Oh boy, no marvel individuals wished me to proceed masking this HYBE gossip rag mess, as by some means much more shit not too long ago got here out after the preliminary mess was all translated, together with a pair of official apologies from the corporate.
Observe: In case your pet challenge isn’t talked about, simply carry it up within the feedback like a traditional individual as an alternative of claiming I hate your group or no matter shit. Bud, I’ve simply been dwelling on a excessive for weeks now, and I’m summarizing this for OCD completion’s sake..
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Okay, so let’s begin with the official response from CEO Lee Jae Sang to the interior doc/gossip rag leak. Mainly he apologizes, says it was principally meant to simply summarize reactions across the trade, however says the content material went too far and that they’re reaching out to particular person businesses to apologize (the businesses mentioned had not obtained any over per week later).
Notably, the assertion sorta tries to go it off as solely the author being concerned, saying “private opinions and evaluations of the creator”. And experiences adopted that CCO Kang Myung Seok was eliminated from his place, although follow-ups revealed he was simply transferred, which drew backlash.
I suppose that was related as a result of Bang Si Hyuk reportedly was concerned in ordering the report back to be compiled, and he had shut connections with the editor-in-chief of Weverse Journal since 2005 once they have been each with JYP Leisure. Ultimately an e-mail emerged of him telling the EIC to ship it to Zico.
Amid the controversy, on October 30, media outlet Hankyoreh reported that HYBE Chairman Bang Si Hyuk personally instructed firm executives to flow into this doc. Based on electronic mail information obtained by Hankyoreh, on January 6, 2022, Bang Si Hyuk replied to Kang Myung Seok, the previous head of Weverse Journal who was recognized to have authored the doc, stating, “Please add Zico to the record of doc recipients.” The recipients additionally included Kim Joo Younger, who was the Chief Human Assets Officer on the time and is now the CEO of ADOR.
Zico mentioned he didn’t see it or open it. After all.
Undecided that is actually a bombshell to anyone however probably the most delulu stans who suppose this was a rogue C-suite worker or one thing, however at the least there’s affirmation.
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Alright, so when it comes to the mess-creating stuff, there’s been a bunch extra launched from the interior doc, each as issues obtained sorted after which once more as an alleged HYBE worker felt compelled to leak extra pages. If you wish to learn each element, it’s possible you’ll accomplish that (1/2/3/4/5). If not, simply know there’s sufficient in there to piss off nearly everyone and that is apparently solely the tip of the iceberg.
For sane individuals, I assumed I’d simply recap those that stood out as particularly egregious.
Weirdly sufficient, the one about MONSTA X isn’t actually about MONSTA X as a lot because it simply sorta reinforces their model as like “the incel firm” by together with sexist language.
It’s an uncommon scenario for a group to keep up home curiosity after Shownu’s enlistment. It looks as if they’ve managed to draw a gradual stream of grownup girls among the many older followers who’re uninterested in the trolls and aggressive tensions from the bigger firms. They’ve a picture that’s extra like real robust guys reasonably than the standard “unhealthy boy” idea, and now they’re interesting to the so-called “Han-nyeo” (derogatory time period for Korean girls) who would possibly just like the likes of a candy, younger Choi Min-soo in terms of how they deal with their girls. Their attraction as a bodily group has weakened, and their dedication to showcase a hip-hop vibe or efficiency has additionally lessened, however their place appears to be solidifying, supported by a fanbase that’s rising outdoors of the stage. In consequence, their newest album bought 160,000 copies on the primary day. Contemplating that the preliminary gross sales for the “Love Killa” album have been additionally 160,000 copies and the earlier album hit 280,000 copies, it appears they nonetheless have some momentum left.
Then there’s some informal homophobia in the direction of TO1‘s Woonggi.
A group that feels prefer it’s been killed and revived a number of occasions. This time, three members—Minsu, Jerome, and Woonggi—have been kicked out and changed. The one member with any notable presence locally was Woonggi as femme(Translator’s Observe: 끼순이, The slur means ‘Femme’ in Korean LGBTQ+ group) position, so the group is basically in a disaster. The brand new members embrace two Japanese contestants who positioned thirteenth and sixteenth on ‘Produce 101 Japan’ and one Korean trainee. It looks as if the path is to make use of them as openers at occasions like KCON and run them as an underground group in Japan.
Their very own idols weren’t secure both, as ENHYPEN‘s Sunghoon appeared to take warmth for his visuals and the doc gave perception into how the corporate would look to vary the idol.
It was a good schedule, however the points that cropped up point out deeper issues inside ENHYPEN. Followers seen the members appeared exhausted, suggesting it might be a psychological or psychological burnout challenge reasonably than simply bodily fatigue. Encouraging and main members is crucial for sturdy efficiency, and failure to take action results in unfavorable vitality affecting the group’s momentum.
