In what has become an annual tradition, it’s time to take a look at K-pop’s biggest agencies and offer my 2018 verdict. After yesterday’s focus on SM Entertainment, it’s time to move onto YG Entertainment.
As usual, the thoughts are my own and aren’t privy to any insider information. I’m not taking into account things like profits and stock value. The purpose of these articles is to determine how well K-pop agencies are serving their artists and fans.
The Good
When YG actually focuses on something, the results tend to be incredibly successful. It’s hard to imagine a better promotional campaign than iKON’s 2018 trilogy of releases. After a 2016/2017 that saw only three (!) new Korean songs from the group, they’ve come roaring back as one of the year’s biggest success stories. And with Bigbang on military hiatus, their dominance hasn’t come a moment too soon.
YG artists tend to be at their best when left to their own devices, and Seungri’s EDM-inspired solo album was a perfect example of this. Rather than following YG’s house style, he was allowed to explore different sounds, which resulted in music that felt refreshingly trend-free. The fact that Seungri’s bandmates have all enlisted has given room for his star to shine this year. As part of such a successful group with such big personalities, it was often easy for him to get overshadowed. But, he’s had a wonderfully busy 2018.
And as much as I hate YG’s tactics when it comes to survival series (more on that below), there’s no denying the strength of his trainees on new series YG Treasure Box. If any of these kids actually get to debut, the future of the agency is looking solid.
The Bad
When YG actually focuses on something… everything else seems to fall by the wayside. Though iKON have had a spectacular year, it’s been pretty sparse for everyone else in the agency. BLACKPINK remain a huge success, but their discography is still incredibly slim. A four-track EP didn’t help matters much, especially since most of it paled in comparison to their past work. Winner released a full album earlier in the year, but haven’t been heard from since. And soloists like Lee Hi or AKMU’s Suhyun? There really seems to be no hope.
The agency has often peddled the tired “quality over quantity” argument, but that’s holding less and less weight each year. To be honest, much of YG’s 2018 output has been subpar. Winner’s title track was pretty dreadful, as was Jennie’s solo debut. These missteps might be more forgivable if they played only a small part in a more robust 2018 release schedule. But, the year has only seen eight (!) title tracks from the whole of YG Entertainment (plus a few more if you count their subsidiaries). That’s down drastically from last year, and is a downright embarrassing lack of material for one of Korea’s “Big Three” agencies.
Speaking of “lack of material,” it’s becoming clearer each year that YG has no real plan for BLACKPINK. He’s sitting on a goldmine with this group, but their haphazard management has made being a fan an incredibly frustrating prospect. It’s a testament to the girls themselves that they’re as popular as they are. They could be conquering the world right now. Instead, they’ve released a whopping nine songs in three years. For comparison’s sake, Red Velvet has released forty-one songs in the same amount of time. Twice? Fifty-six.
What YG needs more than anything is an injection of new behind-the-scenes talent. They continue to rely on a very small circle of composers and producers, but they’re not a boutique agency. They have too many artists on their roster who could (and should) be branching out in sound. Instead, we often get material that feels interchangeable from group to group. Winner and iKON’s music is continuing to blend together. The only real difference is who gets promoted. I would love to see YG’s next debut be something completely different, without a focus on the same old posturing hip-hop style the agency has become known for.
And then we have MIXNINE — quite possibly the most botched project in YG history. Not only did the program fail to debut its winning group as promised, but the show’s constraints ended up handicapping all of the contestants involved. It was a messy ending to a messy series, and quite a blow to YG’s reputation as a hitmaker. Rarely does one agency screw over so many others on such a grand scale. I can’t imagine that this hasn’t resulted in bad blood throughout the industry. YG has never really played nice with others (his acts still don’t appear on most music shows), but there’s only so far you can go when you’re constantly burning bridges.
