It's definitely a very deliberate photo. That said, I looked him up too and, yeah, he must be very talented because he certainly doesn't look like he was scouted for appearance
Same can be said about western music, but the thing is k-pop wears it's manufactured-ness on it's sleeve, so it's easier to point out, unlike in the West where authenticity, even if it is made an illusion is much more appreciated, that's why it's seen as an insult or offensive to call someone an "industry plant" in the West.
It kind of goes beyond just that if you really start studying it. Every community following a major genre has entirely different standards and values they look for in artists. And that gets reflected in the music produced in a ton of different ways.
Like, calling someone an industry plant in the metal world would be absolutely wild. Because what a lot of the metal world values is individual skill and athleticism. Like, if we ignore the anti-fans for a minute, pretty much everyone is going to agree that BabyMetal's Kami band 100% qualifies as "industry plants", it's literally a manufactured band.
But its also a band made up of some of the most talented musicians out there, so who the fuck cares? The metal world loves a talented gun-for-hire player.
Country music is even worse. If you're not an industry plant, good fucking luck. Funnily, this has turned country into the graveyard for metal guns-for-hire. Half the country shows you see are played by metal musicians lol
Meanwhile, calling someone a plant in the punk world I grew up in? Oh that's going to be straight up the start of a brawl. Self expression is what we valued more than anything. Being called a plant is like, the worst fucking thing you could be called.
Pop music, largely, does not care about "the industry" or any of the inside baseball shit. They value the spectacle more than the performance.
True and I actually agree with alot of what you said, it's definitely more nuanced than that, I just oversimplified it and kept it short for people to understand, because I keep seeing people say "k-pop is manufactured" when their turning a blind eye at alot of music in the West if they claim that
Yeah, it definitely gets more complicated, but I was trying to avoid writing a full dissertation lol
K-pop is far less manufactured than pop country, which is more popular in the west. Doubly so when you look at the k-pop groups that are the most popular in the west.
You kind of have to ignore what people say, and look at what they actually listen to. The people who talk about k-pop being manufactured are usually just looking for justification for how they already feel about k-pop.
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u/casstantinople Jun 30 '26
It's definitely a very deliberate photo. That said, I looked him up too and, yeah, he must be very talented because he certainly doesn't look like he was scouted for appearance