Please stop romanticizing Trainee&Idol-life

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok etc. Everywhere I go, I see people, usually minors but it varies, wanting to be trainees. There are Pinterest pages dedicated to romanticizing Trainee&idol-life. Honestly, i just can't stand it anymore.

If you are interested in how an Idols or trainees day-to-day life looks, just read this book. It's written by an experienced journalist who has interviewed many Idols and knows a lot about the industry:

K-pop Confidential (K-pop Confidential, #1) by Stephan Lee | Goodreads

The book gives many insight on the harsh reality of being a trainee. Challenges the main character has to face:

- Dancing till midnight and waking up at 4am. She has only 4 hours of sleep
- Don't being allowed to eat much food (Most of the time, it's salad. She got rewarded with an extremely thin slice of strawberry cake, but only once). in the book, we also hear about her mother telling her that she has seriously lost a lot of weight and lost the "sparkle" in her eyes.
- being yelled at by everyone and having extremely mean teachers. Some of them are friendly, but most are just cruel. EVERYONE WAS MEAN
- Not being allowed to rest at all
- Having to live and train with a girl that hates her
- She was on her period and wasn't allowed to rest even though she had cramps
- always being the last one or getting the least because she was the youngest trainee
- Being sexualised by investors
- A lot of online hate
- Wasn't allowed to meet her parents
- Of course, she wasn't allowed to have her phone either. It got taken away right on the first day

Challenges other trainees faced:

- At the monthly evaluation, all of the companies artists were invited. That includes the most famous group in that book, SLK (A fictional version of BTS). Trainees that didn't look skinny enough had to weigh themselves on the stage with their weight number being projected to the wall, so everyone could see how much they weigh. Imagine being body shamed like that?

- Other trainees were punished if one trainee weighed too much

- The tables they were sitting at for breakfast and dinner were divided into how pretty the girls were

- One trainee girl lost her sanity and hit her head against the door so hard that she was bleeding a lot and was taken to the hospital

- ALL OF THEM had to undergo plastic surgery

The author didn't mention sexualisation as much but I am 100% sure that without doing favours to CEOs and Investors, no trainee will be accepted to debut.

Quote from keyboardwarrior7

Is this a fiction or non-fiction book?

Some of that sounds majorly dramatized, but the basis of it comes from real life.

Idol trainee life is hard. Most KPOP fans only see the glitz and the fame of successful idols. Not thinking of the hell they had to go through to get there. It's not something to attempt half heartedly.

Just look at the fact some members of Dream Academy quit of their own free will because they realized that that life was not for them. You have to be hungry and beyond dedicated to pursue that life, and you still might not get chosen..

And it doesn't get any better once you actually debut.

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I do not think that it is dramatized at all. Companies fool us into thinking that the K-Pop industry is different than Hollywood. However, that's not the case, it's even worse. You are free to believe whatever you want to, but I think that everything is extremely well hidden. Sometimes, we get some scandals, like burning sun, so that we believe that all those crazy things are being investigated and exposed, but that's just to make us stay loyal.

Quote from patrik-k

Have any one really been "romantizing" idol life? I have never acctually seen people saying how nice and fun life it looks like to be an Idol.

Seems like you have never seen the comment sections of literally every YouTube dance practice or dance tutorial. Every other comment is from some 12 year old girl saying that she wants to debut and is dancing and dieting for that. Especially on Korean videos about how to loose weight and stuff, they go like: "Hi, to be an Idol, I am starving myself dieting and lost 10 kg already"

Quote from xx-jenn-xx

I'm not saying that this can be extreme in SOME companies, as we have all heard the horror stories given, some have flat out told us after suing and leaving or just plain disbanding and leaving.

but there's companies out there, that aren't like this at all. I don't believe that every company makes the ladies give them favors to get somewhere, that's a bit way over the top, as keyboardwarrior7 said you are free to believe what you want, but I personally do not believe that every single company is like that.

There are some ladies who are not skin and bones and even males out there, that look healthy and happy. There's many that have done nothing but praise their company even after leaving it. I don't think this falls for every single thing, and if someone wants to take that risk because it's THEIR dream, by all means have at it.

If they realize it's not for them, they will know. I won't ever tell someone DON'T GO FOR YOUR DREAMS, just because of some book or some youtube video.

