The Dark Side of K-Pop

The first time I heard K-pop was in 2012. Psy had just had his breakout hit, “Gangnam Style,” and we were all doing the horse dance.

K-pop has exploded in popularity in the years since. My kids listen to BTS and watch “KPop Demon Hunters.” It has put South Korea on the world’s cultural map. But as my colleagues report, there’s also a dark side to all this. I spoke to Sarah Hurtes and Jin Yu Young, who have been investigating the case of the K-pop girl band NewJeans, and their secretive — some say exploitative — contracts.

Secret deals, tight control

So, Yu Young, tell me about NewJeans. Who are they, and what did they do that got so much attention?

NewJeans is one of the biggest K-pop bands of the last few years. They released their debut song in 2022, and it immediately shot up the charts. Industry insiders loved them because they had this really clean image. They were a bunch of fresh-faced teenagers singing about coming of age and having crushes.

But NewJeans hasn’t performed in a year, and it hasn’t made any new music. Today, part of what the singers are famous for is the fact that they tried to quit their label — and weren’t allowed to. The label took them to court, and the court ordered NewJeans members to serve out their contracts.

Wow. So, Sarah, why was this such a big deal?

By trying to quit — and being barred from doing so — NewJeans trained a spotlight on what many see as the controlling and exploitative contracts that are pervasive in K-pop. That’s kind of what prompted our investigation. We wanted to see what was in these secret contracts. Eventually we got hold of them, and what we found really surprised us.

What was in them, Yu Young?

Among other terms, the contracts bar group members from criticizing the label, even if what they say is true. They’re not allowed to have “inappropriate romantic relationships” or “insincere attitudes.” Another clause states that once the contracts expire, the label will sharply reduce the album and streaming revenues it pays to the members. Not only that, the label retains the right to use their voices, faces and identities, which could be used to sell new content generated by A.I.

Creepy!

And remember, the members of NewJeans are very young. They’re mostly in their early 20s now, but they all signed these contracts when they were minors.

Another feature of the contracts: high exit fees. Four of the five NewJeans members were forced to serve out their contracts, but one had hers terminated, which triggered this incredibly high fee. She and her mother could face millions of dollars in debt. Her lawyer said that’s because the label wanted to send a warning to other artists: If you try to leave, this is what we can do to you.

Sarah, how unique is this in the music industry? We’ve heard stories about American pop stars who’ve dealt with exploitation from labels too, right?

What various people have told me is that the system today in South Korea is similar to a system that existed a long time ago in the U.S., in which, basically, one person or one company acts as label, manager, agent and lawyer, controlling virtually every facet of an artist’s career. That’s mostly no longer the case in the U.S. There are separate lawyers, agents and managers who represent the artist’s interests, not the label’s. In South Korea, the label still holds all the reins.

Is there something that makes the K-pop industry particularly prone to this sort of hyper-controlling contracts, Yu Young?

I think some of it is cultural. South Korea is a country that has developed very fast in the past half century. The concept of sacrifice for success is very ingrained. This idea that someone gives up everything for a dream is not uncommon and it starts very young.

But some of it is related to the business model. Only a tiny percentage of aspiring stars make it. The labels invest lots of money in dozens and dozens of young people who they train, most of whom will never earn that money back. So when one actually becomes a star, their success has to cover the costs of all the others who didn’t.

So Sarah, this is basically a business model…

The labels see these contracts as a way to make sure they get a return on their investment. They can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars building a group, and they make that money back mostly through tours and brand deals. So from their side, if an artist gains weight or gets into an “inappropriate” romantic relationship, that could hurt their image, and their profits.

Is anyone trying to reform the industry in response to all this?

There’s been some push for reform, but it ultimately hasn’t changed much. For example, one member of a really famous boy band tried to form South Korea’s first performers’ union, but that initiative went nowhere.

In 2009, the South Korean government created a standard contract template. It had protections for minors: limits on how much they could work, and keeping them in school, for example. But what we saw with NewJeans is that labels can just take those clauses out.

Yu Young, let’s close on a slightly more empowering note. NewJeans used to make great music, right? And maybe someday will again. What NewJeans song should we highlight for readers?

I would say “Attention”! It’s one of their most famous songs. It’s very vibrant and bright and fresh. It still plays everywhere in South Korea. Even though they haven’t produced music in a while, they’re not forgotten. I hear them everywhere, and that song in particular.

Read the full investigation here.

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BEFORE YOU GO …

This week I took The World to Paris for a live edition. I basically did what I usually do in this newsletter: I hosted my brilliant New York Times colleagues. It’s just that this time was in person.

Onstage with me were some people you’ve heard from before: Mark Landler, our Paris bureau chief and a former Washington correspondent who covered President Trump’s first term; and Constant Méheut, one of our Ukraine correspondents who had come specially from Kyiv.

Between the midterms, the ongoing French protests (I barely made my Eurostar back to London!) and the war in Ukraine, we had a lot to talk about. Perhaps the main takeaway from our conversation — and you read it in this newsletter first — was that after this week’s Republican wipeout, Donald Trump will be a lame duck president. But he will be a very powerful lame duck president.

This was a private event. But it got me thinking: Maybe we should hold occasional live events that are open to the public? Some of my fellow newsletter hosts already do. I’m curious: Is that something you’d want to attend?

Here’s a cool bit of election trivia a friend alerted me to: Keisha Lance Bottoms, the new governor-elect of Georgia, is also the daughter of Major Lance, an awesome soul singer. This is a banging tune: “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.”

Have a great weekend! —Katrin