The K-pop Iceberg || Midnight Theories 🔮

k-pop training is like army training we're not holding guns we're just holding microphones [Music] up [Music] of a famous audition show have been arrested for a legend void regain [Applause] hi everyone and welcome back to midnight theories and if you're new here welcome to midnight theories today we'll be working our way down from silly harmless fan theories all the way down to diving deep into kpop's darkest history and practices if any of you are unfamiliar with an icebreak chart it is used to present both known and unknown issues and emphasize on the importance of looking beneath the surface i have separated and ranked these issues and topics into six separate categories the lower we ascend on the iceberg the darker the matters get now with this being said let's start at the tip of the iceberg i like to call this first layer conspiracies or k-spear sees here you will find your run-of-the-mill theories in urban legends and k-pop these are popular theories that have circulated in the fandom for years i'm going to go over this category pretty quick just because i already have videos fully dedicated to each one of these topics this is arguably the most popular theory or inside joke within the kpop fandom it is believed that sm has cloned their idols does this sound very unreal yes but the chance of it ever happening is never zero the kpop fandom likes to poke fun that mark from nct is a clone from sm because of how overworked he is due to his participation in several subunits not only is sm known to be a company with amazing vocals but as well as their visuals how could one get such perfect visuals why crafting it yourself molding them like a fine sculpture or many of sm idols from third to fourth generation have crazy resemblance to companies previous idols and when you put them side by side you almost can't deny the resemblance sm entertainment is known for being one of those companies to stay ahead of the game in k-pop and continue to reinvent themselves from high school werewolves from outer space with super powers to a boy group with infinite members and recently turning their newest girl group members into ais i wouldn't knock it if sm would have a secret lab in their basement cranking out the perfect idols sticking to the sm family we have red velvet used to distract the public from controversies and scandals in and out of k-pop the first incident happening was at the cusp of their debut it was the year 2014 as some stocks were plummeting due to jessica being kicked out of girl's generation chris and lujan leaving exo and we can't forget tan and beckham's relationship getting exposed it was rumored that red velvet's debut was pushed forward to distract from the blow the company was receiving 2015 rumors of tal and other exo members leaving the group arose subsequently red velvet releases automatic and ice cream cake 2016 tiffany from girls generation is under fire for her rising black scandal in super junior's kangen involved in the hit and run dui scandal thus red velvet releases russian roulette 2017 tiffany solian and suyung from girls generation leave sm and red velvet come back with peek-a-boo the seven-year curse was a fan theory that stemmed from any given k-pop group's contract length most idle contracts last from five to seven years this is when the idol is given the opportunity to either continue promoting with the current company and group or leave the so-called curse is explained that most groups cannot surpass seven years without losing a member lineup changes or just banning entirely my idol was an app that essentially let you virtually chat with your favorite celebrities or idols the only catch is that you really are just messaging back and forth with the bot the purpose of this app was to make fans feel closer to their baby celebrities but the way it was set up made fans feel that it was a little too close for comfort the app stirred up a lot of rumors for its questionable behavior and messages the ai system would learn and send back the more you interact with the app the bot would become smarter and learn how to react the way you want it by the teach function when the app first released fans from all sorts of fandoms were excited that such an app existed my idol gained a lot of traction through social media from fans speaking highly of the app and sharing their sweet text exchanges and overall positive experiences however suddenly all of that started to change users of the app started posting their eerie and questionable messages that they were receiving through the app what was once cute playful and sometimes flirtatious messages suddenly took a sinister turn some fans believe that these messages that were posted were fake while others that are more familiar with ai said the bot learns by the conversation you exchange and display that behavior horror concepts symbols lyrics envy rituals and more k-pop idols have been rumored to be involved in the secret society known as the illuminati for years people believe that there is a superior group of individuals trying to control the world for money and power it is believed that these companies are using these idols to brainwash their fans into investing more of their money into them just like how easily bts can sell products that they are seen using within seconds groups like bts blackpink 21 big bang and even more have all been named to be involved in the secret society many idols date there is no doubt about it the industry is full of talented and good-looking people so of course it's not a reach there is a theory that some idols that have been revealed are fake and a publicity stunt used to distract the public pretty similar to red velvet situation couples such as becky and tan kai and jenny and recently jimmy and g dragon are just the few who have been rumored to be used for media play and while we're on the topic of dating let's move on to the next tier continuing the topic of dating we have the infamous dispatch and dating rumors that link together dispatch is like the korean version of tmz for my non-american viewers a media outlet that reports on news and gossip this company is infamously known for exposing idol couples and invading the privacy of many korean celebrities since 2008 the media outlet has been known to reveal celebrity couples each new year it has become such an anticipated event that netizens go wild on social media trying to find any hints or make up rumors on who could be next there are a few fan theories that revolve around the media outlet the first being that these companies will contact dispatch to announce a couple to give their idol or group more exposure and get the public talking the second theory is dispatch and other media outlets hold on to these big stories to reveal at the perfect time which some believe that they are used as a distraction to cover up big government scandals this is a bit of a reach but the theory is out there the third theory is the media outlet extorts money from these popular entertainment companies to not expose their idols relationships or scandals now why would a dating rumor be considered so scandalous and harmful to the idol you may be asking since the early years of kpop these idols are marketed as objects of desires they outwardly display the image of someone relatable friendly and play off the boyfriend and girlfriend image for fanservice companies believe that if these idols date it will hurt the group's image by breaking the illusion that fans have made up and in turn hit em where it hurts their wallets they fear that the fans will stop supporting their groups by not buying their albums merch or attending events most pranks in kpop are harmless but there are a few that are distasteful and have put these idols in intense and trauma-inducing situations simon from dalmatians bombing from a pink and sunken from zetsukis have been victims of