It's Just Good (For) Business
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a K-pop idol? Korean entertainment companies have specific ground rules which seem to benefit them more than benefitting their employees.
Since K-pop has become more and more popular as the Hallyu wave progresses, this pushes Korean entertainment companies to expect more of themselves and of their idols. When a trainee auditions they must first go through the judges to see if they are talented enough to the company’s standards. What you audition for can determine what roles the judges have you participate in. However, these days even though trainees audition for specific occupations, such as being a model, a singer, a rapper, or just a background dancer, companies will request each person auditioning to perform one aspect of each category. This means that if you just want to become a background dancer for a company, you will also have to sing, rap, and do various poses just to be considered by the company. This rather unfair audition can be conducted among some of thousands of auditionees which will be trickled down into trainees and finally into idols that actually debut.
According to Crystal Anderson, this training program has been subject to critiques that point to excessively long exclusive contracts and demanding work conditions that require practice after school for the younger trainees and arduous promotion schedules for establishing groups that often take them away from their families. The contracts that these companies develop are meant to induce excessive training to become a part of the well known hallyu wave. This means driving trainees to the breaking point as they take on skills and work schedules that the average person is not able to do easily. For this reason, once idols debut, they are perfect, talented, and above all meant to hold an ideal image of themselves and the group they debut with. This has led to a standardized characteristic of idols groups since they share similar talents between one another.
When it comes to maintaining an idol image, the balance of pressure shifts from having well rounded talent to avoiding harsh criticism. According to Jessica Chua, some idols not only have to lose weight but also maintain the current weight, which can be tough because of the intense dancing and exercise they do for hours on end every day. Maintaining weight ensures the idol’s physical appearance as ideal in the K-pop world; a world where female idols must be slim and male idols must be muscular. However physical appearance is only just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to companies enforcing idol image for the sake of the group and the company. Chua argues, Public image is very important in the eyes of the Koreans and all it takes is one scandal to ruin your entire career.
In addition to competitive auditions and continuous pressure of physical and public image, entertainment companies also reserve rights to confining idols to packed schedules for promotional tactics. Chua also notes, some idol groups’ schedules are packed to the brim – filming commercials, attending photoshoots, appearing on variety shows, and showing up at special events, just to make a name in the industry. With the newest wave of hallyu taking the internet by storm, streaming tactics, as stated in my previous article, leads to company promotion. However, busy schedules can lead to distasteful effects that harm idols seeking to promote their group and company. Chua highlights, There have been numerous cases where idol stars had fainted on stage in the middle of a performance and had to be rushed to the hospital.
In short, Korean entertainment companies can make a decent profit with the help of today’s hallyu generation. However, they can double or perhaps triple their business by overworking their idols and trainees. It is just good for business after all.
Sources:
Anderson, Crystal. “Defining K-pop.” Soul in Seoul: African American Popular Music and K-pop. 2020. https://s3.amazonaws.com/blackboard.learn.xythos.prod/5a30bcf95ea52/25713083?response-cache-control=private%2C%20max-age%3D21600&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27KORE320_2020_Soul%2520in%2520Seoul%2520Excerpt.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-. (Accessed September 14, 2020)
Chua Jessica. “The Extremes That Koreans Take to Become a Kpop Idol.” RojakDaily. January 2017. https://rojakdaily.com/entertainment/article/1728/the-extremes-that-koreans-take-to-become-a-kpop-idol (Accessed September 17, 2020)
