K-pop Idols “Dark Side of The Moon”

For several years, K-pop has been conquered across generations from children,
teenagers and also adults. According to Billboard (2021), ‘My Universe’ by South Korean
boyband BTS and British rock band Coldplay has rocketed to Top 1 on The Billboard Hot 100
for about 4 months means that BTS has become a global phenomenon around the world.
Not only the song but their stars were admired, loved and also worshipped by millions of
people. Korean idols are really talented, charming, body goals, and the most important one
is good looks. When they perform on the stage, they always look energetic, stylish, and of
course happy. However, reality hits differently. Before discussing deeper about the dark side
of K-pop idols, let’s talk about the Korean wave a.k.a. Hallyu.

The product of South Korean cultural economy such as entertainment, music, pop
culture, TV dramas and music. With the concept of ‘soft power’, Hallyu has successfully
exported and pushed boundaries of influence to foreign countries, namely Asia, Europe and
America (J. Gibson, 2020). This entertainment phenomena is widely spread as a unique
charm of Korean culture which brings positive impacts to South Korea economics. According
to Cooper (2016), not only on social media and online platforms but this craze has expanded
to Korean literature, language, and food. The most important thing in this rapidly growing
sector than any other is Korean pop music, known as K-pop. K-pop is influenced by a
combination of styles and genres consisting of pop ballads, R&B, hip-hop, dance-pop, rock,
techno, and so on. It is considered a new generation of music that was formed around the
1990s.

K-pop is not just limited to music but it also has special value in several areas. The
music is different from western pop music and many people become addicted to it. The
group members are beautiful and handsome, the choreographics are energetic and
impressive. These Korean pop performers has a special slang term means dancing perfectly
in sync called 칼군무 (kalgunmu). But behind the scenes, the reality is different. According
to S.Y. Kim (2018), k-pop is a genre of excess, a result of intense formulaic practice and a
fast-evolving machine producing products that are used and easily disposable. K-pop is not
just a random response to neoliberal globalization, but a systematically planned, monitored,
manifestation of “entrepreneurial self.” Young talents have been recruited, sometimes from
an age of early teens, and trained to become multi-purpose, transnational performers who
“can do everything” through Spartan training. Years of intense training include singing
lessons, perfectly synchronized dance moves, acting, learning foreign languages and Korean
language training for group members recruited from China, Thailand, Japan and so on (Kim,
2021).

Slavery contract is the idol’s worst sacrifice on all their freedom to their agency. The
success of the training regime is driven by Korea’s Confucian ethics of hard work,
endurance, the disciplined body, obedience to higher authority and affective labour in the
neoliberal culture industry (G. Kim, 2019). Young Koreans must sign a contract before
entering training camp that contains terms and conditions along their training progress. The
specific content of the contract is how long they will train, how they share profit with the
agency, and how much the idols must pay to the agency. The most crucial one is there will
be no freedom or “me time” for the idols to spend for a long period of time ranging from 7
to 13 years. This contract will make an idol to become a robot / machine that will give lots of
money to the agency. There are some requirements idols must complete such as an
unhealthy diet program, controlled identity, long and tiring training, forced plastic surgery,
etc. It will be so obvious to see K-pop idols as puppets that were controlled by a puppeteer
which in this context is the management or agency.

The contract signed by the idols is the key for the agency to maintain their success
and have full control over their talent. The Korean music industry is responsible for shaping
every aspect of K-pop's global image, including public and personal behaviour, and dating
life. But these things aren’t easy to achieve because they have to attend cutthroat auditions
with competitive rates of 700:1 (LA Times, 2021). When they are accepted to the training
program, trainees must follow the schedules from the agency which starts early at 4 a.m. in
the morning and ends late at midnight. A trainee’s training is filled by practicing dance and
of course vocal lessons because they will dance and sing for the final product after their
training. There will be additional training for foreign trainees to learn the Korean language
so that they can communicate with other trainees and staff from the agency. After a long
period of training, trainees should perform as one solo performance and also one group
performance with others. These performances would be evaluated by agency staff and they
will give heartless criticism and feedback. But the painful part is those who failed to perform
well and get satisfaction from the agency will be sent home.

K-pop idols have dating restrictions on their contract given by management or

agency. Media coverage of BTS has also marked changing perceptions of Korea’s popular
culture industry, shifting discourse away from K-pop’s “dark side.” This is remarked upon in
a 2018 article, which discerns that the Western media have typically focused on K-pop’s
“antiseptic cuteness, the battery farming of young performers tied to ‘slave’ contracts, with
everything from their diets to their sex lives strictly controlled” (Petridis, 2018). K-pop
trainees were banned for every activity related to romance or special relationships. In fact,
trainees with different genders cannot eat together in a place although it's still inside the
agency. That's why when we see a different gender K-pop boy band / girl band together on
the stage, they will wave and say "Hi" and it feels awkward. Their management in this case
agency did this rule to their recruiters with purpose. They want all trainees to focus on their
training and professional careers, so that they can't be distracted by other businesses,
especially romance or dating. Like water and oil, 2 liquids will never end up together and
always segregate. Then, there is also another reason why they are restricted from dating. K-
pop idols have a reputation to be taken care. Just a little spark of news about their scandals
including sex, pornography even dating rumours will ruin their careers.

