To Love or Let Go] How to stop dreams jobs in K-pop from becoming a nightmare

(Dylan Gillis on Unsplash)

The Ok-pop business is greater than only a music business. It’s an assemblage of artistic labor, the place creativity acts as the muse of many components that click on to create a singular popular culture product.  
 
This explains why BTS’ RM outlined the Ok-pop business as a “360-degree complete package deal encompassing music, dance, efficiency, visible type, music movies, storytelling content material, and social media” in his keynote speech on the 2025 Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit held in Gyeongju in October.
 
The Ok-pop business is an enormous manufacturing system during which multitudes of creatives are meshed tightly collectively and transfer as a complete. So what’s it that really propels this intricate system?
 
One of many largest traits of the Ok-pop business is the truth that it’s centered on individuals. The laborers within the Ok-pop business usually are not loyal to sure organizations or manufacturers, however sure artists themselves. If strange office-goers really feel a way of allegiance to the corporate they work for, the employees within the Ok-pop business channel their loyalty to the artists that they’re serving to to nurture. The elation one feels when the artist one is accountable for nabs first place in a serious music present and the enjoyment one feels when an artist thanks the members of their employees at an awards ceremony is healthier than any financial incentive.
 
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that this construction of satisfaction, which feeds off the motivation and values engendered by these feelings, might be translated into knowledge.
 
A 2024 report on the work surroundings of these within the Korean content material business, revealed by the Korea Inventive Content material Company, exhibits that these within the music business said that “achievement” and the “profitable industrial efficiency of their initiatives” have been the 2 largest components that contributed to job satisfaction.
 
This exhibits that, within the Ok-pop business, financial advantages usually are not the one motivation. The sense that one has contributed to a profitable challenge is a key incentive. This exhibits why appreciating artists and being pleased with one’s job can result in higher-quality content material and success.  
 
Nevertheless, this love and keenness might be exploited to justify extreme labor. In a actuality during which Ok-pop staff should observe their artists’ schedules, these staff change into vulnerable to taking lengthy, grueling hours as a given. My very own experiences within the business confirmed me how preposterous it’s to count on a 52-hour workweek; engaged on the weekends was the rule, not the exception. Even when one is and was primarily pushed by ardour and love, infinite labor places everybody on the street to burnout.
 
My view of the Ok-pop labor surroundings relies on my expertise working within the artists and repertoire, or A&R, business, however it’s not restricted to that discipline. Frequent schedule modifications result in staff dropping helpful private time and the blurred boundaries between work and relaxation might be seen in any discipline of the Ok-pop business. There are three major patterns which might be evident once we study rampant overwork within the Ok-pop business.
 
First, the extremely fluctuating nature of the work places these within the business on perpetual standby. Producers, songwriters, lyricists, audio engineers and different artists should work collectively to finish a single music, and generally, the character of the artistic course of entails fixed edits, which may even push the challenge again to sq. one.
 
Challenge managers have to act because the moderator between artists and stakeholders whereas reacting to frequent changes and schedule modifications, placing them in a relentless state of excessive alert that allows them to reply as quickly as any state of affairs comes up.
 
Mockingly, the extra profitable Ok-pop has change into on the worldwide stage, the extra grueling the workload these laborers are topic to. Extra initiatives with abroad producers imply that individuals have to ignore time variations, usually having to speak with related events within the early hours of the morning earlier than relaying the finalized product to numerous executives to obtain affirmation. Even after spending the complete evening responding to numerous work-related messages, one must rise up within the morning to attend an early-hour assembly. Sleep deprivation turns into the norm.
 
Second, the tight manufacturing schedule means a ruthless work schedule. The Ok-pop manufacturing system runs on an extremely hectic schedule, with deadlines arising one after the opposite, which means that when one challenge wraps up, a special one instantly begins. That is particularly the case with newer Ok-pop teams, as they’re anticipated to launch not less than two or three albums, together with digital singles, a yr to stay related and ingrained within the public’s reminiscence. Contemplating the logistics of creating bodily albums additionally shortens the manufacturing interval, as worldwide followers additionally count on to obtain bodily copies on the date that the album is on the market to the Korean public.

