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The Future of Youth in K-Pop

With the success of NewJeans, K-pop entertainment companies are likely to not hold back from debuting young idols. How does this affect older K-pop fans? What do idols who debuted young have to say at an older age?

BabyMonster 베이비몬스터

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  • BabyMonster is an upcoming South Korean girl group set to debut in 2023 under YG Entertainment

  • They garnered a lot of attention for having a member born in 2009

    • However, NewJeans faced a similar initial backlash and still became a huge success, so what is stopping YG Entertainment and other companies from continuing to push the limits of how young idols can debut?

  • Despite training together as a 7-member group for a long time, YG Entertainment suddenly announced that they would only debut 5 of the BabyMonster members

    • Although speculated to be a marketing scheme to garner more attention for BabyMonster, many questioned and criticized YG Entertainment for playing with these young girls' lives/careers​

K-Pop Fans Who Are Getting Older

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  • As K-pop idols get younger, some K-pop fans get older, especially those who have been long-time fans of the genre

  • Thus, a dilemma is created as older fans hesitate to support idols who are much younger than them because of how it can be viewed

    • ​​Older fans still want to be able to enjoy K-pop music and other content (music videos, performance videos, variety shows, etc.) comfortably but question the appropriateness of it when idols are minors

       

K-Pop Idols Who Have Gotten Older

  • Hyuna, a K-pop idol who debuted at 15, reflected on her past as a young idol and expressed worries for NewJeans members, including the possibility of them not being able to eat or sleep well

  • In the past, K-pop girl group SISTAR ​and Super Junior's Leeteuk gave advice to younger female idols to be careful of male senior idols

  • A quote from the late K-pop idol Sulli:

    • "I think because I've been active since I was young, there haven't been many people who thought of me as young. There were a lot of scary moments. If they told me to do something, I would, and I didn't even know the reason why I had to."​

  • NCT Dream's Jaemin, who debuted at 15, dropped out of middle school to pursue an idol career and regrets not being able to experience the social life those who went to middle and high school were able to

  • Twice's Jihyo expressed sadness for not having time to go on family trips or create fun school memories as she trained to be an idol since she was only 8 years old​

  • Although the industry working conditions may have gotten better for some young idols today, there are still things that these young idols will miss out on or will have to be wary of

    • However, are these reasons enough for K-pop entertainment companies to prevent idols from debuting so young?

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