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NewJeans get down to some classic pop group hijinks in the new video for their effervescent single “Bubble Gum.” The K-pop girl group comprised of members MINJI, HANNI, DANIELLE, HAERIN and HYEIN put together a perfectly manicured fun weekend hang in the clip directed by Youngeum Lee that dropped on Friday (April 26).
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In the latest preview from the quintet’s upcoming double single album How Sweet — a two-track offering due out on May 24 featuring “Bubble Gum” and the title song — fans get to see the women relaxing for the camera while engaging in the time-honored tradition of making a band seem more like a high school clique of besties than a K-pop juggernaut.
The action begins in a van, naturally, where the women blow bubble gum bubbles and weave friendship bracelets as the summery, hang-loose track builds. The rest is a montage of the five playing marbles in their apartment, where they make balloon animals and play with soap bubbles, eventually making their way to the beach for some more bubble blowing, wave frolicking and, yes, even more bubble action via bubble guns.
It’s a lot of bubbles, to be honest.
The trip ends with them packing back into the van, grooving along to the song’s laid-back beat and then running through the night with flashlights while, of course, blowing bubbles.
The two-song follow-up to NewJeans’ Jan. 2023 single album, OMG, will be followed by another single album on June 21, Supernatural, which will mark the band’s official debut in Japan; that one will feature the title track along with “Right Now” and two instrumental tracks.
To celebrate their Japanese debut, the group will host a two-day fanmeet concert, on June 26-27.
Watch the “Bubble Gum” video below.
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“I had my own vision for what I wanted to hear in K-pop,” says Paul Thompson, an Italian American who 11 years ago moved to South Korea from California to teach English, but has since become better known as chart-topping K-pop producer MCMZ and founder of MCMZ Inc., an entertainment group based in Seoul. “I knew no other company was 100% going to let me do the vision I had. It was time for me to try to evolve K-pop.”
Enter VVS, Thompson’s newly formed group eyeing October for its official debut, and with four albums already mapped out. Embodying his love for The Neptunes, Timbaland co-producer Danja and singer-songwriter-producer Ryan Leslie, Thompson created a streamlined sound for the new act, which is named after the diamond category of the same name. “I would say we’re mashing up Ariana [Grande’s] ‘POV’ and Nicki Minaj,” says Thompson, who calls the members of VVS “the right five to push K-pop forward.”
With one Japanese and four Korean members, VVS comprises Brittney (20, the group’s leader and English speaker), Ilee (19, a rapper inspired by Blackpink’s Jennie), Rana (18, the main dancer who is musically influenced by Lauryn Hill), Jiu (15, the main vocalist who looks up to K-pop powerhouse Taeyeon) and Liwon (15, a vocalist who admires fellow teen singer Kiana).
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For now, the quintet has daily rehearsals, vocal and rap lessons, and group workouts. As their debut looms closer, the members will move into a shared living space and add media training and language lessons as part of K-pop’s famous trainee system. But unlike other trainees, the members of VVS will have had what Brittney and the girls call “culture classes” to dig into the roots of R&B and hip-hop.
“From the cultural beginnings to today where female rappers are able to perform onstage with such confidence, the fact that we are able to learn about the history of the OGs is really meaningful,” Ilee says through a translator. “We learned about female rappers at the start of the hip-hop industry, like Lil’ Kim, who influences me because she’s very confident.”
Brittney
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Ilee
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Meanwhile, Brittney — who nearly abandoned her K-pop dreams after time training in two different agencies before joining MCMZ — pulls inspiration from an act closer to home. “BTS came from a small company,” she says. “We come from a small company, too, so I think there’s a lot that we can learn from them. They’re very hard workers, they put all their effort into their job, and when they perform onstage, they’re 100%. I think their teamwork is amazing, so I tell my girls about them, too.”
