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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of My Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.

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Speaker 1: My name is Matt, it's you. My name is not

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Speaker 1: They called me Ben. We are joined as always with

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Speaker 1: our super producer Paul Mission Controlled deconds. Most importantly, you

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Speaker 1: are you, You are here, and that makes this stuff

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Speaker 1: they don't want you to know. Gentlemen, I propose that

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Speaker 1: we skip the Twitter roll call for now. I just

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Speaker 1: want to check in with you all. How's it going

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Speaker 1: at our respective bunkers. It's going okay. I you know,

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Speaker 1: family time has been great. UM. I have to say

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Speaker 1: we're we're reaching the point now in this saga, the

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Speaker 1: situation where more and more of us, at least me personally,

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Speaker 1: are knowing people like a direct Uh really, I have

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Speaker 1: a direct relationship with several people who now have or

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Speaker 1: believed to have come down with COVID nineteen and UM,

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Speaker 1: I would say, while a lot of this downtime being

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Speaker 1: at the house has been pretty great to get things done,

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Speaker 1: to be a family and everything, it feels like it's

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Speaker 1: closing in a little more at this point. Um, that's

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Speaker 1: just maybe a personal feeling, but that's where I'm at.

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Speaker 1: Quick question, Have the people that you suspect to have

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Speaker 1: contracted the coronavirus have they been able to obtain tests?

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Speaker 1: Because those things are pretty much unicorns in this country,

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Speaker 1: not a single one, zero out of six. That's a shame.

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Speaker 1: I wish them as speedy recovery man. Yeah. The good

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Speaker 1: thing is that of all the people I know, um,

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Speaker 1: four out of the six have fully recovered at this point.

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Speaker 1: So that's at least a very good sign. That's fantastic news.

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Speaker 1: What about you KNOWL I mean you and I spoke

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Speaker 1: earlier today, but uh, how's it going. It's it's good.

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Speaker 1: I'm okay. Um. I had my my daughter this weekend

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Speaker 1: and then just brought her back to her mom's this

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Speaker 1: morning and we had a nice weekend. Um, we're kind

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Speaker 1: of shuffling her back and forth. Um, I'm obviously continuing

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Speaker 1: to work so it's easier for her mom, who is

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Speaker 1: not working to do the homeschool situation. She does have

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Speaker 1: a small child as well, so she's having to balance that. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know another my my daughter's sister. But UM, it's good.

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Speaker 1: I've been doing a lot of things that I don't

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Speaker 1: normally do being home all the time. I've talked about,

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Speaker 1: you know, working on music and reading and just catching

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Speaker 1: up on things and catching up with a lot of

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Speaker 1: old friends. UH doing some online gaming. If anybody wants

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Speaker 1: to online game, UM, you can hit me up. I'm

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Speaker 1: all about it and playing Borderlands three. UM. I wanted

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Speaker 1: to share something really quick that I haven't told you

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Speaker 1: guys about. UM. I had a listener reach out to

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Speaker 1: me on Instagram, UM talking about how thanking us basically

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Speaker 1: for you know the show and continue to the show.

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Speaker 1: He's a fan of something I wants you to know

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Speaker 1: and also a movie crush. And he said that he

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Speaker 1: was dealing with the coronavirus, that he actually got the virus. UM.

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Speaker 1: I asked him a little bit more information and he

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Speaker 1: said he's a patient transport person, an ambulance driver. I

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Speaker 1: assume in in Long Island. UM he could trace back

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Speaker 1: to exactly when he was exposed because his supervisors were

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Speaker 1: able to UH isolate the incident, UM that the patient

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Speaker 1: that he was transporting and go back and kind of

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Speaker 1: do process of elimination. So he could figure out when

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Speaker 1: he was exposed. He was exposed on like the thirteen

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Speaker 1: and didn't start experiencing symptoms till last week, early last week,

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Speaker 1: which which that was kind of interesting to me because

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Speaker 1: that seems like an awful long time. Uh. The good

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Speaker 1: news is he's he's he's in his late twenties. He's uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, running a fever of about a hundred point

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Speaker 1: four um and it continues, so it's not just like

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Speaker 1: it spikes and goes away. So that's uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: certainly a thing that you can look for. Um. And

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Speaker 1: he seems to be doing okay. He's just taking tile

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Speaker 1: and all. Uh. And he is in the hospital. UM.

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Speaker 1: I think that's largely to do with his profession um

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Speaker 1: and just playing it safe. And he said he's got

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Speaker 1: nurses that are checking in on him. UM. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was It was really a really nice that he

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Speaker 1: reached out to let him know that the show was

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Speaker 1: helping him sleep and just kind of keeping him calm,

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Speaker 1: and also to get a little information directly from someone

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Speaker 1: that was dealing with it. I'm gonna keep his name anonymous,

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Speaker 1: but um, he said it was okay to to share this.

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Speaker 1: I agreed, Yeah, and thanks for sharing that on air.

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Speaker 1: So peek behind the curtain here, conspiracy realist. UH, We've

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Speaker 1: been doing the same thing, or at least I've been,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, UH Matt Noel and I have been.

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Speaker 1: I've I've been sending you guys text messages where I've

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Speaker 1: been screen capping uh some some similar communications. Thank you

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Speaker 1: to everybody who's been reaching out to us UH to

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Speaker 1: to thank us uh even more importantly, to encourage us

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Speaker 1: uh to keep going even when the circumstances are are

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Speaker 1: fraught with plot twists like these are these are troubled days. UH.

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Speaker 1: So we're here for you. You You can find us as

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Speaker 1: as a group. You can also find us as individuals,

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Speaker 1: and you can find our good pal Knell on what

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Speaker 1: did you say, border lands, UM on borderlanes. You can

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Speaker 1: find me at the cubists th H E C U

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Speaker 1: B I S T S if you want to hit

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Speaker 1: me up and do a little little gaming of and

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Speaker 1: uh commune connecting with some listeners and plan plan some

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Speaker 1: borderlandes and just just really quick huge thanks to this listener, UM,

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Speaker 1: because you know very much on the front lines of

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Speaker 1: this pandemic. UM putting himself in harm's way. UM, and

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Speaker 1: obviously is dealing with the repercussions of that, but something

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Speaker 1: that clearly he does not regret, and it's very much

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Speaker 1: a mission that that keeps this person kind of going.

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Speaker 1: So I really really appreciated the information and also just

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Speaker 1: really respect you being willing to put yourself out there

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Speaker 1: and and not really think yourself instead of thinking of

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Speaker 1: others first, you know, yes, pick up uh indeed, and

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Speaker 1: to everybody else who's putting their health and lives on

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Speaker 1: the line to save and protect everybody else. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we've been including that message, but we simply cannot overstate

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Speaker 1: it enough. Um. And and and also you know, in

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Speaker 1: the in the interest of privacy, I've just been sending

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Speaker 1: these messages to Mattnell offline. But if you if you

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Speaker 1: are okay with us sharing your story on air, please

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Speaker 1: just let us know in the message, and let us

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Speaker 1: know if you wish to remain anonymous, or if you

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Speaker 1: wish to have your name or a name attached to

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Speaker 1: your story. There is no right or wrong answer here. UH.

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Speaker 1: But today's episode UH is not about COVID ostensibly or

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Speaker 1: not yet. Today we are returning to the Korean Peninsula.

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Speaker 1: This is not an episode about UH my ongoing obsession

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Speaker 1: with the infamous Hermit Key to move North Korea, or

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Speaker 1: our collective obsession. Now, in fact, this in a way

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Speaker 1: is a pop culture episode. You see, we're delving into

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Speaker 1: the global phenomena collectively known as k pop or Korean

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Speaker 1: pop music. So here are the facts. First, what is

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Speaker 1: k pop? It's what it sounds like. It's collective term

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Speaker 1: for pop music originating in South Korea. And it may

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Speaker 1: surprise some of our fellow listeners to learn just how

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Speaker 1: recent this phenomena is. Yeah, it's true. I mean, today's

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Speaker 1: K pop industry wouldn't exist at all without South Korea's

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Speaker 1: extensive modernization and a crucial detail, their relaxation of censorship,

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Speaker 1: particularly in the way this change has affected the nation's

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Speaker 1: ability to broadcast things on television. Because back in the

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Speaker 1: day UM, before some of the reforms in place UM

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Speaker 1: that created the nation's sixth Republic, there were only two

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Speaker 1: broadcast networks in the entire country. Uh, and they had,

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Speaker 1: you know, just immense control over the kind of music

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Speaker 1: South Koreans were allowed to listen to. The radio was

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Speaker 1: also more or less under state control. Yeah, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think about all those times you've heard people older than

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Speaker 1: you maybe your parents, maybe some other loved ones. Say,

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Speaker 1: you know, back in my day, the television only had

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Speaker 1: like three channels, uh, F v h F whatever. Uh,

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Speaker 1: And then you just had to watch what was on

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Speaker 1: channel three or five or eleven or whatever it was

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Speaker 1: in their part of the world. This was the situation

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Speaker 1: in South Korea. That is not an exaggeration. Uh. And also,

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Speaker 1: like he said, radio is under a government control. This

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Speaker 1: means that, if we're being incredibly diplomatic, we would say

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Speaker 1: independent music didn't have much of a footprint, by which

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Speaker 1: we mean like zero. These these folks were, Uh, these

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Speaker 1: folks were very much a state enterprise. Rock and roll

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Speaker 1: music as we think of it today or even back then,

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Speaker 1: was incredibly controversial. It was often banned sometimes for I

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Speaker 1: would say almost xenophobic reasons, the idea that the culture

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Speaker 1: of the creed nation would be compromised by a glut

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Speaker 1: of this foreign music. And the way there was a

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Speaker 1: specific way that musicians and songs met the public. There

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Speaker 1: were these talent shows on television. They aired on the weekends.

