The “Big 4” K-Pop companies refers to SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and HYBE. Several employees were found doing or saying things that were shady or even illegal.
Read more about this below.
1. SM Entertainment
First up, one employee of SM Entertainment was found to be adding his wife’s name as a lyricist in EXO‘s songs. According to an exclusive report from Dailyan, he did this to a total of 15 EXO, EXO-CBX, Baekhyun, and BoA songs.
This meant that a percentage of royalties from the songs were given to her despite not being involved in the songwriting process at all.
The employee belonged to the A&R (artists and repertoire) team that is in charge of talent scouting. They also oversee artist development and assist in marketing and promotion. Finally, they ensure the recording process goes smoothly as well, collecting lyrics from lyricists and compiling credits. It is this last role that gave the SM Entertainment employee the means to add his wife’s name to the list of lyricists in several songs.
He used three false names to try to avoid suspicion but was still caught. He faced disciplinary measures within the company.
2. JYP Entertainment
JYP Entertainment is another big company that had issues with their employees. Jung Jong Won, a contestant on the intern recruitment show Super Intern, won a position in the company.
He was soon put on the hot seat for blasting competitor label YG Entertainment on his personal Instagram account. He declared that BIGBANG, a group under the latter agency, will never reach the heights that first generation JYP Entertainment boy group g.o.d. did.
BIGBANG will never be g.o.d.
— Jung Jong Won
He also criticized YG Entertainment for being “an organization built on unstable foundation” due to the corruption within their internal ranks. He specifically pointed out that “Seungri’s scandal is only on the surface, what’s visible on the outside. But the fancy castle built on a pile of sand is always at risk.”
Finally, he called their constant declaration of YouTube records “more meaningless than ever.”