horrendous pranks for the sake of entertainment before his debut simon was on a show called humiliating flower boys also known as shame along the handsome men this show was hosted by epic heist mithrajin and the purpose of this show was to create insane and extreme situation to purposely humiliate handsome young men for well being handsome i made an entire video on the show and it's horrible pranks so check it out after this video simon a trainee at the time was told that he would be meeting with a professional musician he met up with these men who he thought were there to drive them to his meeting as soon as he entered the van he was immediately blindfolded and threatened he was in the van for two hours as they commuted to this destination at a remote location there in the building they tied him up with rope and tape and still kept a blindfold on him until a strange woman approached this lady was pretending to be a sassang of his she told him how much he loved him and touched him and made him profess his love to her he was clearly uncomfortable and scared in the situation and complied with all her demands the actress even forced him to kiss her and threatened him multiple times with dangerous objects and made him believe that she would kill him he pled and begged to call his mom before she did anything to him she then rolled him to the door and there the cameras and crew were revealed bombing from a pink was on a show called great inheritance she was sent to get a health check up for the show the so-called prank is set in motion once mommy sits in to receive her results there she is told that she only has three months to live naturally she starts to get emotional and tries to comprehend the situation mommy is told she works so much so she should use her remaining days to spend with her family the show asked her what she wanted to do with her remaining days and she chose to work at her mom's shop to help her out sun kun from zetski's was pulled into a cruel crow praying when he was made to believe he shot one of his group members by accident sunken was made to believe he was shooting bursia in his scene his member and best friend mind you jivan is supposed to be paragliding and sanguine is supposed to shoot him down only the prank was that the was really loaded and that he shot his membered from the sky it was an intense and emotional scene seeing sunghoon immediately dashed to jim inside once he realized something was wrong seeing his member unresponsive he is in panic and in tears he carries his member to the ambulance and is in desperation asking for the on-site medics to save jion's life moving down to the third tier here we will focus on fan culture and the community fan wars have been around since the very beginning of k-pop k-pop fandoms between first and second generation closely resembled mafia or gangs due to the extreme lengths they would go for their idols they would often travel in big groups and would assert their dominance on smaller fandoms it was even dangerous back then to claim a fandom in fear of your safety from rival fandoms some k-pop stands would even carry wooden paddles and pop other fandoms balloons at concerts one of the most infamous fan awards was between the fandoms of h.o.t and zetsky's before the wide access of the internet and distinct phantom merch like light sticks we have today the phantoms from first generation took these arguments and wars to the streets and wore clothing that matched the group's colors these two fandoms were known to get into hardcore physical fights with each other and were involved in the legendary rain fight this was so well known that it was even recreated in the kdrama reply 1997. even the members of the group witnessed the fight for his hand tony from h.o.t recalled the infamous fight in an interview tony was asked why didn't he stop the fight he said how could i stop it i was busy running away to safety myself judah got it a fan ran up to me and yelled oppa i won against three hot fans now that i look back on it i think she was bleeding i patted her on the back and told her good job now i would tell them not to do that but at the time i was proud of them [Music] in 2011 b1a4 and don chopit made their debut these two rookie groups performed together at one of the end of the year award shows fans from both sides were upset with the intimate performance and birth of fan were so toxic and insidious that it damaged both of the group's reputations just weeks after the performance dolce bisetti was accused of not giving a fangirl a handshake and autograph and claimed she said get back crazy and shake hands with country seti was upset to hear these rumors spreading and reached out to the netizens online to try to stop spreading false information and when doing so she calls out b1a4's fandom banas accusing them to be the source this obviously did not sit well with banas and they retaliated just shy of two weeks since the joint performance it was time for the iasac also known as the idol star athletic championship to commence the isic is where multiple groups from different companies participate in different athletic events rumors had spawned that city would be targeted at the event and be egged there were also plans to egg the group's car in 2019 cetera told her experience she claimed the hardest part of being in the industry was participating in isac because of what happened to her after isac the rumors kept spewing the rumors of the members of dad shabbos fandom darlenes were accused of assault and kidnapping members from b1a4 fandom banas these rumors and accusations were so intense that the police had to get involved after the investigation the police released a statement they concluded there weren't any disturbances or crimes committed during the idle star athletic championship there was nothing out of the ordinary that occurred nor there any reports of such behavior that shabbot's company at the time happy face entertainment also released a statement on the matter the hateful rumors have caused so much pain for dad shabbat members we hope the spread of these false rumors will end however this wasn't the end of tariff that shabbat after the statement was released banas hacked dog shabbat's fan site the site was hard to navigate with constant pop-ups and had pictures of b1a4 with the text why are you messing with us seti who is directly affected by the rumors paid with netizens to stop making false rumors i am ready to say how deeply upset i am at the horrible rumors being spread about me please stop spreading these lies they are not true please stop haunting celebrities with these harmful rumors bonus kept pushing after seti's plead and continued to engulf the group in endless rumors said he had to come out a second time to address the situation after this post the fan war slowly died down and is now a forgotten fandom word that most k-pop fans aren't even aware of today girls generation is arguably the biggest girl group of all time with their immense popularity official nation girl group title and achievement there will be a slew of haters in the sea of fans in the early 2000s girl generations phantom solons and super junior's fandom elves caught themselves in a heated fan war similar between darlene's and banas snsd member taeyeon performed a comedy skit with super junior's kangin tian was accused of being rude to him even though she was just following her script more intense rumors of someone's caring began to swirl in the k-pop community and later the rumors transformed that someone's receiving members of other fandoms in them there was also an incident where these flags that elves had for super junior were torn and they blamed it on so on any move they made any word they said girls generation were always in the wrong for some reason in 2008 at the legendary dream concert occurred the legendary black ocean [Applause] no one is certain who organized this or