Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
You know it’s lean times in the HYBE/ADOR mess when it’s about the stuff in this post, but hey, updates are updates, right?
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Following the plagiarism allegations against NewJeans’ “Bubble Gum” from a few days ago, ADOR has released a comprehensive statement denying Shakatak‘s claims that it infringed on “Easier Said Than Done“.
Relevantly, they claim they already had professional analysis done on the song and provide details on the difference.
Even in the last post, people pointed out the differences, so I think they are mostly correct about the plagiarism stuff, much like many artists who are accused of it due to something sounding alike.
It doesn’t surprise me that NewJeans fans found soundalikes that existed prior … because a lot of the genre borrows similar sounds. It’s like … borderline muzak/elevator music, which is part of why I didn’t like “Bubble Gum”.
Claiming plagiarism over a rhythm that’s been used since 1977…@SHAKATAK_UK You failed to send in an analysis report for over a month to ADOR because you’re well aware that the chord progressions are completely different. The 'Easier Said Than Done' chord is Bb-Gm-Dm D C, & the… https://t.co/6NBaWnQAQh pic.twitter.com/9RmwwIpo8D
— nil 𝜗𝜚 (@newjiram) July 19, 2024
That said, the annoying thing about NewJeans fans is that they don’t realize the arguments they’re making now also applies to Min Hee Jin‘s whining about ILLIT and what not. It’s literally insane how they can’t understand this.
ADOR also basically claim HYBE hasn’t helped as much as they should … but like, what do you expect on that front? Not sure if that violates some kind of legal thing they could sue for, but that’s just fuck around and find out territory to me.
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Dispatch released another article about the formation of NewJeans (full article here), which I will try to summarize because I didn’t find it worth poring over.
The report says the debut evaluation of “N Team” (NewJeans) happened on March 27, 2001 with seven trainees with “Attention“. They say Source Music prepared the group since 2018, and as of May 19, 2020 they were in charge of management and choreo, Bang Si Hyuk had music, while Min Hee Jin joined on in 2019 and did branding. Source CEO So Sung Jin had the final say, then MHJ became CBO and accepted an offer to lead a girl group. Min Hee Jin wanted more authority, so on March 17, 2021 she became the sole leader, and June 7, 2021, she took over music and choreo.
The report says that as of March 2021, MHJ’s branding for “N Team” was never presented to Source and that caused clashes with Bang Si Hyuk. Dispatch theorizes that convos with her shaman were what influenced this, as she wanted her own label. Texts show that she kept delaying things, and Dispatch says she spent $30k on shaman consultations in that time, crediting the shaman with Bang Si Hyuk leaving the girl group alone to her. Eventually, she wanted her own company to be out from under Source’s decision-making tree, and planned to use investment money from the company to do it.
No real big deal so far, just jostling for internal power. Difficult to work with? Yeah, but I mean nobody with a brain at this point thinks Min Hee Jin was anything but.
Most importantly, the article restates claims that So Sung Jin and Source casted the NewJeans members, and had recruited 10 trainees from 2018-21. Source say they planned to debut “N Team” in third quarter of 2021 and “S Team” (LE SSERAFIM) in first quarter of 2022, but claim Min Hee Jin’s delays were what led to the debuts switching. Dispatch say the N Team was the first team and Min Hee Jin would lead the first girl group, but the delays led “S Team” to go first as Source claimed they couldn’t wait longer due to the popularity of the members.
They informed Min Hee Jin on June 9, 2021, and she went to talk to the shaman, asking if she should form her own label, which they eventually let her do in September 2021. The shaman also had a part in choosing the members. To give an idea, of the tone, here’s a snippet:
Min Hee Jin: Then how many should be in the group? Should I get rid of [redacted]? 6 members? [Redacted] is young and I’m not feeling her. A little punkish feeling.
Shaman “K”: 6 sounds good.
Min Hee Jin: Then I’ll remove [redacted] and anyway, So Sung Jin will probably put her in Sakura’s group. What do you think?
Shaman “K”: You’re right. You’re helping So Sung Jin with this and that. He’s such a dumb “father.”
Min Hee Jin: LOL
Min Hee Jin: [Picture] Do you agree with getting rid of her?
Shaman “K”: I totally agree.
Min Hee Jin: [Picture]
Shaman “K”: She looks like a total fool. Her eyes look like she has a second soul.
Min Hee Jin: Is she possessed by a ghost?
Shaman “K”: Totally. It’s dark under her eyes and she looks like she is completely out of it.