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Speaker 1: And again remember they're only like two channels. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: when the people, when performers won these talent shows, then

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Speaker 1: radio would play their music finally, but they would only

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Speaker 1: play the music of the people who had already you know,

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Speaker 1: quote unquote made it on those weekend TV shows, So

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Speaker 1: there was no like underground breakout star who went from

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Speaker 1: busking on the streets of soul to all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden blowing up on your radio station. You know. It's

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Speaker 1: interesting like j pop, which is the Japanese equivalent of

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Speaker 1: K pop obviously really didn't hit big until the nineties either. Um,

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Speaker 1: but Japan had much more of a history of like

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Speaker 1: more diverse kind of musical taste, especially after uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: global conflicts and a lot of American soldiers bringing you know,

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Speaker 1: American music to Japan, and then you know, when Japan,

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Speaker 1: Japan kind of became this almost like had to rebuild

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Speaker 1: from the ashes, you know, of of being bombed. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they kind of emerged as this like technological superpower and

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Speaker 1: this very pop culture driven society. Um. So that was

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Speaker 1: much earlier, obviously than than K pop, but very interesting

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Speaker 1: that the boy band, girl group kind of thing didn't

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Speaker 1: really come around until the nineties, around the same time

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Speaker 1: that K pop was was happening. Yeah, because it's so

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Speaker 1: easy going back to our earlier ongoing conversation for long

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Speaker 1: time listeners, it's it's so easy to forget that this

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Speaker 1: is kind of a new thing in the grand scheme

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Speaker 1: of events. It seems like it's always been around, but

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Speaker 1: it's it's really it goes down to that seven Reformation.

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Speaker 1: That's when the soil was laid for this. After things

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Speaker 1: are loosened up, after they're a little bit less orwellian

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Speaker 1: with censorship, radio blows up. Radio is everywhere a f

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Speaker 1: or i should say a m FM. Uh. South Korean

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Speaker 1: residents would hear new music that they had never heard before.

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Speaker 1: They'd hear it on a regular basis. It's like, just

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Speaker 1: for a second, every radio station became eight eight point

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Speaker 1: five or one point one. Those are two great, great

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Speaker 1: local stations here in Atlanta. It's like everything turned to

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Speaker 1: college radio in terms of the variety you would see.

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Speaker 1: And this included music from the Yankees, music from the

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Speaker 1: United States. So people were digging it and they were like, hey,

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Speaker 1: this isn't that bad. But radio is only part of

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Speaker 1: the story, right, Yeah, don't don't forget those talent shows

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Speaker 1: that those come back in a big and important way

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Speaker 1: for for new acts and new types of music. I mean,

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Speaker 1: TV is really the gold standard, and it had been

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Speaker 1: in South Korea. It continued to be that way. More

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Speaker 1: than of the homes in South Korea had access to

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Speaker 1: national television networks as early as so that's not long

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Speaker 1: after the change over there, and then people watching TV

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Speaker 1: it was the most it was the most viewership that

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Speaker 1: had ever existed within South Korea, especially on the weekends,

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Speaker 1: and that's when those talent shows happen, and that is

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Speaker 1: where you get all these new acts being introduced to

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Speaker 1: everybody in South Korea all at once. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah. And they these TV shows still even now

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Speaker 1: remain in the modern day one of the biggest single

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Speaker 1: factors in the success of any South Korean band. It's

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Speaker 1: funny because you know, I know that all of us,

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Speaker 1: all four of us Mission Control, Matt Noel and myself,

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Speaker 1: we're we're fans of music history, both from a socio

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Speaker 1: cultural perspective and just from the experience of music we like.

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Speaker 1: So we all know that when you look at a

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Speaker 1: a genre or a shift in music, you you tend

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Speaker 1: to look more at a gradient. Right. A lot of

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Speaker 1: genres kind of blend and and slowly evolved into something

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Speaker 1: new or different. But unlike many musical genres, k pop

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Speaker 1: appears to have a definitive starting point. It's April eleven two.

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Speaker 1: There's a great account of this by research named Hannah Wait.

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Speaker 1: She she studies the history of K pop and she

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Speaker 1: says that a group named Ceo Taji pardon me if

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Speaker 1: I'm mispronouncing Ceo Taji and Boys. Uh, they are the

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Speaker 1: they are the watershed moment of K pop. So Ceo

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Speaker 1: Taj is the frontman of this. These a couple of

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Speaker 1: different bands. First, he was in a heavy metal band

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Speaker 1: called sin Away or sent Away, and they broke up.

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Speaker 1: He got into hip hop. He teamed up with two dancers.

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Speaker 1: They performed a single called nan Arreo or I know

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Speaker 1: on one of these weekend talent shows you were talking

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Speaker 1: about Matt and Boom. Just like that. When they perform

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Speaker 1: on April eleven, K pop is born. This may make

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Speaker 1: you think that Ceo Tashi and the Boys actually won

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Speaker 1: the competition, but no, man, they came out on the bottom.

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Speaker 1: They got the Little Store out anybody on the show

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Speaker 1: that day. But but it doesn't matter. It was It's like, um,

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to imagine what it's like. Um, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: take it to my four year old son. So he

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Speaker 1: had never tried uh broccoli before, and then one day

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Speaker 1: he tried it and he didn't like it at all.

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Speaker 1: He's like, that is gross. But now he knows what

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Speaker 1: broccoli is, and when we talk about broccoli, he thinks

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Speaker 1: about it and he'll take a taste. He's like, that's okay,

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Speaker 1: And now broccoli is one of his favorite things that

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Speaker 1: he can eat. I'm telling you, that's all that they needed,

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Speaker 1: that he just get that broccoli on TV. For a second,

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Speaker 1: it reminds me of like that do you want to be?

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Speaker 1: A VJ competition where that like super skinny, weird looking

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Speaker 1: stoner guy Jesse one first place and the guy that

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Speaker 1: one runner up ended up ultimately becoming a pretty big

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Speaker 1: television sensation, like You had much more of a you know,

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Speaker 1: long lasting career in TV, whereas Jesse kind of burned

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Speaker 1: out pretty quickly. I mean he already seemed like a

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Speaker 1: bit of a burnout. He had like some some issues

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Speaker 1: with drugs and alcohol and like, uh, you know, being

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Speaker 1: on the lamb about I don't know it was a

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Speaker 1: whole thing. But that guy Dave, what is it was

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Speaker 1: Dave's last name? He he was the he lost the competition,

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Speaker 1: but he ultimately became. He came out on top. Dave Coolier.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't Coolier, it wasn't Mustaine, it wasn't Navarro, it

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Speaker 1: was you know, the Dave, the Dave. If you're if

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Speaker 1: you're talking, Dave's on top, I'm always thinking to Dave Coolier.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's that's the gold standard of Dave's right.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to MTV News. This is Dave Holmes. Dave. That's

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Speaker 1: exactly right. He's acceptable. Dave sucks too. I agree, man VJ.

