My Gen Z friend Erin Shapland, librarian, K-pop enthusiast, and person who has never heard of TRL, joins me for a generational exchange on purity culture and pop. In part 1, Erin takes me through the world of K-pop: the management companies that sign kids at 12, the fan communities that send funeral wreaths when an idol is caught kissing his girlfriend, and the ways patriarchy manages to victimize literally everyone. Meet us on Patreon for part two, where I take Erin through the absolute chaos of how we treated women pop stars in the 90s and 2000s, and try to describe the beauty/mess that was TRL.
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Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: TRL, K-pop, and a generational knowledge gap that keeps me up at night
08:06 – How Erin got into K-pop and the short version of what the “celibacy police” are
10:33 – How K-pop groups are formed: the four major management companies and the making-the-band pipeline
12:11 – control and contracts: how idols are signed as young as 12 and go six figures into debt before they ever debut
16:08 – The no-dating clause, dating scandals, and what happens when a paparazzi photo ruins everything before you even debut
22:05 – Fan service, the male gaze, and the weird contradiction of hyper-sexual performances from people who are publicly not allowed to be sexual beings
29:17 – Queerness in K-pop: fan fiction, fetishization, and the idols people just sort of… know
42:50 – Fan communities vs. management companies: who’s actually in control here?
50:37 – But where’s the joy? Photo cards, fan meetups, and why K-pop is genuinely a great time
55:18 – What’s next: Erin’s starter playlist and a preview of part two on Patreon
Resources & Links Mentioned
- Radiolab’s 2016 piece on the first K-pop paparazzi scandal involving Jonghyun of SHINee (transcript: https://radiolab.org/podcast/kpoparazzi/transcript )
- Jenna Gibson, Ph.D. on fan communities and idol image management (select media: https://jennargibson.com/media-appearances/ )
- Stray Kids — the 2017 JYP survival show that formed the group Stray Kids (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stray_Kids_(TV_program))
- XO Kitty on Netflix — Mary’s gateway K-pop-adjacent content
- Ki (Kim Ki-bum) of SHINee’s collaboration with John Cameron Mitchell, “Sugar Daddy” (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stCKYgiu9-0 )
- Stray Kids’ Han and Lino / Min Sang — for the rabbit hole Erin mentions (link: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Han/Lee_Know )
- Erin’s amazing playlist: “K-Pop for New Recruits, a k-pop starter pack for millennial baddiesss” (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1O0bVXFWhidBy9HaSTjoyI?si=dcc5270038cd4386)
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Transcript
Full episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ipi7KrP2BqnorZoO5VXXvN3-vgo2CZAyzyZn4-cU7_c/edit?usp=sharing
Connect with Mary:
Website: http://www.marymmahoney.com
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Email: [email protected]
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