SM Station

SM Station is a digital music project by South Korean record label SM Entertainment. It undertook to release one digital single every Friday starting from February 3, 2016.^[1] The project's first season ended on February 3, 2017, with 52 songs. Its second season began on March 31, 2017, and concluded on April 6, 2018, with a total of 57 songs. In 2022, it introduced NCT Lab, a sub-project dedicated to individual projects for NCT members.

SM Station
Type of project	Music
Owner	SM Entertainment
Country	South Korea
Established	February 3, 2016 (2016-02-03)
Website	smtown.com/production/sm-station

History

SM Station's purpose was to showcase SM Entertainment's artists and producers, while also including collaborations with artists outside of the label.^[2] The project began on February 3, 2016, with the release of its first single "Rain" by Taeyeon.^[3] The song proved successful, topping the South Korean Gaon Digital Chart and winning first place on the weekly music show Inkigayo.^[4][5] Subsequent singles that entered top 10 on the Gaon Digital Chart include "Spring Love" by Wendy and Eric Nam, "The Day" by Baekhyun and K.Will, "No Matter What" by BoA and Beenzino, "Dancing King" by Exo and Yoo Jae-suk, "Always in My Heart" by Joy and Seulong, and "Sweet Dream" by Kim Hee-chul and Min Kyung-hoon. "Rain" and "Spring Love" received various nominations at year-end music awards, among which "Rain" won a Digital Bonsang at the 31st Golden Disk Awards and "Sweet Dream" won a Best Rock Song at the MelOn Music Awards. The first season ended on February 3, 2017, with the 52nd single "Curtain" by Suho.

Station's second season was to feature collaborations with foreign musicians, besides past projects.^[6] It began on March 31, 2017, with the first single "Would U" by Red Velvet. On April 6, 2017, SM Entertainment released a compilation album titled SM Station Season 1 which contains the first season's 52 singles and five bonus tracks.^[7] The second season concluded on April 6, 2018, with "New Heroes" by NCT member Ten.^[8]

In August 2018, SM Entertainment announced a special season titled Station X 0 (Station Young), in collaboration with SK Telecom's "0 (Young)" mobile brand.^[a] According to the label, Station X 0 is a cultural project for the young generation.^[10] The season ended on October 19, 2018, with "Written in the Stars" by Wendy and John Legend. A project girl group, Station Young, consisting of Red Velvet's Seulgi, (G)I-dle's Soyeon, GFriend's SinB and soloist Chungha was formed for the single "Wow Thing" for the album.

A third season was announced in November 2018.^[11] The first single would be released by Lucas and Jonah Nilsson of Swedish band Dirty Loops.^[12] The season ended with "Long Flight" by Taeyong, released on July 18, 2019.

On November 15, 2019, SM Entertainment uploaded a trailer featuring Jaehyun, announcing the fourth season titled Station X.^[13] The season began on November 20 with a collaboration single with UNICEF "This is Your Day (for every child, UNICEF)", by BoA, Siwon, J-Min, Sunny, Taemin, Suho, Wendy, and Doyoung.^[14]

On July 27, 2020, SM Entertainment announced a special project titled Our Beloved BoA featuring covers of BoA's top hits to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her debut. It began on July 31, with the first single "Garden in the Air" by Baekhyun, from BoA's fifth Korean studio album Girls on Top.^[15]

NCT Lab

On January 28, 2022, SM Entertainment announced a special project titled NCT Lab, which will feature solo or unit songs made by NCT members. It began on February 4, with the release of Mark's first single, "Child".^[16] The second single, "Conextion (Age of Light)", sung by Doyoung, Mark and Haechan,^[17] was released on March 20 as a collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, who used it as the theme song for their "Gwanghwa Era" project. It features modern instruments and traditional Korean instruments including the gayageum, janggu, taepyeongso and gong. The performance video features Shotaro as a dancer.^[18][19] As of July 2023, there have been a total of six singles released under NCT Lab, including "Forever Only" by Jaehyun,^[20] "Birthday" by Ten,^[21] "Rain Day" by Kun, Taeil, and Yangyang,^[22] and "Golden Hour" by Mark.^[23]

In August 2023, it was announced that NCT Lab would continue as a separate project from SM Station.^[24] It began with a solo single by Jaehyun titled "Horizon", released on August 8.^[25][26]

Discography

Main article: SM Station discography

Seasons

• SM Station Season 1 (2016–2017)
• SM Station Season 2 (2017–2018)
• SM Station X 0 (2018)
• SM Station Season 3 (2018–2019)
• SM Station X 4 LOVEs for Winter (2019)
• SM Station Season 4 (2020–2023)
• Our Beloved BoA (2020)
• MV Remastering Project (2021-2023)
• NCT Lab (2022–present)

Awards and nominations

The name of the award ceremony, year presented, award category, nominee(s), artist(s), and the result of the award

Award ceremony	Year	Category	Nominee / work	Artist	Result	Ref.
Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards	2017	Song of the Year - February	"Rain"	Taeyeon	Nominated	[citation needed]
		Song of the Year - September	"Dancing King"	Yoo Jae-suk and EXO	Nominated
		Song of the Year - November	"Sweet Dream"	Kim Hee-chul and Min Kyung-hoon	Nominated
Golden Disc Awards		Digital Bonsang Award	"Rain"	Taeyeon	Won
Korean Music Awards		Best Dance and Electronic Song Award	"$10"	Hitchhiker	Won
MelOn Music Awards	2016	Best Ballad Song	"Rain"	Taeyeon	Nominated
		Song of the Year			Nominated
	2017	Best Rock Song	"Sweet Dream"	Kim Hee-chul and Min Kyung-hoon	Won	[27]
Mnet Asian Music Awards	2016	Best Vocal Performance Female Solo	"Rain"	Taeyeon	Nominated	[citation needed]
		HotelsCombined Song of the Year			Nominated
			"Spring Love"	Eric Nam and Wendy	Nominated
		Best Collaboration			Nominated
			"No Matter What"	BoA and Beenzino	Nominated

Concert shows

• "The Station" (2018), a music talk concert with various artists from SM '#STATION'.

