#is luhan a kpop artist. take it up with sm entertainment

[quicktimeeventfull]

anyway i think (?) i’m probably going to have the next chapter of stay up this weekend and we are finally earning that E rating ✨

[a9saga]

I started typing this whole thing on mobile and couldn't figure out how to put a break in and I refuse to update the app. Fuck it. You are scrolling past this whole damn thing. Unfollow me. This is all I'm gonna be talking about for the next two weeks.

Exo needs to break up. They have needed to break up. That was my hot take I had been saying I'd eventually share but I never got around to it, and now it's a lot more apparent. Not that I thought this was going to happen. I thought that when I finally posted this, someone might be mad about it, but in wake of CBX's lawsuit I don't think anyone's going to be surprised to hear it.

I was sure exo members were done suing SM entertainment a long time ago. It's been 9 years since Kris and Luhan filed their lawsuits, both of whom won. It's been 8 years since Tao's hiatus, and almost 8 since he filed his lawsuit months later, which he ended up losing despite never rejoining exo. I became a fan of exo during Call Me Baby promotions when Tao was still dancing with a broken leg. I was 15 at the time, about to turn 16. EXO scandals were extremely fresh and ongoing. But those three are so far in the past now. Lay quietly decided not to renew recently, but he hadn't been able to appear with the group for 5 years so, yeah. No surprise. But I really thought it was all done when EXO-M was done for.

Well, I can tell you why I'd been thinking for a while EXO should break up. It's because they're really a thing of the past, and essentially after Love Shot, it felt like there was nowhere to go from there.

That felt like the last breath of their 5 year long prime. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome. EXO have hit after hit after hit, think of the absolute best most addictive song by your favorite pop artist, and EXO have a discography of mostly those. But they haven't grown and changed artistically or commercially as a group. They've been around 11 years, they're in their 30s now, and I don't even think most of them have the heart to revitalize their prime like Super Junior did after their military hiatus was over. Maybe a couple of them have it in them to do the pop star thing for their entire careers, but I didn't think that like, Sehun or Chanyeol were necessarily passionate about creating new music for the rest of their career. Chen has a family now and that's also something I'd like the rest of exo to afford without their huge commercial group getting in the way of that. The only one I felt for sure would not be done anytime soon was Baekhyun. I thought he'd be the new Kangta of the group, sticking around when EXO were dormant and fizzled out. I never thought SM would actually let them break up, like H.O.T did when I was a baby. But yeah, Baekhyun leaving shocks me the most. Not that I blame him. I do fully believe the allegations made in the lawsuit as SM have had such a shady reputation.

Looking at SM's pre-EXO boy groups, one might say EXO were the main successor to Super Junior, because, obviously, both groups debuted with 12 people. Large groups like that weren't really a thing in kpop before Super Junior debuted. Additionally, Han Geng of Suju was one of the first Chinese kpop idols. In 2008, two more Chinese members were added to the sub unit Super Junior-M, which released Mandarin versions of pre-existing and original Korean Super Junior songs. Hm, this sounds familiar. I only just built up a better case for the EXO/SJ argument. Diana and I talk about this sometimes though; I once made an argument that I think EXO was more a successor to TVXQ/DBSK (Tong Vfang Xien Qi/Dong Bang Shin Ki), which I would have forgotten saying if she never brought up that one time i said it ever again.

In July of 2009, JYJ threw the first brick at SM Entertainment I mean TVXQ's members Kim "Hero" Jaejoong, Park "Micky" Yoochun and Kim "Xiah" Junsu filed a lawsuit against SM for contract termination, claiming they had been coerced into slave contracts as minors. They were 22-23 at the time, TVXQ having debuted on December 26th, 2003. The three of them won the lawsuit, signed to C-Jes Entertainment and formed the new group, JYJ, of just the three of them. It was assumed the original five piece was dead by that point, but surprisingly, in 2010, Jung "U-Know" Yunho and Shim "Max" Changmin chose to stay at SM and continue TVXQ as a duo.

This whole thing is arguably the most significant scandal in the 30-year history of SM. TVXQ had been SM's biggest success to date and some argue they and Boa still are. Your faves wouldn't have cracked Japan without the efforts of those two, and if kpop didn't reach Japan in the early 2000s, the entertainment industry in a small East Asian country wouldn't have become huge across the entire planet---and frankly, if TVXQ hadn't been big internationally, they'd have been done for because SM had them blacklisted from Korean television for a decade.

Han Geng of Super Junior actually did file for contract termination shortly after JYJ did, also for mistreatment. As did Luhan, Tao and Kris as we've already acknowledged. But all four of them could move to the entertainment industry in China. Sure, you're always going to lose something by leaving as big a group as EXO, Super Junior or TVXQ, but SM hasn't been sued by its Korean idols since JYJ. Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chen know that they're putting at least as much on the line. And now, like TVXQ, more than half of EXO are no longer in the group, and the majority of the run for the both of them has had this cloud of mistreatment over their reputations. They were also both so unstoppably huge and popular.

I was in elementary school for DB5K's prime, and there were fans of kpop in the west but I can't tell you what their success across Asia looked like as someone who wasn't there. But I can tell you, between 2015-2016 when kpop gradually started to become very big, EXO for a time were bringing in more people to kpop than A Particularly Famous Group in the West I Have No Interest in Naming Because I Don't Want Their Fucking Fans Derailing My Post With Unrelated Discourse While I'm Not Even Talking About Them. Just believe me there was a time when EXO were way more popular in the west than Said Band I Decline to Specify, the eclipse that happened was gradual, and to my understanding EXO continued to be the biggest thing in Asia despite that another one eventually cracked America more and I'm not denying that they did. Point is, EXO coming first was important to all of that, because I and several others wouldnt have heard of the one kpop group if EXO didnt get us all into kpop first from 2013-15/16.

That all said now, this was all very much not how I'd wanted EXO to actually end. This is crashing and burning. Much like TVXQ, EXO is not going to be able to have a reunion after this, because they'll never receive SM's blessing to work together. I mean, EXO-M never would. 12 member EXO hardly lasted for two years though and their prime was very new when people started leaving, so to be honest, I don't know if the kids getting into EXO in the 2020s would really care to see Luhan, Tao, and Someone Sitting In Prison Whose Name I've Uttered More Than I'd Like To.

