K-pop fans object to Enhypen’s ‘Bite Me’ backup dancers with fleet of protest trucks
- K-pop group Enhypen’s latest music video for the song ‘Bite Me’ features each singer of the seven-member group paired up with a female backup dancer
- Fans outraged by – and supportive of – the move have sent duelling fleets of trucks bearing protest messages to the offices of the group’s management
Protest trucks with LED signs were sent over to the office building of South Korean entertainment company HYBE on Wednesday. This took place two days after the release of Enhypen’s latest song titled Bite Me, per K-pop news outlet Allkpop.
The fans were requesting the removal of female backup dancers from the group’s latest choreography. In the song’s music video and stage performances, each singer of the seven-member group paired up with a female backup dancer during the chorus.
On Wednesday, photos of the protest trucks were uploaded on theqoo, a popular South Korean internet forum. “Remove the paired choreography with the female dancers completely. Only put the seven members on stage,” read an LED sign on a protest truck.
“Belift Lab makes a fool out of waiting fans. The company that obstructs the future of singers. The company that doesn’t have the will to grow. The label under HYBE with the least power,” read another.
The song deals with themes of dark fantasy, telling the story of a man’s desire to be with a person whose love can only be claimed through blood, per the lyrics website Genius.
“If the fans are saying they don’t like it, do regular people really have a say if the fans are the ones spending the money?” read a Korean comment on theqoo.
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“If they’re just unhappy, isn’t sending a truck a bit excessive? It’s not even a moral issue worth criticism,” read another on theqoo.
Some fans have even sent protest trucks in response, to show their support for the choreography.
“Bite Me choreography the best!” read an LED sign on a truck sent by international fans of Enhypen, as seen in a Tweet.
Just within the past month, at least three fleets of protest trucks have been sent to various entertainment company buildings for a multitude of reasons.
A fleet was sent to complain about a K-pop group not releasing music for more than 530 days, and another was sent calling for the removal of K-pop group members who were previously embroiled in controversies, Allkpop reported.
The LED protest trucks can cost around US$220 to rent for a day, according to the CEO of Ad Total, an advertising agency that rents out these trucks, per South Korean news outlet The Hankyoreh.
And these LED chariots seem to be having an impact.
“Having trucks drive around definitely has an impact on us on many levels,” said an employee of a company who witnessed an LED truck protest last year to South Korean news outlet Korea JoongAng Daily.
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“People near our company who didn’t exactly know what was going on became aware and even our own staff – or worse, people higher up – asked the related teams what’s going on. If the CEO or others become aware, then it gets serious for us,” said the employee, as quoted by JoongAng.
As an industry that is easily affected by shifts in consumer sentiment, LED trucks can serve as a significant threat to K-pop entertainment companies as they bring people’s “online voices” into real life, said Kim Si-wuel, professor of consumer information science at Konkuk University, JoongAng reported.
“Companies take utmost care to show the best version and image of themselves, so when consumers get people unrelated to the issue involved, it damages the companies a lot,” Kim said.
Belift Lab did not immediately respond when approached for comment.
