#if you want a comparison it's very similar to what idol industry and sport industry is imo

[shiraishi--kanade]

I keep seeing people being surprised/shocked about Touya starting piano lessons at 3 years old, and can I just say... Yeah, that's super common in classical music. My guess was actually 4 years old, 5 if we're being generous; 3 is still on an earlier side, but it's sadly extremely common.

Chloe Chua started at piano at 2 and a half years old, started violin at 4. Ray Chen, started violin at age of 4. Hilary Hahn, 3 years 11 months, violin. Joshua Bell, 4, violin. Leia Zhu, 3, violin. These are all just people I can list from the top of my head - and all of them are still playing and genuinely love classical music.

I'm not saying that's a good thing. Honestly, the ethical debate on this can go on and on, so feel free to cast your own judgement; but classical music industry is practically built on child abuse, and it's extremely rampant in it. But you also can't deem an early start as something that's inherently child abuse, because often it's just not. It's a complicated topic on which jumping to conclusions is something I'd advise against. In Touya's case, we know it was abusive because of the... "Methods" Harumichi used, but we don't have that kind of privilege or knowledge to judge real people's situations.

Anyway, yeah, I did fully expect something like that from Touya's story. I can't say it's not upsetting, but is it surprising? Not at all.

[peekbackstage]

Hello. At first let me thank you for your blog. I mean your posts and opinion as an insider is so interesting to read, it’s like you let us see a little more in this entertainment industry. After reading some posts I can now clearly see why so many stars live hard life, often have anxiety and even suicide thoughts. I mean their life seems to be fully controlled until they become really “someone” in this industry. Does it mean that until it happens they will do anything their company want and have nothing to do. I mean even if they get hate, they should pretend like they don’t care and can’t even say something against haters. My question is so random, I’m sorry. I also wanted to know, why so many singers and idols go acting even if they know many will hate it, they know they will get comments like “idols don’t let real actors to play”. I’m not sure about c-ent as I’m new. But I saw many such comments and reactions in Korean media. So why do they do it? Will they earn more money than being a singer or? Why not to try acting then? Why do they try to become idols? I mean there are so many talented singers and trainees who want ro sing. But eventually we see that many people who debuts as idols soon or later give up singing and try acting. I was just wondering. Thank you in advance, sorry if my question is too obvious. And better late than never. Happy New Year :)

Disclaimer: The following post is informed by my own experience working in the music industry. Chinese industry practices might vary.

In Asia, the world of entertainment tends to be pretty tightly regulated. It’s generally pretty difficult to get a foot in the door and even more difficult to actually “make” it. This post is going to mostly discuss Korea and Japan’s industries, as I am most familiar with those two markets. 

LET’S TALK A BIT ABOUT IDOL HISTORY! 

(Skip this entire section if you aren’t interested in history.) 

In 1962, Johnny Kitagawa, the CEO of the entertainment company, Johnny’s & Associates, launched Japan’s first boy band, Johnnys. While this group saw some minor popularity, it paled in comparison to the group that is often considered to be Asia’s “first” idol group, Four Leaves, who debuted in 1967. 

Four Leaves was a project composed of bishounen (pretty) boys who sang and dance but didn’t play any instruments. They were hand-selected and trained by Johnny Kitagawa himself, who largely focused on the artists’ personalities, attributes, and physical characteristics. 

Four Leaves’ success was so great that Johnny’s sought to replicate it, creating the first idol (aidoru in Japanese) training camp system which is the foundation of all idol companies these days. Just like idol companies today, Johnny’s selected young bishounen boys who were admitted via an audition process, and then placed them in a dorm together. There, they would train as Johnny’s Juniors (aka trainees) until they were ready to debut. 

By the 1980s, Japan had quite a few idol management companies (jimusho) that wanted to replicate Johnny’s success. By that time, the idol industry had matured, and the training camps had become extremely rigorous, Olympic-style singing, dancing, acrobatics, etc. all for the sole purpose of improving stage performances. By the time SMAP debuted in 1988, the system was already in place. But what SMAP did changed the game entirely: they launched their own variety show, effectively putting themselves into every Japanese household and endearing themselves to every single Japanese housewife. 

This caused their popularity to skyrocket, which in turn led to the creation of the ecosystem we now all know: the all-encompassing idol who sings, dances, and acts in tv shows, variety shows, plays, and films. Brand deals and endorsements also really took off during this time, especially with the most popular member, Kimura Takuya. 

(It must be noted that SMAP became very popular not only in Japan, but also all over Asia!) 

