The Agency System

K-Pop

Course 1 · Chapter 4 · The Agency System

Chapter 3 ended with Lee Soo-man's training-based company and Yang Hyun-suk's new label. This chapter looks at the system they and others built: how someone becomes a trainee, what a contract commits them to, what a 2009 lawsuit changed, and where the large agencies came from. It keeps what the sources document apart from what is rumour.

How this chapter was checked The facts here come from Wikipedia's articles on K-pop, Korean idol, TVXQ, SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and Hybe Corporation, as I read them. For the long K-pop and TVXQ articles I read the relevant sections only. I read no court judgments, contracts, books or company reports, and I report claims about working conditions as the articles report them, with owners named.

Becoming a Trainee

The article on Korean idols defines an idol as an entertainer in Korean popular music who "typically work[s] for an entertainment agency that operates a highly managed star system that idols are produced by and debut under." The K-pop article says the mainstream route is to become a trainee "through agency auditions, online auditions, or street casting".

StageWhat the articles say
Audition"Hundreds of candidates each day attend the global auditions held by Korean entertainment agencies", for a chance to become a trainee.
TrainingLasts "an indefinite period of time, ranging from months to years". It usually involves vocal, dance and language classes while living with other trainees, who "sometimes attend school at the same time", though some leave school.
RegulationTrainees are "regulated in multiple aspects, including personal life, physical condition, and visual appearance", and must keep a "wholesome image" while staying "private about their lives and thoughts".
DebutNew groups are given personalities by the company, and each member plays a character, kept consistent partly through company-managed social media.

The Korean idol article credits Lee Soo-man with popularising the trainee business model "from the Japanese idol industry that was founded by Johnny Kitagawa", inspired by the heyday of MTV in the United States. It says the 1990s also saw the government introduce state cultural policies "to promote the industrialization and internationalization of Korean pop culture", and that an idol-training model began developing in that context. The same article notes that the earliest mainstream Korean "idols" were vocal groups of the 1930s to 1950s, so the idea of a group built for the public is older than the 1990s system.

Reports about the system, as the articles give them The Korean idol article says former trainees reported being required to have plastic surgery, and that harsh weight limits sometimes caused trainees to pass out from exhaustion or dehydration. These are reports from former trainees as the article gives them, and the article does not say how common they were or at which agencies. Chapter 9 returns to working conditions and mental health.

What It Costs

Both K-pop and Korean idol articles cite a 2012 Wall Street Journal report on training costs at SM Entertainment, but they word it differently. This is worth noticing, because Chapter 1 repeated the first wording.

ArticleWording
K-popThe cost of training one Korean idol under SM "averaged US$3 million".
Korean idol"The cost of training one member of Girls' Generation under SM Entertainment was US$3 million."
An average, or one case? One article gives an average for SM, the other gives a figure for one member of one group. They cannot both be an accurate summary of the original report, which I have not read. Treat the figure as a newspaper's report from 2012, not an audited cost, and not as a general rule for all agencies. Chapter 1's wording ("averaged") followed the K-pop article.

The K-pop article also records the industry's own defence. SM's CEO at the time, Kim Young-min, is quoted as arguing that people trained in the system are "no different" from school pupils who attend after-school programmes to cram for college entrance exams, and that the company's costs during the trainee period (facilities, equipment, costumes) must be considered.

Contracts and the 2009 Lawsuit

The K-pop article says agencies "offer binding contracts to potential artists, sometimes at a young age", and that management companies "have also been criticized for exploitation of idols through overwork and restrictive contracts, described as 'slave contracts' in a BBC report."

  • The case. The TVXQ article says that in July 2009 members Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu tried to split from SM, "claiming that their thirteen-year contract was excessively long, schedules were held out without permission of the members, and profits were unfairly distributed." In October 2009 the Seoul Central District Court granted the trio a temporary contract injunction, and TVXQ's group activities in Korea stopped. Yunho and Changmin released a statement in support of SM.
  • The reforms. The K-pop article says the court decision "determined their contract with SM Entertainment void", that the Fair Trade Commission then released contract templates "to regulate industry conditions", and that in 2014 South Korea passed a law to protect performers under 19 from unhealthy labour practices and overly sexualised performances, guaranteeing "the basic rights to learn, rest and sleep". Breaking it may lead to a fine equal to about US$10,000.
  • Corruption. The K-pop article also reports that in 2002 Time described the arrest of TV producers for "accepting under-the-table payments guaranteeing TV appearances", with companies investigated including SidusHQ and SM Entertainment. The article names the companies as investigated, not as convicted.
Where the two articles do not agree The TVXQ article describes a temporary injunction granted by the Seoul Central District Court in October 2009 and names three members. The K-pop article says the court "determined their contract ... void" and says the case was brought by "TVXQ and a Super Junior member", alleging adverse health effects from working conditions. The articles give different claims, a different wording of the ruling and different members, and I have not read the judgment. I rely on what both support: a 2009 lawsuit against SM, a temporary injunction, and later contract templates. The date, the number of members and the exact ruling should be checked in a primary source.