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Speaker 1: That was a dream job. Huh. So the for the

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Speaker 1: whole point there is that the the whole South Korean

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Speaker 1: culture got introduced to this K pop thing all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, all at once, and they all saw it

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Speaker 1: and they went, huh, that's the thing. It's not are

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Speaker 1: not our favorite, but that's the thing. Yeah. Yeah, Well

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Speaker 1: here's what happens. So there's an interesting role here in

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Speaker 1: you know, there's something to be said about the possibility

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Speaker 1: of cultural policing, you know, like uh, like in France,

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Speaker 1: there is an official linguistic institute that monitors how new

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Speaker 1: words are entering the French language, and they're fighting to

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Speaker 1: quote unquote preserve it. You have to ask yourself whether

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Speaker 1: the judges on this talent show we're uh, we're playing

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Speaker 1: playing Ceo and the Boys to the left because they

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Speaker 1: were too culturally different. One thing's for sure, the rest

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Speaker 1: of the nation does not agree with the judges. This

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Speaker 1: song I Know goes on to dominate the singles charts

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Speaker 1: of South Korea for like seventeen weeks, and then for

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Speaker 1: fifteen years after that it remained. It held the record

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Speaker 1: for the number one longest streak in the country's history,

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Speaker 1: or the longest time at number one. Yeah, and and

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Speaker 1: this was not just like a band. This was like

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Speaker 1: the beginnings of an institution, and big business recognized that

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Speaker 1: recording studios record labels actually stepped in to take over

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Speaker 1: and formed a new studio system. Let's when we say

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Speaker 1: studio system, we think of like MGM Universal, you know,

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Speaker 1: like the big movie studios. This is that kind of

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Speaker 1: money and that kind of opportunity. They created this from scratch,

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Speaker 1: out of the ashes of the broadcast centered system. Right.

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Speaker 1: So then between you had three mega powerhouse music studios appearing.

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Speaker 1: Yet SM Entertainment Um often just referred to as s

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Speaker 1: M town uh and that was and then we have

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Speaker 1: J Y P Entertainment in and y G Entertainment created

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Speaker 1: by one of the members of Stag and Boys. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then we've got Yeah that that was Young Yuan Suku.

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Speaker 1: And so together these studios began to uh cultivate and

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Speaker 1: and headhunt, essentially recruit what would become known as idol groups. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And you know, we we know this in the States

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Speaker 1: in terms of like the Backstreet Boys and as far

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Speaker 1: back as the New Kids on the Block, and you know,

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Speaker 1: more recently with One Direction and these kind of supergroups

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Speaker 1: up even as far back as the Monkeys, you know,

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Speaker 1: bands that were built from the ground up by executives

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Speaker 1: for the purposes of eliciting a certain response. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: like they were just doing it in their parents garage.

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Speaker 1: These were created as a business ploy. We pause. Can

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Speaker 1: we pause here really quickly just to talk about how

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Speaker 1: big this business has become, because we're talking about the

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Speaker 1: first big three, right, M Entertainment, G I P Entertainment,

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Speaker 1: and Y G Entertainment. So these are the big ones.

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Speaker 1: These are it's the mid nineties to late nineties when

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Speaker 1: these are created. If you look now at lists anywhere

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Speaker 1: of the biggest K pop groups that are out there,

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Speaker 1: and there are so many groups that exist almost not

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Speaker 1: not this isn't all of the music labels that are

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Speaker 1: controlling all of them. But j y P is still

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Speaker 1: up there, s M is still up there, y G

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Speaker 1: is still up there. Now you've got Big HIT Entertainment,

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Speaker 1: k Q Entertainment, Cube Entertainment, fn C Entertainment, and there

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Speaker 1: there are probably a dozen more that control I don't

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Speaker 1: even know how many hundreds of these groups. It's crazy.

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Speaker 1: Here's the thing, uh, A lot of those younger studios

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Speaker 1: are kind of a revolving door like we see with

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Speaker 1: government and private industry in the United States, because a

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Speaker 1: lot of their creators were formerly members of K pop

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Speaker 1: groups are somehow affiliated with the industry and struck out

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Speaker 1: on their own. I do want to point out also,

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Speaker 1: when we say idle group, we mean I D O L.

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Speaker 1: These folks are anything but I D L E. They're

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Speaker 1: actually living a very very difficult life. Um so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the first idol group comes on comes on the global

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Speaker 1: stage in the founder of s M, guy named Lee Suman,

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Speaker 1: creates this group called Hot h O t Uh, and

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Speaker 1: he does it by getting five singers and dancers who,

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Speaker 1: in his mind, represent what he thinks teens want to

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Speaker 1: see from a pop group. So, you know, I love

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Speaker 1: that Monkey's reference because it's just like somebody who's who's

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Speaker 1: kind of aged out of that scene going, you know

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Speaker 1: what the young folks like? You know what they're like. Uh,

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Speaker 1: they're like a little Gyrates. They're like a gyrate with

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Speaker 1: a hip and like a little uh you know, I

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Speaker 1: like a little harmony. This is what the kids are

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Speaker 1: pop into these days. They like these beatles and we

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Speaker 1: need to make more of those wells. But what's funny

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Speaker 1: about the Monkeys? As they started off that way and

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Speaker 1: then they made some pretty cool records and a really

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Speaker 1: psychedelic film called a Head that you guys should check

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Speaker 1: out if you haven't seen it. Like, they actually went

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Speaker 1: on to be pretty interesting in their own right. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: that was that was a thing that that that took

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Speaker 1: the world by store. I have a question, like maybe

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Speaker 1: we're gonna get to this, but I just want to

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Speaker 1: say I love Red rubber Ball. Everyone should listen to

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Speaker 1: it when you get a chance. That's a I think.

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Speaker 1: So it's a good vocal warm up, though, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: That's hard to say I really thought that was an

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Speaker 1: h O T song? What is well? What what what's questions? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Oh no, just I mean they're called idol bands. That's

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Speaker 1: obviously where the American American idol came from. It was

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Speaker 1: emulating this system of of talent shows that was so

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Speaker 1: huge that created this industry, right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, agreed.

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Speaker 1: And that means that we can also trace the evolution

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Speaker 1: of all the other kind of shows like America's Got Talent,

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Speaker 1: uh and uh, you know, whatever their derivatives are, we

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Speaker 1: can we can trace all of that to this genre.

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Speaker 1: So now we have now we have the emergence of

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Speaker 1: the idol group, the emergence of these these huge, these

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Speaker 1: Leva like Leviathan size businesses, and it's off to the races. Nowadays.

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Speaker 1: The global invasion of K pop is part of a

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Speaker 1: larger cultural invasion called Holly you or the Korean Wave.

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Speaker 1: But Matt, I really like something you pointed out. How

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Speaker 1: big of a business are we talking? We'll explore that

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Speaker 1: briefly after a word from our sponsor. Okay, we're back.

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Speaker 1: How big of a business? Well, it's global, that's for sure.

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Speaker 1: That's an understatement of uh stuff. They don't want you

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Speaker 1: to know history, because today the popularity of K pop,

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Speaker 1: not not just how you but specifically K pop reaches far, far,

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Speaker 1: far beyond the South Korean borders. There was a survey

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Speaker 1: conducted in where they asked a ton of people in

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Speaker 1: seventeen different countries, uh, you know what, what's the word

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Speaker 1: it on? K pop in your neck of the global woods?

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Speaker 1: And thirty seven point five percent of everybody responding in

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Speaker 1: all seventeen countries said that K pop was super popular

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Speaker 1: in their country. And think about that, because you know,

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Speaker 1: not everybody in those seventeen different countries speaks Korean right

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Speaker 1: or reads Korean. The fans are almost their own episode.

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Speaker 1: The fans of K pop are rabid, they are fanatically loyal.

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Speaker 1: They're found across the planet, and there are even some

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Speaker 1: what are called anti fans. Have you guys heard about this?

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Speaker 1: The the anti fans who for one reason or another

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Speaker 1: specifically zone in and hate a K pop band or

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Speaker 1: a performer, sometimes because they feel like that person is

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Speaker 1: um has done something wrong to a K pop performer

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Speaker 1: that they like. It's very weird like this, this is

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Speaker 1: a graphic thing, um, but the level of stalking here

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Speaker 1: has entered like fatal attraction, cape fear degrees of extremes.

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Speaker 1: Not to be too crass, but UH fans have in

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Speaker 1: the past sent letters proclaiming their undying love to again

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Speaker 1: people they've never met. But these letters have been written

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Speaker 1: in blood, particularly menstrual blood, at least a few cases. Yeah, okay, Well,

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Speaker 1: they'll even go so far as to UH set up

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Speaker 1: cameras and Mike's in the hotel rooms of traveling musicians

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Speaker 1: as these bands as they're going around, they'll like show

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Speaker 1: up early and basically bug the rooms before the band

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Speaker 1: gets there and then record them. And now I think

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Speaker 1: I may have mentioned this to you, ben Um, but

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Speaker 1: when I got back from a trip not too long ago, UH,

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Speaker 1: in the in the gate at the Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Airport, UM,

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Speaker 1: there was a group of what appeared to be Japanese

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Speaker 1: or Korean school aged girls and they were wearing you know,

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Speaker 1: the traditional kind of school garb, like the you know,

427
00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: a skirt and kind of like a uniform top, and

428
00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:20,800
Speaker 1: they were all wearing masks, so I can't quite tell

429
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:22,680
Speaker 1: what their nationality was. And I was also from Afar,

430
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: but they all had these very pricey looking telephoto lenses

431
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: and we're all just snapvity, snapping it up at these

432
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:34,280
Speaker 1: four dudes hanging out in the corner um looking on

433
00:25:34,320 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 1: their phones. Uh, And I believe they had to have

434
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: either been J or K pop dudes. But I'm like,

435
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,919
Speaker 1: how were these these young ladies happened to be traveling

436
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,920
Speaker 1: with them? Or what was the deal? Like, like are

437
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:50,240
Speaker 1: they following them around the country? Like it's is that?

