Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Kim Geun Tae of The People’s Party caused quite a stir a couple weeks ago by naming 10 artists as involved in sajaegi. However, since then the companies of the artists have basically all stepped forward to deny this and some threatened legal action against him as well.
Bolbbalggan4‘s Shofar Music has been particularly aggressive for seemingly good reason, as they recently met with the candidate to confirm they had nothing to do with sajaegi and released a statement.
“Hello, this is Shofar Music. Yesterday (April 20), we met with The People’s Party candidate Kim Geun Tae. Candidate Kim had put forth a certain OST sung by BOL4 as proof of music chart manipulation. Our artist had taken part in this OST after receiving a casting offer, and so both our company and our artist have absolutely no neighboring rights [rights of musicians to receive payment for the broadcast/performance of their recordings], ownership to the masters, or rights to the promotion or marketing of the song. Therefore we mutually confirmed clearly that our company has no relation to music chart manipulation. Candidate Kim then expressed his regret over how his press conference, which was intended to expose the manipulation committed by the under-marketing company, had been conveyed in the media mistakenly as though the artist’s side was responsible for the manipulation. We once again state earnestly that not only have our company and artists never attempted music chart manipulation of any kind or requested it, we also have never met with or contacted a company that carries out music chart manipulation, and we are not at all connected to them. We no longer plan to carry out the legal measures of civil and criminal suits against Candidate Kim. Following this official statement as well, we will be taking strong legal action against thoughtless malicious comments and slanderous posts through continued monitoring and the collection of tips, for the sake of our artist’s protection. Thank you.”
So basically the accusation was connected to an OST track that they only sung on, and the candidate subsequently agreed that the company did not do sajaegi.
That said, the candidate does seems to stick to his main point that there are companies whose purpose is to help facilitate participation in sajaegi, which I don’t think anybody reasonable would disagree on. Not sure how he can be shocked that the artists are what’s making the news given that everybody knows it happens, what’s unknown is who’s involved.
