The term ‘K-Pop’ has been around for a while now but lets take a look at it for what it really is.
“When BTS got to LAX its like The Beatles were here”
— ELLEN DEGENERES
Essentially, K-POP is just an abbreviation for the word Korean Pop but it’s undeniable that there are definitely many more elements to it than just pop. With all sorts of contributing styles such as R&B, Jazz, EDM, rap and many others, it is evident that K-Pop is a musical genre of it’s own. Let’s dive right in it to understand what this global phenomenon is all about it.
The 3 Titans of KPOP
The K-Pop industry is very much different from the rest of the music industry around the world. The South Korean music market is monopolised by what they call it, ‘The Big Three’, that is YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment. These are the three biggest entertainment industries in South Korea, and notice I do not use the term ‘record label’. This is because, these companies are not record labels like Universal Music Group or Sony Music Entertainment. These SK entertainment companies have one job and one job only, and that is to produce idols who are able to generate income for the company.
K-Pop Factory
Before becoming a K-Pop idol, these people are called trainees. There are no clear numbers, but there are around 40–70 trainees in an entertainment company. To become a trainee, you will either have to pass auditions or be street-scouted. It sounds simple enough, but it really isn’t. These companies hold not only auditions in Korea but global auditions as well. Member of Blackpink, a girl group under YG, Rose, recently mentioned how competitive it was to get selected from the global auditions in Australia. She was the only person picked among the 400 applicants that auditioned and that was only in Australia!
Global auditions are held in LA, NY, Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo, Jakarta and many other metropolitans. There would easily be thousands of applicants over the course of only one annual global audition.
Of course, there is still the possibility of being street-scouted by the company’s scouts. Although these companies never explicitly mention it, these are some of the unsaid but obvious criteria to be accepted or scouted as a trainee:
- Being an appropriate age. You could sing like Beyonce but if you are well above 21 years old, you would have an extremely slim chance of being accepted as a trainee
- Visuals. Lets spell that out for you again V-I-S-U-A-L-S. This would probably bring up a class action lawsuit in America if any company would dare to explicitly mention that.
- Talented. You will have to be able to dance and sing/rap. It is better if you can do all three.
- Weight and height. This is an unspoken rule but females would usually have to weigh around 40kg-50kg and be at least 160cm tall. Males would usually have to weigh around 55kg-65kg and be at least 170cm.
Those are some of the more basic aspects of it but generally, companies like it if you are able to speak multiple languages, especially Mandarin, since there is a big Chinese market out there. In recent years, we see more and more South East Asians rising up to become K-Pop idols.
As a trainee, you will have to sign a contract. It is usually either a 3-year, 7-year or 10-year contract that can be renewed or terminated by the end of the term. The contents of the contract basically allow these entertainment companies to be master over their trainees.
Signing the contract means you agree to the dating ban and restriction of social media, as well as giving the company consent for you to undergo plastic surgery. The company pays for their trainees’ foreign language classes, acting classes, singing lessons, dancing practice, rap training, manners classes, fitness training, food, accommodation, transportation, school, allowance and in return, the trainees accumulate a debt.
Kang Yoon Jung, a member of YG Entertainment’s casting and talent development team, stated, “Because the trainees typically live in our dorms and spend most of their time here [training at the company], if you include all the minor incidental expenses, we spend at least 100 million won [approximately $89,164] on each trainee per year.”
Now, that is a lot of money spent on someone who isn’t even your child. That is why these contracts are binding, so binding that back then, it was known as slave-contracts. Because if you choose to leave your company on your fifth year without finishing your 7-year contract, you would have to pay back every single dime they spent on you. The only exception would be for them to fire you. In that case, you will not have to pay back a single cent. However, once you debut, all your initial earnings go back to the company until you are done paying your debt. Only from then will you actually start earning money.
K-pop Exams
“They check your body fat percentage every month and provide lessons on mannerism.” — Unsatisfactory results result in expulsion.
There are monthly assessments for every trainee to ensure that you are constantly improving. These are some of the many stories from ex-trainees on the rigorous assessments that they go through.
“If you’re late or go against the rules you have to sing while running around the practice room 10 times. You train by singing while doing sit-ups and while someone hits your stomach in order to develop muscle and vocal power.”
“They check your body fat percentage every month and teach you manners and attitude.”
“If you don’t improve but you’re pretty they tell you to stay underwater and hold your breath for 5 minutes, and make you sit in a V, and drop basketballs on your stomach when you breathe.”
“I wanted to go to school and eat and hang out with friends so I cried a lot. During counsel time if you say you want to do those things, they say if you want to do that, you can leave.”
It is definitely a very hardcore lifestyle and so many trainees are under 18, possibly as young as 10 years old, with barely enough maturity to understand what they are really signing up for. However, despite being a rather challenging route, most trainees who are able to overcome all the mental setbacks will most likely be very successful once they debut.
Trainees are allowed to befriend fellow trainees and laugh during class but it never makes them forget that they are competing for a debut spot. This means that your ‘friends’ will end up as your biggest rivals for the coveted debut spot. Trainees usually train for an average of 2–6 years before debuting. Some trainees who have trained for a long time but fail to debut experience a lot of stress from the uncertainty.
On an interview with Wired, NCT127 shows the extent of how seriously they train in response to a question asking how they dance so in sync.
K-Pop Formation
Something that is important to understand is that these entertainment companies strategically debut boy/girl groups many years apart as to allow media attention to be solely focused on the groups and to maximize the growth of their fanbase and international support.
YG launched 2NE1 in 2009 and the next girl group to debut after 10 years was Blackpink in 2016. This means that out of all the female trainees, only 4 of them debuted. Hence, it’s very likely that remaining trainees who did not debut in 2016 will have to wait another 2–7 years before getting the opportunity to debut.
This is usually when a lot of them contemplate leaving the company, especially if they are above 18 years old because they simply cannot afford to wait anymore.
To summarise, all of these K-Pop idols that we see on screen seemingly living life luxuriously without a care have had their share of hardships. All of these teenagers and young adults have been trained since an early age to always show their best side for the cameras. It is an interesting concept which has definitely been developing Korea’s cultural economy and pop culture but there are many more opposing ways to look at it.
What do you think of it?
