Very depressing indeed. They work so hard, give everything they got, get chewed up and spitted out like disposable commodities. What a despicable industry.
Granted the concept of this specific group in itself is that teen models are regularly "admitted" into the group, then go through training to become fully-fledged performers, and then leave the group when they "graduate", so having high turnover of members is sort of part of the idea to begin with. But actually it makes it even more disgusting. Their management consider them to be interchangeable products instead of creative individuals in their own rights and they're expected to work like minions. Maybe it's part of a certain kind of corporate culture where employees are meant to sacrifice their well-being and sense of self for the greater good of the company or whatnot, I don't really know. But it seems to me that young debuting musicians and other kinds of performing artists should be *nurtured* in order to develop their talent and own creative voice, rather than "trained" like foot soldiers, getting their creative identity erased and replaced with a sellable "image".
I feel so bad for these girls, especially the ones who got crushed by this whole experience. I sincerely hope that other Korean music companies treat their artists better than this, they deserve better. If the way they're exploited and paraded around almost like luxury escorts with no agency of their own isn't already enough to make one uneasy, the part about having to go straight to practice after getting injured in a car accident is frankly shocking. I also feel bad for their managers (read: personal assistants, not managers in the usual sense of the word, they have no actual managerial power) who put the same amount of hours into the job as the performers and are doing an ungrateful job. From what I've heard, staff and even actors on k-dramas have very harsh working conditions as well.
Gosh, so depressing. I'm not a huge fan of k-pop (generic pop music in general is not my cup of tea) but after watching this I now have a new level of respect for these young performers and of disgust for the agencies that are exploiting them. Those kids skipped getting an education and sacrificed their teenage years, including family and friends for this! I initially thought that in the show Producers (2015), the hardships that the character of Candy goes through as a k-pop star might have been exaggerated. But it looks like it was actually very much on point. Sigh.
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