Is it correct to consider KPop stars who become famous at younger ages as prodigies?

There are quite a few prodigies who were prominent at younger age.

In the older days, there were people like William Sidis, who graduated from Harvard at the age of 16 but had a nervous breakdown at 23 and lived as basically a homeless for the rest of his life.

As times improved, prodigies were educated better. However, there is still the case of Ruth Lawrence (1971-), who graduated from Oxford at the age of 13 and was a Ph.D(mathematics) at the age of 21, but met a mathematician double her age when she was 27. He happened to be an Orthodox Jew, so she moved with him to Israel, had 4 children and although she now teaches in a University in Jerusalem, she did not achieve the fame which was expected on her.

There is the tale of Sho Yano. He entered Loyola Univ in Chicago at the age of 9 ,graduated at 12 and entered the Medical school in the same univ.

However, he did not go into the research as expected, and became a clinical pediatric neurologist. While no easy job, it was a big 'surprise' for those who watched him (his mother was Korean so he was also known in Korea too)

What he does now is not clear. A quick search shows he is now a clinical geneticist (those who specialize in genetic diseases) at Bethesda, Maryland. While , again, not a pushover, some people have reservations about the path he chose, considering the ability he had.

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Some people might say as long as these people are happy and do what they wanted to do it is good, but I personally think people should put their ability first , not their happiness.

People like Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga were also called prodigies.

In Korean Pop, there are two prodigies which everyone can kind of recall easily, one of KPop and one not. There might be more but they , in my opinion, are more prominent.

BoA

Born in 1986

Selected a trainee in 1998 , age 12, by Lee Sooman himself

Trained for about 2 1/2 years

At that time, it was rare for pre-teens to train to become an idol , so she went thru a lot of heat. A LOT.

She debuted on August 2000, and Lee Sooman did his best to promote her as a child prodigy. But her initial album didn't do too great, and her Japanese debut in 2001 was also buried.

But, on Jan 2002, when she was 16, "Listen to My Heart" became big in Japan.

And on the same year, No. 1 became big in Korea. She sold 560,000 copies with No.1 in K-O-R-E-A, a record the person I will mention next has NOT broken to this day.

She made the Kohaku in the same year, and won Grand Prizes from Seoul Music Awards, SBS and what later became MAMA at the age of 16.

The rest of her accomplishment are too long to list here. The more prominent ones are the first million seller (Valenti) in Japan at the age of 17, and on that year 2003 reached the singer who was #2 in income rankings (after Hamasaki Ayumi).

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There is one more prodigy most KPop fans will know, even though she is not part of KPop. Since I told her story about 1,343 times I will summarize it

Lee Jieun

Born 1993 (actually around 680)

trained for around 8 months

Debuted 2008, age 15

Break 2010 , age 17

First Gallup #1 song, age 18 (Good Day- 2011)

Lifetime Achievement Award from MAMA, age 21

Highest earning singer of all of Korean Pop , age 24 (2017)

(BoA reached #2 in Japan, but because of the crazy way Japan determines singer's incomes, even the top singers earn less than their equivalents in Korea. IU earned more than the highest earning singer in Japan on her peak year.)

First legitimate Grand Prize age 24 (Through the Night, 2018)

Company Owner, age 27 (forfeit 2022)

Ranked in the top 9 singers of the world, age 28 (Most Awarded Singers, after BTS, The Weeknd, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo , Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa and Megan Thee Stallion - order not exact)

There might be more, like Jungkook, which I missed. However I think it is proper to call them as Prodigies, since in modern world pop is as prominent as science and tech.

Quote from bbgc

In general, I don't think so.

Highly talented, hard working, perserving etc. are good enough description for Kpop idols, even if they debuted very young.

Prodigies exhibit an understanding of complex concepts at an young age, which are difficult even for adults.

For that, first there must be some creative-original activity, breaking news grounds in music theory or composing etc.

Mozart was a prodigy, are we going to claim any K-pop idol as his equal in creativity?

IU's first self composed hit was when she was 18(?), Hardly a child and for all its popularity, hardly a paradigm changer.

If at all an IU associate - Jehwi might be a prodigy.

Popularity is not enough of a reason to give all sorts of monikers to idols.

At least it should come from musicians themselves, than by popular vote.

"genius" is the adult equivalent, I don't read any professionals considering any Kpop idol as a musical genius, not even k-pop producers are called so.

Whereas cases like Lee Jinah occasionally get such praise.

Geniuses and prodigies are rarely found in popular entertainment.

They tend to go into more abstract and Elite levels of any field.

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If a singer can organize his/her music, dance routines and performances without being told by anyone at a young age the singer could be called a prodigy.

Quote from jinaland

nope lol, prodigy is someone young who have a talent that can only be found one in a million

there's nothing really outstanding of kpop idols

also u forgot GD, he has been active since 6

OK GD can be included.

If the prodigy was able to continue to keep people's attention and had a large say about how he/she conducted their career, then it is safe to say that they are prodigies

Quote from bbgc

If Kpop idols are to be considered prodigies, just because they became popular and successful when young, then it is true of many sports champions too.

But that's not the case. Heck even Chess, the peak of champions happen when they are in late teens and twenties, by any measure GMs and IMs have far greater faculties than the average person, yet only a handful of them have been called true prodigies.

Young Age and popular success alone does not make prodigies, prodigies bring new insights to their fields at young age, which is acknowledged by the adult experts in that field.

No K-pop redefined music or dance, to be called so.

If at all you want a prodigy, then look outside K-pop, Song Sohee might be one in gugak.

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Song Sohee was popular at a young age but as she grew up her popularity waned, and she is mostly known for playing soccer in the SBS soccer show now.

Most talents in Korean chants are now falling into trot - the top 4 of the Miss Trot 2 all trained in Korean chants,and the winner (the married one) was actually a Korean chant teacher by that time.

Since trot tends to appeal to the older pop and the older fans kind of think the younger trottists as their grandkids there are some younger talents there, but since few of them have any say about the music and the perf, I would not call them prodigies. If they can write a hit number or can design their dance number, then they would be prodigies but such cases are indeed rare.