By this point, South Korea was taking notice, and by the 90s, debuted their first generation of idol groups, which included the likes of H.O.T. and Shinhwa, who all went through more or less the same style of training that Japanese idol jimushos put through trainees through. 

It must be noted that during this time, South Korea was pretty invested in trying to find the right secret sauce to also debut their artists in Japan, given the mature idol market there. S.M. Entertainment succeeded in doing this with their second generation artists, BoA, Super Junior, and TVXQ, by partnering with Avex Entertainment in Japan. (They even went as far as debuting a visual kei idol group, TraxX, which was actually produced by Yoshiki from X-Japan, to capitalize on the entire visual kei market in Japan.) JYP followed suit with Se7en and Rain, and YG Entertainment debuted BIGBANG and 2NE1. 

During this period of time, it must be noted that the big talk of the town was surprisingly not pop internationally - it was actually Jrock, which had a big surge of popularity in overseas markets between 2007-2009. (Hence S.M.’s desire to debut a visual kei idol band in Japan.) The Hallyu wave hadn’t really started yet, but within a matter of a few years, Kpop was suddenly the hottest new thing just about, well, everywhere.

In fact, it was so popular internationally, that by 2013, Kpop had become the #1 biggest contributor to South Korea’s GDP. It was so important to South Korea that the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism established KOCCA (the Korean Content Agency), which began heavily investing in the export of all things “Hallyu,” but especially Korean music. International industry conferences worldwide suddenly started to see the rise of Korean showcases, which took place literally everywhere. KOCCA was determined to export their idol culture all around the world. 

To capitalize more on international success, companies such as S.M. Entertainment and JYP began to incorporate Chinese members into their groups. This was specifically to give them a foot into the massive Chinese market, which, until the Hallyu ban in 2017, had a massive demand for all things Kpop. 

It was around this same time that TFBoys in China debuted. The industry largely considered them to be the first real homegrown mainland Chinese idol group that rose out of a similar training system used in both South Korea and Japan. 

HISTORY LESSON OVER! 

Why did I feel the need to explain all of this history, you wonder? Couldn’t I just answer the question in a straightforward way? 

Well, not really. It’s pretty important to understand that oftentimes, in the industry, idols aren’t seen as true artists - they are actually seen more as manufactured cultural products. The more products there are (i.e. music, acting projects) the more money there is, which in turn leads to more opportunities. When they are just starting out, idols never get to pick what activities they actually participate in - especially if they haven’t yet established themselves as very successful artists. 

And even when they are established, oftentimes, an idol company will push an artist to try expanding/broadening their various creative outputs with acting. Why only sell music, when you can make money through tv and film? 

Add in the additional benefit of not having any risk at all involved in said tv/film project and it’s win/win for the company - because they aren’t putting up any money upfront to produce and market the project. 

Companies want their idols to pursue acting gigs because it increases the market share for the artist and more opportunities for their artist to create new fans who might discover the artist through the drama or film. This tends to be a big part of the idol ecosystem, though it must be noted that not all idols do go down this route if their company determines that their music products might generate far more money than their acting products. 

This is especially true for rappers in particular, whose solo musical releases might not generate as much fanfare (or as much money) as an acting gig - especially in South Korea, where there is already a very mature, established Korean hip hop genre with plenty of very established hip hop artists. (There’s also a very popular hip hop competition show, Show Me The Money, that regularly features celebrity Korean hip hop artists.) 

Sometimes, it just makes more sense to take acting opportunities, as they can generate better income than music. 

Talented singers sometimes might also choose to go the acting route for the same reason - also because opportunities keep coming across the desks of their managers, who sometimes talk them into the projects. Other times, it may simply be that once an idol tries their hand at acting, they realize they have a real knack for it and end up wanting to pursue more acting projects. 

In any case, there isn’t a single, universal reason why idols choose to go from singing to acting, but there is a universal reason why all idols inevitably do make the switch: money. 

And for companies in particular, acting projects their artists star in are 100% pure profit with zero financial risk. 

In any case, quite a few artists started out in music, tried their hand at acting, and then continued to do both. We see this especially with artists such as Vanness Wu, IU (Lee Ji-eun), and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, who are all still active in both acting and music. 

I hope this massively long post was informative and also helped answer the question, “Why do idols go from singing to acting?” (I also hope I helped explain the way the idol ecosystem works and how it all started!) 

Thanks for the questions and for reading.

Edit: Oops, I totally forgot to answer the question, “Why do some people become idols?”

The answer is pretty simple: it’s really hard to get into the entertainment industry, and many people see idol factories as a straightforward roadmap into a career in entertainment. While it isn’t the only way into entertainment, it often is the path many artists do ultimately choose to take.