This article talks about the influence of K-pop on economics and various industries such as music, entertainment, etc. Warning! The article contains information about eating disorders, which may be triggering to some. If so, you are advised to stop reading.

Arising Global Phenomenon

The Hallyu Wave has been around since 1990s, but raised to a global scale only over the past decade, spreading Korean culture and becoming one of the finest specimen examples of soft power making a great economic impact.

With the new BTS release breaking a YouTube record for the most concurrent views, we can confidently state that K-pop has firmly joined the royalty of worldwide pop culture flagships alongside Game of Thrones or Anime. And like any other phenomenon followed and beloved by tens of millions of people, it has significant financial success, impacting lives: not just the ones belonging to individuals involved, but also something on a macro scale - the Korean economy and people's lives.

Kpop's Industry Bright Side

Economics and Foreign Policy Behind the Kpop

Known as one of the Four Asian Tigers, Korea showcased remarkable economic growth rates between the 1960s and 1990s, however slowed down in the 21st century as soon as it entered the elitist group of high-income countries and by 2010 struggled to find new impulses to arouse any further GDP growth. With heavy industries, such as shipbuilding and hi-tech industries, the two bearing columns for the economy, Korea exhausted its potential to grow, needing something new to keep up with its own performance in the past.

K-pop has swiftly become South Korea's number one cultural export: the currently most popular K-pop band, BTS, alone contributed 3.6 billion dollars to the country's GDP in 2019. That puts a seven-member boy band in the same economic league as the top South Korean conglomerates. The millions of albums and concert tickets they sell generate spoils greater than the annual output of Fiji, the Maldives or Togo.

K-pop's "soft power" has also proven quite influential in foreign policy, by having: the idol CL and the boy band EXO perform during the closing ceremony at the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in 2018, BTS's speech at the UN, and the fact that former US president Barack Obama noted in his speech at the Asia Leadership Conference in 2017 how many Americans were learning Korean to keep up with the K-pop group SHINee. Moreover, just before the South Korean and North Korean leaders signed the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity, and Reunification of the Korean Peninsula in April 2018, the K-pop group Red Velvet performed for Kim Jong-un. This was the first time in over a decade that South Korean artists had performed in North Korea. Thus, Moon Jae-in has presented K-pop as a symbol of goodwill in making peace with North Korea.

Kpop's Ability to Fluctuate Stock Prices

Due to the massive power of the Kpop industry in South Korea, Kpop artists can easily influence entertainment companies' revenues, thus causing large fluctuations in their share values. Therefore, a publicly appreciated group with a strong fan base is able to help out the business or make it bankrupt.

For example, YG entertainment used to be one of the leading entertainment companies in South Korea, up to the point when its artists and the CEO got involved in severe scandals, which have led to unavoidable losses in stock prices, and even to the foreclosure of its project YG REPUBLIQUE in Jeju Island. Since January 4th, 2019, when the scandal has been initiated, YG's stock price has dipped from 48,900 KRW to 35,150 KRW on March 22nd. YG, feeling under pressure to save the business, has released Blackpink teasers for a 2019 comeback "Kill This Love" on March 25th. Since that time, YG stock prices have inclined from 34,800 KRW to 36,950 KRW straight after the teaser release, and 37,750 KRW on the comeback date, April 5th.

K-Beauty: Kings and Queens of the Cosmetic Industry

The "skin first" philosophy was born in Korea and it's little to no surprise that Korean skincare products were always innovative and simply regarded well, however undiscovered by the rest of the world until a day when a wave of Kpop fans around the world, who always admire and try to imitate their idol's preferences and style, raised the popularity of skincare together with fame and desirability to buy Korean produced cosmetics, leading Korea to become the world leader in skincare market by 2019. The beauty industry worldwide makes lots of money and is expected to grow within the next four years to more than $379 billion. Furthermore, if we look closer into the breakdown, we will see that the skincare industry takes the biggest credit in revenue, as well as expected to grow the most. Intensive skincare from an early age, using high-quality products has become a global trend over the past decade, with Korea creating and leading this trend, all thanks to K-pop.

