On April 14, 2024, a hot-takes post went viral on online community Nate Pann. With over 111,000 views in just a night, OP voiced their opinion that “HYBE was ruining K-Pop.” In the past, K-Pop was known for its stringent quality. Only the cream of the crop made it to debut, with years of training under their belt. Up to the 3rd generation, it was uncommon for trainees to debut with less than a year of training.
Slowly, this tradition began to crumble, with companies such as HYBE pushing out trainees for debut with just a few months of training. Famously, ILLIT’s Wonhee made her appearance on R U Next? with just a few weeks of training. She was soon selected for debut. Similarly, LE SSERAFIM’s Kazuha debuted with around half a year of training only. OP feels that while the traditional “Big 3” companies SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and YG Entertainment slowly send their trainees out for debut over a period of time, HYBE merely “pushes out kids with lacking skills for mass production, while media playing that they are BTS’s dongsaeng groups.” They see this as the start of K-Pop’s ruin.
OP’s post. | Nate Pann
OP further points out that HYBE’s company fans make this worst, by being okay with this, shielding idols that are lacking in skills, defending subpar performances as good. The post has attracted over 1523 upvotes, an overwhelming amount for a community post. Other netizens have demonstrated their agreement.
Comments by netizens. | Nate Pann At least the other companies don’t debut goats. The way they gas up music streams is so real. Looking at music charts, it feels like I’m looking at faceless singers, or Instagram stars. Even if the Big 3 fought like f*ck back then, they still keep the line. Now, it’s all just payola. Such a bubble. TBH, OP didn’t lie. Skills is one thing, but HYBE has just become the root of evil against K-Pop. Starting from the prices of concerts, all the discomfiting tactics have all started from them. Does it seem like this only affects fans? It affects stocks too. That’s why you can’t let entertainment companies be commercialized. They do media play so much, and all the middle-aged dogs with stocks shield them so much. SM Entertainment was really good at this, and it seems like it’s HYBE now. Apart from all the idols they took over (SEVENTEEN, fromis_9, etc), all of the idols they have produced themselves, are not at the level of singers if you listen to their live singing… Including BTS.
Such discussions have been fuelled by the recent news that HYBE has become a conglomerate. They are the first entertainment company to do so. Apart from that, LE SSERAFIM’s recent performance at Coachella has also drawn severe criticism, leading to many turning on the company as a whole.
