Prologue: Was the "Golden Goose" Really Happy?

Part 1.
Trainees: Children who dream of becoming idols and become ill.

Diet over health, exercise over sleep
There are no educators in entertainment.
For parents, children are more important than idols.
Idol academy to become a 'trainee'
"Once you're over sixteen, you're old." Time goes backwards for trainees.

Part 2.
Idol: A businessman who bets money, an artist who bets his life

Idols Need Unions Too
The golden age of K-pop
Are standard contracts really fair?
Even top stars are subjected to "blackout settlements."
Why did the fandom take action against malicious comments?

Part 3.
Gaze: K-pop Beyond Borders

Will the idol training system be accepted in the United States?
The first 'all-foreigner group' asked a question.
Diverging Dreams Surrounding Localization
Why Swedish Composers Prefer K-Pop
The Original Idol: How Japanese Singers View K-Pop

Part 4.
Alternative: For a Sustainable Industry

Entertainment, become an industry
The soil that made Sweden a music powerhouse
An artist who goes beyond 'planning' to 'self-sustaining'
Can public education foster K-pop?
Breaking free from the same old formula for success
Professional training that produces professionals
Political consensus to change the 'factory system'

Epilogue: If everyone's courage and voices come together
Appendix: Uncovering the Poison Clauses in Standard Contracts

The Light and Dark of the Golden Age of K-Pop, Korea's Representative Culture
The human rights of idols and trainees are threatened behind the dazzling stage.
Are their real lives really peaceful?

★Highly recommended by metaphor writer and critic Kim Young-dae!★
★2025 58th Houston International Film Festival Gold Remi Award Winner★

Idols, trainees, industry professionals, critics, lawyers, members of the National Assembly…
An in-depth K-pop reportage with testimonies from over 40 people.

The K-pop-themed animation "K-pop Demon Hunters" has become a global sensation, reaching the highest cumulative viewership of all time on Netflix, and the domestic and international response to K-pop is heating up, with President Lee Jae-myung even having a discussion about it on a special program on Arirang International Broadcasting on August 20, 2025.
K-pop has become a representative Korean culture that is receiving worldwide attention.
But as brilliant as the achievements are, the shadows behind them are also dark.


As the system for nurturing K-pop idols began to be exported overseas, "localized idols" began to emerge, and in the process, issues regarding the artists' human rights came to the fore.
In addition, the ongoing contract disputes between entertainment agencies and idols are exposing the specific and chronic problems of exclusive contracts within the industry, creating a sense of crisis throughout K-pop.
As the debut age of idols continues to decrease, underage artists and trainees are not institutionally protected as “children and adolescents” and are not recognized as “workers” at the same time.
The recent case of an audition variety show that was canceled from MBN and KBS Japan due to controversy over child sexual objectification suggests an ethical issue that the industry overlooks despite the fact that many of its idols and trainees are minors.


"K-Pop, Idols in Wonderland" is a reportage that examines the environment and structure in which artists who have been trainees since a young age work, diagnoses problems such as the "idol training system" and "exclusive contracts," and seeks alternatives for a sustainable industry.
Through interviews with over 40 people, including idols, trainees, producers, agency CEOs, critics, lawyers, members of the National Assembly, and fandom members, K-pop is explored in depth from various angles.
Above all, the idols themselves are directly testifying to the contradictions and absurdities they have experienced within the industry, revealing in detail the internal circumstances that were not easily understood.
Their voices speak out to protect the human rights of idols and trainees and to demonstrate what is needed to better structure the K-pop industry.

Author Jeon Da-hyeon is an investigative journalist who received the Excellence Award in the Truth category of the Internet Newspaper Journalism Ethics Awards for her investigation into the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's alleged change in the terminus of the Seoul-Yangpyeong Expressway in 2023.
In 2024, the book was based on the feature report "K-Pop: Idols in Wonderland," which won the Gold Remi Award in the New Media Interactive Entertainment category at the 58th Houston International Film Festival in 2025.
Even after the series ended, we continued to report and compiled the information that was not covered in the report into a book.

The text is divided into four parts.
〈Part 1.
“Trainee: Children Who Dream of Being Idols and Get Sick” discusses the reality and problems faced by trainees today.
〈Part 2.
In “Idol: A Businessperson Who Bet Money, An Artist Who Bet Life,” we will investigate how problematic exclusive contracts for idols are actually concluded and why settlement issues recur.
Furthermore, we will examine the issues of 'reverse virality' (whereby a specific group, such as a company, intentionally produces and spreads negative content) and malicious comments that have a fatal impact on idols.
〈Part 3.
“Gaze: K-Pop Beyond Borders” contains the concerns and criticisms of local experts regarding the export of the K-Pop idol training system overseas and the emergence of localized idols.
〈Part 4.
In “Alternatives: For a Sustainable Industry,” we explore alternatives to overcome the problems of K-pop through domestic and international examples.
In "Appendix: Unraveling the Poisonous Clauses of Standard Contracts," problematic clauses in actual standard contracts are analyzed one by one with lawyers, providing useful information and guidance to authorities, aspiring idols, and parents.

