HYBE’s CEO has just apologized to K-Pop artists, fans and rival record labels following a series of controversies sparked by the leak of internal documents. What’s going on?

What happened?

K-pop giant move More broadly, South Korea’s entire K-pop ecosystem has been thrown into disarray in recent days following the release of a trove of internal HYBE documents that included disparaging comments about K-pop artists, both HYBE’s own and those managed by HYBE. Competitor tags.

A member of South Korea’s opposition Democratic Party caused a media uproar on Thursday (October 24). Mr. Min Hengbaiinternal HYBE documents were disclosed during an audit conducted by the Parliamentary Committee on Culture, Sports and Tourism.

The documents are a compilation from the Weekly Music Industry Report, and some observers were shocked by the insensitivity of comments made by some K-pop artists and members.

as quoted korea heraldthe documents contained statements such as “They debuted at the least attractive age,” “Surprisingly, none of them are pretty,” and “Shockingly unattractive.”

Lawmakers reportedly reacted most negatively to the fact that some comments about appearance were directed at minors.

Kim Tae HoHYBE COO and HYBE sub-brand CEO Be-LiftLabexplained to the committee that the documents do not reflect HYBE’s official position and may not even reflect the opinions of HYBE executives — they are a compilation of what K-pop fans and others are saying online and elsewhere, and are compiled from Compiled effort to track popular perceptions of Korean pop music.

He emphasized that the weekly report is sent only to senior executives of HYBE and its subsidiaries and is not for public use.

However, this was not enough to calm the storm that erupted during the committee meeting. In fact, the first controversy arose when HYBE issued a statement on the release of the document during the committee meeting, which reiterated the points made by Kim while also pledging to “hold accountable those who selectively leaked provocative parts of the report to It’s the responsibility of the person who makes it look like that”. It’s like HYBE criticized the artist,” herald.

HYBE pulled the statement from its website after committee members protested.

Still, things went downhill from there, especially among some news organizations, including South Korean news organizations Channel A The network reportedly obtained the summary report. While the names of individuals in selected documents submitted to the National Assembly were redacted (stoking endless speculation about who was being disparaged in the documents), the leaked version of the document — which amounted to 18,000 According to some accounts, all the names are listed on the page.

The unredacted documents not only caused an uproar among fans of the aforementioned K-pop acts, but also highlighted internal tensions between HYBE’s leadership and some of the company’s acts. For the many outlets covering the K-pop scene, this trove of documents became the fodder for countless stories, each focusing on some controversial comments about a particular K-pop act or artist.

In short, it’s a public relations nightmare.

On Tuesday (October 29), HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee, who has only been on the job for a few months, apologized “to our artists, industry insiders and fans.”

Lee reiterated that the documents had never been made available to the public, but he also acknowledged that “the content of the document is highly inappropriate.”

“On behalf of the company, we acknowledge all wrongdoing and take full responsibility for the fact that provocative and original expressions against K-pop artists persist.”

Jason Jaesang Lee, HYBE

“On behalf of the company, we acknowledge all wrongdoing and take full responsibility for the fact that provocative and original expressions against K-pop artists remain, the author’s personal opinions and comments have been added, and the content has been documented.” In particular, I feel very sorry and sad that innocent artists and members have been misunderstood and hurt due to accusations. [negative] Viral, this is simply not true,” Lee wrote.

Lee emphasized that HYBE has contacted each K-pop agency individually and apologized for the damage caused.

Still, the fallout from the document leaks continues, some of which sparked rumors and speculation about potential wrongdoing by HYBE, some of which directly impacted HYBE’s ongoing legal issues.

Here’s an overview of some of the more serious consequences of a file leak.

celebrity news storm

K-pop fans are a passionate and loyal group of people, with many taking an almost obsessive interest in their favorite acts or artists. Predictably, therefore, the names of numerous artists in the leaked documents sparked numerous news reports, social media threads, and responses from media personalities.

Some of these stories sparked rumors and speculation (often without evidence) about HYBE’s possible involvement in early scandals and gossip involving K-pop stars.

We have neither space nor time to document them all (if you’re interested in all of this, you can check out coverage by AllKPop, Koreaboo, and many, many similar news sites), but here’s an illustrative example.

One of the weekly updates on HYBE leaks observed Shenghan,member SM Entertainmentboy band Ruize. It was observed that a controversy that engulfed Seunghan in August 2023 “failed to go viral on Theqoo, an online forum frequented by K-pop fans.”

This sparked speculation that HYBE might be involved in Seunghan’s scandal in some way. Before he became famous as a member of RIIZE, he posted photos of himself smoking in bed with a woman. The scandal resulted in his suspension from the men’s team in October 2023.