planned the black ocean but else were given the blame for it and were accused that this was payback for the torn flag for those of you who don't know what a black ocean is during a large scale event where multiple groups perform anti-fans of a group will turn off their light sticks and stand in silence to protest against a group there are even occasions where the audience will even turn their backs to the stage and yell other group's name to make matters worse at the dream concert many boy group fans turned off their light sticks the second girls generation went on stage the only light sticks you can see in the crowd were of salons the crowd even began yelling out wonder girl's name during the performance on a program that documented this incident showed footage of other fandoms that day preparing for the black ocean the anti-fans were excited to pull off such an event and explain in detail how it would go down tiara another big girl group were victims of multiple attempts of black oceans being engulfed in controversies of bullying allegations towards a former member at the time tyra had fallen from their ranks of being a beloved girl group to branded as bullies netizens claimed that tyra were bullying their former member huayung and they were the reason she was kicked out of the group while performing at the 2012 k-pop nature plus concert tiara were performing for the first time since the bullying accusations occurred the audience turned off their light sticks in protest and started shouting out hwang's name [Music] the remaining fandom in the audience we're in a fan chat battle with the anti-fans trying to do the proper fan chat to cancel out the haters anti fans tried once again to do another black ocean in 2013 at the sps guy dejung and at the 2013 hollywood dream concert at the dream concert the group received what they call a 10 minute this is pretty much the same thing as a black ocean the audience turned off their light stick once again but only this time they also turned their backs to the stage and stood in silence soyan a former member of tr spoke about this particular performance on miss back a documentary and competition show she revealed that tiara were one of the first groups to receive a black ocean and how painful it was for her and her members [Music] produce 101 was a survival show that produced groups such as ioi 101 eyes one and x1 the survival show is a competition show where trainees and idols compete against each other to win a spot in the show's vinyl lineup the contestants would showcase their charisma singing wrapping and dancing abilities to win the audience's votes to propel them into the next round on produce 101 the show prided itself on not having a panel of judges but instead the final lineup would be decided by the votes of viewers allegations of voting manipulation followed shortly after the last episode of produce x-101 aired and it released the final rankings online and candidates noticed an unusual repetition of votes and irregularities that led them to investigate further they discovered that every contestant's final vote count is a multiple of 7494.442 in a voting pool as large as produce 101 each individual's final vote count should mathematically vary from one contestant to the next the possibility of all 20 finalists sharing a common denominator is near to impossible on july 31st the cyber crime investigation team breeded the headquarters of cj e m the team retrieved an audio recording inside a phone belonging to one of the production staff members amongst other pieces of evidence according to the reports the recordings allegedly contained talks that directly spoke to rigged votes november 18 2020 producer anjoon young and kinyon were charged with fraud anjon young was sentenced to two years in prison with a fine of 37 million won while kim youngbaum was sentenced to one year and eight months the corporate bill that producer ann had already decided on the final lineup two days prior to the finale the court also revealed the names of the trainees who fell victim to the ranking manipulation [Music] ichiha is a former member of one of the first generation co-ed groups sharp that was active during the 90s to the early 2000s the singer has recounted over the years on her terrible and heartbreaking experiences she suffered under the hands of her former member soji young the group was created for jiang her family was very wealthy and influential in the music industry at the time allegedly jing only wanted her friends to be a part of the group but ej hey made it to the final lineup for her talented vocals she has praised vogel skills feel jiong's jealousy she asked the company to kick out jihae but they refused because the group was already popular at the time and already established because she couldn't kick her out this led to the torment of the idol for the next 11 years yes you heard me right 11 years soji young's mission was to make ki jihei's life a living hell the other members were aware of the bullying even member jiang seok kyun admitted to asking jihae to endure the bullying for the sake of the group there were accounts of name calling being outcasted from the group to hair pulling and even physical fights in 2002 the group was set to perform on a music show in the elevator the girls continued the feud jiyong began to talk to jihae dismissing honorifics to try to trigger the singer and cursing at her this became the catapult that pushed jihad to attack first due to the anger and disrespect she felt these did not just happen between the two young females allegedly jung's boyfriend at the time reportedly slapped jihad during an argument and threatened the young singer even chiang's mom got herself involved in a separate occasion the company shortly announced the group disbandment and held a press conference the press conference was to quote clear up the situation allegedly jing tried to pay off the manager july but he did not take the money and decided to air out all of jieng's dirty laundry and make it known that she was a bull over a decade later one of the members jung seukyan gathered all the members together to reconcile allegedly all was settled between the members after this meeting april is a girl group that has recently found themselves to be the focus of k-pop's recent bullying scandal in late february of 2021 hyundai's brother made a post online alleging the girl group bullied his sister out of the group this caused her such trauma that she developed a panic disorder and attempted suicide now these allegations came to light during the 2021 bullying storm where countless idols and actors were being accused of bullying and misconduct many allegations were being denied during this time and netizens weren't sure what to think of april's case there were allegations of teasing tripping stepping on feet and outcasting hyunju according to the post all the members participated in these actions besides two of the recent members allegedly the manager also knew what was happening behind the scenes but she looked past it because she was allegedly dating one of the april members after months of hiatus dsp media released a statement stating hyundai wanted to leave april to pursue an acting career the idol later went on to join a survival show called the unit in her interview she stated she left april due to a respiratory issue this story was obviously very different from what the media reported back when the idol first left which left netizens raising an eyebrow but if you watch any of my previous videos company statements are often laced with lies and try to save phase and in some cases are known to create fake backstories for their idols and completely design their persona so could this be the same thing that happened to hindu the company that manages both april and hyundu denied all the allegations in their initial statement the company subsequently released a second statement