Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Boycotting

so I have a hard time with boycotting I think it's pointless and does more harm than good. People who are not involved in matters the people are upset over end up suffering and paying for the companies mistakes or unjust ways. Some people Really Piss me off there are more than a handful of fangirls I could point out that claim a unfounded hatred towards SME artists who have done no wrong and are not even involved with the hot mess between DBSK TVXQ JYJ and SME these people cannot stop working just because you are pissed off at the CEO of the company they signed contracts with . These men and women have families to support mouths to feed rent and bills to pay and they are under some pretty airtight contracts to do so. People need to make a living being happy with the situation or not does not change things one iota.

If you want to make a difference do not hurt the artists hurt the man in the power seat. I do not care if you only care about your bias and your self be selfish all you want but how about using your brains and not your hormones to make a difference. Do you want to make a difference in the case against SME Cassies? How about marching with signs that show the universal laws SME has broken with their trainees and artists. How about marching in front of the court with those signs. how about chanting for JYJ in front of the court. The only person who can help you get what you want and what the guys deserve is the judge , you could probably even send mail to the court if you wanted . but boycotting that's like trying to get rid of a bee put waving a flower at it. Boycotting SME is laughable to him he still continues pushing his artists they still perform even if they barely make a cent on the performance. because the truth of the matter is there will always be people like me still supporting the artists I love even while a mass of fangirls in sheepskins boycott them.


I researched SME boycotting and found this tumblr post

http://krazim.tumblr.com/post/2556292578

I will copy and past my favorite parts from it

"boycotting sme won’t do anything

unless you practically get 95% of the fans to do it, well then… sure it will. but if it’s practically just 50%, literally, sme will still profit. "

"if you guys didn’t know, record labels do use the money you make for them wisely - usually for your benefit. there are those who pay for your rent - or house(s), hire a team of marketers who do a really good job at promoting you, vacation, tours, gas for your car, and other things. yes, and most of them usually pay for your music videos, making your album, creating your dvds, etc. and these cost more than hundreds of millions to do. music videos usually cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. making a good album cost almost the equivalent or more. going on tour will usually land you in a couple of thousands.

and if you’re boycotting a certain label to “protect” your artist, it isn’t really “protecting” your artist. it hurts them more… unless that’s your intention. the money the artists makes from their previous album sales (and other promotions) is used for their next album promotion. the more the money company makes = the better concept and promotion for the next comeback. and the artist actually gets paid - it’s not slavery unless you’re not getting paid for anything."

Where most of that is true if you are told you are going to get a certain amount of money and you do not get it but you have completed that contract you deserve your money. If you work on something and you are getting a lower percentage then agreed upon or not getting paid at all things change. for example she mentioned Vacations how many vacations have the artists under SME taken ? not very many it's not a vacation if you are there for work. If you are there to make a video a special DVD or TV series or photo shoots then sorry that's not a vacation that's going on location to an exotic place to spice things up.

"next time you want your artist to be on more variety shows, get more stage presence, or do anything that requires work and effort - DON’T EVER COMPLAIN ABOUT SLAVE CONTRACTS. "

I must admit that fans are pretty pushy more so those belonging to fandoms , you have created as much of a problem for the artists you love as the company has. Companies try to keep up with demands after all.


Cassies have Boycotted SME more than once (THIS IS OLD NEWS OBVIOUSLY SINCE WE KNOW BOA HAS FLURISHED AND REMAINS POPULAR)

http://kitto-no-toho.blogspot.ca/2010/01/news-sm-gone-too-far-cassiopeia.html

"For years now, Cassiopeia has not been on good relations with SM. There has been constant bickering to and fro from the beginning. In fact Cass were pretty much fanclub babies when they had to butt heads majorly with SME.

Let's take a walk down memory lane at the beginnings of the hectic relationship of now, the Worlds Largest Fanclub and Koreas leading Entertainment company (SM pales in comparison already don’t they?). When TVXQ were still fresh and young SM gave them their first challenge. SM was going to either take away a member or add one.

That is where the 5+1=0/5-1=0 movement came about. Cass was infuriated, they did not want their beloved boys to be altered, the very reason they entered that fandom was to support them as a whole. So how and why could SM dare to add or subtract a member? Push came to shove and Cass ended up boycotting all SM products, including of course, DBSKs."

