Welcome to the newest opinion article here on What The Kpop. This week’s topic is on abuse within the K-pop industry and was written by author Kyeong Jun. If you have thoughts on this topic, make sure to tweet to us @whatthekpop1
There’s something important I want to talk about, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to talk about for a while now. I love K-pop, but it’s no surprise there’s a dark side to it. Many entertainment industries across the world have a darker side. However, in light of #MeToo and other movements like it, it’s important to bring to light the cases of abuse towards entertainers. I’m sure rumors have spread for years— perhaps even decades— about the abusive aspects of the K-pop entertainment industry. It’s a sad fact that abuse happens in many various fields around the world, but this has to change.
Abuse within the K-pop industry is at the front of everyone’s minds these days due to the recent scandal involving the young idol band TheEastLight. At the time the news of their abuse broke, I was browsing K-pop topics on Reddit and saw a thread, entitled Megathread – TheEastLight Abuse and Assault, that disturbed me greatly. I began to read the articles underneath the title and was shocked as I read about the reported abuse the boys of TheEastLight had dealt with while working under Media Line Entertainment.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the story, TheEastLight is a K-pop group that debuted back in 2016. The news of the group’s reported abuse initially broke on October 18th on XSportNews. The article stated that the members of TheEastLight experienced verbal abuse by Media Line Entertainment CEO Kim Chang Hwan and physical abuse by an unnamed producer only referred to as Producer A. Later, a press conference was held by one member to confirm the details found in the article. The members claim they were beaten with a bat and one member was even strangled with guitar strings. Apparently, Media Line Entertainment knew about Producer A’s abusive behavior, but the company didn’t do much to deal with it. Media Line Entertainment released a statement when the abuse story broke (read the original article with their full statement here) and confirmed that Producer A had been caught abusing TheEastLight. However, they said that the situation had been dealt with at the time. It was revealed, however, that although he had been caught abusing TheEastLight, he wasn’t forced to resign as a result. In fact, it wasn’t until three years later when the scandal broke that he was actually forced to resign. Media Line Entertainment CEO Kim Chang Hwan denied any abuse on his part towards TheEastLight, but his response didn’t sit right with me. How could the CEO sit there and not at least deal with the producer’s abuse towards these young idols? TheEastLight is one of the company’s music acts, yet the company simply chose to look the other way when they found out about the abuse? For this reason, I find the CEO’s inaction to be inexcusable.
The articles that came out in the coming weeks and months grew to such an extent that it soon became full of conflicting information, making it difficult to tell fact from fiction. Individual members came out detailing their experiences. One member, Lee Seokchoel, released an audio recording of Kim Chang Hwan telling Seokchoel to not make a big deal of the situation. Kim Chang Hwan then revealed that he was considering defamation charges. In the meantime, Lee Seokchoel and his brother are preparing for criminal proceedings and plan to sue for mental distress. There’s a ton of information on the abuse scandal available in the news, but I’m only detailing a few examples. I implore you all to read this on your own.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this abuse scandal, but one thing sticks out in my mind above the rest. I’m simply shocked that Producer A continued to work with the young band even after Media Line Entertainment found out about his abuse towards the members. In what can only be termed as turning a blind eye to the abuse, Media Line Entertainment seemed to fail these young men who had the courage to finally speak up about the abuse. Remember that Producer A didn’t resign until three years after Media Line Entertainment found out about the situation. He was allowed to keep working with the minors he had reportedly abused.
The K-pop industry is already a difficult business, so there shouldn’t be any sort of physical abuse that adds to these young idols’ problems. Idols are put through rigorous training so they can become successful, but even then, it’s not a guarantee. For example, extreme diets and exercise are a normal part of the idol lifestyle. Nine Muses released their dietary plan which consists of filling three small paper cups with food— that’s all they can eat! One cup will have rice, another will a side dish like kimchi, and the last cup will have some vegetables or fruit. Personally, I found that shocking. Apart from extreme diets, however, idols go through a lot to make their dreams a reality and give up so much of their childhood and normal teen lives to dedicate it all to their companies. Knowing what difficulties they already face as idols and trainee made this abuse scandal even more disturbing to me.
In the meantime, Media Line Entertainment terminated TheEastLight’s contracts on October 22nd in a reported effort to prevent future difficulties in the upcoming legal proceedings.
Reading things like this makes it difficult to be a K-pop fan at times. I love K-pop. I love the passion behind it all. I love the creativity behind the music. However, stories like this can make it hard to enjoy the music since I don’t want to support a system of abuse. Granted, not all groups are abused by their producers or companies. I’m sure many groups have wonderful relationships with their producers, but scandals like this should never exist. Abuse towards anyone— especially minors— is something we should all work to eliminate completely.
It’s important to become socially conscious of the world around us, especially when talking about the entertainment business. It’s easy to focus on the glitz and glamour of fame and not see the dark side that comes with it, making fans idealize the industry and seek to become a part of it. Even apart from physical abuse, there are many horrible things (including underpaying idols, refusing to pay for artists’ performances, anti-fans, sexual abuse, slave contracts, and much more) that happen daily in the K-pop scene. In fact, one exposé-style article I recommend reading can be found by clicking here, where they even talk about a tragic case where an award-winning celebrity died of hunger before she could send a note to her neighbors to ask for rice and kimchi. The pressures that idols and celebrities face, the abuse they encounter, the hatred they receive from anti-fans, and so much more take a heavy toll on celebrities, even leading some of them to take their own lives in the resulting struggle with depression. You can click here to read about many actors and actresses, including ones who suffered physical and sexual abuse in the business, who took their own lives in our article that was released for suicide prevention awareness month. Even the late Kim Jonghyun of SHINee referred to the pressures of the celebrity lifestyle in his own final letter.
In similar cases of abuse or mistreatment, some people even blame the parents who (despite hearing numerous horror stories such as the ones outlined in this article) still allow or even encourage their children to become idols. These people argue that although a child may want to be a singer, they are too young to make responsible decisions for themselves. Despite that fact, it’s not unusual for children as young as eight or nine to become trainees these days, spending the majority of their days away from home (or even moving to a different country completely) to purse being an idol.
The point of this feature is to shed light on an issue currently within the K-pop industry. I understand the entertainment industry is a difficult industry and demands the best and the brightest. I understand the stress that comes with becoming an idol, as well as all the hard work. However, there has to be a limit to what’s considered to be okay. Companies must be held accountable. Adults in charge must be made responsible for their actions. Those of us who live in Korea must make our voices heard by lawmakers as we ask them to protect the children and teens who are working in the entertainment field. Perhaps most importantly, we should take the first step by recognizing the problem and committing to no longer turn a blind eye to these problems.
What’s your opinion? What can we as fans do to make the industry a better place for idols? Who bears the ultimate responsibility to make sure these situations don’t repeat themselves in the K-pop world and other similar industries? Let us know your own thoughts on this issue.
KyeongJun is a writer for WTK, where he gushes about his love for Korean rock music (You guys need to listen to Jaurim). When not writing, he’s at the gym listening to the newest K-Rock bands. You can catch KyeongJun @ElCrazy_Diamond on Twitter.
*The opinions expressed in this article are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect What The Kpop as a whole.
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