YG presents new strategy after G-Dragon left: Yang Hyun Suk’s return, “game changers” BABYMONSTER & TREASURE
YG Entertainment introduced their new vision, aiming at a generational change following BIG BANG’s leaving.
YG suffered a series of unfavorable controversies of artists from 2019, starting with former Big Bang member Seungri. Seungri, who retired from the entertainment industry after being imprisoned on nine charges in the Burning Sun Scandal, was released from prison in February. After Seungri’s incident, Yang Hyun Suk also resigned as YG’s executive producer on several charges, such as habitual gambling, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act, etc. Another YG artist, B.I, a former member of iKON, also terminated his exclusive contract with YG after his drug scandal broke out.
Later, Yang Hyun Suk was cleared of most of the charges, the YG artists continued to leave. iKON, TREASURE Bang Ye Dam and Mashiho as well as YG’s representative group BIG BANG also ended their exclusive contract with YG. Starting with T.O.P’s departure from the group, Taeyang also moved to The Black Label and Daesung left YG to join R&D Company. On June 9th, even G-Dragon, the core of BIG BANG, also ended his exclusive contract under YG. At that time, YG said, “Other activities of G-Dragon, such as advertising, are being conducted under separate contracts. Additional contracts will be discussed when he resumes music activities”. However, G-Dragon’s departure from YG still makes fans feel deeply sad. In addition, WINNER has suspended their activities due to members’ military service period. BLACKPINK members, whose contracts end this August, are highly likely to renew their contracts with YG but fans can only feel 100% relieved when the contract renewal is officially done.
As such, YG is ready to face a major change in generations. What YG decided to push ahead with is the strong leadership of Yang Hyun Suk and a plan to strengthen the position of their rookies.
YG is a company founded by Yang Hyun Suk and it has maintained a unique music color and concept according to Yang Hyun Suk’s vision. From 2019 to 2022, Yang Hyun Suk did not participate in any work at YG due to the investigations on his charges. However, he officially returned last year after clearing most of the charges, except for the threatening of Han Seo Hee, who reported B.I’s drug use.
Right after making his comeback, Yang Hyun Suk announced the launch of BABYMONSTER’s debut project. On June 12th, he also unveiled TREASURE’s unit T5 to promote in July and the release of TREASURE’s full album in August. After announcing new plans for TREASURE, Yang Hyun Suk also apologized to TREASURE fans for not being able to do his best for TREASURE’s previous promotions.
Of course, the public still needs to wait and see whether Yang Hyun Suk’s reappearance and YG’s “rookie” card will bring any significant results. In the case of BABYMONSTER, there was a controversy during the broadcasting of its survival show. Announced as a survival show in which only some trainees could debut, YG eventually declared that they would debut all the trainees. Netizens poured criticism, saying it was the common result of all “Yang Hyun Suk’s shows”. TREASURE previously disappointed fans with the members’ departure and their long hiatus. Attention is focused on whether these two young teams will be able to fill the absence of YG’s representative group BIG BANG and presents a successful generational change.
Source: Naver
