So you want to be a KPop Idol?

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

Secrets of KPop Incubating System

This is actually a couple of months old, but I never saw it until last week, when Arirang played it, like, twice a day. I thought it was pretty interesting. I took notes, because I am that kind of fucking nerd.

- How auditions work.
- An inside look into Cube Entertainment. We meet a 16 year old Thai trainee, Sorn, who was been with Cube for 2 years. She's adorable, and I heart her already. We follow her through her day starting with vocal lessons, dance lessons, and recording sessions. A little chat with one of the vocal instructors.
- Meet the "New Talent Training" dude, and learn that trainees are there from 1pm-10pm, if they don't have school, or 6pm-10pm if they do. They have acting, voice, dance, foreign language, and rap lessons.
- Talks about monthly evaluations work.
- How Cube chooses which trainees to debut and how to debut them.
- How producers pick songs for the artists.
- Talk with Cube's choreographer about artists' preformance and picking dances.
- Cube's "Visual Production Director" and "Art Team and Web Design". Basically, how the albums are designed, and how they do the MVs and MV teasers.
- A visit to the Cube Coffee Shop and SM Pop Up Store. Chats with some fans. One chick uses the word "Oriental". Really?
- A look at Rainbowbridge Agency and how they work spreading the KPop training ways throughout Asia.
- Backstage with AOA. We meet their stylist and makeup artists, and learn how they pick concepts for the group.
- A visit with U-Kiss. Some highlights: Jun is adorable. Is he legal yet? I want to squish him, he's so cute. Eli tells us that we should try to become KPop idols at least once in our lives LOL idiot (I never got the Eli=pigeon until this moment. Holy shit, twinsies). And Kevin is Kevin, all humble and shit.
- Fun fact, in 2008, only 10 idol groups debuted. In 2012, there were 36 debuts.


ArirangTV

Comments

[molly-hime.livejournal.com]

This was a really interesting watch! Though it makes me wonder how people can go through so many years of trainee and still debut while being awful singers (note my girls Sohee and Yooyoung).
Also the whole "Western music is only about sex and kpop is so pure!!!!" response has to be one of the most obnoxious lines, and I hear it all the time. There's plenty of Western music that isn't about sex, and Kpop has plenty of innuendo and plenty of boys ripping off their shirts and idols in general wearing provocative clothing. And usually the people who use that lines are the first people to be screaming about how sexy oppa is.
Speaking of sexy oppas, hello Hoon my love.

Also I have wanted to be in a girl group for basically my entire life and I'm sad that I'm probably too old for that dream to ever come true.

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

ia. Kpop idols aren't allowed to blatantly sing about sex the way Western artists are but there is more than enough innuendo and skin showing to render kpop not very 'innocent'

[chibi-rei.livejournal.com]

Also I have wanted to be in a girl group for basically my entire life

>.> Me too. Probably started with Spice Girls and once I got to Morning Musume in high school I really wanted to do that lol. Even now (even tho I'm too old [and white]) it's sorta a dream lol.

[molly-hime.livejournal.com]

Oh my god same and same! I actually considered auditioning for Morning Musume's 9th gen because it was the last gen I was young enough for. :( And I almost auditioned for SM once.

[chibi-rei.livejournal.com]

Haha I actually auditioned for JYPE and Kpop Star 3. I actually made it to the 2nd round for Kpop Star. Obviously nothing came of that.

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

Also I have wanted to be in a girl group for basically my entire life and I'm sad that I'm probably too old for that dream to ever come true.

But Park Bom (and Dara) debuted in 2ne1 at the age of 25 tho!!! :D

And omg I wanted to experience being in a girl group in Korea (and actually thought about going to the SM auditions oh god)

but then I realized how invasive it is with the sasaengs and netizens and the media looking up everything about your past and using it to bring you down and pretty much how unfriendly the industry is to anyone who isn't a cisgender heterosexual pale-skinned pure blooded Korean...yeah no i'm good over here thanks tho~

[hongaerin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing OP, that was really interesting.

[adenar.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this!

I really like Sorn, I hope I get to see her debut. That basic piano practise version of Missing You is 200% better than the original song haha, I'm gonna make my own. I have so much respect for trainees who come from other countries and have to learn multiple new languages, including one that they need to actually function in their new country. I thought they kind of glossed over the MV/marketing/packaging stuff but I didn't mind, I liked spending time with Sorn and the other trainee.

I can't imagine the pressure of joining a group that's already been around for a long time. Replacing a member in a new group must be scary because you can never know if this group will bring you success but I really don't envy Jun, Youngji, even whoever they now add to Nine Muses - member changes seem to go a lot better than it used to but there's still so much you have to catch up on and you need to work extra hard to establish yourself among already well-loved members (though I can never envy After School's new members either because holy shit, having to learn tap dance pole dance and drumming to even debut).

I do have to hand it to AOA's team - while their songs have regularly put me to sleep with boredom, their concepts have often been a bit different/had a little quirk, and they do stand out. I'm looking forward to the styling & makeup from this era, I bet that makeup artist will have loads of fun.

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

but gayoon isn't the leader?

[bloodtaki2.livejournal.com]

Considering how transparent Jihyun is, she might as well be. lol

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

i would never want to be a kpop idol. ever. it sounds terrible unless you get lucky like yoona or suzy

[boutiques.livejournal.com]

this. couple of my friends have friends who were trainees (most of them debuted now) and it just seems like incredible pressure to have at such a young age.