regarding each allegation they denied some allegations while trying to clear up others towards the end of the statement dsp media said they would be taking legal action against anyone spreading false rumors we've talked about bullying disrespect and some mistreatment within k-pop group but what happens when an idol is caught disrespecting their own fans or idols in the industry e huayong is a former sm trainee that participated on the survival show called voice 24 an audio clip leaked online where huayung degraded his fans which caused an uproar of heart fans in the clip he said i like being called oppa not when i hear it from fans though i [ __ ] hate that yeah [ __ ] it's so annoying when we do the high touch you know the high touch like when you hold hand and greet fans after the concert is over every day i go through 700 to 800 people and i feel like i'm going to puke their breath smell like clearly there was no way to come back from this and no way the company could cover it up he was removed from the show and kicked out of the group and cg e m released a statement according to the statement they gave him a chance to redeem himself since he was unable to they permanently expelled him from voice 24. first generation idol sunghoon from zetsuki's has found himself in the middle of several controversies in the late years of his career he's been accused of embezzling fan donations sued by his fans because of it accused of selling gifts fans gave him accused of shoving and cursing a high school student allegedly holding beauty pageants with his fans to find his ideal type and last but not least caught talking badly about his junior idols and specifically b2b just like bm from card oneself some of you would be surprised your stan favorite stand bias might not be who you think they are of course not not trying to crush your dreams but just being real concerts fan meets and special events are all appropriate places where you have the opportunity to see and possibly be given the chance to meet your favorite idols what happens if you can't make it to one of these events for any reason or you simply cannot fathom any other person meaning or being with your idol besides you as kpop has been growing so is the community and bing culture but two groups that have always lurked in the shadows and denounced in the community were sassangs and anti-fans these two groups are known to be on the dark and obsessive side of the community the most infamous sasling to exist was kim yoshin also went by goddess kim online and dubbed the idol killer by the media and netizens her story has been retold time and time again through different media outlets and fan accounts that her story and name is kind of like an urban legend in the kpop community and has slowly lost the real story and information through its retellings she was known to cause chaos and terror online by retelling her horrendous actions toward the idols and is still fearing multiple fandoms her alleged actions are as listed adding super glue to orange juice and giving it to tvxq's union home spiking b.a.p kim chance coffee with constipation medicine serving b1a4s bottled hydrochloric acid and giving benzene to infinitel in the unhealth situation kimyoshin claimed the crime as her own but in fact it was not her the horrendous act was done by an anti-fan who broke into the broadcasting station she directly handed him an orange juice with a note to claim her hatred toward the idol unfortunately yunho did not see the note before consuming the poisonous orange juice and thought nothing of it because he thought she was a staff member he began to vomit and was sent to the er the anti-fan turned herself in the next day when she saw reports in the news announcing they were searching for the culprit and checking cctv she claimed that she never expected you know to drink the orange juice because she left the note next to it yunho ended up not pressing charges on the anti-fan due to her age and decided to forgive her however this did leave trauma for the idol and made him develop a panic disorder he was traumatized by the incident and pushed himself to directly face it by forcing himself to drink 10 bottles of orange juice a day to get over his fear the second account kim yoshin took credit was bap tim john's coffee with constipation medicine oil and benzene the rumor spiraled when allegedly yoshin told friend a and friend a told friend b who then posted it on a korean forum netizens claimed that the alleged incident happened during eap's war era while performing on music bank himchan seemed to be sweating and struggling through this specific performance the two other accounts were rumors and never happen on her blog she claimed that her parents passed away in 2007 due to a car accident caused by sussings who were following the boy group tvxq after their concert she declared that ever since then she hated idols and bands and had decided to take revenge on beloved idols an investigation journalism program covered this mysterious individual to find her true identity the infamous goddess kim made a blog post admitting her wrongs the young student created this villainous origin story because she accidentally read an anti-fan blog and was curious and became one herself i am an ordinary junior high student i accidentally read the exo anti-articles and became curious so i started creating a blog and leaving anti-messages i was excited because anti-fans encouraged me to do more i can't actually buy hydrochloric acid i will live like a human in the future netizens were believed that this was all just a hoax and these idols were never in danger but it didn't mean that they were not angered many people were affected by these rumors and created unnecessary terror within the community in this ongoing case nang from twice has been the target of this german sasang there are reports and news articles claiming that this saucing named josh is a fan of twice or soley of nayan but this is not the case josh himself does not consider himself a fan at all and has pointed it out several times he claimed that he accidentally came across one of her photos in 2016 and in his words fell in love for years this man obsessed over her and made multiple attempts to try to reach her online in 2019 he decided to switch up his strategy and began to post videos on youtube in his first video he made a video asking fans to get his video to nion because he needed to get in contact with her what made the video so much eerier he found the exact spot where nine filmed the v live two years prior he further explained that he visited about a hundred shops in the area asking the employees if nayan ever visited those establishments he then distributed notes to these employees to give to the item he was able to acquire private information regarding her family and her schedule that nine was going to be in japan soon he was able to book the same flight as the group from japan to korea a picture on twice's instagram was posted on their official account it read please go home please stop i'm begging you this post caused concern in the fandom and they were able to connect it to josh the post was then quickly deleted in his youtube video he explained his side of the story he said that one of the managers took the photo and posted it on the girl's behalf he claimed he got up on the plane to give a letter to nyan and was immediately intercepted by her managers and flight staff [ __ ] released a statement on the matter that 9 was under police protection and ended it saying that they would be taking legal action josh did end up receiving a restraining order from jyp but he persisted to make videos claiming that she wanted to see him because the restraining order was made by jyp and not not in herself their alleged text conversations leaked that he claimed he would kill nyan if she secretly dated behind his back he has become so consumed by his