"What Is K-Pop?!" Blog Series- Part 4: All must train, but do they all become idols?

This is part four of the "What Is K-Pop?!" Blog series. If you haven't read the previous parts, the following article might not make sense. If you would like to start from the beginning of this series, click HERE. If you missed the last part and would like to catch up, click HERE. Thank you and happy readings!

That Seems Like a Hard Life...Do they HAVE TO Train?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Yes, because that’s just how Korean entertainment companies operate. These companies’ sole purpose is to train, debut, and then manage idols. They are the ones who make sure their idols are ready before officially debuting.

You see, idols are an investment. The companies must pay for several dancing, singing, language, acting, modeling, and PR coaches as well as all of the artists’ managers. These companies also need to have spaces where the trainees can actually practice, such as dance studios, practice rooms, photo studios, and recording studios. They need to provide trainees with living facilities and spending money. Wardrobe, transportation, and food must be provided for the trainees. The list of expenses goes on, but for the sake of moving on I’ll ask you to go ahead and add all that money up. What do you get? You get the fact that those trainees BETTER sell a lot of CDs, concert tickets, be hired to be in movies, shows, and sign as many brand deals as possible, or else the company will lose the thousands, if not millions, that it had already invested on these soon-to-be idols.

The three biggest companies are SM, JYP, and YG Entertainment. They’re the ones with the most successful K-Pop groups (the ones that have created the most revenue.) Although, there are other companies which do have successful groups, just not half as many, such as Jellyfish ent. with VIXX, and BIG HIT ent. with BTS. Training is taken seriously, because, if done well, it creates results ($$$). After being on the business for almost three decades, these companies know what needs to be done so that K-pop idols are able to become successful. Basically, if you know that something works, in this case a vigorous training period, why would you stop doing it?

All Must Train, but do they All Make It?

Everyone who knows about K-Pop idols is aware that pursuing this path is extremely difficult. During this period of their lives, individuals are challenged, both physically and mentally, in ways that most people will never have to. They have to endure rigorous physical training, learn how to be likable, and have an entertaining personality. Even friendships are hard to make, because the people they spend the most time with, are also their competition. At the end of the day, though, it is all voluntary. Only those with an immense passion, for both music and stardom, will decide to go through this process, because the worst part of it all is that there is no guarantee.

People can sign trainee contracts with companies, but in many of those contracts there are no guarantees that they will ever debut as a K-Pop idol. Companies want to hand-pick the best of the bunch, and they will make those decisions based on how good looking, talented, and how likable a person is. If a company believes a trainee is lacking certain qualities they are looking for in their future K-Pop group's members, they will drop her/him in an instant.

The other way Idol dreams are crushed is when companies continue to delay their trainees’ debut date. There are times, especially in bigger companies which can afford to train many individuals for long periods of time, in which trainees are left as just that, trainees, for much too long. After years of training, a person’s contract can be over without any signs of their debut happening any time soon. Nevertheless, the company sees potential in this trainee, so they ask him/her to sign another contract which will prolong their training period, but yet again, without a guarantee of when the trainee will debut. (Sometimes they do add a guarantee of debut, but that simply means however many more months or years staying as a trainee.) This gets old for some people, especially those who started training as pre-teens, are now are about to graduate from high school, and have previously been asked to re-new their trainee contract several times. They lose interest because they’ve already wasted their childhood/teen years training, and they aren’t about to lose their young adult years as well. After deciding not to renew their contracts, these individuals must then find a new path in life.

Damn, talk about life-changing decisions...Talk about having your life in the hands of someone else. Because of this, it isn’t a surprise that out of the thousands of trainees there are every year, only a handful get to debut, and, after debuting, very few do actually become famous and profitable for their companies.

Click here for Part 5.