If you’ve met a child this summer, you’ll probably have heard about K-Pop Demon Hunters. But the South Korean pop world has demons of its own…
All over the country, living rooms are shaking to the surprise hit of the summer. K-Pop Demon Hunters – touted by Netflix as their most-watched original animated film – has captured kids’ imaginations like never before.
But there’s more to the South Korean music craze than vocal harmonies and energetic dance routines. We’ve taken a look at the dark side of the K-pop hit machine…
Pop pushers
Those picture-perfect pop stars don’t just show up out of nowhere. First they go through the gruelling K-pop training system, often starting at primary school age.
Children as young as nine audition for the record company schemes, with the chosen few sent off to specialist academies for years at a time. Speaking in 2020, former hopeful Euodias described spending two years at one of them.
“Weight was the constant obsession of everyone there,” she said. “Everyone was required to be no heavier than 47kg (7st 6lb or 104lb) regardless of their age or height.
“If you were over the designated weight, then they would ration your food. Sometimes they would even take away entire meals and those ‘overweight’ trainees would just be given water.”
Pupils were kept in single-sex dormitories and banned from dating – even visits from relatives had to be approved in advance. They practised dance routines from 5am to 11pm, stopping only for their normal school lessons.
She added: “It was common to pass out from exhaustion. Often we had to help carry unconscious trainees back to the dorms.”
Euodias, 26, was eventually told she would need plastic surgery to change her nose and jawline if she wanted to succeed. She quit after being assigned a “sweet and innocent” character that didn’t fit her “loud” personality.
Since her experience, the South Korean Free Trade Commission has introduced tighter regulations around the treatment of K-pop trainees.
Deadly obsession
For those who make it through the training, the battle is far from over. Stars are held to near-impossible standards of beauty and behaviour – with drinking, smoking and dating routinely banned.
Those who don’t toe the line are often targeted by online hate groups, with harassment and gruelling schedules said to contribute to high suicide rates.
Singer Kim Jong-hyun, from South Korean boyband SHINee, became a casualty of the lifestyle when he was found dead in December 2017. The 27-year-old, who suffered from depression, left a note describing his struggle with being in the public eye. He wrote: “I was broken from the inside,” adding “the life of fame was never meant for me.”
Then in October 2019 singer Sulli, formerly of girl group f(x), took her own life at her house in Seongnam. The 25-year-old had faced relentless cyberbullying over her relationship with rapper Choiza.
Her close friend Goo Hara, from girl group Kara, killed herself a month later at her home in Seoul. In the run-up to her death, the 28-year-old had faced a traumatic legal battle with ex-boyfriend Choi Jong-bum.
Hairdresser Choi had been handed an 18-month suspended sentence – later reduced to a year on appeal – for assaulting the star and threatening to ‘end her career’ by releasing a private sex tape.
Despite being the victim of a crime, Goo was still targeted by trolls over the fact the sex tape existed.
Crimes against music
Since K-pop first emerged in the 1990s, a series of scandals have tarnished its squeaky-clean image. One of the first was the mysterious death of rapper Kim Sung-jae of hip-hop group Deux.
The 23-year-old was found dead in a Seoul hotel room in November 1995. Police initially concluded he had a heart attack linked to overworking, until 28 needle marks were discovered on his right arm.
When traces of animal anaesthetics were found in his blood, his 25-year-old girlfriend, identified only as Miss Kim, was arrested. But the case against her was later thrown out due to a lack of evidence – and the alleged crime has never been solved.
Then in March 2019, three male K-pop stars shocked South Korea with their roles in a spycam sexual abuse scandal. They were part of a group caught drugging and raping female revellers at the Burning Sun nightclub in Gangnam, Seoul, then sharing footage of the attacks.
Singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young was jailed for six years, later reduced to five, for gang-raping multiple women and sharing videos without their consent. Choi Jong-hoon, of FT Island, was imprisoned for five years for the same offences, reduced on appeal to two and a half.
And Seungri, from boyband Big Bang, got a three-year sentence and 1.15billion won fine for hiring prostitutes, embezzling Burning Sun funds and trying to destroy evidence, later reduced to 18 months.
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