Inside the K-Pop Industry
Photo credit: Getty Images
By: Adeline Ku
Contributing Writer
South Korea’s 5 billion dollar K-Pop industry has become its best known cultural export with now-household names like BTS and BLACKPINK. The new K-Pop “craze” is palpable, as Fifty Fifty’s ‘Cupid’ tops Billboard 100 charts, BTS sells out the Rose Bowl stadium, Aespa delivers the ceremonial first pitch for the Yankees, and BLACKPINK headlines for Coachella. But behind the synchronized dancing and stunning performances, there lies incredibly dark accounts of sexualization and exploitation.
Behind the Veil
Various K-pop stars trend each week on South Korean search engines. Articles including details of a star’s recent appearances, to which stars are securing which brand ambassadorships dominate Korean pop-culture media. Stars’ faces are plastered on soju bottles and billboards in subway stations, and in this atmosphere, it's easy for impressionable children to idolize their favorite stars. Enamored by their K-Pop dreams, young children flock to open audition calls to showcase their dancing and singing abilities. Many South Korean TV programs like K-Pop Star, Produce 101, YG Treasure Box, and I-Land feature these teens on survival shows in which the general public votes on which contestants should debut in a group together.
The K-Pop industry’s top talent agencies like Hybe, SM Entertainment, JYP, and YG have adopted a pre-debut training regimen for these prospective pop stars that consists of long hours of dance practice, singing lessons, strict dieting, and dangerously binding work contracts. These contracts can include limiting clauses about when trainees are allowed to date, what weight to maintain, what percent of sales the company takes, what public image to have, and more. These contracts could be offered to children as young as 13 and have no limitations for the number of hours worked per week, nor the age requirements for cosmetic surgery. A small, but growing, number of people in South Korea are concerned over whether young children are informed enough to make such life altering decisions.
But it wasn’t always this way. The K-Pop industry in its current state found its beginnings in a deep-rooted cultural rivalry with Japan. South Korea witnessed the growing success of J-Pop in the 90s with stars like Momoe Yamaguchi and Pink Lady. In order to signal international presence and cultural superiority over Japan, South Korea invested in its own K-Pop industry. While South Korean stars like PSY did see international success with hits like ‘Gangnam Style,’ his success did not reflect the most sustainable business model. A different model was adopted; one that included a harsh regimen of arts and media training to avoid being an accidental “one hit wonder.” Notably, this training starts young. Boa, one of the most popular examples of youth stardom, was only 13 at the time of her public debut and trained for years prior.
After Debut: the Extreme Pressure of Expectation
After debut, K-pop stars are newly introduced to an audience they’ve trained endlessly to please. Public reception of new stars is important for entertainment companies as it determines what sponsorships, ambassadorships, and other opportunities for profit will become available to the company. As such, companies tighten their grip on their newest stars and set contractual agreements that govern their public and private lives.
To incentivize following these rules, companies take all profits from bands for the first few years, until band members are able to “repay” the costs of the rigorous training required by entertainment companies to debut. The eye-catching synchronization and styling of K-pop bands is not just by chance – every detail is carefully curated to then be expertly marketed. The discipline required to maintain a perfect public image is made possible by the extremely unbalanced power dynamic between performers and labels.
The industry has lost many beloved stars to suicide due to these pressures: Jonghyun in 2017, Goo Hara in 2019, Sulli in 2019, Woo Hye Mi in 2019, Moonbin in 2023, Haesoo in 2023, to name a few. Amber Liu, a year after losing former bandmate, Sulli, to suicide, said in a People Magazine interview: “We honestly talked more about diets than music…we were taught to starve.” Due to unusually high numbers of suicide deaths among K-pop artists, a new South Korean bill has been introduced to prohibit K-pop stars under the age of 15 from working more than 35 hours a week and restricts an “overemphasis” on their appearance. This bill also reinforces financial transparency between artist and company, and prohibits abusive language and sexual harassment against minors in the industry.
Sexism and Misogyny in South Korea
While companies will have to comply with the bill, the legislation does nothing to address external factors that push so many idols to the brink. Former KARA member, Goo Hara, suffered from blackmailing and intense psychological damage from an ex-partner who threatened to release a “sex tape” made without her consent. Although Goo Hara’s ex-partner received a prison sentence for his crimes, her public reputation was tainted as scandalous by a society that values purity. Goo Hara was found dead in her apartment in 2019 after committing suicide.
Former F(X) member, Sulli, was an icon of sorts for the budding feminist movement in South Korea as she portrayed open displays of female sexuality on her social media. Seeing as she debuted as a child actor at age 11 and later in a K-Pop group, the public disapproved of her changed image. Sulli received the brunt of hatred towards the feminist movement and was attacked as “damaging the moral fabric of the country.” Sulli committed suicide in 2019, soon after the passing of Goo Hara.
It will take a momentous shift in not only legal framework, but culture as well to ensure a truly safe space for K-pop stars, especially women and children. With the public’s unfettered access to the personal lives of K-pop stars through social media, young people are subjected to the whims of hate and threats without robust legal protection or personal support systems. Even with new legislation prohibiting extraneous work hours and overemphasis on visuals, it does not change the fact that young stars exist in a cauldron of unrealistic expectations and a misogynistic culture that incentivizes purity, and thus sexualization, of young people.