New Jeans is a K-pop girl group phenomenon that has an impressive assortment of records to their name. Members Hanni, Minji, Haerin, Danielle, and Hyein are known for their sweet “girl-next-door” vibes as well as their unique music videos.
New Jeans
Image Credit: TV 10 from Wikipedia Commons
Recently, there have been many scandals surrounding the K-pop girl group New Jeans regarding their company.
New Jeans is a group under the label ADOR, which is a branch of HYBE. The previous CEO of ADOR was Min Hee-Jin, who also served as the producer and was credited with the making of New Jeans. The CEO of HYBE is Bang Si-Hyuk, who is notable for creating the global success of BTS.
So, how did it lead up to the point where the girls decided to break from their company, ADOR?
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Min Hee-Jin: New Jeans’s CEO
It all began when the CEO of ADOR, Min Hee-Jin, was removed from her position unwillingly because of allegations from HYBE, the parent company, saying that she wanted to take over ADOR to manage New Jeans independently. Min denied these claims and is still in a legal battle with HYBE. Although she did get her CEO role back, she stepped down because she believed that HYBE’s terms for her to keep the role were unreasonable.
Min Hee-Jin
Image Credit: TV 10 from Wikipedia Commons
Other branches of HYBE like BELIFT LAB and SOURCE MUSIC are both suing Min for the accusations she made during her press conferences.
BELIFT LAB is the label of ILLIT and ENHYPEN, and they are suing Min for 2 billion won (approximately 1.4 million dollars) because of her claim that they plagiarized her concepts for New Jeans for their rookie girl group, ILLIT. When the two girl groups are compared, they are strikingly similar, but as of now, there is no firm proof for the public of these allegations.
ILLIT
Image Credit: TV 10 from Wikipedia Commons
Meanwhile, SOURCE MUSIC is angry about some of Min’s comments. SOURCE MUSIC is LE SSERAFIM’s label. Min had said that she handpicked the members and that the label had neglected some of the New Jeans members while they were trainees at SOURCE MUSIC. The label is suing her for 500 million won (approximately 360K in dollars) for her allegedly false remarks.
LE SSERAFIM
Image Credit: mang2goon, from Wikipedia Commons
New Jeans’s Response
New Jeans has constantly shown support for Min Hee-Jin, even expressing their gratitude to her at award ceremonies. Danielle even penned a letter proclaiming her support that Min posted on her Instagram.
After the removal of their CEO, New Jeans released a now-deleted live, recounting problems with their company that keep resurfacing. Additionally, they wanted the label to reinstate Min by September 25.
While HYBE refused, they allowed Min to stay on as producer during the time of the girls’ contracts, a role that Min declined as well because of the allegedly unacceptable conditions.
During the live, Hanni mentions workplace bullying she experienced, when a manager of another girl group, ILLIT, told the group members to ignore Hanni.
Hanni testifies this in South Korea’s Parliament, with a ‘New Jeans Hanni Act’ that calls for better artist treatment. However, this act was rejected as the Korean Parliament said “It is difficult to consider HANNI a worker under the Labor Standards Act, so the case was administratively closed.”
Hanni
Image Credit: OLensGlobal, from Wikipedia Commons
What Will Happen To New Jeans?
On November 13th, 2024, New Jeans issued a legal notice to ADOR and HYBE. In the notice, they said that they would terminate their contract if the label did not rectify alleged breaches of contract within two weeks of receiving it. ADOR received it on November 14th, making the deadline November 28th.
ADOR did send a response to New Jeans, although not specified. The girls most likely did not find the response aligned with what they believe are their rights as artists. In an urgent press conference, they stated that they would terminate their contracts with HYBE and ADOR at midnight on November 29th, because they believed that staying at ADOR would only cause harm to them.
The conference was on the last day of the last hours of their set deadline, and the members said that it was clear that their companies would not listen to them. It was clear to them that they had to take action and set the story before their companies could do it for them.
Yet, terminating their contracts may mean expensive fees for ending their contract early before its date (2029). Haerin said during the conference that they believed that they would not have to pay the fees because they had not breached their contract. In fact, she said that it was ADOR and HYBE who had breached their contracts. However, the issue remains uncertain and will likely be taken to court.
Additionally, breaking off their contract can also mean that they will lose their name, ‘New Jeans.’ The girls assure that they will try their best to gain rights to the name, as it represents everything they have accomplished and stood for so far.
New Jeans
Image Credit: TV 10 from Wikipedia Commons
However, ADOR released a statement after, saying that New Jeans will still continue as artists under ADOR and that their contract has not been broken off.
This is an announcement from ADOR.
We regret that a press conference to announce the termination of exclusive contract was planned and conducted even before receiving a response to the certification of contents and without sufficient review.
ADOR, as a party of the exclusive contracts, has not violated the contracts, and claiming that trust has been unilaterally broken does not constitute grounds for termination.
The exclusive contracts between ADOR and the NewJeans members remain valid. Therefore, we expect them to continue their scheduled activities ahead together with ADOR as they have until now.
We have requested several meetings with the artists, but they were not carried out. We hope that even now, we can open our hearts and have sincere conversations together.
ADOR will do our best to support NewJeans in their activities and help them grow further as global artists.
It remains uncertain if this announcement was sent with the consult of New Jeans.
New Jeans
Image Credit: TenAsia from Wikipedia Commons
Why Is This All Controversial?
This is controversial because K-pop is known for its strict rules and management of its groups. There are silent regulations and rules idols must follow, but New Jeans is breaking those boundaries.
Although it is uncertain what the future of New Jeans would look like, the group has promised that they will still carry the group’s essence, regardless of what is to come.
As Danielle said, “New Jeans never die.”