known for their dedication to quality of talent, sm has produced many hit groups and solo artists since 1996. the first debut under the label was the boy group h.o.t. in 1996, followed by girl group s.e.s. in 1997. being an influential contributor to the "first generation of k-pop", sm continued to produce hit artists such as shinhwa in 1998, fly to the sky in 1999, soloist boa in 2000 andtvxq in 2004. a rising popularity of k-pop in the west saw further debuts become vastly successful like super junior in 2005, girls' generation in 2007, shinee in 2008, f(x) in 2009 and exo in 2012. the newest groups from sm are red velvet - debuted in 2014, nct in 2016, wayv - a china based subunit of nct in 2018, and aespa in 2020.