obsession and continues to make plans to go back to see her in korea especially in his most recent post being uploaded march 3rd 2021 other infamous lasting accounts were 2pm tekkyon who received a note written in menstrual blood saying you cannot live without meme another account where female sustains shaved off all their hair dressed in male clothing and entered the men's restroom trying to take pictures of exo in the bathroom multiple idols have been bombarded at airports being grabbed throwing things at them having their hair pulled in some cases similar to josh bored the same plane as them idle social media accounts have also been hacked their private information like phone numbers and addresses been illegally obtained and so much more there are even cases of alleged trainees idols celebrities and managers being sassangs that have have worked all the way up to get closer to these idols is a first generation solo singer who gained popularity in the 90s iphone was well versed in the entertainment industry she was an actress radio dj and mc for many programs in 2020 ebon was a guest on kim sumi's did you eat during the program she revealed the shocking details of her kidnapping in the 90s after a long exhausting day of filming she was ready to head back home her manager left her unattended to heat up the car because there was only 20 minutes left of filming as she headed down the stairs she blacked out the next morning she woke up in an unfamiliar room as she collected herself she heard two unknown male voices in the distance the next day when i opened my eyes i realized i wasn't in my room i heard someone from the outside room ask why did you bring her here and cause this mess then i realized i had been kidnapped and that he may not want to harm me i went outside the room and asked why they had kidnapped me the kidnapper told me that his brother was a huge fan so he went overboard for him realizing he was a fan i asked him to show me around their neighborhood they agreed and proceeded to show her around and even had a meal together the next day they drove her back home she was given a sports car as a proposal gift after the kidnapping but she declined several times and ended it there sustains are bold with their behavior trying to get idols to remember them by any means necessary in 2011 at the angel price music festival girl's generation were on stage performing when a strange man approached stage and dragged tan in the middle of the performance remember sunny noticed han's hand was no longer on her shoulder and turned around in a split second she was able to analyze the situation and followed the pair as soon as the song was over her other members rushed to her side trying to comprehend what just happened the mysterious man identity was later confirmed to be an ordinary university student the event organizer issued an official apology and gave the buyers a full refund in tier 5 is mostly focusing on the heavy mistreatment idols and trainees are forced to undergo gungyo jin is a former member of bonus baby that debuted in 2017 under model entertainment yujin was 15 when she began training under the company she explained that being an idol was harder than she expected she had damaged her vocal cords because she had to change the way she sang to fit the group's image and dancing didn't come to her easily the girls got roughly 2-3 hours of sleep at night if they were lucky they would be scared to even take a nap the girls were practicing for long hours a day that they would be unable to leave the building unless they completed all their daily mission they have to film themselves dancing and they could not leave until all the members were synchronized and there were days when practice would bleed all the way up until the next day until 7 am on the topic of weight the company told the girls not to weigh more than 46 kilograms aka 101 pounds and would weigh the girls almost every day weighing them as soon as they arrived and towards the end of the day there were days where they even had to step on the scale 10 times a day desperate to fit the image her company wanted she would live off a packet of soy milk taking one or two sips a day after exerting her body from training it got to the point where the company began restricting the girls from even seeing their families outside of the company in a way to control their appetite eugen left the company in 2018 and her group has been on hiatus ever since she is currently attending a music academy and has changed her passion to becoming a music teacher instead the east light were a six member boy group under media line entertainment they debuted in 2016. in 2018 the public would become aware of the the boys were suffering behind the scenes the media received a leak that members were being able both physically and verbally by the producer and ceo the leader at the time isak chol held a press conference and shared the terrible heart chattering experience he along his band members suffered the then 18 year old stated the started at the age of 13 or 14. as the leader of the east light and as one of the kpop artists who lead the korean culture i could no longer tolerate the pain that our members were going through we decided to hold a press conference in hopes of eliminating childhood and violation of human rights in the k-pop industry from 2015 to 2017 the producer repeatedly made us get on the floor as he hit our butt with baseball bats and iron bars in the practice room or in the recording studio he even threatened to kill us if we ever told our parents my brother was locked in the recording studio and the producer hit his head thighs arms and butt so many times his head had wounds and bruises he's been traumatized after all these threats and violence and he is currently getting psychotherapy treatment his lawyer then spoke on their behalf and said the parents were unaware of the abuse up until they became aware of one incident the company promised the parents that they would never do it again iso cho's younger brother hyun who was also part of the group went to the company and ceo and told him about the events they were receiving from the producer the company responded back by kicking him out of the group and company their parents were confused when they found out he was kicked out and then pled with the boys to tell him everything that went on behind the scenes netizens and the media then found previous clips that alluded to the in a video on the youtube page that is still up mind you there is a clip where three of the members are in frame and one of the members can be heard off screen repeatedly saying it was a mistake and you could hear they were being hit with something the member then goes to turn the camera towards the memory manager but the clip gets cut to a black screen that says this video was deleted at the request of the agency media line entertainment issued an apology in response media line went on to terminate the remaining members contracts and the ceo and producer resigned from the company the brother said that they would be proceeding with filing a lingle complaint and hope to end child within k-pop the ceo was sentenced to eight months with two years of probation for aiding in a bathing suit and the former producer was sentenced to one year and four months in 2019 15 year old cheyenne a member of girl group busters was a host of a children's show called toktok bonihani on a recording for the show a fan cam of cheon caught the moment of chan being punched by a cast member in the video posted you could see the young singer tug at the comedian to try and grab his attention he angrily turned around and looked to be swinging his arm unfortunately the camera was obscured being covered by a second castmate but you could still hear the alleged impact of the punch followed by chan rubbing her arm and trying to laugh it off while the comedian still looked angered once he