Hybe's Burn Book Culture
I was out with a few industry folks last week, celebrating the release of my friend Ilana Kaplan's book on Nora Ephron. A bunch of entertainment and music journalists were there, and someone who I had never met before heard that I covered K-pop for about a decade now.
"Are you a fan?" they asked. "I am," I said. "Wow, I've never met anyone who covers K-pop who is a fan before," they responded.
While that threw me off quite a bit, I did understand the sentiment: dealing with K-pop - the industry, the talent, the politics, the fans, etc. - you either have to really love it or really don't care about it to do it well. Especially during a news cycle like this, where it feels like it's impossible to simply enjoy something that stands for so much more than just entertainment: during an audit by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee of South Korea's National Assembly, it came out that Hybe had a regular "Weekly Music Industry Report" for executives. Based on a few excerpts that were revealed, it's a report that analyzes online discourse about K-pop, and is full of Sony email-style commentary about the industry, including frequent bodyshaming and exploring ways to take down competition.
Colloquially, it became rapidly known as the Hybe Leaks or Looks Report overnight, and Hybe's CEO has apologized for its content. In the meantime, fans have begun to do things like boycott the company and other artists and companies in Korea start to essentially mock it, such as Zerobaseone reclaiming terms from the report that had been used to belittle them. Even idols under Hybe, most notably Seungkwan of Seventeen, have spoken up about it.
But what is the "it" exactly that has caused such outrage? For some fans, it appears to simply be that there's a general sense of shock that Hybe a) does market research b) listens to online conversations. These are pretty common and I would assume every company in the industry, and really most companies on this planet, do that.
The "it" that is causing so much uproar is particularly the negativity of it all, as the documents that leaked (in part and not in full, which I think is important to acknowledge) are filled with outright commentary on how to ruin careers and take down competition. There's even some commentary that appears to demean some of Hybe's biggest acts, and a line that has been taken by many to mean that the company literally wanted to get rid of NewJeans.
I haven't seen the documents in full; nobody has outside of Hybe and the legislators, to my knowledge. So I, and I think you, should take everything with a grain of salt, since we're seeing only picked apart moments of the documents. But even with the bit of what we've seen, it's a bit frustrating to know just how much Hybe's internal discussions lean into the idea that yes, K-pop does actually not value its own talent. Dark side of K-pop? Found it sitting in a weekly report that allegedly was written by the journalist who previously was the editor-in-chief of Weverse Magazine and is the co-author of BTS's autobiography.
These reports were, at face value, observations about the industry that are based on news reports and gossip, and quickly turn shady and quite demeaning towards actual human beings. They are reports, and not actual corporate plans of action, which makes it feel that these are less about the actual business needs and goals of Hybe, and more the environment that Hybe, or at least the people who read these reports, exist in.
And this is a state of nastiness, full of lookism and sexism.
To be very, very clear, what we've seen so far these are intently picked commentaries from the weekly reports. I bet that there is a lot of other pretty simple observations based around what people online are saying in the report, and that's to be expected. What's not to be expected is a constant aura of dehumanizing the talent that the K-pop industry is not just focused on but profits off of. There are literal plans to take down stars across the industry, or reasons not to handle bad press of members from their own groups by feeding other members' to the online sharks. It gets pretty petty, such as highlighting how much taller and/or prettier Hybe talent is than other K-pop idols.
For a company whose claim to fame, and literal motto, is a love of music and authenticity, there is little of that currently apparent from the report. There's barely any mention of musical talent or skills, beyond scoffing at people (again, we don't have the full report). It feels pretty disillusioning beyond the normal feelings regarding K-pop's typical less than positive facets: this is putting into formal corporate documentation things that most people would share with group chats that are not on corporate servers or over drinks. It's the Burn Book of Mean Girls, Hybe edition.
To have anyone put these sort of opinions as we've seen from these excerpts in writing is just pretty disturbing across the board. They did audience listening in many different sorts of communities, which has raised some eyebrows over certain platforms, and seemed to generally be dismissive of women when writing the report.
You know it's bad a when your own executives, in this case Zico who heads Hybe subsidiary KOZ, have to distance themselves publicly from even having opened the emails of such reports.
The heart of the matter comes down to whether K-pop stars, whether under Hybe or not, are let alone valued but merely respected as human beings. The answer, seems to be "No", and that's what Seungkwan's post really seemed to hone in on:
"What I want to convey clearly is that we are not people who have been working so easily and smoothly that we can be judged lightly. We have experienced enough pain, fallen apart, and somehow overcome it, putting in tenacious effort to show our best on stage for our fans. I hope people don’t take idols lightly," he wrote. "You don’t have the right to easily intrude on our narrative. Not just us, but other artists as well, we are not your items. I hope you don’t think you can use and enjoy us as you please."