But in a similar vain, while DB5K originally split into two, JYJ are all off in different directions now. Yoochun was fired. Junsu left C-Jes and made his own label. Jaejoong did the same recently. Could you tell I listen TVXQ? But yeah, now that there are more than 3-4 people departed from EXO, they've got former members going in a lot of different directions. Someone already said it but I hope Xiumin follows Luhan back now. Back in my day Xiuhan were so cute.

Also, since I managed not to slip this into the post anywhere.... these guys have been showing up to work. Every damn day they've been showing up to work, that's another reason why it's so shocking. Chen dropped a song days ago and Baekhyun has been doing shows, posting dance practices, EXO have been appearing together for their 11th anniversary and supposed upcoming comeback. Whaaat a slap in the face. I support CBX 100% though and you should too.

[laword]

Lawsuit x Arbitration x Agreement in Kpop

You can consider this post as an introductory one, since it will explain some terms and its consequences using some concrete cases inside the Kpop world. It can be also useful in the future.

What is the meaning of getting into a lawsuit?

Cambridge Dictionary describes it as "a problem taken to a law court by an ordinary person or an organization rather than the police in order to obtain a legal decision". So, taking this to K-Pop universe, an idol or even a company can go to court to solve a controversy. There, a third person will analyze the case and decide if the party has the law on her favor, in which degree (partially or totally) and the consequences of this decision (declaring a contract's nullification or if there's any fees to pay, for example).

It's the ordinary way to question and discuss a situation and there are innumerous times where it was used. Some examples lawsuits being started by idols involve EXO's former member Kris (poor work conditions and discrimination), Super Junior's former member Hangeng (contract nullification because of unfair clauses and conditions), KARA's former members Nicole, Jiyoung and Seungyeon (contract termination and discussion about income) and so many others throught the years. In terms of companies starting their own lawsuits, it can be mentioned Happy Face Ent, that sued YG for cancelling "MixNine", SM agains Tao and so many other legal actions fans hear coming from companies to punish haters and malicious netizens in general.

From those mentions, it's obvious how lawsuit is present while dealing with Kpop Entertainment business. There's some reasons for that since the fact that the legislation on the matter is still poor and the income distribution can be unfair to the artists (but it's a subject for a future post). It doesn't mean, of course, that the lawsuit is the only way artists (and also companies) can solve their problems. And it's important to mention them, so some differences between the systems can be explained to the major public.

One of them is the Arbitration. It's a method of solve disputes using a third person, somehow similar with lawsuit. But the difference is that the people who will decide is not a judge. It's most of the time a person the parties trust (he/she still needs to be impartial) and with expertise on the matter to give a decision both of them can accept. Because of that, it's harder to appeal, although it can be possible in some punctual cases. But in general, if they go to arbitration, they need to accept what was decided.

That's the major difference between the outcomes of Secret's former members Jieun and Hyosung. Both of them wanted to nullify their contracts but ended up doing it in different ways: the first using Arbitration and the later with a lawsuit. In Jieun's case, the arbitration court decided on her favor and we didn't have news of TS appealing of the decision (with the brief explanation above, it's more clear why it happened). But with Hyosung, the company already claimed their wish to appeal from the decision (which is a right given in a lot of countries legislation, including South Korea).

Other cases of Arbitration use in K-pop: ex Kara members versus DSP Media, Kris and Luhan versus SM, Teen Top's L.Joe versus TOP Media (the Korea Entertainment Management Association even stated that "this specific case was important in regards to the issue of exclusive contracts between labels and their artists").

Finally the Agreement is a "group decision making process in which group members develop, and agree to support a decision in the best interest of the whole". It's a really important way to solve the dispute, considering that sometimes a court decision can't be totally satisfactory. It can be done between the parties themselves (throught negotiation) or with help of a third person who won't decide the matter, but will guide the people involved in finding a solution themselves (with mediation, for example).

In Kpop history, a agreement happened between JYJ members and SM where it's content was not revealed to the public (until 2017, at least). There was also an agreement between B.A.P members with TS Entertainment that ended the court dispute between them and brought the artists back to the label.

This article was a summary about legal terms and how they can be applied in real cases involving Kpop real situations. This universe specific is really interesting because of the huge impact Hayllu wave is having over the years and, at the same time, how many conflicts exist on the background. I personally hope to make another posts about this matter and I hope this post may have helped someone who likes Kpop and it's also into legal terms.

[bbhl-incporated]

what happened in 2014? what was that post about?? (Btw I only now just noticed ur url is "goth"chanbaek not "got"chanbaek...)

L O L don’t worry about the url… I haven’t changed it since summer 2016 (when Monster came out and my mutuals made “goth” urls falsdk;jfaldsf)

So 2014 basically got hit by a huge shitstorm. The Sewol Ferry sinking of course was a national tragedy and left many idols devastated; some kids on the ship were very much fans of different idol groups and relatives / friends reached out to the idols to tell them so. I cried during the whole fiasco and I wasn’t even in the country …. the debacle just made my heart ache.

Related to the actual kpop industry itself, Kris did leave EXO in May of 2014 and opened the flood gates for the biggest SM scandal since the breakup of DB5K into 2VXQ and JYJ. (DBSK had the largest fandom to date, called Cassiopeia, and it had fans in China, Korea, Japan…. they were especially known for how big they were in Japan. Breakout and steady success in what was considered Asia’s largest music market, by foreign and non-American artists was absolutely amazing. For the record, it has names specific to each language: Tong Vfan Xien Qi = TVXQ, the Mandarin name; DBSK = Dong Bang Shing Ki, Korean name; and Tohoshinki is the Japanese name. They technically debuted as a Japanese act and not a Korean act releasing things in Japanese which adds some nuance important for considering record breaking and setting, money, etc which are not important for our purposes here.) Kris’s sudden departure opened wounds older kpop fans had considered closed since the breakup of Kpop’s largest act (BigBang wasn’t shit in comparison for quite some time and even LeeSooMan apparently considered SJ throwaways from DBSK) and cast yet another huge, negative, ugly spotlight on the abuses of SM Entertainment in the past. The sticky part is how people started to analyze why this departure was not so sudden, and I will return to that in a bit.