At that time SME wasn't what it is today so they gave in but they aren't affected by this anymore.

"But why a boycott, why now? And what has this got to do with SNSD?

A lot of what pushed them to the edge has happened since their debut, and because of their disapproval of SNSD. For years as some of you know, and some of you don't, SM has been disregarding their fans. Not just Cassiopeia, but pretty much every FanClub under SME. Shall we take a run through?

Jumping BoA:Well, simply put, when is the last time they saw her? Her last official release in Korea was back in, 2005 was it? "Girls on Top". Her Korean fans have barely seen her and she has been unbelievably active in Japan that some in Japan consider her a native. And when did Jumping BoA finally get to see their star? When SM was lacking in sales in SMTownLive in Seoul and needed the 'moneymaker' BoA to rescue them, by pulling in some Jumping BoAs. Now how insulting is that? For your entire fanclub to be ignored until the company needs some star power? Let's not forget her sudden trip to the US now, wasn't she supposed to come back to Korea?

TRAXians: Do you know who they are? My point exactly. Another example of poor marketing and sending off again to Japan. They haven’t been active for an extremely long while, although their main vocals Jay (Typhoon) has had an operation on his vocal chords, I’m pretty sure he has recovered by now.

Shapley: Need I mention the lack of promotions for CSJH The Grace? These poor 4 talented girls have also been shipped off to Japan to start all over again, after finally getting some recognition in Korea. Not forgetting the well known "stealing of color" issue earlier this year, where SNSD fans were favored over Shapley, although Shapley are the senior fanclub.

E.L.F: Where do I start? Honestly I have no idea where to begin with ELF. ELF have suffered in their short life span as well, when Cass succeeded in keeping their boys together, SM has walked all over ELF and they are still suffering due to the "sub group/extra member" issues.

Chocolates: Zhang LiYin does not get any backing deserving of her talents. The poor girl has been in China, her native country, and doesn’t get much support from SM in terms of promotions. Her fans are suffering continuously and one of the biggest insults was when in SMTownLive08 ShangHai, ZLY only sang two solo songs while other hoobaes (juniors) had more songs to sing.

Ayumi Lee: Her fans still to this day wonder what is happening with her promotions. She had joined SME with the hopes of getting better backing, but now has been shipped to Japan as well, as an actress. She is continuously ignored and left in the background. And where was she SMTownLive?

And that's me being extremely vague. The artists and the fans suffer, and of course the fans are the only ones with the voices, considering that they are not bound by contract. And with the past SM has had with contracts and artists leaving the company, you know that their contracts will be iron clad and very very specific."


There is just so much she has written and I do not feel like posting it all so do go read the history for yourselves . The person who wrote them is more than likely a Cassie and she is very informative. reading it all has not changed my mind on boycotting or about how crazy they can be but it does Highlight more of SME's actions and mistreatment towards it's artists.

This comes from a post on Crunchyroll forum from 2008 talking about boycotting SME

"I mean, personally, I have nothing against SM the label, it's more like..the people who run it.

There's a saying in Korea that states: "If you don't make it with SM then you can't make it anywhere." It's actually half true. The reason Shinhwa broke away from SM is that they couldn't stand not being able to participate in recording their album (like writing songs, being more active in the whole process, not being controlled), and the only reason why they're still doing fine is that their fanbase is HUGE and the fans are VERY supportive of their split from SM. Shinhwa was fed up with their songs being controlled, and fed up with being hit and bullied by SM managers. -__-;;
Basically, when you get old/get less popular in SM, they just leave you to rot. They'll discard you like an old sock.

SM controls your life - when you sign on, you're basically signing away your soul. When DBSK was first formed, Soo Man gave the order to put the boys on a water diet (they basically starved the boys to the extreme) to make their faces slimmer so that they look better in pictures. They often try to get artists to get plastic surgery in order to boost their appearances. No joke. SM goes for looks first, then talent. (They got lucky with DBSK - looks AND talent.)


When the whole scare that DBSK was going to be rotated came around (meaning winter-spring time this year), did you see the members cry at the perf.s and such? Well, I believe they were screamed at, then hit around, and they were banned from going to any press conferences. They were split up (put into different rooms and such) and they weren't allowed to discuss anything regarding it. I believe if they were going to rotate, they had announced that Jaejoong and Yoochun would be the first to leave because they "cause so much trouble".