“Does this mean HYBE is responsible for Seunghan’s past being exposed?” one Twitter commenter asked, quote Sports Kida.

Another netizen asserted: “Doesn’t this mean that HYBE is the reason why Seunghan’s photos are everywhere?”

as Sports Kida It is worth noting that the leaked documents do not provide any evidence that HYBE is involved in any way in the SM Entertainment artist scandal.

Min Hee Jin, NewJeans and the Bullying Investigation

Perhaps the bigger issue for HYBE is leaked documents related to an ongoing, very public conflict in which the K-pop institution has been embroiled for the past half year.

Last spring, HYBE announced doubts Heejin’s thoughtsHYBE sub-brand CEO i like itcovertly trying to separate the brand from its parent company. HYBE accused Min of working behind the scenes to wrest control of ADOR from HYBE, but Min denied the accusation. HYBE replaced Min as CEO amid ongoing controversy.

ADOR has a main force, a girl group new jeansdeveloped and produced by Min himself. According to Korean media reports, Min was angry about the behavior of another HYBE sub-brand, BeLift Lab, which she believed had developed a girl group, youNewJeans is explicitly copied.

The conflict between HYBE and Min is now the subject of criminal investigations and civil court proceedings.

In September, it was revealed that Min continued to receive support within HYBE, particularly from NewJeans members. In a now-deleted live broadcast on YouTube, NewJeans members accused some HYBE employees of passive-aggressive bullying over their loyalty to Min.

One of the NewJeans members, HanniTestifying at a recent National Assembly hearing on workplace bullying claimed that HYBE created an atmosphere in which NewJeans members felt they were hated – for example, one manager was heard telling employees to ignore and pretend not to notice when As they passed through the corridor.

The recent leak of documents has added fuel to the fire. The documents contained comments that some interpreted as HYBE’s desire to dispose of NewJeans, according to multiple news reports.

According to these reports, one of the documents mentions the term “New-ILL-LE,” referring to HYBE girl groups NewJeans, ILLIT and LE SSERFIM. (A bit like “Barbenmheimer” in K-pop.)

HYBE documents reportedly indicate that HYBE insiders were not happy with the term NewJeans joining.

One comment in the document said: “We’ve had some trouble using this terminology over the past few days…but we can get rid of the NewJeans and come up with a new phrase.” Malay Mail.

Naturally, this upset some NewJeans fans, and the comment may play a role in the ongoing legal battle between HYBE, Min, and NewJeans.

According to multiple news reports, an unidentified person not associated with HYBE, Min or NewJeans has submitted leaked documents to the Employment Ministry’s Seoul West District Office’s ongoing investigation into alleged bullying at NewJeans.

According to the unnamed complainant, the documents provide information on Kim Joo YoungReplaced ADOR Min Hee Jin as CEO.

Allegations of “chart manipulation”

There was another noteworthy development at last week’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee hearing that didn’t get nearly the same amount of news coverage but could still have a significant impact on HYBE – accusations that the K-pop company artificially inflated album sales swell.

according to korea timesRep. Min Hyung-bae accused the company of boosting first-week sales by selling records with return guarantees and incentivizing sales through fan signing events.

Min said the strategy boosted first-week sales by 70,000 to 200,000 vehicles.

However, HYBE’s Kim insists that this approach is rarely adopted and results in only negligible sales growth.

“We have never sold an album under these circumstances. An external audit found that less than a few percent of albums were sold under contracts that allowed returns. However, this volume was not large enough to disrupt the market or impact sales. korea herald.

Hybe will not use this sales tactic in the future, Kim said.

Nonetheless, according to news reports, the state-run Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) has launched an investigation to determine whether HYBE was involved in chart manipulation.

Final thoughts…

It might be easy to think legal The fallout from the leaked documents (alleged workplace harassment, alleged chart manipulation) may be HYBE’s bigger headache in all of this, and culture The impact (fans angered by comments perceived as disparaging) is secondary – but that may not be the case.

Angry fans can make the difference between a hit album and a flop. There’s a reason why companies like HYBE pay so much attention to fans’ online opinions. In the competitive world of K-pop, perception is everything.

For HYBE, the latest series of controversies comes at a bad time in a year already beset by conflict. The company has been expanding beyond K-pop into the U.S. and Latin American music markets over the past few years, and that may not be the end of its global ambitions.

Becoming a major global music player means building strong partnerships and a huge lineup. HYBE’s recent bad press has made both of these things even more difficult. Now, what HYBE needs more than a successful new K-pop is…some good news to shake things up.global music business