I am actually an avid listener of K-Pop, more specifically BTS.I think they’re music is great and the message of their brand is really important. Their music, while being catchy and upbeat and easy to dance to, also has messages of dealing with abuse, fighting for the LGBTQ+ community and other big issues. On the other side of the K-Pop industry outside of BTS, there is quite the dark side, specifically surrounding one central issue.
In the beginning of March a scandal regarding one of K-Pop’s biggest idols surfaced. Seungri of K-Pop group, Big Bang was reportedly accused of rape of multiple women. Since these accusations, it has been reported that he was in a groupchat with multiple other big name idols and actors in which they discussed drugging and raping multiple women and taking videos of their scandals and sending them within their groupchat. This scandal rocked the K-Pop world and shocked many of his fans. The messages sent in the groupchat were vile and disturbing and led to trials and charges against the idols.
Outside of this scandal, many idols amongst their other issues with depression and anxiety from the treatment in the agencies have also reported being forced into giving sexual favors to their representatives and other crude acts.
Despite all of these scandals, almost no one talks about these issues. Many people get caught up in the pop music and the idol personas and disregard all these scandals. With time, hopefully the standards idols are being set to will lessen and those affected by these awful circumstances will get the justice they deserve.
Modern Times 