438
00:25:50,359 --> 00:25:52,600
Speaker 1: Is that a thing? Like what's up? Oh? Yeah, yeah,

439
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: I thought, Uh, the the communication network for fan groups

440
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: is extensive. They could probably teach intelligence agencies a few things.

441
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 1: To be candid they had, uh, Like I'll never forget.

442
00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,919
Speaker 1: I was spending some time in Koreatown in Tokyo and

443
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,439
Speaker 1: we saw something kind of the same thing, just sitting

444
00:26:12,840 --> 00:26:16,680
Speaker 1: getting like a Macha tea or some or whatever kind

445
00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:19,959
Speaker 1: of coffeehouse confection, and then all of a sudden, there

446
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:23,400
Speaker 1: was this mob of people with as you said, very

447
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:28,520
Speaker 1: expensive professional grade uh telephoto lenses and they were they

448
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,800
Speaker 1: were just, uh, they were waiting for these people who

449
00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,960
Speaker 1: literally just sort of like walked by nonchalantly, maybe one

450
00:26:35,960 --> 00:26:38,880
Speaker 1: guy pose And it was it was nuts to see

451
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,200
Speaker 1: that up close. It was almost like it was almost

452
00:26:42,240 --> 00:26:46,159
Speaker 1: like how whale hunters or whale watchers must feel when

453
00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:47,679
Speaker 1: they're out in the boat and all of a sudden

454
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,359
Speaker 1: they see this enormous thing rising from the depths. Uh.

455
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:55,520
Speaker 1: It's it's a huge, huge, huge industry. And you know,

456
00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,320
Speaker 1: just just to give some numbers about how big this is. Uh,

457
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:05,879
Speaker 1: we were talking about this off air. Uh. The true

458
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: financial numbers, especially for those big three studios, are a

459
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:15,400
Speaker 1: little squirreling, at least in my opinion. I honestly think

460
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: they're being under reported. But you can you can find

461
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:23,400
Speaker 1: some estimates. But as we're going to learn, those estimates

462
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: leave something to be desired. We can talk about some

463
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:32,600
Speaker 1: specific global milestones that K pop has reached. You will

464
00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 1: call the first YouTube video to reach one billion views.

465
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 1: Everybody remember what that one was. It was the very

466
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,840
Speaker 1: same by sci who's interesting because he's not like your

467
00:27:43,880 --> 00:27:48,040
Speaker 1: typical K pop person in appearance. But yeah, he reached

468
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:52,640
Speaker 1: the billion views, and as we record, the numbers continue

469
00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:55,720
Speaker 1: to climb for just that one video. Well, well, first

470
00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 1: of all, that that must have had something to do

471
00:27:58,400 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: with the fact that that was one of the first

472
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: ones to really hit big in America. I think so. Yeah,

473
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: I agree, because it was huge in America, and it

474
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 1: was mainly because it was just funny. It was a

475
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: really really funny video. Um, it was really brilliantly produced

476
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 1: with all the dance moves and like all the crazy pyrotechnics,

477
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 1: but it had this tongue in cheekness to it that

478
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: I think really just hit at the time, where like

479
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,280
Speaker 1: absurdist comedy was really big, like Tim and Eric and

480
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 1: things like that. So I think that fascination with some

481
00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,880
Speaker 1: of these you know, um cultural phenomenons and being able

482
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,679
Speaker 1: to kind of glom onto the sort of absurdity of

483
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:37,520
Speaker 1: it all really made it it go over the top

484
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,080
Speaker 1: because that was the first ever K pop thing that

485
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 1: I was ever really intimately familiar with, and I don't

486
00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: know that there's ever been another one since then that

487
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 1: I was as familiar with. Well here, yeah, I would agree. Um,

488
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:53,520
Speaker 1: but let's let's imagine really quickly, how how much is

489
00:28:53,560 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: that worth? A billion views? On that? Now, just from

490
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: from our experience on YouTube, you you know, that's that's

491
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: probably a fairly long that's a nice chunk of money,

492
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: but you know it's it's YouTube money. It's um, you know,

493
00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,360
Speaker 1: it's okay, but that's not going to make anybody a

494
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:15,200
Speaker 1: millionaire necessarily, Um, even if you did that a bunch

495
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,680
Speaker 1: of times, you might get there eventually. And then think

496
00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 1: about album sales now, and let's say two thousand twenty

497
00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:26,880
Speaker 1: and even the two thousand tens um album sales aren't

498
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: what they used to be because streaming became such a thing,

499
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: and you have to imagine how much money is actually

500
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 1: being generated by a sigh or by the biggest K

501
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,080
Speaker 1: pop band out there right now? Ah, interesting you say that.

502
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,600
Speaker 1: I would like to quote, uh, Spaceballs or any number

503
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:51,040
Speaker 1: of Danny de Vito, Frank Reynolds subplots and always sunny

504
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. It's merchandizing, you know what I mean. That's

505
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: where a lot of the money is likely. That's a

506
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,800
Speaker 1: great point, Matt. Let's talk turkey, believe it or not.

507
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,440
Speaker 1: As of twin T nine, a single K pop band

508
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 1: and let's see, uh, fellow listeners follow conspiracy realist, Let's

509
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:08,920
Speaker 1: see if you can guess who it is while you're

510
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,840
Speaker 1: listening along at home. A single K pop band is

511
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 1: worth an estimated four point six five billion dollars US.

512
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: Can you guess? I bet you guys already know. I

513
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 1: think it's probably um, what is it XO close close

514
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: it is uh, it is what appears to be a

515
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:42,080
Speaker 1: short grouping of English letters. It's BTS, the the elephant

516
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: in the room of k pop whenever we talk about it.

517
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 1: BTS was also the first K pop group to reach

518
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 1: number one on the Billboard Charts. Uh. They also still

519
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: hold the record for the best selling album in all

520
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 1: of South Korean history from like since the first album

521
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 1: came out in South Korea ever. Wow, you know, I

522
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: only learned about them when they went on Saturday Night Live.

523
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: But they were pretty great performers. That's all I really

524
00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: know about them. They're a little bit different. K pop

525
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:19,239
Speaker 1: fans have assured me because in a lot of a

526
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: lot of performances, you might hear that some K pop

527
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,880
Speaker 1: bands are lip syncing their songs, but BTS is famous

528
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,440
Speaker 1: for always actually singing the songs. And you know what,

529
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: even if you're not a fan, you gotta respect the hustle.

530
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:36,080
Speaker 1: You gotta respect those dance moves. Those guys have it

531
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 1: on lock there on point now. They They also performed

532
00:31:41,040 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 1: live in front of a million people in person in

533
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:48,000
Speaker 1: Times Square in December nineteen, ringing in the New Year,

534
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: and one billion other people tuned in via television. Those

535
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 1: numbers are insane. We could dedicate an entire podcast series,

536
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: not just the show. A series is to K pop alone,

537
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,720
Speaker 1: and doubtlessly many other podcasts have, But we just wanted

538
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: to articulate the broad strokes who wanted to give you

539
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: the lay of the land. K pop is successful, it's huge,

540
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:15,520
Speaker 1: It is a global economic force all its own. But

541
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: we would be remiss if we didn't have just like

542
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:21,160
Speaker 1: a little fun with this. So we've named We've named

543
00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 1: uh XO, we've named SI, we've named BTS, and we've

544
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:30,800
Speaker 1: named the you know, the the group that made the

545
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: first K pop appearance back there in April. But let's see, Matt,

546
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:38,680
Speaker 1: you found you found some other names that you wanted

547
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: to share with us. Huh yeah, let's do this. I

548
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,640
Speaker 1: just looked up a couple of lists of what would

549
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,760
Speaker 1: be considered the top selling or most popular K pop

550
00:32:48,960 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 1: groups that are out there right now as of I

551
00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 1: think seven days ago. Uh So, here here's some Black

552
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:01,280
Speaker 1: Pink Got seven Stray Kids, to Ice, t X T

553
00:33:01,960 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 1: Red Velvet n C T one, seven seventeen, Mama MoU Icon, K,

554
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:16,320
Speaker 1: Monster x A t S, Super m Astro, gittle or

555
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:18,720
Speaker 1: is it g idol. I think it's g idol. I

556
00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:23,400
Speaker 1: not not the authority there anyway. There's a ton Pentagon,

557
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 1: day six x one one US one US a pink

558
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:31,680
Speaker 1: XP addition. There's just so many. Yeah, there's so many,

559
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: and you pick some great ones. I I am sorry

560
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: to inform all our fellow listeners that Stray Kids and

561
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:42,040
Speaker 1: Twice are two different bands. For some reason, I love

562
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: the idea of a band that's just named Stray Kids

563
00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:52,200
Speaker 1: Twice me to Uh, they're they're just so they're so wonderful.

