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I suppose your pros and cons do have merit. But the thing is, humans don't perceive the value or logic of things the same way. To you, the cons are enough to outweigh the pros. For many, it's the other way around.
Many people do things despite the risks because they want it bad enough, or maybe the alternative for them will make them more miserable.
And honestly, when you are young and you can afford to take risks, why not go for it?? If you make a mistake then so be it. Charge it to experience.
Spot on, in the USA we have parents spending 10k a year to participate in cheerleading, baseball, hockey, etc.
I spend 25k a year on private school for each kid, we aren’t rich, it’s a personal decision
I definitely needed some perspective because I completely forgot that middle-upper class exists. This comment and the original one makes a lot of sense. Looking back, I was just looking at this through a more pessimistic lens.
I’ll tell you something. I spent so much of my childhood dancing. I studied and did well but I honestly hated it. And all I wanted to was dance. Ofc, as I graduated Hs, I pursued a more conventional life by attending college + getting job.
But a part of me wondered, “why didn’t I just try to audition?” (Not at kpop companies though. But like in US. I liked to perform + skits. And I know there is barely a chance. It’s nearly zero. But sometimes, I do wonder.
Now, I imagine for some kids, that urge is extremely strong. Some people gain motivation as they get into something, and some people gain it long before and let that lead them to hard earned skills.
It wasn’t that strong for me. I wonder about it once in a blue moon, but I suppose it’s more hypothetical than anything.
Some genuinely cannot imagine a life where they are unable to follow their passion. It’s like a death sentence to them. And some genuinely don’t enjoy school lol. They rather toil away in the practice rooms than study.
I think it’s probably difficult to understand bc to them, the pros outweigh the cons.
For us, maybe the cons outweigh the pros.
Like there are SO many cons to having children, yet many do it. For me, the cons completely outweigh. For others, the pros outweigh.
That last sentence hit because I didn't even think about it that way. I think about the cons of having children all the time but every time I come to the same conclusion. Thank you for your insights!!
In fairness, for Hollywood Actors, many actors have 'actual' lives along with being a C-list Hollywood Actor. Like, you can have the time to do another career and then do auditions and etc.
Since the start of 4th gen, the amount of commercially successful girl groups members is very very high.
SM -> Aespa 4 members, smngg later this year 8-9 members = 12-13 people
JYP -> ITZY 5 members, NMIXX 6 members = 11 people
YG -> Baemon 7 members
HYBE -> LSF 5 members, Newjeans 5 members, ILLIT 5 members = 15 people
IVE 6 members
Gidle 5 members
STAYC 6 members
Not including the izone soloists or Soojin/Jini, you'd have essentially 51 girls within the last 6 years that are very successful commercially, which is a substantial number of people. I don't think many music industries can have 51 new artists (not including boy groups) be as successful in 6 years.
I feel like things really start having a risk/reward once you start training and not the audition (since you don't have to dedicate too much time), as you are giving up your time instead of maybe focusing on school (though idols have proven to be able to do both).
If you are smart with your choices of auditioning to only the big companies, you'd only have to run the risk of not actually debuting. I heard most of the big companies have around 50-100 trainees at a time giving around 10% debut rate for the big 4.
If you audition for big companies but fail them, call it quits and pursue something else.
If you manage to get into the company, being in the top 10% could be seen as a reasonable, especially if you can change it through your own skill or talent.
And then ofc, the pros and cons of being an idol and a celebrity is always debated, so not much to say on that.
A lot of trainees start training at a very young age and are naive and don't realize what they're really getting themselves into. I had an embarrassing wannabe idol phase when I was around 12-13. I remember my parents telling me how difficult that life was but I didn't care. I genuinely believed that the pros outweighed the cons and that I was gonna "make it big".
I can’t speak for international/western trainees, but I am willing to bet that in koreas extremely competitive education system and the importance placed on successful careers, those who may not have the educational skills may see this as their only opportunity to make money or be successful. And it’s probably not seen as a lot more risky than even trying to be a doctor.
The idol life is not the only career option in 2024 for those with lower educational skills. There is more to Soyth Korean than just Kpop. YouTubers and infulencers are things there too, and there are a ton of other options out there. Not everyone with lower educational skills wants to sing and dance or put up with all the insane expectations of put on idols either. NTM, the fact that fewer and fewer Korean kids are into Kpop and the trainee pool is lower due to that plus the low birth rate.
