#2015 has not been kind to me creatively or mental health wise but I miss everyone

[kpopmusiclyricsalbums]

My Thoughts on JYP Entertainment

Founder/CEO: J.Y. Park - Good but problematic 

I have complicated feelings about JYP as a person.  I think that as a business man he is smart and knows his business.  I also think he knows how to train his trainees, but as a person and creator he has done some questionable things.  Mostly he is very misogynistic towards his female trainees, along with his own music lyrically.  

Two examples of this is during Sixteen he told Jihyo that she was too fat...to a 17-18 year old girl.  She also wasn’t what people would even considered fat.  His reasoning was not a good one, it was simply a stylistic look choice of a dancer’s body that he wanted and thus a 17-18 year old girl who was probably going through puberty wasn’t the ‘right size’ for him.  He also said this to another girl who was 17 on the nizi project in 2020.  Only five years later, his views unchanged.  

The second example is his questionable lyrics that he gives TWICE.  Not only in Cheer Up which is basically telling a guy, even when I say no, keep pestering me.  And Yes or Yes, basically disregarding that No isn’t an answer.  If either one of those songs was sung in context of a boy group, they would have been accused of disregarding the probablemic argument that as a society of a whole, women face daily.  There are other songs for example Girls Girls Girls by Got7, and I will probably go into a deeper separate post about cheer up and Yes or Yes, even other songs he has written as well, but I wanted to give examples here.  (Also not trying to put down TWICE or GOT7, counting that they didn’t write the lyrics or choose the song.  I’m talking about the Song writer, a man in his 40’s.) 

Company as a whole: Not the worst, but not the best.  (But really is any company) 

As a company, to me at least, they always wanted to be seen as a creative and forward thinking company rather then looking at it for money reasons, but how they treat their groups scheduling wise, future groups, and even trainee’s it seems to be more about money then what they want you to think.  It sometimes feels like a shady company that wants a sugar coat cover to hide what they do.  

JYP Entertainment is always praised for their look on mental health in their company and health in general.  Which is a good quality to have, but they also are just doing the bare minimum.  They are not doing it proactively, instead of only doing it after it’s a huge issue to the point were it affects business.  

Such as with Mina, it’s good that they didn’t force her to be on stage when she has a panic disorder, but also they let it get to the point where she couldn’t even go on stage.  With how much they promote and with no rest really given to the group until it’s absolutely necessary, meaning the girls’ are constantly working, I’m surprised only one member seems to have broken.  

Their trainee system: They don’t seem to care so much about talent

For their trainee’s they seem to pick nice, wholesome people who work hard.  Which isn’t bad qualities at all.  They also have strict rules that they have to follow, such as the dating ban, the no going to bars ban (which makes sense to me considering the burning sun scandal and so on).  They don’t seem to have a diet for trainee’s, but from the views of their Founder, I think it’s probably an unspoken rule.  

Compared to other companies, talent wise, they seem to focus more on dancing skills then actual singing.  When they do have singing, they seem to have a more westernized singing rather than a technical one.  This is kind of made apparent on the show Unnies, when Tiffany recorded with JYP.  Tiffany was trained at SM Entertainment which is known for having a more technical singing education.  During their recording he showed her a more breathy way.  She even stated, it was more about feeling rather then technique.  Which isn’t bad.  Most theatre performances want to emphasis feelings rather then technique, but if you can’t hit a note, there’s a too much of a problem.  Plus this doesn’t necessarily mean a good longevity career wise, because if you are using improper technique for long periods of time, it could result in vocal issues in the future.    

Moving on….

On how they treat Male Groups: They last longer then the girl groups.

Current Male Groups they have: 

2PM + Soloists 

Day6 - Band + Soloists 

JJ Project 

Got7 + Soloists 

Stray Kids 

Jus2 (sub Unit) 

3Racha (Sub Unit) 

J.Y. Park (Soloist) 

Former Notable Groups they had: 

2AM

G.O.D. 

Rain (Soloists) 

So with The boy groups, they seem to have a more usual staggered comeback release date, other then Day6 which for a year, they released a single every month.  From my past experience, they seem to promote Got7 over Day6 and now that Stray Kids have entered the chat, Got7 is now getting less promotions resources wise.  Which makes sense in terms of business, because they are already established while Stray Kids being the new kids on the block have less of a fan base.  That is normal for most companies, given that the Kpop system relies heavily on the already established fandom that they create in the first couple of years rather than a long term comeback and promotional system.  

2PM is from their 2nd generation of idols, along with their counterpart 2AM.  They had a similar single release date between the two like got7 does with stray kids.

I am mostly excluding G.O.D. and Rain from this conversation because they are from the very beginning, where JYP was just starting out.  G.O.D. is considered a legendary 1st generation group, and Rain is considered a legend in term so of male soloists himself. 

Just mainly speaking on Got7, Day6, and Stray Kids, their most active male groups currently, here is a timeline from their debut years and how many singles they each had.  

