the kpop edition

[acchikocchi]

1. So give me the lowdown on SM Entertainment as a corporation. How do they recruit/train/market/etc., especially in comparison to JE? Info on shady business practices and lawsuits and things of that sort also welcome. XD ...How does the Korean music industry and market compare to the Japanese in general, actually? There is no such thing as tldr in comments here.

2. Favorite Korean artists/songs/albums/music videos? I am woefully ignorant. Pop, not pop, what have you - hit me. (Assume I know basically no one except Park Ji-yoon, since that's... true. Oh, and BoA.)

Comments

[unrequitedangst.livejournal.com]

I don't follow Kpop closely, but the impression I've gotten from my Korean friends is that there's much more of a focus on keeping a group current by rotating members in and out, as opposed to JE, which follows individual members for a longer time. There also seems to be more of an emphasis on appearances in Korea, even by Asian standards -- one of my labmates who grew up in Seoul likes to tell us gory stories about how advanced Korean plastic surgery techniques are.

(His favorite story: how some popular actress/singer whose name I can't remember at the moment had her jawbone shaved down with a grinder and all her teeth surgically removed so that they could implant perfectly molded fake teeth by attaching them to her jaw with metal pins. Apparently she is now famous for her smile ... well, I should hope so, after that much hassle!)

I've also gotten the impression that Korean society as a whole seems more invested in their celebrities' personal lives. There also seems to be a lot more suicide fdkjl whenever I hear about Japanese or Taiwanese actresses involved in scandals, they often get dumped by their agency and advertising companies, but the Korean actresses all seem to go and ... hang themselves. I guess this is Kpop pertinent too, since there were also some people calling for that kid from 2PM to kill himself.

Uh, I feel like I am hopelessly off topic now. My friends tell me Epik High and 2ne1 are awesome, although I have never listened to either. I am also fond of SNSD, if only because of Sica's permanent blankface.

Also, here is the requisite warning that Kpop fans are INSANE and have done shit like try to murder Kpop stars / forced other fans to commit suicide / supposedly raped people over Kpop favorites at some big music festival / showed up at some boyband singer's father's funeral to ask for autographs. I mean, Japan crazy too, but ain't no crazy like Korea.

[acchikocchi.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. Oh my god! I. Jawbone. ksd;jadjkls;dj;lskadjkls; augh.

Ahhhh they do it Morning Musume style, huh. Yeah, that makes sense - I heard from someone else that there's much less in the way of focus on undebuted juniors or trainees, which seems like it would jive with that. None of these massively popular junior groups like KAT-TUN, for example. *g* (Though this is all speculation, no idea how the SM training system works.)

Okay I have heard a couple of the crazy stories - the glue drink and the fan suicide petition and stuff - but jesus, all of that? sjdkls;ads man. Maybe that answers the question of why JE groups never go there... @_@

Thanks for the namedrops, too, I'll be sure to look them up. :D

[matchynishi.livejournal.com]

"supposedly raped people over Kpop favorites at some big music festival / showed up at some boyband singer's father's funeral to ask for autographs"

holy fuck. #_# i am learning so much in this post alksdjfakf mostly nevar to go within fifteen feet of teh crazy k-pop fans. DDD:

And yeah, I got the impression of there being more suicides and the extreme emphasis on the "perfect looks" thing in Korea - I read somewhere that parents encourage TEENAGERS to get plastic surgery wtf. D: