Being a trainee in Korea is not easy,
but it is the road to K-pop stardom.
I am really admired to see our GTCers practicing hard every single day.
Recently, Reuters has reported about
a day of a Korean trainee and the stresses received
Let's check it!
Nine-year-old Kim Si-yoon has no time to throw tantrums.
She wakes up at half-past seven for school,
followed by hours of voice
training, dance lessons
and cram school before crashing into bed at midnight.
Kim is a wannabe K-pop star.
Thousands of Korean children dream of
becoming household names like rapper Psy,
whose 2012 "Gangnam Style" video was a global YouTube hit,
often putting up with
punishing schedules
in the hope of one day making it big in the music industry.
A new generation of younger and prettier music idols
is further influencing
impressionable minds,
with a recent survey of pre-teens showing
21 percent of
respondents wanted to be K-pop stars when they grow up,
the most popular career
choice.
Kim, a third-grader at elementary school,
said she recognized the sacrifices
needed to realize her dream.
"It is tough. So I am trying to have fun
and when I make efforts, I can
perform better," she said,
as she prepared to run through a sample dance
routine,
despite a bad cold.
For her performance,
she wore a diamond-patterned pinafore with black
leggings,
topped off with a trendy K-pop baseball cap.
Kim's desk is decorated with photos of her favorite boy and girl bands.
A
microphone is propped up beside her pens and pencils,
and a pink guitar rests on
her bedroom wall.
A treasured pair of black high heels with a white floral print
lies in her closet.
Her stay-at-home mom drives Kim around Seoul each day,
determined to see her
own thwarted ambition of becoming a singer
fulfilled by her daughter
"Competition is very intense, and there are so many good kids,"
said Park
Sook-hee, who spends around 700,000 won ($639) each month
on Kim's voice
modulation and dance lessons.
Kim is training for auditions
to get into reputed talent management companies
such as YG Entertainment or S.M. Entertainment.
Success would bring a tougher
schedule,
perhaps even leading her to drop out of school.
"She knows that she can't help but work harder," said Park.
Jang Ha-jin made it to S.M. Entertainment's coveted training program
a decade
ago after winning a talent contest.
She stuck to a seven-day regimen for nearly three years,
before giving it all
up to return to a more sedate life.
Now an engineering major,
Jang remembers being trapped in an energy-sapping
timetable
that included lessons in Chinese,
since many K-pop bands were trying
to make inroads into China.
Trainees had no access to mobile phones and each week,
about 40 pupils were
assessed on camera for their star potential.
Jang constantly compared herself to
her peers,
and felt pressured to impress heavy-handed instructors.
Worse, there was no guarantee she would be picked for a K-pop debut.
"The most difficult part in fact was
when I saw myself and felt like I didn't
grow up,"
said Jang, 23, remembering her stressful teenage years.
The trainees who survive and make it to the top
reap the benefit of adulation
by fans and stadium crowds.
K-pop is the rage in Asia, especially in China and
Japan,
and the industry is eyeing new audiences in the West.
Overseas sales revenues garnered by the "Korean Wave" pop culture industry,
which includes music and TV dramas,
nearly doubled to $730 million in 2013 in
just five years,
Bank of Korea data shows.
Some of Jang's peers who continued with the program
eventually found spots on
Girls' Generation,
one of South Korea's top pop bands.
Their success came at a
price, Jang said.
"The time they spent is fairly painful and difficult,
but it is worth it,"
she said.
Sowon, whose six-member girl band GFriend made its debut this month,
said she
was more happy than tired,
despite not being able to see her family
or hang out
with friends anymore.
"I am thinking only one thing - our song keeps being played,"
said the
20-year-old starlet,
who spent five years training for her debut.
"I hope to
perform anywhere, anytime, even if I can't sleep or I am tired."
- Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/22/us-southkorea-kpop-widerimage-idUSKBN0KV0OJ20150122
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