For as long as I can remember, music has been a significant part of my life. I grew up learning how to play various instruments– piano, violin, saxophone– and I am now entering my ninth year of playing the clarinet. Not only do I enjoy making music myself, but I also listen to music everyday. As a Korean-American, I have always had a unique taste in music since I enjoy both K-pop and American pop. For my first cultural post, I decided to read about iKON, which is one of my favorite K-pop groups. The group was first introduced through a reality survival program titled WIN: Who is Next. They were Team B and competed against Team A to become YG Entertainment’s next K-pop group. Although they ended up not winning, they appeared again on a show titled Mix & Match, which was a follow-up to the 2013 show. According to YG Entertainment’s then-CEO, Yang Hyun-suk, the group’s name was inspired by its intent to become an ‘icon for Korea,’ hence the ‘K’ in its name. Once the seven-member line-up was confirmed, they debuted in 2015. In the following years, they have released several singles and albums, quickly becoming one of South Korea’s most beloved boy bands. During June of 2019, the group’s leader announced his departure from the group after a news agency unearthed KakaoTalk messages from 2016, in which he attempted to purchase marijuana and lysergic acid diethylamide from an undisclosed dealer, and was accused of evading police charges. His contract was terminated that same day.
I have always been intrigued by the Korean entertainment industry because of how much it varies from its United States’ equivalent. For most K-pop idols, they are only able to achieve fame and success through competing in idol contests, in which contestants compete to become a trainee at the company of their choice. But before participating in said contests, these people usually have to take years of lessons in singing, dancing, rapping, etc. before getting to that stage. Even if you are lucky enough to pass the qualifications, you enter a training/internship contract, which many have referred to as a ‘slavery contract.’ For subsequent years, trainees go through several years of 24/7 training without any pay, and these contracts also settle the company’s share of future revenue, even though very few trainees actually end up debutting. And if you are lucky enough to debut, you essentially become a public, profitable pawn of the company. This order of oppression appears to be inherent in this billion-dollar industry and unavoidable.
In the case of iKON, the leader shared with his fans that he had never ended up obtaining the drugs, and had only gotten into that situation because of the stress that he was going through as an artist. It became later known that the police charges had been dropped because of the CEO’s involvement in the investigation. This scandal, along with some others, caused the CEO to resign from all his positions in the company he had founded, due to public uproar. In the United States, most pop stars become famous by going viral, and when they sign onto a label, it is to produce music instead of undergoing rigorous training. Furthermore, when celebrities become the objects of drug scandals, although there are obvious legal repercussions, the level of shame hardly compares to what their Korean counterparts would experience. Although I am glad that K-pop has started to gain influence worldwide, I hope that its increasing popularity will help shed light on the negatives of the Korean entertainment industry and call for change.
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