We’re Dating, K-Pop Stars Declare. You’re Fired, Their Label Says.

[BUtterfield 8 41,818]

HyunA, 26, one of the genre’s most recognizable female stars, and E’Dawn, 24, a boyband rapper from the group pentagon with a smaller but still substantial global fan base, took a highly unusual step in going public with their relationship last month, contradicting an earlier denial by Cube Entertainment (their label).

“No dating” clauses were once common in the contracts of young K-pop stars, according to industry experts, with many managers saying that publicly disclosed romances would undermine their idols’ allure and careers. Avoiding romantic relationships, or at least keeping them secret, remains an unspoken rule.

Cube canceled all their scheduled promotions. It promoted a new Pentagon single, “Naughty Boy,” without E’Dawn.

“The K-pop idol industry is still based on the agency owning the idol, whose character the company creates,” said Kim Zakka, a music critic in South Korea. “Since the business worked based on the fantasy of the fan having a pseudo-relationship with the idol, the idol dating in real life breaks the business model.”

Local news reports quoted a senior executive of Cube as saying that the decision to kick out HyunA and E’Dawn was “not final.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/13/world/asia/kpop-hyuna-edawn-dating-fired.html

[enigmaunicorn 626]

The no dating rule is pretty ****ed up tbh.

[highlikegaga 9,117]

am i the only one who expected it to be a same-sex couple? 

[Fatigay 21,211]

K-Pop is ruled by even more Trash than the Western market, and that's why I'll never encourage it.
 

Exhibit A:

12 minutes ago, Rainbow1 said:

“Since the business worked based on the fantasy of the fan having a pseudo-relationship with the idol, the idol dating in real life breaks the business model.”

[gag 22,449]

In Western media PR firms set up celebrities to date 

[ryanripley 86,575]

so where's that user bigging up k-pop as the second coming?

[Stef 61,674]

I do sometimes wonder who these Kpop stars really are when they're at home...

 

We say that some of our Western talent is bound into contracts but Christ. this seems like the literal definition of slave labor  

And, from where I see it, the pre-teen fangirls really do buy into the product, when it really seems like it is just a rich man in a suit in an office pulling these poor artist's strings as and when they wish to 

[bloody g 31,746]

This is sick and twisted 

[Sunny 12,753]

this is nothing new in the kpop world, but still

[Fatigay 21,211]

20 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

so where's that user bigging up k-pop as the second coming?

They be like: 

 

Edit:
Let's ask them 
@mcddaengbang

[Saeed 1,937]

Another restriction that's a part of a K-pop star's slave contract. Not shocked.

Cube will suffer the most in the end by dropping one of, if not, the BIGGEST act of the company.

[Othon 34,299]

30 minutes ago, ryanripley said:

so where's that user bigging up k-pop as the second coming?

From what I can tell from my few minutes browsing Twitter, k-pop fans in general are pretty outraged about this. Western ones definitely are, at least. The whole dating fantasy seems to be specific to a small but vocal portion of the Korean population. 

The major problem is the fact that just a handful of corporations run the entire industry there, even to a greater extent than what we see in the US, so stars like those two have to do exactly what they say or they risk this sort of treatment. It's a pretty exploitative system, and each group's image/sound is essentially dictated to them by their company. We see that here, for sure, but not like this. 

I'm not saying that this should be used as a justification for dismissing the entirety of this genre of music, because it's essentially just a more extreme version of what we have in the US, but I hope these fans understand what they've signed up for.

 

[Easy 5,319]

Joke’s on Cube Entertainment tbh.

Someone as talented+famous as HyunA can easily get another recording contract.

Cube already lost several million dollars from its stock today after announcing dropping them so hail HyunA and E’Dawn.

[Easy 5,319]

Oh apparently Cube is a *** label they retracted the decision of dropping them after their stock plummeted. Now they are saying that they will hold board meeting to discuss the future of HyunA and E’Dawn. I hope they continue to make the HyunA album and let E’Dawn rejoin Pentagon. If they are open minded enough I hope they can work on a EP as a duo just to give me another taste of the Troublemaker slayage.

[LUO YI 6,089]

Yeah everyone is mad in Latin American Kpop groups and stuff like ****