From Slave-Like Contracts To No Dating Clauses: The World Of K-Pop Is A Weird One
Girl group Wonder Girl love their matching costumes - as do most K-Pop bands. [Photo: Rex]
You might think Korean Pop (dubbed “K-Pop”) is all about insanely trippy music videos, catchy tunes and cutesy matching outfits. But delve a little deeper into this particular music genre and you’ll find just how bizarre this industry really is – and what a dark side it has.
It’s a massive industry, with some of the biggest stars pulling in over half a million pounds PER WEEK, and has produced some huge names – some of which have even made it onto the world stage (how can we ever get Psy’s “Gangnam Style” out of our heads).
But behind each slick dance routine is a handful of scary stories; most harrowingly about the way young artists are treated.
K-Pop may look sweet and innocent on the surface, but the industry has a really dark side to it. [Photo: Giphy]
Take, for starters, the contracts that some people suggest are almost verging on modern-day slavery, which many singers find themselves tangled up in. Many a K-Pop star has admitted to finding him- or herself tied to a record company for years on end, with an incredibly limited amount of financial reward or control over their own lives.
In 2009, former Super Junior member Han Geng claimed SM Entertainment forced him to do things he didn’t want to. He says that he was threatened with fines if he disobeyed them and wasn’t allowed sick leave when he needed it. The same year, the boyband JYJ claimed that their 13-year contracts with the Korean music label were unfair and profits weren’t evenly distributed.
Some singers aren’t even allowed to date – thanks to the obsessive and weirdly territorial fan base that can be another scary side effect of the K-Pop world. You thought One Direction had it bad, but K-Pop stars have been subject to everything from messages written in menstrual blood to having their homes put under surveillance by their “sasaeng” (private) fans, as a sign of their undying devotion.
Another coordinated look; this time from KARA. [Photo: Rex]
But before the stardom starts, the K-Pop potentials have to be discovered. And that’s normally done through a careful selection process that’s just as rigorous as you might have suspected. For one thing, there are no brilliant singers that aren’t natural beauties – most talent scouts roam around singling out only attractive children from an early age.
Other children join the K-Pop world thanks to talent contests, much like “The X Factor”. TV show “Superstar K” is huge in Korea, so big in fact that some four per cent of South Korea’s population tried out for it in 2012. That’s around 2.08 million hopeful singers competing in one year in a country with a population of fifty million. As a comparison, even the world-famous “American Idol” only has a minuscule 0.03 percent of the U.S. population enter each year.
Synchronised dance moves are imperative in most K-Pop bands - like 2PM are demonstrating here. [Photo: Rex]
Next up comes the training. “Producers design the band they want—down to the precise look, sound, and marketing campaign—before they even audition members,” wrote Euny Hong on The Paris Review, in an article in defense of the K-Pop training methods.
“It takes time to see who has hidden talents,” Shin Hyung-kwan, the general manager of MNET (Korea’s version of MTV) told The Paris Review. “It’s one thing to pick some person and say you’re going to make them a star, but you have to see if they get along with each other and in society at large. If you are not careful, the whole thing can be spoiled. Westerners do not understand. The performers could get into an accident, some kind of trouble.
“In the United States, with the popular bands, the choreography is very different. If you look at New Kids on the Block, for example, the members are not really synchronized. And in Justin Timberlake’s [performances], the dancers are a bit off. Dancers in American bands are freer and go by feeling. The United States doesn’t have singers who dance really well, unless it’s someone like Michael Jackson, and that kind of talent comes around once in a hundred years.”
But K-Pop singers don’t just dance well – they dance in perfect unison, with not a single toe out of place. And a skill like that takes a huge amount of practice to perfect.
Girls’ Generation proves how perfectly matched their dance moves are. [Photo: Giphy]
One Singaporean woman, picked out at a mass audition by a Korean talent scouting firm, revealed to Listverse.com that trainees are expected to work 14-hour days to practice gym, dance, swimming, and singing.
Their food intake is monitored, too. Breakfast is limited to low-fat biscuits, bananas, and lettuce. Chicken breast and salad are served for dinner, and no water is allowed after 7:00 PM to prevent “bloatedness.” They’re not even allowed to the bathroom without a companion and sunglasses must be worn at all times, apparently.
There are worrying accounts about the ‘training’ involved in becomming a K-Pop star. [Photo: Giphy]
A spot of plastic surgery isn’t uncommon either – just take a look at the site kpopsurgery.com to see some of the shocking transformations that have taken place.
There are also scary rumors that some young Korean girls are sexually abused during their quest for fame. Some young potentials are thought to be coerced into dolling out sexual favours to get ahead – even if they’re underage. Jang Seok-woo, CEO of Open World Entertainment, was arrested in 2012 for both sexually abusing female trainees and encouraging male idols in his employment to do the same. But it doesn’t stop there.
After the initial announcement of Seak-woo’s crimes, it was confirmed that “aphrodisiac substances” were involved in the abuse – suggesting that he drugged his female employees prior to ordering their abuse.
The K-Pop industry may be lucrative, it may make the dreams of many teenagers come true but judging by these reports it does also have a dark side that needs to be shouted about.
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