turned around [Music] this clip was shared all over social media and went viral due to the gravity of the situation following the incident her company addressed the issue in a statement according to the statement they confirmed with chan that she was never hit and it was a joke that caused misunderstanding this is in regards to the problematic live video of toktok bonihani after checking with chan she confirmed it was a joke there is a misunderstanding because the whole situation wasn't shown she was very taken aback by the situation chan appeared in the program for a long time and the incident occurred because she was close to the cast this joke crossed the line however the agency recognizes the severity of the actions and received a promise from the program that this will never happen again the same day the comedian aggressively tries to protest his innocence former members of b.a.p crayon pop stellar and exo are just few of who have spoken on the unfair contracts they've signed and how the company would hold it over their heads to prevent them from speaking out and complying with their demands crayon pops way and b.a.p jungkook have discussed that these contracts greatly benefit the companies while leaving scraps for the idols it is common practice for idols to profit 30 to 40 percent while the company pockets the remaining 60 to 70 percent there are also cases where these idols have to use their own income to pay off housing accommodations because most of these companies won't provide it or split the cost 50 50 and we cannot forget the debt they must repay before they can even begin to earn an income most idols start off with the debt to the company the company pays thousands of dollars to train style plastic surgery and produce music for these idols so the first few years after debut the idols do not receive a penny there are even some contracts that do not allow the trainees to even have a part-time job so they can slowly focus on training or activities so how do these idols and trainees survive if they aren't earning money and can't have a part-time job some idols are lucky enough to where their parents can support them financially while others must take out loans in waste case she explained that her first payment she received went into paying back off her loans kayong a former member of stellar claimed she made less than ten thousand us dollars for the seven years she worked as a member of stellar prince mock a former member of jjcc claims in an interview that he made an estimate of one to two dollars a day as an idol the members of bap reportedly made 17 000 usd after three years of activities mare a former member and black also touched on the subject of income on his youtube channel he explained that the contract and income vary from member to member so he can only speak on his personal earnings being from a rather popular boy group at the time we are able to see the perspective of what a popular boy group member estimated income might look like in the beginning he made roughly 12 000 usd when they began to get more popular the group did more events and variety shows and they became super busy with this in mind he figured he would make far more income turns out the contracting sign stated that the company takes all the money from those type of events and he would not be receiving any earnings from those activities with mbx album y he made roughly 42 000 usd becoming an idol is a high-risk career move these young individuals burn their youth exerting their bodies for a 1 chance of success they are constantly training and do not have time to sleep most of these trainees start from the ages of pre-teens and in some cases even younger some of these kids even drop out of school to focus on training and idle life in case your group is lucky enough to even pass its first year the longevity of a k-pop group is really only five to seven years before disbanding if you do not make it in the industry these idols have to fend for themselves and try to fit in the society that they are unfamiliar with and struggle finding jobs because of the lack of experience idols such as exid's hardin and stellar skaing work part-time jobs at a cafe and restaurant after leaving the industry or taking time off these idols are forced to work through terrible health conditions disregarding doctor's notes there are several accounts of idols fainting on stage due to numerous reasons such as extreme dieting exhaustion injuries and so much more there are so many thing camps of this happening on stage that there are even compilation videos you can find online during bap's lawsuit revelations were made the boy group had to perform under extreme health conditions bap claimed that they were working under a slave contract if one of the members missed any activity for any reason health concern or other they were expected to make up for the loss schedule as soon as possible even if they were injured the members further explained that the company would disregard their doctor's orders and threaten the members that they would take legal action if they did not participate in activities there were several occasions where the members are even seen pushing through exhaustion injuries and sickness on stage when the members were injured all the medical expenses were covered by the parents and not the company in 2020 reports of a staff member slapping a member of girl group fanatics off-camera was making rounds over social media four of the members were doing a v-live on camera they were wearing short skirts with the camera angle in a vulnerable position someone off camera believed to be a member handed the on-camera members hoodies and jackets so they could cover up their legs and feel a little bit more comfortable in the background you can hear a male staff member approach the unknown female and say what are you doing covering their legs up we're trying to show them why are you covering it are you stupid followed by a slap there's a long pause that happens and two of the members immediately removed the jacket after lapses [Music] in the video two of the members are present off camera and it is shown that one of the members is wearing the same cardigan that the unknown female was wearing it is believed that the person who handed the girls their jackets off camera was member sika and not a female staff member the agency issued a statement after the matter in 2012 shocking news of open world entertainment's 51 year old ceo tong sekul and two unidentified male idols under the company were arrested under disturbing and despicable allegations of female trainees in the company tang was known to be a former gang boss and nightclub owner there were accounts dating back all the way to 2010 of the assaults and harassment these female trainees were suffering investigators interviewed dozens of female trainees two of them being minors from the company they concluded that these took place in the rehearsal room in the basement the female trainees would be served bike alcoholic drinks and bs the ceo even coerced male members to participate in the some b minors themselves and directed them via text on what to do and watch the cctv footage from his office chung reportedly denied the allegations and called them exaggerated only for him to confess to these accounts later on former after school member yusuyang has opened up about several sexual harassment experiences she encountered while being active in the industry the first being by the hands of her former ceo the singer allegedly went to dinner with the ceo on the occasion of her signing with the label when it was time to leave the ceo offered to take her home he hailed him a taxi and held her hand as soon as they got in when she got out after the ride he followed after her he continued to hold her hand and profess his love to her and told her that he would not let go of her hand until she accepted his feelings she denied