After initially moving to South Korea to teach English, Thompson spent the following decade becoming the chart-topping K-pop producer MCMZ for arena-filling acts like EXO, NCT and Kang Daniel. Similar to NewJeans mastermind Min Hee Jin and other K-pop creatives who have moved from the liner notes to the C-suite, Thompson transformed his producer moniker into a corporate entity, founding MCMZ Inc. in early 2019 and incorporating as a Korean entity in January 2020 with an all-Korean staff and crop of songwriters that includes K-pop idol Yuju and lyricists in Los Angeles and Nashville.
Thompson’s own body of work — alongside key hires of management, casting and artist development veterans in Korea — quickly earned his new label the trust of the industry. Blackpink’s agency, YG Entertainment, has already invested in the company through a deal with its distribution division, YG Plus, to assist in merchandising and marketing, as well as global distribution.
And despite operating as an Italian American in a predominantly Asian industry, Thompson says, “All the parents know what I’ve done, all the trainees know, and a lot of them audition because of the music. They realize, ‘OK, the company is still Korean, all the contracts are done in Korean, it just happens that the CEO is not.’ ”
Jiu
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Despite its American influences, MCMZ Inc. plans to target the international K-pop fandom as well as the scene’s core markets like Korea, Japan and English-speaking territories. “It’s going to be harder for us to get across because all the big companies have way more money than us to put toward marketing,” Thompson says. “The best way we can market ourselves is to go through other channels where we don’t have to put a huge budget behind that.”
That’s exactly why he has made yet another unconventional move: welcoming Anderson Cooper to film a CNN documentary about MCMZ Inc. to air at a later date. Thompson believes embracing such an unfiltered approach during a time of creative experimentation points to the type of ambition needed to break through industry hierarchies.
“They’re already going to be questioning if we’re authentically Korean,” Thompson says. “A lot of the Korean companies’ first target demographic is going to be Korea. For us, it’s still Korea, but we know we have a barrier there to entry anyway, so let’s see how we can market ourselves more accurately [beyond that].”
Liwon
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
Rana
Scott Joonhyuk Jung
This story will appear in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.
“I had my own vision for what I wanted to hear in K-pop,” says Paul Thompson, an Italian American who 11 years ago moved to South Korea from California to teach English, but has since become better known as chart-topping K-pop producer MCMZ and founder of MCMZ Inc., an entertainment group based in Seoul. “I […]
Just days after launching an audit into subsidiary label ADOR and asking its CEO, Min Hee-jin, to exit, the Korean entertainment giant says it will report the executive to police.
The announcement came ahead of Min holding an emotional press conference in Seoul, where she refuted allegations of usurping ADOR girl group NewJeans‘ management, shared conversations she had with the group’s members and addressed other rumors as the Billboard 200–topping girl group prepares to launch its new single, “Bubble Gum.”
On Thursday (April 25) local time in Korea, HYBE shared the following statement with the media as an update to its audit regarding ADOR, CEO Min and other executives at the label:
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On April 25 KST, HYBE announced that the company will report CEO Min Hee-Jin of its subsidiary label ADOR to police for a breach of trust and other related allegations today.
HYBE secured substantial evidence to prove that Min deliberately led the plan to take over management control of the subsidiary, through the audit process. The evidence included detailed discussions that Min has ordered the ADOR management to find ways to pressure HYBE into ultimately selling ADOR’s shares. One of the audited parties submitted information assets to seize the management of ADOR and to attempt to contact external investors. The auditee also admitted to creating the documents to attack HYBE.
In the meantime, HYBE will continue to provide attentive mental and emotional care to the company’s artist NewJeans and best support for their upcoming comeback. The company will meet legal representatives of the respective members as soon as possible to discuss the plan to protect the act.
As previously reported, Min earned an 18% stake in ADOR in late 2023, when HYBE moved from full ownership of the label to 80%, with the additiona 2% owned by other company executives.
