MR. MR.'s Agency Comes Out With New Statement Regarding Girls' Generation Dissing Controversy

The CEO of Winning Insight has released a new statement to address the issue about Mr. Mr.'s track targeting Girls' Generation.

Mar 5, 2014 11:42 AM GMT

TAGㆍMR.MRㆍ Girls Generation

Rookie group MR. MR. are currently in the line of fire after they, through their agency, claimed that their latest track "Mr. Mr.", was meant to diss Girls' Generation for using their group name for their current comeback track.

In a previous statement from Winning Insight, the agency affirmed speculations that MR. MR.'s track is targeting the Girls Generation. Just recently, the CEO of Winning Insight came out with a more detailed statement to explain their stand on the issue.

The statement read:

"Hello, this is Winning Insight's CEO Lee Sung Ho.I'm cautiously writing regarding the controversial 'diss' towards Girls' Generation. It is true that it is a diss.

However, this is directed towards SM Entertainment for we don't have any bad feelings toward Girls' Generation themselves.

We want to first notify you that this is a matter of oppression and resistance between a large entertainment company and a small entertainment company.

I, as a person who has produced over 300 songs over the past 20 years, am a producer of a small entertainment company who loves music above everything else.

In Korea, there are only 5 to 6 large entertainment companies like SM. The other 2-300 are small entertainment producers and they put in their sweat, blood, and effort into their work just as much as the large companies do. It probably wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it is because of them that large companies have an even bigger presence.

However, if they violate the ethics of business in the music market just based on their large presence, what is the difference between them and a large supermarket infiltrating into small farmers' markets?

Many people ask if we're dissing just because the title of the song is the same, but if you look deeper, there are varying view points and positions on this.

It is a completely different matter to use the same title for songs vs. using the name of a rookie group that is currently promoting as the title of a song. Others say that this is a way for us to make a rapid growth.

However, as soon as the title of a song of a big star like Girls' Generation was decided on, our name started to disappear on various portals and around the web.

The 5 albums that have been released the past 2 years have long been pushed under by Girls' Generation's 'Mr.Mr', and the top search results shown on various portals are not the profile and pictures of boy group MR.MR but Girls' Generation's music video.

I, as well as our employees, and the members of MR.MR have shed blood and tears trying to get our name out there.

It is a shame. It hurts my heart most of all to see the effort and sweat of the members starting to disappear. Many people say that couldn't it be that SM didn't know about MR.MR? But making a decision on a title of a song is a serious matter. No matter who it is, before releasing an album, everyone at least tries a search before deciding on a title.

When the title of a song was decided on as a rookie artist's name, that has been on music programs together with SM artists countless number of times, we cannot think of this in any other way than that they simply just disregarded us. I have also not been asked for understanding nor given any sort of word by any of the SM representatives I have met.

SM and some others have said this is a marketing strategy by us to piggyback [off their success]. Yes. It is marketing.

I am a manger. As a manager of MR.MR, I am going to do my best to make it known that MR.MR is not simply a title of a song, but a name of an artist.

However, what is clear is that if it was not for SM's tyrannical action, it's true that we would not have utilized this sort of marketing. What if MR.MR was the name of a 2-year group under another large company like YG or JYP? Do you think [SM] would have proceeded this way?

It is oppression to think that it's fine to disregard the effort and sweat of a rookie group that's not well known from a small company.

It may just be that even my actions and my small voice will also be buried because they are big and we are still small.

However, even if it's a small voice, I'm going to voice out. Because our sweat is also important to simply just stand back and watch."

What do you guys think? 

TagㆍMR.MRㆍ Girls Generation