On April 16, South Korean girl band Blackpink became the first K-pop group to headline the Coachella Music and Arts Festival — an honour reserved for only the biggest musical acts in the industry right now.
Three days later, South Korean authorities found member of K-pop boy band Astro, Moonbin, unresponsive in his home. While no official cause of death has been announced, police said Moonbin appeared "to have taken his own life".
These two events occurring in close proximity to each other represent the extreme highs and lows of an industry that is dominating current worldwide popular culture.
K-pop's explosion onto the international stage has once again brought to light the hoops that aspiring artists must jump through — such as intense training regimens, restrictive practices and constant public exposure — to reach the success within the genre.
What is K-pop?
K-pop refers to South Korean popular music which rose to prominence in the mid 90s alongside the Japanese pop music known as J-pop.
It's most often a hybrid of pop and hip hop sounds performed by highly trained artists with a focus on youth and polished visual aesthetics.
But according to Dr Sarah Keith, senior lecturer in media and music at Macquarie University, the term has grown to encapsulate a lot more.
"The best way to describe K-pop is global music that is produced in Korea or music that is produced using the Korean industry and training system," Dr Keith says.
"It's produced for export."
The global expansion of K-pop means that K-pop stars don't necessarily have to be South Korean, such as Blackpink's Rosé, who was born in New Zealand.
What is a K-pop idol?
An idol is a commonly used term in the K-pop community to refer to someone in a successful K-pop group or is popular in the genre.
"A K-pop idol has to be an all-round talent, not only do they have to be able to sing and dance, they have to look appealing," Dr Keith says.
However, Dr Keith says there has been a backlash against the term in recent years.
"This is because the word idol has connotations to someone who does not have agency," she says.
"It's more common now to use the word artist."
The long road to becoming a K-pop artist
Unlike Western record labels, Korean labels are a lot more involved with the rigorous training that aspiring K-pop artists must go through before they can join a group.
"They're referred to most as agencies and are more like all-purpose management corporations," Dr Keith says.
"Agencies will oversee recruitment, production and training of all artists, they'll also manage the artists, hook them up with promotional opportunities, sponsorships, acting gigs or television spots."
Dr Keith says that from around 2008 to 2018, three agencies dominated the K-pop scene; SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment.
These three agencies, which were all founded between 1996 and 1997, pioneered the agency training system.
In recent years, HYBE Entertainment — the agency behind Grammy-nominated boy band BTS — has also become a major player.
Agencies will recruit from global auditions as well as scout at local dance and singing competitions.
But before aspiring artists have a shot at the major agencies, many spend years training at independent talent agencies.
"Artists can be talent-spotted or recruited from the pre-teen years, so 11, 12, 13 but they can be in later years like 15 or 16 — like in the case of some of the Blackpink members," Dr Keith says.
Once recruited for a major agency, aspiring artists will enter into a trainee contract — sometimes five or 10 years long.
Usually, teen trainees will attend school during the day and train at agencies during the evening but there has been movement to combine the two.
In 2020, SM Entertainment launched the SM Institute which aims to combine traditional schooling with artist training.
Trainees under contract will train at the agency until they are selected to "debut" in a K-pop group.
"The tricky thing is there's no guaranteed outcome for the artist, the artist may proceed to debut with a group or they may not," Dr Keith says.
"And if that contract is broken there might be consequences for the artist and they might have to repay the agency what they invested in their training."
If trainees are selected to be in a group, how long that group can operate for is a major concern for agencies.
"K-pop is very youth oriented … the younger an artist debuts the longer their career can be and that's something agencies keep in mind," Dr Keith says.
"It comparatively rare for an artist to debut after the age of 20, usually they'll debut in their late teens."
Agencies demand a lot from their trainees and artists
Even after debut, the Korean agency system is notorious for imposing a strict training schedule on its artists, often having the teen stars rehearsing and performing for excessively long periods, often on little or no sleep.
In 2009, members from the band TVXQ sued SM Entertainment over what they felt were unfair and exploitative stipulations in their 13-year contracts.
Both parties settled out of court and in 2014 Korea introduced a law guaranteeing underage singers and actors the basic rights to learn, rest and sleep.
Coercing underage stars to wear revealing costumes or dance to sexualised choreography was also made illegal under threats of $10,000 fines.
Despite the progress made to the industry, many K-pop artists have described controlling conditions they must obey contractually.
Some agencies enforce a "no mobile phone" rule for their artists.
Girl's Generation — a group under the SM Entertainment agency — member Tiffany Young revealed on a 2018 episode of The Zach Sang Show that the group was not allowed mobile phones in the early years of their contract, forcing her to use pay phones to contact her parents.
JYP Entertainment founder Park Jin-young is known to enforce a dating ban for artists in his groups, although he clarified in a 2015 interview with MBC that the ban was for a limited time. "After the three years, if they introduce me to their boyfriends, I intend to treat them well and buy them dinner," he said.
In 2015, girl group TWICE detailed the strict weight loss regimes they were put on during their trainee years, with member Momo revealing that her agency demanded she lose 7 kilograms in a week.
She said that she attempted the feat by spitting out saliva and eating nothing but a single ice cube for a week.
"When I lie down on my bed and try to sleep, I was scared that I might not wake up again," she said in a livestream video.
In a 2020 interview on The Tonight Show, BTS member RM told a story about running to the bathroom to eat as much black bean noodles as he could in secret before returning to practise.
In a 2021 interview with TVN, RM also shared a story of him and fellow member V shoving recently purchased ice creams in their pockets out of fear that managers were following them and would see them eating the contraband food.
Dr Keith says a fitness regime is common for trainees and artists under contract.
"There's certainly exercise and work-outs as a part of training, they'll be check-ins … but dance and singing are core."
K-pop on a global stage
As K-pop has entered the global stage through internationally successful acts such as Blackpink and BTS, revenue for the sector has exploded.
In 2022, SM Entertainment reported $US657 million (A$990 million) in revenue. HYBE reported a 2022 revenue of $US1.37 billion.
Overall, Korean creative industry body KOKKA reported the revenues in the South Korean music industry grew 37.1 per cent in 2022.
"There's a constant stream of K-pop content in South Korea, not just the music but also on TV, films and online," Dr Keith said.
"It's also the default music you'll hear in any store that's catered to the youth market."
As such, pursuing a career as an artist has become more accepted.
"That's something that's changed over the last 25 years. K-pop has become so global and the artists had become so admired as exemplary people who have dedicated their lives to art and representing Korea abroad," Dr Keith says.
"So, 25 years ago, parents might have seen their child wanting to become K-pop artists as a little disappointing, but it is seen as a more acceptable aspiration for young people today than it used to be."
And despite its global expansion, Dr Keith says the K-pop craze has not yet seen reached its height.
"There are all these barriers that are falling, Girls Generation performing on US late night TV, BTS performing at the Grammys, Blackpink headlining Coachella," she says.
"For the last 10 years people have said that K-pop has peaked but I think so far we haven't seen it."
