“Korean Celebrities Only Know How to Ask After ‘Money’”

[sparklop.livejournal.com]

JP News’ coverage on why Korean celebrities file lawsuits against their companies

[New Daily] Feb. 2, 2011 10:11am

“Even if a sunbae (aka senior) songwriter sells the copyright of his hubae’s (aka junior) song, the hubae is unable to object and is reduced to swallowing his own tears. There are hierarchical relationships in Korea that would be unimaginable in Japan.” (a Japanese record label representative)

On the 2^nd, JP news reported, “a Japanese weekly magazine attributed the reason for conflicts between Kpop idols and their management companies, such as those involving Dong Bang Shin Ki and Kara, to Korea’s peculiar ‘Family discourse’.” Influential Japanese weekly magazine Shukanbyun for its Feb. 3 edition interviewed Kpop expert and radio DJ Furuya Masayuki, a music representative who worked with Kara, a Japanese entertainment reporter, a Japanese record label representative, etc. and released a comprehensive, investigative piece on why ‘the Korean entertainment scene has no other option but to run into conflicts.’

 

“In Korea a unique family discourse is applied to the entertainment industry. Because of this the relationship between entertainers and their management companies are not seen as business relations but as familial. SM Entertainment refers to its signed artists collectively as ‘SM Town’ and YG Entertainment does the same with ‘YG Family’; both companies have actively developed this image. Because the entire company is portrayed as a family, the CEO, who takes on the role of the father, cannot be disobeyed. Although the average person might think that before filing a lawsuit it’s possible to work things out through dialogue, but signed artists in these companies have no choice but to respond ‘as you wish’ to the father-figure who reminds them ‘I got your back.’ Furuya Masayuki, who was also an MC at one of Kara’s Japanese events said, “the very act of filing a lawsuit in this context is to signal a desire to open dialogue, because there’s no way otherwise” to the magazine.

According to the coverage by JP News, this magazine not only referred to Korea’s peculiar family discourse but also pointed to Korea’s peculiar idol fostering method as a source of the problem. The system resorts to ‘slave contracts’ because the management company absorbs expenses for housing, meals, lessons, transportation and education in the duration between [a trainee’s] acceptance via audition and up to his or her debut, following an incubation model, and is compelled to regain those costs. “For every 100 accepted trainees only 5 go on to become stars. Those 5 have no choice but to be held responsible for and earn back the training costs incurred by all 100. In the case of Dong Bang Shin Ki, their 13-year long-term contract earned it the title of ‘slave contract’, but the contract length is so long because it is uncertain how much they will make in how much time after becoming stars.” (a Korean sports reporter)

“Yet, if the contract length is shortened, in order to make up investment costs in a shorter amount of time [management companies] push excessive schedules on to their singers. Such overexposure is a poor strategy as viewers get fed up, which only makes the career lifespan of the entertainer even shorter.” (a Japanese entertainment reporter)

The magazine also pointed out the excessively contradictory methods of calculating [earnings] in the Korean entertainment industry. Mr. Yamada, Chairman of the Asia Authors’ Association, recalls “I once presented a Korean singer with [his/her] earnings from royalties for that month, but upon seeing the amount [the singer] asked, ‘how many years’ worth is this?’ at which I couldn’t hide my shock,” and heavily criticized the state of copyright compensation in Korea’s entertainment industry, which, with barely a foundation, is at an absurd level of development. Furthermore, the magazine introduced a representative of a Japanese record and entertainment company who criticised Korean entertainers, “Korean entertainers only know how to say money, money.” But it’s because issues surrounding money aren’t clean/transparent in Korea that they come to Japan and display such sensitive reactions to issues related to their contract or money.

The weekly concluded, “in consequence, the reason why Korean entertainers expand abroad is because it’s impossible to survive in the domestic market. Korea’s CD market has shrunk so much that it’s difficult to find a proper record store in the country and illegal downloading is rampant, making it impossible to retrieve royalties. Since people can get into televised music programmes by simply standing in line, even at solo concerts tickets don’t get sold. Given this context, the claim that Kara ‘in Japan makes 10 times what they earn in Korea’ and so ‘Kara are traitors for money’ is unfortunate/misguided.” And with this, JP News ended its coverage.

 

- Reporter Ohn Jongrim-

Source: kr.news.yahoo.com
Translated by: Jimmie of TheJYJFiles
Shared by: TheJYJFiles
Please do not add/remove credits

Comments

[noxiouspanda.livejournal.com]

Smh.

[ghost-whisper.livejournal.com]

at who?

[conxito.livejournal.com]

oh~ good point.

[yuukihitohira.livejournal.com]

even at solo concerts tickets don’t get sold



Um, iirc, all the popular idols who have had concerts in the past few months have all had their concerts sold out :\

Also, I wish people would stop re-iterating the whole contract thing. Everyone knows about them by this point, no need to have more articles say the same.damn.thing.

