JINJU, Southern Korea — K-pop stars are liked, and also worshipped, across the world.
BTS fans, that are inside their millions, call themselves the “Army” and when flooded a restaurant that is korean one-star Yelp reviews as a result of its owner stated another band was better.
Other hardcore K-pop fans also pool their cash together to get presents — including billboard advertisements in Times Square — for their idols in a training on the basis of the Korean term “jeogon,” which means that “tribute to your master.”
But behind the scenes, the stark reality is various.
Insider talked to people in Great Guys, an up-and-coming boyband consisting of nine guys inside their 20s, after their performance during the Korea Drama Festival in Jinju in very early October.
Whatever they shared had been life of strict gymnasium schedules, diet plans, and forced singledom — far through the glitz and glam they reveal on phase.
Grueling gymnasium routines and restrictive food diets
“Gym, studio, bedroom — which is my entire life circle,” stated Ho Ryeong, one of many musical organization members. “we have been now finding your way through our album that is new and really quite busy.”
“truthfully, we do not have much time for eating,” he stated. “Nor are we able to consume that which we want.”
Another user, Jae we, chimed in: “that is the most difficult component. It is not very easy to follow an eating plan, but We suppose it isn’t impossible either.”
It really is a testament to your pressures of keeping the intense beauty criteria associated with the K-pop industry: idols must look and remain stunning, young, and in good shape that is physical. That always results in serious food diets and do exercises regimes.
One famous K-pop diet, referred to as “Paper Cup Diet,” involves eating nine paper cups — how big the ones you would find by water coolers — worth of whole grain products, fruits, and veggies every single day. Discussion of the diet can also be popular among on pro-anorexia discussion boards.
Method, an old person in K-pop musical organization Crayon Pop, told Insider in an email that is separate “we had beenn’t permitted to consume midnight treats. Other treats like potato potato chips and candy were not allowed, so we’d sneak away and eat it.”
“us not to, that made us want to eat more since they kept telling. We’d secretly purchase it and consume it when you look at the restroom,” she included, laughing.
Gym routines will also be grueling. “We utilized to dancing with 4 kg (8.8 lbs) of sandbags on our legs for many times,” Way stated. “Our instructor desired us to obtain accustomed the sandbags, therefore without one our dances would look lighter in the performance.”
It really is worth noting why these beauty requirements affect other companies in Southern Korea too: the nation’s flight attendants frequently seek out plastic surgery to be breathtaking and slim, to improve their odds of securing jobs.
This past year, a news anchor made headlines for refusing to put on lenses and false lashes, and opting presenting along with her glasses on rather.
No relationship permitted
An rule that is unwritten K-pop is the fact that idols should also give up having a love life if they wish to be successful.
Being solitary makes them appear more available to their fans. This, the idea goes, means more dedicated fans, meaning more cash for the team and record label.
This really is additionally why groups that are k-pop either all-male or all-female, too — so fans do not suspect musical organization users are dating each other.
“Before we produced name for myself, i possibly couldn’t fulfill my children or buddies,” Way told Insider. “All all of us people had been residing together in a condo with an income space and two spaces, therefore on a regular basis we might be accessible and also at work.”
“We also necessary to offer our phones into the record business,” she stated. “we’re able to barely satisfy also our close family members.”
Donghwi, another person in Great Guys, additionally told Insider: “None of us have been in a relationship.”
Whenever Insider asked him to make clear them, he said: “Both whether he and his bandmembers don’t want partners or aren’t allowed! We mustn’t, but additionally, we do not like to date anyone.”
“We consented to not have a lady within our life, therefore we can concentrate more about our objective,” he included. “We love our fans, that’s enough for people.”
“If things get well, we could remain such as this forever. We have been delighted so long as we have been doing everything we love.”
Great Guys appears to be enjoying their road to popularity to date, which helps them keep the hard elements of their life. Although not all K-pop movie stars have actually provided the optimism that is same.
Not as much as three months ago, South Korean police announced that 25-year-old K-pop celebrity Sulli was discovered dead in her own house. Police continue to be investigating her reason behind death, but are taking care of the presumption that she killed by by herself.
She had been mostly of the K-pop music artists who’d attempted to deviate through the K-pop mold, and ended up being chastized for this.
She made her relationship along with her boyfriend public. She dared walk out of this homely household without a bra — departing from K-pop’s squeaky-clean image. She talked freely she put her career on hold after suffering physical and mental exhaustion about her mental health: in 2014.
In exchange, she got cyberbullies. When you look at the wake of her death, one fan re-posted a video clip from Sulli’s final Instagram Live, where she stated: “I am maybe not a person that is bad. I am sorry. What makes you saying bad reasons for having me personally? What did i actually do to deserve this?”
Fans and movie stars alike have actually advised K-pop record businesses to just just take psychological state more really, and approach it as less of a taboo.
Previously this season BTS had been permitted an “extended amount of sleep and leisure” — into the terms for the group that is wildly successful record label — during which musical organization people surely got to check out museums, head to concerts by other teams, and go fishing, Billboard reported.
Quitting K-pop is not a choice for most movie stars too — record businesses are apt to have a economic hold on tight their stars.
A typical agreement between record organizations and their movie stars involves the business investing in the expenses of reserving concert venues, traveling, and meals, and anticipating them become offset because of the profits. But then stars have to pay them back if the expenses end up being more than the earnings.
As Method explained: “Idols using the false hope of a bright future increasing their financial obligation into the business until they ultimately lose every thing . As soon as, we needed seriously to offer my belongings, including my laptop computer and beloved piano, to endure.”
In line with the Global Federation associated with the Phonographic Industry, K-pop is “shifting from ‘potential’ to ‘power player'” when you look at the international music industry. Its getting more essential than ever before to safeguard its movie movie stars.