Over these last few years, SM Entertainmenthas lost many of its valuable artists to either to lengthy hiatus or departures, notablyf(x), Sungmin, 3 members of Girls' Generation, the late Jonghyun, and Henry Lau. The most recent departure comes from last week after SM announced their group, TraxX, would be leaving SM Entertainment as a duo. But just who was TraxX? And why does their departure mean so much for SM?

TraxX originally formed in 2004 as "The TRAX," SM's first and only rock band, meant to carry J-rock trends into Korea. The members at the time were lead-singer Jay (Typhoon,) drummer Minwoo (Rose,) bassist Jungwoo (Attack,) and guitarist Jungmo (X-Mas.) Their stage names would form the group's name.

On July 20, 2004, the band made their official debut with the single, "Paradox," which unfortunately only saw its peak at #37 on the MIAK charts and sold only four-thousand copies. A disappointing loss for a debut.

In November of that year, The TRAX returned again with a single titled Scorpio, this time with their Japanese debut also in tow. The single was only slightly higher than the debut with 5,000 in sales and a number 28 chart. Japan also saw a mediocre reception with its highest peak at #26 on Oricon and no recorded sales.

For the next 4 years, The TRAX focused mainly on Japanese activities though their chart ratings continued to decline as low as #189. On May 10, 2005, Minwoo announced he would be leaving The TRAX in order to pursue a full-on acting career, and later left SM Entertainment in 2009. He would later go on in his career to star in shows such as "Detective Mr. Lee," and "My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox."

In 2006, The TRAX made a return to Korea to promote their first (and so far only) full-length album, "First Rain," as a trio. For this release, they dropped their previous acronym names for their real names, (with the exception of Typhoon, who would become Jay.) The album had 11 tracks, including Paradox and Scorpio, and was headed by the lead single, "Cold Rain."

The album was surprisingly met with very positive reception at #19 on MIAK, mainly due to their shift in style. However, in competition with other SM releases including Super Junior's, "U," the album only sold 8,000 copies and hype eventually fizzled out.

After 4 years with no releases, SM Entertainment announced that The TRAX would be coming back in 2010 as simply "TRAX," with a brand new EP, "Cold-Hearted Man." The EP was surprisingly released as a duo, with no explanation s to what became of Jungwoo, or when he left the company. It is still unknown what became of him, or the circumstances of his departure from SM.

With a dramatic change from previous releases, the album was met with much warmer reception from their previous releases. Because of this, SM Entertainment was able to add TRAX to more of SM's major projects such as "Super Show 3," and were brave enough to give TRAX a followup EP titled, "Oh! My Goddess!" on September 6, 2010.

Both "Cold-Hearted Man" and  "Oh! My Goddess!" charted within the top 10 slots on the new GAON chart at #5 and #6 respectively. TRAX had become big and self-sustaining, however, for every up, there is a down. After enlisting in 2012, TRAX would go off the map for 6 years with no releases except 2 station tracks in 2017 and 2018. Their last comeback before the hiatus would be an EP titled "Blind," in 2011. The last time TRAX would share popularity with its senior and junior groups.

During this period following enlistment, Jay would take on a role in acting while Jungmo became active with Heechul in a new duo called, "M&D." However, there was almost no mention of a TRAX comeback and disbandment seemed imminent. No one could've predicted what came next.

In February of 2018, the group's 2nd station single, "Notorious," released. Not as a rock song like their previous releases, but an EDM song.

Days later, SM Entertainment made the announcement that TRAX would undergo its 3rd transformation into an EDM group called "TraxX" and would add a new member named Ginjo, a producer from China who previously signed with SM in 2013.

News of a comeback did not surface however until December of that year via SM Entertainment's Twitter. The statement had stated that TRAX would be back within a week with a new single titled, "Escape." Other than this tweet bearing a group image, no other promotions came for the single nor the group's return, and the single releasing the day before EXO's highly-anticipated "Love Shot," only buried them deeper. Sure enough, "Escape" received little to no reception, and no concerts or charts domestically or internationally.

After 15 years of sporadic releases, inconsistent styles, and lackluster concepts or reception, SM Entertainment announced on April 30, 2019, that TraxX would be leaving SM Entertainment without Ginjo. At the moment, the fate of the group remains unclear, with SM referring to it as a departure, Jungmo saying the group plans to reunite, and Jay referring to it as a disbandment.

Regardless of the outcome, SM Entertainment lost a valuable group from an inability to successfully find ground with the TraxX which they could keep them standing on. Wherever TraxX goes, now, we can only hope that they will become big enough in the public eye and receive more care and attention from a better label.