How aware should K-Pop idols be?

The world of entertainment is a tricky thing. With this newfound burst of global popularity for K-Pop, led by BTS, everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie, from within Korea and abroad. Getting on U.S television is a big step for many K-Pop idols, and a great place for idols to land some new fans. We’ve had idols perform on morning shows, MTV showcases, celebrity talk shows, and award shows, and the number of idols making this leap to US televisions is only growing.

Now with this tricky industry comes the question of promotion. For many, any kind of publicity is good publicity, and I’m getting this sort of feeling from K-pop idols right now in the sense that being on any US TV show is only a positive. My questioning of the boom in idols on these shows arose when I saw that Tomorrow x Together (TXT) had performed We Lost the Summer on the Ellen show in April. I must admit that I don’t follow the Ellen Degeneres show at all, nor did I really take notice that quite a few idols have been on the show, but I do know about the numerous allegations against her and the show’s producers that came in 2020. Various staff and celebrities have come out and alleged that Ellen and other staff had created a horribly toxic work environment, even claiming that you can’t look Ellen in the eye (which she denied of course).

My question put towards this issue is this: do K-Pop idols and labels, particularly TXT and BigHit/HYBE for this post, have a responsibility to not perform on Ellen’s show due to her and top staff’s abuses of power, or should they take any high viewership promotions they can?

Or maybe the investigation was perfectly done, and Ellen truly an angel that can change he views and actions in a flash. While the show has come back, and the issue has just about blown over since last year, I think there are still some things to be thought over.

If we are to believe the victim, then should TXT have performed on the Ellen Show, especially considering how recent the controversy was, and that top staffers were fired? We also have to keep in mind that you can’t have the Ellen Show without Ellen, so can we keep in mind that maybe she also was an issue that cannot be dropped? It also has me curious due to the history of abusive contracts and poor treatment and physical and mental abuse of idols/trainees within the K-pop Industry. Should these things all be taken into consideration, or should we be unsurprised that controversy of this type is ignored?

For this sort of issue, while it would be great if we could hold all those involved accountable, I really can’t in good faith blame the members of TXT, or any idol group that has appeared on the show since the issue. TXT are young, have limited input into their music, are following schedules made for them, and probably don’t care that much for Ellen unless they’re watching Korean subbed episodes in their spare time for some bizarre reason. I would assume that they probably had no idea about this controversy, although I can’t confirm this. It is disappointing that the group has songs preaching love and that we should also love our unique selves, and then they perform on a show that was under investigation for a toxic culture so recently.

It is also a little disheartening when we consider that, while they’re completely different groups, BTS has been a global advocate for love and peace for a few years now (and they unfollowed Ellen for who knows what reason. Such drama). I think that with their proximity to BTS, it has to put TXT in a position that would keep them within those values, and I think that if the group just HAD to perform on Ellen, it might have been too soon.

The true question here is whether or not K-pop idols and labels have a responsibility to have a stronger following of what is happening across the seas.

From the massive issues making waves globally, like BTS making a Black Lives Matter or #StopAsianHate posts, to smaller controversies with a celebrity that any idol may have some kind of interaction with, where is the line or is there one? There didn’t need to be a tweet from TXT’s management proclaiming “Y'ALL DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS EVEN A THING BUT TXT AREN'T GOING ON ELLEN!”, they could have just not done it, no one had to know.

There are different levels of response of course, ranging from refraining from engagement, up to making a statement or calling someone out, but with issues that are focused in on one foreign talk show, where does that leave Koreans? I think that even if it started at an absolute zero, with the desire to reach into the US market especially, the need for this kind of awareness and reaction is growing as time brings more and more idols around the globe.

It's disheartening to think that the genre and industry which evolved from aspects of black culture in the US, and loves to reference that culture, still has many issues with even just the acknowledgement of where it came from. If K-Pop wants to be mainstream in the US, then it's time to own up and begin taking its global listeners seriously. I don't think we should leave instances of trainee abuse, cultural appropriation, blackface, misogyny, or cultural insensitivity, in the past quite yet as there is still a long way to go until the bad eggs are out. The US entertainment industry is hell though and can't figure itself out, so no real point in holding your breath.

Now while this post has focused on TXT and mentioned other idols, I'm not out here to blame individual idols at this moment. There's so much that goes into a country's people and culture that it is difficult to know where to point the finger if at an individual. I don't know Bang Si Hyuk's or JYP's actual stances on race, nor could I tell you if any idols that have done blackface, fully grasp and agree with the issues that it has created. All I can say is that things need to get better, so that the environment that the K-pop industry hope to create can be fostered without alienation or exclusion due to the actions that idols take in their promotions.

What do you think? Is my thinking out of line for the topic, or should we hold the sections of the K-pop industry that this occurs in more accountable for these kinds of issues?

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