Who’s got the power? K-pop stars, their label, or their fans?
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If you're a K-pop star, you've got adoring fans, a world stage and the dream job where you get to dance, sing, act and model. But your life is also tightly controlled. Every tiny decision you make is micromanaged. Romantic relationships are highly scrutinised or they have to be kept secret. And of course, there is the gruelling training regime to achieve perfection and nothing less.

It's kind of accepted that this is the price you pay to be a K-pop idol. But one group, New Jeans, has said that it now wants to quit its agency. That's because of several different issues, including an allegation that one of its members was harassed in the workplace. So today, we're going to be talking about the influence that K-pop agencies and fans have over the idols themselves. I'm Hannah Gelbart, and this is What In The World from the BBC World Service. ♪

Let's find out more about this now from Fan Wang, the BBC's reporter in Singapore. Hello. Hi, Hannah. So before we get into this, for people who are a bit less familiar with New Jeans, can you give us a quick reminder of who they are? Sure. New Jeans is this girl group consists of five members. They are Danielle, Haren, Hani, Haiyin and Minji. The group of New Jeans were put together between 2019 and 2022 by a door.

The leader of Adore, Min Heejin, was also widely seen as the mentor of the group. They made their official debut in 2022, and their debut single, Attention, was an immediate hit. They were not just popular in South Korea, but they were also popular around the world. Last year, they scored five hits on the U.S. chart and became the eighth biggest-selling act in the world.

And also at this year's MTV Awards, they were nominated for the best group category. So I guess most of the people listening to this will have heard some of their hits. And you mentioned Adore, that's their agency. Last week, they announced that they are leaving Adore as a subsidiary of the label Hype. What happened there?

Yes. So in the late night press conference, the five members of this girl group have announced that they are leaving a door. They accused the agency of mistreating them and manipulating them. And they argued that was their reason to terminate the contract.

But actually, this is just the latest development of a very long-running conflict between two sides. On one side is New Jeans and their mentor, Min Heejin, who I just mentioned. She was the CEO of Adore until several months ago. And on the other side is HYBE, the parent company of Adore. And HYBE is also a very powerful entertainment company in South Korea. It is the largest music firm there and also represents...

Super bands like BTS and Seventeen. Can you go into a bit more detail about what the specific allegations are? Sure. This is where we're getting a little bit into the complicated area, so bear with me. There are multiple different allegations made by different parties. So the allegations made by New Jeans

or that they were ignored by Adore after Ming left the company, and also they were disrespected. And Hani, one of their members, mentioned in the press conference that they feel like the company has no intention to protect them and will only do them harm.

So Hani, who also testified in front of South Korean lawmakers in October about a workplace harassment allegation, she had raised several examples of how they were mistreated, basically, by HYBE and ADORE. In one of them, she said employees of HYBE had badmouthed the group on one of the internal communication apps.

And she also mentioned this example when Hype asked a journalist to downplay New Jeans' record sales in one of the articles. So she thinks these examples showed that Hype had no intention to really develop them. And she actually said she thinks the company hated them. ♪

Adore hasn't specifically addressed the allegations that New Jeans made in their press conference, but it has said that it had not violated the terms of the contract with the band, adding that it respectfully requests that the group continue its collaboration with Adore on upcoming activities. And it said, despite multiple requests for meetings with the artists, our efforts have not been successful. We hope the members will now be willing to engage in an open and candid discussion.

So it's now in a legal dispute with New Jeans over that contract, which is due to run out in 2029. And it includes a clause that specifies that parties can unilaterally terminate the contract if the other has violated its duty.

Adore said it filed a lawsuit on the 5th of December to get confirmation that the contract with the band is still valid. New Jeans responded, again saying that they're no longer affiliated with Adore but that they have been carrying out their agreed duties. But here is the big question. Could New Jeans keep their music and their name if they were to leave? Mark Savage is the BBC's music correspondent.

In a press conference last week, the five members of New Jeans said they would fight to keep their name and would remain New Jeans at heart, even if they lost that fight. The band argue that their contract with the entertainment company HYBE is void. They claim the company failed to meet their needs or to consider a list of demands, including the request for an apology when another band were instructed to snub them. As a result, they say HYBE lost the right to represent them as artists.

It's not the first time a K-pop band has tried to do this. The popular groups TVXQ and 50/50 both took their labels to court with mixed results, and both have seen their line-ups change as a result of that legal action. The biggest problem facing New Jeans is that their case could take two or three years to settle if it goes to trial, and during that time they're unlikely to be able to record or promote new music.

If the court finds that Hybe was at fault, the band members will be able to walk away and might even get to keep the band name. But if the decision goes against them, they could face a financial penalty for leaving their contract early. And experts say that fee could be as much as $440 million. ♪

Fans around the world are concerned about what this might mean for new jeans. Argus, who is from Australia, sent us this voice note: But it is a massive shame that it's gone so south for one of the biggest names in K-pop in recent years.

And it really does highlight the ethics behind signing artists onto a contract at such a young age, where most of them are still minors and they're potentially impressionable and naive to the industry, which kind of makes them open to manipulation from those in power.

Fan, let's zoom out on this for a minute because this is not the first time that a K-pop group has been in conflict with its record label. I mean, labels in South Korea are known for being really, really strict. They try to control the image of their stars, things like who they date, what they look like. I mean, do you remember last year when Jisoo from Blackpink went public with her relationship? It was a massive story. Why is there such control in this industry?