[yuukihitohira.livejournal.com]

er, *sell out, rather :| Sorry, distracted by the Super Bowl atm

[nandexdame.livejournal.com]

Let me guess, most people won't read anything other than the title and get indignant.

[inudela.livejournal.com]

judging by the comments so far, i'd say you were right.

i think the article makes a fair point, and even if it is reiterated I think it's necessary.

[toomanysides.livejournal.com]

i want to know who genuinely thinks this is all a publicity stunt.

[queefing.livejournal.com]

they're all shamed into hiding as they should be or festering at akp

[lilipute.livejournal.com]

(http://es.tinypic.com?ref=34ycklf)

[jeugd1.livejournal.com]

oh nino, don't cry

[yekaste.livejournal.com]

this whole article.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

i still don't like the style of japan vs. korea. it's not like the hierarchy in japanese companies wasn't build on 'family ties'.
but yeah, i see why korean idols would become 'greedy' after seeing what they can earn in japan...

[inudela.livejournal.com]

The title is so inappropriately misleading, as it's a quote that the article is actually arguing against. It's late here and I had to read through the last few paragraphs a couple of times to get which side it was on

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

ikr xDDDD

[aaalove.livejournal.com]

Idk, I really agree with what he's saying..I mean yeah I hate for the re-hasing of the contracts arguement. But he makes a lot of true statements - the music market in Korea is not as good as it used to be and I forgot if it was YG ceo or someone else that even admitted saying that. This guy did his research and the Korean market should look towards the Japanese, especially because even if a Korean artist sells the same as a Japanese one; you gotta remember- Japanese cds are 90% of the time double the price of Korean music sometimes even more money!

[aaalove.livejournal.com]

oh and I totally don't see Korean artists as greedy; they want their rightful share and that's what the person who wrote this is saying they should get!

Re: lol japan u mad

[love-keiko.livejournal.com]

lol...u didn't read the article, did u?

[douknow.livejournal.com]

lol jyj files

edit: tbqh, i have a question: what are the ACTUAL numbers that dbsk and kara made. all i've seen are percentages and saying they made "less" than they were expecting and that they could make "more" in japan. what amount is "fair?"

[aescapes.livejournal.com]

as far as i know numbers like that have never been openly disclosed, but the contract percentage terms for tvxq are all directly visible and download-enabled from seoul central district court's official website. don't have a clue about kara.

[aescapes.livejournal.com]

these are all important points, but the article itself comes across so convoluted to me because it is essentially a summary of a summary of... a summary. the initial shukanbyun mag article would have been a better read, i wonder if it's available to be translated anywhere. hm.

eta: i'm particularly interested in what it actually said in its investigative report about this 'family discourse'. i see all sorts of numbers being thrown out about money, but as far as the company dynamic goes, i don't see anything being revealed here but speculation. does it have official statements from insiders, is this how they say the 'dialogue' really goes down, are they really asserting that it's the same dynamic in every company, etc. because those are some heavy claims and generalizations to make.

[ghost-whisper.livejournal.com]

I think the family discourse is the most interesting facet of the whole thing, tbh. I mean - the money talks for itself. Either there is shady business or not (which to me, only means that groups either get there contracts cancelled, or buy them out the normal way [though relatively speaking, I consider an obviously unmanageable contract buyout penalty a problem to be rectified whether or not the company was actively cheating its talents out of their wages/hiding things/treating them improperly])

*ahem - long analytical comment ahead, sorry to bore you*

But to me, the family part is interesting, because it's the part that has the companies feeling like it's *ok* to treat their people however (good or bad), and then frame the situation of their talents protesting or moving on to greener pastures as a 'betrayal' rather than an act of business or self-protection. It's a deference that's structured into the national culture, but then framed in the context of 'family' which is accessible to pretty much everyone and gives it an emotional aspect that moves it beyond a mere discipline/way of approaching structure in the company.

It's sort of a sweeping generalization, as you said, to claim that everyone in the company feels that way, but honestly, culturally speaking the idea of deference to seniors in general (not just parents) is embedded in the culture via stuff like the language - not to mention, the notion of treating unrelated seniors as family in a sense (eg: 'hyung' 'noona')[this is me dragging in linguistic theory, sorry to bore you] I also think a lot of the *debuted* idols feel (or want to feel) that the company is a sort of family because there's a certain level of comfort in believing that some/many people have your back (not that some don't, but it is, nonetheless, a business) and I think as an idol in the industry you'd be most willing/desirous to trust those in your 'circle' because they (seem) to understand you and lived the same life so to speak.

Idk about how dialogues actually go down - but I am reminded of a story about SK airlines having massive problems in the past, and crashes occuring because co-pilots were expected to shut up and listen to their captain sunbaes, even if they knew something was going wrong... And some contract details - for example, even in SM's new revised contracts entertainers are only allowed to complain if 'they have legitimate concerns' (fuzzy phrasing ftw - what constitues legit?) and managers will listen, and act 'if they feel it's appropriate' - which is basically a fancy way of saying that the bosses will always do what they want anyways.

