K-pop in 2024: idols never die

collage by Simone Modina

DISCLAIMER: This article includes mentions of child exploitation, sexual abuse in the workplace, eating disorders, suicide, and harassment. Please read at your own discretion.

K-pop, or Korean pop, has taken the world by storm. They’ve accomplished this through over-the-top music videos, captivating and complicated dances (that idols perform often while also singing live), and music that despite being in a different language has become catchy to the brains of the Western world.

But, of course, with all of its glitz and glamour, the K-pop industry isn’t as goodhearted as it appears to be. Entertainment industries around the world have their dark and dirty secrets, but the K-pop industry individualizes itself with the standards that are put in place.

Most K-pop idols become trainees at a young age. Currently, SM Entertainment– home to acts such as NCT, Red Velvet, aespa, among others– has their auditions open to those born in 2015. These trainees go through the rigorous process of becoming K-pop idols that includes singing, dancing, and rapping lessons during practice days that start in the early morning and end late at night. It’s common for these entertainment companies to also monitor their trainees’ weights, ban them from social media, and essentially do everything they can to clean their image so that they’ll be perfect idols.

If the training process wasn’t hard enough, if you’ve been selected to debut, you’re immediately  blasted out the whole world.

Additionally, K-pop fan culture is notoriously known for being unforgiving when their idols step out of line. There is a certain idea that fans devote themselves to these idols by buying their albums, streaming their music, promoting them on social media, and so on and so forth, and in exchange idols must maintain a squeaky clean image. This image involves ideals such as no dating and no interaction with idols of the opposite gender.

This is usually done so that fans can feed into this “dream partner” fantasy. For instance, most K-pop groups hold fansigns and fancalls that allow fans to directly talk to their idol for about one to two minutes. Fans can only gain access to these exclusive events by buying a physical album and getting randomly selected for a fancall. To increase their chances, fans usually buy hundreds of albums, which contributes to the financial success of an album release.

With all of these factors combined– the pressure from entertainment companies, the general public, and a group’s fanbase– it’s inevitable that there are cracks. But, with the abuse of idols coming to light, and other terrible situations that idols have been criticized for, 2024 has undoubtedly been one of the hardest years for idols when it comes to “scandals”.

Here are some thorough examples:

1. RIIZE’s Seunghan

Before their debut in September of 2023, predebut photos of Seunghan from SM Entertainment’s rookie boy group RIIZE leaked. The photos consisted of him kissing a woman who was his girlfriend at the time. Commotion from enraged BRIIZEs– their fandom– caused him to go on hiatus from the group.

That was until October of 2024 when SM announced his return to the group. Upon this destruction of the fantasy that was created in their heads, fans sent hundreds of funeral wreaths to SM’s building. In Korean culture these wreaths are used to send condolences, but in this context they were essentially wishing death on Seunghan. Only two days later, Seunghan was permanently removed from the group.

International fans, especially those in the US, were outraged that the common and harmless experience of having a girlfriend ended Seunghan’s career. This eruption led to SM relenting and allowing Seunghan to come back to the industry as a soloist, but this still isn’t enough. To this day, BRII7ES– who are RIIZE fans who want all seven members to remain in the group– still call for Seunghan to be readded to RIIZE.

2. MADEIN’s Gaeun

On November 22nd, 2024, JTBC– a popular Korean channel– in their current affairs program “Crime Chiefs” reported on a rookie girl group member being sexually harassed by her agency’s CEO. The start of the situation occurred when this member brought her boyfriend to their dormitory, and the CEO caught her. After the CEO scolded her, she pleaded in tears to “Please allow me to end my career after this promotion.”

But, the CEO instead answered inappropriately and asked her to act as his “girlfriend for the day” in exchange of retaining her career. The member, obviously put into a difficult decision, agreed.

What proceeded to happen was the CEO forcing himself onto her in multiple instances. Despite her protests, he continued to inappropriately touch her.

The details were censored by JTBC, but fans of girl group MADEIN quickly pieced together that the report fit their description. This was alarming, given that their company, 143 Entertainment, announced the temporary hiatus of member Gaeun earlier that month.

The very next day, 143 Entertainment denied the allegations that JTBC made. However, fans were unsatisfied given that 1) Gaeun would’ve still been a minor when this occurred and 2) JTBC’s report also added that the agency claimed that it was Gaeun herself who suggested the “girlfriend for a day” idea. Yet, instead of clarification, Gaeun was removed from the group on November 29th.