If the fans did not stage the boycott of SM goods, I believe they really would have rotated DBSK. Plus the fact that Changmin is still a minor and their parents can still sue SM under their contract."

Posted 5 days ago on Korea.com comment on an article over the JYJ SME case

"No fair minded person who believes in the rule of law for all citizens and fairness for its nation’s greatest artists can do anything but deplore this latest act of shameful stalling by SM Entertainment. The International fans of JYJ call upon all of the world’s people to boycott SM, their stock, their artists and all product they produce in protest of this blatantly obvious ploy to further delay justice for JYJ. End this lawsuit NOW! The International community is watching what is going on in S.Korea and its compromised justice system and we are appalled!"

and although I agree that they should be appalled I do not believe a boycott will fix things.

that same person posted this on another site

"I just posted this on AllK-Pop:

I would like to ask all fans of JYJ not to mention believers in simple justice to boycott all SM product until they settle this case. If we vote with our wallets — if enough of us do, this terrible stalemate will end. If it’s just business as usual for SM, then maybe it won’t. We ALL want to move on. Please boycott SM so we can."

taken from JYJ3 comments on the court case recently

"@Shirley
“Although they’re apparently very powerful in Korea, SM should be investigated to the fullest extent. They are beginning to sound like the Korean mafia. Who do you know that can investigate them and expose their devious ways? Is everybody afraid of SM? ”

From what I’ve seen so far I’d have to say YES. All the interested parties are. All the people in the media who depend on having access to SM acts week in, week out are, all the people who own or book concert venues are, the CD manufacturers are, independent songwriters and producers who want to be able to work in SK are, etc etc etc and the rest of the Korean public couldn’t care less one way or the other. They have more pressing concerns to worry about in their lives than the cause of justice for already wealthy young, handsome pop stars.

THIS has been the problem so far. In SK, either Fear, among those in the allied industries of the music business or Apathy, among the general populace rules. The current government won’t step in because they are in bed all cozy and warm with SM Entertainment because of its relentless, largely exaggerated pushing of the Hallyu Wave as a source of economic growth and promotion for the country. Also, somebody somewhere talked the country’s financial advisers into investing their pension and welfare funds heavily into SM stock. So the current government literally has a vested interest in the continued health and prosperity of…. SM Entertainment. I think you can begin to see the problem.

Nobody ever said the powers-that-be at SM are stupid. Quite the contrary. They have covered their evil, duplicitous asses quite well. If they go down a pretty significant segment of the SK population suffers, one way or the other. Does that mean we stop trying to BRING them down, crashingly, in flames?? Hell, no."

And so once again I would like to try to encourage a method of action that just might benefit them gather your pitch forks fan signs megaphones and more and let the court know how you feel protest against the right people the people who will make a change possible. LSM is not about to bend over for any of us haven't you learned anything from the relentless way he is still clinging to the court cases after losing. The man is like a dog gripping a bone in it's jaws in this case a pitbull with a locked jaw seems to describe him the best no matter what you do he will not release JYJ from his grip. Protest in front of the court do not boycott sme it serves no purpose.

2 comments:

  1. Totally agree with you :)
    i think that now a days, a protest and the use of youtube accounts and medias from other countries can do a much better effect than boycotting.

    i didn't knew very well about the black ocean, even when i saw a lot.
    i never thought that sme had covered the black ocean at the smtown!
    or the boycott at mirotic era.

    i already shared as much as i could :D

    and i think that if we could make videos on youtube (very good ones), and brinf the law part to international media we could make all better.
    specially now that PSY make people see SK now, could be our chance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. well I do not agree with the black ocean regardless on if the girls were seen as or even were rude actions like that do not make the idols were claim to be standing up for feel happy. Because they can only imagine well enough how it was when they were not welcomed or were treated badly. I was actually unaware of a lot that I read in the posts which isn't surprising since I was never a huge devoted fan though I do enjoy watching them on TV and listening to their songs.


      Thank you for sharing and for commenting :)

      I agree videos are a more productive and assertive way to work and operate.

      Delete

let me know how you feel and think about what you have read