EXO sues SM for "slave" contract, and the plot in Jung so-yeon's novel reappears, as if the past repeats itself?
On June 1, EXO members Bian Baekhyun, XIUMIN Kim Min-seok, and CHEN Kim Jong-dae announced that they would sue SM Entertainment to terminate the contract, which shocked fans and netizens at home and abroad.
According to South Korean media reports, members began asking SM to provide transparent settlement information and copies of the settlement basis on March 21, but SM could not provide copies of the information, and members issued a full statement detailing all their dissatisfaction with the company and apologizing to fans.
We apologize for causing concern to our fans, and although we currently have a legal dispute with SM, we will choose an elegant way to resolve our differences so as not to cause concern to our fans. Although we have made a small voice about the injustice that has been unspeakable, we are actually very scared at the moment. I hope you will pay attention to our words and courage to muster up with difficulty, and thank you again to the fans who have been supporting us.
Another complaint listed by the members in their statement was the extra-long contracts signed by EXO members, which were reportedly signed by artists for a period of 12 to 13 years, much longer than the standard of 7 years set by the Korea Fair Trade Commission. In addition, SM is also said to have allowed artists to preemptively renew their contracts, resulting in a total contract period of at least seventeen to eighteen years, and recently, South Korean star Lee Seung-ki also exposed his company, and he also signed a "slave contract".
As EXO sued SM for the "slave" contract, the revelation of the EXO contract went viral on the Internet, and some Korean netizens said that the revelation about the EXO-CBX contract, SM former artist, former Girls' Generation member Jessica, had previously hinted at it in her novel "Shine".
Jessica Jung debuted as a member of Girls' Generation in 2007 until her retirement from Girls' Generation in 2014, and in 2015 SM announced that her contract with Jung so-yeon expired and left the company, as a solo artist activity, she also focused on her own label BLANC & ECLARE to pursue her fashion career.
In addition to her fashion career, Jessica's highly anticipated first autobiographical novel, Shine, was also released. It is about a young Korean-American who joins the K-Pop industry, and Jung so-yeon confirms that the description in the book is "based on experience." Now, years later, on June 2, after three members of EXO sued SM Entertainment for rescission of the contract, an excerpt from the novel "Shine" began to circulate on the Korean Internet.
In the novel, the protagonist asks another person about the duration of their contract, and the other painfully explains how the fictional record label DB Entertainment controls her career, writing: "Somewhere in a Swiss bank, in some secure vault, DB forces the rest of Electric Flower and me to sign a three-year extension on the same day we signed the original contract." Of course it has already been signed, so everything will be established in court. ”
The character also mentions how the company tried to blame her for everything, similar to SM Entertainment's statement accusing another company of trying to poach the EXO trio and denying the trio's complaint. Since Jung so-yeon's novel is closely related to her own story, some fans shared the article in support of EXO-CBX's claims, saying that the former girl group member tried to shed light on the issue, which also attracted the attention of Korean netizens.
The three members of EXO collectively proposed to SM to terminate the contract, the incident is still fermenting, first SM responded that there was a third party involved, was dug into the wall, and then the third party jumped out to deny, saying that the company has never met with the artists mentioned in the report, and there is news that the MV originally scheduled to be filmed today on the 2nd will be postponed, EXO's 11th anniversary return cannot be guaranteed, and then SM confirmed that the three members of EXO have notified SM Entertainment to cancel the exclusive contract, and EXO members will complete the new song MV on the 2nd , all 7 people, including CBX, participated, indicating that EXO's return schedule will proceed smoothly.
EXO celebrates the 11th anniversary of its debut this year, previewing a full return from the beginning of the year, and a fan meeting to commemorate the 11th anniversary of its debut in April, performing the unreleased song "Let Me In" to raise the sense of anticipation of the return. According to SM's recently released new album release plan, EXO Regular Series 7 is expected to be released in the third quarter. For the three EXO sued SM "slave" contracts and demanded that the contract be terminated, some Korean netizens found that it was like the plot reproduction in Jung so-yeon's novel, like a repetition of the past? What do you think?