The Large Agencies

The K-pop article says the industry "is dominated by four companies: SM, YG, JYP and Hybe". Their own articles give their origins.

CompanyWhat the articles say
SM EntertainmentFounded by Lee Soo-man, who set up "SM Studio" in 1989 and renamed it SM Entertainment in February 1995. Launched H.O.T. (1996), S.E.S. (1997), Shinhwa (1998), Fly to the Sky (1999) and BoA (2000). In 2000 it became the first entertainment company listed on KOSDAQ. Debuted TVXQ in 2003 and Super Junior in 2005.
YG EntertainmentFounded on 24 February 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk, formerly of Seo Taiji and Boys, under the name Hyun Planning. Its first act, the hip-hop trio Keep Six, "did not attract much popularity", and the failure left Yang in debt of 400 million won. Later names included MF Planning and Yang Goon Planning, then YG Entertainment in 2001. Current artists include BigBang, 2NE1 and Blackpink.
JYP EntertainmentFounded in 1997 by J.Y. Park as Tae-Hong Planning Corporation; renamed JYP Entertainment in 2001. Its first artist was Pearl. In 2006 it formed its first girl group, Wonder Girls, which the article says was the first South Korean group to enter the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009 (the sentence is cut off in what I read, so I treat the year as unconfirmed).
HybeFounded as Big Hit Entertainment on 1 February 2005. Its founder Bang Si-hyuk signed RM as the first member of BTS in 2010, and BTS debuted under Big Hit on 13 June 2013. It has since grown "from a traditional music entertainment company into a tech-driven lifestyle platform corporation".

Two things stand out. The companies were each built by a person from music or production, not by a TV network or a record label. And the earlier stories show how often acts failed: Keep Six, Noel and others in these articles did not catch on, so the "system" has a high failure rate that tends to be left out of the success stories.

Record, Rumour and Marketing

  1. Record. A court case, a law and a company's founding date are checkable. Use them.
  2. Reports. A newspaper figure, a BBC phrase ("slave contracts") or a former trainee's account is evidence of what someone said. It is worth reporting with its owner, but not as a general fact.
  3. Rumour. Claims about named individuals' private contracts, debts or health that have no source belong in none of the above. This course leaves them out.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Describe the path from audition to debut in four steps, using the articles' wording where you can. Then say where the trainee model is said to have come from and who is credited with bringing it to Korea.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Summarise the 2009 TVXQ lawsuit and the reforms the K-pop article connects to it. Then point out two places where the K-pop and TVXQ articles differ, and say what you would write so as not to claim more than you can support.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Choose two of the four large agencies and give for each its founder, its founding year and one early act. Then explain why the US$3 million training-cost figure should be reported with its owner and wording.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • Trainee route: audition (agency, online, street casting) → training (vocal, dance, language; living together) → debut with a company-given character
  • Origin of the model: from the Japanese idol industry; popularised in Korea by Lee Soo-man of SM
  • 2009 lawsuit: TVXQ members vs SM; October 2009 temporary injunction (TVXQ article); contract "void" (K-pop article)
  • Reforms: Fair Trade Commission contract templates; 2014 law protecting performers under 19
  • The four: SM (Lee Soo-man, 1995), YG (Yang Hyun-suk, 1996), JYP (J.Y. Park, 1997), Hybe (Bang Si-hyuk, 2005, as Big Hit)
  • Training cost: US$3 million (WSJ, 2012): an "average" in one article, one group member in another
  • Check: the exact ruling and members in the 2009 case, and the training-cost wording

Next chapter: Anatomy of an Idol Group, which covers group formation, positions and concepts, choreography, the comeback cycle, and how a release is made and promoted.