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MUMBAI : Hello and welcome to this space where we discuss about everything K-Pop. In the world of K-Pop, we have a massive fandom of bands like BTS, Blackpink, ENHYPHEN, NewJeans, SEVENTEEN and some more. However, all of these bands are formed by entertainment companies and one of the major companies if HYBE.
Now it’s been a while since some controversies have been surrounding the HYBE and its subsidiary company ADOR. HYBE also owns Big Hit Music, Pledis Entertainment, Source Music and Belift Lab. When talking about controversy, the ADOR vs HYBE controversy is based on variety of reasons including control of ADOR, plagiarism, Harassment and Smear campaign.
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The public dispute has majorly affected K-pop band NewJeans which comes under ADOR. The effect over the group is severe and the future of the band is in question. Earlier, the controversy started to get major attention right after Min Hee Jin resigned from her position of CEO of ADOR. The matter isn’t over yet and there’s still a lot going on.
It all started after HYBE announced an investigation into ADOR and its then CEO Min Hee Jin. HYBE had claimed that Min is trying to take control over NewJeans. While the two companies fight it out in the court, the members of NewJeans – Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, concerned about the future of the band, then voiced out their opinion in a now-deleted livestream where they expressed their opinion of Min to be reinstated as ADOR’s CEO.
Earlier in an interview, Min mentioned about ‘controversy over plagiarism between subsidiaries’. Even the NewJeans creative director pointed out that shortly after HYBE’s latest girl group ILLIT which comes under BELIFT LABS, fans remarked on the group’s similarities to NewJeans, particularly its concept, styling and choreography.
In late April, HYBE reported Min to police ‘for breach of trust and other related allegations’. Reportedly, HYBE found evidence of detailed discussions of Min ordering ADOR management to find ways and pressure HYBE to sell ADOR shares. While these things were revealed in a statement by HYBE, on that same day later, Min had set up a press conference where she denied these allegations and even got teary eyed.
A week after that, BELIFT LABS had sued Min for defamation while the latter that BELIFT ‘copied all the formulas that we had with NewJeans’ in forming ILLIT. While this case is ongoing and pending, on May 30, a South Korean ruled in favour of Min Hee Jin and ordered that she can keep her role of CEO at ADOR. However, HYBE was not about giving up and said in statement that though they will acknowledge the ruling, they will pursue further legal action ‘within the legal framework at a later date.’
The next day, NewJeans had won an award for their single ‘How Sweet’ and when Minji and Danielle came on stage for giving a speech, they thanked Min Hee Jin saying, “We had a comeback after almost 10 months, Thanks to our CEO who helped us with our amazing comeback and always supports us.” This was the first time the girl band had publicly acknowledged the ongoing dispute. However, the matters didn’t end there for sure.
On June 11, BELIFT LABS filed another lawsuit against Min Hee Jin, holding her responsible for the damages suffered their artists due to plagiarism accusations. As this wasn’t enough, later, even Le SSERAFIM’s label Source Music filed a lawsuit against Min Hee Jin, joining BELIFT LABS, pursuing action against Min.
In July, Danielle, a new member of NewJeans, showed her support once again by addressing a handwritten letter to the ADOR CEO where she called Min her ‘mother and warrior’. She even thanked Min for her dedication towards the group. However, a big stroke came in late August when Min resigned from her position of CEO. Following this, on 4th September, it was reported that more than 1.4K fans signed a letter to HYBE ordering the reinstatement of Min as ADOR CEO.
After a little over a week, there was a video titled ‘What NewJeans Wanted To Say’. The video was deleted of course but in it, the five members of the group accused HYBE of having a toxic work environment around the group and demanded Min’s reinstatement. Minji also said that Min is irreplaceable.
More updates are awaited on the matter but this has surely divided the fan base and while there are many fans of NewJeans supporting Min Hee Jin, there are also other groups’ fans who are not so supportive of Min.
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