Looking back at 2018 of K-Pop: a year full of big scandals
2018 is a successful year for K-Pop but it’s also a year full of scandals!
2018 has been a big success to the K-Pop industry. Many names have gone international. However, compared to the achievements, their scandals were as big. Let’s take a look back at K-Pop’s big scandals of 2018.
A chain of scandals regarding MOMOLAND’s attitude towards their seniors
The start of everything was the footage of Nancy seemed to be glaring at her senior BLACK PINK. Many have pointed out her glare while BLACK PINK was receiving their trophy on Inkigayo. Regardless of the reason, it’s true that what Nancy has done is unprofessional. She should have been bright and happy while standing at the
Also on the same stage, right next to Nancy was JooE who was criticized for heading straight backstage without bowing to anyone. These impolite actions of Nancy and JooE have badly affected MOMOLAND’s image.
Not stopping after that, MOMOLAND was put in a debatable position where they didn’t greet their seniors and laugh mockingly at Jimin’s accident on the stage of “MBC Plus x Genie Music Awards 2018″ (MGA 2018).
To be more exact, after their name was called as the winning group of “Best Female Dance Performance”, both BTS and TWICE stood up to congrat them. Instead of bowing and thanking them, MOMOLAND’s members headed straight to the stage and even seemed to be avoiding their seniors.
Also, many fans, especially ARMY, were angry after watching a series of reaction videos to BTS’s “Fake Love” performance with Charlie Puth. Many netizens said that some MOMOLAND’s member laughed after Jimin’s voice break incident on stage.
A series of chasing between Hyuna, E’Dawn, and CUBE
On August 3rd, Hyuna and E’Dawn officially confirmed their dating on the personal account without the company’s consent. As soon as the confirmation of the date was released, both Hyuna and E’Dawn‘s activity schedules were gradually canceled and frozen. And then what obviously came was that on September 13, CUBE shocked Kpop when it officially announced the end of the contract with Hyuna and E’Dawn. However, both Hyuna and E’Dawn at that time were totally not informed by CUBE about the termination of the contract. It seems that CUBE has unilaterally forced two artists to leave.
It seemed like everything was over, but it was just the beginning. After only a few hours of announcing the termination of the contract with Hyuna and E’Dawn, CUBE “flipped” the message: “We are discussing the termination of Hyuna and E’Dawn”. This makes netizen doubt that CUBE deliberately created a messy incident to PR for its newly debuted artists.
But not yet, CUBE‘s third decision on the same day continued: “The termination of Hyuna and E’Dawn was confirmed and there’s no going back.” Yes, this time it looks like it is sure that Hyuna and E’Dawn will say goodbye to CUBE.
However, everything still continued. CUBE seems to want to continue writing the terminating story into a long drama, so it made a fourth decision which needs further discussion. The official result will be available in the following week.
CUBE‘s week lasted until … more than a month! After more than a month of discussion, Hyuna and E’Dawn finally left CUBE. After this incident, September 13th is a memorable day for the fans of Hyuna, E’Dawn in particular and the K-pop fan community in general. And CUBE‘s hilarious decision deserves to be listed in the book “the best joke in Kpop history”!
SM followed YG to boycott Mnet and the MAMA awards ceremony
In 2018, it seems that SM also boycotted Mnet as YG did. Continuously, SM artists come back but there is no promotion stage at M! Countdown. It is because of this that Mnet constantly had bad moves on SM and YG artists. At the end of the year, Mnet successfully prevented theỉ artists’ All-kill and Perfect All-kill titles.
During the 2018 MAMA Awards, no YG artist or SM artist was present. And of course, Mnet also minimizes the awarding of artists from these two companies, even though many groups such as BLACK PINK, EXO, iKON … deserve to be the owners of big prizes. It is impossible to know when the “cold war” between SM, YG and Mnet will ever end.
Jennie was criticized for being lazy and treated biasedly by YG
The scandal really became explosive when fans noticed Jennie having a lazy attitude during their first concert “IN YOUR AREA” that took place on Nov. 11th. Unlike other members, Jennie does not seem to dance her best, most notably in the “BOOMBAYAH” performance.
Immediately, netizens compared Jennie‘s performance at debut and at the present time to prove that she has become lazier and lazier. In particular, a clip comparing Jennie‘s performances at the time of debut and now has been spread by netizens at a dizzying speed, and it even reached nearly 3 million views after a few days of posting. But more surprisingly, to protect the idol, YG immediately blocked the clip on YouTube.
Another thing worth mentioning is that while Jennie is carefully invested in performance outfits, Lisa has many times wears the same clothes as their backup dancers. This situation has caused a civil war within the fandom.
The events mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg called “2018 Kpop Scandals”. Indeed 2018 is a memorable year of the Kpop scene with countless small and big changes. As can be seen, Kpop fans have had enough drama in 2018. When 2019 comes, hopefully, Kpop will have less negative scandals and grow stronger.
Source: K14
