Over the years, Korean Pop — or more commonly known as K-Pop — has risen to fame at the international level. With new boy and girl bands being produced at a remarkable frequency, the K-Pop industry faces little to no problems keeping fans enticed and occupied.
A lot of the appeal when it comes to K-Pop has to be from the availability of new materials, which mostly come from collaborations with other groups, features on reality and variety shows, and sneak previews of new albums - which are usually scheduled every few months. In other words, the K-Pop industry has successfully created a methodical way to produce celebrities who are able to gain spotlight worldwide.
But what's interesting about the K-Pop stars is that they are essentially manufactured. Potential K-Pop stars are selected to religiously attend schools where they train for hours on end for many years before they are finally selected to debut. These trainees are selected from all over Korea and brought over to Seoul to stand a chance of becoming the next big thing in the K-Pop scene. With the amount of interest in becoming a K-Pop star, the competition is intense; sometimes trainees train for seven years before they are selected to debut, provided they're still young enough.
While it's all fun and games to think about how the hard work of K-Pop celebrities is ultimately rewarded by the vast fan base they have, there's seems to be a striking similarity to another similar successful industry also in Asia. Using these similarities, perhaps long-term trajectory of the K-Pop industry can be determined.
With the Olympics happening later in the year, it's difficult not to think about one of the countries with some of the greatest athletes: China. The production of the athletes in China is highly controversial. It involves scouting the entire country for potential Olympians at ridiculously young ages to train for the rest of their lives for 30 seconds of fame at the champions stand.
There are many similarities to be drawn between the K-Pop industry and the Olympic Selection in China.
Like the young athletes in China, the K-Pop trainees are taken away as young children from their parents and become the property of their agency. There, their lives are dictated according to market needs. In order for both groups of potentials to be successful, both of their "owners" are strict on their activities to prevent them from being distracted. In China, the death of one of the Olympic athlete's grandparent was withheld from said athlete so that she would not be distracted from her next match. While in Korea, there have been stories of celebrities who have coerced into sexual activity in order to maintain the fame and fortune of the company.
The amount of sacrifice involved by both these groups, however, is not limited to just their time. Upon agreeing to be an active participant in whichever group, there is, unfortunately, no turning back. Because of the amount of investment that is involved in both the Olympics and K-Pop, neither trainees nor athletes have the opportunity to leave either industry with anything. Both these Asian countries have it such that there is not much that exists outside their lives as a trainee or an athlete. As a result, they are bound to their respective industries until they are too old. In both countries, there is a frequent turnover rate. China is able to boast having the young gymnast in entire Olympics. Their efforts behind are deliberate: they are not interested in an athlete who is too old because they are less fresh and supple. Similarly in Korea, celebrities who are too old start to appeal less as time changes with newer, younger groups coming in, thus slowing down the fan base as their fan bases get older as well. In short, once the deed is done (gold medals are won, celebrities earn their companies enough money) both parties end up with less than what they bargained for.
Another striking resemblance the Olympic Selection in China has with the K-Pop Industry is both parties seem active participants while not necessarily being able to do what they want. In China, a lot of these athletes are conditioned to do well in a specific sport from such a young age that even though they are good at it, they might not necessarily enjoy it. In Korea, young talents who dream of becoming singers and dancers (all of whom are in fact, very skilled) are not given that opportunity and are ultimately reduced to having their talents underutilized as there has to be an even distribution of spotlight between group members. As a result, their opportunities for growth are hindered further. Where both of these events have strong similarities is the false pretense that they are achieving their dreams.
With all of this in mind, is something now gaining so much international attention and success really worth it? There can't really even be a discussion on consent in either party because the decisions are made when they are too young and do not necessarily know any better, especially in an environment where they do not see otherwise and think it is the norm.
