The point of this thought experiment is to challenge the mass production aspect of Kpop. It’s been a huge contributor to the industry’s growth, but it’s also one of the biggest reasons behind many of the exploitation and mistreatment issues we constantly discuss.
The idea is to move away from constantly debuting new groups and spreading resources across an ever growing number of acts and instead invest more in the groups that already exist. The expectation is that with fewer groups to manage and more resources directed towards them, the remaining groups would receive better treatment. But that isn’t something we can guarantee.
Your favourite group might not survive, groups you haven’t discovered might never get to debut, and a lot of the variety Kpop currently offers could disappear.
And it wouldn’t just be about agreeing with the idea. You’d have to actively participate in a sustained boycott, knowing that even the groups you support could be affected.
To be clear, the remaining groups could still face mismanagement, unfair contracts and mistreatment. Reducing the number of groups doesn’t automatically solve those problems. What is guaranteed in this hypothetical is greater accountability, fewer people suffering and far fewer cases of extreme mistreatment. Companies would face sustained pressure to answer for how they treat their artists, rather than being able to keep operating the same way without consequences.
So would you actually be willing to make that sacrifice? Would you give up the abundance and variety Kpop offers today, knowing that better treatment for the remaining groups is a likely outcome, but not a certainty? Or would giving up so much of what makes Kpop appealing to you eventually mean losing interest in the industry and moving away from it altogether?
Note: I couldn’t find an accurate number of currently active Kpop groups. A quick Google search gives estimates ranging anywhere from 220 to 400. If anyone has a more accurate number, feel free to share it. For the sake of this experiment, let’s assume there are 300 active groups, which would leave us with 30 (10%). Independent groups would still exist and wouldn’t count towards that limit, since they aren’t backed by a company.
submitted by /u/rambow143
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