Following Min Hee-jin and ADOR going on the offensive with interviews and multiple statements to various Korean media alleging that HYBE has been exploiting ADOR and allowing NewJeans’ concept to be plagiarized, the K-pop industry veteran held a press conference with her lawyers that lasted more than two hours on Friday.
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According to the Korea JoongAng Daily‘s minute-by-minute report, Min arrived for the 3 p.m. press conference casually dressed in a baseball cap and simple T-shirt to be greeted by a slew of photographers — so many that at one point, the executive said she wouldn’t be able to speak if the camera flashes continued. Throughout the two-hour event, Min proclaimed her innocence, shared her disagreements with HYBE’s leadership, rebutted their conclusion that she wanted to seize NewJeans’ management and tried to shift focus back to her original internal complaint regarding plagiarism. Under Min’s leadership, ADOR previously claimed that HYBE’s newest act, the five-member girl group ILLIT formed under another subsidiary, BELIFT LAB, is copying NewJeans.
While weaving through stories with her lawyers alongside her, an at-times sobbing Min also addressed rumors regarding current and past HYBE artists including BTS, GFRIEND, LE SSERAFIM and more.
During the first half hour of the presentation, Min shared text message chats she claims she had with HYBE founder/chairman Bang Si-hyuk and HYBE CEO Park Ji-won. These alleged texts, according to Min, show Bang’s interest in buying Source Music, where Min previously worked, to launch a girl group. She also revealed that she recruited NewJeans’ eldest member, Minji, from Source’s trainee pool for ADOR. Min further claimed that HYBE’s debuting LE SSERAFIM under the Source label led to NewJeans being cast aside and created internal issues.
In a 2022 Billboard interview shortly after NewJeans’ debut, Min described her move away from Source Music by noting that “there would have been a number of different challenges involved” at the time and that she instead focused on creating “an independent label,” which became ADOR. “ADOR is a label that started with guaranteed autonomy, so it has no ties with HYBE’s management,” Min said. “They actually didn’t have any knowledge about anything we were going to release up until the first music video was released.” In the same interview, a question regarding Minji’s time as a trainee under Source Music was never addressed by press time.
After the first hour of the press conference, Min added claims that her contract terms with HYBE were unfair, though her lawyer said the details of the contract are confidential. Min also alleged that HYBE spun her contacting a law firm as external consulting, creating the current situation. Min pointed to multiple misunderstandings, including those that arose from jokes between her executive team, and added that HYBE still owes her money.
Through tears, Min revealed more text messages claiming that a NewJeans member’s mother called her to encourage her to speak out. During the Q&A with the press in attendance, Min contended that NewJeans members Hanni and Haerin have specifically reached out to her in support.
Separately, two NewJeans members have made public appearances amid the K-pop power struggle. Minji attended a Chanel pop-up store opening on Tuesday (April 23) in Seoul, while Danielle attended different fashion events on the Tuesday and Wednesday, though neither has made public statements on the matter.
Throughout the press conference, Min also touched on BTS (refuting an online rumor that she claimed the Billboard chart-toppers had copied her ideas), GFRIEND (saying she had nothing to do with the group’s abrupt 2021 disbandment soon after her formal start at HYBE) and took several shots at the teams behind ILLIT by sharing how the members are innocent but “it’s the adults that have sinned…copied all the formulas that we had with NewJeans,” from the concept to fashion collaborations, as reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Just as HYBE did in its statement, Min ended her press conference by re-focusing attention on NewJeans. Despite the clash, the K-pop group’s upcoming music video for “Bubble Gum” is still set to premiere on Friday (April 26) via the HYBE Labels YouTube channel.
Here’s some dynamite news for ARMY: BTS‘ RM has announced that his second solo album is on the way!
Right Place, Wrong Person is set to arrive on May 24, and will feature 11 tracks “infused with alternative music and rich sounds,” according to the press release. The K-pop superstar also helped write the “frank, honest lyrics” for each song.