This departure itself was ugly because Kris left in the middle of Overdose promotions and a few weeks before EXO’s first tour would commence. For context, Overdose came as a follow up to EXO’s smashing 2013 success with Growl Repackage and Miracles in December. They became the first artists to become million-album sellers in years with Growl and they won Album of the Year at the Mnet Asian Music Awards, when G Dragon had won pretty much every thing else that night (lmao) and SHINee was also up for the award. So they, a rookie group less than 2 years old, managed to win that award despite the STIFF sunbae competition on top of becoming million sellers… All eyes were on them no doubt and the public and fans were looking forward to their next promotions and their first concert tour… … SO you can imagine the laser focus this drew to the group and to the company. I will tell you right now: Not. A. Pleasant. Experience. The fandom was l i t e r a l l y imploding and people were taking pro-Kris and anti-Kris stances everywhere and calling him a traitor and calling fans fake and — and there was the part where only Suho was on stage to receive EXO’s award right after the news came out and my soul broke in half and the days you could tell EXO had been crying before coming onstage and and and – THERE WAS JUST SO MUCH SAD AND ANGRY IN THE FANDOM I hated it.

There are many bloggers who were around, who I followed during that time who aren’t around anymore. T_T

If I tell and explain everything wrong that happened in 2014 I could be here quite a while, so I’ll keep it short and jump to Baek’s instagram post. He made that post (xx) and one or two others I think, in response to the vicious and heinous reactions he and Taeyeon received after Dispatch revealed they were dating. Yes, this happened even in the aftermath of Kris’ departure. Yes, this only made things worse. Why? Well to add fuel to the fire, Baek had made a sort of cheeky promise that he wouldn’t date until EXO had made it, weren’t rookies anymore… basically he “promised” not to date until around 5 years after EXO debuted. That would be this year… so you know …. those deluded fans who took him seriously flipped out. Add on to that the fact that Taeyeon is many years his sunbae in terms of activity in the industry and the leader of the Nation’s Girl Group ™ and both jealousy of her and resentment of the fact he was in a relationship caused fans to make vicious posts and comments on Instagram–BOTH of their Instagrams, though his was far worse–and many other social media sites and forums. (Twitter comes to mind too.) THEN to top it all off, Baek was an MC on a music show (Inkigayo maybe?) and YOU COULD SEE HE HAD BEEN STRESSED, SLEEP DEPRIVED AND CRYING on many days and so-called “””fans””” had the nerve to shout and call him a traitor–among other things–ON LIVE BROADCAST like h o l y  s h i t this was bad. Baek should not have had to ~apologize~ for dating Taeyeon, as he did in the post.

Okay now winding back to what I mentioned earlier: rumor theories. Theories about every damn thing started floating around. There was a big theory about how Kris had wanted out of EXO since before Wolf (Wolf preceded Growl, but both were in 2013) and that Kris fabricated his visa issue. I have that on my blog and can hunt it down for you if you want to read the full body of “Evidence ™” but it’s actually plausible. Another theory was that Taeyeon and Baek were not actually dating–and this has many strains. One strain indicates that the entire relationship was fabricated as a distraction from the Kris departure and lawsuit , while the other states that they did date at one time but broke up way before any of the drama started–SM just used them since they had been together before as an easy cover up. These kinds of theories did not help a damn thing and just seeded further distrust and resentment within fandoms. Like seriously you had SONEs and EXOL screeching at other over this relationship, and even though they were not majority or mainstream fandom members / opinions, they still became pretty vocal. Many bad egg EXOL attacked both Baek and Taeyeon, and fewer SONEs attacked one or both. The theories that surrounded their relationship, including that they gave “hints” with couple items and that Taeyeon gave Baek a fan gift just . It was so ugly. Kpop fans showed their ugliest side. There were venomous comments for weeks. Baek and Tae even left Instagram for a while and Baek stopped being energetic and talkative when with EXO. I hated it so. fucking . much.

Let me tell you. Within SM? It only gets worse. Outside of SM? It gets much worse.

Within SM… Luhan also leaves EXO in October of that year. That’s TWO members, both Chinese, leaving the SAME up-and-coming and ~spectacular~ group, in the SAME year. Boy did that get media attention. Oh, and SM’s stocks took a much bigger dip after Luhan left than when Kris left. Oh, and Luhan’s deteriorating condition was much more visible than Kris’s and just stoked the flames of hatred against SM all over again.  Oh, and Luhan was EXO’s biggest China connection and most popular member in China … hence the stock drop. A few months later, Luhan was making literally millions on his own, which reinforced the premise that the dude was worth wayyyy too valuable for SM to give up willingly. Which of course they didn’t , which is why the main lawsuit lasted for about 2 years. But yeah now the forever-12 group with 4 Chinese members was down to 10 and only 2 Chinese members (bad for connecting to the Chinese music market which is full of $$$$) and media was losing its mind ! So was the fandom! Now the definition of traitor had shifted and you were a traitor and YOU were a traitor and we’re all traitors !!!! 

And JESSICA LEFT SNSD TOO !!! The only way I can characterize everyone’s emotions at the time is: WHAT  T HE F UC K ??? Luhan and Jessica’s respective departures literally happened within two weeks of each other !!! What were we supposed to d o ??? Between all three departures, you felt like you were getting punched in the gut, then the face, then the genitalia, then kicked on the ground. SNSD was forever nine man, nation’s girl group, biggest Kpop girl group ever and suddenly a main vocalist is gone ??? B O Y !

Oh, I forgot to mention how Tao posted on his Instagram very …. resentful things when Kris left . Mmmmm yeah it was bad, not gonna elaborate too hard but … he took it back later in 2015. You probably know that he, too, is now a former EXO member by now.

2014 was good in that you had groups GOT7, Mamamoo, RedVelvet, WINNER, Akdong Musician, Lovelyz, JJCC, etc debut that year. But it was bad due to circumstances surrounding some of  those debuts. 