them and asked for their contract to be terminated a second encounter was by her acting teacher there was an acting teacher who told us to tuck our clothes into a shape of underwear and stand beside the male students with skin touching when she reviews the acting teacher angrily replied everyone else is doing it so why can't you she continued to refuse and she was told to leave the class she claimed the acting teacher is still very active in the industry to this day yellow b was a girl group that debuted in 2017 and the lineup entirely changed in 2019 in 2020 the company ad entertainment released a statement regarding the disbandment of the group the company stated they were disbanding the group because of one of the members of the promiscuous lifestyle in her private life fans of the group were in complete disbelief to the way the company announced the disbandment publicly shaming one of their idols and putting the blame on her one of the members adi took to instagram to refute the company's statement in her long instagram post she detailed just a few examples of her and her members were forced to undergo in her pose she detailed of some and set out from the managers and agency staff there's one incident where a former manager said unbelievable things like i'll give you a baby so let's go to a motel and daddy's seeking you out because he knows you on a different occasion the members were asked to serve alcohol to people whom they said were investors furthermore they were made to pay for their own costumes shoes and video editing themselves in another incident they were left at the airport to buy plane tickets for themselves and go to an event in japan all by themselves their company released a statement addressing each issue brought up by audi there have been several accounts from idols who have spoken on the topic of sponsorships in the industry these types of quote sponsorships are when both the individuals would either contact the company or idol and offer them money gifts and help secure roles and opportunities for special favors these sort of situations commonly happen in smaller companies usually the staff or ceo will tell these young individuals that if a sponsor asks for them they must do it former tahiti member jisoo revealed in 2016 through instagram that she had been approached by this person who claimed to be a broker for sponsorship offers he said he had multiple clients willing to pay he told her that he had a client that was a big fan of her and willing to pay her 500 to 2500 usd to meet up with her when she didn't respond he messaged her back and upped the price to 1700 to 2500 usd he promised she only had to meet with the client once and he would take her shopping and out to eat his final offer was set at 3 300. she finally had enough with the constant messages and she posted them online and threatened to take legal action her agency took legal action but the case ended shortly after the police found out the ip address from the broker was from overseas the police announced that they were unable to receive more information and were unable to track the culprit on an episode of pd note a former trainee revealed her experiences with sponsorships we thought they were there to see the department head or the ceo but they were there to pick amongst the trainees in person they said if i meet with them twice a month they would give me five million won approximately four thousand four hundred a separate account i remember the day a week before a music video shoot our company ceo called the members into a regular bar even though we had underage members in the group three including me the owner didn't bother checking our ids but instead directed us to the room our ceo and four other men who we never saw before were sitting the ceo introduced the math people who greatly helped us to debut so we thanked them without any suspicion but all of a sudden one of the men pointed at one of our members and told her to pour his drink saying the alcohol tasted better when it poured by a woman thinking back on it now it was weird but all we could think about at the time was that we were a team getting ready to debut and everything could fall apart if something went wrong the program also covered a male trainee's experience as for me an agency staff called me and said it's tough being a trainee right come out for a minute let's go out and eat while we were eating a new person will join us at the table rich married women usually sponsor us they enjoy going to host bars at first she gave me an allowance she gave me maybe 71 usd then 89 then 177 and so on then she said i've contemplated about this a lot but i'll send you some money and she sent me 886 usd at first i was shocked i kept asking am i allowed to take it what should i do am i really allowed to accept it but then she assured me just take it since i'm offering it it's okay you have a lot to spend it on after four months she sent me a message that read i'm lonely these days can you come over i responded but you have a husband but then she said that her husband is on a work trip and that he won't be coming home today they usually want skinship or they ask for us to stay the night i told her i don't think this is right i know i accepted money from you but this is wrong i'm going to succeed and pay all of it back to you in the future so please stop contacting me from now on then she printed out all the receipts of our encounters and said i did this much for you and now you're betraying me i think it's crazy too but at the time you don't know that donald trump at steady also touched on the topic of sponsorships that some of these companies usually play a huge part in these deals and often take a cut of the money these offers greatly affect rookie idols and trainees there are cases where these young individuals who have dreams of becoming idols get tossed out if they do or don't comply it's almost like a lose-lose situation if you do accept the offer people will eventually find out if you don't do it your idle career is threatened before it even started because of how powerful these sponsors are kpop mainly caters to a young audience but it doesn't mean that there is an age limit to liking the music or even being a fan of these groups but there is a fine line in k-pop where we do find some bad apples in the bunch there are some companies that even cater to these certain niche demographics with bad intentions thus brings us to the topic of uncle fans in k-pop and uncle fan is a term coined for older male fans usually from the ages 30 and up the term uncle fan has negative connotations associated due to the age gap between the fans and idols let's make it clear not all uncle fans are bad there are most who love the music and support these idols with no romantic feelings attached but there are some that have dark desires just like how i explained earlier of these older men and women in power taking advantage of these young idols groups such as girls generation g friend twice lovelies crayon pop and singer iu are all female acts popular amongst uncle fans in 2017 there was a trend where female idols were being gifted baby pacifiers during bandmates by uncle fans yes you heard me right pacifiers there was a division amongst fans upset with these sort of gifts most felt that these pacifiers held darker intentions than just making these idols look cute they believed that these uncle fans were forcing these idols to live out their fetishes and fantasies the stereotype of uncle fans is that they like bright innocent schoolgirl concepts uncle fans are not as commonly heard nowadays and some believe it's due to the concept shift in k-pop where most girl groups have switched to a girl crush mature and dark and edgy concept in recent years there are new groups debuting each year and it looks like these idols are debuting younger and younger this makes kpop fans and netizens fear for these