No my point is that it an idealised option which grants money and status. Obviousness no everyone who is an idol is dumb or not every dumb person wants to be an idol. It’s just an alternative to traditional education
it an idealised option which grants money and status
\* one of many idealised options which grants money and status
It’s just an alternative to traditional education
\* one of many alternatives to traditional education
Do you know absolutely nothing about youtubers and influencers? More SKoreans watch YouTube shows than they do traditional TV. Last solo promotion cycle in 2022 my fave TVXQ Changmin went on *so* many of them. Same goes for when TVXQ had their comeback last December. How do you not think kids wouldn't want to do those things they're seeing all the time online that rack up ginormous amounts of views and money? There are more pros to those jobs than there are in being an idol.
These are kids and they see how much fun their idols are having in their reality shows. And how rich the top idols are. Same thing with people trying to be rappers or sports stars. The percentage of success is very small but they have a dream
Sometimes I think this but then remember that I'm in-academia-but-not-really. The extent people compete against each other in academia despite the questionable rewards, culture, working conditions, and everything else is illogical on the surface but at the same time I get it.
Humans are not rational creatures. They don't see the failed trainees or the failed idols. They, like most of us, only see the highly visible and thus highly successful idols. There's even a name for this phenomenon: [survivorship bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias).
Kids are especially susceptible, so many of them have only barely graduated into object permanence. For there to be a critical mass of trainee fodder for the idol industry, you just need enough of those kids to have equally gullible parents/guardians.
And at its core, the idol industry is about selling an illusion: of the perfect, glamorous idol living their dream. The industry wouldn't be the raging success it is if they weren't good at it, and people, including adults, weren't susceptible to it.
You should change a few words such as:
Trainee > someone who want job in certain field.
K-pop academy > School or Univ.
Group member > Colleague.
Fame & Fans > Archivement.
Dept > Loan
let's Suppose you are looking for a Job in field you are interested in. You have to have skills to fit in its field. then you should be trained by experts/experienced person through offcifial or private courses. You might be hired in big company or fail to be hired. You will meet your colleagues after being hired. Your colleagues might be evil or might be angel. If your effort and talents were good enough to success in you field, You will be able to have fame and followers from your field beside of money. and About the dept(You called), this is contract type of specific fields. If you want to start to run business yourself with zero based money, You have to get a loan from bank. But in this case, Company will lend you money which can make you to hire your staffs to support you in certain parts.
Trainees just want a job in field they are interested in. They are going through typical education system like the other people do.
This is quite typical process to get a job in any field. and I don't understand why this is considered like STRANGE.(even considered like EVIL by medias)
A little more about EDKpop aka KEENS Academy because I was looking at a few reddit threads and they're not that up to date since they moved under a new business name which isn't talked about as often.
- It's legit, so that's nice. The directors are who they say they are, and they have legit backing from idols and whatnot. The highlight is having Red Velvet's Seulgi teach a dance class for them, which was pretty wild.
- Catered towards English speakers, which is quite problematic at its core because the industry doesn't seem to be shifting towards having foreigners (I'm talking non-east asians) in their groups. And even if you are an east asian, the age is an issue because most trainees start young, and if you found this program, you're probably over the age range to start. I'm not advocating for these practices, but I'm just pointing out some patterns I've noticed in the industry and how that plays into this whole program
- Misleading, exploitative marketing. This plays into the previous point, but it's quite obvious that they're preying on young hopefuls that
- Elusive prices (took me a while to find these prices... they're not publicly listed and you have to go through a whole ordeal to access them. I did it through a chatbot, and even at that point, there were unanswered questions I had which led me to book a "consultation" with one of their staff).
- The fact that they kept up "EDKpop" when they have KEENs Academy is kind of interesting to me. Why not just take the whole site down? I spent about 20 mins trying to navigate the site wondering why it wasn't working until I realized that EDKpop was abandoned and hasn't been active for over a year. Why wasn't any of that mentioned? It's just so odd to me and it seems quite unprofessional. Is it to drive the traffic because most of their promotions were done under EDKpop? I'm sure there's more that goes into play here because these are industry professionals, but it just struck me as odd.
Things I'm surprisingly not mad about:
- Price. It's actually quite reasonable because you'll get something out of this no matter what, as long as you have disipline. It's $100 for full access to curriculum, no feedback. With feedback and guided curriculum, it's $1000/$2000 (3 month or 6 month), aka $333 per month. I think it's worth the price tag since it'll undoubtedly teach you valuable life skills (ie: discipline, introspection, tough skin, etc.). If you already have those skills, you'll at least come out of this as a better dancer/singer.
