What's great about G-Dragon and IU: A story behind kpop idols' debut

As you know, all the k-pop idols have gone through long and short training period. To make their debut, they had to become trainees first, and they were intensively trained during their training period. What kind of training did they have during the period? They were trained in singing and dancing by professional teachers, and they learned foreign languages too.

What you need to know is that all the k-pop trainees have to compete desperately to get a chance to debut. It is a fierce struggle for existence, and only a few of the trainees can become professional singers. But that's not the end of their struggle for existence. After becoming professional singers, they have to compete desperately again to gain attention from the public. If they fail to appeal to the public, they are soon forgotten.

I know there are many k-pop lovers who dream to become k-pop idols, and I'd like to tell them it's really really hard to become k-pop idols and gain attention from people.

What do you think is the most important thing for k-pop trainees then? Being diligent and doing their best? Yeah, they have to develop their singing and dancing ability by practicing really hard, of course. But the problem is that there are so many trainees who can sing and dance well. They're good looking too. Then, what do you think they need to do?

What's most important to k-pop trainees is differentiating themselves from the other trainees and idols. They need to show they're different from the others to catch eyes of people and become popular idols. Think about it. All the famous k-pop idols you know have their own unique characteristics.

However, since most of k-pop trainees are very young, they can't do all the things by themselves. In most of cases, yeah, k-pop agencies help their trainees with everything. The agencies have experts in various fields, and they plan and execute everything to make their trainees popular idols. They sometimes make their trainees get plastic surgery, and they sometimes make their trainees change their voices too. Why do k-pop trainees even change their voices? Because their voices should not be ordinary. Most of popular k-pop idols are not born with their voices.

By the way, a few k-pop trainees do all the things by themselves. They polish their voices and make their voices more attractive through lots of practice. Yeah, by themselves. They can do all the things by themselves because they know what kind of voice can appeal to the public and they're very hard-working. They don't just dream to become idol stars but they actually do what they have to do to become idol stars. And of course, such trainees become very popular idols later. Like who? Super stars such as G-Dragon and IU.


When they were trainees, they produced themselves as they produce their albums these days, changing their voices and improving their musical ability. They did a lot of study to make themselves professional singers who can be loved by a wide range of people. It may sound so easy, but only trainees who have so much talent and strong will power can do such a thing. You know, Genius displays itself even in childhood. That's why many people in the k-pop industry predicted they would become super stars even before their debut.



from Kpop Behind | All the Stories Behind Kpop Stars

What's great about G-Dragon and IU: A story behind kpop idols' debut