Toaster wrote:HibiscusKazeneko wrote:Zclipse wrote:I love south korea!!!
Wow, I really set off a firestorm when I posted "Gee," didn't I?
I feel really sorry for those girls...
Kpop is pretty much just the best thing ever.
Sadly, it's not all as rosy as it looks.
Korean pop stars are subjected to some of the worst forms of abuse and exploitation in the world music industry.
They're all required to get plastic surgery to make their faces look just so, and they starve themselves to reach weights that here in the US would be considered extremely emaciated.
And on top of this, Lee Soo Man, founder and former president of SM Entertainment (the company responsible for acts like Girls' Generation and BoA), is known for using physical violence to keep his stars in line. In one highly publicized incident, the members of the boy band Dong Bang Shin Gi (동방신기) sued Lee and SM Entertainment for deliberately overworking them and paying them the equivalent of less than one cent each for every album sold. The courts found in their favor, but after the ruling it was fairly obvious they had been beaten (their dancing was off-kilter and they were forced to wear masks for some time, among other atrocities). Shim Changmin "Micky" was even hit so hard his appendix burst and he had to be hospitalized. Here in the US, that sort of abuse would instantly put SM out of business and land old man Lee in the slam for the rest of his life; unfortunately he's so rich and powerful that the South Korean courts are afraid to touch him.