Min Hee Jin: She is eliminated, confirmed.
Shaman “K”: Confirmed.
Min Hee Jin: What about Danielle? She’s from America. Do you see anything? (I haven’t met her.)
Shaman “K”: I don’t know her mind.
Min Hee Jin: Will she cause trouble?
Shaman “K”: It will be good for you when they enter the USA because of her.
Legally speaking, I’m not sure of the use of this or whether it’s even all that notable, but my god I would be beside myself if the gap between being rich as a teenager or not was because some fucking shaman thought I had bad vibes. Yes, I know cuts are made all the time, but this feels like a particularly cruel way to find out.
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In response, ADOR has denied the report with a broad statement.
In response to the reports, CEO Min Hee Jin relayed to YTN that the report is “false information” and that she will be taking legal action.
They always say this but never actually take legal action, so who knows. Probably another rambling statement and/or press conference to put me in Hell.
Update
They released a detailed rebuttal to this as well, calling the allegations false and illegally leaked.
Dispatch cited KakaoTalk chats between Min and a shaman she had been consulting, which not only goes against the contract between a company and its employee but is “a grave crime,” according to Min’s legal attorney Shin & Kim LLC.
“The content of the report — the record of internal meetings and personal KakaoTalk chats — cannot be accessed without the help of HYBE and Source Music,” the law firm said in a press release.
They also say that the claim of Min Hee Jin delaying the debut of NewJeans is false. Rather they claim that in March 2020, Big Hit marketing proposed a launch strategy for “N Team”, but Min Hee Jin disagreed as creative director. In May 2020, she presented her own launch strategy, but Bang Si Hyuk thought it was too radical and she should do it at her own agency instead.
In August 2020, she claims Source’s plan copied the strategy of Min Hee Jin from May 2020, which led to a complaint from Min Hee Jin to So Sung Jin and Source, which the latter didn’t deny. They claim the concept and message of the group changed to mimic her own, which is probably the closest that ADOR and Min Hee Jin have gotten to providing evidence (via internal planning) that this plagiarism existed.
An e-mail from July 2021 was provided as proof this happened, and ADOR says they didn’t get a response. They go on to say they could provide more evidence from internal communications but don’t find it appropriate to expose it to the public.
Update Again
Source has replied denying Min Hee Jin’s version of events.
1. Min Hee Jin’s claim that Source Music copied her launch strategy is false. Source Music has never copied then-CBO [Chief Brand Officer] Min Hee Jin’s launch strategy and has never acknowledged the content of CBO Min’s complaint.
2. Chairman Bang Si Hyuk’s opinion about the launch strategy that then-CBO Min Hee Jin proposed in May 2020 was that she carry out her proposed strategy not with N Team [the project name for the girl group that eventually became NewJeans], but with an entirely new team formed at the label established by CBO Min. Even though CEO Min is well aware of the discussion from that time, she is distorting the truth to make it seem as if Chairman Bang suggested that she carry out her launch strategy through N Team.
They also said they’re going to file another lawsuit.
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Gonna be honest here, I resent Dispatch for making me read and parse through that — the whole time thinking there was a bombshell coming — only for it to basically be stuff from the start of this restated. Yes, we know Min Hee Jin is difficult to work with and is an weird egomaniac, but materially there wasn’t much that we didn’t know revealed here. Realistically, it mostly comes down to seeing who wins in court to find out the truth.
It appears the main thing this aims to argue through evidence is that Min Hee Jin was responsible for the delay of NewJeans’ debut, and that it wasn’t HYBE or Source’s fault that LE SSERFIM debuted first. Is what they showed enough to prove such in court? I dunno, and none of us probably do. But even though I don’t really care about that aspect of this drama, legally it might be relevant to the defamation lawsuit Source recently filed. Amusingly, the main contention isn’t damage to LE SSERAFIM — which is what fans seem more interested in litigating — but rather it’s centered on Min Hee Jin’s claims about the group order/formation. Thus, this could indeed be important to winning the defamation case and thus showing Min Hee Jin caused damaged to HYBE, which could then be used to get her out of ADOR. So it’s all rather boring stuff, but that’s the real relevance, IMO.
And obviously I don’t care much about the plagiarism stuff, I just hope that as funny as it is for Min Hee Jin to need to deal with this, it doesn’t become a thing in the industry or K-pop at large could honestly be walking on eggshells with how many soundalikes and trends they ride. Though at least Min Hee Jin’s side provided some better basis for copying her ideas, though I’m skeptical that’s enough given how general it is.
