This is the miserable life that K-pop stars never tell you about.
By: Rose 8.1
Over the past few years, K-pop has become increasingly popular across all ages. Korean K-pop groups have been breaking records, seizing the attention of people all around the world and emerging into the Western entertainment industry. Fans admire their idols due to their charisma, visuals, talents and their unique, respective music genres. But have you ever wondered what happens behind their fame and success?
Before even becoming a trainee under a company, young teenagers aged from around 13 to 19 attend auditions, which on average have a 0.14% of getting selected. If one has the rare opportunity of passing an audition, they are put under a contract. The trainees start to follow the rigid schedules starting as early as 4 A.M and ending at midnight. The days are filled with dance practices, vocal lessons as well as Korean language lessons for foreign trainees. Most of the trainees are required to go on a very unhealthy diet, with the average weight being 46kg for women. Momo, from the famous girl group Twice, revealed that she only ate ice cubes for a whole week to lose weight. This happens a lot in the K-pop industry, but did you ever think about the physical and mental side effects the idols go through? They can experience eating disorders, decrease in one's immune system, hair loss or in extreme cases, coughing out blood. On top of this, some idols are encouraged to go for plastic surgery. This is for them to fit in the Korean beauty standards such as having double eyelids, small nose, and V-shaped jaws.
It’s not any easier after debuting as a K-pop idol. Idols have opened up about the immense amount of stress they are put under. With countless amounts of work and practice, harsh expectations and criticisms from netizens, and huge amount of pressure put under them, certain idols have gone as far as taking their own lives. Sulhi from f(x), Goo Hara from Kara and Jonghyun from SHINee are idols who committed suicide from suffering these attacks. Moreover, there are huge amount of Sasaeng fans (people who invade idols personal life) who stalk or invade privacy of K-pop idols. According to the estimates of celebrity managers in the media, popular Korean celebrities might have between 500 and 1000 Sasaeng fans. They try to gain attention by seeking out idols at their dorms or houses, stealing their personal information and sending inappropriate gifts. This is a nightmare for K-pop idols, and they feel extremely uncomfortable about these over-enthusiastic fans. Also, idols have to avoid relationships. This means that the artists have no choices left for their personal life. They have to assume a certain role, a different identity. Their hairstyle, behavior and even their airport looks are part of the branding; it’s like playing a character except the movie going on forever.
Some companies such as JYP, Cube and FNC have been criticized for ‘abusing’ and overworking their idols as well as having bad managements. Some members of the groups have also been consistently ignored, some groups do not get promoted well and others are physically abused by their companies. In one instance, a girl group named Fanatics was sexualized by their own company FENT. The agency officials forced the girls to show their skin under the skirts by taking away the blankets. However, in the K-pop industry this type of incident is just one out of thousands of harassments idols receive.
Did you ever think that the charming and vibrant image of the K-pop industry could be so dark from the inside? It is time for the public to treat K-pop idols as humans, not as property. People should stop expecting unrealistic beauty standards and expect the artists to act the way they are.
This is all very true, but this is not the case with all companies. They are often overworked, but some companies do try to protect their artists from certain things like harassment from Sasaeng fans.