The Korean Pop Music Industry has been growing considerably fast over the past decade. Although the industry has seen lots of success, it comes at certain costs to the artists. Many hours of practice go into each and every performance, album, and other side events with lots of blood, sweat, and tears. Their privacy is constantly violated with fans trying to get in contact with their favorite "idol" no matter the cost, whether it be invading their personal space at their dorms or obtaining their flight information to a specific country. Along with the entertainment companies not doing much to stop the fan's advances, along with the media's, idols often don't get much of a say when it comes to what music they will perform, what variety shows to go on, what they have to wear, and many other things that the company decides for them. And, since South Korea's government already has restrictions on the civil rights of their citizens, idols have even more of their rights taken from them when they decide to sign a contract with a company. Having idols completely controlled by the industry is not fair to them and this system needs to change.

The current state of the industry right now is not good, to say the least. The way K-pop entertainment industries run their groups has become an issue, causing members to be isolated from society and have anxiety over their own careers in the music industry. Idols often have lots of restrictions to what they can and cannot do. This topic is discussed in an article written by Eugene Shin, a writer on the website South Korean Human Rights Monitor, who studied at Williams College, majoring in English Literature and U.S. Foreign Policy. He states that, "The lack of personal life for idol stars has often been discussed in TV shows. Last April, Sandara Park of 2NE1 revealed her CEO forbid the group from dating for at least 3 years after their debut ... this strictly controlled, ascetic lifestyle with questionable provision of basic human rights is often seen by both the agency and idol members as a rite-of-passage for fame" (Shin). It is not uncommon for agencies to ban idols from getting involved in relationships and in addition to that, some groups even had their personal cell phones taken away and were given a shared phone to use for emergencies. This kind of control over artists' lives is virtually unheard of in places like the US because individual rights is such a big thing and people want their freedom. However, entertainment companies do this in order to let their artists focus on their work and not be distracted with being on their cell phones or get involved with scandals that dating would entail. Along with this, "problems often arise with cut-throat competition in the industry. In order to promote the group name, agencies often select a small number of members from a group for individual promotion" (Shin). This puts pressure on each member to do better than the rest of the group and can cause tension between members and anxiety for their own fame. He goes on to explain that, "although thorough product development for profit is a natural part of capitalism, it is dangerous for entertainment agencies to only view idol groups as the means to profit maximization" (Shin). They should care more about what kind of messages they want their groups portray, how healthy and mentally stable their members are, and how each group affects the fans and people of South Korea and the world. However, this is not always the case, as is apparent with some groups and group members going so far as to suing their companies for better conditions or just leaving all together. Popular groups like EXO, who have had 2 members sue and leave the company, and TVXQ, who have had 3 of the members sue and leave their company to form their own group, clearly have had some major issues (Stawski). In order for a potential artist to become a K-Pop star, they have to go through a rigorous process of training. Young artists who are accepted to potentially become a K-Pop star often take on average 2-5 years of training before debuting. They are thrown into a sea of competitors who are just as talented as them, if not more and at the same time, they are expected to balance the demands of school while training  --  this is because most trainees are high school students. They have to endure many long hours of dance sessions, singing practices, and even acting lessons just to earn the right to debut first. If at any point trainees do not meet the expectations of the company, they are dropped without a second chance. Afterwards, trainees can either go back to their normal lives or, if they're lucky, get picked up by another company. If they end up going back to their lives from before, it becomes hard for them to adjust because they've missed out on the life they left behind. Things like how their parents aged, their sibling moved out, and even current technological normalcies all become foreign to the ex-trainee because they have been so isolated from the outside world for so long. If they make it through the training period, they get to sign a contract with the entertainment company. In doing this, they end up signing away things that most normal people take for granted; Things like personal freedom, sleep, and even the ability to carry on a romantic relationship, in some cases all become sacrifices simply for the chance to pursue their dreams of debuting and becoming that entertainer who stands on stage every night, facing thousands of screaming fans (Guest). By doing this for such a long period of time, the effects on artists can be detrimental to their health and well-being. Even after idol life, some have had issues adjusting to doing normal things themselves like taking the subway or navigating the city because they have been so reliant on the companies they were under to do all that for them.