564
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: I love all those names. It's so much fun. It

565
00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:58,680
Speaker 1: just feels like screen names to me. Weird weird screen names.

566
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 1: Remember when everything needs to be so rounded by like exs,

567
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 1: like lower case and lower case X than the upper

568
00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:05,920
Speaker 1: case X. It wasn't a straight edge thing for a while.

569
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 1: It was in some circles. Yeah, like people would you know,

570
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 1: people would draw x is or even tattoo x is

571
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:18,520
Speaker 1: on their flesh. Uh. This this is interesting because these

572
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,400
Speaker 1: bands we have to emphasize it's not just about the music.

573
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: There's the fashion, there's the tone, there's accur of course,

574
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: the merchandizing. Uh, but this is not all that k

575
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: pop is, and it's tragic, and it's unfortunate that we

576
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,880
Speaker 1: have to say that. It's the point of our episode today.

577
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 1: Because K pop is not all cutting edge fashion, smiling

578
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,359
Speaker 1: teens and scads of money minted from catchy love songs

579
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: that are written to algorithm. K pop, you see, has

580
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: a dark side, and we're diving in after a word

581
00:34:52,160 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 1: from our sponsor. Here's where it gets crazy. Yeah, it

582
00:35:03,320 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 1: turns out there's a very dark side to this business

583
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: and in a lot of ways, but we're gonna be

584
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: talking about ahead reflects some of the issues that we've

585
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:18,759
Speaker 1: talked about before in the music industry just globally as

586
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:24,120
Speaker 1: well as entertainment industries across the world, especially in Hollywood

587
00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:26,839
Speaker 1: in in the United States. But it's a it's very

588
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: own brand of dark side. Just a word of warning

589
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: coming up, this will make some of you uncomfortable. We're

590
00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about um allegations of abuse, sexual and otherwise.

591
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 1: Just a word of warning. Let's let's talk about it. Yeah. Yeah.

592
00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 1: For the past several years, decades, really, K pop has

593
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,560
Speaker 1: encountered a number of scandals and then a greater number

594
00:35:54,600 --> 00:35:58,080
Speaker 1: of suppressed or hush hush scandals that give lie to

595
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:02,280
Speaker 1: the squeaky clean image the bands and their management works

596
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 1: so hard to project to the outside world. Here are

597
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 1: just a few we wanted to want to isolate some

598
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 1: broad categories of issues. The first, Okay, so we mentioned

599
00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:18,240
Speaker 1: one band alone, BTS is a multibillion dollar industry by itself.

600
00:36:18,520 --> 00:36:23,239
Speaker 1: That's very extreme example. But there's there's no arguing that

601
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:27,040
Speaker 1: a lot of these bands make a ton of money.

602
00:36:27,239 --> 00:36:29,960
Speaker 1: And that's our first question. That's our first issue. Who

603
00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 1: actually gets that revenue? Who gets the money? The answer

604
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: might surprise you. Yeah, it's true. And and you know,

605
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:38,400
Speaker 1: we're gonna see some parallels with this and and the

606
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:40,560
Speaker 1: way artists are treated in the States too. This is

607
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:44,239
Speaker 1: a much more egregious version of this. Performers signed contracts

608
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:48,520
Speaker 1: that can last as long as fifteen years. That's insane.

609
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:50,360
Speaker 1: We definitely don't see in terms of that length in

610
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 1: the United States. And just to give you an idea

611
00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:56,359
Speaker 1: of that, the terms are somewhere between seven and fifteen years,

612
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 1: the ones that at least I've come across. And when

613
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:05,359
Speaker 1: you're talking about a talent contract or something like that, terms, Yeah,

614
00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 1: that as Nolan saying, that's an exorbitant amount of time.

615
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,200
Speaker 1: Terms are usually in the year to you know, a

616
00:37:12,239 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 1: couple of years, five years maybe maximum, but that's a lot. Yeah,

617
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 1: that's essentially like signing away your adolescents to a company,

618
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:24,600
Speaker 1: um and you know, and that goes along with the

619
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,680
Speaker 1: profit ratios as well. We're looking at eight percent seeded

620
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 1: to the company to the artists or n to the company,

621
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:36,440
Speaker 1: and ten percent to the artists, so you're it's like

622
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:40,439
Speaker 1: almost like a form of indentured servitude. Absolutely, and keep

623
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 1: in mind that if you are in a group, that

624
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 1: figure is even worse for you because that ten or

625
00:37:47,360 --> 00:37:51,360
Speaker 1: twenty percent is typically going to be split between you

626
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 1: and all your band members. This this is this is

627
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 1: important because those seven to fifteen year contracts aren't just

628
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 1: like put out x amount of albums, do live shows,

629
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,840
Speaker 1: is requested in appearances. There there are things like uh

630
00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:13,759
Speaker 1: like morality clauses, incredibly strict rules on your public interaction,

631
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 1: even your your private interaction, and this does function at

632
00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:21,920
Speaker 1: its worst as indentured servitude. They've actually been called slave

633
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 1: contracts because it's meant to keep the performers entirely dependent

634
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:30,640
Speaker 1: on their label owners. Because the way the way that

635
00:38:30,680 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: these groups are created is very competitive and people train

636
00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,000
Speaker 1: in groups for just a chance to be in a

637
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 1: K pop outfit. So you know, as an individual performer

638
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:46,320
Speaker 1: in many cases that if you don't tow the line,

639
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:50,160
Speaker 1: there are hundreds of people right behind you who will

640
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 1: jump at an even worse deal. It just it's just

641
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: to really expand on that for a second, and a

642
00:38:55,480 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: lot of the reporting about this, and and I don't

643
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,400
Speaker 1: know the full reality of it, but certainly from the reporting,

644
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:06,719
Speaker 1: the training that occurs just to essentially be auditioned at

645
00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:09,799
Speaker 1: some point or to be like a stand in um

646
00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,520
Speaker 1: to get into one of these groups if a member

647
00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: leaves or something, you are training for literally ten years

648
00:39:16,280 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: before you become a member of one of these major groups.

649
00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: If you're going through some of the big you know,

650
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:25,200
Speaker 1: the big schools essentially the K pop schools that exist

651
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 1: out there, well, the that means they're starting you off

652
00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: when you're very very young then right a lot of

653
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,560
Speaker 1: times other times the ages range pretty pretty extensively there.

654
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: But I would say, yes, starting out young and going

655
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:39,799
Speaker 1: through the system too, then hopefully one day get one

656
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:43,719
Speaker 1: of those contracts and when you get into a group. Um,

657
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've noticed this, But the K

658
00:39:46,160 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 1: pop groups range from two people to generally about five

659
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,000
Speaker 1: to seven people and go up to in the dozen.

660
00:39:54,719 --> 00:39:57,759
Speaker 1: Doesn't like literally a dozen people in one group and

661
00:39:57,800 --> 00:40:01,560
Speaker 1: we're talking about splitting that money, you know, twenty maybe

662
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 1: that's yeah, And it depends on what the you know,

663
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 1: is that ten or that stated on paper? Is that

664
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: the actual percentage of the hall? Uh? Color me skeptical

665
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: or color me cynical. But here's here's another thing about

666
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:23,560
Speaker 1: that age range question. Yes, starting early is advantageous because

667
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 1: there is one big difference between this type of music

668
00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:30,279
Speaker 1: industry and the pop industry here in the United States. Well,

669
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:32,520
Speaker 1: there are many differences, but here's when a lot of

670
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: people don't think about. These groups often have kind of

671
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 1: hardwired expiration dates or break up dates. Because the Republic

672
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:46,440
Speaker 1: of Korea, South Korea has mandatory military service. That means

673
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 1: that you are already on a ticking clock leading up

674
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,719
Speaker 1: to the time in which you must enlist, and that

675
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:56,920
Speaker 1: means that you have a very limited window of time

676
00:40:57,200 --> 00:41:01,400
Speaker 1: to make it big. And you also don't have a

677
00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: huge opportunity to fight back against this system if you

678
00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: if you want to, you know, get better representation or

679
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:15,920
Speaker 1: make things better for performers overall, You're it's brilliant in

680
00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:20,399
Speaker 1: the way that it has been calculated. But unfortunately, now

681
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,279
Speaker 1: like that's bad, that's terrible. But you know, we we

682
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:27,400
Speaker 1: can't cast too much dispersion because that's the music industry

683
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: across the world. The world over. There's another problem which

684
00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,400
Speaker 1: is unfortunately shared with many other countries music industries, and

685
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: that is sexual abuse. Uh. Sexual abuse in a couple

686
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,480
Speaker 1: of different ways. One of the most famous examples is

687
00:41:43,520 --> 00:41:46,960
Speaker 1: something called the Burning Sun scandal. This happened about a

688
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:51,880
Speaker 1: year ago this month. There were several male K pop stars,

689
00:41:52,120 --> 00:41:56,319
Speaker 1: including a guy named Solam Grie And again we don't

690
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 1: speak Korean. Here's what you need to know about him.

