Kpop Cruelty

    As the genre of K-pop continues to grow, more fans have begun getting involved with what goes on within the entertainment companies and their idols, as well as the effect fans have on said idols.

    One of the biggest issues within these companies is how they commonly allow the fans to dictate what happens with certain aspects of an idol’s life. It could be anything, ranging from how the idols look to their love interests. The fandoms, commonly divided between international and native, are constantly trying to voice their thoughts on the rules these entertainment companies place on the people under their contracts.

    In a recent event, solo artist HyunA and Pentagon’s E’Dawn from Cube Entertainment revealed to have been in a relationship for two years. While they received a lot of support from both of their international fan bases, they also received a lot of backlash from their native Korean fans. In return, their company took into account the Korean fan’s thoughts on the reveal and disclosed that they were discussing the removal of both artists from the company as a result of their untrustworthy actions.

    It was later revealed that the two idols would stay in the company, but that didn’t stop many fan’s anger towards the situation that the company was willing to ruin two people’s careers because some fans didn’t like the idea of them in love.

    There have also been plenty of events in which companies have made their idols act a certain way to keep fans happy. In a concert, Sehun of EXO had said that because of fan’s constant demand he would be more willing to reveal his upper body to please them. Again, this angered many overseas fans who believed the company should’ve stepped in to help the idols rather than encourage the fans obsessive behavior.

    It’s a constant argument between fans, those who believe that the idols should do things that make them happy while others believe that they have the right to demand things from them because they’re their consumers. Constantly the companies are on the side of the fans rather than their idols, this could be due to the fact that these idols are under contract and if the fans are displeased then that could mean a drop in their sales and support.

    Despite that, both entertainment companies and fans should remember that the musicians they idolize and keep under contract are still humans and they shouldn’t abuse the power they have over them without taking into consideration all the possible harm they could do to their lives.