안녕하세요 (hello)! Lights, camera, action! Or as some of you may know, it’s been a long time comin’ but we’re here now. Korean Pop music and Korean Dramas have become an international sensation in the last 7 years and has blown this year especially, which happens to be only 3 years after Psy’s comeback in 2012 that really rocked the world including North America thanks to it’s quirky dance and humorous scenarios displayed throughout the music video! Korean Dramas have been gaining a lot of attention too recently despite already being semi popular, globally. Some have pinpointed the reason behind this is due to the fact many K-Pop idols are also actors and actresses and perform in a lot of dramas.
Why is K-Pop becoming so popular? 하나 (one; first off), let’s talk about the basic system. Unlike in America solo artists aren’t as common in South Korea, many different musical genres are placed into groups usually non coed. This type of system exists in K-Pop as it would in a rock band, the reason behind this some speculate is because in a group there’s usually 4 or more members this allows fans a variety in a single selection, this ensures that out of x amount of members some fans are bound to like at least one of them. 둘 (two; second off), these idols go through rigorous training, usually 5 years max whereas in other nations many singers or rappers and other various idols are sort of plucked out by chance. 셋 (three; third off), in K-Pop most groups have members that can speak (obviously) Korean, English, and even Mandarin. K-Pop has been such a big thing in a long time in East Asia that there have been a history of Chinese idols that have become apart of K-Pop. This alone triples their fan base! Knowing more languages allows them to reach out to international fans easier especially seeing as Mandarin and English are the top two most spoken languages in the world!
Furthermore K-Pop idols live together with their group members and have numerous reality shows (which are 100% real guys. Everything you will see in a K-Pop reality show is 100% real, no acting) and the reason for this is most likely so fans can see what their idols are really like on and off stage so they can truly see their “real” personalities and how they react to certain things, etc. It also allows viewers to see how the group blends together while off stage. How does this lead into K-Drama? K-Dramas, for those of you who don’t know, are basically Korean soap operas so to speak but with more genre for instance they have more comedy and less sexual content. Generally speaking.
Most K-Dramas heavily play on the roles of romance however very few have been about vampires or supernatural occurrences! There is show in particular about a 구미호 (9 tailed fox) which is apart of Korean mythology called “My Girlfriend is a Gumiho” it’s a relatively older show but received many positive reviews from fans. Lately, dramas have been becoming a little more popular with the rise of K-Pop and as stated previously it has been speculated that this is because many K-Pop idols are in K-Dramas. Which leads to point 넷 (4), because K-Pop is rapidly becoming such a massive franchise integrating idols (such as 이민호 [Min-Hoo Lee of SHINEee] and 박봄 [bom Park of 2NE1] within shows will attract K-Pop fans to the K-Drama industry further increasing their own franchise.
Now that we’ve discussed the wonderful world of success within the Korean entertainment industries let’s talk about the overwhelming drive that generates that success. 7 years ago not a lot of people knew about the unfair and frankly unstable working conditions that many idols and other employees are forced to work with. Back to 하나 (one) let’s talk about how people become K-Pop idols! There are multiple record labels such as YG Entertainment and SM Town being one of the most well known outside JYJ records. At some point companies like these will hold auditions and singers, rappers, and dancers by the thousands come to these auditions and perform their best and hope for they picked. Once the company picks out the performers they feel are best they stick them in a group of with a bunch of other people and they form this contracts which pretty stats they have to live and work together for a set amount of time, they have to be in training for set amount of time, etc.
Whatever training and promoting the company does their group has to pay all that back. Here’s the twist, however, the company can just up that total amount whenever they want and their employees seemingly can’t do anything about it. Whatever the company has to pay for for music videos and concerts the group has to pay back. Furthermore, idols are consistently overworked they rarely receive vacation time and often make music videos within a day and perform multiple concerts around the country within a day which can also be very dangerous considering the number one highest rate of death in South Korea is by car accidents and there have been instances where idols have been seriously injured or even killed due to being on the go or having to drive in terrible conditions. Such a situation is brought up when 2 members of Ladies Code passed away due to a collision almost a year 2 ago now. Which isn’t the first time such a tragedy has happened. The worst part about misfortunes like these is that most corporations don’t particularly care. There’s a line of plenty other people waiting to take the place of the deceased and quitters.
