What do you all know about the Korean entertainment industry? At the moment, I am talking to a Korean friend of mine. We're discussing different scandals and gossip in the entertainment industry, as well as the different media pressures on Korean pop stars. For example:
- Shinhwa boycotted the MKMF Awards show because of their old record label, SM Entertainment. SM pressured the producers of MKMF to cheat various members of Shinhwa out of well-deserved awards as they back the awards show financially.
- The same company, SM Entertainment, has cheated former boyband H.O.T. out of a lot of money.
- SM Entertainment is also withdrawing a lot of money from current boyband Super Junior - it's said that they can't afford cars .
MKMF Awards 2004 or 2005 (where BoA performed My Name):
- BoA changed her image to a "sexier" image during this performance.
- BoA has been constantly pressured to lose weight by her record label; you can see a significant difference from her younger days and this performance. The pressures on her seem to be a strain mentally as well as physically based on the crying during her speech.
- Rumors that she has to sleep with Lee Soo Man (founder of SM Entertainment) for various purposes; some people speculate that this is why she has been in Japan for a long time and seems reluctant to return to Korea.
Of course, this is all hearsay -- have any of you heard rumors similar to this? Any disparate rumors? I find all of this extremely interesting, though some of it may be extremely far-fetched to someone who knows the Korean music industry well.
To me, it seems that the Korean music industry is different from the American music industry in that even established, wildly popular artists such as H.O.T. or BoA don't have a great amount of control over their record label or their music. This may be naivete on my part, but while young and upcoming artists may have difficulties with their record labels, popular American artists such as Beyonce or Britney Spears seem to have a good portion of control over their careers. Do any of you have articles related to this issue?
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3 comments:
I have heard most of these rumors that you've posted and to the most part I do believe them. The information about Shinhwa is true, and I think that SM entertainment is one of the less liked labels in Korea even though it has singers like BoA and Shinhwa signed under them.
I heard the rumors about BoA and needing to be thin and having to sleep with the founder of SM for sucess. I do not know how true these are, but I think that BoA has had a lot of pressure put on her by SM and by her fans all around the world.
As to American bands, yes they tend to have more opportunities to write their own songs and have a bit more control over their careers, but the market here is more diverse, I think, than Korea's market. I think this is the main reason for labels in Korea wanting control over their performers.
I believe you two have made really interesting points about the Korean entertainment industries. I think it's true that Korean artists are manipulated and are more restricted that American artists might be; however, I also believe that although Korean artists may be controlled by their record label companies, American artists seem to be controlled by their public audience. Would either of you agree?
I think that the American market is definitely a lot more diverse than the Korean market for a lot of reasons (one is that the industry started modernizing in America long, long before Korea started its own music industry) and there are other factors, like racial diversity that lead to new forms of music.
I don't necessarily think that American artists are controlled by their public audience. A lot of the time an American artist will release a CD that will have one or two good songs on it and the rest will be not even close to par, which in my opinion, is very irresponsible as an artist - it shows that they don't care their fans are shelling out $15-20 for an awful CD. However, I do agree that they are controlled by their public to a *point*, with the effects of publicity and paparazzi and all that. But I'm sure the audience in Korea also controls artists to a certain point.
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