Just hear those sleigh bells ring-a-ling, jing-jing-jing-a-loo! Oh Christmas time, it's my favorite time of year for oh so many reasons. The lights, the gifts, the snow, and the controversy! Nothing says 'Merry Christmas' quite like a card with birds on it and Kpop scandals! It's just been a shit year for Korea's music industry, filled with scandals, crap music, and death. At the center seems to be SM Entertainment (my personal fav.). First it was DBSK, where three of the members grew a brain and demanded to be released from their contracts. Then it was Kangin from Super Junior getting into a bar fight and then driving drunk. And now it's Hankyung, the Chinese member of Super Junior. He is basically claiming the same ignorance as the three members of DBSK, arguing his contract is extremely unfair and that SM Entertainment is a slave worker. Well, uh duh. I remember writing about this before and how we all knew the inner workings of SM Entertainment back in the late 90s with H.O.T., SES, and Shinhwa. All I have to say is this: you knew what you were getting yourself into when you signed the contract. And if you didn't, that's your own fault. Too many people in the world want to be famous and an entertainer, and once they are, they think they are somehow superior and better than the rest of us lowly peons. The problem is, just because you become famous doesn't necessarily make you any smarter, especially not any smarter than me. If I, a lowly 25 year old American boy can figure out that the contracts of most the Korean entertainment industry are unfair and should be retooled, then what does that say about those actually signing the contract? You know, I love the Korean singer Ivy. I love her not because she is sexy, even though she is, or she makes fun music, because she does. I love her because she speaks her mind. She told a room full of students from her alma mater that if you can't sing, don't become a singer, because it's just wasted space. How right she is. Dreams of making it big should really only apply to those with talent to make it big. Now yes, this would negate about 85% of the Korean music industry, 75% of the Japanese music industry, and roughly 50% of the American music industry, but let's face it kids, sometimes you just have to say enough's enough. Now I wouldn't particularly care so much if people without talent ran around and were famous and whatnot, but when things like this happen that's when I just want to be like 'dude, the Wizard can only give you so much of a brain; you need something to start from first.' Hankyung was apparently only 17 when he signed the contract, and there are many more out there signing contracts at much younger ages than 17 (oh Shinee, I love you). Korea's mommy problem strikes again, as not only do parents not really do actual parenting, but now they are allowing their children to just sign their lives away for 13 +years without second thought. "Hello? Social Services? Yes, I'd like to report a case of child slavery."
Honestly, Hankyung should grow a pair, admit he was a dumbass, and pay his time. Think of it like prison for the dumb. If you are dumb enough to sign the contract in the first place (or have parents who are that dumb), then you are subjected to 13 years of hard labor as a Korean entertainer. I rather not quote John Mayer again, but seriously, people need to wise up, and parents especially need to stop signing these contracts. I feel like Korean schools need to offer a new class is the Korean Entertainment Industry so that the kids won't just blindly sign their futures away. All in all, though, Hankyung isn't even Korean, he has no Korean citizenship, and so really he could just be all 'I quit' and move back to China and let that be that. Why he is dragging this through mud and courts is beyond me.
comment
ReplyDelete