the corporate bullying of 4minute: the confusion, the loss and the big mistake

[girlsday.livejournal.com]

Recently an article by Sports World a respected Korean media featured the news of Billboard World Albums Chart Top 3 Artist 4MINUTE‘s disbanding in their [★BEHIND] section. This article discussed the truth behind their disbandment.

The article states that iHQ was the reason behind the disbandment of 4MINUTE.

The reporter, states, “The answer to the question of why 4MINUTE disbanded lies with iHQ. In 2013, 50% CUBE Ent was bought out by iHQ at 16.5 Billion won and the final decision in all things lay with CUBE.”

The article goes on to state that with the recent failures of 4MINUTE’s album, 4MINUTE was seen by iHQ as a non-profitable group and as profit took priority over music, became an “unnecessary” group to CUBE.

Hyuna who was successful as a solo artist was able to resign but the rest were abandoned.



The members, according to this reporter, wished to resign with the company but no one could help them. CEO Hong who discovered 4MINUTE loved 4MINUTE as his own and CUBE suffered great pain through this incident. Much like Cube Entertainment's stocks which have become more volatile than ever since the disbandment news broke. They've fallen to new lows of nearly 9% even after Cube attempted to appease investors by rushing the release of BEAST's comeback news.



Many entertainment personnel stated, “If this was CUBE run by CEO Hong, a different outcome would have been reached..” Meanwhile Cube's rookie group CLC has failed to place on Gaon chart five times in a row since debut, BTOB has been a "rising" boy group since 2013 and BEAST's contracts are up in October which could leave a gaping hole in the Korean music industry for racists, body shamers and sexists.





a stressful and hostile situation that cannot be discussed at this time does not negate nearly 8 years of friendship! we trust 4minute~

Sources: koreaboo, instiz, onehallyu, bloomberg, sports world

Comments

[chastainy.livejournal.com]

Yeah I agree, I'm sure there's resentment between the other members and Hyuna, who decided to resign with Cube probably knowing the other girlies weren't gonna make it

[mangomuffins.livejournal.com]

i think it's hard not to have animosity when your company makes it so obvious that your groupmate is the only one they care about and everyone else is worthless... but 4minute has never pretended to never argue so part of me still feels like they can work this out when the dust settles :(

[thomaswilmoore.livejournal.com]

same here, and i usually think all members in all groups hate each other lmao
but i was blind for 4minute

[girlsday.livejournal.com]

i'm sure they're upset right now. it's impossible not to be. but no one knows what happened in any regard.

i still believe they're friends. :)

[kaykaydelight.livejournal.com]

I remember when everyone was saying Hyuna would never leave them. Welp, a girls gotta eat.

[sayuridoll.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile Cube's rookie group CLC has failed to place on Gaon chart five times in a row since debut

): i want clc to happen in korea

[mangomuffins.livejournal.com]

4minute as a whole makes the second most in cube, although it's true that hyuna's endorsements might be a large part of it. But 4minute regularly puts out smashes and only flops when cube gets lazy and tries to copy & paste past hits (like whatcha doin today & hate). It's rly dumb to say the group didnt meet expectations when the company itself never tried that hard to push them. I love hyuna but the other 4 were destiny's child-ed. Cube never actually tried to capitalize on (or even saw) the members' money-making potentials beyond hyuna

[racquelle2005.livejournal.com]

mte.

[msgrottesca.livejournal.com]

Yup. Idk where this image of 4minute as flops came from, even at their worst, they were pulling in a shit ton of money for Cube compared to CLC or BTOB. BTOB basically only became lucrative when Sungjae blew up and when they went to Japan.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

mte. the biggest frustration for me is that they didn't do ANYTHING after Jiyoon blowing up with Unpretty Rapstar like people were talking about her but Cube kept her in the basement so it amounted to nothing lol imo it's their own fault 4min didn't do as well as they wanted.

[cimelleh.livejournal.com]

I think they tried with jihyun but she's so spectacularly un charismatic that i don't think it went anywhere. I'm surprised they didn't push the maknae more, she's gotten so much better and i think she has potential :(

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

before this i never thought about it too much .... because we are so used to idols leaving their agencies for a better one or in middle of scandals or they just stay in the same company until fans forget about them

but thinking again, its just logical: agencies can refuse to resign with artist that are not profitables for them , that was always a real posibility .... after all their a company not a make-a-wish fundation

sad but true :/

[ashdevilrun23.livejournal.com]

'became an “unnecessary” group'
i don't even like 4 minute but damn

[aimajo.livejournal.com]

I might have laughed to hard when I saw this gif. People might think I'm crazy but it's true.

