Aghases Call for #FairTreatmentForGOT7
Conflict between fans and agencies is a tale as old as time, especially within the K-Pop world. Companies in general have a history of questionable treatment towards their idols and trainees, with horror stories often coming to the forefront every now and then as fans get a glimpse of idols experiencing unfair treatment.
JYP Entertainment is a large label and therefore has had quite a number of allegations made against them in their time. Most recently, DAY6’s Jae took to Twitter to express his frustration with the label, stating that they were not properly supporting his personal career. While the disagreement appeared to be settled shortly after, the idol’s personal call for better treatment appeared to ignite a fire in Aghases, dedicated fans of GOT7.
This is not the first time concern with the treatment of GOT7 has come up. Though the group is considered one of the most successful boy groups in the world and a pioneer in world touring, it doesn’t take much digging to see that they have faced problems other massively successful groups have not.
One of the most prominent and often repeating issues is GOT7’s constant run-ins with sasaeng fans. Youngjae has pleaded on social media many times over for sasaengs to stop pursuing him and to leave him alone, but despite that it seems that the cycle repeats every few months, rather than appropriate action being taken. Even as recently as a few days ago, he made a post like this. It’s also notable to mention that Jackson was once in an accident due to sasaengs tailing him, putting his physical well-being at risk.
Another complaint is that the group does not get proper promotions for their comebacks, with comeback schedules often capped at only two weeks when most groups continue promotions for at least one month. Aghases have come forward to claim that they as a fandom have done much more work than JYP to promote GOT7, going as far as raising money and paying for ads and billboards for comebacks and even calling Good Day New York to secure the group an appearance. On top of this, the group also doesn’t have their albums sold in major markets, particularly in the U.S., unlike other K-Pop groups that are extremely popular internationally like BTS or MONSTA X.
Though probably the most notable issue, especially compared to later-debuted labelmates Stray Kids—athough GOT7 has been given more freedom as the years have gone on to participate in producing their own music, they often have to rely more on their own solo ventures to produce music and are not given as much creative freedom as the younger group. In the early years, they had no creative contribution whatsoever which led to some rather nasty people claiming that the group did not deserve as much respect as others because they were simply the front and not involved in the more artistic pursuits behind the scenes. Solo activity promotions and TV appearances have been few and far between.
With all of these concerns, Aghases sent a truck outside of JYP’s building in Seoul demanding fair treatment for GOT7 and trended the hashtag on Twitter to bring more attention to it. The hashtag was a top trend worldwide and reached over one million mentions, though will likely pass that as issues continue to spawn.
This is a new movement, but it is already apparent that JYP is attempting to control the response. Member Yugyeom went live on social media and made a statement, saying that he saw the truck and thanked fans for sending it. The video was taken down, which was caught almost immediately by Aghases. This only adds fuel to the fire, as fans begin collecting evidence of other members’ videos being taken down or censored in some way.
This story is still developing and JYP has yet to publicly acknowledge the growing social media movement. But as fans build a case and push harder for their favorite boys, it appears that the pressure will eventually cause some type of change and help the seven members get the chances they deserve.
Keep track of the budding information by tuning in to the #FairTreatmentForGOT7 hashtag on Twitter.
