The irony is that Hybe is part of the reason why Aespa has ascended to the top this year. Newjeans was their best chance at keeping Aespa in 2nd place, yet they kneecapped their best GG asset.
Aespa took advantage of the void. I think this is why they are going all out right now. This type of opportunity doesn't come easily.
There are literally conspiracies that this was all set up by SM and Kakao.
it's not about ethnicity it's about their actions and what they support. it's an insult
edit: oops might be wrong on this. it might actually just be ethnicity like rumors of having part chinese blood in you. anyways both are fucking weird
Unfortunately for a lot of Koreans, just having Chinese blood is enough to hate you, but I was just curious, cause I didn't even know either of them had that perception. But I also never followed the non-music side of Kpop much until recently with all these scandals. That's why I was asking.
Net worth is tricky, and it's well known that they are literally just guesses. It's not like they have access to their bank statements and investment portfolios. Most super wealthy people couldn't even put a number on it themselves at any given moment, unless of course someone has 0 investments, which is highly unlikely..
Even still. TBH, I doubt they're that mad about it. This is always how the music industry has worked. Also, regardless of the actual number, they're already each wealthy enough to retire if they wanted to, which clearly none of them want that as of now.
Display Morethose aespa muscle photos are probably done by hybe to paint them less attractive. when they don't find any flows in gorgeous girlies they invent them through photoshop.
for example wonyoung was also done dirty with edited photos which made her appear bony, skinnier than she is; or even many Liz photos which fat shamed her were edited as well.
i also remember these edited photos of sullyoon like she had wrinkles and bad skin or smth.
same thing happened with haerin as well. i remember during their debut year or 2023, there was a major buzz around her beauty, people even started calling her the top visual and stuff and just days after there were articles about her about how she had small eyes and her beauty was all due to eyelenses.
my poor baby even refused to appear without her lenses for a while, i remember she checked them compilsively in a new jeans video following this events. she a minor when it happened.
same thing happened with Danielle when there was a buzz about her looking like a doll and having perfect proportions, the next days there was a article about her predebut days when she was 13 and going through puberty, calling her fat or smth.
hybe really seem to hate women it's disgusting and maddening to know there are out there harrassing, bullying and body shaming young girls non stop.
somebody really needs to sue them
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These actually aren't photoshopped. They just found the pictures of each member with the right lighting and angles which make a world of difference. I know because I used to be a bodybuilder. I could look like a complete different person with the right lighting. Iirc Ningning talked about hers at least, that she gains muscle very easily. It's not surprising though, because they apparently all work out a ton, especially Giselle, who says she's addicted to the gym.
I mean, that's not surprising. Malaysia is a majority Muslim country and the song is literally about a drinking game.
Can anyone tell me an industry that's not immoral?
That's definitely not what you should be taking from my response. I'm saying that's how the world works, not that I like that it's that way. Not only corporations, but the richest people in the world are actually in debt indefinitely because they make more money borrowing, and whoever they are borrowing from are not worried about them paying it back because they know they will get it eventually.
There's a saying:
"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."
Is there any updates on HYBE being very in debt and they have to pay off their debt? Isn't there a deadline?
Only poor people have to pay off their debts, not large corporations.
I think it overall was a good idea. I did think about some potential issues though, such as who classifies as a celebrity. Like how do you qualify "celebrity" and what would be the cutoff for lesser known artists/entertainers?
I love both, EXO is the best male vocal group ever in Kpop, but I'm not sure if we can actually tell who's the #1 here without real numbers.
My guess is obviously SNSD, for one reason only (maybe 2), SNSD has 5 years of advantage, and maybe this will sound weird, but I think EXO is underrated, and compared to other boy groups their sales aren't as good either. Of course, it's better than SNSD's, but that's not even a competition.
Overall, SNSD is the biggest brand in Kpop. Even after 17 years.
Definitely impossible to say without any numbers.
But even if we have numbers, quantifying how much SM "benefitted" is even more difficult. Like you could argue that SNSD is more recognizeable with the public, which boosted SM's brand higher than EXO did, also potentially contributing to the success of their future GGs in particular like Red Velvet and aespa. On the other side, many credit EXO for reviving physical album sales, when the market was previously all but dead. In that way, could we partially credit all future SM groups album sales to EXO? Maybe a stretch but I can see an argument.
But again, that's all moot if we don't have numbers. It could be that one just clearly had way more total revenue.
Don't know. Honestly I think it's not that likely that they are responsible for scandals and hate trains, but it wouldn't surprise me if they do a variety of things to increase or prolong hate trains once they happen, given their networks with media and the money they can throw around.
This is what I believe. If they are involved, I don't think they'd be the ones who start hate trains, but rather perpetuate them. There are always crazies that will say anything, but more and more, we've been realizing how easy it is for anyone with resources to make a niche opinion blow up on social media with the right push. A lot of documented cases like this outside of Kpop.
