The danger of underage K-POP idols
Source: Istock
Over the past couple of years, the worry about how far K-Pop companies would go for a hit group has been getting bigger and bigger. With YG’s new group, Baby Monster, set to debut with five out of the six girls being underage and two being 14, it seems too far is the answer.
K-pop idols are certainly not new things. Tracing back to 1st generation K-Pop includes groups such as the boy group H.O.T, which debuted in 1996. The popularity of these young groups who could sing and dance proved it was worth delving into, and then came the 2nd generation, the 3rd and the currently running 4th generation.
The 2nd generation introduced the public to groups such as Girls Generation and Wonder Girls; thus, the image of a K-Pop girl group was born.
3rd generation had a huge impact on K-Pop at the time, introducing groups like Twice, Blackpink and, of course, BTS. This was when K-Pop started to shift slightly, where almost all K-Pop groups had different concepts; for example, Twice was the more stereotypical cute K-Pop girl group compared to Blackpink, who took a more savage, cool approach to K-Pop.
Each company felt it had to step up its game and make each group bigger than the last. They created new concepts to appeal to younger audiences. In 2016 alone, over 50 groups debuted, with around 24 still active today and all widely different.
Currently, K-Pop companies seem to have figured out what concepts are cool; Y2k (a sort of early 2000s-inspired trend) seems to be the concept of 2022 and 2023, and when NewJeans debuted, it caused a global shift in K-Pop. K-Pop fans everywhere were stunned by this cool, effortless new girl group created by HYBE Entertainment and ADOR; every song they released was a hit, and all their dance moves were trendy. They were a breath of fresh air from the same 4th generation groups. The only problem? All five girls were underage, the oldest having just turned 18 and the youngest 14.
NewJeans are the future of K-Pop, but these girls are children; their future is still years and years away. The NewJeans girls face an overwhelming amount of sexualisation, not only from older men in the industry but also from their own company, who purposely dress these girls in revealing clothes and have them sing songs like Cookie, a song with very provocative lyrics.
Eunchae from HYBE and Source Music’s girl group Le Sserafim is 16 currently but was 15 when she debuted, but Eunchae and NewJeans are entirely different. Eunchae, from the minute she debuted, made it obvious she was underage, and so did her company. They put her in less revealing clothing than her other members, and she acts very much like a 16-year-old girl would, even gaining the nickname Manchae, a combination of her name and the word maknae, which translates to ‘the youngest’.
NewJeans, however, are not being treated like children; their company allows this sexualisation and even plays into it. Minji, a member of NewJeans, was 17 when she debuted and has had multiple grown men claim her as their ideal type on live television.
This is not only girls but younger boys in K-Pop is also an issue. Underage boys have been in K-Pop since its beginning, most notably Jungkook from BTS, 15 at debut and Taemin from Shinee, 14 at debut. The real issue we see now is not younger boys debuting but younger boys in survival shows. K-Pop companies will host a live television show, where they get many trainees and have them survive till the end of the show for the chance to debut in a new K-Pop group.
It’s no secret these shows are brutal. Most popular 4th generation groups came from survival shows such as Stray Kids and Treasure. It’s essentially a show where you can watch young boys overwork themselves just to be kicked off because they are not good-looking enough.
I-Land was a survival show to create a new boy group, one of the more popular survival shows due to its connection with BTS. This show ended with a seven-member group, the youngest being a 14 Japanese boy named Ni-ki who has almost no connection with his family back home and a huge fan base of women pining over him despite still being underage.
The issue isn’t only surrounding active groups with underage members and underage people in the trainee system, which has had a bad reputation for years for being too harsh, depending on the company you are with. Specifically, younger girls in the trainee system are mistreated, with severe diet restrictions and exercise routines. This leads to girls being underweight before they are revealed to the public, where K-Pop fans are free to judge and openly comment about the idol’s bodies.
This is dangerous for young people, and the more money K-Pop companies make from these young girls and boys, the less likely it will ever be to stop.
I must also admit, calling Jimin and V from BTS, the 1995 line feels so typical. The fact that there is now a 2009 line is very odd to say when you were born in 2003.