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

its pressure and non-stop work, constant criticism of your looks, fans speculating about you before you even debut, constant pressure to never make a mistake in your personal and professional life, and don't even get me started about the pay rate lol its just a bad deal all around and I don't think the chances of success are worth it.

[boutiques.livejournal.com]

absolutely. i think i also read an article awhile back where basically when you get dropped as a trainee you're really screwed because it's very hard to catch up on your education and you have no other skills except dancing and singing so it's the only skill set you have to work with since you de-prioritized everything else in your life.

from what i heard for some its their only chance to "make it somewhere" because their good looks/singing/dancing/etc is all they have going for them. :/

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think about that a lot (I should spend more time worrying about my own future lol). Its really sad, especially given how much Korea stresses having a good education and internships. Idk if people enter college late in life in Korea but I can't imagine that's the case the way it is in the U.S.

[boutiques.livejournal.com]

i reckon some do but getting into college and graduating is tough as it is, let alone playing catch up to the rest. although when i was doing my internship in korea back in 2011 i did meet someone who used to a jyp trainee for a couple of years and graduated college and got the job at a good company so i guess its nice to know things do work out for some. :)

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

aw that's really nice to hear. I always worry for trainees who don't debut and I worry about those who did debut and are in successful groups. Even if your group is successful, it doesn't mean you're making a lot of money or that the success will be long term. Unless you happen to fit into Korea's ideal beauty standards and get lots of cfs, you're good at producing, OR you're really smart and invest/are an entrepreneur, the future is very uncertain.

What kind of internship did you have while you were in Korea? Did you like living there? (I'm assuming you're not from there..unless you are lol)

[boutiques.livejournal.com]

i did three internships in korea over three summers. the one where i met the ex-jyp trainee was at yahoo korea (they closed their offices since) but the other two were at smaller companies, and all my internships were related to design.

im korean but i grew up abroad, and while my everyday korean is fine (im told/i know i have an "american accent" when i speak)but the biggest hurdle was the language - i'm just not used to the language being spoken in a business context or certain jargon.

thankfully all the places i worked i didn't have to work long hours but pretty much everyone who was a regular employee did (and/or work on the weekends)

the culture's very much work hard play hard, and seoul is maximized to do exactly that. it's a great city to have visit to have fun and everything is super convenient although i'm not sure if i'd like to go back and live there for an extended period of time. communication wasn't an issue for me but many of my non-korean friends don't have a hard time navigating around the city! do you plans to work/live there? :)

[princetabi.livejournal.com]

That's really cool :) I'm the same with Spanish...my skill is okay but I don't use it in a formal setting so idk business or super technical terms the way I do in English, and I've never been told I have an accent but i'm PRETTY sure I do haha.

Yeah I'm not a big fan of the 'work hard play hard' mentality. I'm someone who likes my down time and who believes in putting in effort at work but not killing yourself for work. I don't think I could survive in that kind of society (sorry Japan). But I do admire people who genuinely like that kind of lifestyle.

I've always wanted to go to Korea (and travel in general). I wanted to teach English in Korea for a while. I think I would genuinely enjoy it bc I like teaching people how to do things, I like kids, and I've always been told I'm very personable. Its not my dream to be a teacher though, so I feel bad applying. I've heard that Korean people always want to practice their English so even if you're a foreigner who speaks Korean, they want to speak to you in English lol

[fantaesticbaby.livejournal.com]

being a kpop idol sounds horrible. there are much easier ways to earn far more money

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

Yep

[petecarl.livejournal.com]

Bookmarked for later, but practicing 6-10pm (1-10 w/ no school) doesn't seem bad to me. That seems like a normal rehearsal time. I easily spent 20 hrs a week on my extracurriculars as a student, and I wasn't planning on going into those fields. But I do think it must be exhausting one you actually get cast and start working b/c then you constantly have to rehearse for lives, work on comebacks, learn new choreography, rework choreography (particularly if a member is absent/new member joins), etc., etc. It seems exhausting. Esp. cause if you're part of a group, you don't get any flexibility in your own schedule, which is how these kids end up working for over a year without a decent break.

[mycorrhizoid.livejournal.com]

- Fun fact, in 2008, only 10 idol groups debuted. In 2012, there were 36 debuts.

This isn't directed at you OP, but this is inaccurate information and I wish people would stop spreading it around. Although recently the number of debuts has increased, there have always been nugus people don't remember.

If you search kpoplists, the 2008 debut list has 39 acts on it. Now, some of them are solos. But a lot aren't. And those are only the ones that attracted some international attention. I bet there's more you can only find in Korean.

Everyone probably remembers SHINee, Davichi, 2PM, 2AM, and U-kiss. But just because people don't remember AST'1, Wink, Triple Effect, Smash*, TGUS， H7美人, Sweety, Dragon N Tiger, YMGA, MISO, Woon2Ne, or Couple doesn't mean they never existed. Most of them were pretty good too.

*SMASH are still active, but mostly in Japan.

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

i've seen this before cuz my friend is in it (for like a second lol). but yeah, this was interesting. but lbr the real kpop world is not as nice and glamorous as they pretend. asianjunkie posted a good article about this topic yesterday
http://www.asianjunkie.com/2014/11/music-business-101-whats-the-real-deal-for-aspiring-k-pop-stars/

[chomsky.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, learning a shit ton of languages and singing and dancing all day every day is like my dream life.

On the other hand I'm not 16 and I wouldn't want to have to balance school on top of it.

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

Dream with me, noam

[engraved-16.livejournal.com]

Ohhh thanks OP!
i absolutely love watching and learning about the behind the scenes stuff and processes :D