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| Jin, a former member of now-defunct K-pop girl group Lovelyz / Courtesy of Woollim Entertainment |
Former Lovelyz member stirs debate after K-pop stars' dating revelations
By Dong Sun-hwa
Jin, a former member of the now-defunct K-pop girl group Lovelyz, said Monday she would take legal action against those who bombarded her Instagram account with malicious comments. The 26-year-old's warning came only a day after she apologized for making "controversial" remarks on her YouTube channel about different ways K-pop stars make time for dating amid their tight schedules.
According to Jin, management companies these days do not deter their singers from dating if they are experienced enough to avoid any trouble. She added that they have frequent chances to get to know each other when they film music shows together, mentioning the name of a specific program where they can easily build rapport.
In fact, Jin talked about dating ― a longstanding taboo topic in the conservative K-pop industry ― in response to her fans' questions. Her fans claim she did not drop a bombshell because many other singers have already dished on how they started their romance. But quite a few K-pop fans in Korea disagree, believing she was "thoughtless." They insist she released unwanted information that could negatively affect other K-pop stars, leaving room for scandals and rumors.
Whether Jin went too far is still being hotly debated online, but one thing is crystal clear: K-pop fans, especially those in Korea, are still very sensitive about their stars' love lives.
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| K-pop fans attend KCON, a Korean culture festival in Los Angeles, last August. Courtesy of CJ ENM |
"K-pop followers are like parents or patrons in the sense that they show unwavering support for their singers. But in return, they want their stars to immerse themselves in their career and chase success," Lee Gyu-tag, an associate professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea, told The Korea Times. "They do not want K-pop artists to veer off course and spend excessive time and energy on something else, such as dating."
The fact that some fans view their singers as potential love interests for themselves has long been picked as the rationale behind their sensitivity, but Lee thinks this is not necessarily the case.
"Some of them do seem to have romantic feelings for their singers, but more often, they react sensitively to dating issues because they fear their stars might lose popularity and fall behind their rivals in the cutthroat K-pop scene," he noted.
As Lee said, several Korean celebrities saw their popularity waning after they became engulfed in romance scandals. In particular, up-and-coming stars ― who did not have solid fandoms ― have been hit hardest by such scandals and had a harder time getting their careers back on track.
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| Singer Kan Mi-youn / Courtesy of SBS |
"K-pop fans tend to be more generous to top-tier acts who have already pulled off many musical feats," Lee explained, adding that fans today are actually more "open-minded" than those in the 1990s.
"Back in the 1990s, when the first-generation K-pop groups like H.O.T., Fin K.L and S.E.S. were enjoying their heyday, their fans were far more responsive to dating rumors. Some followers of H.O.T. member Moon Hee-joon even sent box-cutters and letters written in blood to Kan Mi-youn, a member of girl group Baby V.O.X, after they were swirled in a romance rumor."
But this is a thing of the past, Lee says.
"These days, fans do not put a curse on people who date their idols," he said. "They have been changing and they will look quite different in the future, becoming more generous about dating and supporting their singers regardless of scandals. Maybe they will not even ask K-pop stars to prioritize their career above all."
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