta and Lee Jae-won — stepped in front of viewers as H.O.T. and performed "Age of Violence." Viewers went wild, teenagers in particular. The name stood for "High-five Of Teenagers," and the group was the first act SM Entertainment, a top K-pop conglomerate, planned and built from scratch. Their timing was almost too perfect. Earlier that year, another boy band, Seo Taiji and Boys, had retired, and teenagers installed H.O.T. in the vacancy the trio had left behind. Where Seo Taiji and Boys had been a self-made phenomenon, H.O.T. were assembled on purpose. The group was the product of meticulous planning and strate