The visible state of Sunghoon, who was criticized in DCInside with screenshots suggesting a decline in seems, raised considerations. There are additionally frequent feedback about his styling. Plainly if somebody is susceptible to swelling, they need to discover a resolution, and they should make private efforts, like lowering weight to keep away from dangers beforehand. Though it’s not an unattractive group, their look’s choice appears to be polarizing, so Sung Hoon’s seems have to play a job in stabilizing demand, much like how Min Hyun did in NU’EST.
Maybe most noteworthy was ENHYPEN’s Jake and Palestine with reference to his supporting the boycott.
I beforehand talked about how abroad fandoms’ political involvement has been intensifying round points like Starbucks and McDonald’s because of the Israel challenge. In Korea, as a non-combatant nation, probably the most wise course is to attend for the difficulty to go. Nonetheless, Indonesian followers, beginning across the Golden Disc Awards, stirred up stress on followers by way of Weverse, pushing them to not eat Starbucks merchandise. Jake responded in settlement to certainly one of these feedback and expressed remorse, which stirred up some controversy.
Korean followers are fairly uncomfortable with the abroad fandom’s use of the time period “schooling on the difficulty,” and this may very well be a danger issue. On condition that this challenge lies within the advanced realm of politics reasonably than private judgment, Jake’s reply might all of the sudden grow to be problematic later. Even when his reply smooths issues over with followers now, this might speed up the fandom’s distinctive identification conflicts, so it’s a time to be conscious of the ambiance.
Aside from them wanting to simply ignore issues till it “handed”, maybe probably the most noteworthy factor is seemingly making an attempt to censor the difficulty, which validates present suspicions.
Moreover, after this controversy, Weverse has been inserting restrictions on phrases utilized in overseas fandoms’ public posts. There was an incident with ENHYPEN’s supervisor that difficult the scenario. To summarize roughly, it’s been known as the “Starbucks boycott promise” incident. ENHYPEN’s supervisor posted an image of an area espresso model whereas in Jakarta on their Instagram, which abroad followers interpreted as agreeing with their stance. This led them to say issues like, “The supervisor agrees with us!” and even, “Schooling is working, let’s attempt tougher!” which heightened Korean followers’ stress and nervousness.
I imply Scooter Braun is a distinguished determine within the firm, so nothing would shock me on that entrance, actually.
Lastly, in what now seems like a deeply ironic evaluation, they counsel making an attempt to place Bang Si Hyuk because the extra likeable between him and Park Jin Younger and Lee Soo Man.
With Park Jin-young’s upcoming end-of-year live performance and Lee Soo-man’s self-promotional ventures, Si-hyuk-nim’s positioning as a “likable” determine might grow to be more and more very important. Whereas they proceed to advertise themselves, Si-hyuk-nim might contemplate being highlighted in main abroad magazines throughout huge occasions for worldwide recognition. A strategic function in GQ may be becoming, beginning with the phrase, “He isn’t the king of Ok-pop,” to border him as a game-changer who breaks style limits.
I imply, look, at the least that’s proof they didn’t take each suggestion critically.
The South Korean producer Bang Si-hyuk—recognized to admirers as Hitman Bang—handpicked the boy group BTS and helped it grow to be the largest act on the earth. Now, he’s bringing his components for creating Ok-pop idols to America. https://t.co/QMWq5nH3ba
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) October 7, 2024
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In the meantime, Weverse Journal has since launched an announcement making an attempt to distance themselves as effectively. They confirmed their former EIC made the doc, nonetheless, they isolate the mess to simply him.
We wish to clarify a number of information associated to this matter:
• The doc in query was one thing the previous editor-in-chief labored on individually, so the Weverse Journal employees weren’t even conscious of the existence of the doc.
• Except for the previous editor-in-chief, neither the employees concerned within the manufacturing of Weverse Journal nor the exterior writers have ever participated in writing the monitoring doc.
• The previous editor-in-chief was faraway from his place and has been prohibited from any additional involvement in Weverse Journal. As for the employees who have been individually tasked with monitoring by the previous editor-in-chief, their work has been suspended as effectively.
We’re stating clearly that Weverse Journal has nothing to do with the controversial monitoring doc, and the members of the Weverse Journal group are against the doc in query.
Yeah, good luck making an attempt to scrub your fingers of it like that.
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I stay in awe of this, as I’ve by no means seen a multitude seemingly unite this many Ok-pop followers, and but HYBE pulled it off. Possibly they’re The Particular One, so to talk.
Aside from their makes an attempt at injury management being amusing, as others have identified, it additionally stands out due to how ineffective lots of this info could be for enterprise functions. The needlessly hateful (anti-feminist, sexist, homophobic, and so on) nature of it gave the impression to be principally for leisure — or at the least I hope they didn’t act on that stuff — and apparently not one of the C-suites had an issue with it (apart from possibly Min Hee Jin, I assume). HYBE stans are deep in injury management mode over that stuff, however irrespective of how a lot they downplay it, the very fact stays that its existence in the end displays on the corporate’s management, setting, and perspective, with none indicators of restoration from this PR catastrophe.