What It Takes to Be a K-pop Idol: Background and My Take

When I was 10 years old, in the study at home, on the family's desktop computer, I came across a photo of a person whom I thought was the most beautiful one I had ever seen. This person was none other than Im Yoon-ah of Girls' Generation, which at the time I did not know she was part of.

Years later, when I became a fan of EXO, the most successful boy group under SM Entertainment, the same agency as Girls' Generation, I realized that one of the girls in this group was none other than the visual goddess I had known for so long.

It is no secret that K-pop has recently been rising in fame, ever since PSY's 2012 release of the viral Gangnam Style, with EXO and CL performing at the Olympics, BTS, Blackpink, and NCT 127 in the US, and numerous popular debuts in recent years such as (G)I-DLE, LOONA, Cherry Bullet, Itzy, and Everglow. And with the rise in popularity of the genre itself has come an increase in the amount of aspiring idols.

But how does one truly achieve success like these idolized groups?

As someone who spent over a year auditioning and learning about the process from former trainees, I can confidently say this is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting industries in existence.

The number of auditioning individuals who pass is incredibly small, with single individuals being selected from auditions with thousands lining up. Sometimes visual impressions also affect the results in addition to talent, which makes some complain about the unfairness of auditions. But the industry focuses on how suitable trainees will be if they debut in every way. SM Entertainment is known for a focus on visuals, with the belief that talent can be made unlike looks, seeking to manufacture a group to the best degree possible. Some agencies even observe friendships among trainees to decide who should debut, in order to improve the cohesiveness within the group. Trainees enter companies after difficult auditions and often go through grueling training only to be eliminated from lineups and have contracts terminated. While some trainees leave of their own accord, oftentimes they are bound to pay the company back for the money spent on providing for and training them, as part of the contract terms.

The pressure on trainees is unbelievable, with monthly evaluations, scoring in training categories, ranking of looks, diets sometimes consisting of no more food than can fit in a paper cup each day, and harsh punishments for breaking rules. Running around the room while singing, standing in water, being forced to sit for hours reflecting...

In addition to the hard hours of training, prospective idols must sometimes go to school at the same time and end up practicing their skills into early morning hours. Foreign trainees must learn Korean and may also face discrimination during their training and eve after debut, if they make it to that stage.

Even after debut, success is almost like a lottery. Countless companies put out new groups every year, but only the top few reach ideal popularity, even if talents are equal. The Big Three of the K-pop industry, SM, JYP, and YG Entertainment are the most auditioned for due to their history of successful groups and popularity of current groups, which automatically builds anticipation for any new groups debuting under these agencies. Other well-known agencies include FNC, Pledis, and Cube Entertainment, which encountered a scandal demonstrating an important part of idol life. Upon the announcement of Kim Hyuna's relationship with Pentagon's Edawn, the agency proceeded to announce the removal of the artists from their label, but retracted the statement after stocks dropped. However, the two-time girl group member, successful soloist, and star in Gangnam Style handpicked by PSY decided with her boyfriend to leave the company of her own accord and later posted a couple photos on Instagram. Since then both have joined PSY's own label, P-Nation. Fans were outraged over the scandal over their relationship, but since its beginnings the industry has firmly restricted the personal lives of idols in order to maintain favorable public images.

Trainees enter companies with the knowledge that they give up part of their social lives and may not enter relationships until specified durations after debut, which may take place after years of training. And if they choose to quit they have given up that time in their own lives.

A former SM and JYP trainee I found stated that she could not disclose schedule details due to the training termination contract, but said that trainees had to place their phones in designated places before going to train. A former trainee in a smaller agency revealed that sometimes the manager would randomly investigate trainees' devices, even if they were in the middle of texting someone. Most trainees have few breaks during the year to travel back home and see family, which is a common reason for trainees to leave companies in addition to the harsh pressure of fighting for the chance to debut, sometimes even against their own friends.

Smaller agencies may even not be dependable for trainee provisions. Grazy Grace, a rapper with her own YouTube channel, described her training experience that included the company having to make the girls practice at the mall and herself having to live in her manager's old apartment, which apparently had undesirable insects. In her honest reflection, Grace revealed that looks played a major role in the formation of her company's new group, and she was not ranked highly in that area. In her case, there was even drama between trainees, with another trainee feeling threatened by her talent, which ended up with Grace reporting it and the other trainee being removed from the company.

Conflicts, among trainees, grueling practice, harsh judgment, punishments, isolation from the rest of the world, and the uncertainty of being able to debut lead many who passed the already incredibly selective auditions to stop training and return to normal lives, often harder for older trainees. While leaving and settling back in is difficult, entering training is even harder, especially for foreigners.

Former EXO member Tao, now a successful soloist in China, recalls not being able to order food when he first arrived in Korea, and writing down every word he could in a notebook to learn the language. Despite the group's phenomenal success, he left the group following former members Kris Wu and Luhan, both also successful Chinese soloists. While Kris Wu was the leader of EXO-M, the Mandarin unit in the group, he never had equal footing to Suho, the EXO-K leader, due to company discrimination against foreigners. All three former members have been involved in acting, an opportunity that many idols participate in after debut. However, oftentimes agencies deny chances for their idols to showcase other skills such as acting.