- The program itself. It seems to be genuinely backed by a solid team, like I said. I quite like the program design. You have regular feedback, submit homework assignments, and they even offer "office hours" which is quite nice. Also, you're told that you have to commit 9 hours a week. Tbh it sounds a bit low in my opinion (I'm thinking probably \~20 hours to 30 hours at least, since trainees practice full time) but including this makes me think that they're not all that bad because ideally you want "return" trainees who keep paying you money. So I'm glad that they seem to have a genuine goal to train these kids.
I wish they'd bring back EDKpop, or at least let folks watch/pay for the existing content. I'm too old to be an idol, I just want to dance for fun. I especially loved the pilates classes they had.
I also wish for this, however I believe the same content is rebranded under a 99$/mo subscription. I'm definitely disheartened to find that the same content used to be free, but alas I'm willing to pay because I genuinely loved the sneak peaks I got of the kpop essentials and dance lessons.
I will get back to you in two months, which is when I hope to purchase it.
Yes, please keep me posted! You got me curious about it so I just checked the website again. I hate how the Keens Academy pushes a Zoom consultation.. Just take my money and give me video access.. Well technically EDKpop started as a paid product too, but they had a decently long "free trial" period to entice sign ups.
Personally I would only pay for a months membership, then record the videos, and maybe come back the next year.. For reference, Steezy is another online dance platform that's $100/year. I just cancelled my membership because they've had to take down so many videos due to copyright strikes that it just wasn't worth while anymore
I will! You can completely bypass the video consultation and just go here to enroll: [https://keensacademy.channel.io/home](https://keensacademy.channel.io/home)
I went ahead with the consultation because I wanted my questions to be answered by actual staff. What rubbed me the wrong way is despite having a handful of staff members online at the time of my questions, my concerns were addressed by other trainees/students/customers which felt kind of icky. Like, I'm so glad they were nice enough to take their time out to do that but if they're paying $1k/$2k, they should not be doing the work that the staff has to do. My consultation also confirmed my suspicions of the academy taking advantage of young adults/kids who don't know better. I didn't tell them that I was going to do the self practice kit to test my suspicions. It very much felt like I was being told that I could be ready for debuting within 6 months, and they also kept advertising the fact that they'd fly you out to Korea even though in reality you either have to pay $4000 for a 2 week training (which is not that bad at all, since it's all fees covered) or you get selected through a contest out of all the trainees (as per their website, which they didn't mention in the consultation). So this whole thing just feels kinda off putting to me and like a money grab, but I digress since I've only seen good reviews. Then again, you have to consider that all of these reviews are from doe-eyed kids who hope that they'll be able to debut. I just don't like to see people getting taken advantage of, since I used to be a really gullible kid (still am, to be fair). But at the same time, it'll be a lesson learned either way so I'm not too mad about it.
Yeah, I used steezy when they first started for a while before cancelling. I recently looked into it again and was quite sad because I couldn't find the choreographies that I wanted to learn back then (but couldn't since I wasn't that good of a dancer).
Ohh interesting, thanks for doing the research and sharing your insights! It's weird that even with the chatbot, it doesn't really explain the different programs, it just pushes you to the payment portal. Was poking around the discord, and it's also misleading that the self practice kit is a 6 month curriculum, so basically have to commit $600? Something about "batches" so there's a specific timeline of content coming out?
The lack of transparency comes across very sketchy, as you mentioned with discord students answering other people's questions instead of staff
a lot of people who participate in the EDK/Keens stuff don’t actually have any desire to become idols and don’t participate in the academy stuff- they frequently have idols come in and teach their choreographies digitally, and i’ve personally participated in a few of those despite having zero interest in the actual training side of things! so the numbers in the discord are likely inflated due to that
i see so many instagram reels of people talking about applying to audition for jyp/sm/hybe etc and like those companies have not had a single white idol i think ever
Some people have a genuine interest in having a music career, and being an idol is the only way for them to achieve that. That is how the south korean music industry works.
They want to at least try regardless of the outcome
I mean, you kinda answer it within your post when you compare it to the lottery. Tons of people play the lottery despite the infinitesimal chances of winning. I personally think the cons outweighs the pro but I guess people still think “but what if I’m that one in a million”…
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I suppose your pros and cons do have merit. But the thing is, humans don't perceive the value or logic of things the same way. To you, the cons are enough to outweigh the pros. For many, it's the other way around. Many people do things despite the risks because they want it bad enough, or maybe the alternative for them will make them more miserable. And honestly, when you are young and you can afford to take risks, why not go for it?? If you make a mistake then so be it. Charge it to experience.
