People shame kpop for it's flaws but ignore the fact that the western music industry has much of the same problems (a slight TW)

    For example, eating disorders. People point out how many female idols struggle with eating disorders, and yes, it's totally fine to call this out and I suggest people do, but they only subject their criticism to kpop itself. I find this problematic because people like Taylor Swift who also struggled with eating disorders end up getting ignored.


    Here is the article if you wanna know more about Taylor Swift's struggle:


    https://variety.com/2020/music…iss-americana-1203478047/


    And here is a long article with THIRTY western celebrities including big names who have struggled with eating disorders:


    https://www.prevention.com/hea…es-with-eating-disorders/



    A lot of this contains similar stuff that's happened in Kpop in the past. So I find it logically faulty to think this is ONLY a kpop problem.



    Let me bring up another example, manufacturing. Kpop does manufacture it's artists a lot, but yet again this is anecdotal. Take Atlantic Records for instance, they're a pretty well known record label in the US and they have tons of different kinds of staff working there which is proportional to the many staff members hired in kpop which make people think it's manufactured.


    Here is a website which has all of the information regarding Atlantic records:


    https://bearsofficialsstore.co…ny/atlantic_records/page8



    Overworking. There are many clips and photos of idols half asleep and a few of them fainting due to exhaustion from schedules. But let's critically think here. There are photos of western celebrities taken against their own will of them half asleep and this is because western celebs also have hectic schedules or else we wouldn't see them everywhere. Think about political leaders who give speeches often and the stuff they do in secret (because let's face it, they do some pretty shady shit) This is all similar to kpop, but we only ever pay attention to it when it happens in kpop right?


    Lady Gaga has fainted numerous times onstage yet how come no one ever talks about this?


    https://www.rollingstone.com/m…due-to-exhaustion-237176/

    https://people.com/celebrity/l…i-passed-out-three-times/


    Justin Bieber and Marilyn Manson also fainted onstage, keep in mind. This isn't an kpop problem.



    If evidence pointing towards kpop being bad is being used ONLY to slander kpop, we'll need more. Because in reality, every music industry has it's problems and many of them share these issues. There are actually more western celebrities that have committed suic*de then korean celebrities, but the media is still pushing the anecdotal narrative that kpop is the worst instead of focusing on the issues in their domestic music industry. This isn't to say that kpop is a GOOD industry because it does have a lot of problems, but it's not right to only judge it, instead we should bring up issues happening everywhere. That will be the only way that these things will change.




    This is a short little essay I thought I should type up and this is backed up by many sources that I read through carefully. Counter arguments are okay since I like hearing other sides, but let's try to keep the discussion peaceful.




    Totally understand your point. People talk about kpop toxic environment more when this is clearly a global problem bc of their hate/racist agenda. Simple as that.

    And actually kpop fans also have fault here when they take things out of proportion to make points and create hashtags and what not just to emphasize this "reality".

    lol human nature is the same everywhere. The shit i've seen people say about idols and the idol industry, as if their own Western faves arent dealing with the exact same shit here.


    There was a trend awhile back on TW calling for justice for 1D. There were tons of rumors about the poor boys being mistreated and abused by their labels/managers, one dude was thrown against the wall and told to "STFU and do what you're told." We all know the things Little Mix have said, Kesha, etc about sexual politics in the music industry.


    The US music industry is like 10-20x the size of Korea's. There is so much more money at stake, do people really think the big players in the US like Sony, Warner, and UMG are gonna let their superstars do whatever they want? Unless you're a Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo who have proven their ability to create on their own, the labels are gonna hold your hand every step of the way, and they'll be holding it with an iron grip.

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