The past few weeks, I have been immersing myself in K-pop and K-dramas. I call it my "Unofficial Korea pop cultural immersion programme". Haha. Seriously, I have been googling loads of information with an unusually extreme hunger. I wonder why am I not studying Mass Comm?! O.o This could be a very interesting FYP topic! Smth like "Analysis of Korean Pop Music Culture and Industry".Good talent agencies are very important. JYP Entertainment is my personal choice. I think Park Ji Young (JYP) is a genius and a good example to follow. He himself is a singer, but he is on the lookout for more talents not just in Korea but holding auditions all over the world. This man has ambition!

1. Wonder Girls

JYPE adopts a "family" concept. Every artiste in this talent agency is as close as family. I think that's awesome. I remember watching MTV Iggy's, when WG performed live, and the host interviewed JYP.

Q: What do you look out for when you are choosing someone who is an aspiring singer?

JYP's Ans: Of course talent is important, but I believe that passion is more important. I have seen many talented young people who tried to make it big, but they failed in the end because of the lack of determination and perseverance. Like Sun Ye from Wonder Girls, she has been training for 6 years before she debuted as the Wonder Girls. Just training alone. To succeed, you must be really hardworking.

Wow. This guy teaches core values to his JYP kids. I think that's awesome. Because...success can come in two methods. First would be step-by-step. Second would be just based on something that appeals to people (more like chance?) and hope you would strike it rich. I think the 1st method has greater sustainability in that measure of success. And I think that's what JYP always had in mind for his company & the JYP kids. Which is great! Unlike some agencies around (I am sure there are) that simply uses artistes to earn more $. Exploitation happens alot in the entertainment industry.

Getting to the top is easy compared to STAYING at the top.

This coupled with JYP's acute sensing of what people love to see in music and entertainment, produced not just the success of WG, but also a boyband group called 2PM.

CAN YOU SEE/FEEL THE ENERGY?? Goodness they are awesome. Every single member from 2pm can dance superbly (& sing in tune at the same time) unlike any other boybands I've seen. Seriously. Okay, maybe Energy from Taiwan...but they have long been in history. And if you know about Energy, their failure was precisely contractual conflict with the agency managing them. Which reinforces the fact that having a good agency is very important.

JYP Entertainment abolishes “slave contracts”

"JYP Entertainment, who currently has the Wonder Girls, 2PM, etc artistes under its charge has announced on the 26th, that it will adopt the standard contract protocol set by the Korea Fair Trade Commission. They will thus become the first management agency in Korea to abolish what many has come to know as "slavery contracts".

The term "slavery contracts" are basically contracts signed by artistes where the terms mainly interferes with their personal life, infringing their human rights and weren't really beneficial to them. Despite that, it is quite a normal practice in the industry because it's somewhat a culture that has lasted for many years. Trainees who have hopes of making it big, have to agree to these terms because they have no other choice.

But despite being singled out by the Korea Fair Trade Commission many times since late 2008, many management agencies have persisted with the practice. Although some did modify the contract terms after getting several warnings, it did not really help since the whole "slavery contracts" were still in place.

But JYP Entertainment has now taken the first step to rooting out this unnecessary evil in the industry by adopting the new contact protocol, which will see the contract length shortened, ratio of earnings changing according to market value, artistes able to decide their own schedules, etc terms that will better safeguard artistes rights.

A representative from the Korea Fair Trade Commission expressed that, with the huge influence that JYP Entertainment wields in the industry, they have high hopes it will help to set a good foundation and example for other management agencies to follow in future."

Source: http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/jyp_entertainment_abolishes_slavery_contracts/

Cheers to passion. Passion > talent.

Point #2: JYPE do not just groom their talents to be good singers, but have a good grasp of stage presence, which makes them a true entertainer, being all-rounders. And people like to be visually stimulated, not just auditorily as in hearing the singing voice.