According to L. Jeong (2020), having a romantic relationship means they will be

inaccessible to their lovely loyal fans. They can't appear to the public and should wear masks
every time to keep their secret. When there is scandal or rumours about one of the agency
members caught dating, they will break their fans heart and also their own image. When an
idol has no reputation anymore, agency will also be impacted by that phenomenon. People
will stop buying their albums or listening to their songs and this thing will end up in
management or agency loss till bankruptcy (Ewens, 2020). Trainees must focus on their big
goals together rather than having relationships with boys or girls. Because in their early
debuts, they are still feeling fresh and it's a 'hype' for some of their fans out there. Agency
also said that they must focus on group goals. When one member is breaking the rules, all of
them will also be infected by the dating ban virus. And also, like I have stated before, K-pop
idols have their structure scheduled to be followed so they have no time to do other things.
They just keep practicing, and don't have a gap to do activities, even meeting their close
relatives. It is very inhumane to restrict people from having a romantic relationship with
others. Even to meet each other with different gender inside the agency also disabled. And
each of their group’s managers will scout the dining room and living room to check whether
there are still people or no one. The Korean music industry, especially the K-pop
environment, is really cruel.

K-pop idols reported to have restrictive diets and exhausting gym routines (K. Soheili,
2019). According to Lie (2012), K-pop performers exemplify a sort of pop perfectionism –
catchy tunes, good singing, attractive bodies, cool clothes, mesmerizing movements and
other attractive attributes in a non-threatening, pleasant package. Every single human has
their own cycle of life and daily routines. Different from K-pop idols which are controlled by
their management or agency like a robot. Their life cycle is just exercise at the gym, training
and preparing for a comeback and taking a rest in the bedroom. Is there any schedule for K-
pop idols to eat? No, they are supposed to follow their diets that have been made by the
agency dietitian. This is one of the biggest pressures an idol has to maintain beauty
standards. K-pop idols should look and stay cool, young and beautiful. And of course, with
their good physical shape they will end up in severe exercise and diets regimes.

According to Abidin (2018), in the social media age, celebrities are expected to
display themselves unedited as “real” people with “real” issues, as the public fame of the
celebrities is premised on feelings of connection and interactive responsiveness and is thus
co-constructed through a community of interested viewers on the Internet rather than by
the mere mechanisms of the traditional entertainment industry. K-pop idols have their
fanbase grounded in every country around the world. Not all idols have social media, but
most of them have it and get lots of followers. The most annoying thing is most of the fans
feel that they have the right to control what their idols should and shouldn’t do (Gunter,
2014). Even some extreme fans really want to know about their idol’s personal life. The
question is where is their idol's privacy as a human being where they can have freedom of
their life.

As stated by OECD (2019), Korea has the highest suicide rate (29.1 per 100,000
persons) among OECD countries, more than twice the OECD average of 12.4 per 100,000
persons, which is a by-product of rapid industrialization, educational competition, familial
expectations and social pressures to succeed in the hypercompetitive society. Netizens on
social media are very cruel and they have no mercy to type whatever they want. Ruthless
comments and criticism will directly hit every idol not only physically but also mental health.
There is a fun fact that K-pop idols are known as “perfect human” where they have to sing
and dance perfectly and sync with music. Cyberbullying is also a serious problem that
attacks idols' mental health. On the stage, maybe they will always show good looking
performance, energetic dance and charming smile. But you’ll never know behind their smile,
they are crushed, depressed, and suffer from depression. And the most surprising thing is
mental health is still a stigma in Korea. When idols talk about their mental health, they
directly try to change the topic to another one. Maybe a good communication between idols
and agency can keep their members well being and good mental health.

Behind the scenes, some of the K-pop’s largest success stories have been built on the
back of slave contracts that tie trainee stars into long-term exclusive deals, with little
financial reward, little personal freedom and impossibly high standards of appearance and
behaviour (BBC, 2011; Guardian, 2020). Like Thanos said “Reality is often disappointing”.
Being an idol isn’t as joyful as you'd ever think before. Unhealthy diet, living under unliving
homestead, irregular sleep hours, and dance for you entire life as long as slave contract
stands (E. Tanudjaya, 2020). Also, the accommodation for every idol to perfect facial shape
and have plastic surgery to meet the requirements. This dark side will always stay there and
be an endless culture. Fans around the world love their idols' beauty and handsome faces,
which actually they suffer a lot because of those things. What we can do as fans or lovers of
K-pop idols is just pray and hope that they can survive and walk through all challenges from
the agency and also from public comments. One more thing is social media consumption is
really high and plays a particular part to create a new South Korean image. However, we as
a fan must use our logic not to be a fanaticism that can led our lovely idols to end their lives
with suicide.
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