about EXO :)

Pre-Debut Information:

SM Entertainment initially announced on January 27th, 2011 that they would debut a new male group in March or April of that year. They were known under the codename “M1”, netizens at the time referred to them as ‘소년천지‘ (literally “Boy’s Heaven” or “Land of Boys”). SM also revealed plans to incorporate the new group into the OST of "Paradise Ranch," which never came into fruition.[2] On March 22 a picture of "M1" practicing in the SM practice room with seven members leaked. At this time it was rumored that Jino of SM The Ballad would be part of "M1".

On October 15th, in an interview with Chosan Biz, Lee Soo Man spoke of the upcoming group who would be made up of two sub groups with the same concept, promoting separately in Korea and China. The groups were referred to as ‘M1‘ and ‘M2‘. Lee talked about an event SM held in August in Denmark and Norway called "Music Camp" to find the right title song for the two groups. 50 composers from different parts of the world came to the event to compose a song for SM Entertainment over a period of 3 to 6 days. They were showed M1 and M2, the concept and rhythm SM wanted and then the composers were free to come up with their own songs. The event was held twice, but SM still did not pick a suitable song.[3]

On December 22nd SM put up a pop-up timer on their official homepage featuring the logo for the group. The timer counted down from 24 hours and said "FROM. EXO PLANET."[4] On December 23rd in South Korea, a teaser with member Kai featuring EXO's song "My Lady" was released. A "one take" version of the same teaser would later be released on December 30th. For four days during the holiday season, trucks with LED screens playing the first teaser traveled through Kangnam, Myungdong, Shinchon, Hongdae, and Seoul.[5] December 27th a second teaser was released to the song "Time Control" featuring members Lu Han and Kai. The following day a third teaser featuring Tao to the song "Metal" displaying various wushu skills was released. On January 3rd, 2012 a fifth teaser was released featuring Kai dancing to "Machine" and on January 6th a sixth teaser featuring Kai dancing to "Lightsaber" was released. On January 10th a seventh teaser featuring Se Hun and Kai was released to the song "Run & Gun".[6] On January 11th an eighth teaser was released featuring Se Hun to "Black Pearl" was released, which also displayed the other eleven members. A ninth teaser to the song "Your World" with members Lu Han and Se Hun was released January 12th and a tenth teaser was released January 17th featuring Lay to the song "Phoenix". An eleventh teaser was released January 25th featuring members Xiu Min and Kai and the song "Let Out the Beast". On January 28th a twelfth teaser was released with members Kai and Lay, to the song "Two Moons", which features Key of SHINee.

Members Tao, Kai, Lu Han, and Chen performed at the 2011 SBS Gayo Daejun on the 29th of December.[7] On January 19th Se Hun, Lu Han, and Kai took part in a photo shoot with W Korea called "W Live".

What Is Love and History

EXO-K and EXO-M released their prologue single “What Is Love” on January 30. Both a Korean and Chinese version of the song was released digitally on iTunes, Melon, Doshirak, Soribada, and Naver Music. It was also released through Chinese music websites such as Baidu. It was announced on March 7 that a second prologue song was to be released on March 9 titled "History". Each music video featured scenes of the other group's members, as well as full 12 member scenes.