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Of course idols that left the company wouldn't say anything bad. What do you think would happen to them if they exposed their companies? They would never take such risks

Idols that have a wealthy background probably also have more freedom, same for groups that aren't rookies anymore. They probably don't have to starve as much.

Quote from keyboardwarrior7

I'm sorry, but the idea that they broadcasted the trainees weight, sectioned them off by who was prettiest, etc. seems like a dramatization.

If you want to believe that, feel free lol.

It's possible to accept the harsh realities of the world while still knowing fact from fiction.

I think I expressed myself wrongly, they just showed the weight to all the other trainees and staff like dance teachers/pds.

Of course it's more comfortable to not be that critical about Idol life because otherwise you would have a bad feeling about it. But this is Korea we're talking about. The same country in which strangers on the street tell you to "take care of yourself a little more" (lose weight). Strangers on the street. The same country in which Passport Id photos are photoshopped. The same country pretty people get better job opportunities than "uglier" ones, just bc they're "pretty".

Believe what you want to believe, but I'd be way more critical about it.

Quote from xx-jenn-xx

there's been idols who've said bad things who haven't left their company

woohyun expressed his anger with Woolim before he left for losing all of infinite's saved work including videos and photos and he made sure it was known.

I've seen P1HARMONY admit not to go to FNC as a trainee, and I agree with them FNC is shit. NOIR is still under LUK and cussed them out on instagram for erasing 5 years of hard work to put #hashtag's in their place

they do it regardless, you just don't stan the groups who say things.

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But those aren't the "dirty secrets" a.k.a things that could bring a lot of trouble.

Quote from keyboardwarrior7

I am critical of idol life lol.

I said that there were some things about that book that seem unrealistic, but I said that they were based on reality in some way. That's me acknowledging that things may be happening, but the author may have spiced things up you know...to sell a book lol.

And yes, I'll believe what I want.

There is also a second part which is way less realistic, and some things about the romance aren't that realistic either, so I get what you mean. But things like the trainee schedule for example must be 100% real, at least imo.

I also think that the author should've talked about the sexualisation because there is no way that in an industry full of girls (young girls) that's mainly controlled by old men (Like, big4 CEOs) doesn't have any sexualisation. (It's also full of boys and they could be taken advantage of as well).

Quote from xx-jenn-xx

I am sure telling people not to come to their company or be a trainee is pretty "dirty". Why does it have to be a dirty secret? That's enough for me to go okay maybe i don't want to be a trainee at FNC

cussing out your company while still under contract because they erased your work, if i was a CEO i'd be pissed about that, but it's LUK and they are stupid af, the members haven't had a comeback in over 3 years and the leader is the one posting on their social media...

secrets don't have to be dirty to expose a company. I think you are just hyper focused on all the negative stuff and can't see that not every company is going to be that bad, but again that's YOUR views and It's not worth arguing with because no one is going to change your mind on it.

I'm an adult and I will form my own opinions based on things I see, they don't have to be flat our direct about their discomfort with something, if you watch enough content you can tell when there's an issue. Hangyul finally begged his ceo to stop sending him on reality shows, and he did it on live tv probably to corner his ceo 'cause he was tired of it.

it's the little things they do that you probably dont pick up on.

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I agree that I am pretty negative about this, but I feel like I have to be realistic.

Sure there are Idols that expose their companies. I agree on that. However (negative incoming :), all the idols you mentioned are male, and in a male-dominated industry, it makes sense that they have more freedom than girl group members. At least for me. Sm men in Korea are against "Feminism" and hate on idols that seem feministic. I'm pretty sure most male CEOs think that way too. So, their male idols probably get more freedom. Another thing I've noticed is that none of the idols you mentioned debuted under one of the Big4 which again proves my point that especially the popular companies re extremely secretive about all of this. After leaving the company, most idols probably have to sign some Non-disclosure clause.

But you don't have to agree with me of course. Feel free to think whatever you want to :)

Quote from Ves

People may want to be trainees, but I don't recall seeing anyone romanticizing trainee life? In fact I think most of us sympathize with trainees who may have trainee debt, yet never make enough to pay it off. And still, some want to be trainees, knowing that.

I trained like a KPOP idol for a day (almost died) - YouTube

I watched this video and then read the comments - a lot of people say they'd actually like to live like this