REPORT: K-Pop Trainees Are in Fact Braver Than The Marines

Left photo by: ‘LG Q7 BTS 에디션’ 예약 판매 시작, license

JROTC? More like KROTC

December 4, 2020

While the armed services are stronger than ever, we must also consider a lesser known line of work that oftentimes encounters excruciating sacrifice and labor intensive programs, K-Pop Trainees.

Some deem the parallel drawn between K-Pop Trainees and The Marines as “callous,” “insensitive,” and “inaccurate.” However, research has shown that while The Marines protect the U.S., in a similar fashion, K-Pop Trainees protect a nation too, the nation of South Korea. Ever since the inception of K-Pop in 1347, it has protected and fostered the nation’s GDP as well as spread global awareness of Korean culture, but this is not to say that becoming a K-Pop idol is an easy task by any means. Trainees often endure years of instruction and are not guaranteed to become idols or join a group.

Grace Park (names have been protected for anonymity) described her years in the trainee program as some of the darkest times in her life. “I would wake-up at 5am to exercise. Days were filled with dance rehearsals and vocal practices with groups of other girls who wanted the same thing as me. On top of that, I was only eating 1200 calories a day.” Park’s story, sadly, is very similar to many other girls’ experiences in trainee programs, especially of those working with popular labels such as YG Entertainment.

Meanwhile, at the Marines base camp where George Davies is deployed, he describes a typical day, “I’ll wake up at 0500, exercise, and then hit the chow halls. Afterwards, I’ll make TikToks about how voter fraud is real for 6 hours and then zone out and think about regretful decisions. Then I’ll have dinner and eat an ice cream sandwich before bed around 2100.” If this isn’t enough intrigue for you, while we can’t say exactly where Davies is deployed, let’s just say there’s plenty of sunshine, sand, and Galapagos Tortoises.

While Davies is on deployment, he needs to be ready at any moment to get called into action, but that’s not to say Park does not have the same on-edge feeling too. Park has said in the past “I don’t take breaks, even on the weekends. We’re expected to train 24/7. I’ve had times where executives randomly drop into rehearsals, and those moments are critical because they’re evaluating us.” After she was cut from the YG Trainee program for having “a too strong-looking neck,” Park was appointed as the head of a Junior Dual Military & K-Pop trainee program for children under the age of 14. According to YG, Park has been lauded for her “unwavering sense of authority,” and “stringent will to attain objectives.” The new trademark pending slogan reads, “The Few, The Proud, The K-Pop Trainees.”