Or alternatively titled, My Take on the New Jeans Situation.
Yeah, I’m throwing my hat into the New Jeans/ADOR/HYBE situation too, lmao. I’ve been back on TikTok for about two months. I’ve seen two videos in particular that inspired me to write this article. The first video is The Downfall of Kpop? by Derrick Gee and the second is from danaisdoingherbest aka The Bangtan News with This was the worst thing New Jeans could do. Both incredibly informative and interesting perspectives. I highly recommend checking their videos out. I’ll be talking about both throughout this article.
Tdlr: New Jeans have jumped into the Min Heejin vs HYBE battle. And to the surprise of no one, they’re siding with Min Heejin. They went live on a YouTube channel separate from their official page.
They didn’t tell their managers or the company. And they have given HYBE an ultimatum of reinstating Min Heejin as head of ADOR (and everyone else who was fired I guess) by September 25th or else they’re not gonna an active group.
And now Min Heejin has filed an injunction for her contract with HYBE to reinstate her by November 7th. Whatever that means.
Both videos had me thinking. I’ve mentioned on here that I’ve noticed that music and pop culture is vastly different now than how it was when I grew up in the mid to late 2000’s. Everyone pretty much consumed the same media across the country.
Celebrities felt bigger and there was more mystery behind them. Fans were also more loyal to their faves. And no one really questioned what we were being told. We watched interviews, documentaries, and whatever else these labels gave us, and left it at that.
Watching this drama go down with Ice Spice fighting to keep her momentum going, and appears to be losing fans and interest in her and her album, drama surrounding Chappell Roan and if she can handle her recent boost to fame, Fifty Fifty’s company is rebooting the group with mostly new members and now New Jeans is facing uncertainy with their career.
We’re in this era now where we can see the minute by minute breakdown of someone’s career. People fell off all the time back in the day, but labels could hide it. They’re still trying to, but it’s harder now. Now we can really see how disposable musicians and celebrities are. And I think people are equating transparency as one factor to Kpop “ending”.
Public opinion can change so quickly. Now these celebrities can directly speak to their audiences in ways you couldn’t like 20 years ago. Also there’s some misogyny going on here too. Because I can list off more female musicians this is happening to then the men. But that’s another topic I’m not tackling here. We don’t have time.
That’s why I think New Jeans is likely gonna have a 2.0 version. The industry sees these changes and they’re quickly trying to adapt. I don’t see HYBE giving up that money that easily. Yes these groups are incredibly expensive to create and maintain. And New Jeans is a newer group. But lets not act like they don’t have brand deals with huge brands like Coca Cola. They’re brand ambassadors for Seoul Fashion Week.
They have these big connections because of their ties to HYBE. HYBE is making money off the girls. Tour or no comebacks. There are other ways to make money off these groups. They still have people streaming their music and buying albums. I just don’t see HYBE giving up the IP of New Jeans this easily. Not without a battle.
Tao, former EXO member, won his lawsuit against SM in China but lost in Korea and had to stay under the label until 2022. If they can get the girls to fight from within and make promises for their careers like solos or acting gigs if they stay, that’ll work in HYBE’s favor. But they can also end up like Tao.
So I think the members that decide to take legal action and leave the group, will likely get replaced with new girls. And New Jeans continues on. And HYBE hopes the scandal will fade as time goes on. Kinda like the lineup changes in Wonder Girls. Again none of this is “new” in Kpop.
Anyone who’s been a Kpop fan of at least 2 years to see a full year of how things work see these lawsuits happen a lot. Veterans like me see this as another rodeo, unfortunately. Artists suing their companies and companies suing their artist is a tale as old as time in Kpop. We can go back to the 90s on this.
Chuu has been battling with Blockberry Creative for 2 years now. And will likely continue into 2025.
Part of why one of the Fifty Fifty members went back was because it would be easier and cheaper to continue business as is then to be stuck in limbo, owe hundreds of thousands of dollars and be blacklisted like JYJ was when they left SM, read here and here. Had to source from anyone but Koreaboo, lol.
Good rule of thumb, if you want to see some wild legal stuff, SM’s track record with lawsuits is a great rabbit hole to fall into. Almost every group they have has some type of legal issues with them, it’s bananas.
Anyway. From the few videos I watched talking about this situation. Everyone comes to the same conclusions. Either New Jeans will disband under their accord or HYBE will cut them loose. Or the girls will be trapped in their current contracts after facing the reality that battling HYBE legally will not be easy or go in their favor.
In Dana’s video she talked about how New Jeans would have to prove HYBE was mistreating them in court. And having a manager tell a group to ignore you and not say hi isn’t going to be enough to break their contacts.
I strongly agree with that. In Derrick Gee’s video he talks more about the commerce side of things. And how as a whole this will be historical for Kpop as whole. Both videos talk about the intersections or commerce and art.
New Jeans and their fans are caught in the cross fire of all of this. Both videos also talk about there’s no way things can go back to “normal” after this.
Now my initial reaction upon hearing this news was that they’re done. ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM, and fromis_9 are already deciding on how they’re spend that money up.
I just… There’s no way they comeback to this without serious retaliation. This isn’t about creative differences, it’s about money. And like in the TikTok videos I’ve linked in this article, that’s what it really boils down to. Money and power. Because Min Heejin was offered a creative director role but she didn’t take that.
There’s no way she can legally just move the girls over to her own label and pull in the same or even more money than what they have with HYBE. And HYBE isn’t just gonna give Min Heejin Ador to shut her up.
