K-controversy corner

K-pop, Korean pop, has developed a much bigger fan base throughout the years. With groups such as Blackpink and BTS, both being the most famous groups worldwide. But there is more to K-pop than just them two. All groups and bands are a part of Labels. The most famous labels, also known as the “Big 4”, in K-pop are: Hybe Labels, YG Entertaiment, JYP Entertainment and SM Entertainment. As many of you might know, the song Gangnam Style by , was one of the many music videos to hit over a billion views. But, behind all wonders are dark controversies and secrets that most don’t know about. Here in the K-Controversies area we will discuss about all the controversies, the newest comebacks, the unexpected and more.

Firstly, comebacks. This was one hell of a year. Comebacks are coming in every from corner. Some say 2022 was one of the best years of K-pop with all these comebacks. With the most anticipated comeback being Blackpink’s ‘Born Pink’ Album. Blinks have been waiting for about 2 years for their queens to finally come back. And after the release of the Born Pink Album and the ‘Light up the sky’ world tour, Blinks have been blessed. But, with positive remarks also come negative ones. Some Blinks were found to be disappointed by their pre-release, Pink Venom mentioning it as “an unexpected disappointment”. Saying that, Blackpink wasn’t stepping out of its comfort zone enough. Also vocalising their opinion, that this was not “2-year waiting” worthy. Not soon after when, Blackpink had finally released their title track of the album, “Shut Down”, leaving everyone speechless. This title track was an unexpected glory to all with its backing track mainly being a sample of the classical masterpiece, “La Campanella” by Paganini, a.k.a, the devil’s violinist. Even with this success, there are people still sticking with the fact that this comeback was still not “wait worthy”. That group of people still don’t overpower the success of Blackpink and their music.

Now, NMIXX, One of the biggest controversies of the K-pop world due to their creation of “Mixxpop”. Mixxpop is a new genre created by Nmixx, where the MIXX two different genres together in one song, to give it uniqueness compared to the rest. Nmixx, a group, under JYP entertainment, debuting in January of 2022 with the most controversial song of the year, “O.O”. Sounding like 2 completely different songs, one dark and ominous, and the other bright, majestic and joyous. Many say that the 2 bits don’t go well at all, and the “transition” to the new genre was too drastic and abrupt. Most preferred the brighter and happier section of the song, than the ominous, dark one. At the time (and continuing), there are 2 types of people, ones that enjoyed the song, and the others who loathed it. People were extremely disappointed, because Nmixx are some of the best vocalists in K-pop today. Also being very talented and gifted in all qualities needed: singing, rapping, dancing, stage presence and visuals. Nmixx came back this year, 2022, with their new title track “DICE". Making more netizens pleased compared to before their debut. This being as, this time, the Mixxpop element wasn’t abrupt and too drastic of a difference; it also had a “warning” of when it would come: “NMIXX, change up, let's go”. With this we do hope in the future NMIXX’s new career takes flight to the destination of success.

ITZY. Since their debut in 2019, with “Dalla Dalla”, also being their most iconic song, with 9 music show wins within only 2 weeks of promotion, ITZY is no stranger to the K-pop industry. They have been releasing bops after bops ever since. With songs like “Wannabe” and “Icy” having an empowering self-love message encrypted within them. This group was destined to be successful. However, what might have been their downfall, had arrived. In July of 2022, ITZY was announced to have a comeback with an album titled “CHECKMATE”. From all the teasers provided by the company, we received a quite classy, royal and mature feeling, suiting the album title and the concept. Everyone was anticipating this to be the peak of ITZY’s career. This thought occurred as everything ITZY had released previously were such a success, that since this is a rare concept this would take over and be marked as K-pop history. But, once the teaser for the MV came out, all went south. Firstly, the fact that the song was named “Sneakers”, already made fans sceptical, as in what world would sneakers and royalty connect with each other? But they went with it. To add to that fact, the song sounded like absolutely nothing compared to what fans expected, in a bad way. It was very upbeat, obnoxious, and as people called it, "childish”. There were 2 versions of the album cover, one quite elegant and classy, the other being messy and intense. The second version stood out in all bad ways possible, like a stick in mud. Due to all the drastic changes at the last second, fans seemed to be very underwhelmed for the comeback. The song itself, was described by netizens as ‘one of their worst title tracks produced’.

