Pat here:
Kdrama followers, this isn’t exactly a post about kdramas, but if you think waaaaay outside the box, it does have some relevance. When my husband and I had teenage daughters, he would come into the kitchen for breakfast before work, they would peruse his choice of clothing for the day and then say, ‘Dad, you can’t wear that with that.’ He would glance down at his (awful) outfit, and reply, ‘Why not? It’s all got blue in it’. Well, that’s how I’m justifying this post. It doesn’t have blue in it, but it does have a ’K’ in it. Okay, so it’s not Kdrama, but it is Kpop.
The latest Time Magazine features the NEXT GENERATION LEADERS, and among them is the latest Korean girl group NEWJEANS. So far, so good. But then I read on, and guess what? This group is comprised of teenagers, and one of them is just 15. When they started to get noticed, she was a mere 14, and I think this is beyond awful. These groups have years of training and practice before they show up on the international stage. They literally don’t have childhoods. They leave home during adolescence to live in groups and learn how to perform. If you saw the Time Magazine article, you’d say it smacks of child exploitation. It’s all too icky for me.
If I compare the average age of K-pop stars to Kdrama actors, K-pop groups mostly debut when they are teenagers, while the kdrama stars‘ average ages are 26 years. Most of the actors have finished both high school and university according to what it says in their Wikipedia bios. They have had time to grow, mature, and develop their acting chops. It’s a sad commentary when the music industry doesn’t allow their singers to do likewise, and it’s a negative for Korean culture as a whole.
Judy chiming in... Well, it is kind of sad that they start so young. But I am not as offended as you. Yes, I think they miss out on a lot of 'childhood' or 'teen years' but I think the same of American teens who don't know how to socialize because all they've done is interact on their phones. The same thing could be said about Olympic level athletes... do they have childhoods?
I have learned lots of things about Korean culture including Kpop and I must say that I actually find some of it appealing. Look for a post soon about 'We Could Learn From This.'
Yes! A lot of actors start as singers or models... I think that's a common trajectory. Naturally just because they might be good as singers it doesn't always translate into great acting. I've been a bit disappointed in some of the singers turned actors; maybe they'll improve over time.
I noticed that a lot of the KDrama actors are also singers. Have you noticed that too?