young individuals due to the terrible dark stories previous idols and trainees have built on the industry and what we've witnessed first hand taking account why young from ize one one young and her label and group me yoonjin participated on the survival show produced 101 these two girls were some of the youngest to participate on the program and even got to debut in the final lineup juan young was 13 at the beginning of the show and she was among some of the popular contestants winning herself first place towards the end one performance she did on the show didn't sit right with netizens and it was her performance to ariana grande's side to side stage plus her dance move into tires and suit and uproar in the community and caused huge controversy recently a new girl group debuted under the name cookie where the members are ages 12 to the announcement of their debut caused many netizens to raise an eyebrow due to the ages of these young girls netizens were naturally against the group's debut protesting the members should enjoy their childhood adult ceremony also known as the coming of age ceremony is a song by pak ji yoon that came out in the year 2000 the song was her biggest hit and at the age of 18 she became one of the pioneers of k-pop sexy concept the song and the culture behind the song is quite controversial due to the nature of the lyrics the lyrics tell the story of a young girl who has just become of legal age and is ready to be deflowered by an older man that has been waiting for her to become of age shockingly enough this song became a popular hit and has been covered by countless female idols and even male idols it is almost like a tradition for these idols to perform the song as soon as they turn 18 in front of their fans and is still going on today the school of performing arts better known as sopa is a prestigious performing arts high school and known for having many famous idol alums the school was under controversy when the students of the graduating class posted a performance video that revealed the corruption in school and the degradation of their students the students claimed the school forced them to participate in out-of-school events such as private parties they were also coerced into dancing with each other involving skinship the students were told the night before that they would be performing at an event which forced them to practice all night if the students refused to participate in these events the school staff would wrongfully punish these students by discriminating or disadvantaging them there were also claims that were made that they had to pay for their own expenses for these events while the school was banking tenfold on these performances especially during one occasion where the students performed in japan and had to pay for their own flight tickets when the school received 10 000 usd for this performance the students were not informed about these purposes behind these events or the earnings when any of the kids would try to speak out against the unjust happening behind the scenes the school would threaten to take legal action against them subsequently more issues were brought to light involving the students and faculty allegedly the principal and his wife the head of administration would have the students perform at his private parties they would also take female students to a military base to perform with revealing clothing and in some cases allegedly the soldiers would try to touch their legs after the performance they were asked to hug and hold hands with these soldiers allegedly the principal and his family also illegally renovated an entire floor on the school to use up their personal home following the video's virality the police began their investigation and the principal stepped down from his position very recently the k-pop community and especially once's twice's fandom have been in the middle of a mass hysteria when reports of an alleged chat room run by a user under the alias american guy used this chat room called the slave room to spread malicious rumors against the group allegedly american guy is a fan of a rival girl group of twice the purpose of these chat rooms was so he could take advantage of the haters of his favorite groups and fearlessly claim that he created a system that enslaved these haters the users reportedly would find these hate comments under his favorite group videos or posts and would blackmail these individuals leaving these comments into joining the slave room the members in the chat room some being minors as young as elementary school age were monitored 24 7 and forced to write malicious comments under groups american guy didn't like and leave positive comments under groups american guy did like there are also smaller chat rooms american guy would monitor divided 10 to 12 members per room and reports claim that there was a total of 80 members in the group if these members do enough they would be promoted or be freed american guy took credit for multiple rumors and scandals against twice not only twice were victims of these alleged malicious attacks online groups such as mamamoo oh my girl promise 9 and all active groups under jyp label were also attacked he believed that he has done nothing wrong by creating these rooms and believe he will not receive any legal repercussions the allegations and reports went viral and the kpop community banded together to trim the hashtag protect twice the investigation is currently in motion and there are no current updates as of yet the burning sun scandal shocked the masses the scandal involved spy cams sexual bribery process and distribution this became an even bigger scandal due to the celebrities tied to the crimes the scandal was brought to light when a massive text were leaked from a chat room dating back all the way to 2015 that incriminated several men in high positions according to the reports the texts were found on jung joon young's phone and there were several chat rooms that had a total of 23 members with each individual's involvement varying the nature of these chats included subjects of objectifying women sharing secretly filmed videos and others of joining and assaulting women just about every individual's case are closed besides former member big bang singers sunggri many articles were made claiming sunday's involvement was much greater than it actually was and he was used as one of the main focuses in the case the singer was originally accused of providing services embezzlement sharing unconsented photos illegal currency transactions and more towards the end of march 2021 news broke that several witnesses claimed the police fabricated their statements and signed was not connected to their case the singer's trial is currently going on and will continue this month as we speak the gravity of this video was very extreme and i appreciate you for making it to the end unfortunately we cannot cover as many issues and stories that line the depths of the dark industry in one video i want to quickly apologize for uploading this video late actually really late just because it took me three weeks to compile and add everything what are your thoughts on the iceberg chart and any topic that i covered in this video leave all your thoughts in the comments down below and as always thank you for watching and enjoy your [Music] stay you

Channel: Midnight Theories

Views: 183,794

Rating: 4.9647722 out of 5

Keywords: kpop, k-pop, midnight theories, kpop theories, kpop news, 7 year curse, black ocean, mydol, dispatch, kpop dating, red velvet, nct, fan wars, produce 101, produce 48, kpop survival show, sasaengs, Sechkies, kim yeoshin, sopa, burning sun, yellow bee, lee bon, ebon, exo, bts, black pink, april, aoa, boys24, OPEN WORLD ENTERTAINMENT, B.AP, CRAYON POP, STELLAR, THE EASTLIGHT, Bonus Baby, dalshabet, b1a4

Id: BE1URHQGwb0

Length: 62min 16sec (3736 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 03 2021