[cafetin99.livejournal.com]

Well, Hyuna deciding to resign with Cube It was probably a reasonable idea, she can't jeopardize her future/whatever because her group mates/friends couldn't resign too, it sounds coldhearted, but it's no wrong... It is an unfortunate situation.

[girlsday.livejournal.com]

i don't find fault with any other members who all had their own individual goals in mind.

cube's handling of it before, during and now after the fact is despicable.

[mangomuffins.livejournal.com]

Idk if it's my 4nia delusion but i find it hard to believe that all 4 members decided to unfollow hyuna at the exact same time. I think maybe hyuna (or more likely her managers/cube staff) softblocked the four girls so that they wouldnt be following her? jihyun and jiyoon especially are such sweet, peaceful girls who arent the type to do this kind of passive aggresive stuff

[belintuchiha.livejournal.com]

We never know idols lol everything is possible tbh

[carra-mia.livejournal.com]

Idk what happend to lead to that massive unfollow, maybe when they were discussing it earlier they agreed to hold the front together but later when shit came real Hyuna ditched the idea and resigned solo and the girls were mad that she wasn't honest from the start, like why to play games with us, you coul said it straight etc?
Bc I kinda do not believe they would be pissed at her just bc she resigned, probably some personal thing happend, we will never know what it was etc.

[amandaplan.livejournal.com]

idk what went down but i don't think 4minute or anyone would expect hyuna not continue as a soloist with cube. maybe 4 minute is just upset that she didn't use that solo for the group's advantage in order to re-sign the group. i

if i was their company i would resign them because who do they have now to headline a cubeconcert? just beast. 4 minute are at least seen in a headliner status.seeing that canvass mv, how expensive would it be to keep them while they try to do solo stuff?

[mangomuffins.livejournal.com]

also if 4minute who has decent name recognition and actually puts out hits year after year gets heartlessly canned like this then clc better start praying for a miracle. and btob is lucky that fangirls will bulk buy anything in droves by semi decent looking males cause not a single one of them has made an impact in korea sans sungjae

[sugakookies.livejournal.com]

mte

[inkbracket.livejournal.com]

That's messed up. Honestly, Beast's comeback better be successful because its looking like CUBE is hanging on by a thread. CLC is flopping hard which sucks because their debut was great.
"BTOB has been a "rising" boy group since 2013" What?! They debut in 2012. 4 years has gone by and they are still a "rising" boy group. They aren't rookies. They aren't looking like good replacements if Beast were to split up in October. CUBE needs to figure out the direction they want their groups to go and stick with it.

[jinkiestabi.livejournal.com]

Damn.

If Cube knew what direction they wanted to go with BTOB and CLC, then at least for BTOB, they could have gotten to where they are now a few years earlier. Majority of people don't check out the album if they don't like the title track, so their singles have to be strong if they want to bring in money.

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

Honestly 4Minute deserved so much better.

People will be hating on Hyuna for renewing her contract, but at the end of the day how can she possibly give up her career like that? It's a though industry for females tbh, Idk she has gone through a lot, and lets not forget 4minute was basically made for Hyuna.

IDK where i'm going with that but it is kinda sad they ended in a bad note.

[veryimportantu.livejournal.com]

this is so tired just give me a hyunas annual summer comeback!!

[pinkwingsblack.livejournal.com]

someone explain to me "which could leave a gaping hole in the Korean music industry for racists, body shamers and sexists." Like ... what? I don't see the connection the reporter is trying to make.

and that BTOB comment really is so true. they've been "up and coming" for years now.

[kar0n.livejournal.com]

lol beast members are known to be all of those things. you can probably go back in their tag and find pretty much all the dumb and offensive shit they've said.

[dinesa.livejournal.com]

The more articles of Cube come out, the more I'm starting to think that company is not that great... The main thing I keep noticing is that they keep picking up trainees from YG and other companies but I never see them debut or anything... What's up with that company? Lol I don't get the way they do things.

CLC in all honesty from the get go I was highly doubtful about their success and I was right. BTOB is finally making some sort of success but still they're a bit shaky and BEAST I guess is the only solid one but what am I saying? I'll wait until October for their contracts to expire.

I'll laugh if they leave and open their own agency cause they're rock solid with each other, right?

[lazmy.livejournal.com]

BTOB has been a "rising" boy group since 2013 and BEAST's contracts are up in October which could leave a gaping hole in the Korean music industry for racists, body shamers and sexists.
ugly laughing rn

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

lol i didn't even catch that.
i'm always laughing at these remarks on omona, but for different reasons than others... i find it really naive that people think that beast is any worse than other idols. others just have much better pr staff.