3. FIFTY FIFTY

Following the success of their song “Cupid” (“I gave a second chance to Cupid”) in 2023, it seemed that nothing was going to slow down monster rookies FIFTY FIFTY. However, in June of that same year, FIFTY FIFTY filed injunctions to terminate their contracts under their agency, ATTRAKT. The group cited violation of contractual obligations, lack of transparency in financial settlements, and medical negligence during promotions. The lawsuits had many factors at play, but all members, with exception of Keena, were able to terminate their contracts at the end of October 2023.

However, in that same month, Saena, Sio, and Aran– the three members that left the group– took to Instagram to reveal their experiences under ATTRAKT:

• Due to their extreme diets, Saena started to lose hair and without medicine, she was unable to have her period. In addition to these extreme circumstances, she also had anorexia and bulimia, which led to her only weighing 85 pounds at a certain point.

• Suffering from extreme anxiety and social phobias, Sio often had severe tremors, headaches, and situations that ended up with her fainting. ATTRAKT failed to give any consideration for Sio’s condition and whenever she’d be at the hospital, the company would simply tell her to take a cab home. She also added that during their debut, doctors told her that she needed to start eating healthy if she didn’t want her kidneys to need dialysis. The company still insisted that she stayed on her diet that contributed to the worsening of her condition.

• Prior to debut, Aran had to get surgery in order to remove her diseased gall bladder that was causing her to throw up every night, rely heavily on pain medication, and being unable to relieve herself. There was also the threat that the disease could turn into cancer. And, in addition to all of this, she still had to follow a strict diet. Aran had to push her surgery farther and farther back to prioritize the group's debut. It was only after “Cupid”’s promotions that she was able to have the surgery, but after only one week ATTRAKT asked when she would be returning to work. After the members filed their lawsuit, people that she didn’t know would come to her house and knock on her door for hours, trying to ask her to talk.

Following the departure of these three members, ATTRAKT added four more members to FIFTY FIFTY. The group had their first release as a reorganized group in September of 2024.

The situation grows more complex when we look at how K-pop and its training tactics reach the global scene.

4. VCHA’s KG

VCHA is a global girl group formed in collaboration with JYP Entertainment (home to groups such as TWICE, Stray Kidz, Itzy, and NMIXX) and (American-based) Republic Records. Although not exactly a K-pop group due to being composed of all American members, VCHA was trained under K-pop trainee standards via their survival show, A2K (America 2 Korea). The group formally debuted in January of 2024.

However, they would be inactive for the rest of the year; for example, the group unexpectedly canceled their highly anticipated appearance at Lollapalooza. Additionally, in March their youngest member Kaylee was announced to go on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

But, in December, there came news from VCHA, and not the good kind: member KG took to Instagram to announce that she would be suing JYP USA (JYP Entertainment’s American sub-label). The lawsuit, filed on behalf of her mother due to KG being aged 17-years-old, said that KG was subjected to “child labor exploitation, child neglect and abuse, [and] unfair business practices”.

Included in the lawsuit are detailed descriptions of what KG experienced during her time as a trainee and VCHA member. Here are only some of them:

• During a practice session, KG was forced to practice a strenuous dance move over a hundred times by their dance teacher while squatting, resulting in her tearing a tendon in her shoulder. When the training group had a break, she wasn’t allowed to drink water.

• When VCHA was formed, JYP USA pressured the six members to live together, stating that they’ll reach further success if they did, despite the contract stating that it was an optional choice. When they all agreed, the company chose a 2.5 million dollar mansion for them to stay in, but in the contract there was a clause that ended up with all of the members burdening that cost. This ended up with KG being in about 500 thousand dollars in debt.

• JYP USA had secretly installed surveillance cameras in VCHA’s house which recorded their private conversations without their knowledge: a clear infringement of privacy.

• In February of 2024, the terrible conditions they were facing drove one of the members to attempt to commit suicide. KG found this member uncontrollably vomiting after ingesting 42 Nyquil pills. KG had already expressed her concerns about this particular member to JYP USA, but they immediately brushed it off.

There has been no follow-up since the lawsuit came up, but fans of VCHA are concerned given that JYP announced that the group will be having a comeback soon.

5. NewJeans/NJZ

To the Western general public, NewJeans has become a driving force in bringing K-pop worldwide. Releases such as “Super Shy”, “OMG”, and “Ditto” have captivated the ears of listeners from all over.

Unbeknownst to the general public though, NewJeans would be undergoing a contract dispute between them and their company, ADOR. ADOR is a subsidiary of HYBE, which was established by BigHit Entertainment following the success of their worldwide sensation, BTS.

In August of 2024, Min Heejin, the creator of NewJeans, stepped down as CEO of ADOR. This came following a public battle between Min and HYBE that started when HYBE audited ADOR in April of 2024. This led to leaks that HYBE claimed were evidence that Min was trying to break ADOR from HYBE, defaming other girl groups under HYBE such as LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT, and overall established a toxic work environment in both ADOR and HYBE that affected member Hanni.

