:The K-Pop groups BTS, NewJeans, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT) are often some of the first artists to pop up in minds once the topic of the Korean music industry is brought about. HYBE Corporation, the K-Pop entertainment company who is home to the artists mentioned, has subsequently been a hot topic amongst K-Pop fans alike since their start in 2021. After countless feats and scandals in their work, HYBE has made quite a unique name for themselves. While some may believe that HYBE Corporation may be revolutionizing the K-Pop industry, I find that they may be the start of the industry’s downfall.
Before HYBE Corporation came to light, the entertainment company was actually just home to three artists (BTS, TXT, and Lee Hyun) and was more commonly known as BigHit Entertainment. However, the rebrand to HYBE sparked a wave of global expansion to the label. Ever since 2021, HYBE Corporation has acquired entertainment companies besides BigHit, currently including Pledis Entertainment, Source Music, and KOZ Music. They have also erected their own labels right from their homebase: Belift Lab, ADOR, NAECO, HYBE Labels Japan, and HYBE America. With this, the LA Times finds that HYBE “controls roughly 52 percent of the South Korean pop market.” Variety also points out that “Hybe artists collectively sold 43.6 million album units in 2023, double the figure from the previous year.” On top of that, HYBE has made deals with huge western record labels like the Universal Music Group, Big Machine Music, Quality Control, and Ithaca Holdings (whose founder, Scooter Braun, is the CEO of HYBE America. He is not liked by many fans both for his views on the Palestinian genocide and his poor management of artists like Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. There have been many demonstrations to remove Braun from his positions). While these accomplishments do prove HYBE’s significance in the K-Pop industry, it becomes very plausible that HYBE is on a mission to start their own monopoly within the entertainment business. HYBE’s artist roster is currently 18 names long with at least 80 individuals under artist contracts. If the label decides to keep expanding, like how they did through an attempt to acquire SM Entertainment (which failed), countless artists will start to work under one system. Additionally, the abundance of artists to work with will cause at least a few to not get enough attention when it comes to proper promotion and media coverage for music releases (which I have witnessed). This ‘monopoly’ is also seen outside of the music industry as HYBE, for example, bought the popular live streaming app ‘VLive’ in 2022, causing over 1,450 groups to lose a platform to communicate with fans – unless they moved to HYBE’s new platform ‘Weverse.’ With all these factors taken into consideration, HYBE Corporation appears to only be in the game to have full control over the K-Pop industry and earn the most money.
As a fan of some of HYBE’s groups, like SEVENTEEN (SVT) and fromis_9 (both signed to Pledis Entertainment), I have seen many changes to the way artists under the label have been managed. SVT, TXT, and ENHYPEN (Belift Lab), for example, have been on world tours every year since 2022 (which is during their time under HYBE). Mixing in these tours with at least two album releases a year, multiple variety show shootings, long dance practices, and early morning music show recordings have very visibly damaged the health of the members of each group. I have seen many clips of members from the three groups struggling on stage or talking about how they passed out right after their concerts ended because of the amount of work they are doing. Despite fans being worried for their artists and even considering boycotting album releases or tours, HYBE still knows that people will conclusively give in to buying one more ticket or album (which also goes for pointless merchandise, like overpriced and branded BTS water or SVT ornaments that do not have much correlation with groups’ identities; colors, slogans, and more). Therefore, these artists are being pushed to fill their schedules up to the max. Sadly, the justification to these artists being so busy always comes down to the same statement, which goes something like this: “We want to show the best of us to the fans, so we will work relentlessly to pay back your love.”
On the contrary, this tiring lifestyle does not apply to all artists under HYBE Corporation. As mentioned earlier, some artists do not even get the chance to go on a tour and constantly be preparing for the next album. Just this year, NME found a clip of fromis_9’s Chaeyoung on a live stream. In the clip, Chaeyoung spoke: “‘Why are we the only ones who have to wait a long time to be active? Why just us? Just fromis_9? It’s so upsetting. I have Flovers (fromis_9’s official fanbase), I have fans too… we have Flovers too.’” Further, NME states that “neither company (Pledis Entertainment or HYBE) have yet to address the comments made by the K-pop idol as of writing.” Fans have since taken it upon themselves to protest against Pledis Entertainment and HYBE, making demands both at the corporation’s building and online through hashtags and templates. Both the artists and fans must advocate for themselves because the labels seem to not care about them enough. HYBE Entertainment has also disbanded the groups NU’EST (Pledis Entertainment) and GFRIEND (Source Music), seemingly to make way for new groups TWS (Pledis Entertainment) and LE SSERAFIM (Source Music). While this reason for disbandment was never confirmed, it became the only plausible one as both groups never showed reason for disbandment, especially at their level of popularity. This extreme imbalance of treatment is not fair to any of HYBE Corporation’s artists, ultimately only benefiting those at the top who take the most money from overall profits.
HYBE Corporation has worked with figures that people have generally never liked, like the aforementioned Scooter Braun. One figure specifically makes her way to the headlines these days: 45 year old Min Heejin, the CEO of ADOR. The only artist under ADOR as of right now is NewJeans, who’s ages currently range from 16 to 20-years-old and debuted in the summer of 2022. Right after the release of their debut album, ‘NewJeans 1st EP – ‘New Jeans,’’ Min was slammed for letting the girls record and release the song ‘Cookie,’ which had a load of sexual innuendos. With the youngest member being 14 years old at the time, the song was way out of NewJeans’s league. Fans of various K-Pop groups took to the internet to dive into how Min has treated underaged artists before, especially in SM Entertainment (SHINee, f(x), Red Velvet, NCT DREAM) where she used to work for a few years. Meaww tells recollections from fans from Min’s time working with SM artists: “HeeJin had not wanted Taemin (SHINee) to work out so that his chest would look like a young boy’s […] Min HeeJin had also given Red Velvet a concept for ‘Red Flavor’ that was reminiscent of ‘Lolita’ according to fans, a movie which glamorized a pedophilic relationship and was done when Yeri was 17 […] f(x) fans [were also] claiming that she sexualised Sulli and Krystal the year they turned 18 with the girls wearing minis and bodycon dresses while Sulli was given blush on her knees.” Min has recently been in a feud with HYBE as HYBE claimed that Min was trying to forcefully take away NewJeans and ADOR from HYBE’s management. During the first press conference on this issue, Min stated that all the members of NewJeans were at her house, crying and feeling sorrowful for Min. Many fans pointed out how weird the relationship between the 45 year old and the adolescent girls was, claiming that Min was being a predator knowing her previous pedophilic behavior (Instagram posts from Min showed her house decorated with pictures from movies with pedophilic themes). NewJeans is currently the most popular K-Pop girl group among today’s generation. If they continue to be in demand and have Min as their director and mentor, they (and many idols their age) could be at serious risk for even more exploitation.
I have been following the K-Pop industry ever since 2018, when BTS dropped ‘Euphoria’ before their breakthrough album ‘Love Yourself: Tear.’ Seeing the way BigHit Entertainment has changed and expanded over these six years has been so surreal, and I honestly cannot wrap my mind around how big they are today. At the same time though, I fear for the artists under HYBE as I have barely seen the corporation meet some of the fans’ simplest requests. While it is true that the K-Pop industry is very oversaturated and systemized, the figures seen on stage and in the crowds are still humans. At the end of the day, it is up to HYBE Corporations and their leaders to protect their artists and stay true to their motto, “We Believe in Music.” So, HYBE, will it be the music, or the money?