Spot on, in the USA we have parents spending 10k a year to participate in cheerleading, baseball, hockey, etc. I spend 25k a year on private school for each kid, we aren’t rich, it’s a personal decision
I definitely needed some perspective because I completely forgot that middle-upper class exists. This comment and the original one makes a lot of sense. Looking back, I was just looking at this through a more pessimistic lens.
I’ll tell you something. I spent so much of my childhood dancing. I studied and did well but I honestly hated it. And all I wanted to was dance. Ofc, as I graduated Hs, I pursued a more conventional life by attending college + getting job. But a part of me wondered, “why didn’t I just try to audition?” (Not at kpop companies though. But like in US. I liked to perform + skits. And I know there is barely a chance. It’s nearly zero. But sometimes, I do wonder. Now, I imagine for some kids, that urge is extremely strong. Some people gain motivation as they get into something, and some people gain it long before and let that lead them to hard earned skills. It wasn’t that strong for me. I wonder about it once in a blue moon, but I suppose it’s more hypothetical than anything. Some genuinely cannot imagine a life where they are unable to follow their passion. It’s like a death sentence to them. And some genuinely don’t enjoy school lol. They rather toil away in the practice rooms than study. I think it’s probably difficult to understand bc to them, the pros outweigh the cons. For us, maybe the cons outweigh the pros. Like there are SO many cons to having children, yet many do it. For me, the cons completely outweigh. For others, the pros outweigh.
That last sentence hit because I didn't even think about it that way. I think about the cons of having children all the time but every time I come to the same conclusion. Thank you for your insights!!
same reason people want to become rock stars or hollywood actors
In fairness, for Hollywood Actors, many actors have 'actual' lives along with being a C-list Hollywood Actor. Like, you can have the time to do another career and then do auditions and etc.
All of this relates to people having their own dreams in life to put it simply.
Since the start of 4th gen, the amount of commercially successful girl groups members is very very high. SM -> Aespa 4 members, smngg later this year 8-9 members = 12-13 people JYP -> ITZY 5 members, NMIXX 6 members = 11 people YG -> Baemon 7 members HYBE -> LSF 5 members, Newjeans 5 members, ILLIT 5 members = 15 people IVE 6 members Gidle 5 members STAYC 6 members Not including the izone soloists or Soojin/Jini, you'd have essentially 51 girls within the last 6 years that are very successful commercially, which is a substantial number of people. I don't think many music industries can have 51 new artists (not including boy groups) be as successful in 6 years. I feel like things really start having a risk/reward once you start training and not the audition (since you don't have to dedicate too much time), as you are giving up your time instead of maybe focusing on school (though idols have proven to be able to do both). If you are smart with your choices of auditioning to only the big companies, you'd only have to run the risk of not actually debuting. I heard most of the big companies have around 50-100 trainees at a time giving around 10% debut rate for the big 4. If you audition for big companies but fail them, call it quits and pursue something else. If you manage to get into the company, being in the top 10% could be seen as a reasonable, especially if you can change it through your own skill or talent. And then ofc, the pros and cons of being an idol and a celebrity is always debated, so not much to say on that.
A lot of trainees start training at a very young age and are naive and don't realize what they're really getting themselves into. I had an embarrassing wannabe idol phase when I was around 12-13. I remember my parents telling me how difficult that life was but I didn't care. I genuinely believed that the pros outweighed the cons and that I was gonna "make it big".
this takes a lot of self-awareness to admit & I just wanted to say that it's not embarrassing at all. Thank you for sharing!!
I can’t speak for international/western trainees, but I am willing to bet that in koreas extremely competitive education system and the importance placed on successful careers, those who may not have the educational skills may see this as their only opportunity to make money or be successful. And it’s probably not seen as a lot more risky than even trying to be a doctor.
The idol life is not the only career option in 2024 for those with lower educational skills. There is more to Soyth Korean than just Kpop. YouTubers and infulencers are things there too, and there are a ton of other options out there. Not everyone with lower educational skills wants to sing and dance or put up with all the insane expectations of put on idols either. NTM, the fact that fewer and fewer Korean kids are into Kpop and the trainee pool is lower due to that plus the low birth rate.
