LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam’s school violence controversy has done serious damage to HYBE, and by extension, BTS’s reputation.
The world-famous boy group BTS has transformed the no-name entertainment company Big Hit into HYBE Labels – the most successful Kpop agency as of the moment. In fact, it was no exaggeration to say that BTS basically created the HYBE we know today.
As a result, all groups to debut under HYBE would often be stuck with BTS’s name and called as “BTS’s juniors”, “BTS’s little sister”, or “idol from the same company as BTS”.
Therefore, everytime a HYBE artist stumbled into scandals, BTS would be dragged down along with them. We can see this clearly in the recent school bullying scandal of LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam, which is still making headlines with shocking new revelations. From the company’s savior, BTS now feels as if they are the designated pawn.
BTS – the “aces” who built the HYBE empire from scratch
When BTS debuted in 2013, both the group and their agency Big Hit were completely irrelevant to Kpop fans. As no-name artists from a small company, BTS had to climb their way up without any support, before finally exploding in 2016 with the song “Fire”, followed by the hit “Spring Day” a year later. It has been years since then, and now BTS’s influence has extended all around the world, breaking all previous boundaries surrounding Kpop.
Throughout their career, BTS has constantly broken records and earned never seen before achievements. They were the first Kpop artist to land first on Billboard Hot 100, and in just the two years 2020 and 2021, managed to replicated this achievement 5 times with their songs “Butter”, “Dynamite”, “Life Goes On”, “Savage Love (Remix)”, and most recently, “Permission To Dance”.
Even more impressive, BTS was also the first Kpop idol to be nominated at world’s largest music award Grammy, having earned nominations for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in both 2020 and 2021. The boy group can be said to be the most successful Kpop act in history, and as such, earned the honor of becoming “special presidential envoys for future generations and culture”.
Thanks to BTS, Big Hit, later known as HYBE, became one of the powerhouses of the Kpop industry. The company’s prestige, scale, and wealthiness of today were the eventual results of BTS’s hardwork and insane popularity.
BTS suffered from HYBE’s persistent protection of LE SSERAFIM Kim Garam against school violence allegations amid public outcry
Recently, the intense accusations against Kim Garam, a member of the new HYBE girl group LE SSERAFIM, was the center of attention in South Korea. The public were ready to kick the female idol entirely from Kpop, but HYBE maintained their stance that Kim Garam was innocent. However, as the agency couldn’t reveal any convincing proof, they failed to persuade the public, and were hated fervently in return.
As a result, public outcry regarding this situation not only damaged HYBE’s reputation, but also dragged in the group that represented the firm – BTS. As a girl group under HYBE and known to be “BTS’s little sisters”, LE SSERAFIM received a lot of support from BTS’s fandom ARMY, and this has since backfired. Even worse, the media also mentioned BTS in affiliation with all negative news about LE SSERAFIM, in order to attract attention.
Korean media outlets have included BTS in Kim Garam’s school violence controversy, making titles like “BTS’s company girl group”, “BTS’s junior”. BTS is being dragged into this mess because they are the biggest group of HYBE.
BTS is making a comeback but too much attention is being unnecessarily paid to Kim Garam’s controversy
The thing that pisses off BTS’s fans the most is that the controversy involving HYBE and Kim Garam is affecting BTS’s upcoming comeback with the anthology album “Proof”. Although BTS does nothing wrong, being the representative artist of a company that is facing heavy criticism still somewhat hurts their image, especially ahead of a comeback.
HYBE defending Kim Garam despite the victims’ evidence also creates a “reverse” effect. The public is now no longer trusting what HYBE says, and this poses a risk that if other HYBE idols get into a scandal in the future, HYBE will no longer be able to protect their artists because of their tainted image.
Dating rumors of BTS’s V and BLACKPINK’s Jennie suspected of being HYBE’s attempt to distract the public from Kim Garam’s controversy
On May 23, the Internet was stirred up by photos assumed to be BTS’s V and BLACKPINK’s Jennie dating on Jeju Island. While many netizens believe they are indeed V and Jennie because of the striking resemblance, fans are not convinced and have pointed out details proving that the photos were edited. Currently, YG and HYBE have yet to give an official response, so the rumors are not subsiding any time soon.
In particular, the uncanny timing of V and Jennie’s alleged dating photos being released and HYBE not addressing the rumors also spark a theory. Netizens claim this could be the company’s attempt to cover up for Kim Garam by using V and Jennie as scapegoats to serve their media play plan.
