Pressure and Argument

This is the hardest chapter of the course, and it is written with care. It covers the pressures on K-pop artists that the sources describe, the public arguments that followed, and the law on military service. It reports what the sources say, with owners, and it does not guess at the reasons behind any individual's life or death.

Contracts and Trainees: The Law Responds

Chapter 4 followed the 2009 lawsuit to the Fair Trade Commission's contract templates and the 2014 law protecting performers under 19. The K-pop article describes a further step.

• 2017 rules for trainees. On 7 March 2017 the Korea Fair Trade Commission "passed new regulations in order to protect trainee idols from unfair terms and working conditions". The article says that before them, trainees at eight agencies "were not permitted to seek contracts at any other agency while at training" and agencies "were able to terminate a trainee contract at any time for any reason". The Ministry of Culture applied the rules to all existing agencies through 2018.
• The agencies' concerns. The article records the industry's worry that a trainee might train undercover at another agency, and its argument that each trainee, who trains for three years on average, is "a very large investment".
• A testimony. The article reports that in September 2024 a member of NewJeans, Hanni, testified to Korean lawmakers about "workplace harassment and mistreatment during her time at Hybe", describing being ignored by managers and senior idols, and said she hoped younger trainees would not suffer the same. This is her testimony as reported. I read no response from the company, and I make no finding.

Mental Health

The K-pop article says some artists have suggested that "the uncertainty and pressures of their jobs as entertainers may be detrimental to their mental health". It gives two artists' own words:

These are two people speaking about their own experience. They do not describe every artist.

Deaths and Public Debate

The article says "the suicides of prominent K-pop musicians have drawn attention to both industry and societal pressures". It names the following, and I repeat only what it says.

Military Service

The conscription article says that since 1957 South Korea "has required male citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 to perform compulsory military service", and that the Military Service Act allows few exceptions: "no special case concerning mandatory military service shall be prescribed" except as the Act provides. The Korean idol article notes that the Constitution makes service mandatory for all men and "no exceptions are made" for idols, and that a former K-pop star, Yoo Seung-jun, "attempted to evade military service by obtaining American citizenship" and was banned from entering South Korea.

• The 2020 amendment. The conscription article says a law passed in December 2020 allows "a two-year extension for notable K-pop artists", raising the enlistment age from 28 to 30. It adds that "some resources and media outlets claim" the main reason was Jin of BTS, who was about to turn 28. That is a claim about motive, with its owner given as unnamed outlets, and I do not rely on it.
• Exemptions elsewhere. Exemptions are granted to some sports medallists and to classical musicians and ballet performers who win first place in stipulated international competitions. K-pop artists are not on that list. The article says 220 exemptions were granted from 2008 to 2018 (the figure is the article's).
• BTS. In October 2022 their label announced Jin had withdrawn his deferral request and would enlist first. The BTS article says the group announced a pause on 14 June 2022 and that all members "completed their service by June 2025".
• The money argument. The BTS article says that, according to an estimate, if members completed service Hybe would lose nearly US$10 billion over ten years, with nearly US$39 billion to the South Korean economy. It gives these as an estimate with no method, and the article also says Hybe's stock fell below its IPO price amid speculation.

Other Arguments

• Appearance and sexualisation. Chapter 5 recorded the K-pop article's account of criticism of sexualisation, the 2014 law for under-19s and the 2019 "lookism" guidelines. The Korean idol article adds that some performers have been harassed for not fitting expectations, and names one example, and says LGBT artists "still face significant discrimination and prejudice", citing the singer Holland, who debuted in 2018 as a gay man.
• Cultural appropriation. The K-pop article says groups have been "regularly accused" of appropriating African-American culture through styling such as cornrows and bandanas, and that "some have used blackface and racial slurs as part of their performances". It also records the view of Crystal S. Anderson that borrowing elements "does not automatically constitute negative cultural appropriation". This is an open argument.
• Plagiarism. The article says some groups "have been accused of plagiarizing Western music acts". It names no case and gives no finding.
• Earnings. The Korean idol article says the National Tax Service reported the average annual earnings for a Korean idol in 2013 at KR₩46.74 million (about US$42,000), up from KR₩26.97 million in 2010, and that "not much has changed for all but the most successful handful". That is the article's figure, and an average hides wide differences.

What Changed, What Is Disputed

Exercises

Next chapter: Capstone: A Pop Industry Argues With Itself, which draws the threads of the course together and gives a checklist for reading any claim about K-pop.