He also appeared to perhaps by defending one of the primary targets of the leaks, Haewon of NMIXX, who was mentioned potentially as being brought down due to reading feminist books, as he shared a letter from her that she had once written to him. "Your music in particular has had a significant impact on me," she had wrote, in a note he also posted. "It has been a source of motivation, empathy, memories, and also comfort at times."
And there lies my question to end all questions: this report focused on the "music industry" but there's very little mention of the music. I assume that's because the leaks were cherry picked, and there is some actual discussion of the music. I at least hope that is the case.
Hybe has successfully spent a lot of the year dealing with internal drama, and now it has created a lot of external drama. I'm kind of sick and tired of K-pop's mess in 2024, particularly the Hybe drama, so I can't imagine how tired the artists themselves are, with TXT now having to even sidestep the controversy during album launch showcases.
Tamar Herman
Related to all of this, I think a comment by Lee Seunggi during a recent episode of the competition show Starlight Boys emphasizes how little many in the industry, even a singer like Lee himself, consider K-pop idols as talented artists: "Everyone, didn't you come here to become K-pop idols? Not to become K-pop artists, but to become idols performing in front of fans" he asked, drawing the line between performers and artists in a demeaning way, after one idol hopeful spoke up against hours-long rehearsals with no breaks, and some competitors needing oxygen. The conditions of the competition show, and live performing in K-pop, are their own problems, but Lee demarcating that line between idol and artists hones in on perhaps the biggest issue in K-pop nowadays: the value of K-pop stars, how they're perceived, and how they're treated.
"Everyone, didn't you come here to become K-pop idols? Not to become K-pop artists, but to become idols performing in front of fans"
When the news of the Hybe docs first came out, I asked on Threads what they'd like me to address in this newsletter. The responses varied, but mostly were asking along the lines of "Does this matter? Is it rare, or an overall K-pop problem? Should we care?" so I want to address all of those to the best of my abilities, acknowledging this is a newsletter currently based on my personal perspective and not one of the editions where I've spoken to others in the industry, simply because I don't imagine anyone will talk about it right now. That said... if you work in the K-pop industry and want to chat to me anonymously ever about issues at various companies... I'm here. Tamarhermanwrites@gmail.com.
Does this matter? On the grand scale of things, it shouldn't, but it will likely lead to a cooling between other K-pop companies and Hybe, at least for things like artist dance challenges. Why collaborate if you 100% know it's going to result in a report where Hybe artists are going to be praised and your artists will be mocked?
Is it rare, or an overall K-pop problem? Like I said earlier, pretty much every company under the sun does competitive market reports and audience listening. The framing may be a K-pop problem, but all we know now for sure is that it's a Hybe problem.
Should we care? I think we should care as people who want humans to be treated better, and those humans happen to be K-pop idols, but I don't know really how much this will lead to changes in coming weeks or the farther future. Essentially it's just really good drama, and ahead of the US election drama it's been nice for something else to focus on, personally.
In the news:
Court dismisses former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin’s reinstatement bid amid HYBE leaked documents controversy, while Hybe pledges quick normalization of ADOR, progress in Min's producer contract
Thai K-pop fans’ online protest against Hybe intensifies for allegedly disparaging Lisa
Kakao founder released on bail 100 days after arrest over suspected stock manipulation while acquiring SM Entertainment
Pledis Entertainment, home of Seventeen, gets new general manager, which some people believe is related to the Hybe leaks but the timing may be coincidental
Lee Soo-man's Return to Music Industry Stirs Questions on Non-compete Agreement
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to invest $5 mn in S.Korea’s Musicow- "The US entertainment mogul’s company will rise to No. 2 shareholder of the Korean music copyright trading platform"
Stray Kids' US album sales surpass 1M
What I'm working on
For the Recording Academy, I took a look at how Yuta's Depth album reflects his entire career thus far. Due to a tight deadline, my holiday season, and his tour, we weren't able to get on the phone to discuss it as was the plan, but I hope everyone enjoys the album and this take on.
What I'm watching
I've actually been catching up on sitcoms and comedies, like Only Murders in the Building, Abbot Elementary, and What We Do In the Shadows. But I did also just binge Hellbound season 2 and Culinary Class Wars, the latter of which has so many of its own controversies I probably could write a newsletter about that.
I realized recently I haven't watched many K-dramas this year, but overall I think my favorite was The Atypical Family. The most ridiculous was, undoubtedly, Chicken Nugget.
What I'm listening to
Without fail, every year I do not keep track of what albums and songs I like throughout the year, which means I am in my annual November Re-Listen and Remember What I Liked From the year ahead of end-of-year list season. What's everyone's favorite K-pop releases? Please let me know in the comments.