Yes, it has been a long existing issue. I think there is strong control not just in K-pop, but also generally in South Korea. It's a very hierarchical society. So at every company, employees are supposed to obey the employers and they're supposed to obey their managers. So this kind of

power relationship exists widely in South Korea. But also in K-pop specifically, it's such a huge industry. It's a multi-billion dollar business right now. And agency would want their artists to have this perfect image for their fans. And there is also a very strong super fan culture. So agency really want to make sure that the artist's

are being well managed and they don't go too far because once they lose that control and lose that image, then there would be a risk of money leaving them. As you say, it's not just the record labels that have power over idols' actions. The fans have a lot of sway too. So I want to talk to you about another K-pop group now,

One of its members, Seung Geun, recently left that group. What happened there? Yes. So Seung Geun, who debuted as a member of Rise last year, he went on an indefinite hiatus right after the debut, actually. It comes after a leak happened.

of several controversial videos and photos from his days prior to the group activities. So when he was a trainee, there were photos of him kissing another woman in the bed and smoking a cigarette. And to a lot of K-pop fans, this would be seen as very inappropriate. So there was a

immediately backlash fans asking him to leave the group and then SM the entertainment agency put him on a hiatus and then but 10 months later they announced that he will return to the group which again

again, sparked another backlash. And recently they announced that he will leave the group and pursue the career as a solo artist. You said that fans were asking that he leave the group. And fans actually had very different reactions to this. The ones from within South Korea and the international ones, right? Yes. It's hard to tell these days which fans did what, whether it's Korean fans did this or overseas Korean fans did this. But we can say that

You know, on Instagram, where more English-speaking fans follow them, you can see there was more support and rallying behind Seung-hyun. And whereas in South Korea, there had been incidents of fans sending messages behind

to the audience and also to the agency. So, yeah. And on TikTok, there were these videos of fans or anti-fans even laying black funeral wreaths outside the SM Entertainment building. What was that about? Yeah, so that is a new way of...

of fans protesting the agency's decision, basically. Funeral raves apparently is something that is very unlucky and usually seen as a way of expressing their discontent. So yeah, when the backlash happened, I think some fans were very unhappy.

with what happened. And there were rants with messages like, you know, accusing him of being a freeloaders and asked him to basically be gone. These messages were apparently heard by SM Entertainment. Funeral wreaths to me just mean one thing. You're dead to me. It is quite a strong message to send. Has SM Entertainment commented on this at all?

So as I mentioned before, they put him on hiatus and then said he will return as a member of the group. But then because of the new backlash, they recently have just announced that he is preparing for a solo debut, which will likely happen next year. And as Entertainment also said, Seunghan is receiving comprehensive support for training, production and management to ensure a successful debut.

So Fan, do you think these very public disputes between bands like New Jeans and Rise and their labels, do you think they will lead to better protections and working conditions for K-pop stars? There has always been discussions when something like this happens. And I do think slowly the industry is progressing. But it's hard to say at this point, I guess, because...

It's hard to say what's going to happen to New Jeans and whether Sin Han's solo debut will be successful. I guess people will watch them and see how it goes. If things turn out to work well for these artists who have been in trouble, then maybe this will give...

a positive signal to those people who want more say for artists. But if things go badly for them, then I think maybe it will be a message that maintaining status quo is the best. So it's really hard to say. Fan, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Thank you for having me.

Now let's find out more about this from Julie Yoon Yong Lee, who is our resident K-pop expert and a fan herself, of course. Hi, Julie. Hello. Hi. So how much influence do fans have over industry decisions? So basically, you know, all this fan community, fan base are the key driving force when it comes to K-pop industry. And so we're going to talk a little bit about that.

They are one of the key factors of the success of certain idols. What they do is that they are buying their albums in bulk to support them. And also they promote their album on social medias. Sometimes they push their songs, you know, to the top global chart as well. So nowadays we see fans as like kind of some kind of stakeholder rather than just a supporter for the idols. I mean, BTS' fan group is called The I-DLE.

army that has like a slightly aggressive feel to it as well

It is because basically the fans believe that they are destined in this whole kind of success of their idols, especially when they become their fans when they are as a trainee. We believe that we actually grow together and we really need to support our favorite idols to the top. So that's why we believe that we try to do everything that we can do to make them successful.

So the fans are there as a support network, but they're also there, as you say, stakeholders, people who have like a big say in all this and people who rally together, especially on social media and get their voices heard. How does that impact the idols themselves? So

So I think this whole strong fan community is kind of double-edged sword because it's a positive factor and negative factor as well. And the positive side, obviously, they're great fan. Like they're going to do anything for their idol. They can also care about important social issues like treatment of their idols that they can actually lobby.

the agency to better treat our idols and stuff, which is really great. But on the other side, it can be very invasive for some idols because they try to meddle with a lot of different issues, even in some private life and stuff.

So fans can actually influence the decisions that these agencies make for the stars? Yes, of course. So because agencies believe that the power of the super fans are really important in their industry, in their revenue, because all the activities of the fan community is doing is a big

part of their revenue. So that's why whenever they decide some important decision on this idol, they also listen to what the whole local fan thinks about the whole decision. So that's kind of really important in the industry now. Now, Julie, while I've still got you in the studio, I want to mention some of the other episodes because you are a regular guest on What's in the World. And earlier this week, we talked about something else, something huge that's been happening in South Korea when the president temporarily declared martial law.

Yes, so the martial law only lasted like a six hour, but I'm still in shock. We're still figuring out what is happening at the moment. And we've also talked to you about the Sunung, which is possibly the most stressful exam in the world. I spent so much difficult time preparing that exam for my entire teenager time. So it's still very traumatic. Even thinking of it is kind of really difficult to me. And that's something that all Korean teenagers go through to get into university.

And if you want to listen to those episodes with Julie, you can find them wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Thank you for coming into the studio, Julie. Thank you for having me. And thank you for joining us for this episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbart and I'll see you next time. Bye.

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