It's not just the industry people though...the fans (Korean and international) buy into it to...or else companies would be uncomfortable claiming things like 'betrayal'. I think the family image is part of what makes Kpop so attractive to people as fans. There's this image of harmony, and as soon as the fan buys into in they access the 'family' too, and get closer to the idol... I just look at the fanclub actions to see this sort of trend, as well as the possessiveness about idols which...doesn't really happen/look this way outside of Kpop. And while lots of fans don't believe claims of betrayal (showing which side of the 'family' they support), the fact that many *do*, and these claims are still made shows that the family discourse holds a lot of water, generalization or not.

I'd love to do a sociology research project on it... 0_0
Heh - sorry to bore you.

[jeugd1.livejournal.com]

Even if a sunbae (aka senior) songwriter sells the copyright of his hubae’s (aka junior) song, the hubae is unable to object and is reduced to swallowing his own tears i have never heard of anything like this happening
and i don't see anything wrong with them referring to their company as a family, they did grow up together and spend more time with each other then their actual family members

[douknow.livejournal.com]

media sensationalism right thar.

[gyuri.livejournal.com]

[gabucha26.livejournal.com]

Although the average person might think that before filing a lawsuit it’s possible to work things out through dialogue

but the majority of these idols tried to solve their problems with the management before the lawsuit.

[aescapes.livejournal.com]

yeah, this is one of the many assertions in the article that is just full-out misinformed imo.

So...

[la-geni.livejournal.com]

One of my international business professors is this big Russian guy who does business with China, Korea and Japan.

His ENTIRE first lesson was on why we needed to establish friendships with Asian people i.e. drink etc. He was like "here in the U.S. what's on paper is law and if a party doesn't abide by it, you get sued and that's the end of that. In Asian countries you have to kiss their asses or you'll get a nasty surprise from your secretary the next day. Contracts are just pieces of paper for a lot of them."

So I believe these idols are being unfairly treated. Contracts say one thing, what they get can be completely different.

Re: So...

[xcherryblossomx.livejournal.com]

And this is why the company I work with has so many troubles with potential Asian customers with hugeeeeee companies. Basically negotiations fall because the company I work with is American and really really formal in their negotiations. And the Asians start speaking chinese/japanse/or korean between themselves during the negotiation.

If they only knew that a couple of drinks and ass kissing would get them the million dollar contract...

And funny thing that I noticed is that many of them have a female worker with them because they can negotiate better with Americans than them. The lady would go and talk to the other people and then call their boss and introduce him.

[nickynisa.livejournal.com]

unfair distribution of the profits..
that is the main prob.. they worked really hard but they didn't get as much as they deserved..

[donutism.livejournal.com]

Sooooo, why is there "Failed plastic surgery" written in Kanji/Chinese characters?

[itangeisha.livejournal.com]

ikr..

[jlie-ly.livejournal.com]

someone needs to be reminded that net profit may be = 1% of what the artist earned, the rest 99% of earnings ~deducted to expenses~ according to the company (and artists never have a clear record of how the company spend the money).

so with the net profit of 1%, the 70:30 ratio mean the group get 0,7% divided into 5 = 0,14% per member :| does this seem a lot to you?

[douknow.livejournal.com]

may being the key word. we don't know what tvxq were making. we need some numbers tbqh.

[p3rk3le.livejournal.com]

i'm not even gonna read this.
just take SNSD's picture out of that article!
snsd are ones of the few who've never complained about their agency!

[mycolorisacolor.livejournal.com]

this article was so well written and is very neutral, people should read it

[xanderave.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, most don't.

[xanderave.livejournal.com]

Picture and article have no relation at all.

[izabera.livejournal.com]

///“Yet, if the contract length is shortened, in order to make up investment costs in a shorter amount of time [management companies] push excessive schedules on to their singers. Such overexposure is a poor strategy as viewers get fed up, which only makes the career lifespan of the entertainer even shorter.” (a Japanese entertainment reporter)///

That's an interesting point. I'm not sure whether overexposure is a poor strategy or not but it certainly affects the health of entertainers.
It's not normal to have fit, healthy young people in their teens and twenties fainting on stage, needing hospitalization for exhaustion etc...

From a strategic point of view, I don't like overexposure but I'm aware I'm not the kind of demographic idols are aimed at. The main reason I don't like it is that it leads to poorer quality of songs and choreography because of the pressure to stay relevant and release new songs too often.
I also feel it plays a part in plagiarism.

[faydinglights.livejournal.com]

oh, its from thejyjfiles :|

[douknow.livejournal.com]

tbh idk why jyjfiles is accepted as a news source... :/