As some of you know, and many don't, DBSK is a South Korean idol group ("boy band") that is supremely popular in all of Asia and even internationally in America, Canada, and Europe. Their name, which stands for DongBangShinKi, means "the Rising Gods of the East". (They are also known as TVXQ and THSK, in China and Japan respectively.) They debuted in December of 2003 under SM Entertainment, one of the three biggest and best known entertainment companies in South Korea. The five members are Kim JaeJoong (lead vocal; stage name Hero/YoungWoong JaeJoong), Jung YunHo (leader, bass, and main dancer; stage name U-Know YunHo), Kim JunSu (mid-vocal; stage name Xiah Junsu), Park YooChun (middle-low vocal; stage name Micky YooChun), and Shim ChangMin (high vocal; stage name ChoiKang ChangMin).In late July of 2009, after almost six years of performing multiple concerts and on various prestigious music shows in S.K., China, Japan, and all over Asia and even in LA, California, three of the five members, JaeJoong, JunSu, and YooChun, filed a lawsuit against SME, their management company. The remaining two members, ChangMin and YunHo, decided to stand by SME. Even so, the five members determined that they are not fighting each other. The three members filed the lawsuit in order to suspend their contract due to the unfair terms "agreed" upon.
Some of these terms? Originally, the contract was signed for 10 years, after which the band and SM management would get back together to decide whether or not to renew the contract. But for DBSK, SME tacked on three more years after they debuted, making their contract last a grand total of 13 years. And in terms of their album sales and the like, the members receive only a fraction of the total amount; merely 1-5%. Furthermore, this 1-5% must be split between the five members. And five years after they debuted, the members salary increased only a mere 0.5% despite their constant success. Also, during radio shows or variety shows where they guest star, should there be any setbacks or mistakes of any kind, DBSK is held responsible rather than SME. Any songs produced by DBSK can be given to other artists within SME to sing without consulting DBSK. Should this contract (somehow) be terminated, DBSK must pay SME three times what they invested in the group and two times the revenue SME will miss out on, regardless whether or not DBSK agrees or if it was the company's fault to begin with. What's more, the costs for food, coordinators (stylists, make-up artists, etc), and DBSK's manager must be paid by DBSK themselves. (More details of the contract is displayed at the end of this post.) This contract has even been deemed by some Korean on-lookers as a "slave contract".Upon filing the lawsuit, the three members requested SME provide evidence of their contract for the trial to commence. SME had the gall to request that the members' request be cancelled. SME's request was denied and was then given 10 days to provide what had been asked of them.
Also, when DBSK was invited to the inaugural MAMA awards (M.net [a famous Korean music program] Asian Music Awards) to accept the awards they won for 2009, only three members showed up; JaeJoong, YooChun, and JunSu, the three that filed the lawsuit. Afterwards, SME released a statement saying they were extremely angered by the actions of the three members when the award was meant for all five members. Their words: "The trio had no right to receive the award on behalf of TVXQ. The awards organizer should give the award to a liaison on behalf of SM Entertainment instead. This is unacceptable since they had only invited the 3 members." In response to this statement, an MNET representative said, "We invited all 5 TVXQ members to the MAMA awards ceremony beforehand. But only the trio responded to our request while the other two did not. We don't see any problems with the trio receiving the award on behalf of the whole group." This event further showed how unfair SME's reasoning is.
Due to this whole dispute, SME has not allowed DBSK to work in South Korea. Instead, they have been active under their Japanese label, AVEX, but during this time, SME has demanded that the three members involved in the lawsuit dispute must not interact with the two members siding with SME when not on stage performing. Also, while they are "on leave" from Korea, SME "will seek to receive compensation for damages during the time that DBSK has been inactive."The official contract, released by SME:
I personally believe SME to be a rather... stupid company right now. If your top artist and largest source of income is presenting a problem you can fix, why would you cause more problems by refusing? This "slave contract" can be edited making DBSK happy and causing little loss to profit for the company in question. Not to mention that by causing strife to one of the most popular idol bands in history with a fan base of millions, they are risking the wrath of major boycotts further hurting their profit.
So. What do you think? Is SME being a bunch of greedy "slave owners"?
Or was this post merely a waste of space?
PS, do not think that this is just a bunch of "who-cares-about-fangirls-and-pretty-boys-crap". Just by reading the first few paragraphs, people that don't even know who DBSK is can see how unfair this contract is. Otherwise... I fear for your future.
To read more, click the various links I've scattered. Dur.
-Annie Yang
6 comments:
I don't really listen to Korean music, but you /would/ blog about this. You would, Annie. Hahaha :P
Heyyy, it fits! There's econ points and politics in it. ':D
-Annie Yang
Did they agree to this? When I was reading it, you never really stated if they did or were even introduced to this "contract". If so, it was their fault for not reading the fine print. Every company is out to make money so I don't exactly blame the company.. I guess? I'm not exactly sure but doesn't that company control a majority of the music artists? I'm not sure they would miss one group too much. There might even be economic reasons that have been coming up now that shows DBSK hasn't been getting enough.
The thing is that while SM states that DBSK was shown the contract, they never signed it. If you click the link in "agreed", it'll show a page where there has been evidence found that SM had someone forge DBSK's signatures for that contract and DBSK believed they signed a slightly different contract.
And while SM does control the majority, if not all, of the artists, DBSK has been their "headliner", if you will, and makes the most sales and has so far had the most success. Their fanbase holds millions worldwide, so SM risks losing those millions should DBSK disband or have something happen to them in a way that seems like SM is forcing or giving them no other choice.
-Annie Yang
Oh wait. Never mind about the forged signatures on the contract. The forged signatures were for when SM tried to distort facts about a concert DBSK was supposed to perform in China. =/
The contract, though, was most likely shown to DBSK in a different light since when they debuted, they were each between the ages of 16-18 years old. They had been training through strenuous schedules for years before this debut and most likely trusted their company to do what's best for them as artists, but once they realized that while as artists, they are well off, as people with freedom, they may as well have been slaves. :[ Thus, the lawsuit.
I just want to say..I love DBSK too haha. you're not alone annie ^ ^
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