KPOP turning dark: Is Seungri’s scandal opening eyes to the dark side of Korean Music Industry?
There is no doubt that Korean music has earned its spot in the world’s charts, awards and hearts of millions of people around the globe… but just how glorified we are making Korean idols and artists?
Earlier this week a breaking note came from all over the internet and Korean media outlets informing how former Big Bang’s member Seungri was being investigated by the Asian nation’s police for violating anti-prostitution legislation, as it was found that the 28 years-old singer had being supplying prostitutes to some of his clients at his night club “Burning Sun” with numerous text messages’ screenshots as evidence.
This investigation has been going on since February, but the news came back with new force on March as Lee Seung Hyun (the singer’s real name) was also related with a new case where various clips of unknown women were shared in a chatroom in which the singer was a member of. These clips contained images of women in a drunk state, in the middle of sexual activities and unaware they were being filmed. It is said that there are about 10 victims involved and that other male idols are also connected to this chatroom.
Some idol’s names reported in relation with the case have been of 30 years-old singer Jung Joon Young, being the one who uploaded the videos and who is currently being investigated too by the police; also CNBlue’s Lee Jong Hyun, who is now in military service and had admitted to watching the videos before exiting the chatroom some time ago, as well as FT Island’s Choi Jong Hoon and Highlight’s Yong Jun Hyung, both admitting being part of the chatroom.
Lee Seung Hyun finally uploaded a statement on March 11 on an Instagram post, where he declared his retirement from the entertainment industry as well as his unconditional cooperation with the investigation and an apology to the nation. Jung Joon Young also admitted to all his crime implications on March 12 and extended an apology, declared to fully cooperate with the police proceedings and announced he would retire from the industry after the investigation was over. On March 14, after the episode of the day before of SBS’ program “8 O’Clock News” where the implications against Choi Jong Hoon and Yong Jun Hyung were released, both submitted an apology to the media and decided to quit the entertaining business as well.
Several reactions of shock and confusion have been flooding social media, as well as mixed emotions about the fan’s new perception of the singers. Even when this hasn’t been Lee Seung Hyun’s first scandal on his long career, it was without a doubt the one that opened people’s eyes the most, as we could see how the K-fandom started to realize just how grave the situation was and how big of a turning point for KPOP this could become.
The scandal hit a sensible chord on Korean women, as it was not long ago that thousands of them marched through different cities on the country to fight against the big wave of unconsensual recordings and filming of girls in bathrooms and public places with spy-cams. So, the fact that their dear idols could be part of these horrible events was a hard reality to swallow. We could still see some posts on YouTube and Twitter declaring unconditional support for the singer and phrasing how he was innocent until proven otherwise, but it was clear which side the majority of the KPOP fandoms had took to judge the situation and supporting him was not the one.
It is understandable why some people may avoid confronting the possibility of the singers being what the media outlets and news are presenting, after all, it has taken several time for KPOP fans to prove to the rest to the world that the Korean industry was full of heart and passion and even achieved for Western and European media to start opening up to the Korean music industry processes.
The glorification of Korean idols reached a peak, as the rest of the world couldn’t deny the power and domination these artists had, changing impossible to possible and ordinary to extraordinary.
But everything has a dark side, and nobody can escape their shadow.
The Korean music industry is in fact a very complex business, as they play with their artists’ images in such a way that it turns into a fundamental and very important part of the “product” they are presenting. With values such as purity, honesty, love, effort, honesty and gratitude as the main foundations of every artist now a day, this kind of scandals and events destroy a lot of the perceptions the artists and idols are sold with and thus the reason the artists previously mentioned decide to abandon their careers for good at the end.
It is a great deal for news as devastating as this one to come out of the blue, and more from artists that were loved by thousands of fans over the years, but it is important for us to understand that justice and sincerity must come first and that at the end of the day, the artists we all appreciate and look up to are part of a complex industry, surrounded by the same struggles and temptations that can corrupt any human being.
It is scary to see how little by little, in just a span of a few days, the Korean music industry can come down easily and terribly… but just how much power are we giving to our idols? How hard our believes are for this industry that we think of letting slide events like this one?
As both singers Lee Seung Hyun and Jung Joon Young, the main implicated suspects in these cases, had declared full cooperation and handed their phones for investigation to the police, we can just wait to see what the final statements are going to be, the consequences on the Korean music industry and how the perceptions of idols may or not change from K-fans all over the world after this.
