A Stellar Issue: The Vicious Circle of Sex in K-Pop.
First and foremost, let me make something clear. I am not a native Korean speaker and I predominantly rely on what I pick up from video subtitles and English K-pop news sites when reading about K-pop news or watching my favourite reality shows. That being said one doesn't have to be a native Korean speaker to pick up on one, big thing: sex sells in the K-Pop industry. Whether it's through fame or infamy, sex-related issues seem to generate more news coverage on K-Pop sites than any other topic. Whether you love it or hate it, it gets your attention and at the end of the day that is what companies desire.
The internet is flooded with articles glorifying, shaming or discussing sexy content in almost equal quantities* and the comments sections are even more varied in their responses. Netizens flood the articles with a variety of colourful responses, praising, shaming, neutral, angry, lusting... the list goes on. In fact the showcasing of sexual content seems to dehumanise the women (and men) at their focus and often targets their person or character above all else. Sex, by it's very nature, often divides opinion, especially within consumers. At the one end you often have the lovers and the haters of the so named "sexy concepts" who can never seem to agree. One article will cover praise of a concept, whilst another will highlight the issues it raised amongst consumers (compare articles 4* and 7**).
What people often seem to fail to grasp is that these artists are human beings but, more to the point, they're human beings in the K-pop industry who are usually under the complete control of their management agencies. Artists seldom have any say in their material, direction, lyrics, choreography makeup, clothing, TV appearances ...the list goes on. The result, however, is that both negative and positive reactions are usually directed towards the artist themselves who are, to put it dramatically, "just following orders".
One could argue that artists can leave agencies behind, however this is seldom attempted prior to end-of-contract dates due to the following factors:
- Trying to leave an agency before your contract is due is often seen as "drama" or a scandal and will most likely hinder your chances at representing other agencies in the future.
- If artists do manage to liase with new agencies and try to negotiate terminations of previous contracts they often face a lengthy court battle which will result in large expenses, delays in promotions and will most likely be considered a scandal.
- If you are a new artist, or have failed to make back the money that was spent, by the agency, on your training, accommodation and other costs before or after your debut you may be faced with a hefty fee.
- As a new artist pushing against an agencies wishes could effectively get you removed from the agency and ruin your chances of success or getting a new agency in the future.
It's not surprising, then, that artists often stay with the same agencies for years. It's rare for companies to want to let go of someone they've spent millions of Korean Won training.
Such circumstances are common and poor conditions for artists in K-pop is something that is well known and has been discussed at length. However, the control that agencies exercise, how they push the sexy concept for some artists and how backlash seems to be directed at the artist rather than the agency, is the main issue around which this article revolves.
The Stellar Issue:
Whilst it's generally unclear as to which artists genuinely like to portray themselves in a sexy way and which do not, an article recently surfaced illustrating the harsh realty of selling sexy in the K-pop industry.
The topic to which I'm referring is the girl group Stellar's recent interview with No Cut News. In it the members candidly shared their reasons for "taking the sexy route" for many of their music promotions. The article surfaced surrounding controversy over their latest release: Vibrato. I won't lie when the article makes for somewhat grim reading.
In the interview the girls clearly show their embarrassment regarding the concept their agency wished them to perform. Gayoung even stating that she was too embarrassed to upload their Vibrato teaser to her social networking site (SNS) even though this would have gained them some publicity. Unfortunately, they state that their non-sexy promotions of Fool failed so they felt that they had to continue with their sexy image from Marionette productions because, whilst those brought controversy, people heard of it and the Marionette Extended play (EP) reached number 35 in the Gaon Album chart([1]), their highest charting release to date. In other words: all publicity is good publicity.
It's clear, though, that the girls are not completely comfortable with the sexy concept designed by their agency, but it's not because they don't wish to portray sexiness in general:
"Junyool: There's a chance that even those who insult us will listen to our song. And if our song is good, then they could become our fans. And I think that as a woman, we have a right to be sexy....
Q: If "Vibrato" achieves success, will you put away the sexy concept?
Junyool: I want to try a sexy concept that's [more toned down] and just on the level of hearing "It's pretty".
Hyoeun: I want us to promote with a song that we can all enjoy together. Perhaps there won't be excessive skin exposure.
Minhee: It's not that we don't do innocent concepts because we don't know how to do it. We are normally like other women in their early twenties. However, I do hope that Stellar can retain a bit of our color still."
- Original interview translated by Allkpop.com (link)
It's obvious to me that the girls of Stellar simply aren't comfortable with what their agencies are making them do (and let's face it, it's pretty clear from the article that their agency made them do certain things). This is the crux of the problem. If Stellar don't vie for attention with something that causes controversy and, inevitably, backlash - they go unnoticed. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. This is a problem many K-pop artists face in the industry today: their image is designed and distributed by their agencies, but they're not the ones who live with the consequences. If it doesn't work out artists could be left in the cold, sharing one order of food between four people like Stellar. Some would say (and correctly) that the industry is a dog-eat-dog world and you have to be the best to succeed. Artists do need to be tough and resilient, but when they have no control over the music and image they put out it's more like a dog fighting pit with agencies spectating and gambling over their futures in K-Pop around the edges. The point I'm raising, then, is that if artists had more control over their content and material from debut, and were more responsible for their own fate, articles covering things such as the Stellar Issue may not need to happen. The music industry all over the world is a tough atmosphere to breathe, but artists in the West seem to have more control over what they produce and can, presumably, feel all the prouder over their successes.
It seems that the business of selling sex in K-Pop is a vicious circle with the topics of discussion stuck in the middle, often through no desire of their own. It can't be easy and one would assume it must take it's toll. As a consumer, articles such as the coverage of the Stellar interview really hit home how little control some artists in the industry have over the exposure of their own bodies. As a Westerner we often see sexual content in music videos, on stages and the like, but it's generally with the knowledge that the artist have significant (or total) control over what they're doing. It is somewhat discomfiting as a consumer (and a woman) to read of artists being forced to expose their bodies and dance in ways they don't want to. In Korea, however, it seems to be the norm. Or at least the issue is ignored to some degree. If the backlash artists receive, either from comments, hate mail, or being banned from TV stations is anything to go by, it would most certainly seem as though the fact that artists are often forced to do things they don't want to is swept under the rug. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe opinions or cultural perceptions of this aspect of the industry are seldom given notice by the general population: perhaps this is simply the way it is. Korean culture is Korean culture and I am in no way berating or looking down on it. The purpose of this article is to simply voice my perceptions of the sex-portrayal in the K-pop industry from a western perspective.
In any case, the issue of sex in K-pop is a complicated issue and I would be interested to hear other perceptions on the matter in the comments below.
Thank you for reading!
**article 7
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