Notes

1. SK Telecom is the parent company of Iriver, the official distributor of SM Entertainment's releases since 2018. Station X 0 was also a part of youth-aimed campaigns for the official launching of the "0 (Young)" brand in the same year.^[9]

References

1. "Taeyeon sweeps charts on inaugural week of S.M. project". Yonhap News. Yonhap News Agency. 3 February 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
2. Moon, Wan-sik (27 January 2016). "SM, 1년 52주 매주 디지털음원 공개 '파격'..첫주자 태연". Star News. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
3. Sung So-young (February 2, 2016). "Two new singles out from Taeyeon this week". JoongAng Ilbo. JoongAng Media Network. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
4. "Gaon Digital Chart" (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart. Archived from the original on March 13, 2016.
5. "'인기가요' 태연, 'Rain'으로 방송 출연 없이 1위" (in Korean). Naver. Naver Corporation. Retrieved February 14, 2016.
6. Moon Wan-shik (February 1, 2017). "SM스테이션, 시즌2 나온다..해외뮤지션 대거 참여". Star News (in Korean). Retrieved February 6, 2017.
7. "SM스테이션, 컴필레이션 앨범 출시…비하인드 포토북까지". 네이트뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 2017-03-30.
8. "NCT 텐, 'New Heroes' 오늘(6일) 공개…SM스테이션2 피날레 장식". 스포츠조선 (in Kanuri). 2018-04-06. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
9. SKT, 1020세대 컬처브랜드 ‘0(영, Young)’ 론칭...타게팅된 요금제·혜택 제공
10. "[공식입장] 태연X멜로망스, SM 스테이션 스핀오프 첫 주자 '파격 컬래버'" (in Korean). 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
11. "'SM Station' digital music project to begin 3rd season next week". Yonhap News. 2018-11-22.
12. "NCT's Lucas to spearhead 3rd season of S.M. Station". Kpopherald. 2018-11-20.
13. "SM 'STATION', 'STATION X'로 새로운 시작…20일 첫 음원 발표". 아시아투데이 (in Korean). 15 November 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
14. @SMTOWNGLOBAL (2019-11-15). "'STATION X 4 LOVEs for Winter'의 첫 음원 'This is Your Day(for every child, UNICEF)'! SM엔터테인먼트와 유니세프가 세계 어린이날을 기념하고자 지구촌 어린이들에게 바치는 노래, 오는 20일에 만나보세요!" (Tweet) (in Korean). Retrieved 2019-11-15 – via Twitter.
15. "BoA 20th Anniversary Project… Baekhyun → Red Velvet Lineup Revealed". Dong-A Sports. 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
16. Lee, Deok-haeng (February 28, 2022). "SM 'STATION', NCT 음악 아카이빙 프로젝트 'NCT LAB' 스타트" [SM 'STATION', NCT music archiving project 'NCT LAB' starts]. StarNews (in Korean). Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
17. OSEN (2022-03-20). ""내 손을 잡아"..NCT U, 시간⋅장소 다 뛰어넘을 'coNEXTion'(종합)[퇴근길 신곡]". mosen.mt.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-08-08.
18. Lee, Seung-hoon (March 20, 2022). "내 손을 잡아"..NCT U, 시간⋅장소 다 뛰어넘을 'coNEXTion'(종합)[퇴근길 신곡] ["Hold my hand"..NCT U, 'coNEXTion' that transcends time and place [New song on the way home from work]]. Osen (in Korean). Retrieved June 23, 2022.
19. Lee, Se-bin (June 21, 2022). [신(新)토불이②] 한복입고 세계를 누빈다! 전통에 빠진 K콘텐츠 [[New Tobuli②] Travel the world wearing hanbok! K-content in the tradition]. Daily Sports (in Korean). Retrieved June 23, 2022.
20. "NCT Jaehyun drops first solo single 'Forever Only'". koreatimes. 2022-08-18. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
21. OSEN (2022-10-21). "NCT 텐, 26일 솔로곡 'Birthday' 공개..로맨틱+몽환 감성". mosen.mt.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-08-08.
22. OSEN (2022-07-14). "'NCT LAB' 세 번째 곡, 'Rain Day' 19일 공개..태일·쿤·양양 참여". mosen.mt.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-08-08.
23. CHO, YONG-JUN (2023-03-30). "NCT's Mark to release second solo track 'Golden Hour' on April 7". koreajoongangdaily.joins.com. Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
24. Yeo, Gladys (2023-08-02). "NCT tease four upcoming solo and unit releases". NME. Retrieved 2023-08-03.
25. Ford, Lucy (2023-08-08). "NCT's Jaehyun on 'Horizon': "How you think is the easiest but biggest change you can make to feel different"". NME. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
26. OSEN (2023-08-04). "NCT 재현, 솔로곡 'Horizon' 작사·작곡 참여..여름의 낭만". mosen.mt.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2023-08-08.
27. Choi, Na-young (December 9, 2017). 김희철 "민경훈과 '나비잠', 생각보다 너무 잘 됐다" [Kim Hee-chul said, "Min Kyung-hoon and 'Sweet Dream' went better than I thought."]. OSEN (in Korean). Archived from the original on February 12, 2021. Retrieved February 12, 2021.

External links

• Official website
• http://smstation0.smtown.com Archived 2018-08-03 at the Wayback Machine