According to the announcement on Weverse, Right Place, Wrong Person captures feelings that most people are familiar with, including “the feeling of being an outsider who doesn’t fit in.”
“Right Place, Wrong Person embodies facets of RM as a solo artist, distinct from albums released under BTS,” label Big Hit said in a statement, noting that the LP “delves into RM’s authentic essence.”
RM’s first solo set, Indigo, arrived in December 2022, and peaked at No. 3 on the all-genre Billboard 200. The album featured multiple artists, including Anderson .Paak, Erykah Badu and others. Lead single “Wild Flower,” which featured youjeen, debuted and peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Big Hit also teased that ahead of the release of the BTS rapper’s second solo LP, RM “will unveil a diverse array of content, offering a further glimpse into the new album.”
The members of BTS have been completing their mandatory military services in South Korea. RM began his enlistment in December, as did V, Jimin and Jung Kook. Jin was the first member of the septet to perform his required service, with J-Hope and SUGA following. South Korea requires all of its able-bodied men to enlist by age 28 for 18 to 21 months of service.
See Big Hit’s announcement of RM’s upcoming solo album below:
While HYBE has successfully expanded into an entertainment powerhouse built around its multi-label structure, the Korean corporation says it has investigated one of its crown jewel agencies, ADOR, the home of chart-topping girl group NewJeans.
Since its launch in late 2021, ADOR (an acronym for the phrase All Doors One Room) has been led by Min Hee-jin, a veteran creative in the K-pop industry who famously helped develop the scene’s penchant for artistic concepts and craft era-defining K-pop acts like Girls’ Generation, SHINee, f(x), EXO and Red Velvet during her tenure at SM Entertainment. After Min’s exit from SM, she joined then–Big Hit Entertainment in 2019 as chief brand officer and helmed the company’s rebrand into HYBE. During the 2021 rebrand reveal, HYBE announced Min as CEO of a new label, ADOR, with plans to debut the girl group that would become NewJeans.
Earlier this month, a report by Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service revealed that Min controlled an 18% stake in ADOR since late last year. HYBE previously had complete control of the label but now boasts 80%, with an additional two percent owned by other company executives. HYBE reportedly invested 16.1 billion won (about $11.7 million) to establish ADOR.
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Less than two years into NewJeans’ history-making debut, HYBE is asking Min to step down from ADOR after an audit of her, the label and its executives.
HYBE confirmed to Billboard that on April 22, the company “invoked the right to audit CEO Min Hee-Jin and top executives of its subsidiary label ADOR.” HYBE said it “called them to summon a shareholder meeting and sent an official letter to ask CEO Min to step down.” HYBE added that it could not provide further information on reason or reasons for the audit or why it is asking Min to step down.
Since news of the audit went public, ADOR and Min Hee-jin have gone on the offensive in the Korean media.
In a series of statements, ADOR claims HYBE’s newest act, the five-member girl group ILLIT under another subsidiary, BELIFT LAB, is copying NewJeans. With HYBE founder and current chairman Bang Si-hyuk involved in ILLIT’s debut album Super Real Me (No. 6 on the World Albums chart after three weeks), ADOR claims both BELIFT LAB and HYBE are complicit in the alleged infringement. ADOR says they raised the copycat issue internally a month ago but did not receive answers, claiming now that HYBE’s attempt to remove her as CEO is a result of bringing up the alleged problem. Min gave an additional interview to Korean outlet Sports Ilgan to fire back at rumors she was trying to break ADOR away from HYBE or seek outside investors to go independent with her 18% stake.
Min Hee-jin has not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment.
Min and ADOR quickly spun NewJeans into a slew of record-setting achievements including a No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with 2023’s Get Up just a year after the debut, five Hot 100 hits to their name, a well-received live debut in the U.S. at Lollapalooza last year, plus honors like Top Global K-Pop Artist at the 2023 Billboard Music Awards and the first K-pop act honored as Group of the Year for Billboard‘s Women in Music. In 2023, Min earned a spot on Billboard‘s International Power Players and Women in Music executive lists and also collaborated with V of BTS on the overall production of his debut solo album, Layover, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in September.
