K-pop has taken the world by storm and with that comes great music and artistry, but also the darker sides of the entertainment industry that we all know too well – the mistreatment of young stars, unrealistic beauty standards, and some questionable cultural exchanges. In this video, I try to cover it all.*
But first, a little background. I stopped listening to K-pop for around a decade. I’d say from 2013 until this year I’ve stayed pretty far away from it. However, this year I started listening to it again and the music has never been so good. I was truly blown away.
I’m really glad to be back, but at the same time I had to catch up on everything that happened while I was away, and the things that I wasn’t paying attention to when I was in high school when I originally was introduced to it, and it was… a lot.
I’ve had to reckon with how I feel about it, but in the end, I still like it, and I hope this video helps you understand why and helps you think about K-pop in a new way.
*Know that this video is only scratching the surface of K-pop and by no means delves into every single thing about the industry.
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If you want to know more please go to the references and sources Google Doc here and do your own research as well:
~my favorite K-pop songs (as of now)~
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***For viewers with light sensitivity***
Throughout the entire video there are clips shown either from K-pop performances or music videos which contain rapid moving lights (including strobe lights), rooms filled with LED screens, and montages of fast moving light sequences.
FLASHING LIGHT TIME STAMPS:
I’ve outlined the timestamps to avoid in this GoogleDoc because they didn’t fit in the description.
Please proceed with caution.
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Timestamps and Content Notes and Warnings per section:
0:00 Content Notes & Flashing Light Info
0:14 Cold open
1:09 how this video came to be
2:46 this video is NOT
3:23 this video IS
4:13 introducing me
4:35 The K-pop Industry and The Idol Making Process
17:30 The Music Making Process
19:48 Content Notes
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of homophobia and transphobia.
19:56 why K-pop seems ‘weird’ to people
24:59 Content Notes
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of eating disorders and restrictive eating.
25:08 Expand your view of Asian women
28:00 Content Notes
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of the Atlanta Spa Shootings and hate crimes against Asian Americans.
28:07 Anti-Asian Sentiment
32:36 Content Notes
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of colorism and eating disorders.
32:46 Looking “white” and beauty standards
36:17 Content Notes
– The following section will include images and mentions of blackface and cultural appropriation.
36:25 Anti-Blackness in K-pop
46:26 Appreciation?
48:03 Black K-pop Idols and Trainees
50:23 Have things gotten better?
55:45 Privilege in Fandom and Consuming K-pop
56:47 Content Notes
– The following section will include discussion and mentions of stalking, kidnapping, and harassment.
56:57 Idol culture and Stanning
1:00:13 Content Warnings
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of suicide and depression.
1:00:20 Mental Health and Suicide
1:03:34 Content Warnings
– The following section will include discussions and mentions of suicide, sexual assault, and rape.
1:03:42 K-pop is a Boy’s Club
1:07:48 why i still like k-pop
– 1:08:13 the ‘s*x’ factor’ – a topic for another day
– 1:10:42 k-pop is its own thing
next video topic 1:13:35
ending credits 1:13:51
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⭢ Foot Binding, Women’s Secret Script, and a Failed Adaptation |
⭢ Dying for Piety: An Analysis of The Farewell (2019) |
⭢ Mulan 2 is… a lot |
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End credit song:
lukrembo – together (royalty free vlog music)
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Notes: Please read the video's description. It contains important information like the sources I used to make this video, as well as timestamps to avoid for viewers with sensitivity, and timestamps for content notes and warnings.
I feel like the issue here that is often overlooked is that kpop is the front face and the point of monetization for the general East Asian countries’ racism against black people, which is not gonna change any time soon, and is quickly being monetized and normalized through industries precisely like kpop. I’m East Asian (NOT American) and I can’t do this anymore. If you spoke a second language and saw how the discourse generated around kpop actually worked in East Asia, how little people actually know about black history, culture, struggles, anything (I mean hell the Chinese community’s racism is still stuck in 60s era stereotypes), you certainly wouldn’t be as casual with engaging it. And I get that this is my perspective but personally…what lies behind the idea that every industry is problematic is often that the commentators or audience are predominantly in an English speaking culture, and do not have immediate access to just how much that statement means for certain industries
59:31 The fact that the definition of doing something wrong is simply do human things is actually giving me the creeps.
rap is not only for black people, you americans are so strange! this race thing is an american thing only no other country cares about who steal from who regarding culture/ race and so forth
This was an excellent video, thank you for making it approachable to non k-pop fans
I'm starting to have a love/hate relationship with kpop (long story).
Shinee is such a problematic group
“Gave up my youth for my future” from Stray Kids’ Social Path haunts me every time I hear it
Happy 2024! Loved the video. Thank you. Love from Germany
Amber has lighter skinned than me.