Many idols are held back by agencies, a frustrating experience after years of training. While acting opportunities are sometimes denied for scheduling purposes, other forms of restraint seem blatantly unfair, such as lack of lines. NCT's Winwin suffered noticeably from this issue, with only single words and less than a minute of lines for a whole year, until he was finally given time to shine in "Takeoff" of WayV, the Chinese sub-unit of NCT.

Mistreatment, lack of sleep, malnutrition, injuries, anti-fans, and privacy invasion are still problems after debuting. And those who do debut are usually one out of thousands who audition, and less than a hundred who end up training in the company. From audition to after debut, the life of an idols is hard.

And the saddest part: disbandment. Unsuccessful groups are usually disbanded quickly, but even popular ones may unexpectedly come to and end, such as Miss A and 4minute. In both groups a single member outshined the rest in popularity, resulting in great disparity in solo success after disbandment. It is sad, not only for the music to come to an end, but often for the lost time in the life of an idol. Pristin's Xiyeon trained for 11 years only to be active as an idol for less than two years, until the group was suddenly disbanded after a long hiatus. Some groups stay on infinite hiatus, a situation not much better than disbandment, as fans constantly hope for new songs, but remain disappointed at inactivity. F(x) suffers this fate, after losing visual Sulli and arguably being outcompeted in popularity by Girls' Generation, even under one company. Political tension between China and Korea makes the situation worse, with leader Victoria being Chinese. However, the individual members are doing well in solo activities, including acting, judging, YouTube, and solo songs.

Becoming an idol is a risky choice, with success often dependent on luck. Someone who trains harder in a smaller agency may have less success than someone selected based on visuals for a larger company but is less skilled. Nonetheless trainees everywhere work furiously in cutthroat competition.

The image of training on shows such, as Produce 48 are often misleading. Mnet heavily edited what viewers saw, and were even caught by fans faking other trainees' admiration of Miyawaki Sakura's performance in one scene.

In addition, many aspects of the training process were omitted, such as an accident suffered by trainee Alex Christine, now the debuted soloist Alexa, which was completely left out of the show.

While shows like Produce show dramatic moments, such as tearful interviews and disappointing eliminations, not all hardships of trainee life are accurately displayed. However, this show did demonstrate the often unfair nature of the industry in selecting who to debut. Fans were especially outraged when Lee Gaeun, who had trained for longer overall, was almost center for the show, and was in Pledis'. After School, was eliminated at the final round, whereas some supposedly less talented girls debuted based on appearances.

Perhaps the most inaccurate depiction of training are the so-called K-pop training camps, where participants learn idol skills unofficially. Recently, I was placed in the final round audition for a small K-pop company based in another country. I placed seventh out of ninety auditions, but did not go train because these results were different from personal trainee selections by the agency. The company then held a training camp that publicly posted about their experience daily. But upon seeing the posts and viewing their live stream I was disappointed. It was far from the reality of training, and other viewers were probably thinking they would be going into that in official training. For one there was a lot of food content and one participant even said they usually ate fast food, which actual trainees probably never see during all of their training.

Of course they wanted to make it look fun, with picking out outfits and putting together meals, but the way it was presented seemed to blur the line between actual training and a short term experience.

People tell me I have a pretty idol face; some even say I look like Red Velvet Irene at some angles. I have been doing music for over a decade, was in The Nutcracker, did ballet, performed Chinese dances, and won more than 30 music awards. And because my current state isn't especially good I've considered working through the literal hell of the K-pop industry to grab my chance to shine.

I don't recommend going into it, especially if you aren't Asian. Even foreign Asians and mixed Koreans get hate from Knetz, and EXP, the first group with non-Asian members, was largely taken as a joke, even by international fans. With Korea's intense focus on appearance it will take a long time before more looks are accepted. There have been less than ten completely non-Asian idols. And none succeeded. The closest to success was probably the three-quarters white and one-quarter Korean Neil Hannigan, who trained in SM after becoming a runner-up for an audition winner who opted out.

If you haven't cultivated talent in any audition category, it is astronomically difficult to go up against some who has honed skills since elementary school. And even if you are picked, is it worth it to fly out from everything you've known to enter hard training where you can barely communicate?

Everyone is in different places. Some people get in with talent developed early on; others randomly are found and selected for appearance. Some have to audition for three years before getting in; others do three poses and start to train. Sometimes the kid has to look everywhere for an audition; sometimes the scout chases the kid for half an hour to persuade them.

I've researched the industry for over a year. I've seen the unfairness the dangers, the exploitation, the risks... I've heard horror stories about harassment, surprise plastic surgeries, starvation... But if you know how to survive this industry and have the talent there's no harm in trying since you can always opt out before going.

And me, maybe I'm biased towards wanting to do this because of Im Yoon-ah whom I first saw. Because that is one of my names as well. But after all I've done I've learned what to and not to do in auditions, where to and where not to audition, too much to just leave behind. And finding out truths through former trainees online and chance encounters in real life has made me much more insightful and prepared than some poor talented kid who just entered some company, somewhere, maybe in Seoul, maybe not.

There's too much I know about the industry. There's more on how I got involved at first, but that's a story for another time.

If you have questions you can DM me @qinmaexing on Instagram.