kpop idols

When choosing a topic for this assignment my mind automatically went to K-Pop Idols. I am no stranger to the world of Kpop, and am familiar with all the terms such a “Bias”,
“Maknae” and what an “Army Bomb” is. Not wanting to just out myself, but I am a big fan of the current most famous boy Idol group BTS as well as some others such as Monsta X and KNK. This is what first introduced me to the world of K-pop. 

 

To go back in time a little bit, I was first hit by the Korean wave, otherwise known as Hallyu, earlier this year. Netflix Thailand offers a large plethora or K-Dramas which my friends and I liked to binge watch after a long day at the beach. The acting and storylines were superior to those of western dramas in my opinion, and once you get over the fact that their are speaking a different language and you will have to read subtitles they were ultimately very enjoyable. A specific song in the K-drama “My ID is Gangnam Beauty”, caught my ear, so obviously I asked Siri what the song was like any other millennial would do these days. I then discovered it was the song Euphoria by Jungkook of BTS, and that's when I fell down the rabbit hole. 

 

When researching the previous blog of “A Day in The Life of an Idol”, I was actually quite shocked at my discoveries. Their days seem to be way more full on then I expected, starting from 5am and not returning back to their dorms until late in the evening. This is when I realised that it might not all be sunshine and rainbows in the world of Kpop. When conducting this research I experienced several epiphanies which are remembered moments perceived to have significantly impacted the trajectory of a person's life (Ellis, 2011). Looking for Insight, I watched the movie “Bring The Soul - The Movie”, which was a documentary type film that revealed what it was like while BTS is on tour. To be honest, the film was actually quite sad, members experienced extreme fatigue, injury, emotional torment if they made a mistake whilst performing, as well as being separated from their families. Many Idol trainees experience this when they are trying to make it in the industry, they are separated from the families, forced to live in dorms, get little sleep and time to eat and are often heavily restricted due to a contract between them and their agency.

 

Even though I was well aware of the K-pop world, I still feel as if this topic did have a large aspect of self reflexivity was I am now aware that the realm of Idol trainees is not just perfect dance routines and flawless skin, but a whole other layer of fatigue, exhaustion and desperation.