Notably, Red Velvet was accused of having their debut rushed because SM wanted to cover up the ongoing lawsuit news. Now I know this sounds ridiculous: a dating scandal AND debuting an entire group early just to cover up some bad publicity about an idol leaving your company? Well given how persistent the press was and how bad the lawsuit and allegations made SM look … it’s not that difficult to believe and it most definitely was not hard to gobble up as reliable gossip at the time. At the time, it was considered the norm that SM covers up bad news by Any Means Necessary, and to generate positive publicity. The BaekYeon thing backfired tremendously in that it gave hatred to artists instead of positivity but it sure as hell kept folks’ minds off the lawsuit for a bit. (Also there’s the whole strain of thinking corporations and business control and influence the media, which is something many of us can relate to and why this can appeal so strongly.)

I believe the fact that Yeri joined RV later and was going to be a permanent addition, and the only addition, only helped this theory. After all, apparently she was intended to be with the group from the start, but she was too young when RV debuted. This seems to imply that RV debuted sooner than they were supposed to. ~X files music plays in the background~

WINNER also got shafted pretty hard. They won the big reality idol-elimination show WIN: Who’s Next? hence the title WINNER (formerly Team A) and then YG highkey neglected them because  …well honestly YG wanted the Next Big Bang ™ and WINNER’s ballad style wasn’t going to do that–no matter how much Mino you throw in the song. Plus he demonstrated obvious favoritism to Mino, Bobby and B.I. in general and once WINNER highkey disappeared after they dropped their release (as rookies you are supposed to do follow up promotions the same year and within a decent time frame – EXO did not do this like they were supposed to, again because of Kris visa issue [hey that theory’s looking mighty Fresh again]) it became clear that YG wanted the next group out of the WIN cycle to get the spotlight–that group became iKon (formerly known as Team B). 

Lovelyz had an issue with one of their to-be-debuted members name Jisoo. Jisoo was accused of … well have you heard of the things the boy trainees under Produce 101 are being accused of ? If so, think along those lines. If not: suffice to say it involved manipulation, lesbianism and abuse within the relationship…. bad stuff to be accused of in South Korea lmao so the group was involved in scandal before even debuting! In the end, Jisoo did not debut on account that the allegations were being investigated and taken seriously–in addition to claims that she was ill due to the drama on the internet and within her live as a result of the accusations, and that she needed to recover.

I will end with those three examples of debut issues. Let’s go back to a group that debuted the same year as EXO: B.A.P. 2014 was the year B.A.P sued over “slave contracts” with TS Entertainment. According to the suit, since debuting in 2012, B.A.P had earned over 9 million dollars, yet the company had only given each member $16,000 on top of forcing members to perform to the point of hospitalization and fainting.

ZE:A, which debuted in 2010, also revealed issues with their company (shocking!!! at this point) and the group leader Junyoung (Lee Hoo) took to Twitter  to criticise his managing company’s, Star Empire’s CEO Shin Joo Hak for allegedly mistreating idol groups and their unfair contracts. He also alleged that CEO Shin Joo Hak both abused him and lost the company money. So there were accusations of financial and human capital abuses. He even posted income receipts on Twitter. You can read through (reliable!) translations of the events here: xx.

I want you to imagine hearing about all this shit throughout the year and thinking things are “over” and then just getting whacked whacked whacked whacked all about because you care about all these groups at the same time . J US T . :~)))))) I was fine : ^) everything : ^) was fine : ^) Nothing bad :~) was happening at all :~)

Oh and let’s add to this list, another thing that got negativity and didn’t deserve it: Super Junior’s Sungmin marrying Kim Sa-eun in 2014. ELF (SJ fandom name) were f u r i o u s at him for marrying so suddenly. ELF were trending #SungminOUT on Twitter because they wanted him kicked out of SJ for marrying. I was a pretty big SJ fan at the time so between everything !!! I WAS SCREAMING what the hell was wrong with people ???? Mad about a marriage ! They weren’t even mad at the lady (which doesn’t make it better), but purely the fact that he was getting married and didn’t give … idk some kind of prior notice? I knew he was enlisting soon after, but that wasn’t the source of the anger… anyway, other ELF counter-trended the #SungminOUT thing with a positive tag instead, and sent him lots of love, so it worked out…. but still many ELF were mad at him. If memory serves correctly, it was primarily K-ELF (korean SJ fans) who felt this sort of entitlement to him that led to the anger and it was …. yikes.

What else is there to say about that year? Of course people re-examined previous abuses by companies, including SM Entertainment’s maltreatment of DBSK, Hangeng of SJ (SJ’s former Chinese member who sued, won, and left the  group and the company due to mistreatment), disbandment of H.O.T., Shinhwa’s departure from SM, etc etc etc so you had layers of SM stan pain. SHINee and f(x) became known as SM’s only groups to not lose a member or disband … and then f(x) lost Sulli in 2015 … :| 

This is the most I remember or came to light when I looked up different issues I had thought of. If anyone wants to add to this list of catastrophe then please, go ahead. .-. I’m not even proofreading or else I’ll just get emotional for the umpteenth time. Hope this answers your (and 3 other folks’) question well! 

[whitefoxgirl]

“Slave” Contracts Explained.

So after some debate of whether to do this or not… I decided to do it. I am a business major, particularly in management, so if any of this is too technical for you, I apologize in advance. Everything I talk about is business so it might be boring… I would also like to point out that this is United States and Puerto Rico business and commercial law, and NOT South Korea, every country has different commercial and business law, needless to say, all thought they’re may or may not be completely different we can have this as a foundation. Also, I’m adding gifs to make this more interesting and not plain looking and boring… So let’s start. 

Let’s start with the definition of a contract according to the law. A contract is a voluntary agreement between two or more people that imposes one or more obligations that are enforceable before the law. The contract cannot be contrary to law, moral, public order or imposible to complete. 