The K-pop power clash comes as NewJeans prepares for several releases including new singles “Bubble Gum” and “How Sweet,” with the former’s music video scheduled to drop April 26 on the HYBE LABELS YouTube channel. NewJeans is also preparing their first-ever Japanese singles “Supernatural” and “Right Now,” as well as a new album planned for the second half of 2024.
Elsewhere in the HYBE universe, ILLIT’s “Magnetic” is currently at No. 91 on the Hot 100, making it the first debut single from a K-pop act to enter the ranking. New music from HYBE artists like Zico (under HYBE LABELS’ KOZ Entertainment) and SEVENTEEN (PLEDIS Entertainment) are also coming this month. Historically, internal company issues can affect K-pop music or content releases, but no updates have been shared as of press time.
It’s take two for BTS and UNICEF. The K-pop superstars and United Nations Children Fund announced the #OnMyMind initiative on Monday (April 22), the second chapter of their Love Myself campaign. The new initiative aims to improve and support the mental health youth around the world. To help kick off #OnMyMind, BTS, label Big Hit […]
K-pop girl group aespa posted a teaser trailer for their upcoming debut full-length studio album on Sunday night (April 21). The four-woman act revealed that Armageddon will be released on May 27 in a 30-second clip that opens with ominous keyboard sounds and an overhead shot of a watery, crop circle-like formation featuring a cryptic formation.
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At press time no additional information was available on the collection, which will reportedly be fronted by the first single “Supernova” on May 13.
Before that, KARINA, WINTER, GISELLE and NINGNING will take a trip to the big screen for a limited run of their live film aespa: WORLD TOUR, which will take fans inside the group’s U.K. live debut at London’s O2 Arena during their 2023 Synk: Hyper Line world tour. The 125-minute film directed by Yoon Dong Oh (NCT Nation: To the World) and Hamin Kim that will hit theaters worldwide on April 24 and 27 includes behind-the-scenes interviews alongside performance footage. Tickets are on sale now and fans can find screening details and participating countries at aespaworldtourincinemas.com.
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The group’s label, SM Entertainment, recently revealed that member WINTER, 23, underwent preventive surgery to treat a collapsed lung. In a statement, SM said that the procedure was intended to treat a pneumorthorax, a condition in which air accumulates in the chest, applying pressure on the lungs and possibly leading to collapse. “Winter is recovering from recent pneumothorax surgery. As the disease is prone to recurrence, the decision was made as a preemptive measure based on the opinions of the medical staff after sufficient discussion,” read a statement from the label.
The statement noted that WINTER’s recovery is a priority and that “future schedules will be made with Winter’s recovery status as the top priority.”
To date, aespa have released four mini albums, including their 2021 debut, Savage, as well as Girls (2022), My World (2023) and Drama (2023). They were most recently heard on the Rebel Moon – Songs of the Rebellion EP, which also features original songs by Jessie Reyez, Tainy, Tokischa, TOKiMONSTA, Black Coffee and Kordhell inspired by Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon movie series. aespa will kick off a run of SYNK: Parallel Lines tour dates on June 29-30 with two nights in their native Seoul, South Korea.
Check out aespa’s Armageddon album announcement below.
Billboard and Billboard Korea have joined forces with CJ ENM to expand the global influence of the K-pop industry. The entertainment company behind KCON and MAMA AWARDS has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Billboard and Billboard Korea, ahead of the first Billboard Korea print issue mid-year. Harry H.K. Shin, Head of Music Entertainment […]
ENHYPEN are getting ready to take ENGENE’s out to the ballgame. The seven-man K-pop boy band announced on Friday morning (April 19) that their fans can catch members Heeseung, Jay and Ni-Ki at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on April 29, where the trio will throw out the first pitch at that day’s game between the […]