IVE, a six-member girl group debuting under Starship Entertainment on December 1st of 2021, rocked the K-pop industry with their blockbuster debut song, ‘Eleven’. Making people say, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. THE SONG makes me feel like 11”. Having 34 wins overall (‘Eleven’ having 13 of them), as of September 2022, makes them one of the most successful 4th generation rookie girl groups, under Everglow and NewJeans. It is especially surprising that with such young age comes amazing talent, with their youngest member being at the age of 15. They are known as being one of the “Monster Rookies” as their 3rd latest comeback, After LIKE, also known for its amazing use of the “I will survive” sample, becomes their third and fastest music video to surpass 100 million views on YouTube. This group contains two former members (Wonyoung and Yujin) of IZ*ONE, a very successful group which sadly had disbanded in April of 2021. During these eras for the group there has been one certain member people have been picking on, Wonyoung. Haters describing her as a “pick me” girl, saying that she gets the “best outfits”, she mistreats her members, she is disrespectful, etc. People have been hating on her like this, since the beginning of their debut. For example, in one of their live stages she received a long skirt instead of trousers, from her stylist, and haters were commenting that “She is stealing the other members spotlight”, but when the others were given an outfit that didn’t fit the overall style, people appreciated it, “You go girl, shine like the beauty you are”. People have been calling her “an attention seeking brat” as she eats food with both her hands. Now, how unreasonable is this? Currently Wonyoung has been an MC for Music Bank along with, her partner, Sunghoon from Enhypen. People have been complaining about why she must interact so much, saying that it’s just so she can get the boys. When it’s her job to interact with other K-pop groups and idols, interviewing them as a normal host does. Hopefully, this irresponsible hating on Wonyoung will come to an end soon.

LE SSERAFIM. Despite debuting only a few months ago, May 2nd of 2022, LE SSERAFIM are already a hot topic among fans (and non-fans), but not because of their flawless discography, but mainly because of one of their members, Kim Garam. It all started before the group’s debut. HYBE Labels was unveiling the members of LE SSERAFIM, one by one by releasing short 20-30 second videos, when Garam was announced as a member of HYBE’s newest girl group, an anonymous online participant (supposedly her ex-classmate, thought by others), claimed that Garam had mistreated students in her school and had been a bully. Leading to rumours that she was supposedly going to debut with IVE, but Starship Entertainment, had removed her from the line-up due to that reason. Although Source music, (LE SSERAFIM’s company, under HYBE Labels) had denied all the accusations also including that Garam had been a victim of bullying herself, they shut down all the rumours about her debuting in IVE. Despite that, netizens still hated on Garam, and continued to, by calling her all sorts of horrible names, posting hate comments, and doing everything to ruin the girl’s career. The hate went out of control, to the point where people would start telling the company to kick Garam out of LE SSERAFIM, since “she would ruin their reputation”. Many of her other classmates also posted some of their experience online, about how Garam had bullied them. People started sending all evidence to HYBE Labels so that they investigate the case. The company then took matters into their own hands and decided to put Garam on hiatus, while they started to clear things up. Leading to LE SSERAFIM promoting as a group without her. On July 20th, Hybe Labels took an unexpected turn, by kicking Garam out of the group. Finally pleasing netizens. Many claimed that LE SSERAFIM has better chances now. You might think that Garam being kicked out of LE SSERAFIM was for the better, but a couple of weeks after, HYBE Labels had posted an announcement saying that Garam was innocent. “My dream has only lasted for two weeks, but I will forever be grateful, thank you to all those that have supported me during that time.” were some of the last words Garam had said regarding this situation. It all ended badly for Garam. But for what reason?

NewJeans, on the 1st of August 2022, was the newest added girl group to HYBE Labels’, Ador Entertainment. They're 3 pre-debut releases blew up intensely, making them massively popular both in South Korea, and internationally. Their songs, “Hype Boy” and “Attention” have done especially well, because of the nostalgic mood created by the 2000s inspired tracks. But their actual debut, “Cookie”, caused a lot of disputes, due to the implicit meaning behind the song's lyrics. As for their ages, this caused an even bigger issue of this, as the youngest member was an incredibly young minor, at the age of 14. Before we get onto what people thought the meaning was, let’s talk about what the initial meaning was meant to be. The initial meaning behind their debut song, “Cookie” was supposed to be that the cookies that they are making are their songs + albums, so once they have released them, it meant that the cookies were done baking and have turned into CDs, they also tried to emphasise this through the music video. As at the beginning there was a CGI cookie rolling across the screen then at the end it turned into a CD. After it was done “baking” they are feeding the cookies to their fans to show them the impeccable quality, meaning they are trying to provide their fans with their best of the best music. But the lyrics of their debut song weren’t able to send the message they were trying to convey. As people thought otherwise. People sexualised the lyrics, and this thought blew up on the internet, this got even worse because of the members ages as most of them were minors. NewJeans are now not known for having a successful debut but for worse reasons which also links to a past situation with SM Entertainment. For the same reason people didn’t like “Step Back” by GOT the beat. People said Ador set this up on purpose, but this hasn’t been proven yet.

Controversies. Scandals in K-pop, there are many. Too many to count. If you are just a daily K-pop listener, you might know them, or you wouldn’t care less. It depends on the person. But, as of now, we have seen many female scandals. There are male controversies and scandals, but not as many. Most people compliment males for what females might get criticised for. Such as taking in Wonyoung’s case, Male K-pop idols have done the same deeds such as acting cute or friendly with others, but they were praised for this gesture. While jealousy and nuisance go to people’s heads when it’s Wonyoung, suggesting that she is “doing it to get men”. K-pop might be a great genre of music, but most of the fan bases and listeners are toxic. We need someone to knock them into their senses and tell them to stop overthinking and start treating all idols equally.