and preferred that the artist looked like the fan,pandora cyber monday.” and details how Jay Z’s monetary success led to questions about his authenticity,nautilus 5711.
  with Skrillex and generally dominated the K-Pop landscape in their own right. a few artists are lucky enough to have all the elements fall into place at exactly the right time,5270 patek philippe,leadingtheir careers to develop to the point when they graduate to full-blown “idol” status If all this sounds like some bizarre gladiatorial system of aspiring patronage and favor that’s because that’s precisely what it is – only with less lions The Chart System is Confusing and Inconsistent
Speaking of success what better way to gauge your debut than by your chart position The UK has the Top 40 the US has the Billboard 100 and until 2010 South Korea had nothing of the sort
The Gaon Music Chart is the official chart system and it takes into account album sales digital sales streaming background music ringtone sales and karaoke sales to rank the 100 most popular songs of the week It’s been running for five years and is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism This all seems very neat and official so you might be wondering where the problem lies
The thing is South Korea’s main method of music consumption has been the same since the ’80s: television which is something the Gaon chart doesn’t consider in great depth To remedy this there are weekly music shows on various television stations each one complete with its own chart and its own winner The problem is there are so many of them – *deep breath* M Countdown The Music Trend Music Bank Music Core Pops in Seoul Simply K-Pop Music on Top The Show and Show Champion – that they all offer their own approximation of the chart all with slightly different criteria
Show Champion for instance is a completely live show performed in front of thousands of fans Trophies are awarded at the end of the show for the first place artists and they decide first place based on the following criteria: 50% Digital Sales 15% Online Voting 20% Physical Sales and 15% Ranking from a revolving cast of Professionals & Expert Judges
Music Bank a similar show on the KBS channel ranks its charts with slightly different percentage portions but also takes into account how many times the song/video has been played on KBS itself Which seems bizarre asit gives KBS the power to boost its own winners
Other shows take into account the audience vote of whoever happens to be attending on that particular day and so on and so forth until every variable under the sun is accounted for by some TV show or other While manyof the first place winners end upbeing the same across the board the whole thing is so unnecessarily complicated that it’s never possible to label something an official no1 single And unlike boxing there’s sadly no option for artists to fight it out for the “undisputed” title of the week There’s a High Cost to Being a K-Pop Idol
Image is everything for an idol The whole point of the idolsystem is to elevate these talented young people to a position so immaculate and untouchable that it becomes unreal They are supposed to be Perfect with a capital “P” although perfection is of course a subjective and intangible fallacy
Although the idea of celebrities going on strange and intense diets or getting cosmetic surgery seems familiar to us in the West in the Korean Academies it’s not merely familiar – it’s outright expected Men have their dance training choreographed specifically to sculpt their bodies in a certain way and women are weighed weekly to keep them within “acceptable” parameters Idols are forcefully encouraged to undergo cosmetic surgeries (sometimes given a new “look” for every album) and statistically South Korea is the plastic surgery capital of the world Given that“Which entertainer do you most want to resemble” is one of the most common questions asked in the consulting room it’s no wonder entertainers keep having to change their look After all if everyone looks likeyou how can you be Perfect
Beyond the cosmetic the image of a “pure lifestyle” is also encouraged Contracts permit only a conservative lifestyle and demeanor; girls are trained to be both innocent and seductive and every female idol has to toe a fineline between “saint” and “public sex symbol” Many artists are all but banned from having independent relationships and inter-band relationships (especially ones involving bands on separate labels) are treated more like large-scale corporatemergers than affairs of the heart
Contracts themselves can also tie up idolsfor anywhere between seven and 13 years (not including the several years of training and auditions required beforeh