For the businesses themselves, the manufacturing stage is categorized as a “crunch interval,” however that doesn’t imply that staff can relaxation straightforward as soon as manufacturing is over. As soon as an album is launched, the coordinator wants to begin drafting schedules associated to promotion and advertising and marketing instantly. On the identical time, planning for the subsequent album wants to start straight away. Successfully, the “crunch interval” by no means ends, leading to a steady cycle of overwork that calcifies because it goes on. 

Third, the shortage of alternative staff makes it tough for workers to safe private time. The depth of the work executed by the manufacturing employees leads to a excessive turnover price. In small to mid-sized businesses, one particular person has to put on many hats on the identical time. 

However simply because one works at a serious company doesn’t imply issues are a lot totally different. The hierarchy of crew chief > working-level supervisor > junior-level worker implies that the one that finally ends up doing essentially the most work throughout the board is often the working-level supervisor. The vast majority of working-level choices find yourself flowing to them, and inside this construction, it’s extremely tough to seek out anyone who can cowl for them whereas they’re away. 

If the working-level supervisor with the deepest stage of understanding of a challenge vacates his or her seat, the challenge primarily involves a standstill. Naturally, this results in the supervisor answering work emails and messages not solely on the weekends but in addition throughout holidays. The more and more blurry line between work and relaxation inevitably results in declining well being. 

One may argue that non-public well being might be managed by way of diligence. Nevertheless, the issue is a company tradition that doesn’t even allow such private diligence. If an individual decides to train within the early morning earlier than work and fails to reply to a message, they’re more likely to return to their cellphone blowing up with messages. Even after taking a sick day due to the accumulating stress, it’s not unusual to seek out that the flood of labor messages and emails continues. 

One may merely say, “Why don’t you simply ignore such messages?” However in an business the place schedules are so tight that even the slightest of delays can have ramifications for a complete challenge, the private sense of duty positioned on the shoulders of managers is heavy. Below such weight, it’s not straightforward to easily ignore the cellphone buzzing with messages. 

That is the fact of labor for the individuals who make Ok-pop. Superficially, it could appear like a glamorous job the place you’re in shut contact with the celebs. Below the floor, nevertheless, many of those persons are extremely harassed and affected by persistent illnesses. Regardless of the introduction of make-up days off and the lifting of any cap on the quantity of PTO staff can take, it’s onerous for individuals on the bottom to really take day off work. In brief, working situations that make it tough for one to take any private time stay unchanged. 

Staff within the Ok-pop business endure such insupportable working situations due to the sense that they’ve “contributed” to one thing. As talked about above, the challenge and content material that one has designed can translate into artists’ success. The second one’s position is acknowledged on this course of turns into a robust motivator. The problem is that this crucial motivator usually fails to materialize in actuality. Probably the most egregious instance is the erasure of 1’s position within the album credit. 

The Ok-pop business has expanded to a world scale, but these points persist as a result of the work surroundings continues to demand devotion below the guise of “following your ardour.” The change that I need to see isn’t an adjustment to work hours or the rise of days off. It’s the creation of a system for precisely recognizing and evaluating the contributions of business workers whose labor is pushed by a way of contribution and achievement to profitable initiatives — to not point out affection for the artists they work with. What I would like is a complete reimagination of the fundamentals. 

Step one is the popularity of contribution. Album credit usually are not only a checklist of names on the again cowl; they’re a symbolic reward for the work executed to create the album. They’re additionally a real-life motivator that provides some individuals the energy to proceed on to the subsequent challenge. But individuals have their names faraway from albums as a result of they stop proper earlier than an album was launched — or due to some arbitrary judgment made by the corporate. Inside an absence of clear requirements and protocols, the arbitrary erasure of staff’ contributions has change into a persistent concern.

The ultimate product stays, however the names of the individuals who made it disappear. For Ok-pop to develop right into a sustainable business, there must be an institutional basis for precisely recording and acknowledging the contributions of the individuals backstage. If we proceed consuming solely the fantasy of “artistic work” whereas ignoring its shadows, the business has no future. The individuals who work behind the scenes making Ok-pop occur deserve a modicum of respect and safeguards, and their flowers, too.  

By Kim Eun-jung, tradition researcher

Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]