[ponpirot.livejournal.com]

others just have much better pr staff

You're right, but I find it funny when fans use it as a semi-defense for their favs' shitty behavior.

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

I'm still laughing at that

[a-suitcase.livejournal.com]

Urgh this sucks. I understand it's a tough industry but 4minute were honestly great and also different from so many of the other girl groups around right now. I don't blame Hyuna for resigning, she has to look after her own career. But the other girls did not deserve to get shafted :(.

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

this sucks, end of an era, etc

[dio-elaclaire.livejournal.com]

i'm just so sad :(

7 years of stanning and it ends like this. why does kpop always do this to me??

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

Both iHQ and Cube are so stupid as 4minute could have made plenty of money by touring overseas as Crazy really blew up their fame for instance in China.

[girlsday.livejournal.com]

with hate they hit over 4 million streams on spotify in two months, hit the billboard world album charts top 3 for 2 weeks in a row, were number one on China's QQ music for about a month, hit 24 million views in 4 months meanwhile every other cube group can't even get articles written about them outside of asia.

4minute's been featured in CNN, TIME, SPIN magazine, Billboard, etc.

[kyokomurasaki.livejournal.com]

I'll never not be mad that 4minute consistently delivered bops and Cube/iHQ/whoever the hell just canned them like that. I don't blame the other members for feeling some kind of way about being treated like Hyuna's backup dancers, but I also don't think that's entirely Hyuna's fault either. I liked their music and I'm definitely sad to see them go.

[mlmello.livejournal.com]

if btob members don't rise their popularity like sungjae, I see the same thing happening with them (with cube/ihq only wanting to resign one of the members)

as the article says, the "old cube" had a close relationship with their artists, considering that they had hands on picking members/creating the group. but the company who bought a big part of the agency doesn't have anything with them and will only look for numbers. I agree that 4minute had potential to make more money with their last two comebacks, but ihq probably thought it was better to focus on new teams, esp considering that kpop as a whole is going through a change of generations. keeping the other members costs money even if they're not promoting...

it's sad, but I accepted that it's an end of a whole generation and this kind of news will be more frequent with groups that I used to love.... =/

I think the girls were close to each other, but they're probably hurt by the whole situation and maybe directed the blame to hyuna. idk if they will ever have a close tight without the group daily life, but they can have a friendly relationship when all of this settles down...

[thomaswilmoore.livejournal.com]

cube is an unncecessary agency at this point tbh

i'll say again, 4minute is my favorite group and i didn't know i would care so much about they disbanding but i'm still not over this

huh, crazy, volume up and hate to me were fierce on a non-male gaze way
their strong dance was so good
if hate was released by any basic boyband out there it would've been a hit

seriously, i'm so sad with this

[lightframes.livejournal.com]

Volume Up aged so well

[existingisfunny.livejournal.com]

I actually find this partially surprising because I thought "Crazy" did really well? Or maybe it was just international online hoopla that made me believe it. Like I swear it was big? So I find it surprising for them to disband if they just had a hit? I have no recollection of "Hate" whatsoever though.

I wasn't a 4minute stan or fan really, but I appreciated the variation they gave and were at least one of those girl groups I could recommend in an attempt to convert boy group stans to the darkside.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

BEAST's contracts are up in October which could leave a gaping hole in the Korean music industry for racists, body shamers and sexists.

LMAO!!

back to topic, if this is true then i'll forever hate cube. 4minute were still their second biggest cashcow after beast. this company is crazy to drop them. they really want to ruin themselves right?

[pero, like (from livejournal.com)]

But how good is Cube's contract that she didn't consider signing up to another company? Anyone would gladly take hyuna in given her CFs and name recognition

[cuteartichoke.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this too but then it occurred to me that nobody would be more desperate to have her than Cube. Seeing as she's one of their few artists left that is actually relevant, has fans and respect in the industry, they probably offered her everything and more not to leave, outdoing any offers she might have received.

[dot-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm disappointed in how Cube has managed 4Minute.
Jiyoon could have done what Yezi had (Rap solo promotion) with the attention she gained from Unpretty Rapstar, but she got nothing.
Jihyun could have become the actress member of the group, Cube did give her some acting gigs, but now there isn't much.
I wish they pushed the Maknae a bit more, she is the one who dances at full energy at the performances when you compare to the other members. They could have given her a duet with some variety show or something.