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overall I appreciate crit like this, and I think it's valuable to think about the broader cultural conditions that create the art and artists we see, but I have problems with the content and tone of this thread so lemme dive in https://twitter.com/rotichuunai/status/1285306014917488640
first; literally every artist and worker under capitalism must submit to exploitation in order to survive. the idea that it's possible to be so talented that you transcend this paradigm somehow is ridiculous.
artists who refuse to have their creativity exploited by a k-ent company will be exploited by some other company, someday, or starve. they might get a slightly better deal, but they are going to debase themselves in SOME way eventually. NECESSARILY.
this has nothing to do with their choices, at all. it has everything to do with the systems we exist within. if you want to be creative as your livelihood, the fruit of that creativity must be exploited for you to live.
given that, it's a weird, hyper-critical vibe to frame these idols' participation in this system as a failure of intelligence or will or confidence. Like "they were willing to sign off their freedoms" no, actually, they were ten years old or something!
the idea that if these companies only signed "super talented" people, they would all be paid "top dollar" is also not true. These companies collaborate to ensure their compensation schemes are opaque and difficult to decipher because it prevents talent from comparing compensation
competition can only drive up wages if everyone knows how much money is being made and how it's being distributed to the individual contributors. the skillset of the people in these systems is irrelevant when you can't even tell what "fair" compensation is.
the idea that people with "visual, PR and variety" skills would be paid scraps is also not true? like there's a reason they have these people in the groups (regardless of whether you think it's good to compensate people for their physical beauty or personality).
people want to see attractive people on stage, people want to be engaged in a way outside of music with these celebrities. that value isn't less worthy because it doesn't add to the musical component of what an idol group produces.
I think there are about a million very important criticisms of korean entertainment companies (and the societies that made them) but this thread seems more about cynically side-eyeing the people trapped within those systems. It's obvious that isn't the goal, but it feels weird.
