{"id":2087084,"date":"2025-10-13T06:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T06:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2087084"},"modified":"2025-10-13T06:16:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T06:16:10","slug":"is-sm-entertainment-founders-cawman-the-next-evolution-of-k-pop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/is-sm-entertainment-founders-cawman-the-next-evolution-of-k-pop\/","title":{"rendered":"Is SM Entertainment founder\u2019s \u2018CAWMAN\u2019 the next evolution of K-pop?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Lee Soo-man promotes AI-driven storytelling format merging animation, music and metaverse<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"Lee
Lee Soo-man delivers a keynote speech at the 26th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference held at the KAIST campus in Daejeon, Sept. 22. (A20 Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

While K-pop continues to thrive globally, industry heavyweights are proposing various paths for its next evolution.<\/p>\n

Hybe Chair Bang Si-hyuk and JYP Entertainment founder J.Y. Park advocate for the localization of K-pop\u2019s production model \u2014 applying the genre\u2019s rigorous training and talent development system to debut locally based idol groups around the world.<\/p>\n

SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man, now a visionary leader at Singapore-based A20 Entertainment, agrees with the system\u2019s importance but offers specific detail: storytelling content powered by artificial intelligence and what he calls \u201cculture technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his keynote speech at the 26th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference held at KAIST campus in Daejeon, Sept. 22, Lee stressed the AI’s role in shaping the future of K-pop. In his keynote speech titled “Culture Technology in the Age of AI, \u201d he highlighted how culture technology systematizes four key stages: casting, training, music production and marketing. Citing figures such as J.Y. Park, esteemed K-pop producer Teddy and film director Bong Joon-ho, he emphasized that Korea should now establish itself as a \u201cnation of producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAI ultimately depends on human creativity,\u201d Lee said. \u201cTechnology amplifies creativity and becomes a tool to connect humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Promotional
Promotional poster for “A20 May Story” (A20 Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

On Thursday, Lee introduced his new mixed-content production method, CAWMAN, through the short-form series \u201cA20 May Story,\u201d featuring A20 Entertainment\u2019s girl group A20 May. The CAWMAN format \u2014 an acronym for cartoon, animation, webtoon, motion graphic, avatar and novel \u2014 integrates multiple media formats to create the A20 metaverse origin story, or MOS.<\/p>\n

The MOS world, produced in the CAWMAN style, will expand through a series of short-form episodes exploring different narratives and characters, offering what A20 Entertainment calls a \u201cnew futuristic content experience\u201d for global fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cA20 May Story\u201d follows five members who come together to form A20 May, set in the fictional A20 School. It also depicts the story of LTG (Low Teen Girls), a rookie group that admires the A20 May members as top campus celebrities. The storyline connects to the group\u2019s music video \u201cB.B.B,\u201d released in August, and delves deeper into \u201cSoulite,\u201d one of the key multiverse planets in A20\u2019s \u201cGenesis\u201d storyline.<\/p>\n

The global version of the series includes English narration and subtitles in seven languages \u2014 Korean, English, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and Spanish \u2014 to make it more accessible to international viewers.<\/p>\n

However, this integration of storytelling and conceptual worldbuilding is not entirely new. During his tenure as SM Entertainment\u2019s executive producer, Lee developed the expansive SM Culture Universe and introduced the \u201cKwangya\u201d metaverse concept in 2022, which connected the identities and narratives of artists under SM Entertainment.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Stills
Stills from “A20 May Story” content (A20 Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Critics, however, say Lee\u2019s latest CAWMAN model and AI-driven approach remain difficult to evaluate. Even SM artists have publicly admitted to struggling to fully grasp the complexity of Kwangya\u2019s lore. Winter, a member of the popular girl group aespa, revealed in a YouTube interview in July that she had to attend classes on the Kwangya storyline before debut and take additional lessons whenever updates were introduced.<\/p>\n

Despite the uncertainty, fan response to A20 Entertainment\u2019s new content has been enthusiastic. Following the release of the Chinese-language version on Thursday, \u201cA20 May Story\u201d drew positive responses on Chinese social platforms Weibo and Bilibili.<\/p>\n

jaaykim@heraldcorp.com<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.koreaherald.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Soo-man promotes AI-driven storytelling format merging animation, music and metaverse Lee Soo-man delivers a keynote speech at the 26th International Society for Music Information Retrieval Conference held at the KAIST campus in Daejeon, Sept. 22. (A20 Entertainment) While K-pop continues to thrive globally, industry heavyweights are proposing various paths for its next evolution. Hybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[393138,393137,393139,360132,48271,393136,50696],"class_list":["post-2087084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-a20-entertainment","tag-bang-si-hyuk","tag-cawman","tag-hybe","tag-jyp-entertainment","tag-lee-soo-man","tag-sm-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2087084"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087085,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2087084\/revisions\/2087085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2087084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2087084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2087084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}