Trainee contracts? Why are they important? (SOURCE) 

So, before anything, before doing your own KPOP Group, you have to train them for a certain amount of time to get “perfection”. This is where the TRAINEE CONTRACT comes in, these contracts only last from 2 to 4 years, and have to be renewed if you want to continue training and haven’t debuted. By signing this, you’re agreeing to the company training you to be an idol, and most of the time, trainees drop out of school just to complete the obligations the contract is stating. Most of these training lessons lasts 13 hours and they go from 10 A.M to 10 P.M not including extra practices. In the contract (I’m assuming), it states, that this treatment is temporary, and the company has to gives the trainees a dorm, food, and lessons. If you think all of this is free, you are sadly mistaken. It has been started by multiple idols, but the most recent one was I.B.I’s Sohee. She was explaining about her time as a trainee in her agency and all the rough time and harassment  she was going through and I sympathized with that… But what really stood out for me was the fact that she basically complained about having to work for a Korean barbecue restaurant owned by the CEO as a part-time for 6 months. She said (and I’m not quoting because it was resumed) “The CEO also made the trainees work part-time at his Korean barbecue restaurant for 6 months, and led them to believe that their work would help fund their debut”. Well…  

Did you think this was free? The training services they give you HAVE to be paid for, and it should be stated in the contract that you will pay for the training services given once you debut. A lot of big companies take 10% or more of your earnings to pay for that debt you imposed on yourself. One trainee costs the company about 30 million won (approximately $27,000) per month, and if you think that I will not get my money back in one way or another, you’re sadly mistaken. Let’s not forget the fact that only 10% of the trainees actually debut, so if I have 30 trainees, only 3 will debut. What this CEO did was basically getting you out of your debt, so you don’t have to give any of your earnings later on, when you actually debut. Fucking smart… I’d tell you that. I bet, EXO is still paying their trainee debt. D.O alone as a debt of $648,000. That my friend, is a lot of money. These contracts are important because they give me security. Security of what? That my child star will not run off with some other company simply because they chased them in the streets wink win). They are my product and I will not share nor show my product until I can 100% say, that they are ready for this.

 EXO’s Kris and SNSD’s Jessica.  (SOURCE)

There were rumors back in 2012 about SM and their plans for EXO, SNSD, & F(x). (Whether they are true or not is up to debate, but I think it’s true. Half of the things listed here have already happened. ) One of the things that caught my eyes was “Kris and Jessica really have a good relationship. SM actually has a plan to them.” and then it was later revealed that the “plan” was to get them to date. If they saw this as something they wouldn’t find right, or immoral to them, they have every right to terminate the contract. Which they did, thankfully, and it would be totally legal for them to walk up to court and say “I cannot do this contract any longer because it’s against my moral code”. After that the court is to decide whether the contract should be terminated or not. Should it be terminated? 100% yes, if they feel uncomfortable and they feel like it’s against their moral code, it should be. As mentioned before, a contract cannot be contrary to the one signing the contract. 

EXO v. SM (SOURCES 1, 2, 3)

I can smell fans coming for me… Oh, well! 

Though I can’t talk about it much since there isn’t much detail from both parties, but hopefully with the sources I have I can make you understand a little bit better of “why?” and “how?”. Let’s start with Kris. “According to several reports, Kris’ side has claimed that the idol is being treated as an object rather than being respected as an artist. They also mentioned that SM one-sidedly decided on the schedules, not giving thought to Kris’s opinion or his health condition. As they believe that SM is restricting Kris from his basic human right to freedom and his choices career wise, the contract should be nullified”. This was the claims that all Kris, Luhan, but not Tao. Let’s take this piece by piece before we get to the settlements. They said they were being treated as objects and not artists. Well… Honey… First of all, I don’t think you understand how a company works. I am paying you for your talents, whether it’s singing, dancing, acting, but I am paying you for these services, for ME to make money to pay YOU. To pay for those albums, those promotions, those photo shoots, if you desire those plastic surgeries, those clothes, that dorm, that phone… The list goes on. Second of all,  I don’t think you understand that I, as a company, am selling you to these teenagers, as a lover, older brother, and pretty boy. To me, as a company, you ARE an object, a product, and I am selling you to these people as the perfect boy with no character flaws. I do agree that SM should let them have a say in their creative side, but let’s see Kris’ new stuff, shall we?

“July” was written by Karl Rubin, Curtis, August Grant, Rook Monroe, Kevin Shin… and Kris, produced by Karl Rubin… and Kris. 

Ok… What about “Juice”,  produced by R!O, Kamo… & Kris.

 It seems to me, Kris, that you, even though you are a producer, you need help. A song producer is not cheap, ok? And a song writer.. please… If you think that’s cheap too, you’re living on cloud 9. Meanwhile, we have Chen, Chanyeol and Lay writing “Promise” and Lay producing the song. I don’t need to pay them extra for doing so, I’m already paying them! So of course, I’m not gonna help you get a song out, if you haven’t prove to me that you’re determined to make an album and bring all the money I gave you to make that album. 

This, does not apply to Luhan that much, he self-produced his album “Xplore” so, I would have given that opportunity to Luhan more than Kris. But again, prove to me that you’re worth it, that you are worth me spending my money, making a song (or album), promoting that song (or album), and making a video for that song.  “SM one-sidedly decided on the schedules, not giving thought to Kris’s opinion or his health condition. As they believe that SM is restricting Kris from his basic human right to freedom and his choices career wise .”  Can I half-agree to something? I am, so… Bleh. I do agree that the manager should decide on what they’re doing throughout the day. If we let the boys decide… It would be madness… They would be preforming in the same places every time. But, even as a company I have to acknowledge that you are human, not just a money making machine. I, as a company, will explote you… to an extend. If I see you dying, I can’t ask you to sing at the Tokyo Dome… That’s just plain stupid. 

SM can make irrationals decisions as well. We had them “file lawsuits against Kris and companies that hired him”. This… Is the stupidest thing they could ever do. They said “Our contract with Kris remains in effect until the final ruling is made by the court.” 

