Remember back in 2012 when we heard an extremely catchy
song called Gangnam Style only to learn that it came all the way
from an artist in South Korea called Psy? Well, believe it or not,
in America that was the first Kpop song to dominate our airways.
Since then, Kpop has slowly begun to take over the globe capturing
the hearts of millions of fans around the globe with supergroups
such as Twice, EXO, Monster X, and BTS.
What exactly is Kpop you ask? Kpop was originally created for
political reasons back in 1992 to help shine a brighter light on the
country of South Korea during a financially hard time. Kpop is
not just a music genre but a cultural scene and frankly a social
phenomenon. Kpop pulls different music genres together such as
hip hop, r&b, EDM, and various pop styles sometimes all in the
same song. This makes the sound truly unique and also hard to
define what exactly it is.
Unlike the American music scene where the artist struggles to
get recognized by the record labels, the Kpop music industry is
controlled by the government across the 4 major music labels,
YG, SM, JYP & Big Hit Entertainment, which they don’t really
operate as labels but more product designers. They are responsible
for creating and shaping every aspect of the groups they put
forward making the Kpop world like a manufactured customer
product. Artists are not found but created, scoped, and molded
for the gain to change the country's image globally. It all starts
with the recruitment phase.
Kpop singers are known as Kpop Idols and are recruited as
young as 11. They look for various personalities to create a variety
within the group, to appeal to as many different types of fans
as possible. From there, they go into a training period that can
last between 5-10 years. Training is rigorous, often starting at
5am, practicing choreography at 6am, schooling until 3pm, vocals
from 4-6pm, 7-8pm language, 10-11pm exercising, and from
there they must then travel home or to dorms and repeat. Their
sacrifice is great for these young children because their life is
strictly controlled and they often have to give up hobbies,
friends, family, cell phones, and only about 10% actually debut.
Most companies also hold females to certain weight limits of
110lbs to keep visual appearances. Many former Kpop Idols have
been known to talk about times where they have had food taken
away or have been on a constant diet in order to maintain strict
appearance guidelines.
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