The details of the dispute are complex and hard to decipher given that both sides have been trying to control the media around it, but the whole situation put NewJeans in the crossfire. In a now-deleted livestream in October, NewJeans demanded HYBE to reinstate Min as CEO. This was the first sign of rebellion as NewJeans went against their contracts.

A Korean court would deny Min’s request and she would later announce that she’ll be stepping away from ADOR altogether. But despite this, NewJeans announced that they would be breaking their exclusive contracts with ADOR if after two weeks they didn’t fulfill their list of requests.

Eventually, this period timed out, and NewJeans held an emergency press conference in late November announcing that they had terminated their contracts. ADOR claimed that there were no substantial grounds where they could do this, but the members soon set up their own Instagram account run entirely by themselves, suggesting that ADOR’s claim is false. Since then the members of NewJeans have regrouped and renamed themselves to NJZ.

What does this all mean?

It’s important to note though that the injustice these K-pop idols have been served seems miniscule compared to the main grievances South Korea is facing today. Following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law on December 3rd, the people of South Korea impeached him on December 14th.

This comes at a particularly emotionally heightened time as the fight for the social rights of minorities in South Korea has reached the forefront of its society. Most notably, South Korean women have started the radical feminist 4B movement. 4B comes from their core beliefs: no sex with men, no giving birth, no dating men, and no marriage with men until gender equality is achieved. This came as a response to the severe oppression women face due to the normalization of misogynistic behavior in South Korea.

Though the nation as a whole is dealing with bigger problems, the issues that idols face reflect the greater issue that South Korea must confront: its advancement on the world stage–be it Samsung’s technological breakthroughs or the success of the Hallyu wave– has far outpaced its traditional cultural norms and beliefs. And as a result, they will forever be stunted in their pursuit of becoming a global power.

But, how can South Korea tackle this dilemma that puts their country at a standstill? Yes, activism in the form of the 4B movement faces the issue head-on, but the social climate of the nation isn't open-minded enough to take their cause seriously. Given this, we turn to K-pop idols.

Celebrities using their platform to advocate for social change has been regarded as one of the most effective ways to bring awareness to a cause, and K-pop idols are no different. It could also be said that their platforms are more effective than a typical Western celebrity given 1) the harsh circumstances that they endure in their industry's practices which, unfortunately, creates more impactful and firsthand experiences for these idols to share and 2) K-pop fan culture which, despite its failures, leads to extremely dedicated fan bases that give unconditional support for their idols. This usually attracts the attention of not only national media, but all networks internationally.

One of the most notable examples of this is the LOONA boycott of 2022. LOONA is a 12-member girl group known throughout the K-pop space to have a strong fanbase, whose official name is Orbits. In their pre debut days, Orbits relentlessly promoted the group on Twitter/X with the slogan “Stan LOONA”.

However, when one of their members was unfairly kicked out in 2022, Orbits came to stand by her. Eventually, the abuse that LOONA experienced under their company came to light when all of the members filed injunctions to break their contracts.

Orbits accordingly set up a wide scale boycott of LOONA, meaning they refused to stream their music, to buy albums, and any other content the company released of the group. This was so their company would not receive money to fight the members in court, and the statistics from the boycott prove it. Because of this, all 12 members managed to win their legal battles.

The boycott’s success is further exemplified when all 12 members re-debuted in separate companies. The likelihood of this occurring was extremely low given how unkind the industry is to those who fight back. It's highly regarded that without the unwavering support of Orbits, the boycott wouldn't have been successful and LOONA may have been lost to time.

Many other fanbases have taken inspiration from the LOONA boycott when mistreatment of their idols came to light. Of all of the groups mentioned earlier, out sprang boycott efforts in support of their individual groups.

One effect was FIFTY FIFTY’s Saena, Sio, and Aran making an unexpected return to the music industry under a new name, ablume. They were spotted shooting a music video in Los Angeles and are expected to make their official debut later this year.

This spirit of triumph is exemplified in the song title where this article’s name is pulled from. It comes from tripleS’ “Girls Never Die”, which is an inspiring track for women about getting up again after being pushed down. Though specifically for women, the song’s message became applicable to people from all over South Korea, given it became a favorite at protests following Yoon Suk Yeol’s declaration of martial law. It was even used by NewJeans in an end-of-year award show speech, where member Danielle exclaimed “NewJeans never die!”

The rest of the stories are currently unfinished, but coming into 2025 K-pop fans are hopeful that the new year will allow their idols to start again.