According to Kyunghyang, the multinational KATSEYE band under HYBE Group and produced by HYBE President Bang Si Hyuk, is facing criticism for deliberately inserting the sensitive sounds of adult films into the newly released song.
The controversial song "Gnarly" is included in KATSEYE's second mini album "Beautiful Chaos," released on April 30.
"Gnarly" was made by a team of producers pursuing the hyperpop dance music genre including Alice Longyu Gao, Pink Slip, Slow Rabbit and Chairman Bang Si Hyuk himself with the stage name "Hitman" Bang.
The producers used a woman's sensitive sound in an adult film, allowing them to appear in the beginning and middle of the song "Gnarly".
The original demo of Gnarly initially used laughter in these segments, but was later replaced with sensitive sound in the final official release.
Recently, Pink Slip - one of the music producers of "Gnarly" directly showed off his space in inserting sensitive sounds into the song.
Pink Slip proudly shared: "When I made 'Gnarly', I thought the song needed an element to attract attention. The song couldn't have become a hit without that sound."
Pink Slip even let the audience listen to this sensitive soundtrack before it was used in the song.
Pink Slip's move quickly spread on social media and was criticized.
In particular, KATSEYE is a girl group with a member Yoonchae only 17 years old, raising concerns about the ethical consequences of including 18+ content in a song performed by minors.
Kyunghyang newspaper believes that Bang Si Hyuk is the producer of KATSEYE, so he will have to take responsibility for the questioning and criticism of the audience.
A music industry insider said: "The producer of a group is always the one who approves the final version of a song. So it is difficult to explain other than the possibility that this is intentional input sound. The State President cannot help but know about this.
Meanwhile, Bang Si Hyuk and HYBE Group are facing a serious crisis related to fraud allegations and tax issues.
Prosecutors and police are investigating Chairman Bang Si Hyuk, accusing him of defrauding HYBE's current investors in 2019, when the company was preparing to list publicly traded stocks (IPO), illegally profiting 190 billion won.
HYBE is being investigated by the Seoul Tax Department for suspected tax evasion through unfair trading activities, disrupting the stock market.