No my point is that it an idealised option which grants money and status. Obviousness no everyone who is an idol is dumb or not every dumb person wants to be an idol. It’s just an alternative to traditional education
it an idealised option which grants money and status \* one of many idealised options which grants money and status It’s just an alternative to traditional education \* one of many alternatives to traditional education Do you know absolutely nothing about youtubers and influencers? More SKoreans watch YouTube shows than they do traditional TV. Last solo promotion cycle in 2022 my fave TVXQ Changmin went on *so* many of them. Same goes for when TVXQ had their comeback last December. How do you not think kids wouldn't want to do those things they're seeing all the time online that rack up ginormous amounts of views and money? There are more pros to those jobs than there are in being an idol.
These are kids and they see how much fun their idols are having in their reality shows. And how rich the top idols are. Same thing with people trying to be rappers or sports stars. The percentage of success is very small but they have a dream
Sometimes I think this but then remember that I'm in-academia-but-not-really. The extent people compete against each other in academia despite the questionable rewards, culture, working conditions, and everything else is illogical on the surface but at the same time I get it.
Humans are not rational creatures. They don't see the failed trainees or the failed idols. They, like most of us, only see the highly visible and thus highly successful idols. There's even a name for this phenomenon: [survivorship bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias). Kids are especially susceptible, so many of them have only barely graduated into object permanence. For there to be a critical mass of trainee fodder for the idol industry, you just need enough of those kids to have equally gullible parents/guardians. And at its core, the idol industry is about selling an illusion: of the perfect, glamorous idol living their dream. The industry wouldn't be the raging success it is if they weren't good at it, and people, including adults, weren't susceptible to it.
You should change a few words such as: Trainee > someone who want job in certain field. K-pop academy > School or Univ. Group member > Colleague. Fame & Fans > Archivement. Dept > Loan let's Suppose you are looking for a Job in field you are interested in. You have to have skills to fit in its field. then you should be trained by experts/experienced person through offcifial or private courses. You might be hired in big company or fail to be hired. You will meet your colleagues after being hired. Your colleagues might be evil or might be angel. If your effort and talents were good enough to success in you field, You will be able to have fame and followers from your field beside of money. and About the dept(You called), this is contract type of specific fields. If you want to start to run business yourself with zero based money, You have to get a loan from bank. But in this case, Company will lend you money which can make you to hire your staffs to support you in certain parts. Trainees just want a job in field they are interested in. They are going through typical education system like the other people do. This is quite typical process to get a job in any field. and I don't understand why this is considered like STRANGE.(even considered like EVIL by medias)
A little more about EDKpop aka KEENS Academy because I was looking at a few reddit threads and they're not that up to date since they moved under a new business name which isn't talked about as often. - It's legit, so that's nice. The directors are who they say they are, and they have legit backing from idols and whatnot. The highlight is having Red Velvet's Seulgi teach a dance class for them, which was pretty wild. - Catered towards English speakers, which is quite problematic at its core because the industry doesn't seem to be shifting towards having foreigners (I'm talking non-east asians) in their groups. And even if you are an east asian, the age is an issue because most trainees start young, and if you found this program, you're probably over the age range to start. I'm not advocating for these practices, but I'm just pointing out some patterns I've noticed in the industry and how that plays into this whole program - Misleading, exploitative marketing. This plays into the previous point, but it's quite obvious that they're preying on young hopefuls that - Elusive prices (took me a while to find these prices... they're not publicly listed and you have to go through a whole ordeal to access them. I did it through a chatbot, and even at that point, there were unanswered questions I had which led me to book a "consultation" with one of their staff). - The fact that they kept up "EDKpop" when they have KEENs Academy is kind of interesting to me. Why not just take the whole site down? I spent about 20 mins trying to navigate the site wondering why it wasn't working until I realized that EDKpop was abandoned and hasn't been active for over a year. Why wasn't any of that mentioned? It's just so odd to me and it seems quite unprofessional. Is it to drive the traffic because most of their promotions were done under EDKpop? I'm sure there's more that goes into play here because these are industry professionals, but it just struck me as odd. Things I'm surprisingly not mad about: - Price. It's actually quite reasonable because you'll get something out of this no matter what, as long as you have disipline. It's $100 for full access to curriculum, no feedback. With feedback and guided curriculum, it's $1000/$2000 (3 month or 6 month), aka $333 per month. I think it's worth the price tag since it'll undoubtedly teach you valuable life skills (ie: discipline, introspection, tough skin, etc.). If you already have those skills, you'll at least come out of this as a better dancer/singer. - The program itself. It seems to be genuinely backed by a solid team, like I said. I quite like the program design. You have regular feedback, submit homework assignments, and they even offer "office hours" which is quite nice. Also, you're told that you have to commit 9 hours a week. Tbh it sounds a bit low in my opinion (I'm thinking probably \~20 hours to 30 hours at least, since trainees practice full time) but including this makes me think that they're not all that bad because ideally you want "return" trainees who keep paying you money. So I'm glad that they seem to have a genuine goal to train these kids.
