Journey to a Dream
K-Pop idols have become a worldwide phenomenon. Today, their existence feels so natural that their works are taken for granted. It is as though these K-Pop stars have always been K-Pop idols. What many people often forget is that they, too, are just teens and young adults who have achieved their status today through long years of training in the skills they require to be a professional celebrity and restraining from an ordinary lifestyle.
Seeing many K-Pop artists who are both active now and inactive, there are severe after effects that are both positive and negative. It is easy to recognize that there are some things that idols should have had the time to enjoy or experience as children that they haven’t, like going to school, being with friends and family, or eating good food. On the bright side, there are a few idols who don’t regret their monitored and restricted days as trainees after considering where they are now. But the controversies around raising these children in such an isolated environment of a regulated system continues to be one of the most heated discourses in the culture and entertainment industry.
Trainee: Starting a Career as a K-Pop Idol
K-Pop idols are either randomly casted on the streets or through a more official and traditional route of an open audition. When they sign the contract to be trained as K-Pop idols, they are starting a whole new life as “trainees” of entertainment label companies (agents). Some major labels in Korea are SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and of course, HYBE. The trainees are usually no more than 17 years of age and as young as 11 or 12. As trainees, they are taken care of and protected by the label with close management of their life. There are also a lot of fraudulent companies that feed on these young students' dreams to become K-Pop stars to achieve their own success.
The young starters dedicate their time, money, and entire childhood to fulfill their goal to become a performer. They compete with one million other trainees like them. The industry estimates only 0.1% of them actually make their debut. From a very young age, they live in fear every day of the possibility of being eliminated from the team at any time, so they dedicate their time and effort to achieve their singing and dancing skills to persist and survive. Life is filled with competition for them, and this means more pressure than a 12-year-old is able to handle. Really, the moment they take their first step into the company, their life changes from living as an ordinary child to living as a K-Pop idol. Being a K-Pop star is not a career, but a lifestyle.
Behavior and Lifestyle Regulations
As K-Pop trainees, their lives are constantly monitored by staff, managers, and label associates. Their social interactions are often cut off from the outside world and restricted to only the fellow trainees and members of the company. The strict regulations go beyond the time on stage monitoring their relationships to what they eat. They are made to abide by “lifestyle behavioral regulations,” which they have to follow during their life as K-Pop idols. Out of 134 label companies surveyed, 61.4% included regulations and restrictions of their life as part of the contract with the trainees. Some of the named rules are: no social media, restricted access to phones, no dating, strict regulations for their appearance (how they look), no nighttime meals or snacks, no outdoor activities or going outside, and strict monitoring of weight loss or gain. BLACKPINK’s Rosé reflected: “There were, like, so many rules. So many things to just be, like, ‘okay, they don’t like this, they don’t like that' […] everything I did was wrong.”
One of the regulations frequently mentioned by many K-Pop stars are their hardships on having to “be on diet” to reach a certain ideal weight set by the label. AOA member Seolhyun mentioned in variety show Happy Together that she considered giving up her dream as a K-Pop idol because of the diet restriction. She also stated that the cutline for the maximum weight set for her was 48 kg (105 Ibs). Considering her height of 167 cm (5.4 ft), this is well below standard body index measurement. Medically, for a 167 cm woman, 51.6 kg to 63.9 kg is considered normal. At Seolhyun’s height, 48 kg is much lower than average and could have caused serious health issues such as malnutrition or lack of strength. She also talked about the day and night monitoring of her weight by the agency. When Seolhyun was describing her experience, the variety show put subtitles referring to this kind of management as a “girl group’s concerns for the fans.” It just raises the question: is this really all for the fans? There are many fans who want to see their idols be both physically and mentally healthy when they perform and present themselves on TV.
Education: What Do They Learn or Not Learn?
There is a much more serious problem that possibly comes from limited access to outside the agencies and lack of social interaction or perspectives to this extreme training system. The trainees, while some still attend school, still have to come to the company to practice, leaving school at around lunchtime. Some others only receive limited education that the agency provides. The classes at the agency are majorly on strength training, vocal lessons, foreign language classes, and private and group dance classes inside the agency building. The trainees barely have time to see sunlight because when they come in the morning for classes and practices, their day lasts until late at night.
An ex-trainee at a major label agency described his schedule: dance practice from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., acting class from 10 a.m. to noon, vocal lesson from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., personal training or practice (workout, yoga, or health for weight loss) from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., prepare and practice for monthly review from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., and self-practice from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. This adds up to 17 hours of set routine every single day. This trainee described life as a trainee or K-Pop idol as a “prison cell without bars.” In the documentary BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky, Jennie states, “What makes K-Pop K-Pop is the time we spent as trainees.” Rosé supports this by saying, “We practiced for 13 hours everyday for two weeks and rested one day. Not knowing what lies ahead of our days, I spent every day with these girls.” But, when do they learn life wisdom, everyday senses, logic, or basic history of Korea?