What kind of fantasy do you live in SM? Once I take the contract to the court and file a lawsuit, whether is to terminate it or wanting the law to make the person fulfill the obligations they agreed to, but then decided not to follow, the contract is “on hold”. Meaning, I can do whatever I want, even if I’m violating the contract. This does have a consequence. Let’s say that they came to an agreement, like B.A.P did with TS entertainment, this would’ve been a problem with the contract if it stated that they cannot sign contracts with any other company without consulting and come to an agreement with the company and they CAN and possibly would sue you for violating the contract. Was this “unethical” in Kris’ behave like SM said? 100%.. But let’s say you guys made him pay for damages brought to the company for his acts (which they should have), like they did to Tao, where is he gonna get that money? His booty hole? Not to mention the court usually gives them a certain amount of days to pay. So… How is he gonna pay thousands of dollars in 10 days? That right there is telling me that you guys want him to go to jail for not following court law. Then they ask Luhan for 10% of his profits until 2019…. Again… What kind of fantasy world do you live in? Unless it’s for damage suffered, negligence and fault acts, don’t ask for money. It is clear to me, that this 10% of what you’re receiving from Luhan are not for these stuff, it’s just you being greedy, because… If so… Why didn’t you want the same for Kris? You’ll be receiving 20% of profits and Kris is way more popular in China than Luhan, so… 

JYJ Contract (SOURCE) (This is too much so, read the article then come back if you want to)

This is gonna start some wild fire. SM did well and asked THEM for money, for the damages suffered, which they did and they should, TVXQ was the biggest K-POP group in Korea at the time, so their stock most have went down in a matter of seconds. Is like EXO now, but bigger. JYJ did an act of negligence and/or of fault towards the contract. This act of negligence and/or fault is in which an act or omission causes damage to the other, intervening fault or negligence, therefore they are obligated to repaired the damaged cause. They lost more, including money, comercial deals amongst other stuff (that was the damage) and they are asking for money (an obligation to repair the damage). The money JYJ is asking for is invalid. They’re asking for money including from 2009, the same year the contract was being in court for, therefore, SM doesn’t have to pay. Of course all of this is settled, but I want to point out what we call in business “Quantum de Prueba”, it references to a grade, quantity or proofs necessary to establish a fact. With these proofs one can determine whether the case can be processed through a civil, criminal or simply administrative court and law. It seems to me SM gave them the receipts including the contract, damage suffered and how the boys neglected the contract in some points while JYJ was just demanding stuff with only words to back up their evidence. If I was the judge.. Honey… I need proof of everything you’re accusing SM of, because SM gave the receipts, where are YOUR receipts JYJ? 

Do slave contracts exists? Why it was important for them to read before signing the contract?

To see what a slave contact is, we have to look at the definition of a slave. Slave: a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. A  person entirely under the domination of some influence or person. Usually slaves have no benefits, no rights and no say in what they do, say, think or live. Whenever I see the debate of whether these slave contracts between the company and the idols are real or not, I just shake my head thinking, “these fans really thought they sat down and looked over the contract 110 times before signing it?”. Let’s be honest, none of us do. And we sign contracts every single day on social media. What do you think “terms of service” is? Is a contract you have an obligation to. I want to make an example, when you registered on Tumblr, I bet you didn’t know they were funny ass lines there because you just clicked the check box and called it a day.  Some of them are:

Please don’t use Tumblr’s Upload Video Feature to host sexually explicit videos. We’re not in the business of profiting from adult-oriented videos and hosting this stuff is fucking expensive. You can use services like XHamster to host those instead.

Don’t post private photos of your ex’s junk (no matter how attractive).

If you’re younger than 13, don’t use Tumblr. Ask your parents for an Xbox or try books.

If you want to ridicule or parody a public figure (and who doesn’t?) don’t try to trick readers into thinking you are actually that public figure.

If you break these Terms of Services, tumblr can sue you because you basically signed a contract and violated it. So if you did this for these services, imagine these idols that wanted their dreams to come true. 

Suga from BTS said that Bang PD gave him a view of what was gonna be like being in BTS, saying that is was gonna be like 1tyme and that the only thing that he needed to do is rap and come up with music. He painted this world to Suga, saying it was black with gold flakes but it turned out to be pink with white stripes, not what Suga had expected, and if BANG PD had told him the truth, do you think he would’ve signed? I don’t think so. I, as a company, will make you see what I see, even if I have to lie, this is called… Marketing. 

The general rule for contracts is that the debtor (the one that signs the contract) has to comply with their obligations. The only time this is overruled is when the law says otherwise or with an agreement with the creditor (the one that made the contract). If the debtor doesn’t pay by the time assigned, or is paid later on their duty is to pay the imposes with money. The compensation will consist of the debt plus interests in which they have agreed on, provided that they are not usurious interests. Which is why the trainee contracts are the way they are and the idol pays the debt even after they debuted. For a debt to be enforced by law they have to follow these for perceptions:

“What are we paying for?” or “What are my obligations?” 

“Who is the one that has to do the payment (or give the services) and to whom do I give them to?”

“Where should I give the payment (or give the services?)”

“When should I give the payment (or give the services?)”

I can answer those, and I bet you can too. The first one. As a trainee, you provide me with your talents so I can either improve them or add more talents, so I can get you where you want to be. As an idol, your obligation is to bring me money while providing me with your services; you will be paying for the debt you imposed me and yourself while I was training you giving you a dorm, food, training with professionals. The second one. You, the idol, are giving me your services (singing, dancing, acting, producing… etc.) to me, the company. The third one. You are giving me the services by singing in concerts, touring, making music videos, promoting, photo shoots… etc. The last one. You will give me the services according to the schedule provided by the manager of the group. If you oppose to anything on the contract you CAN talk to the person providing you the contract asking for changes before you sign, and if they agree to it, you’re good to sign the contract. BUT! This is VERY important, if you asked for changes, and they agreed and they said, “I’ll print the new contract tomorrow, sign that one first, we know the terms we are in…” blah blah blah. You shouldn’t sign it, because if you do… Well then guess what, you’re fucked. Unless you have proof of the creditor and you making these agreements and them saying the stuff they said, no court will believe you unless they come clean. NEVER TRUST ANYONE!!! SPECIALLY WHEN SIGNING CONTRACTS!!!!

The obligations they signed for & the benefits of the idols and companies.

