K-pop industry, which plays a major role in Korean economy in recent years, is blooming under global attention. Many Koreans view it as a national pride as a continuously increasing amount of people around the world want to get involved in all kinds of Korean activities because of K-pop and want to share a piece of the large pie. However, due to K-pop’s power of impact, K-pop trends also mirror a holistic image of the Korean society, especially how teenagers, who are the future of a country, choose to pursue their future.
There are a lot of people who see K-pop idols as a way of earning “quick money”, ignoring the facts of the highly competitive market, intense training and potential pain and loss in life. According to Ho, a considerable amount of parents are willing to invest heavily and support their children’s dream in becoming a “super star” on-stage, eventually bringing back not only a “luxurious” life, but also fame and social status to them after their children’s success (2012: 472-73). The parents sent their children to agency companies “as young as six years of old” to get so called “professional training” in order to satisfy their own ambition (Ho 2012: 473). These family values would have a subtle but unremovable influence on the children, and in turn affect their own dreams and pursuits.
Moreover, with the hit of “Produce” series in the past 3 years and the success of pop stars presented in the program, more youngsters are expecting these kinds of opportunities for them to be famous with imaginary characteristics “performed” to the public that are narrated by their agencies or themselves, even if they don’t have any talents or don’t practice for better performance at all. They devote themselves into this “gambling” game and picture their success in minds. The trainees start at a very young age, isolating themselves from the mainstream society (Elfving-Hwang 2018: 193). Many of them would not get a chance to experience normal school life and learn what they should have learned for basic social interactions and survival skills.
As discussed above, this would also be a part of reasons why Seungri did so many horrible and illegal dealings. He started his trainee life in his early teen, and because he was almost kicked out of Big Bang in the survival program, his ambition to prove himself became bigger. Seungri didn’t get to involve much in school, but he participated in the game among capitalists too early that he was already “fully educated” by those money games.
There were more than 91 groups debuted in 2018, not mentioning exactly how many people debuted in total (allkpop 2019). A majority of the groups are still not known to the public, and there were also a large number of trainees who spent years but ended up not debuting (referring to “Produce” series). The terrifying truth is not whether those trainees would be debuting/being famous or not; rather, hundreds or even thousands of teenagers put their futures at stake to “gamble” an uncertainty. Once they lose, they have to start from the beginning with little education backgrounds and social involvements. As a result, despite the success of K-pop today, people should consider what they really want for their future, instead of blindly following the trends and dreaming about unrealistic success.
Bibliography
“An overview of the Kpop groups that debuted in 2018.” allkpop. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2019/01/an-overview-of-the-kpop-groups-that-debuted-in-2018 (accessed 06/20/2019).
Elfving-Hwang, Joanna. “K-pop idols, artificial beauty and affective fan relationships in South Korea.” In Routledge Handbook of Celebrity Studies, edited by Anthony Elliott, 190-201. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
Ho, Swee Lin. “Fuel for South Korea’s ‘Global Dreams Factory’: The Desires of Parents Whose Children Dream of Becoming K-pop Stars.” Korean Observer 43, no. 3 (Autumn 2012): 471-502.
According to Sun Jung who is the author of Korean Masculinities and Transcultural Consumption, in order to meet the forever changing and demanding global music market, the manufacturing of K-pop has divides the male bands into two types of classifications: hard masculinity and soft masculinity. (Anderson,2014) Kpop male bands who are categorized as hard masculinity are called Jim Seung Idol, which portrays the young male bands who has physical prowess as a “beast”. They trying to show the “dark-side” images where they all has the power to do what they want and living in a care-free lifestyle. A good example in this category is one of the BigBang’s music video- Bang Bang Bang. As in the music video, all members are wearing bold and heavy makeup and there are showing their well-toned muscular bodies and well-structured abdominals. Companies with the sign of motorcycles, fire and black leather jackets to display an image of being dangerous and impulsive male characteristics.
On the opposite side, the m