Discussion 4: Military Service's Impact on K-pop idols

Conscription in South Korea requires male citizens between the ages of 18 and 28 to perform in the army compulsory military service. Exemptions are granted to athletics, violinist, pianists, and ballet performers, but not to K-pop stars, actors, or directors. （Wiki 2019）There is no equivalent of “military service” for female citizens. Female citizens who meet the requirements can join the army on a voluntary basis. Military service can prosper a K-pop star’s career, and can also ruin it.

Twenty to thirty years old is the best entrepreneurial period, many male Korean celebrities who at the peak of their careers are unwilling to perform military service. Once they perform military service, they will disappear for a while, and if a celebrity’s exposure rate decrease, his influence will naturally decline and lose public interest. It is very terrible for K-pop stars if they disappear for two years without any exposure and works. After performing military service, many male K-pop stars’ popularity decline sharply, and they may neither get any good works nor increase their exposure. So many male stars try to shirk military service through many methods. In Korean society, people are zero-tolerance in shirking military service. For K-pop celebrities, military service has become the basic principle for testing their morality.

Military service is a crucial point in K-pop stars career, some have made their careers more successful by outstanding performance in the army. Hyun Bin gave up to be an artist soldier and joined the Marine Corps. He also actively reduced his vacation. These moves have made him a role model for outstanding Korean artist. After he accomplished his military service, Korean people were all greeted Hyun Bin's return. The advertising endorsements and directors were all attracted by his positive image and wanted to work with him. Hyun Bin's career reached its peak quickly. K-pop artists have made great changes in performances and images after serving in military service, such as Hyun Bin and Song Joong-ki. After the military service, the characters in the big and small screen they built were generally more masculine. Hyun Bin transformed his image with the role of "The Fatal Encounter" and became a new generation of Korean idol.

South Korea's singing world is composed of the vast idol groups and a few female and male solo singers. If the solo male singer is enlisted, no one can replace him in two years. At this time, the advantages of the idol group reveal. Most groups will stagger their enlistments so that they can continue to promote new material without having to lose public interest(Dazed 2019). It maximizes the popularity and exposure of individuals and the idol group during the period of military service. Each member gain benefit from this. Therefore, it is an effective way for K-pop idols debut in groups.

Bibliography

CallMeN00NA. "Hyun Bin's Popularity Goes Up While Rain's Goes Down." Soompi. January 02, 2013. Accessed March 16, 2019. https://www.soompi.com/article/461926wpp/hyun-bins-popularity-goes-up-while-rains-goes-down.

"Conscription in South Korea." Wikipedia. March 15, 2019. Accessed March 16, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_South_Korea.

Dazed. "Why Male K-pop Idols Have to Swap Their Careers for the Military." Dazed. March 04, 2019. Accessed March 16, 2019. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/43592/1/what-is-k-pop-idols-military-service-enlistment-explained.