On November 1 KST, an individual suspected of being a HYBE Labels employee exposed several new pages of the 'HYBE Weekly Music Industry Trend Report'.
Below are sections from the new pages exposed by suspected HYBE employee 'A':
2022-01-26
VIVIZ
- Debut date announced for February 9. The album's title is 'Beam of Prism'. This company at least seems to be trying to make the members look 'pretty', but what they're going for is rather far from the visual image that we created for them toward the end of GFriend's career. Aside from VIVIZ, this company recruited Soyou, Ha Sung Woon, and Huh Gak. The internal directors are Choi Jae Ho and Shin Dong Hyun and Park Jang Geun is the chief financial officer. It's more or less MC Mong's company, so VIVIZ's new song will most likely be produced by his team.
- On that topic, Yuju recently debuted solo at Konnect and sold 17,000 copies of her album in 5 days. They ran some press campaigns over her hanbok teaser photos, and the title song is 'Play', but it features tacky and pathetic Oriental gimmicks. The lyrics go 'I gave my all to this game of love', 'But there goes my darling after taking everything away from me'. It's just so unfortunate that this is what became of her after GFriend's witch concept. And what's more, Yuju actually participated in writing the lyrics.
2022-02-09
NMIXX
- Expected to debut on February 22. The title track is called 'O.O'. It looks like they had the nerve to replicate the pattern from 'TT' right from the start. They say that the group will showcase a new genre called 'Mixx Pop', but this is exactly the same tactic that they used before TWICE's 'Like OOH-AHH', making it rather obvious that this company's primary interest is in finding a replacement product for TWICE as soon as possible.
- During the release of the pre-debut content, there were several reactions saying that the members were pretty, but now that the actual teasers are out, you can't get a sense that they're pretty at all, maybe the photos came out bad. The teaser film was extremely abstract and difficult to process and looked like a mashup of LOONA and 'Street Woman Fighter', and the reactions are definitely not looking good. Not to mention, the opening trailer that was released earlier structurally resembled ENHYPEN's album release intro film so much that you can't help but wonder if they have even an ounce of pride.
- The needs of the fandom was more on the side of pretty and refreshing princesses, but it seems that they wanted to overcome the despair of ITZY's excessive failure with this group.
- The one thing that received a positive response from fans was the surprise live on 'Weekly Idol'. Because it showed the members' faces without much editing, it was the kind of introduction that the fans wanted, but the more serious matter that the fans are overlooking is that there is not a single one you could pick out as the center. There was a reason that some of the more successful rookie teams found the success that they did, after all. It's not hard to put together a group with average beauty standards like that of STAYC, and it's even harder to come across an assortment with two prominent center members like IVE's Jang Won Young and Ahn Yu Jin. In the case of TWICE, everyone can have a different opinion about who is the prettiest, but the center was definitely Nayeon with her 'refreshing charm'. As of now, the most you can get from NMIXX is that they just scrapped together some members.
- Of course, setting the above aside, there is the possibility of the group still earning high chart scores. Kep1er's 'Wadada' also made into the top 100 after continued promotions, and fromis_9, who started off at a greater disadvantage, still managed to chart higher than that, which proves that the public's demand for girl groups is currently high.
2022-02-23
ADOR Girl Group
- A red lollipop image was posted on Instagram, and the fans are interpreting that as a hint for the group's story universe. The HYBE original story 'Crimson Heart' is scheduled for release in May, and some began speculating that it might be connected to this team's story universe, which garnered some positive response on Instiz.
- There are still many 'Min Hee Jin Kids' active on online communities, so there's a lingering sense that the team's design and styling is a guaranteed success. If LE SSERAFIM is to benefit from the conflicting synnergy situation we want to create against this team, it needs to do well, but for now, it's unfortunate that the team can't live up to the expectation of serving as a mutually helpful competitor.
- Overall, because the issue of the new 'HYBE girl group' is progressing rather slowly, there is a general trend of fans growing discontent over news about team 'S'. There is a strange kind of logic being spread on the communities these days that 'Japanese is better than Chinese', suggesting that if Sakura dressed up in hanbok and bowed in a traditional Korean style bow, all of her past controversies might be forgiven, and it is quite unfortunate that we cannot take full advantage of this situation in the present moment. Kim Chae Won's fans are also starting to express boredom over her silence, since Choi Ye Na successfully debuted solo.
2022-04-06
TREASURE
- It's unclear whether they've wrapped up promotions or not, but no one is really giving them much attention either way. They announced a cover contest for 'JIKJIN' and released a reaction video for the event. Their inside team is just incapable of creating any noteworthy issues. If there were any Big Bang songs with a fast beat, they could have gone with a cover performance, but as of right now, the timing might be a little off to try and ride off of Big Bang's success. But still, this is the only team that can make use of Big Bang's name and get away with it, and with Big Bang's halo effect still holding steady in Japan, it could have proved quite effective...
- Na Young Suk has launched a new program with Hyunsuk and Jihoon, who previously appeared on 'The Game Caterers'. A teaser has been released, and it will be a YouTube program where the two eat ramyeon in their dorm. The fans are excited, saying that Na Young Suk 'acknowledged the boys', but it's obvious that the company pulled some strings for them, since there's been a connection with Eun Ji Won and Song Min Ho. Not to mention, it's recycling the old series 'The Man Who Eats Ramyeon'. Just from the teaser, you can tell that the members have poor variety sense.
*Translations of additional pages exposed by 'A' will soon be updated.