691
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:01,760
Speaker 1: He was a member of a boy band named Big Bang,

692
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:05,200
Speaker 1: and he and one of his associates uh. He and

693
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:07,919
Speaker 1: a couple of his associates former member of a group

694
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:11,399
Speaker 1: called ft Island, and a singer and songwriter called Jung

695
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:18,280
Speaker 1: June Young were implicated in a spy cam sexual abuse scandal.

696
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:22,799
Speaker 1: The songwriter was sharing videos of women filmed without their

697
00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:27,000
Speaker 1: consent in a group chat. And when we say without

698
00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 1: their consent, uh, this isn't um you know, this is

699
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: all terrible, but it's not like they were. They weren't

700
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:40,440
Speaker 1: just filming people UH naked or exposed without their consent.

701
00:42:40,719 --> 00:42:45,200
Speaker 1: They were filming UH gang sexual assault on women who

702
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:48,840
Speaker 1: have been drugged, women who had been plied with drink

703
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:53,759
Speaker 1: and were unconscious or unresponsive. This is demonic stuff. And

704
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:56,680
Speaker 1: then yeah, and then it turns out it's called Burning

705
00:42:56,719 --> 00:43:02,160
Speaker 1: Sun scandal because Sore had ties to a nightclub called

706
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,560
Speaker 1: Burning Sun and that's where a lot of this sexual

707
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:11,520
Speaker 1: assault took place. The UM, the three been involved, got

708
00:43:11,560 --> 00:43:16,799
Speaker 1: five and six year prison sentences. But the controversy there is,

709
00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:20,120
Speaker 1: first off, is that a fair sentence. You know, were

710
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:25,640
Speaker 1: the UH was there massive popularity somehow swaying the public

711
00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:29,960
Speaker 1: toward giving them a lighter sentence, And that that leads

712
00:43:30,040 --> 00:43:33,760
Speaker 1: us to something else too, which is that UM they're

713
00:43:33,760 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 1: they're proving cases where K pop stars UM have been

714
00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:43,520
Speaker 1: more or less forced to sleep with powerful people in

715
00:43:43,520 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: the industry, either to advance their own career. They're sleeping

716
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 1: with someone in a position of power, or a person

717
00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:53,799
Speaker 1: in position of power tells them to go sleep with

718
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: someone else and they're sent out. This is this, This

719
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:01,200
Speaker 1: is forced sex work, and it happens. It happening. Yeah.

720
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:05,280
Speaker 1: According to BBC News, this is an issue that runs

721
00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:08,840
Speaker 1: pretty rampant within the industry. Where are they where there

722
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:12,000
Speaker 1: are these clubs like Burning Sun that exists all over

723
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 1: the place, where the K pop stars will go to

724
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:17,960
Speaker 1: to make appearances and those kinds of things, and then

725
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 1: because of those contracts, there's this pressure that's felt to

726
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,040
Speaker 1: just go and do whatever you are told to do,

727
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: and oftentimes it is exactly what been described. Um again,

728
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 1: that's BBC News. That's not you know, some other reporting

729
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,839
Speaker 1: agency that you know is fairly unknown making allegations. This

730
00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:42,080
Speaker 1: is BBC News actually doing some uh some digging into

731
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:51,239
Speaker 1: this and this this tragic situation, combined with the terrible

732
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 1: issues with the contracts and the financial uh the opportunity

733
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 1: for financial corruption, those two alone would be enough to

734
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 1: be are horrific episode. But it doesn't stop there. There's

735
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,040
Speaker 1: something There are a couple of other things we need

736
00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:09,120
Speaker 1: to talk about. Yeah, I mean, think about what it

737
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:12,320
Speaker 1: must feel like to be kind of bred almost to

738
00:45:12,600 --> 00:45:17,239
Speaker 1: be this squeaky clean image. Uh not only that you know,

739
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:19,880
Speaker 1: if pop music and of like you know, good times,

740
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:23,920
Speaker 1: but very very uh g rated kind of uh and

741
00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:28,319
Speaker 1: also sort of an ambassador for your country. Um, there

742
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:32,480
Speaker 1: were some folksmen and women alike who have just buckled

743
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: under the strain of these brutal schedules, rehearsal regiments and

744
00:45:38,400 --> 00:45:41,680
Speaker 1: just the expectation. We've got um a story about Kim

745
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 1: Jong Human who's seven, who was a member of shinny Um.

746
00:45:46,160 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: He took his own life in after talking about how

747
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:54,360
Speaker 1: intense this pressure was. Uh. And of course, you know,

748
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 1: you think of people having extreme success and everything being

749
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 1: easy street, but think about the pressure, sure, and and

750
00:46:00,840 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 1: anxiety of losing everything. And I'm sure this is something

751
00:46:04,480 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: that we we've seen is wielded by some of those handlers, right. Uh.

752
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:13,080
Speaker 1: And then we've got another one in October of twenty nineteen. Yes,

753
00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 1: this um in October nineteen Sully five year old. She's

754
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,320
Speaker 1: a former member of the girl group f x UM.

755
00:46:21,520 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 1: She also took her own life. And then just a

756
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:28,719
Speaker 1: month later, UM woman named Gujara who was you know,

757
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:32,600
Speaker 1: a group called Cara and then she was also a

758
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:37,120
Speaker 1: solo performer. She um, she took her own life. And

759
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 1: she actually was a close friend of Suley. So the

760
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: two of them in two months and both took their

761
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:50,719
Speaker 1: lives tragedy tragedy, and they're they're not the only examples

762
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,439
Speaker 1: you can see, you know, it's your point. You can

763
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:58,320
Speaker 1: see how unsustainable, in demanding it could be too to

764
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 1: to literally have this contract act that says you have

765
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 1: to be perfect. You know, you can't do a lot

766
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:07,359
Speaker 1: of the things that normal kids do when they're teenagers,

767
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,760
Speaker 1: are in their twenties, you know, like dating, uh maybe

768
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,920
Speaker 1: maybe having a long term relationship, maybe even pursuing kids.

769
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 1: You have to be this seven advertisement, you know, and

770
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:21,879
Speaker 1: that's just not how people are built to live. Well,

771
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:25,240
Speaker 1: if you're a female, you also have to essentially starve yourself,

772
00:47:26,320 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: especially in the system, because there's again there's reporting on this,

773
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:35,160
Speaker 1: and it's just to keep that ideal image. It's not

774
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:39,520
Speaker 1: not you know, not only the ideal image outwardly as

775
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:41,920
Speaker 1: far as your actions. It's what you look like. And

776
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,600
Speaker 1: there's also a massive problem with plastic surgery where young

777
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 1: people are getting plastic surgery to look a very specific

778
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:55,640
Speaker 1: way to meet these standards. And there are several alleged,

779
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,640
Speaker 1: let's say cases where that plastic surgery was not the

780
00:47:59,719 --> 00:48:02,960
Speaker 1: choy of the individual, it was the choice of the

781
00:48:03,280 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 1: you know, the controlling members of that, the group, the

782
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:12,200
Speaker 1: company essentially. Oh, and I want to point out one

783
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:14,880
Speaker 1: thing that many of us not might not know is

784
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 1: that South Korea actually has the highest rate of plastic

785
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:22,920
Speaker 1: surgery per capita in the world, and the most popular

786
00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:28,120
Speaker 1: surgeries are things like skin whitening, uh nose jobs and

787
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:32,359
Speaker 1: uh double it's called double eyelid surgery. That's where you're

788
00:48:33,239 --> 00:48:37,600
Speaker 1: changed the uh state of your epicanthic fold. And it's

789
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:41,239
Speaker 1: all to make these people more closely resemble this kind

790
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:45,759
Speaker 1: of idealized physical image, you know what I mean, even

791
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,719
Speaker 1: if it's unrealistic. And Ben I wanted to bring this

792
00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:51,839
Speaker 1: up because we were touching on it here. No, you're

793
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 1: talking about kind of that g rated lifestyle or you know,

794
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:58,759
Speaker 1: that that state of perfection where you can't be seen

795
00:48:58,840 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 1: to be doing anything wrong in public. Right. And yet

796
00:49:03,239 --> 00:49:08,319
Speaker 1: the both males but especially females in K pop are

797
00:49:08,719 --> 00:49:14,839
Speaker 1: overtly sexualized, like so overtly sexualized. Um. And that's not