Im black
Those girls don't look 10 years old, are people delusional?
it can be scary and terrifying when it comes to K-pop it's a scary chaotic mess.
K-Pop is a weird genere but it was a good deep dive of all this. My sister love k-pop.
This is unrelated, but—
Cheyenne is used as a personal 1sr name on US, + some other tribal
BUT enemy tribes slander names
Many Central Plains. + some SW?, etc.
regions tribes in English are thus—
Navajo are really Dine, their Apache
relatives are N de, Sioux are Da–, Na–,
or La–,kota,._ & Cheyenne are Tististas
–thus " Tististas Lee."
Timestamp 59:37 I literally clicked on this video because earlier today a list of the rudest kpop stars was promo'd to me by youtube shorts, I looked it up and half of them were considered rude for literally just standing up for themselves during interviews while being looped in with bullies. I wanted to gain a little nuance on why there is so much extreme backlash to these stars for such minor things so the idolization aspect of it makes a lot of sense.
Very well executed video. Loved it!😊😀
like i understand with what sunmi is saying but rapping is not the same as singing, someone writing a song for someone is different. Though with rapping , hip-hop was rooted from the hood, the streets , freestyling/ battle rapping. Hip-hop was designed to showcase your punchlines, word play and flow during battle rapping, your talent determined off of that . singer talent is based off of how well they sing , rappers talent is based off of their lyricism. So people calling themselves rappers even though they don't write is kind of a insult to the culture of rap music and hip-hop over all and what it was rooted from in the first places. most people just want to rap because of how popular this genre is and they can make profit off of it not caring about the genre as a whole. like making a mockery, most of these idols have a very narrow and stereotypical way of looking art hip-hop. I applaud BTS and many other idols even though at first yes they had their questionable moments but they have learned and study and made hiphop/rap music something that is specials to them and not something that will make them look "COOL".
I think it would have been interesting to talk about SEVENTEEN's training process since they had a show called seventeen tv during those predebut years (2013-14) where you can actually see the kind of training they had. It wasn't only dancing, singing and raping. Pledis literally trained them in how to be in front of a camera and just be entertaining for an audience, physical training, making choreographies, etc. They also had their own little concerts where they gained good experience that later helped them in their debut. People don't talk about it that much which shocks me bc i think it was just a genius (not sure if good, but definitely helped them) move from pledis. Just image putting cameras in the practice room full of teenage boys and almost just let them do whatever they wanted besides the training, it was funny
I hate to admit it, but I am one of the people who can’t fully differentiate K-pop artists. Bear with me. I had to realize that some artists are hard to differentiate because they are designed to look alike from the same hairstyles, sometimes same hair color, similar facial features and body types.
It stinks this adds to the stereotype of “all asians look alike” because just because the industry condones this does not mean everyone does. Sorry if I did not make sense here.
The amount of SHINee clips😍
TASTE! ❤
Your kpop playlist is gone, you wouldn't still happen to have something like on spotify maybe? I've been out of the loop with kpop since like 2012, but I've been wanting to get back into it, but I don't even know where to start haha.
I love your videos, they are very insightful. I just discovered this channel and still listening to all videos on it. Very interesting, intelligent and insightful point of view.
That goes the same for the K-pop idol anti-blackness, if you’re crying about something you also need to change attitude towards Black people . You know what goes around comes around.
The Philosophy of the Kpop Industry:
https://youtu.be/VXCtZIxVCuo
This video was so well made and I appreciate your effort and time you took into researching. This is easily one of my most favorite YT videos.
As a kpop fan I learnt a lot from your video and it opened my eyes. I don't think most of my fellow kpop fans are aware of the mess they are into(which is not an excuse for them to disrespect anyone). For me, kpop has always been a sort of coping mechanism and I just realised how unhealthy it is. Although kpop has helped me through the past few years, it is truly flawed. Ofcourse I don't mean to generalize everyone, but the kpop community is so much more toxic than I realised as a tween. I appreciate the idols' music and art but the industy as a whole urgently needs to change. Anyways, here's a gentle reminder that your idols are human and they need to be held accountable for their mistakes. There are barely a handful of idols that haven't disrespected an ethnicity/minority/ just a section of people on camera, I emphasise on the 'on camera'. Yes, they did go through a lot to earn the fame, but that does not allow them to disrespect anyone. Again, we do NOT know the celebrities personally. Given all of that, there is a positive side to kpop and I really appreciate them breaking a lot of the norms and giving me a safe space, along with some trustworthy friends. I hope we can work together on breaking the stereotypes, the ones mentioned in this video and ones that we have experienced/witnessed ourselves.