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I completely agree with this assessment. Sometimes I catch myself wondering why YG has so little acts in its roster, and then I realize that there are actually quite a lot; they’re just not being promoted (Lee Hi, CL, Suhyun, One, etc). YG’s favorite artists right now seem to be iKON and Winner, and while they both had a successful 2018, neither of them has really caught my eye musically (Everyday was kind of garbage lol, and while I enjoy Love Scenario, I’m not quite on the SOTY train). My biggest grievance with YG is probably his handling of his girl groups. BLACKPINK is my bias group, so of course I want the world and more for them, and I understand that’s simply not possible. But I also know that they could be treated better. Nine songs? That’s a joke. Yeah, all of the songs have been pretty high quality (especially Whistle, PWF, and See U Later), but they deserve more. AIIYL should’ve come with an album, probably with Forever Young and Really on it to suit the summer “pink” vibe more. Jennie’s solo release was a disappointment. 2:50 of what was basically a stale, recycled version of Sunmi’s Heroine. It should have been more, something unique with enough character and singularity to make Jennie’s charms stand out. He better get it together with the other members’ solo releases, that is if he even keeps his promise, which he very well may not. The whole 2NE1 situation definitely could’ve been handled better, and his treatment of CL and Park Bom has been absolutely disgusting. I mean he practically blamed Bom for 2NE1’s career falling apart. What an asshole. On top of that, where’s CL? She should have multiple ALBUMS released by now, not like three singles. She’s barely even in the conversation anymore. It’s just incredibly sad. 2NE1 was only active for five years, only released two full albums, two mini albums, and a couple of singles here and there, yet still they were on top of the Kpop scene for most of that time. It’s a shame things ended the way they did. And it says a lot about YG’s character. I’d probably give him a D- to be honest.
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It’s kind of ironic that one of the best things to come out of YG Entertainment this year was the highly amusing YG Future Strategy Office mockumentary, a show that essentially exists just to make light of all of YG’s failings. And IMO even then a large part of its success was due to Seungri himself carrying it so well.
I have to wonder if Seungri really will take over the company one day, and in how much better hands it’ll be if he does.
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Oh man, that last sentence did not age well…
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I enjoyed YG Future Strategy Office pretty much too. It’s the first example (ever, I guess) of a big showbiz agency that doesn’t take itself seriously in a spontaneous and customer-visioning way. Probably they would deserve to be apologized for MIXNINE even only for this.
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Oh man.. F**K! YG! If I were to grade them I would have given them a F.. I really planned on doing a whole post about this as well. There is so much that you touched on that I agree with but let me highlight in particular, BLACKPINK. As someone who avidly follows their career and them being the first girl group that I truly love and promote, I gotta say that it is clear as day YG never expected the girls to become as big as they did. I remember his plans way back when to debut pink punk and his own ‘snsd’.. I remember his whole “future 2ne1” gimmick. These girls were probably debuted just because he needed another gg in the company considering that 2ne1 disbanded the same year. A whopping 9 songs for a group that debuted in 2016.. Groups that debuted in 2017 have twice as many and then some ie. Dreamcatcher. Ans IKON themselves have literally had as many comebacks last year as Blackpink has had since they debuted. YG company stans like to say that it is just the way the company is but even when comparing them to IKON and Winner it is clear where the disadvantage is. Blackpink has had successful comeback after successful comeback, each one arguably gaining them more fans. Both IKON and Winner received full albums this year, and Blackpink got a mini album with songs that were likely recorded from before they debuted. They are on a world tour with 9 songs that are literally approximately 35mins in total spending the rest of the concert singing covers of other people songs and the Japanese versions. Other stans have now seen the news of them performing at Coachella and then there was the Dua Lipa collaboration and assume them to be YG’s favorite group and like if this treatment is how he treats his favorite group then I wouldn’t want to see how he treats his most hated group. I think even the girls have gotten frustrated at this point and are constantly worrying about losing fans. Lisa even threw shade on Star Road saying that seeing them in the studio would be extremely difficult.
There’s also class acts like Lee Hi who literally cried on tv about not making a comeback and we’re still waiting on that Sept 2017 comeback that supposedly had the mv filmed and everything. CL begging for attention on instagram? Suhyun saying all the songs that her brother left for her to perform ?
YG needs to expand and stop relying on Teddy and the other few for every damn thing. Especially considering that Teddy is gonna be focusing on his gg from TBL and Somi’s debut as well.. It’s 2019.. They need to come up with something quick.
(Okay I’m done responding to old posts now)
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