H.O.T.

It is the song that most sharply captures the debut album's declaration against all violence. It was unfamiliar to the public, but it made clear from the start what H.O.T. meant to say.

• From the opening, a heavy drum loop and rough rap come pushing in. For a 1996 network music program, it was an unusually dark and aggressive hip-hop dance sound.
• Rap carries most of the song, while the singing erupts sharply in the chorus. The division of labor among the five, split between rappers and vocalists, shows plainly.
• The song speaks in the voice of a victim denouncing school violence. It pairs with the album cover of a boy curled up in a crouch.
• The forceful, staccato group choreography (gunmu) is often cited as the starting point of the performance-driven dance tracks SM would later put out.

A bright follow-up released after a heavy debut song, it brought their first number one. Of H.O.T.'s two faces, anger and flutter, it stands for the flutter.

• A glittering synthesizer melody and a brisk mid-tempo lead the way. It has the texture of electronic pop made in the mid-1990s on MIDI gear (a method of linking electronic instruments to a computer for performance).
• Kangta's clear high notes lead the chorus, while the rap cuts in briefly, keeping the mood light and cute.
• With colorful costumes and easy choreography of waving hands and bouncing bodies, it became a song made for copying in the classroom.
• The song speaks in the voice of a boy shyly offering his heart to someone he likes. In 2022 SM's juniors NCT DREAM remade it, and it was sung again across generations.

It is the song that became the face of the second album in place of "Wolf and Sheep." It tilted the mood of that year's best-selling album, with 1.52 million copies sold, toward the bright side.

• In a bright major key over a brisk beat made for clapping, it flows lightly from start to finish.
• The five members share the parts evenly, and the chorus swells into a group chorus built from layered voices (chorus dubbing).
• The song speaks close to a warm invitation to share happiness with the people beside you. It contrasts with the criticism of "Wolf and Sheep" placed just before it.
• Its structure made it easy for fans to sing along at concerts, and it became the signature song of the white-balloon cheering.

It is the third album's title track, aimed at a reality that ranks people by school pedigree and grades. Yoo Young-jin wrote, composed and arranged it all, pushing SM's signature hard-hitting sound.

• It is a rap-metal arrangement combining distorted electric guitar (distortion guitar) with a hip-hop beat. It is the moment when the late-1990s American blend of rock and hip-hop entered the idol stage.
• The rap unfolds in a short, clipped flow (a way of riding words on the beat) like commands, so the whole song sounds like a march.
• The song speaks in anger at uniform ranking. The choreography, too, draws the title with the body through group moves that form ranks and break them apart.
• Its way of binding a strong message, a heavy sound and group choreography is regarded as the prototype of SM's performance music, later called SMP.

A song Kangta wrote himself, it showed that a group who had sung songs handed to them had become a group who wrote their own. It is the song that brought them the grand prizes of all three terrestrial networks.

• It is mid-tempo pop built on soft keys and strings. It was placed to let listeners catch their breath between fierce group-dance tracks.
• The chorus is simple and spreads wide, making it easy for the audience to sing along. That is why it became the song that closes concerts.
• The song speaks as comfort, offering hope to the weary. In step with the social mood just after the financial crisis, it was widely loved.
• It has been sung as the final song of SMTOWN LIVE, where SM's artists share the stage, and it rang out again at the 2018 Totoga 3 stage.

The title track of the fourth album, it mourns the children killed in the Sealand Youth Training Center fire three months before its release. It is a rare case of an idol group singing head-on about a real tragedy.

• It sounds like a heavy, fierce arrangement driven by a rock sound. Though it is an elegy, it burns hotter with anger than with grief.
• The song speaks by calling out to the children who are gone while holding the world of adults to account.
• Because the song came out just three months after the disaster, its performances on music chart shows became occasions for public mourning.
• Set at the heart of the fourth album, whose 24 tracks extend even to talk and narration, it binds the whole record together like a single story.

It is the title track of their last studio album, written by Moon Hee-joon. As the face of an album the five made themselves, it sang of people pushed outside the castle.

• They worked sign language into the choreography, delivering the song's message directly through gesture.
• Braille for blind listeners was embossed on the album jacket, so that the record itself, as an object, put the song's theme into practice.
• The song speaks as an invitation to set aside prejudice against people with disabilities and live together. It is a more mature voice, different in grain from the angry indictments of their early years.
• That a song by the leader became the title track of an album whose 14 songs were all written or produced by the members shows H.O.T.'s final transformation.