798
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 1: completely across the board, but I would estimate of the

799
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:24,680
Speaker 1: groups are overly sexualized, UM, both in you know, clothing

800
00:49:24,719 --> 00:49:28,400
Speaker 1: that's being worn and in choreography especially and the way

801
00:49:28,440 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 1: that they are seen by the camera. You know that

802
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:35,439
Speaker 1: the gaze of the camera. Um, so there's this kind

803
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:38,240
Speaker 1: of I don't know what you call this balancing act

804
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:41,960
Speaker 1: there between these perfect g raated people. But then also

805
00:49:42,160 --> 00:49:44,919
Speaker 1: like the way they're portraying absolutely right now you see

806
00:49:44,960 --> 00:49:46,720
Speaker 1: what I was getting at their right Like it's almost

807
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 1: like there's this squeaky clean image, Like the sexualization is

808
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:55,000
Speaker 1: almost innuendo, you know what I mean, Like you would

809
00:49:55,040 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: never actually think of them having sex or being sexual

810
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,920
Speaker 1: beings who are inn troll They're just objects. They're sort

811
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:04,520
Speaker 1: of like anime characters or something like that that are

812
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:07,359
Speaker 1: kind of trotted out and there's no humanity to them,

813
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 1: you know, that's the way they're portrayed. Kind of yeah,

814
00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:13,520
Speaker 1: I guess so. I think it's just uh, it reminds

815
00:50:13,560 --> 00:50:18,319
Speaker 1: me of um, somebody like Britney Spears that had that

816
00:50:18,440 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 1: similar thing, like if you if you remember when she

817
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:25,399
Speaker 1: was first becoming a popular and she's portrayed as this schoolgirl,

818
00:50:26,080 --> 00:50:29,480
Speaker 1: um in this very innocent way and yet hyper sexualized.

819
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 1: So it's just, um, it's just we're you know, we're

820
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:37,000
Speaker 1: talking about all these issues here and you can just

821
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 1: almost feel how the portrayal on camera. I think a

822
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:45,680
Speaker 1: lot of times ends up being one of these major

823
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:50,600
Speaker 1: issues where there's a disconnect between what's being seen by

824
00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:53,760
Speaker 1: the end user, somebody at their house, you know, watching

825
00:50:53,800 --> 00:50:57,800
Speaker 1: one of these videos. Um, there's such a disconnect between

826
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:00,399
Speaker 1: that image that's being seen and then the actual human

827
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 1: being that is attempting to function within this system. Absolutely no,

828
00:51:04,640 --> 00:51:08,600
Speaker 1: I could. I completely agree with you. Yeah, yeah, same,

829
00:51:08,719 --> 00:51:11,719
Speaker 1: I think we I think we're all in agreement here. UH.

830
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:15,040
Speaker 1: When you know, one terrifying aspect of this we have

831
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:18,600
Speaker 1: to point out is you don't see this talked about

832
00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:24,160
Speaker 1: as much, but our neurological research proves that a person

833
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:28,879
Speaker 1: in this age range, oftentimes their brain is still developing.

834
00:51:29,280 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: So being in this kind of situation can have lasting

835
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:38,200
Speaker 1: effects on you know, on the structure of your mind,

836
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,319
Speaker 1: which I know sounds crazy, but it is true. I'm

837
00:51:41,320 --> 00:51:44,799
Speaker 1: not being hyperbolic. There's there's one last thing we should

838
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 1: also talk about, and that's privacy violations in K pop

839
00:51:48,760 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 1: and abroad because, according to UH several social critics and

840
00:51:54,760 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 1: coldness and researchers, this sexism, this misogyny, UH that these

841
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: stars female stars in particular, but also males face is

842
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:10,520
Speaker 1: a symptom of a larger problem in society. There's one

843
00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 1: researcher that really stood out, Mano Lee, as a K

844
00:52:13,640 --> 00:52:18,480
Speaker 1: pop columnists and specifically talking about the problems that female

845
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 1: K pop stars face uh. Manto Lee says the following quote.

846
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:26,240
Speaker 1: A lot of Korean women can relate to the issues

847
00:52:26,280 --> 00:52:30,800
Speaker 1: that female celebrities deal with. They have experienced it themselves. Many,

848
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:34,440
Speaker 1: she says, feel unsafe due to the pervasiveness of molcha

849
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:38,880
Speaker 1: m O l k A, gender based violence and victims

850
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:44,479
Speaker 1: shaming and and molcha is weird. It's a portmanteau. It's uh.

851
00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:48,120
Speaker 1: It comes from two Korean words mole, which is Korean

852
00:52:48,160 --> 00:52:52,320
Speaker 1: for secret, and ka, which is the word for camera.

853
00:52:52,640 --> 00:52:57,319
Speaker 1: And so molcha means the illegal filming of women. And

854
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 1: it is a huge problem. And I mean this doesn't

855
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:04,759
Speaker 1: pass unnoticed. I mean there's been widespread outrage over this

856
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:10,960
Speaker 1: spy cam epidemic UH and almost cases of hidden camera

857
00:53:11,120 --> 00:53:15,600
Speaker 1: crimes were reported in the Supreme Prosecutor's office, and in

858
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:19,400
Speaker 1: some cases camera were actually hidden in women's public toilets

859
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:24,640
Speaker 1: and also motel rooms. Others involved things like filming UH

860
00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:28,279
Speaker 1: and sharing videos of women that had been taken by

861
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:31,720
Speaker 1: their partners and former partners it's almost like revenge porn

862
00:53:31,760 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: kind of stuff that we think of in the States, right, Yeah, exactly.

863
00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:37,799
Speaker 1: There's there's one other thing I want to add, just

864
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:39,880
Speaker 1: I don't know if people have heard about this. I

865
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,239
Speaker 1: don't know how widely this has been reported in the US,

866
00:53:43,239 --> 00:53:45,200
Speaker 1: but I came across this where I was doing this

867
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:49,880
Speaker 1: UH Strange News daily show. There was recently a huge

868
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 1: scandal related to this. UH is based on something called

869
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:59,000
Speaker 1: the in room in t H and don't don't dive

870
00:53:59,040 --> 00:54:02,160
Speaker 1: into it unless you have a strong stomach. But essentially

871
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:10,320
Speaker 1: what happened is a group of terrible, terrible dudes started blackmailing, UH,

872
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:14,840
Speaker 1: blackmailing women, several of whom were miners in South Korea

873
00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:21,080
Speaker 1: and forcing them to film themselves doing very dehumanizing things

874
00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 1: up to and including UH self harm, sexual assault, and

875
00:54:26,320 --> 00:54:32,800
Speaker 1: incest UH and then charging charging other people UH to

876
00:54:33,480 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 1: like they called them tickets to go into the messaging

877
00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,000
Speaker 1: group telegram, go into what they call these in th

878
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 1: rooms and watch these videos. UH. The main one of

879
00:54:42,760 --> 00:54:45,279
Speaker 1: the main guys got caught. UH. Several of the other

880
00:54:45,320 --> 00:54:47,239
Speaker 1: ones are still out there, and one of the big

881
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:53,000
Speaker 1: conversations in South Korea now is about prosecuting the people,

882
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:57,840
Speaker 1: the thousands of people who paid to watch these horrible

883
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:00,719
Speaker 1: things that stories ongoing. We don't an answer, but that

884
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 1: just shows us that this uh this molcha, this this

885
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:10,880
Speaker 1: illicit filming epidemic is huge. It's it's bigger than K

886
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,680
Speaker 1: pop and you know, not a lot of things are,

887
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 1: but there is so there is just so much disturbing

888
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:23,240
Speaker 1: and dark stuff here. This is just scratching the surface,

889
00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:26,480
Speaker 1: you know. And and remember we're talking about a profoundly

890
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:30,280
Speaker 1: powerful industry. This is one that is more than capable

891
00:55:31,080 --> 00:55:34,400
Speaker 1: in many cases of protecting its own you know what

892
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:39,160
Speaker 1: I mean, how much would an unscrupulous uh mover and

893
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:42,480
Speaker 1: shaker in this industry get away with? You could skatee

894
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:45,839
Speaker 1: K pop stars all along? But where where the big

895
00:55:45,920 --> 00:55:47,680
Speaker 1: names going down? You know what I mean? Well, and

896
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:51,480
Speaker 1: they certainly haven't had their me too movement yet over there,

897
00:55:51,520 --> 00:55:54,880
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, it's happening right now, it really is.