It sets a bad precedent for parent companies and their subsidiaries in Kpop. And it financially hurts them. Which is the most important thing to them. HYBE is a publicly traded company now. They have investors from all over the world. They have to answer to them, not the fans per say.
And I know we love an underdog story like ATEEZ and BTS, but they’re the outliers, and COVID has made that lifespan even shorter.
If you look at the wiki page of a year in music for South Korea. Pick ANY year and look at all the groups that debuted, then look to see who’s still active. Here’s an example, BTS is the ONLY 2013 debuted group that is still active. And they closer you get to 2024, the more groups debut, and the more you see fall off/barely hanging on.
Oh yeah and this is a girl group so cut all that timespan in half. These companies will hang on to a no name boy group for years, the girls are not as lucky. Gir group careers age in dog years in the industry and it’s not fair. They don’t even have miltary enlistments. I- wait I said I wasn’t going to get into the misogyny. But I see you and I’m clocking it. Anyway, there’s too much competition and trainees in the HYBE dungeon waiting to become the next New Jeans if given the opportunity to.
There was this really cool statistical break down someone made years ago about the likihood of debuting and being at like a TWICE or BTS level. I can’t find it at the moment, but I found this post. They calculated this:
1 in 70,000 – The number of Kpop idols to non-Kpop idols in South Korea
Then let’s say that 20% of those 800 idols are really successful, so 160 idols.
1 in 50,000,000 – The number of really successful Kpop idols to non-Kpop idols.
1 in 350,000 – The number of really successful Kpop idols to non-Kpop idols in South Korea.
And this article here where they say there’s prbably less than 0.01% chance of debuting and becoming successful. You have better chances of hitting the lottery.
HYBE, SM, YG, JYPE, Kakao Entertainment, they’re bringing in coins, but that’s not reflective of the entire industry. If your faves come from a company not backed by a parent company like Kakao, a lot of our faves from smaller labels are just getting by. Realistically and statistically. I could link tons of articles with former idols saying they had to get part time jobs, or are making more money working at resturants than being idols.
Not that different from stories of the writer’s strike of 2023. And actors sharing lack of residual payments. This is a world wide creative entertainment issue. Creatives around the world are dealing with this BS, but Kpop is getting the smoke because it’s the “new” kid on the block. It has the reputation of perfection that Hollywood doesn’t embrace anymore. But they did back in like the 30s and 40s.
We’re just seeing more of the behind the scenes stuff than in the past. Kpop isn’t ending. It’s evolving. And there is some good and bad with that.
I love seeing more groups tour in the US, and seeing more merch options, having English subtitles. But there’s a wealth disparity going on in Kpop as well. The big groups are getting bigger and the smaller groups are getting smaller and have shorter life spans. And these companies know this.
So where do we go from here? Sit and wait, really. Is HYBE gonna go bankrupt if New Jeans gets disbanded. No. They have other older established groups under the many labels they’ve acquired over the last few years. That was why they did that, diversified. In Dana’s video she talked about TXT and SEVENTEEN’s output.
Which is very true, they’re bringing in tons of coin, I’m sure. But uh, ENHYPEN has literally been on the same tour (different names) for over 18 months. The day HYBE/Belift announced the tour was finally over, a few hours later they announced a new tour, a new tour poster, and ramped up promotion for their new light stick version.
See here for a Reddit round up. And you can scroll #LetENHYPENRest on Twitter for more.
So between Enha’s never ending tour alone (we know tours are how many artists make money), merch, brand endorsements that keep rolling in daily and album sales, HYBE is fine. Enha’s income has probably paid for New Jeans entire career so far. I’m half joking.
And we’re all just talking about the idol side of HYBE. They have actors signed like Nana, who have their own brand deals as well that the company gets a cut of.
Plus other people and services that bring consistent coin to the company. I just bought some Ppulbatu merch (the new TXT’s cartoon characters like BT21). They’re way more than BTS and idol groups.
I really don’t want to see the girls get disillusioned by all this and decide to just flat out quit music if they don’t have Min Heejin. I hate they feel that they can’t do this without her. And this uncertainty is just an awful place to be in as a fan.
There’s nothing worse then seeing your faves who have brought you so much joy and comfort and not be able to help them in a time where they really need it.
I think people are trying to boycott their music to show support for the group. I’m not sure if any specific accounts or hashtags to include here. But I know the bunnies have something brewing.
Things are going to be worse before they get better. I hope this gets wrapped up soon, but I think we still have months of all this back and forth. Kpop companies love sitting a group out of work for years. They might just do that to New Jeans. The very bare minimum until their contacts are up.
I doubt it. Someone’s gonna break and everything is in HYBE’s favor to get what they want.
If it’s more financially beneficial for them to end the group and put that money towards ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM, they’re gonna do that. I wish fromis_9 would get some of the pie. Maybe they’ll get to lick the pan after ILLIT and LE SSERAFIM are done, lol.
HYBE is probably working towards creating ANOTHER reality show to make another New Jeans but under a label HYBE knows they can trust management to run under their rules. I don’t see them making this mistake again. Those NDAs and contracts just got amended I’m sure.
As mentioned in the TikTok videos, Min Heejin’s issue (among many) right now is that she blurred the lines of business, artist management, and creative direction. She flew too close to the sun for HYBE’s liking and now everyone has to pay for it.
We just can’t have nice shit in Kpop, man. Always some mess going on, smh.
If y’all liked this style of article, let me know in the comments. I’ll be posting more topical articles like this in the future. But I want to know y’alls feedback. I gotta come up with a better tag to categorize this type of article. But oh well. I’ll be back to Quick Thoughts on the next article. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
Take care!
Ash💫
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