Okiday! Come one come all, ye Kpop fans from every fandom everywhere! Kpop is in the air! If you have been anywhere on the music scene then you may know about the global sensational genre of Kpop. Kpop’s popularity has skyrocketed since BTS, the seven member Korean popular music boy band group from South Korea who caught the attention of the West. In 2017 they performed their spectacular title track DNA from their album LOVE YOURSELF: HER at the American Music Awards. With many record-setting songs and award nominations they have helped K-pop become a more popular genre to sing and jam out to with your friends. 

High energy, intense dances, and phenomenal singing are the name of the game, and the artists in South Korea are singing, “I’m on the next level” (Next Level-Aespa). While K-pop fans are straight up losing their minds watching music videos, live streams, concerts, and other content, there are props to be given for the hard work and dedication these young men and women have put into these performances and songs to get to where they are today. What’s interesting is the difference between the artist process in Korea and America. 

First off, there are a lot of other things that happen other than the following but there are too many little itty bitty details that go into it and you all have rookie Kpop groups to get to know anyway. So “Let me introduce you to some new thangs” (Kick It– NCT 127) about the difference between making a group’s debut in America and Korea. 

The process of debuting in South Korea seems simple but it’s not an easy one. Unlike in America, group celebrities are more heavily focused on than solo artists. There are many factors that go into becoming a Kpop Idol but it can be simplified into four stages: audition for a company, sign a training contract, train under the company for a certain amount of time (Reality TV shows), get ready for your debut (1st comeback(debut)). 

Audition for a Company

As stated before, Kpop is more focused on groups than solo artists and these groups are created by companies with aspiring singers, dancers, and rappers. Something different from America is that if a young boy or girl aspires to be a Kpop Idol they will go to a music company that is holding an audition event and as they say–show them what they got! Something that might be a close similarity to this concept in America would be the reality television American Idol but we will get into the television shows later. Young aspiring Kpop trainees go to auditions events to have a chance to be selected for a company’s training program. For these auditions, young potential K-pop training performs a song, dance, or rap segment in hopes of catching the judge’s eyes. If their performance is adequate, they can land a contract with the Kpop company. For example, Karina from the newly debuted group AESPA sang Lee’s Rose Hi’s Rose for her audition at SM Entertainment. She sang a bit of it on Good Morning FM with Jang Sung Kyu. In contrast, in America, companies do not host audition events for “Next Big Thing”. One cannot simply walk into Capitol Records and say “I want to audition”–you might not make it past the door. New Artists usually need to have some sort of portfolio of content for someone to take a chance on them. Justin Bieber caught the attention of Scott Braun through Youtube and helped him begin his career as a superstar singer. In Korea, that’s usually not the case. These companies in Korea let the potential Kpop Idol find them and it’s not too difficult.

Contracts

It does not matter where you decide to start your musical career, a contract is a must. But the types of contracts and when they enter into the conversation vary. In America, there are many different types of contracts depending on what you are planning to do in the future for your musical career, but we will just focus on the Record Label contracts for now. The Record Label contracts can be lengthy and pretty difficult to understand but the basis is that the record label will handle “…the manufacturing, distribution, and marketing of the record .”(9 most important contracts in the music industry.) In Korea, contracts work a little differently. If you have been chosen by the company’s judges, then you will be given a contract, but not a contract regarding your record deal. This is a contract to train under that specific company. In America, record deal contracts usually last roughly one year to a year and a half. Training contracts are a minimum of two years and can last well beyond that if the trainee has not debuted yet which is the kicker. So! We have the audition and the contract, now what?

Time for the fun (or not so fun) part—training.

Training

Training. It’s all about training. In America, vocal training will come after the record deal signing. But in Korea, Kpop Idol is not in your vocabulary if you haven’t done the training first. Each trainee must go through very intensive and rigorous training in singing, dancing, rapping, etc. Trainees train for more hours than the day offers with the intention of debuting in mind. Sun up to sun down, practice, 12 hours and more a day. Makes my eight minutes of saxophone practice once a week look pretty bad. But they have a reason to practice this much. Each training is evaluated and those who improve will move on to the next level closer to their goal as a Kpop trainee. Those who are deemed not improving will not move on to the next round or could potentially be asked to leave the company. It’s a pretty intense process. For those, however, who have improved and found favor in the judge’s eyes, they are one step closer to their debut. 

The next stage in the Kpop journey is not always necessary but can be depending on the company the Kpop trainee is a part of–reality television shows.

The Debut

What better way to get your name out there and to have the companies profit off of K-pop idols and fans’ tears and choose who will debut. For this stage, the top K-pop trainees who have shown great potential can be drafted into a company trainee TV show much like American Idol (see I told you we’d come back to it) to see who will secure a spot in the next Kpop Idol debut group! Fun right? ….sure, just don’t get too attached to these trainees because there is a possibility that some of them may not make it. The equivalent of this process to America is American Idol where anyone and everyone can audition but only one person will be the American Idol and win the record deal. In Korea, it’s relatively the same process. A certain number of K-pop trainees participate in the company’s or multiple companies’ reality tv shows to see who will debut next. The creation of Kep1er came from a tv show titled Girl planet 999. In this trainee show, 99 girls were chosen to participate in the show. There were a series of challenges and group dances that the contestants were in and those who stood out were chosen for the group. And those who make it to the end finally reap the fruits of their labor and DEBUT!

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