But we don't even have to look that deep. Does anyone remember that article that came out just recently, that claimed the public was apparently tired of "cyberpunk/superpowers/iron taste music", and that's why the music that "reminds us of youth" were rising, when literally the only relevant group that could be described the first way is aespa, not to mention the latter concept was and is way more prevelant?
I guess aespa just doesn't care. Then again, what are they going to write in their report about Karina? They probably already have a entire separate file just for her.
All the Korean comments are kind of hilarious though.
Display MoreA few clarifications / my version of the timeline :
- MHJ was promised her own label from the start, it was just supposed to come latter on than it ended up.
- As part of the offer HYBE made her to recruit her, MHJ was also promised a free hand in the making of the planned Source GG.
- As such she took a personal interest in building that group and essentialy made promises/declarations on the basis of the promises made to her by HYBE in the first place.
- As the NJ project takes more shape, Bang declares that he isn't convinced by proto-jeans (sound/aesthetics/trainees blablabla) and starts planning for Le Sserafim (bringing Sakura and Chaewon, producing tracks).
- MHJ is pissed AF, threatens to take her ball and go home but is convinced to stay on-board with HYBE by being offered to have her planned label's creation pushed forward so she could debut NJ here wich she accepts (in part so she can fulfil the expectations/promises she had made to the trainess that would have gotten fucked over by the switch up of project)
So basically :
- Bang had to be strong-armed into debuting NJ (seed of resentment),
- NJ turns out to have all the potential in the world contrary to his previsions (narcissistic injury, resentment grows),
- NJ ends up deminating despite a complete lack of involvement from him while the group he build from the trainees up and produces for is stuck in the pack (narcissistic unjury², ressentement blooms).
Wich also explains the shareholder contract MHJ was under : she wouldn't be able to leverage it into a ~$100millions payout if NJ hadn't been so successful. A B or C-tier group would have given very little growth to ador (barely enough to cover costs), and MHJ would have ended up with the possibility of selling her shares back for barely more than initial price.
But NJ slayed, so bang is malding and hybe is risking having their financials get stress-tested the fuck out.
edit : you might think the money thing is more important than the pride thing, but the money thing doesn't explain why bang would send MHJ bitter texts about NJ chart-success, so I think the pride thing is actually a pretty big thing in this situation.
Thank you for this. This is very helpful.
Based on my non-expert opinion, it's textbook impostor syndrome. The fact is, BTS is a once in a generation success, and BHS got extremely lucky. That's not to downplay his role in it. As much as I don't like the guy as a person, he did a lot of things right with BTS. However, I think he knows in his heart how lucky he got. He is worried he's already peaked, and wonders if he actually deserves the success he acheived. So he built his own self-worth on whether or not he can replicate BTS's success to prove to himself and the world he can do it, every subsequent failure is just confirming to his own self narrative that he's actually an impostor who got lucky.
It doesn't help that MHJ is a seasoned veteran who has a hand in a lot of successful acts. I won't say for sure on the misogyny angle. It is probably relevant that she's a woman too, but that's not the most important part. He sees that she actually has the skills and track record, and now the ability to acheived massive success yet again with NewJeans, but more importantly, she has true self-assurance and confidence forged from years of grinding in the industry. This destroys his confidence again.
He is by all accounts successful. He doesn't need another BTS to prove that to anyone, but he set an unreasonably high bar for himself, and now so many people have to suffer because of his insecurity.
I am, perhaps, jaded, but I think they might get a relatively small fine and a slap on the wrist.
Public opinion will be lower for a bit. But then BTS will have a comeback and/or another HYBE group will have a big hit and people will move one and stop caring as they usually do whenever any scandal stops being newsworthy.
Oh but u are form the outrageous commit?
I thought this was awful for u
Right? What makes it different?
I agree with you, that hating LSF and Illit for any of this is wrong and shouldn't be done.
There is a difference, though. Not saying it's deserved, but it should help explain why.
First, of all, I don't really look at twitter, so I can't comment on that, but at least from my observation, SM stans are not the same as HYBE stans, as in, I don't think I've ever really seen a true SM COMPANY stan. In fact the biggest haters of SM Entertainment are fans of SM groups. They are the first ones to call out SM's shitty behavior, but that's because there's the long documented history of all of their terrible practices. I don't think I have to tell you about that.
But HYBE stans ride for the literal company, because they've somehow managed to present themselves as "different" and "better" than the old Big 3, and the international Kpop community ate it up because the got convinced they were actually different or they only joined Kpop fandoms after HYBE was formed. So when the fans themselves extend their stan behavior to the company itself, then they're going to be equated of course, and because of that, they assume other fandoms are the same. It's actually hilarious whenever I see the "defense" for HYBE is "SM does it too". Like, no shit, fans of SM groups don't need to be told that. But they're not defending SM. They call SM trash every day of the week.
