BTS are just a few months away from their much-anticipated reunion, but Jungkook's solo fandom is fuming over HYBE's alleged ill treatment of the singer.?The controversy started when Big Hit Music's official X account shared an article highlighting BTS members' solo Spotify achievements, but Jungkook was noticeably absent.?Following the X post, the Golden hitmaker's solo stans are advising him to leave his agency, with 'Jungkook Leave HYBE' trending on the microblogging site.
On February 26, the official account of BTS' agency shared a Naver post titled 'Even with the ¡®Power¡¯ solo¡ Occupies Spotify¡¯s ¡®TOP 10¡¯ chart.' The article explained how BTS members have made a significant impact on Spotify's charts in the second half of 2024, highlighting that half of the top 10 most-streamed songs on Spotify from July to December belonged to BTS members' solo tracks.
The article mentioned that Jimin's second solo album, MUSE, was particularly successful, with five songs from the album ranking in the top 30. The title song WHO was recognized as the best hit of the second half of 2024, ranking first in the '2024 Global Impact List.' Other songs from the album, including Be Mine, RUNNING WILD, I'm There, and Winter Ahead (feat. Park Hyo Shin), also secured top 10 spots.
Additionally, other BTS members had songs featured on the list. Jimin's solo tracks MUSE, Slow Dance (feat. Sofia Carson), Rebirth (Intro), and Interlude: ShowTime all ranked within the top 30. Jin's Super Tuna and V's duet with Bing Crosby, White Christmas, also made the list, ranking 23rd and 26th, respectively.
Fans of Jungkook are outraged, feeling Big Hit consistently overlooks his accomplishments while promoting other BTS members' achievements despite the?maknae establishing himself as the most successful K soloist of all time.
Notably, Jungkook's?song Seven has broken Spotify records as the most-streamed song by a K-pop artist, garnering 2.2 billion streams and surpassing BTS's Dynamite which has?2 billion streams on the digital music streaming platform. Additionally, Jungkook has made history as the fastest K-pop artist to reach 17 million followers on Spotify, with only BTS member V having more followers at 19 million.
During a recent meeting, HYBE credited its considerable success in Q4 2023 to Jungkook's debut album GOLDEN, which sold over 2.5 million units on Hanteo in just one day. Highlighting the same, fans argued that despite his significant contribution to the company's growth, HYBE has never publicly acknowledged Jungkook, while it often shares posts dedicated to other members.
One agitated fan wrote, "It's really crazy how just hours ago the company was talking about Jungkook's solo success in a conference call, but when it comes to acknowledging it publicly, like sharing articles about his achievements like this, he suddenly and magically doesn't exist for the company."
Another wrote, "First of all, congratulations to the other members, but once again, why is Jungkook nowhere to be mentioned? How does the company he helped build and whose success he continues to fuel consistently overlook his impact while having no issue using him to attract investors? The more he achieves, the louder your silence becomes."
?"Jungkook keeps breaking records every day, but the hypocrisy and jealousy I see are endless. Instead of acknowledging his achievements, you just ignore them like they don't exist. Honestly, you don't deserve him at all," another fan mentioned.
"Congratulations to them. But Jungkook has so many achievements and records recently; do you want to keep pretending that it never happened?" a fourth fan mentioned.
?"Insane how hours ago this company was talking about Jungkook¡¯s solo success in a conference call, now ignoring his achievements in an article so you can talk about him when it comes to money & profit but can¡¯t acknowledge his impact publicly? Have some shame, b*tch; you¡¯re nothing without Jk," she mentioned.
Jungkook is currently serving his mandatory service in the South Korean military. Despite his absence from the music sphere since December 2023, the singer swept major honors last award season.
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