In March 2019, several male K-pop stars, including Seungri, a member of boyband Big Bang, Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of FT Island, and singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young were implicated in a spycam sexual abuse scandal, after Jung shared videos of women in a group chat.
Kim Jong-hyun, 27, a member of SHINee, took his own life in 2017 after speaking about the intense pressures brought on by success. At the height of their fame, these men and women seem to have buckled under the strain, unable to live up to the demands placed on them to be polished, picture-perfect ambassadors of this effervescent pop music. There has been a spate of suicides and high-profile sex scandals involving K-pop stars in recent times. But something is very wrong inside K-pop, and it points to a deeper malaise throughout South Korea.
Who wouldn’t want to be a part of this pop behemoth that has become South Korea’s best-known cultural export? It’s an industry worth $5bn BTS alone sold more albums than Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande last year. Lee is not alone – for many young Koreans K-pop is a desirable career choice and there are many academies like this one. “They say at 17 you have a 50% chance of becoming a trainee. “It’s hard not to think about failure,” he says. There’s a huge gulf between the illusion and the reality of K-pop
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