Blackpink Cheated and Fans are Furious
The South Korean girl group, Blackpink, has enjoyed tremendous success over the past year, but some fans think they were prevented from reaching their full potential, blaming the group’s management and have staged protests for the same. The fans, known collectively as ‘Blink’, have accused YG Entertainment which functions as a record label, talent agency, concert production company and more, of not adequately promoting Blackpink.
A truck bearing a sign that reads “BLINKS DEMAND FOR BLACKPINK” drove around the Seoul neighborhood where YG Entertainment is located. The truck also played a video listing the Blinks’ demands for the quartet: two comebacks, or the release and promotion of new music a year, solo releases from the group’s other three members following Jennie’s 2018 solo single, award show participation, and better overall promotion, according to reports.
Fans also expressed their displeasure on Twitter, propelling #BLINKSDemandForBLACKPINK to the third-most trending hashtag in the world recently.
YG released a statement on Twitter in response to the protests: “YG is all ears when it comes to fans’ concerns regarding Blackpink, as well as all of our artists. Blackpink is at the last leg of [their] 2019-20 world tour, consisting of 32 concerts in four continents, 23 cities with now ending with Japan dome tour. At the same time, they are working hard at the recording studio for their new album. We appreciate Blinks’ interest and would like to ask you to continue supporting the girls working on their album release schedules in [the] early part of 2020. All of us at YG would like to express our deepest gratitude to the fans and would like to take this opportunity to share with you that we are doing our absolute best to give Blackpink and Blinks the best music YG has to offer.”
But fans didn’t completely buy it and weren’t satisfied. Despite this alleged lack of promotion, Blackpink still made huge gains in the United States this year. They became the highest-charting female K-pop group and their song “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” became the first music video by a Korean group to reach 1 billion views. Blackpink is rumoured to be preparing an early 2020 comeback, though it remains to be seen what shape, if any, that the comeback will take, we still wait at the edge of our seats!
