following the conversation about bts features and their.. d-list nature. i remember everyone was so shocked when jennie and lisa bagged big or vey loved collaborators: doja cat, future, kali uchis, dua lipa, etc, maybe it has to do with their time spent on the west and the connections and networking they themselves made, but such a huge company like Hybe should have the same power of working with respected and very famous artists. I find it ridiculous. also they should book hot western producers from time to time, just to try something different, because some of the choice productions in BE weren't the best.
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I honestly had no problem with the BE album but everything else? That's what I'm saying. Goodness this is going to be a rant.
You say the cache of Blackpink's features could be due to their time spent in the West. But BTS too has spent a significant amount of time in the West, in fact they were the first modern group to break out in a big way. You can think of this as a 'first-mover advantage' BTS had over other groups including Blackpink.
On top of this, HYBE has spent more than US$1.9 Billion (that's Billion with a B), in cash, to buy its way into the Western music industry. That is a fuck ton more cash than anybody anywhere in Korea has ever spent to break into America and I actually did the math to check. If there's one thing America understands, it's money.
And yet...
It'd be one thing if no other k-pop group could land decent collaborators consistently and we could say the Western music scene is still as exclusionary today as it was 10 years ago. But Blackpink, SHINee, and CL (as examples) have shown that's not the case. It's very concerning that Bang Sihyuk has so poorly positioned himself with Scooter Braun, that he has somehow managed to flounder all this cash, BTS's first-mover advantage, and the raw manpower of the largest organized k-pop fandom in the West, to end up with a rotating roster of D-list Western features for the 'biggest band in the world'.
At first I ignored it, after all before Benny Blanco and Kodak Black we got Coldplay. Somehow in the mix of poorly suited features we got J. Cole and Lil Sims.
But then, I saw that clip of Bang Sihyuk telling TXT they would debut in the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 because of their collab with Jonas Brothers, and realized there was something very wrong going on here. There was no way anybody who had their pulse on the music scene would think fuck ass Jonas Brothers was a suitable match for TXT, much less that they'd chart high with a song like DILT. Frankly, the man looked flat-out delusional. He was just eating up whatever Ryan Tedder told him without an iota of critical thinking anywhere to be found.
And of course, those boys flopped spectacularly. TXT didn't even make it on the chart. At the same time NewJeans had already debuted several times on the Billboard Hot 100 and that was the group Bang Sihyuk had told top executives won't perform well...
This was also the summer after HYBE's ill-fated attempted takeover of SM Entertainment, which though didn't end too badly for HYBE, it made me wonder about Bang Sihyuk's priorities.
Then last year, in spring 2024 after listening to J-hope's HOTS Vol. 1 EP, specifically after listening to Lock/Unlock and then looking at the credits, I decided to check something.
(What comes to mind when you listen to this song? I'm genuinely curious if anyone else picks it up. You can send your response through Anons if you like.)
That was the same day I read Min Heejin's whistleblower report from top to bottom btw. Afterwards I took the time to go through the credits of BTS's feature tracks since 2019, dug through the credits and producers, mapped out their industry connections to see where Scooter came up. I was curious to see if I could confirm MHJ's claims for myself, and lol. What a disaster.
Long story short, I realized that every decent feature BTS has made has been from a personal connection to the members, and does not appear to be sourced from Scooter Braun's contacts. By contrast, every single mid and poorly suited feature/producer has been a Scooter contractor. This problem isn't exclusive to BTS either, nearly every HYBE group has suffered the same affliction.
Now, as we all look forward to BTS's next album in 2026, this is how I've been consoling myself. I've been trying to convince myself of two things:
Maybe BTS has always been saving their good A-list features/producers for their comeback album.
Maybe Bang Sihyuk, Scooter Braun, Ryan Tedder, and the other head honchos at HYBE have noticed why their efforts have resulted in mediocre success and will take a new (and much better) approach in BTS's new album. Or better yet, maybe BTS's own connections and music preferences will drive the direction of the album with very limited input from Bang PD and Scooter's producers.
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Lol I won't blame you if you read that and started laughing at me. I'm laughing at me too. Even I can smell the cope through my own screen lmao.
But again, I haven't got much of a choice. All there is to do is hope. There's no point despairing before the album drops. Especially when, so far, in the 9 years I've been stanning BTS, the tannies are yet to let me down with their group projects. I'm hoping they come through for me and the current trend reverses. Thinking of the alternative is mildly depressing.