It has also been proven that idols have terrible unhealthy diets (such as lettuce and water, sweet potato and bean milk or 2 blocks of tofu. 5 days of water, don’t eat dinner, the next day of some eggs with sweet potatoes) and sometimes pressured into getting plastic surgery (Stawski). To make matters worse most K-Pop idols don’t get paid that much, it has only been recently that groups have been starting to stand up for themselves against their employers about terrible pay since companies have simply been taking all the money the entertainers make and keeping it for themselves while increasing their debt to unreasonable rates that the idols essentially won’t be able to pay off, this is what they call a BEP. This has been causing members to sue or leave their companies all together (Stawski). There have also been cases where companies have simply dropped an idol for seemingly no reason such as Jessica from Girls Generation (AKA SNSD) or Nicole from KARA. 2014 has been said to have been the worst year for K-Pop due to this issue. Another problem with these contacts is the companies don’t have any transparency with their employees.
Another massive issue that has been expressed is lack of privacy mainly come from “fans” that Koreans have labeled “sasaengs” which are legitimate stalkers. There have been cases where sasaengs have trespassed onto an idol’s private property or have ridiculed members for having relationships. SHINee’s Jong-Hyun and his girlfriend got attacked through social media by sasaengs to the point where he broke down crying live on stage and apologized. Why should he have to apologize for wanting a relationship? K-Pop is notorious for composing songs about love and tragic break ups (and parties) rarely ever do they sing about anything else yet they’re not even allowed to experience dating or love. Not cool guys.
How does the K-Pop industry affect the K-Drama industry? Well, a lot of K-Pop idols work within the K-Drama industry presumably to increase the drama franchise and their fan base, maybe even make a few bucks! One thing can be certain is that the same hectic schedule and stress is predominant here, too. Eat Your Kimchi’s Simon and Martina Stawski break down the horrors of the K-Drama industry in their recent video: “Issues With the K-Drama Industry”.
With this being said why is entertainment so stressful? Why do companies push so hard to have something produced simply to please the masses for awhile? As human beings shouldn’t be more concerned with the health and well being of one another? Whether we’re strangers or not after all so many fans (and sasaengs) seem to develop such a “deep connection” with their idols but if the connection is so deep and fans sincerely care for their idols why do so many encourage and have such high demands for things that realistically aren’t nearly as important as the people who work so hard to produce that temporary fun?
Why do corporations succumb to greed instead of simply treating their co-workers properly. The amount of stress, work, underpayment, and death simply is not worth it. Referring back to Eat Your Kimchi again, this seems to be an unfortunate cycle in any massive or underlooked business in South Korea. Entertainment is stressful, general work & labor is stressful, education is stressful, clearly there is something very wrong here. As much as the South Korean government brags about having one of the world’s top 10 best economies and education as well as the fastest internet in the world yet their censorship over content is overwhelming; my biased opinion is that they need to get their shit together and worry about their citizens overall comfort and what’s humane and what isn’t. Having one of the best economies in the world is definitely an accomplishment but not if 60-70% of the nation’s people are suffering from lack of basic needs due to a poorly designed education system and unfair, unjust labor.
Works Cited:
Stawski, Simon and Martina. “Korean Food, Travel, and Life in Korea – Eat Your Kimchi.” Eat Your Kimchi. Simon and Martina Stawski., 31 May 2008. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Stawski, Simon and Martina. “Korean Food, Travel, and Life in Korea – Eat Your Kimchi.” Eat Your Kimchi. Simon and Martina Stawski., 31 May 2008. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
Ladies Code: EunB’s Funeral. 2014. Film.
Dorof, Jakob. “Made It In Ohio: How Bradley Ray Moore Accidentally Conquered K-Pop.” Noisy.voice.com/. Web. 5 Jan. 2016.
“Issues With the K-Drama Industry” Dir. Simon and Martina Stawski. Perf. Simon and Martina. 2015. Film.
