Grammy Museum gears up for K-pop exhibit featuring Hybe acts
The music-themed Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, California, will be launching a special K-pop exhibit come August.
The museum has teamed up with South Korean entertainment conglomerate Hybe – which is home to a stable of hit K-pop acts such as BTS, Seventeen and Le Sserafim – for an exhibit that showcases the history of the company and the prowess of its artistes.
Titled Hybe: We Believe In Music, the exhibit will kick off on Aug 1 with Global Spin Live: TWS, a programme featuring a moderated conversation with rookie K-pop boy band TWS, followed by a performance. The exhibit then runs from Aug 2 to Sept 15.
It will showcase original outfits worn in music videos for BTS’ 2022 song Yet To Come (The Most Beautiful Moment), Seventeen’s recent hit Maestro (2024), Sugar Rush Ride (2023) by Tomorrow X Together (TXT), Sweet Venom (2023) by Enhypen and Easy (2024) by Le Sserafim.
It will also feature accessories and performance gear worn by artistes like rapper Zico, boy bands Boynextdoor, TWS and &Team, as well as rookie girl group Illit, best known for their viral hit Magnetic (2024).
This is the first time such items are on display together in one location.
According to a report by the Associated Press, visitors can also look forward to interactive “random dance play” rooms, which allow fans to sing and dance along to their favourite acts.
An immersive room featuring BTS’ performance of their hit song Butter (2022) at the Grammy Awards in 2022 will remix the performance so attendees can experience what it would sound like to listen to it using different recording technology over the years.
There will also be a photo booth that allows fans to pose alongside their favourite K-pop stars, a dedicated section that celebrates the bond between Hybe artistes and their fans, as well as exclusive video content with artistes and producers.
Tickets to the special exhibit go for US$20 (S$27), on top of the US$15 for general admission into the museum. The exhibit is among the largest ever curated by the museum and takes over the entire third floor.
Hybe was founded by music producer Bang Si-hyuk in 2005 as Big Hit Entertainment. Mr Bang would later discover and debut BTS, the most successful boy band in K-pop history. Propelled by the runaway success of the group, Big Hit Entertainment acquired several other music labels and later rebranded as Hybe in 2021.
While Hybe also counts NewJeans – known for numbers like Ditto (2022) and OMG (2023) – in its line-up, the popular girl group were notably missing in the press statement for the exhibit, information about the exhibit on the museum’s site and a promotional graphic made for the exhibit.
Hybe and its subsidiary, NewJeans’ label Ador, have been embroiled in an ugly legal battle since April. Hybe had accused Ador’s chief executive officer Min Hee-jin, who produced NewJeans, of attempting to seize full control of Ador and demanded for her to step down.
In a dramatic press conference in April, Ms Min refuted Hybe’s claims and alleged that the company is trying to dismiss her because she accused another of Hybe’s subsidiaries, Belift Lab, of imitating NewJeans with Illit.
In May, a Seoul court ruled in favour of Ms Min, granting an injunction so Hybe cannot dismiss her as the head of Ador and must leave her in control of NewJeans.
But the case has yet to be resolved. She appeared before the Seoul police on July 9 for questioning over a breach-of-trust complaint filed by Hybe.
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