Idols: The most exclusive field where people become commodities
A look behind the scenes at this tacitly accepted industry

“Idols are a unique field where people become products.
It is no exaggeration to say that there is no other industry in Korean society where people are treated as commodities to this extent.
In this structure, minor trainees and idols receive no institutional protection whatsoever.
It doesn't make sense from a labor law perspective, but it's tolerated for idols.
International standards on child labor are also an exception.
The lack of even the most basic safeguards allows for the violent commercialization of children.
“It’s an industry where idols absolutely have no choice but to become ‘乙’.” _Page 88

Today, countless young trainees are sweating bullets in the practice room to become idols.
In this process, violations of fundamental rights are common.
Their right to education is violated, with extreme dieting, excessive training, and non-educational guidance damaging their physical and mental health, and even being encouraged to drop out by their agencies, but there is no system in place to effectively protect them.
As the age of trainees is getting lower, with some trainees as young as nine, there is a desperate need for a system and culture that can protect and provide educational guidance to these trainees.
In "K-Pop, Idols in Wonderland," this reality is vividly told through the voices of trainees and idols.
Former idols Heo Yu-jeong (formerly of Danbalmuri), Noh Hye-ran (formerly of Brave Girls), and Professor Son Il-rak, the father of Highlight's Son Dong-woon, testify to the reality that idols and trainees face and explain in detail what is needed for them.
It also includes stories of academy teachers who teach aspiring idols, providing a detailed diagnosis of the current state of the trainee education market.

Even if they go through the difficult life of a trainee and debut as an idol, artists are still structurally in a subordinate position to their agency.
Currently, at least 2 to 3 billion won is invested to create one idol group that is worthy of being called an idol.
The reality is that so-called businessmen risk their ‘money’, while idols risk their ‘lives’.
Dozens of teams debut and disappear silently every year, but businessmen jump into the idol production business with dreams of high profits.
Artists bear the full burden of the structural problems of high-risk, high-return businesses with low stability and no clear system.

The book specifically examines idol exclusive contracts and settlement issues with a specialized lawyer.
Attorney Jeong Ji-seok points out that the contract between the agency and the idol can be seen as a kind of 'partnership relationship', and that the agency is unfair in recovering the investment before distributing the settlement money, as well as the irrationality in the standard contract.
In addition, in a structure where the agency is the absolute 'upper hand' when signing a contract, the company puts forward clauses that are unfavorable to the idol in a 'supplementary agreement' in addition to the standard contract.
In “Appendix: Unraveling the Poisonous Provisions of Standard Contracts,” attorney Noh Jong-eon identifies the problems with standard contracts one by one and explains how they should be changed.
We also delve into the entertainment industry's chronic accounting issues, which are as chronic as contractual issues.
We examine the causes of this absurdity by examining the testimonies of idols who have actually experienced settlement issues and related case law.

What causes suffering for idols is not only contractual issues, but also the recently popular reverse viral and malicious comments.
Here, we discuss the current status and alternatives through an interview with New Jeans fandom Timbernees and pop culture critic Park Song-ah.
Former idol writer Bang Min-soo (formerly of Teen Top) explains in detail, based on his own experience, what makes idols suffer and suffer.

The contradictions of the K-pop idol training system seen from abroad
Music powerhouses Sweden and Japan are looking to sustainable industry alternatives.

Now, K-pop has gone beyond just having idols advance overseas, and has gone so far as to create idols directly overseas through a unique training system.
Localized idol groups KATSEYE and GIRLSET appeared, and an audition program for Latin American group SANTOS BRAVOS was also revealed.
Although the overseas localization idol business is actively underway, local producers and officials are raising questions about it.
Given the differences in culture and institutions, it is doubtful whether a system that suppresses individual autonomy and has the potential to infringe on the right to health and education will be able to be integrated into the local environment.

In "K-Pop, Idols in Wonderland," we hear from overseas producers, composers, K-Pop scholars, dance studio owners, and former foreign trainees to examine why the K-Pop idol training system is not suited to the local environment and what efforts are needed to fix it.
Meanwhile, many recent K-pop songs are being created by Swedish composers.
We'll find out how this trend came about, why they prefer K-pop, and what their views are on it.
Additionally, the story of EXP EDITION, K-pop's first all-foreign idol group, provides many implications for exporting training systems.

In this way, this book focuses on the problems of the idol training system, identifies the root causes, and suggests the establishment of a K-pop infrastructure as an alternative.
To this end, we seek to learn from the examples of Sweden and Japan, countries with strong music industries and cultural foundations.
The author personally covered major music festivals, performances, and educational programs in both countries and discovered that both countries have a public infrastructure that allows children and adolescents to freely access and learn music.
Furthermore, we investigate various attempts to establish such a foundation domestically.
For example, he says that by keeping an eye on the opening of K-pop high schools and the policies of SM Universe Academy, we should be able to provide children and teenagers who admire K-pop with various paths related to it, not just idols.
It emphasizes the need to move toward making the market healthier by allowing for diverse attempts rather than just sticking to the established, conventional formula for success, and granting idols more artistic autonomy.
To this end, the government's industrial support is also important, as discussed from the perspectives of industry insiders.

The book reveals that the political world is also aware of the problem of treatment of K-pop trainees and idols and is making various efforts.
Congressman Kim Jae-won, formerly a singer under the name "Lia," shares his thoughts on the direction the industry and politics should take to create a healthy K-pop ecosystem.
Through interviews with officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism who are concerned about the human rights of idols and trainees and the diversity of the industry, and through attendance at academic seminars on K-pop, the author urges society and the authorities to take action to ensure that K-pop becomes a culture we can truly be proud of.
"K-Pop, Idols in Wonderland" sparks readers' interest in the inner workings of K-Pop and offers important suggestions for a sustainable industry.

For K-pop to move forward in a sustainable way, we need to create an environment where artists can grow, not be consumed.
To this end, we sought to dispel the view that interprets the massive K-pop industry solely through the logic of 'money' and recorded the voices of real insiders.
The perception of the public, industry professionals, fans, and idols themselves must also change.
When systems, laws, and even culture change, K-pop can become a better industry and a proud culture.
Pages 260-261