People are too harsh on companies when they give idols proper work-life balance

I agree.

i think that YG or The Black Label way to handle work-life balance is nice overall. It works well for almost all of their groups.

They fumbled hard with Blackpink though. The girls sometimes expressed frustration about the lack of comebacks and songs. They began to have more opportunities and release more solo material once they were free. The Black Label is doing well with Rosé now.

Right. The same fans complaining about mistreatment due to overwork, will the next day complain about mistreatment because they're not getting enough opportunities/promo. Like make up your mind..

Idk much about TBL, but I will say with YG it seemed the BP members themselves weren't happy, so criticism and frustration from fans here was warranted. But in general I agree with your point.

The thing is, many fans are very parasocial and overly-attached, so they'll say they want idols to have time off for their personal lives, but will also immediately complain because of "how much they miss them" the second they're not going to events and Bubble/IG isn't being constantly updated. They'll say they hate how exhausted idols are in year-end season, but will be dissatisfied when they don't do as much during this season as before, angry at the company both situations ofc.

Also, more unrelated but something I thought about: many fans seem to automatically assume idols are helpless needing fans to stand up for them against the company, even when there's no complaint from the idols. I remember Chan telling fans to stop contacting the company ("leave me al- nah") because they just assumed his schedule wasn't wanted, when it was his choice. I recall similar things, like asking fans why they'd blame the company for anything, saying no one in the company was forcing him and that he knows his body better than you. I wish idols in general set more boundaries with fans tbh. Fans complain no matter what about everything, emailing companies over the smallest things, and it's embarrassing.

There are cases and cases though ?

Yge artists complained about the lack of work music wise from the company so obviously fans would also complain. BP case in particular where now in a little more than 1 year they'll release 43 songs while in yge whole 7 years they released 39. They were pretty open about their frustration, the same happened with 2ne1, Lee Hi, even GD and BB complained about how long it takes some time to release music so this has nothing to do with YGE caring about their well being, they are just incompetent.

In Meovv case for now they seem happy and fans are complaining out of pure delusion, but it's a rare case and never will I side with YGE in this matter seeing how my faves begged for music, for them to work and YGE simply ignored them.

Quote from superyeah

I'm glad. I really don't mind a long hiatus or break for idols if it means they get a lot of free time to themselves. I feel like people have been way too accustomed to the idea of idols sacrificing proper work-life balance just because it's basically expected in K-pop.

We need to be honest with ourselves. If we really want change in this industry, we need to be okay with this. We talk so much about prioritizing mental health for idols, but what do we turn around and do when the company doesn't give them a comeback? We panic. We start seeing all these other groups being active, so we start panicking about our faves missing out on the charts or declining a few spots in popularity.

It'll be okay! Our faves are humans. They don't have to be working all the time. Otherwise what's the point of sacrificing so much to be an idol?

It's no wonder fewer kids are trying to become trainees. The demand from the fans is ridiculous and unrealistic, possibly even worse than companies' expectations.

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Healthy breaks are ok and should be appreciated by fans too because a healthy idol = potential long careers for fans to enjoy too.

I guess people need to know the difference between healthy breaks and abandonment of idols by labels.

Can abandonment be mistaken for healthy breaks?

Quote from monalisalove

There are cases and cases though ?

Yge artists complained about the lack of work music wise from the company so obviously fans would also complain. BP case in particular where now in a little more than 1 year they'll release 43 songs while in yge whole 7 years they released 39. They were pretty open about their frustration, the same happened with 2ne1, Lee Hi, even GD and BB complained about how long it takes some time to release music so this has nothing to do with YGE caring about their well being, they are just incompetent.

In Meovv case for now they seem happy and fans are complaining out of pure delusion, but it's a rare case and never will I side with YGE in this matter seeing how my faves begged for music, for them to work and YGE simply ignored them.

I agree. And sometimes idols are forced to lie about it especially YGE idols. I remember GD once said that they release music only when he and the rest of the group want. Fast forward, a few years later, it was revealed that it wasn't true.

Idol life sucks.

Now contracts are much shorter and terms for artists are much better, so Kpop industry will always be fast paced because of it.

As for music I definitely wouldn’t survive as a BP fan, cuz they rarely release music as a group.

I like when artist make at least 1 comeback a year. More music is just good…..

I agree....

But the major con with YG esp with BP is the lack of songs they come out with once they are back and the short promo period...

I dont mind the hiatus but lack of communication, false assurance just to stall time and girls being restricted to go on shows and the less number of tracks were the issue....

Yge only aimed for max profit from BP and when to all lengths... blinks were never catered or pampered and now the girls took it upon themselves to do that and given us everything.... and now once again YG is back announcing tour before the album...

Quote from sonemariam

I agree. And sometimes idols are forced to lie about it especially YGE idols. I remember GD once said that they release music only when he and the rest of the group want. Fast forward, a few years later, it was revealed that it wasn't true.

Idol life sucks.

Yep, overall in YGE we can see that the company makes the idols super frustrated bc sometimes they just want to work, do more, but YGE incompetence affects it.

Quote from superyeah

When you put it that way with GD and BIGBANG... Yeah, I have a love-hate relationship with YG as a company. BIGBANG actually has a very limited discography compared to other groups of their time.

Yep, even BB got affected by it. BP case is just so "special" that it takes all spotlight, but YGE acts lacks music in comparison to their peers of their time.

I agree.

Also I'm a very busy person, so even if idols have many activities and are overworked, I won't be able to keep up. So it never was a problem for me.

But to be fair, the amount of songs BP got in 7 years is inexcusable. So I think there should be a balance.

personally thats why i loved OG ador. It felt like there was a great balance of content and rest for the girls when they had the original relationship with their management.

AND their management made sure there was content that didnt necessarily involve the girls so we were well fed without extra work

Quote from Eldeweiss

i think that YG or The Black Label way to handle work-life balance is nice overall. It works well for almost all of their groups.

They fumbled hard with Blackpink though. The girls sometimes expressed frustration about the lack of comebacks and songs. They began to have more opportunities and release more solo material once they were free. The Black Label is doing well with Rosé now.

Circling back to YG.

I would love for anyone to tell me one single girl group as successful as Blackpink…. I’ll wait…. And the ones that are half as successful? How rested are they??? Yeah i didnt think YG was that bad i guess…