K-pop Members Shouldn’t Be Forced to Participate in Every Interview

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
August 9, 2024

A few days ago, journalist Lily Dabbs shared on Twitter that she had interviewed the K-pop group ZEROBASEONE and included a link to her article.

Before I go on, let me just say that I do not know Lily. I searched on Twitter and saw that we made a few benign comments to each other in the past. But we don’t know each other, hang out at concerts, or even work with and/or for each other.

While there were many, many fans of the group who enjoyed the interview, there was a very vocal contingent that was upset that JI WOONG — a member of the Korean nonet — wasn’t quoted, even after the journalist explained that he hadn’t answered any of the questions.

The following comment below from NA_oceANO_ isn’t a bad one. But if the writer had included a sentence in the intro saying something along the lines of, “While all nine members were free to answer the questions, JI WOONG chose to listen rather than talk,” some fans still would’ve wanted her to somehow force him to give a quote.

And even more likely, management would have contacted her to remove that line, because it could reflect poorly on the artist. NOTE: I am not saying this is what would’ve happened. I’m saying it could have happened, based on my years of experience writing about Korean artists.

It appears that Lily got a quote from JI WOONG to appease the fans, and added it to the article after the initial interview was conducted.

Interviews aren’t hostage situations. A reporter can’t force someone to participate. Most know it’s part of their job and will do so. But some simply don’t want to.

This isn’t wholly uncommon.

I recall an outlet was bullied into doing an additional interview (with a different K-pop group) to get a quote from a member who had declined to participate. Why? Maybe he was tired. Maybe he didn’t feel like he had anything interesting to add. Maybe he just didn’t feel like it. Maybe it was a choice he had been comfortable with.

And here’s something fans don’t want to hear: sometimes, what celebrities say isn’t that interesting, so editors cut it from the article. Or it gets hacked off due to space issues. Listen, I’ve shared bits that (to me) were really fascinating, only to find them cut from the final piece. It happens. Trust me when I say there is no ulterior motive involved.

Still, even after this writer went back and asked JI WOONG for a quote to add in after her interview had been published, some fans were still unhappy, referring to the journalist as unprofessional.

As a FYI, do you know who actually could force a group’s members to all contribute answers in an interview? The people who are in the room with them, which often includes a team of publicists, managers, a rep from their label and another from the agency etc. etc. etc. But if the group’s team isn’t worried about who answers what, doesn’t that tell you they’re OK with the way an interview is going? Do you think management is simply too shy to interrupt and encourage one of their clients to talk? Or to remind the reporter about a point they’d like to get across? I can assure you — they most certainly are not.

I love that fans are passionate about who they like. And I really do enjoy hearing them voice their opinions on how to make things better for everyone — artists and fans.

What fans don’t realize is that there are very few acts that most (not all!) legacy publications actually want covered. And to be perfectly honest, most groups — no matter how popular we think they are — wouldn’t be written about if it wasn’t for a journalist out there advocating for them, and giving editors and publications reasons as to why certain artists should be interviewed.

I know that many fans will hate to hear this, but multiple editors at very reputable publications have told me (and other colleagues) that they’re not too interested in running another interview with a K-pop idol or a Korean actor because … the conditions for the interviews are too restrictive, and they know the artists won’t be allowed to give any meaningful insight into who they are.

I didn’t enjoy hearing this, but I also acknowledge that in some cases, this is true.

For decades, there has been a misconception that female writers just want to write about male music artists so we can sleep with them. Ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

What in the world are delulu fans thinking when they say things like this? Is it just to disparage the writers? Because in all honestly, those type of sexist tropes are more of a reflection on the type of person they are than anything else.

And all of this, for what?

The fact is, almost every K-pop group wants to be written about in a U.S. publication. Why? Because we’re the No. 1 market in the world for music, which means there’s a lot of money to be made here. They don’t care if I show up for the interview or a man, because the end result will hopefully be an article that tells their story in an engaging manner.

A few years ago, I wrote about NCT 127. What fans didn’t realize then is that I felt pressure to interview only Johnny, who hails from Chicago. This is not an uncommon request for the hometown newspaper to focus on the local boy. But do you know who was able to get most of the group in? Me. (Management said some of the members couldn’t join in. It happens.)

However, there was a very vocal group of haters who didn’t care about that. They were angry about something that wasn’t true and spearheaded a campaign of hate against me, without even realizing that the group’s U.S. PR firm had asked me to consider writing about the group. Why would they offer an interview to a journalist who was supposedly trying to derail their clients’ career?

They wouldn’t. It would never happen. They would forego an interview rather than work with a problematic writer.

BTW, in case these screenshots above don’t make any sense, here’s the tl;dr version: I responded to a Korean reporter’s article about Super M’s album (which includes members of NCT 127). Almost a week later, bored and presumably angry K-Pop stans saw that tweet and went on attack mode, accusing me of having written a biased article.

Plot twist: I. Did. Not. Write. His. Article. This should have been obvious to anyone who can read and distinguish between two very different Korean names in the byline.

To get more perspective, here are some pertinent dates:

• October 13, 2019: Super M debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
• October 16: The Korea Herald released an article titled, “Did Korean sales send SuperM’s debut album to top of Billboard chart?” This is the same day that I responded to a tweet about the article.
• October 18: Billboard released an article explaining how the group charted at No. 1.
• October 22: Thousands of the group’s fans harassed me about my now six-day old comment, which I made days before the Billboard article was published.

Rani Molla most likely made the following tweet as a joke. But do you know what? It’s funny, because it’s true.