A new remark from the CEO of NewJeans’ agency, Min Hee Jin, is drawing controversial reactions from netizens.
In 2022, Kpop welcomes a new wind in the name of NewJeans, a girl group that fully embraces the nostalgic Y2K trend, and boasts unique concepts as well as music. In addition, NewJeans is formed by Min Hee Jin, who used to be known as a “creativity bank” under SM Entertainment, before moving to HYBE Labels, establishing the subsidiary agency ADOR, and putting her full effort into NewJeans.
The success of NewJeans can be attributed to various elements, including the creative direction of Min Hee Jin and the fact that they are a HYBE artist. However, Min Hee Jin recently refuted completely the involvement of HYBE in NewJeans’ current recognition, leading to controversial opinions from the public.
In particular, Min Hee Jin recently appeared in an interview, where she discussed the success of NewJeans. Here, the CEO stressed that her first priorities were “independence of creation” and “non-interference”, that HYBE’s budget was not different to other companies, and implied that she’s the one to create NewJeans, no thanks to HYBE.
“People easily attributed NewJeans’ success to “HYBE capital”, but it’s an expression that I personally don’t agree with”, Min Hee Jin said, adding, “After the investment is decided and the investment is completed, the actual detailed label management strategy is at the discretion of my label, unrelated to HYBE, and I received an investment proposal of a similar size in addition to HYBE at the time. At the time, I had a variety of options, and no matter where I invested, the provisions of ‘independence of creation’ and ‘non-interference’ would have been my first priority, so there was no specific reason for me to choose HYBE.”
On the other hand, many netizens believe otherwise, and criticized Min Hee Jin for completely ignoring the contribution of HYBE. Should NewJeans not debut under a company as large as HYBE, which formed the globally-famous BTS, the group will simply not gain as much attention, they said. At the same time, many people speculated that Min Hee Jin decided to join HYBE on this basis and in full knowing that NewJeans will steal the spotlight for being a new HYBE artist.
Of course, there are still many others that defend Min Hee Jin, saying that the CEO was simply talking about her efforts in the creative direction of NewJeans, not refuting the contributions of HYBE.
Netizens’ comments:
- The same investment, the same invitation, why did you choose HYBE? Because HYBE has BTS, HYBE has money, has a lineup of producers and is a company comparable to SM, YG and JYP, not any other company.
- If NewJeans’ MVs weren’t uploaded on HYBE LABEL, no one would care about them.
- If they didn’t have marketing expenses from HYBE, NewJeans wouldn’t have been as successful as it is now
- She said the strategy was entirely up to her and she didn’t let HYBE interfere. Then I will understand in the sense that she still chooses to follow the concept she outlined and will protect it even if HYBE opposes it. It was clear in the interview that there was no point in Heejin denying the company’s efforts.