898
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: It's beginning to happen. And the and the nth Room

899
00:55:58,160 --> 00:56:01,520
Speaker 1: case is one of the big things. There are a

900
00:56:01,560 --> 00:56:05,560
Speaker 1: lot of students that are speaking out now. Who are

901
00:56:05,960 --> 00:56:08,400
Speaker 1: you know, the trainee, the trainees, the ones going in

902
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:10,360
Speaker 1: doing that like ten year stint right that we were

903
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:13,160
Speaker 1: talking about. There have been several groups who have stood

904
00:56:13,239 --> 00:56:17,640
Speaker 1: up and said, hey, uh we these there are allegations

905
00:56:17,680 --> 00:56:22,360
Speaker 1: of sexual abuse, allegations of physical abuse, and they're just

906
00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:26,080
Speaker 1: coming forward and trying to get support while still existing

907
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:31,440
Speaker 1: in this rigid system. It is a shame. And you

908
00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 1: know this is this is where we leave off on

909
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:39,760
Speaker 1: today's episode, but we have to be fair U. Currently,

910
00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:42,600
Speaker 1: K pop continues to grow. People love it and in

911
00:56:42,719 --> 00:56:45,440
Speaker 1: heck they should. You know, it's catchy, it's a lot

912
00:56:45,440 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 1: of fun. You know, the the music. If you're just

913
00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:51,520
Speaker 1: listening to music and you're a kid, you know, and

914
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:55,400
Speaker 1: stuff you can dance to. H And this is also absolutely,

915
00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:59,160
Speaker 1: absolutely not to imply that K pop itself is rotten

916
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:01,920
Speaker 1: to the core. There are hundreds of thousands of people

917
00:57:02,200 --> 00:57:06,480
Speaker 1: who are working ardently, day in, day out, and honestly

918
00:57:07,080 --> 00:57:10,040
Speaker 1: to make it in this industry. We all know entertainment's

919
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:14,520
Speaker 1: brutal industry. And yes, there is a great deal of

920
00:57:14,560 --> 00:57:18,120
Speaker 1: disturbing behavior under the surface or behind the curtain, or

921
00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 1: whatever phrase you want to use. People in power are

922
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:25,920
Speaker 1: leveraging their authority to force performers to commit sex acts,

923
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 1: to force them to live in virtual poverty, driving them

924
00:57:29,680 --> 00:57:33,320
Speaker 1: to suicide, probably not purposely, but still driving them to suicide.

925
00:57:33,480 --> 00:57:37,400
Speaker 1: And more. But to that point at the like near

926
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:40,440
Speaker 1: the top of the show, the music industry is the

927
00:57:40,520 --> 00:57:45,720
Speaker 1: music industry is the music industry. So industry right, So

928
00:57:45,960 --> 00:57:50,600
Speaker 1: we have to warn anyone who's too quick to criticize

929
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:55,240
Speaker 1: South Korea's industry. Uh, lest you be quick to hop

930
00:57:55,280 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 1: on a high horse, remember many many entertainment industries across

931
00:58:00,480 --> 00:58:03,760
Speaker 1: the world, or in a glasshouse situation, you know what

932
00:58:03,800 --> 00:58:07,160
Speaker 1: I mean, We have to look at our own, our

933
00:58:07,200 --> 00:58:10,640
Speaker 1: own music industries. I mean, God knows the stories from

934
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:13,920
Speaker 1: the US music industry alone, you know what I mean.

935
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:17,960
Speaker 1: There there's there aren't enough trees to make the pages

936
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:22,160
Speaker 1: we would need to write down those scandals. For instance.

937
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 1: You know, we've we've even got podcasts on our network

938
00:58:26,040 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 1: that's dedicated entirely to this is called disgrace Land. You

939
00:58:29,520 --> 00:58:31,360
Speaker 1: want to tell us a little bit about Yeah, sure,

940
00:58:31,360 --> 00:58:34,400
Speaker 1: it's It's a show hosted by a really talented writer

941
00:58:34,800 --> 00:58:37,640
Speaker 1: producer named Jake Brennan, and every episode is just about

942
00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:42,080
Speaker 1: you know, um, musicians doing terrible things getting caught up

943
00:58:42,080 --> 00:58:45,960
Speaker 1: in scandals, uh, largely of their own making um so,

944
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:48,880
Speaker 1: it's it's definitely an interesting one. You've got things everything

945
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:52,560
Speaker 1: from uh, Jerry Lee Lewis murdering several of his wives

946
00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:55,320
Speaker 1: and getting away with it to you know, Tupac core

947
00:58:55,440 --> 00:58:59,280
Speaker 1: story h too. There's a rapper by the name of

948
00:58:59,480 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 1: Big Arch who ends up involved in some light cannibalism,

949
00:59:03,680 --> 00:59:05,760
Speaker 1: um and and things like that. It's it's a it's

950
00:59:05,760 --> 00:59:07,520
Speaker 1: a really interesting show. And he's in the midst of

951
00:59:07,560 --> 00:59:13,000
Speaker 1: season four, I believe right now. Hey, another new show

952
00:59:13,040 --> 00:59:16,000
Speaker 1: you should be checking out is called Strange News Daily.

953
00:59:16,360 --> 00:59:18,840
Speaker 1: If you like this show, you're gonna love this one.

954
00:59:19,320 --> 00:59:22,120
Speaker 1: It's a it's a quick update on what's going on

955
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:25,640
Speaker 1: in Strange News. Ben, you want to tell them about it? Yeah,

956
00:59:25,720 --> 00:59:29,160
Speaker 1: well until the until this House of Cards burns down.

957
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, it's a it's a quick uh i'd say

958
00:59:33,680 --> 00:59:37,480
Speaker 1: five to fifteen minute look daily update at some of

959
00:59:37,480 --> 00:59:40,960
Speaker 1: the stories that haven't made the news. Like, you know,

960
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:44,080
Speaker 1: it turned out that all the Dead Sea scroll fragments

961
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,720
Speaker 1: in the Museum of the Bible are fake. There are forgeries.

962
00:59:48,120 --> 00:59:50,680
Speaker 1: We talked about updates that have happened really quickly. Comes

963
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:55,080
Speaker 1: out Monday through Friday, available wherever you find your your

964
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 1: favorite shows, and you know, we want to hear from

965
00:59:59,480 --> 01:00:04,080
Speaker 1: you because we know they're statistically speaking, several of our

966
01:00:04,120 --> 01:00:08,160
Speaker 1: fellow listeners have to be K pop fans. The industry

967
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,360
Speaker 1: is just that huge, So we want to hear from you.

968
01:00:10,400 --> 01:00:12,840
Speaker 1: What are some of your craziest K pop uh fan

969
01:00:12,960 --> 01:00:15,479
Speaker 1: or anti fans stories? What's your favorite group and why?

970
01:00:16,080 --> 01:00:19,600
Speaker 1: What allegations have you heard? What do you think the

971
01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:22,760
Speaker 1: future of K pop is? Tell us. You can find

972
01:00:22,800 --> 01:00:24,760
Speaker 1: us on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram. You

973
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:27,720
Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter. Yes, we are Conspiracy Stuff

974
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:31,880
Speaker 1: on Twitter and Facebook, Conspiracy Stuff Show on Instagram. We

975
01:00:31,960 --> 01:00:34,960
Speaker 1: have a phone number. It is one eight three three

976
01:00:35,440 --> 01:00:38,440
Speaker 1: st d w y t K. You can leave us

977
01:00:38,440 --> 01:00:40,760
Speaker 1: a message. Tell us what you think about this episode,

978
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:44,880
Speaker 1: give us suggestions for others, make us laugh, uh, tell

979
01:00:44,960 --> 01:00:50,680
Speaker 1: us something interesting about yourself or your aunt Judy. Whatever

980
01:00:50,720 --> 01:00:53,840
Speaker 1: you want to do, We're interested. Give us a call, Yes,

981
01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:57,400
Speaker 1: give us a call us. Know what you think, reach

982
01:00:57,440 --> 01:01:00,160
Speaker 1: out and you know what I'm gonna say, because everybody

983
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:02,920
Speaker 1: needs the human moments nowadays. Yeah, I have to have

984
01:01:02,960 --> 01:01:05,560
Speaker 1: an interesting story. If you've got to, if you've got

985
01:01:05,600 --> 01:01:09,959
Speaker 1: something read, it would call mildly interesting. All right, laying honest, yeah,

986
01:01:10,040 --> 01:01:11,960
Speaker 1: or just tell us how you're getting through this whole thing,

987
01:01:12,080 --> 01:01:14,960
Speaker 1: if you got any tips, or just tell us how

988
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:17,600
Speaker 1: you're doing. That's totally awesome. And if you don't want

989
01:01:17,600 --> 01:01:19,360
Speaker 1: to do any of that stuff, you can always send

990
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:22,200
Speaker 1: us a good old fashioned email. We are conspiracy at

991
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:43,600
Speaker 1: iHeart radio dot com. Stuff they don't want you to know.

992
01:01:43,840 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 1: Is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts

993
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,040
Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the i heart radio app,

994
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:52,000
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.