It is not altogether uncommon to hear of an artist who hurt himself or falls ill for some reason or another. Just at the beginning of this year, Rap Monster, a member of the boy group BTS, had to cancel his schedule for that whole week because of an injury during a rehearsal before a big concert (An0ya). Idols have to practice singing and dancing for hours on end while having to keep up with a hectic schedule every day to accommodate members appearing on variety shows or music programs. It's common that these artists do not get enough sleep and this oftentimes leads to injuries and sometimes even pushing themselves to the the point of collapsing on stage while performing. Back in 2010, during the performance of a girl group f(x) on a music show, one of the members collapsed on stage due to lack of sleep and exhaustion and was quickly rushed to the hospital afterwards. She recovered in about a week's time and continued as normal with her schedule. More recently, in 2013, Hyuna of 4-member girl group 4Minute fainted in the middle of her busy schedule due to dehydration and high fever (Koreaboo.com. "9 Shocking Times Idols Fainted And Collapsed On Stage"). There is no excuse for these companies to be overworking their artists. All of them need a regular amount of rest between the busyness of their schedules, and if that means the group can't appear on a few less variety shows, than so be it. They should not have to sacrifice their well-being in order to be successful in the entertainment industry. These kinds of crazy events just don't happen as often to American artists, and that's because the system there is vastly different in comparison.

The differences between the Korean Pop Music Industry and the American Pop Music industry are huge. In the Korean Pop Industry, a majority of artists are taken under the wing of a company to manage their daily lives, provide for their housing and basic needs, and write the songs and dances the artists perform. This is almost unheard of now in the American Pop industry, as artists are responsible for themselves in mostly everything; from writing and producing their own songs to finding somebody to help promote their music. In America, there are shows like "The Voice" and "American Idol" that have been successful in producing real music stars, but after the show, the artists had to rely on themselves for their own housing, finding their own company or no company at all, and get their own training to improve their craft as a musician. In Korea, everybody knows that artists are trained or "manufactured" starting at a young age to be successful in many different areas like acting and other foreign languages along with singing and dancing. Also, there is this strong sense of family within each company. Unlike in America, where almost every song is produced only in English, in Korea, K-pop groups and artists tend to want to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible; They do this by releasing songs in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean as well as promoting in those countries to gain popularity over a large area (Choi). All of these things are completely different in America, since Americans "want a certain kind of pop star to emerge; not one with some work to do, but rather a unique and "real" individual who already has all the talent, looks, and well, pretty much the whole package of what it takes to be a star" (Havrilesky). It's not common to see a singer in America acting in a TV show or movie, if anything, it would be a little weird. Not to say it never happens, but usually singers in America stick to being singers for most of their career and then branch off to something else. In Korea, idols will often make their debut as singers and then soon after debut into the acting scene or musical scene or do MCing for a variety show all at the same time. Also, American artists don't have to have a company to sign under, so they usually have to rely on themselves for promotion and song-writing. One of the biggest differences that affects a lot of how everything is done within each of these two industries is the amount of rights that Americans have versus what little rights Koreans actually get in South Korea.

South Korea has always had rights problems, but more recently the little country has been getting attention for how its new leader, female president Park Geun-hye, has been handling the civil rights issue. Last November, about 60,000 protesters rallied in the streets of downtown Seoul against the president's stance on the people's freedom of expression and peaceful, public protest. People who sympathize with North Korea or go against the current government sometimes get punished or jailed. When protesters "highlighted those concerns in the street demonstrations, the national police force responded with tear gas and paint and water cannons so strong that one demonstrator remained hospitalized in critical condition" weeks after the incident (Hu). This lack of freedom to express oneself is the major problem that also affects the Korean Pop Music Industry in a big way. Because the government wants to control the way the public absorbs media, with a priority to block harmful material that may be considered unsuitable for minors, they often have to censor or ban certain songs or choreography from being broadcasted to the public if the government deems it inappropriate. Choreography in a song called Voodoo Doll performed by popular boy-band VIXX was banned because there were several parts in it where the members would use a prop to stab themselves and each other through the chest and therefore, since it was deemed as too violent for the public audience, had to be changed in order to perform it on various music shows. Additionally, when a female group called Dal Shabet released the music video for their new song "Joker," the group was banned from performing it at all because the English word "joker" used throughout the song sounds like the slang word for male genitals in Korean (Koreaboo.com. "12 Explicit Dance Moves That Are Banned By The Korean Government"). There are even ridiculous reasons certain music videos have been banned; for instance, in popular star Psy's music video for "Gentleman", it was banned for the abuse of public property when he is seen kicking over a "no parking" traffic cone in the first five seconds of the video (Qrybaby). There is this desire for artists to be clean and "appropriate" for public consumption no matter what the artists actually want to say with their music. When the artists or the company is producing their music, they have a message to convey to the audience. But, if the government doesn't think it's "appropriate" enough for the public, they can just ban it and all the hard work that was put into creating that certain song or album just goes to waste. This is not fair to the artists, it's not fair to the company, and it's not fair to the fans. In America, there is also censorship, but not to the degree of South Korea; whole songs will be banned from the radio and from music shows if the government does not approve of it. Along with the unfairness of civil rights, the right to privacy, especially when it comes to Korean Idols, has been a constant struggle for years and there seems to be no end to the argument.

