[Research Document] Why KPOP Groups Don't Get Along (Patreon)

· Fans like to assume KPOP groups have a strong bond – paint blissful picture

· Shocking news of bullying – AOA, t-ara

· What causes these rifts to form between group members? Can it all be boiled down to these idols personalities?

· Me: I believe the environment also plays an important role, which is why today I’ll be doing a deep dive into the ways the KPOP industry contributes to this problem.

· In order to get a more authentic look at this problem, recruited 2 former KPOP girl group members

· Just a disclaimer – not just girl groups, also boy groups

Pre debut

· Let’s start from the beginning. Groups are often formed by selecting a few people out of a pool of trainees.

· Choyoon - training and selection process

· Trainees are desperate

· Choyoon - Categorize trainees based on their individual strengths, making them fight for positions such as main singer, main dancer etc. 

· Center, visual and face of the group

· Melanie - visual of Chocolat was chosen

· Melanie - companies would often blatantly pit members against each other.

After debut - company

· Choyoon - Some members may also be treated better than others based on things like popularity.

· Using one member as standard for comparison seems to be a very common tactic in the industry.

o Clip from Nine muses documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G66uRJ6pAfI 0:53

Spotlight

· AOA’s Confused

· Loona’s So What - 16% vs 1.8% of lines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tML4l0U49B4)

· Vicious cycle

· This is why some KPOP idols are known nationwide, while their group member are pretty much considered C or D list celebrities.

Public

· comparing and contrasting members by creating group rankings. 

· Humans have an inherent urge to rank things, as stated in an article by Roger Dooley https://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/power-of-ten.htm

o Our thought processes are divided into two categories: fast, intuitive, and emotional vs. logical, rational, and conscious. Kahneman notes that the human brain doesn’t like to take the difficult second path and will use whatever shortcuts it can. Rankings, and the apparent differences between listed items, seem like one such shortcut.

· online disinhibition effect – show comments I’ve received

· Ranking members, comments targeting specific people (eg: Lia of Itzy)

· The irony of this is, the public, ie the ones comparing and ranking these members, are the VERY ONES who expect all these members to be friends!

Media

· TV show of MissA https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=Oh3_oWgxwgA

· Afterschool Beauty ranking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaFOJgmJFtI

· So to conclude this section, whether it’s the company, producers or the public, everyone is constantly comparing these members, resulting in feelings of envy and jealousy. This can have real life consequences, when these negative feelings eventually culminate into outwardly rude or distant behaviour, As explained a research paper by Mary C. Lamia Ph.D.: 

o Any threat to your esteem—your established sense of self—will likely activate shame (Catherall, 2012), and, when you come up short in such contrasts, shame is experienced as envy or jealousy of another.

o Typical self-protective responses to shame are experienced: withdrawal, avoidance, or expressing anger at yourself or others (Nathanson, 1992). When jealousy is pronounced in a relationship, an anger response to shame may result in aggressive and offensive behaviour.

 

Work with the same people 

· KPOP groups are viewed as one collective unit, and the actions of one member can reflect on the entire group – eg: may punish all members of the group due to the actions of just one member (9 muses), T-ara japanese concert

· Synchronized dances - If different members are doing the same dance step differently, they have to decide who to follow and the other members then have to modify their movements to match the rest of the group + different abilities, practice methods and communication styles

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5eCCskclfk

· To demonstrate this, recruited Debe, to dance to AOA’s miniskirt with me for the #PPP Clue 

· Thankfully debe and I are close friends, but KPOP group members who are not close might take this personally

· Choyoon – Violence from members

· Companies tackling bullying

Living together

· Choyoon - living situation

· Companies usually house group members together to maximise practice time + allow the company to monitor the idols more easily. 

· Lack of separation between the workplace and home -  bullying between members can then be carried home

· Lack of any personal space or privacy - “Privacy allows us to maintain a sense of control, autonomy, self-identity and well being in our lives. It also allows for an emotional release that might be inappropriate under other circumstances.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/out-the-ooze/201905/the-nature-privacy 

· Different people have different living habits

· Choyoon – arguments about little things

Friendships on screen

· Melanie – have to act more friendly on screen

· In order to avoid scandals, companies typically try portray all the members as being best friends, even if some of these “friendships” are completely manufactured.

· Public has high expectations – Lisa and Jennie, Hyoyeon

· For idols who do not get along, constantly being forced to act out fake friendships can actually make their relationship even worse. 

· But what happens when the public catches just hints of a bad relationship between group members? Well, it becomes a PR nightmare. 

o Jessica and SNSD

o Sunhwa and Hana

o Hyuna and 4 minute

· Viewers start seeing things as a black and white issue 

Shouldn’t be surprising that idols don’t get along – doesn’t hppen because one person is 100% good while another person is 100% bad

Shouldn’t accept bullying but we also need to look at environmental factors