2014 - got7 Debut 

Got7: 4 singles, 2 Ep’s, 1 Studio

2015 - Day6 debut

Got7: 4 Singles, 2 EP’s 1 Repackaged, 

Day6: 1 Single, 1 Ep

2016

Got7: 3 Singles, 2 Ep’s,  2 Studio 

Day6: 1 Single, 1 EP

2017 - Stray Kids Debut 

GOt7: 3 Singles, 3 Ep’s

Day6: 12 Singles, 2 Studio 

Stray Kids: 1 Single 

2018 

Got7: 5 Singles, 1 Ep, 1 Studio,1 Repackaged 

Day6: 6 Singles, 2 Ep’s, 1 Compilation, 1 Studio 

Stray Kids: 3 Singles, 4 Ep’s 

2019 

Got7: 3 Singles, 4 Ep’s, 1 Repackaged

Day6: 2 Singles, 1 Ep, 1 Compilation, 1 Studio 

Stray Kids: 5 Singles, 2 Ep’s 1 Repackaged 

To note, in 2020, Stray kids have 6 singles already planned or have happened.  Out of the three, Day6 seems to have the least amount of promotions all together minus one year when they released a single a month.  

On how they treat Female Groups: Milk them for they got then leave them to dry Once they hit a certain age.  

Current Female Groups they have:

Itzy 

Twice 

Former Notable Groups they had: 

Miss A + Soloists 

Wonder Girls + Soloists 

15& + Soloists 

Jeon Somi/Trainee - complicated thing

Baek A Yeon (Soloists) 

They treat their female groups  differently then their male counterparts.  For them, they either care or they don’t.  Which is a weird thing to say, but you can tell by how they promote and how many singles they have.  For most JYP Groups, they seem to be more of an afterthought with recycled concepts over and over again. With Itzy is too early to tell they path that they will go with.  Will it be like MissA whose single count capped out at 8, with only one member the focus of the group?  Will it be like 15&, who was never actually given the chance to shine and disbanded before they were even known as a group?  Or will they overwork them like Twice?  Wonder Girls started off good, but once they went to US and didn't get the results that I think JYP wanted, they were fazed out, as they grew older.  JYP with their girl groups, seems to not know what to do with them once they hit a certain age.  Which isn’t just a JYP problem, but a KPOP problem.  The only differences is, he doesn’t wait till they are close to 30.  They tend to stop earlier.  

Let’s look at the numbers shall we….

15& - Deserved better!  

Debuted in 2012 at 15 (Both girls were 15) 

1 Studio Album 

5 Singles (4 of them on one album) 

Disbanded after having a four year hiatus 

Active only for 3 years (2012-2015) 

Disbanded by at the age of 18.

Miss A - Should have focused on the group as a whole, not just one member.

Debuted in 2010 at average age of 19.5

2 Studio Albums, 2 single Albums, 3 EP’s 

8 Singles...yeah just 8.

Active for 5 years (disbanded in 7 years) 

Disbanded by the average age of 24.5 (2015) 26.5 (official Disbandment) 

Wonder Girls - a Legend that had so much potential with their band concept!  

Debuted in 2007 at the average age of 16.2

3 Studio Albums, 4 EP’s 

15 Singles (with 2007 being their most releases in a year with 4)

Active for 8 years (Disbanded in 10) (In 2017 they had one goodbye song never promoted)  

Disbanded by the average age of 26.8 (2017) 

TWICE - Overworked for money

Debuted in 2015 at the average age of 16.8

3 Studio Albums, 2 Compilation Albums, 4 Repackaged, 9 EP’s (Still counting they haven’t disbanded yet) 

23 Singles in 5 years (not counting the 1 in 2020). 

They had 5 singles alone in 2017 only in korea 

In 2018 they had 9 comebacks total between South Korea and Japan 

Back to just 5 in 2019.  

Average is 2-3 comebacks a year for girl groups for the first two years then 1 or 2 after that...TWICE’s least active year was 2016 with 2.  (Not counting their debut in 2015.) 

As of 2020, their average age will be 21.8. 

Also on solo artists, he has no idea what to do with them really, regardless of male or female.    

Overall, I think I’m more critical of JYP as a company, because they try to hide the fact that they function like a business as opposed to YG or SM in terms of big three.  They want to be seen more of an artist themselves rather then a business, which I find hypocritical.  I based my opinions on facts and overall feel of the company that I get from them.

In terms of music, I tend to like vocal’s more, which also is not just a kpop thing.  It’s true for most music genres, which is a personal preference.  

So To end on happy notes, 

Groups I Like from the company: 

Miss A 

Wonder GIrls 

Day6 

Baek A Yeon 

I know it’s a lot of former….

Some Songs that I like that you should check out from this company: 

ITZY - Dalla Dalla 

TWICE - What is Love?, Like OOH-AHH, Dance the Night Away 

MISSA - Hush, Only You, I Don’t Need a Man, Bad Girl Good Girl 

Wonder Girls - Tell Me, Nobody, Be My Baby, Why So lonely, Draw Me 

Day6 - Congratulations, Out of My Mind, I need Somebody Lean On Me  

Got7 - Just Right, Miracle, Hard Carry 

Baek a Yeon - Sad Song, Shouldn’t Have, So-So Just Because 

Stray Kids - Hellevator 

Things to note in general: 

Some of these are not just JYP issues, but also a kpop industry as a whole.  I tried to point those out, when I can.  

It’s well known that Male groups are a gamble in terms of profit either they make a ton of money or the loose a ton of money, while Female groups always bring you money just with a shorter life span and don’t tend to out sell male groups (With some exceptions), which is why most small time companies debut female groups in order to gain money to debut a male group.  

Also this just my opinion, so these issues might not be a problem for you, maybe you even prefer dancing groups to vocal groups.  Both are valid.  I’m just giving another opinion.  

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