Is pretty obvious that these obligations can be very extreme, we’ve seen it multiple times, but there’s different types of obligations like:

Suspensive obligations: which that the compliment of the obligation will depend on an event, whether it’s past or future (the compliment of the obligation starts immediately)

Resolution obligations: which the end of the obligation will depend on an event, whether it’s past or future (the compliment of the obligation finishes immediately)

Term obligations can be : 1. Determined: that it WILL happen, without a doubt (i.e when February 23 comes). 2. Undetermined: that we know it will happen, but never know when (i.e the rain, death). 3. Ordinary: that it should be complied AFTER the deadline. Of course, it may be subject to delayed. (i.e. the debt should be paid on the 15 but I paid the 18)

These are just some, but I think it’s pretty save to say that the idols have an ordinary obligation, since they are paying their trainee services AFTER the deadline. They have another obligation, which is the suspensive one. In a contract, I’m assuming, it says that they start working as idols as soon as the contract is signed. Meaning, you signed the contract… NOW SING! DANCE! MAKE ME MONEY!

The general rule is that the one giving the services can pick whatever he wants to do and establish it, but it has to be written clearly in contract. The only times the obligation come to an end is when the contract expires, when an incidental event happens, is the debtor’s fault, in that case they have to pay with the worth of what was lost (i.e, SM asking JYJ money for the lost of it because they failed to give the services), or when it was notified by the creditor (the one that made the contract) that their services are no longer needed. 

Keep in mind that a creditor can be a debtor too. This is why these companies have to be careful with how they treat their idols, and vise versa. The company is a debtor to these idols becase they have to pay them for their services, but they’re also a creditor because they’re taking money for the training services. When the idol is done paying the trainee debt, then the company will become the debtor. Making them eligible for demanding more services (but it has to be stated in the contract, otherwise they can’t demand shit). The idols are both because they have giving these companies their services, and they CAN demand for better work conditions since they are a creditor. When the companies decline to give them what the contract had stated, they’re required to go to court and file a lawsuit against the company for act of negligence. They don’t have to say “The company broke my leg and I wanna file a lawsuit”. They only have to go with the contract and say “I have a contract with X entertainment and it’s stated that I will get 8 hours of sleep in the contract but I only get 2. They’re neglecting the contract. I wanna file a lawsuit”. Again, the idol is both giving services and receiving services, so when the company is treating them like shit… well… then guess what… YOU were the one giving ME money for the stuff that I do, I am both, so I can demand the stuff I want before singing this piece of paper. Also, a lot of the reasons why these idols wants to terminate their contracts is because there’s no specific time limit for each day. For example, in the contract it’s never stated “you’ll be working from 9 A.M to 5 P.M”. This brings a huge problem for the idols because they ever really rest while providing these services to the company, and it’s been proven that the lack of sleep (or too much sleep) can lead to depression or suicidal thoughts. That’s why a lot of actors/actresses and singers become this way. Not only are they in the public eye 24/7, being judged for the stupidest, most normal thing, like dating, they lack of sleep because of promotions and extra work.

Believe it or not, the idols HAVE benefits, and we see these benefits when they’re wearing designer clothes, having the nicest cars, taken to the hospital (in most cases the company pays the hospital bill)… etc. And we can see them clearly in the income/profit divisions.

Source

SM:  

 Contract years: 7 Physical sales: Company 95%, Artist 5% Physical sales renewed: Company 90%, Artist 10% Events: Company 60%, Artist 40% Overseas promotions: Company 30%, Artist 70% Note: Divides income even if they didn’t reach break-even point

YG Contract years: 5 Physical sales: Company 50%, Artist 50% Physical sales renewed: Company 30%, Artist 70% Events: Company 40%, Artist 60% Overseas promotions: Company 50%, Artist 50% Note: Divides income even if they didn’t reach break-even point

JYP Contract years: 7 Physical sales: Company 50%, Artist 50% Physical sales renewed: Company 50%, Artist 50% Events: Company 60%, Artist 40% Overseas promotions: Company 50%, Artist 50% Note: Divides income even if they didn’t reach break-even point

FNC Contract years: 7 Physical sales: Company 70%, Artist 30% Physical sales renewed: Company 50%, Artist 50% Events: Company 60%, Artist 40% Overseas promotions: Company 50%, Artist 50% Note: Doesn’t divide income if they didn’t reach break-even point DSP Contract years: 5 Physical sales: Company 50%, Artist 50% Physical sales renewed: Company 50%, Artist 50% Events: Company 50%, Artist (50% Overseas promotions: Company 50%, Artist 50% Note: Divides income even if they didn’t reach break-even point

I’m just gonna leave this here…  Now… Should they follow the contract (the company). Of course, 100%, they’re the ones that created it and the idols ARE following their terms. It seems to me that these companies *cough* *cough* SM Entertainment  *cough* *cough* is not even following their OWN terms, and not following the law like they should, making the idols most of the time go against their morals and sometimes make these contracts imposible to complete. This is why they get sued, it’s not even about them (the idols) wanting more money, is about you as a company not giving them any rights as a human. I mean, sure, they’re your object, the way you make money, your product. But let me tell you something, if doll Barbie could talk she would be SCREAMING at Mattel for making her hang out with 3 year olds that pull her hair, throw her off buildings, paint on her face… etc and Mattel would give the same answer these companies give the idols. “You are under contract, we gave you the contract for you to revise it before signing it, and we stressed that this was a big decision for YOUR future. Therefore comply with the obligation YOU agreed on until the contract expires and if you’re still dissatisfied with how we work… Well, simply don’t renew a contract.” But…

Again… This is MY knowledge of how businesses work and how it should work and I’m giving MY personal opinions with MY knowledge of business administration and management along with the information provided for us. Take it with a grain of salt and tell me what you guys think. 

