The impact TVXQ! had on K-Pop will never be truly erased. However, that won’t stop their company from trying.

On February 25, the legendary TVXQ! track “Mirotic” became the group’s first music video to surpass one hundred million views on YouTube. However, it’s a complicated milestone.

Normally, when a K-Pop music video hits certain view counts, the band’s account will make a post including a photo of the group, the album cover or some other related image. To commemorate TVXQ! hitting one million views, the official YouTube channel posted a grey gradient block.

When they debuted in 2004 under SM Entertainment, TVXQ!, or Dong Bang Shin Ki, was a five member group made up of U-Know Yunho, Max Changmin, Hero Jaejoong, Xia Junsu and Micky Yoochun. Only preceded by then-labelmate BoA, the group helped popularize K-Pop in Japan and are still considered by many to be the standard of idols. As a quintet with heart-stopping visuals, intricate choreographies, breathtaking harmonies and a devoted fanbase, they seemed unstoppable.

That changed in 2009 when Jaejoong, Junsu and Yoochun filed an injunction to suspend their exclusive contracts with SM Entertainment citing their overly long thirteen-year contract and unfair profit distribution, among others. The trio, who’d rebranded as JYJ in 2010, officially left the group in 2012 after a three year legal battle. While JYJ is no longer active, their impact is still felt in the reforms made by the Korean Federal Trade Commission following the lawsuit’s conclusion. U-Know and Changmin started officially promoting TVXQ! as a duo in 2011 and still do to this day.

Going from a quintet to a duo demanded a drastic shift in the TVXQ! dynamic, especially considering the incredible five-part harmonies their songs were built around. However, the response to their first performance as a duo on August 21, 2010 at the SMTown Live ‘10 World Tour in Seoul proved they had fans willing to stand by them amidst that shift. The message of that performance was unmistakeable: “WE ARE DONG BANG SHIN KI“, not those other guys we used to share the stage with. U-Know later stated in an interview that he and Changmin continued to promote under the name TVXQ! to protect the band and its identity.

“We have waited for them, but we could not wait for five or ten years until they come back because fans could forget TVXQ in that case,” U-Know told Han Cinema in 2011. “Someone has to keep Dong Bang Shin Ki until this dispute can be resolved.”

In the process of re-establishing TVXQ! as a duo, SM Entertainment began promoting them as if the group had never been a quintet. U-Know and Changmin, sometimes referred to collectively as “HoMin”, rarely mentioned the three former members in interviews. Any public appearance they make that references their pre-split history is painstakingly edited to exclude the former members. When SM had a temporary museum from 2018 to 2020, the TVXQ! exhibit only included post-split artifacts and even included a timeline that skated over their pre-split discography. The only acknowledgement of the group as a quintet is their 2004 debut single “Hug”, and only because they kind of had to. Unfortunately, this decision to “keep Dong Bang Shin Ki” has had an unexpected side effect.

Despite the lawsuit ending over a decade ago, the trio’s departure from TVXQ! remains a difficult subject for fans. Their fan club, Cassiopeia, garnered multiple Reddit think pieces explaining and exploring the different factions they fractured into following the years-long legal battle. To grossly oversimplify the outcome, many sided with the three who left and many others sided with the two who stayed. No matter which side of the fan war you fight for, it’s highly unlikely anything the company would have posted to celebrate “Mirotic” hitting one hundred million views would please everyone.

However, this gray block did not seem to go over well with either side. While some fans bemoaned the erasure of the former members, others questioned why the post couldn’t have included a photo or graphic featuring the current lineup.

Some fans on Twitter went so far to use the make their own edits using the Mirotic album cover, with and without JYJ.

Based on sheer numbers, TVXQ!’s peak period was while they were a quintet. In addition to the one hundred million view milestone, their 2008 smash hit “Mirotic” is the group’s most streamed track on Spotify at over 45 million plays. “Mirotic” has been covered relentlessly by other idol groups and was even named one of the best boy group songs of all time by Rolling Stone and Billboard, the former going so far as to name it one of the best K-Pop songs of all time. On top of all that, the song was the basis for Chinese girl group A2O May’s 2024 debut track “Under My Skin”. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows anything about TVXQ! that this was their first music video to crack one hundred million views.

TVXQ! didn’t just stop being successful after the split. They still sold records by the bucket and maintained a deeply devoted fanbase, but their fame naturally declined as audiences pivoted towards newer groups. SM Entertainment would go on to debut globally recognized boy groups including SHINee, EXO, NCT and Riize. As the K-Pop market became more saturated with newer and younger artists, industry veterans like TVXQ! became legacy acts in record time. Combining that with their company’s persistent efforts to downplay or outright deny their pre-split career makes it more difficult for newer generations of fans to understand the depth of their influence.

Despite TVXQ! having over twenty years of history, the most successful of which occurred between 2004 and 2009, anything within that time frame simply is not worth mentioning if it means acknowledging the three former members. Does that mean, by extension, HoMin’s contributions and achievements during that time are also not worth mentioning? That’s certainly the impression left, most recently, by posting a gray block of nothing to “celebrate” a massive milestone achieved by the artists who have been called “K-Pop royalty”, and rightfully so.

Considering they have been a duo longer than they were a quintet, it is understandable the company is focused on TVXQ!’s history and achievements as a duo. However, the February 25 post lays bare the problem with the attempted erasure of the original five member lineup: trying to erase the three who left risks erasing two who stayed.

Check out the music video for this beloved track below:

Featured image: TVXQ! The Fourth Album ‘Mirotic” album cover (Credit: SM Entertainment)