Kpop Idols Make Their Way Through Worldwide Brands

Kpop groups are usually either all-male or all-female with numerous members excelling with their great vocals and catchy tunes to extensive and energetic choreographies, thus receiving worldwide recognition. The commercial success of Kpop has gained a lot of international attention, especially from huge brands, fashion houses, make-up companies, food and any other business that would use Kpop idols as brand ambassadors and models.

There are many cases of Kpop idols' faces appearing on various campaigns not only in the domestic Korean market, but also on an international scale. For example, one of the most successful girl groups on the international scale - Blackpink, are faces of the new Adidas Original's campaign, where they promote the new "SUPERSTAR" collection, in line with Blondey, Pharrell Williams, Jonah Hill, and others. Jennie, one of the members of Blackpink, has become an official CHANÉL ambassador, thus becoming one of the brand's muses. Adding to that an exclusive partnership between Blackpink and Samsung, having Blackpink to promote the A-line of Samsung phones.

In the car industry, BTS, one of the most discussed K-pop boyband in the world right now, is currently the global ambassadors of Hyundai Motor's SUV "Palisade". According to SM2 Networks, Hyundai Motor received 600 billion KRW ($504 million) in promotional results from the collaboration with the group, proving the power of the "BTS Effect"[2]. Hyundai is currently struggling to meet the demands of the South Korean market at the moment as one of their models, the Palisade, has been high in demand.

Kpop Industry's Dark Side

Kpop's Work Conditions and Wage Structure: Existence of Contractual Slavery?

Kpop's artists would usually be taught and trained from a very young age. Pre-teen would-be stars are talent-scouted by companies among massive competition often sign so-called slave contracts, which used to be valid for more than ten years.

Restrictive slave contracts allow companies to control nearly every aspect of their performers' lives. The trainees, who live in ascetic dormitories, are often prohibited from communicating even with their parents and friends. This state of half-imprisonment cuts young teenagers off from normal development and may cause mental health issues, especially if they live in fear of their employer's violence.

Moreover, almost the entire earnings of new performers are often taken by the company to compensate for training and launch costs, so that artists may effectively work for nothing for years before they earn anything at all. Training performers to sing, rap, dance, act, speak foreign languages, perform and so on may take years.

For example, one of today's most popular artists, G-Dragon, trained for 11 years at YG before making his debut in the group Big Bang. Some of the groups are never launched since only the ones deemed super-talented make it and some less successful groups only perform for a couple of years. Thus, hopes of stardom may end with crippling debt, not to mention the fact that many youngsters sacrifice their education to chase a dream, which is why it's hard for them to find another job later.

In the case of SM entertainment group, an artist would only get 5% of physical sales, 10% of physical sales renewed, 40% of events, and 70% of overseas promotion. That is the reason why Red Velvet, another girl group under SM Entertainment, took a long time to repay their costs to the company - having a debut in August 2014, Red Velvet paid off their debt only after "Russian Roulette" promotion, which was held in September 2016 - i.e. it took more than 2 years for the group to break-even.

Behind the Lines of Kpop: Promotion of Disordered Eating?

However, as attractive as K-pop seems to many, there are several issues in the industry, in particular the unhealthy dieting that may have contributed to an increase in the frequency of eating disorder cases among South Korean women. An eating disorder is a serious mental illness that can cause significant deficits in one's physical health and/or psychosocial functioning. Many of the idols (in particular female groups, although the physical appearance is emphasised in male groups too) are known to have undertaken unreasonable diets in order to adhere to weight and appearance restrictions imposed by industry executives.