There has always been this big issue of privacy in the K-Pop World, but little has been done on the industry's part to fix anything. Crazy fans, called "sasaeng" fans, go to bizarre lengths to learn everything about their favorite idols such as getting an audio recording of an idol in their private hotel room or obtaining information like an idol's phone number. Unlike in America where "privacy is a given to celebrities (and lawsuits be easily pursued against violators), it's a shocker to international fans who find out about the lack of such an important human right in the South Korean entertainment business" (Thucydides). Not every private infringement is because of the sasaeng fans, as most people seem to believe. Involving artists in one of The Big 3, SM Entertainment (in other words one of the 3 biggest companies that control the K-Pop industry), artists have come across this obstacle of having to deal with overbearing fans. Heechul, one of the members of ever-popular boy group Super Junior, always avoids public bathrooms because of a bad experience with fan-taken pictures in the past. There was even a point where one of the members in the on-the-rise boy group EXO had to deal with a camera being installed in his room by one their fans (Thucydides). With all of these events happening, what exactly are the security measures being taken? Is there just not enough security in their dorms? No matter the reason, this kind of thing should not be happening. Just because the idols are famous does not mean they have to deal with harassment by the fans. The companies should be working to make sure their artists are not getting harassed by their supposed "fans" and should make that clear to the public as well. However, this bring up another complication: is the company just not saying anything so they don't lose those "fans" and, consequently, so they won't lose revenue due to those fans finding another group to harass and spend money on? It's not completely the company's fault, but it does play a big part in the issue. However, there are some people who believe that artists should not have their privacy since "celebrities sign a part of their lives away in order to gain fame and fortune. To have their privacy violated sometimes should be seen as expected, even if they get annoyed" (Lawrencebeach2010). This idea is not true because even if a person become a celebrity, they are still the same person with basic human rights and that should not be violated. Yes, it would be harder to have complete privacy and anonymity after becoming a celebrity, but just because a person is a celebrity does not give the rest of the public the excuse to find out every little thing about their personal lives and constantly stalk them.  There are media sites dedicated to digging up past events of misconduct and spend months collecting evidence to hang over company's and artist's heads. There were many dating scandals reported in the first half of 2014 and even a supposed drug smuggling was revealed to involve a member of a famous girl group. Not only the media, but fans do some dirt digging as well. Information is passed within and outside of certain fan groups, and these things range from knowing an idol's favorite color to rumors of past misconduct to using some amount of money to figure out a certain idol group's flight schedule to some other country. When it gets this bad, the fans are labeled as saseang fans and proceed to stalk their favorite idol group's every movement, going to extreme lengths to see them and find out every insignificant detail about them. This kind of behavior is unacceptable. Some fans need to realize that their favorite idols are people too and they shouldn't put them on pedestals to be worshiped as gods and goddesses. The information that idols choose to share should be accepted by the masses and that means that people have no right to delve deeper (Noceur). Artists can only give so much, and what they choose to keep to themselves is their own business. They have responsibilities as public figures to influence their fans and the public, but they have the right to live their lives without being hounded by the media every time they step out of their houses. They have the right to date without being taken photos of and they have the right to pursue their own interests without being judged. They cannot be followed and stalked all their lives. The fans need to understand where the boundaries lie and that there are certain things that can be done to make idol's lives easier.

For one thing, fans who understand this concept of giving idols their space should sign a petition and encourage the rest of the fans in their fan group to join in as well. This petition can be multiple things ranging from requiring idols to have at least 8 hours of sleep per night to restricting the amount of variety shows the idols participate in per week. With enough signatures and support, these various petitions could be presented to certain companies and if the push is strong enough, it will cause a real change in the industry. When going to special events like fansigns or a concert, fans should encourage other fans to respect their idols' space and since all the fans there would supposedly want the best for their idol, it would be more relatable when being told from a person on the same level. Along with this, if fans see an article on Facebook, Twitter, or another social media site that is throwing dirt at a certain idol or a whole group, they should not share it so as to prevent or help stop that rumor or scandal from spreading. When it comes to the activities of sasaeng fans, it won't stop overnight. It might not even stop within the next few years. But it can be reduced. If a fan sees another fan or knows of another fan doing something they're not supposed to do that involves the idol being affected negatively in some way, that fan with that knowledge should speak up about it and get help from others. Too many times, people are afraid to speak up because they are fearful of being shunned from the group. However, it's more likely that there are other fans that have the same if not similar mindset. It just takes a little courage to do the right thing. In doing so, this will cause a chain reaction that in the end, could benefit the idol and create a better environment for the fan community and industry to flourish and blossom.