No one teaches them how to grow and mature into a good, responsible, and healthy adult while surviving in this industry. Many issues or troubles surrounding K-Pop idols in the media often reflect this. AOA members Jimin and Mina’s trouble shows precisely the lack of social skills or mislearned interaction skills with people. There was a point where Jimin apologized to Mina for scolding her in hopes to “guide her to a better direction.” While the intention behind it may have been pure, Jimin was only 18 years old and a trainee herself. It is a system of teenagers scolding, training, and instructing younger teenagers. What is problematic is that they teach each other how to behave in this structured community, but they learn life lessons from it. Is this really the most appropriate system?
In the end, isn’t it true that they are all just teenagers, still in the process of learning, maturing, and growing? If anything, they should be outside their prison cell enjoying their time with friends, gossipping about relationships, being a part of a friend group, and not learning how to become a commodity for the label.
Trainee Years: Start of the Adult World
From a very young age, K-Pop trainees are put out into the world of adulthood. As trainees, they walk a long journey of one single path. There is no digressing or looking the other direction. But the reality is cold. Many don’t make it to their dream. These youngsters live every day thinking that they must persist and survive, which means a repetitive, endless schedule with the same competition and pressure.
Of course, not all of them become lost or irresponsible as they grow older with experiences. There are many ex-K-Pop idols who do well outside the fence of their label. Tiffany of Girls’ Generation has consistently shown her interest in fashion, appearing in TV programs like Fashion King Korea. Now she is utilizing her K-Pop background to expand her career in the United States music industry. BTS member RM constantly inserts his philosophical, mythological, humanities, literature, and religious learnings into his work. The “Blood Sweat & Tears’” music video is famous for using Herman Hesse’s novel Demian as symbolism. The novel portrays a boy named Emil Sinclair who opens his eyes to the world of evil and grows up to be a human being, a combination of good and evil, searching for his identity and processing his senses. The story flows in line with the theme of the Wings album, which is each member’s contemplation and consideration of their own encounter of various temptations of life, their struggles, and growth. In all of BTS’s albums, the depth of knowledge in various fields of arts and the members’ efforts to incorporate diverse aspects of life are clearly visible. These are only a few out of many that are able to set groundwork and know how to wisely navigate their life after they leave their company or group.
Sandara Park confessed her process of having to stand alone after 2NE1 was broken up. She admitted to having had many dark thoughts and concerns for two to three years as many people who used to stay in contact with her started falling away from her. She also stated that she contemplated a lot on what she could do after 2NE1 and had lost confidence in herself. It may be a positive thing that the K-Pop idols get to achieve and experience so much at a young age and be able to grow up so early. But instead of growing up so fast by cutting them off from contact with the outside world, the least the industry could do is let them enjoy time with family and friends. Perhaps having them freely experience and learn things naturally from life could build them into a stronger and wiser adult in the future.
The Questions in the End
In the BLACKPINK documentary, Rosé concludes, “it wasn’t a very happy vibe,” followed by Jennie saying that, “Being told that I’m not good at stuff face-to-face and trying to keep everything together […] It's really harsh.” Growing up so fast under a set system as a child, having no real childhood, no experience of school, and not to mention emotional and physical detachment from their families could become much larger problems in the future. But many K-Pop idols persevere through all of it for their dream to become a performer or singer. Rosé said that whenever she would call and complain to her parents about the hardships she was experiencing, her parents said to come back home, but Rosé showed her desperate dream to become a K-Pop singer: “I hated whenever they would say ‘come home.’ That was the last thing I wanted to hear.” Trainees who dream of becoming a K-Pop singer seem to have no other option than to give in to the system, no matter how harsh their treatment may be, with no set promise or guarantee that they will debut someday.
There is definitely a dark side behind the beautiful and sparkly visual people see of K-Pop stars, but fans' perception and understanding of the artists have changed over time. Fans have become their supporters and partners rather than worshipers of these idols. There is no longer a reason for them to be fans’ “idols.” Who is to set these standards of idols anyways? Why do they even have to be idols? There is no need for such severe restrictions as an excuse to control a trainee’s image or growth. Music, dancing, and performing are areas where creativity and imagination all come together to create a kind of art. It is a realm where trainees should be free to wonder and experiment with perhaps slight fine tuning by professional coaches. For their future, a healthier and stronger mindset, and at those ages of 12, 15, 18 … let them be kids. Let them be free. Let them dream. Let them love. Let them live. Let them sing and dance because they so passionately want to, not because they need to meet the standard that society has labeled them to be.