One famous example is the solo artist Lee Ji-Eun, also known as IU. In a 2013 interview, the singer claimed that her diet was composed of an apple, two sweet potatoes and a bottle's worth of protein shake per day. Even a dietary layman may recognise that aside for short-term weight loss, such a diet can have detrimental effects on one's well being. Later on, IU discussed her experience with a bulimia diagnosis on the "Healing Camp" talk show, claiming that she developed this condition as a result of the pressures that were placed on her following her debut.

As much as idols are affected by these extreme diets, so are their fans, who see them as inspiration or as role models. Consequently, South Korea has been associated with a negative stigma attached to mental health and individuals tend to avoid getting the help they need. Hence you will not be shocked to find that the Kpop industry is just as reluctant to acknowledge these issues, with disorders such as bulimia and anorexia often labeled as 'reflux esophagitis' instead. Though these psychological phenomena are complex, and we cannot conclusively claim that there is a causal relationship between k-pop and eating disorders, it is an issue that the industry itself is aware of, but seems to be ignoring.

Are K-Idols Manufactured and Controlled Identities?

All K-pop stars must present the perfect façade of a supremely talented and gorgeous, single, heterosexual star, seemingly accessible to fans of the opposite gender. To maintain this illusion and prevent fans from becoming irrationally jealous, performers are often prohibited from dating, at least at the start of their careers. As recently as last year, Cube Entertainment dropped two of its highly successful artists, Hyuna and E'Dawn, because they had started a relationship despite a contractual ban on doing so.

In addition, this image reinforces heteronormativity, which is already deeply rooted in the conservative and homophobic Korean society, as coming out automatically means certain disgrace and even the end of their career for LGBTQ+ stars. There have been tragic cases of LGBTQ+ celebrities losing their jobs and the support of their families as a result of public stigma, even causing them to take their own lives. Holland, who made his independent debut in 2018, and stands up against discrimination and suppression, is one of the few openly gay idols. He says that K-pop often fantasises about same-sex love, but at the same time it is ironically a sensitive subject and a taboo.

How Can One Help Talented Artists in the Unethical Industry?

Any listener to K-pop with a working moral compass at some point faces the dilemma of how to support these talented artists without financing the unethical industry to which they belong. Does K-pop really help to realise people's greatest dreams, or does it hinder artistic creativity, suppress performers' personalities and create a Stockholm syndrome-like relationship of trying to gain approval from an abusive employer, since this is the only way of achieving a breakthrough?

There probably are K-pop stars who are genuinely happy about their careers, but there are more who suffer in this semi-authoritarian stressful environment that values profit over people than those who thrive in it. We hope that fans and the media will be able to make the authentic voices of the idols heard and can stand beside them when cases of injustice and inhumane treatment are revealed. Most of the dark side of K-pop remains behind closed doors, which means that if the industry is not systematically forced to adopt more humane principles, nothing will change.

We hope this critical exploration of the K-pop industry isn't simply the expression of cognitive dissonance but, rather, a testament to the need for reform in the interest not only of local and global consumers, but of the stars themselves. The ethic change in the industry would significantly decrease the pressure on the artists and on the fans. Another question is: will the industry allow that? Since the feature of the Kpop is the absolute perfection of the idols, will they be accepted as human beings?

In any case, creating art to serve the capitalist appetite for profit never justifies human sacrifice, and no artist, no matter how commercially minded, deserves to suffer.

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Up to 08.02.2020

References

Text:

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Pesek, William. BTS Can't Save South Korea, Though Its $4.7 Billion GDP Boost Sounds Good (2020).

[online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/williampesek/2019/10/10/bts-cant-save-south-korea-though-its-47-billion-gdp-boost-sounds-good/#7b570b002412

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Photos

https://resources.elitetranslations.asia/2017/01/04/hallyu-wave-started/

https://hypebae.com/2018/9/top-k-pop-groups-bts-blackpink-exo-ikon

https://www.bandwagon.asia/articles/red-velvet-dazzles-despite-member-s-injury-in-singapore-stop-of-redmare-tour-gig-report