Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While the Bobby commenting on B.I stuff that recently went down was all over my timeline, something more important happened with the group about a week ago. The six members of iKON are now in possession of all the trademarks for the group, 13 of them, which basically truly marks their independence from YG Entertainment after their move to 143 Entertainment.
While Take Off wasn’t under YGE, it was done before the group had the rights to their name, but from now on everything seems to be going to them. All the IP is registered to Jay, Song, Bobby, DK, Ju-Ne, and Chan.
Congrats to them.
This is the latest in a positive trend in K-pop that provides hope that newer generation groups will be able to continue on if they choose. While Shinhwa was the pioneer in this regard literally decades ahead of their time, more recently the trend seemed to start with T-ara fighting for the rights to use their name, and it picked up steam after GOT7, as it then went to EXID and INFINITE (which I missed) and now iKON, all of which are promising changes to the status quo. Whether you like those groups or not, it’s a hopeful sign that artists are starting to retake some control, which we recently found out has companies and their government backers worried.