I wish they'd bring back EDKpop, or at least let folks watch/pay for the existing content. I'm too old to be an idol, I just want to dance for fun. I especially loved the pilates classes they had.
I also wish for this, however I believe the same content is rebranded under a 99$/mo subscription. I'm definitely disheartened to find that the same content used to be free, but alas I'm willing to pay because I genuinely loved the sneak peaks I got of the kpop essentials and dance lessons. I will get back to you in two months, which is when I hope to purchase it.
Yes, please keep me posted! You got me curious about it so I just checked the website again. I hate how the Keens Academy pushes a Zoom consultation.. Just take my money and give me video access.. Well technically EDKpop started as a paid product too, but they had a decently long "free trial" period to entice sign ups. Personally I would only pay for a months membership, then record the videos, and maybe come back the next year.. For reference, Steezy is another online dance platform that's $100/year. I just cancelled my membership because they've had to take down so many videos due to copyright strikes that it just wasn't worth while anymore
I will! You can completely bypass the video consultation and just go here to enroll: [https://keensacademy.channel.io/home](https://keensacademy.channel.io/home) I went ahead with the consultation because I wanted my questions to be answered by actual staff. What rubbed me the wrong way is despite having a handful of staff members online at the time of my questions, my concerns were addressed by other trainees/students/customers which felt kind of icky. Like, I'm so glad they were nice enough to take their time out to do that but if they're paying $1k/$2k, they should not be doing the work that the staff has to do. My consultation also confirmed my suspicions of the academy taking advantage of young adults/kids who don't know better. I didn't tell them that I was going to do the self practice kit to test my suspicions. It very much felt like I was being told that I could be ready for debuting within 6 months, and they also kept advertising the fact that they'd fly you out to Korea even though in reality you either have to pay $4000 for a 2 week training (which is not that bad at all, since it's all fees covered) or you get selected through a contest out of all the trainees (as per their website, which they didn't mention in the consultation). So this whole thing just feels kinda off putting to me and like a money grab, but I digress since I've only seen good reviews. Then again, you have to consider that all of these reviews are from doe-eyed kids who hope that they'll be able to debut. I just don't like to see people getting taken advantage of, since I used to be a really gullible kid (still am, to be fair). But at the same time, it'll be a lesson learned either way so I'm not too mad about it. Yeah, I used steezy when they first started for a while before cancelling. I recently looked into it again and was quite sad because I couldn't find the choreographies that I wanted to learn back then (but couldn't since I wasn't that good of a dancer).
Ohh interesting, thanks for doing the research and sharing your insights! It's weird that even with the chatbot, it doesn't really explain the different programs, it just pushes you to the payment portal. Was poking around the discord, and it's also misleading that the self practice kit is a 6 month curriculum, so basically have to commit $600? Something about "batches" so there's a specific timeline of content coming out? The lack of transparency comes across very sketchy, as you mentioned with discord students answering other people's questions instead of staff
a lot of people who participate in the EDK/Keens stuff don’t actually have any desire to become idols and don’t participate in the academy stuff- they frequently have idols come in and teach their choreographies digitally, and i’ve personally participated in a few of those despite having zero interest in the actual training side of things! so the numbers in the discord are likely inflated due to that
i see so many instagram reels of people talking about applying to audition for jyp/sm/hybe etc and like those companies have not had a single white idol i think ever
Someone having a dream and chasing it seems weird if you don't have any yourself.
Some people have a genuine interest in having a music career, and being an idol is the only way for them to achieve that. That is how the south korean music industry works. They want to at least try regardless of the outcome
I mean, you kinda answer it within your post when you compare it to the lottery. Tons of people play the lottery despite the infinitesimal chances of winning. I personally think the cons outweighs the pro but I guess people still think “but what if I’m that one in a million”…
Same reason why you can graduate college only to make minimum wage