[fairykibum]

What's wrong with sm?

hello anon…are you new to the kpop world? then let me introduce you one of the worst companies in the kpop industry! 

you guessed it, sm entertainment!

to begin, here is a detailed list of controversies sm has dealt with in the last years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M._Entertainment#Controversies

as you might have noticed, sm has lost a lot of artists! why? they’re known for treating they’re artists like shit! an example is hangeng, the only chinese (now ex) member of super junior. he filed a lawsuit stating that there were “unfair profit distributions and an unfair thirteen-year contract that contained provisions in S.M.’s favour and that he was not allowed to revise or end.” 

he was also discriminated both financially, and management wise, and developed gastritis and kidney illness because of no proper rest in TWO years. to add, “han geng requested from SM for leave to return to China to rest but he was rejected every single time.”

but, sm has a reputation for disliking chinese members! in fact, exo has lost 3 out of 4 chinese members. kris left because:

he was being treated more like an object rather than an artist

sm would change his schedules without his opinions on the matter or take his health in consideration

luhan instead, had suffered from insomnia and his health was getting weaker, thanks to the little to no time of the rest they had.

tao left because he was forced to have a COMEBACK (so practice, dance and sing) with a hurt ankle. as in, he had broke it but did NOT get enough time to rest. 

to add!! as luhan stated in his lawsuit, sm has favored exo k over exo m. both in promoting them and financially.

oh but i ain’t done with exo yet!! :-) you’d think sm would’ve learnt from this right? WRONG! on october 11th 2016, the last remaining chinese member of exo, lay, fainted at the airport for lack of sleep. lay has some of the busiest schedules i’ve personally ever seen, and he literally IS the one to promote exo in china. alone. here is an example of lay’s schedule back in 2015. you can imagine that, with exo’s rising popularity, comeback, concerts, and his own solo debut, 2016 was even more chaotic.

im not done yet !! sm can be absolute shit also at promoting theyir artists and timing their comebacks. that is because of the amount of artists they have and they’re incapability of organizing everything correctly. 

let’s start with the timing: a great example is how in 2 weeks three different artists had a comeback!! jonghyun came back the 23rd of may, luna had her solo debut the 30th of may and exo came back the 8th of june, therefore jonghyun and luna only had ONE week for themselves because obviously with exo’s comeback, the other two artists were obscured.

in fact, moving on to the next point, they promoted both luna’s debut and jonghyun’s comeback very, very poorly. and it’s not the first time they do jonghyun wrong! what do i mean, you ask? jonghyun had two sm stations and NONE of the two had a music video. 

this leads on to the promotion shinee received for tell me what to do! they only had two weeks of promotion, very little hype/tease and no official album details or fanchants, fans had to do them. 

we all know sm favors very blatantly certain groups and artists, or treats certain groups or artists unfairly. a recent example is how red velvet, after over 2 years of having debuted, have not received a fandom name or a reality show when nct, a group that debuted only last year, has already had a reality show. 

another example is how f(x), a girl group that debuted in 2009, had their FIRST solo concert in 2016.

last example is henry’s instagram post from a few days ago: 

he’s pretty much saying sm won’t let him release music, or help him with it. if this isn’t heartbreaking af….

in conclusion, sm is shit and all they care about is money. yes, there have been some human acts made from them (for example delaying shinee’s 1of1 comeback to let onew rest after his injury) but this does NOT cover up all the shit they have done, and continue to do. hope i made it clear!

[itsmaeunnie-blog]

A Filipina Unnie

"Anneyeong chingudeuls~" Be used to that phrase because I will always start our blog posts using that phrase, always. So I hope you won't get tired of it🤣

I will start off by explaining why I named our blog as "ItMaeAgassi." I know that you all know what "Agassi" means in Korean, but I'm still going to say it, it means "Young Lady." Actually, I first planned to name our blog as "ItsMaeUnnie" which I will use when I actually buy our domain. But for now it's going to be Agassi.

Now, off to myself! My name's Aidilyn Mae Perez and you'll probably spot me easily in Facebook and stalk me easily, but please don't do that😂 I plan to make a separate facebook for us to use and for me to use to interact with all of you, when the time has come. And oh, by the way, you can call me "Mae." I am currently 22 years old and I turn one year older every April 24, 1995. (Gifts please ehem🤣just kidding.) I have a Bachelor's degree on Medical Technology and I got my license last August 2017. Currently, I am working at a hospital near our home with a tertiary laboratory because I aim to be able to go abroad hopefully in the future.

(My internship days)

(When I graduated)

(When I passed the board exam)

(Oath Taking of Medical Technologists)

My Korean addiction started way back when I was in Grade 6, I can still remember me and my bestfriend heavy fangirling on Coffee Prince. We even wrote our own Season 2 of it and named it "Coffee Princess."🤣 With that said, I'm going to say it now. My favorite Korean drama of ALL time would be Coffee Prince. And no, I do not think it will be replaced by any drama at all. Then I ventured to kpop when I was in Second Year high school. I watched To The Beautiful You with Sulli of f(x) and Minho of Shinee. I was so addicted to that drama that I read more about the main cast and that's when I found out they were both Korean idols. I started watching their Music Videos and live stages and slowly but SURELY fell in love with kpop. I was a huge fan of f(x) and Shinee and of SM entertainment artists before. But as years pass by, I slowly discovered more groups. Then around 1st Year college, I stanned EXO (when they were complete still and I grew up from them when Luhan was removed from the group.😢) Anyways, until now 4 years later, I am a kpop addict still and I stan A LOT of groups may it be girl groups and boy groups. But my current OBSESSION is SEVENTEEN. URGH I LOVE THEM SO MUCH😭 Also, I am still a kdrama addict. I watch almost all current dramas showing. These are my stress reliever from real life.

Lastly, I want to share my background on being a b/vlogger and online influencer. Way back 2nd year high school, my friends introduced me to tumblr. That's where I started blogging. But I blogged mostly fashion before. I wouldn't say I created a name for myself back then, but I was able to work with international online fashion sites and collaborated with them. I also at some point, earned money through that blog. But when I entered college, I just couldn't handle my time stu(dying) and my time with my blogging, so I just gave up my tumblr blog and deleted it. But I just covered the fire and I did not let it run out. After I graduated and got my license, I started with my Youtube channel (itsmaeperez) and tried the life of a vlogger for a few months. At the same time, I turned my Instagram (@its.maeperez) profile to an Instablog and I also share my reviews there. Come 2018, I realized I still LOVE blogging because unlike vlogging where my time is limited on sharing my thoughts, here in our blog, I can take my time to write what I really want to say. But I won't give up my Youtube channel because I also started to love vlogging. But I will limit my videos mostly on kbeauty products and vlogs of my travels and vlogs related to Korea. Here in our blog, I will also write reviews on kbeauty products.

That's it! That was one heck of an introduction huh? I hope I did not bore you guys. I hope that you share your thoughts also for every product review we make down in the comment box. I don't own this blog, we all own it. Remember that neh? 💕