 So I was doing some more research into various K-pop bands and like going through and checking out different articles and videos and things like that and seeing how exhausted they are and there's compilations of them fainting and collapsing on stage. Like I want to use this video as an opportunity to kind of start a conversation. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel what I like to do is pull different topics from pop culture and try to see what kind of lessons we can learn from them. So if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. So yeah like K-pop is something that I'm trying to learn more about and understand like I'm always just fascinated with you know society and just like how our minds work and what grabs people's attention and things like that and something that's been like a phenomenon is K-pop and it's everywhere and I'm like okay well what's going on. So I've been trying to understand you know I've did a video about BTS and trying to see like you know what the fan base is like and what's what's drawing people to them. But something I've heard about just watching channels like Philip DeFranco and some other news channels something I've heard about is just the conditions in which K-pop stars like work under and they're exhausted and I was just researching this and one of the things I came across was you know these compilation videos of K-pop stars being so exhausted that they're fainting and collapsing on stage and this led me to doing some more research and I'm just like okay what else is going on. And there's entire videos and compilations just about like this dark side of K-pop in South Korea. I saw one about you know a group I think it's called the East Light and they were being abused or was talk about abusing you know these young kids with like a bat and like strangling with like guitar strings and then there's talk of like prostitution and like plastic surgery that is sometimes not even like the K-pop stars idea to do it. They're talking about these things called like slave contracts. Talk about 20 hour days and I'm seeing them like holy crap right. So I I'm just sitting here and I'm thinking about this and like I I'm not you know putting like a hardcore opinion on this but like I mentioned in the intro I kind of want to just discuss this to start a conversation because something that just fascinates me just about all of us is just the lack of connectedness that we have and you have something like K-pop which a lot of people have asked me to start doing videos on which I'm trying to do and trying to learn more about because of the positive message that they send out there and the you know positivity and I've seen comments on like my own videos that I've done lately and people saying like oh my god you know I love their music so much it's helped you know brighten up my day um somebody even said like it helped like save their daughter's life and all that I'm like man this is powerful this is such a a good thing right but when you're seeing what the K-pop stars are going through it's like where you know what where where are we at with this thing because it's like they're going through such horrendous things to give us this thing that we want we crave if we need whether it's being connected with their music or just having you know these like ultra stars to kind of look up to and be excited about so like where's that balance because they're influencing millions and millions and millions and millions of people and brightening up their day and bringing smiles to faces but like they're suffering at the cost of this right so the first thing I want to talk about is just us as a society and I think about this stuff um like I don't know where you know my clothes came from you know my pants my shoes my my socks I don't know who made those things right like did they come from you know a sweatshop is it from like a place with like good working conditions like what is going on I look at you know I have an iPhone and what are the conditions like there and do I research it as much and for a lot of us like that ignorance is bliss like I don't want to know where this came from I don't know I don't want to know the story behind this I don't want I don't want to know about those working conditions because these things make my life better so do I not want to know so should we be investigating it more like just going back to the topic of clothes and things like that I don't know if any of you watched last week tonight with John Oliver but he had a whole episode on the clothing industry and like just watching that it has me just like rethinking all these things so I don't know what the solution to that is like do I research everything that I buy where these clothes coming from how are they made all those things and then part of it is when you look at that it obviously jacks up the price right so we as people since we're so disconnected like what do we do when we look at like this cheap price are we like eh you know whatever not my problem right like and it's it's difficult because we don't want to talk about that stuff we don't want to think about those things so we're listening to like k-pop music and it's pretty well known like what they're going through right so I don't know if BTS is like I don't know not having these issues if they're just everything's great for them like I don't know what that is you know but it even goes to like the foods we eat and I and when I talk about this stuff like again I'm just trying to present a conversation um because I'm a vegetarian right I'm not one of those moral high ground vegetarians I'm like you awful person right if you want to eat meat do yo thing right but like it came to a point for me like I I mainly started um become uh being a vegetarian mainly for health reasons uh six and a half years ago I had congestive heart failure so some blood pressure issues um going meat free has helped me out a lot I'm not 100 vegan but it helped me out a lot but then like the more I looked at things and thought about things I'm just like okay like our you know factory farms is that something that I want to you know be a part of because the more we feed into that the more they're going to keep creating it right so with k-pop stars getting all these fans and making so much money you know it it doesn't really tell the the music industry that we don't want this right so I don't know what the solution to that is like when k-pop stars are so exhausted that they're fainting and collapsing on stage it's like but they're fainting and collapsing in front of thousands and thousands of people filling up stadiums and things like that so that goes back to like this kind of positive reinforcement we are as a society feeding into that but the other topic I want to go into is the price that so many people pay for fame you know what I mean and and this can go back to like childhood so something that I was learning about in my in my research is that like they start to groom these these kids so you know within this span when they become like teenagers or whatever they'll be these like k-pop stars or at least try to be k-pop stars so a lot of this like we've already seen it happen in like Hollywood with child actors and everything like that like now that I'm an adult and I've seen so many child actors just completely like fall and just you know get into drugs and just have mental health issues and all that and I look at that and when it comes to kids I'm thinking about the parents and the parents pushing this on their kids because most kids don't even know what they want to do or they know what they want to do but if you're an adult like think about how many times those things have changed but for the children or even teenagers or even people in their 20s or even us me and you like what is the cost of that thing that dream that we want to pursue is it worth it so it's very well known because even like even though I'm not like fully into like k-pop like I've known about these these working conditions like I said I've seen stories on Philip DeFranco so if these k-pop stars know what it's like why are they getting into that right and then that all goes back to like what we believe is going to make us happy you know what I mean like those BTS dudes from what I can see they seem pretty happy and they're putting a little positive message out there right but so many of us like how many of you out there work your butt off and put in your blood sweat and tears at work and you're working overtime and you're doing all this stuff just so you can move up the ranks in this you know system at your work and get promotions and raises and all this and why do you want that is it for status is it so you can buy things which is also a form of status oh look at the nice car I have look at the nice house I have like what are you willing to put yourself through to get that thing and when we look at this when we look at celebrity mental health issues it's like was it worth it was it worth it to get that thing and part of it I guess I can see too is you know one person saying you know what I'm going to go through this just so I can help out other people through my music or through my singing or through my work or whatever it is like something that I knew damn well making this YouTube channel was I'm putting myself on the front lines for criticism for hate for people to try to you know dig up things for people to create narratives about me for all these other things I knew I was getting into that doesn't mean that it doesn't suck sometimes but I knew that's what I was doing and one of the reasons I'm still here is because I feel like I have an important message that I want to get out there so it makes it all worth it so I guess in a sense I can kind of see where some of these k-pop stars might be doing it what some of their motivation is but again at the same time you would have to kind of make that your motivation if you're signing these contracts that lock you in for like a decade so you might as well make the best of that situation but something I came across too was you know k-pop stars you know taking their own lives and things like that and I'm just like ah so that's something I might talk about another point when I learn more about those stories but again I just want to have this conversation like what are you as a consumer or k-pop fan like think about these things what what can we do or where where is that balance you know of what they're dealing with and what our enjoyment is and is that right is it wrong I don't know but I just wanted to make this video because I was doing some research and it was on my mind I wanted to talk I like talking with all of you is what I like doing so leave your comments down below let's have a conversation okay anyways that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give it a thumbs up if you're new make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and a huge huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on patreon you are all amazing and if you would like to become a patreon get involved in our monthly Q&A and some other perks and benefits click or tap right there all right thanks again so so much for watching I'll see you next time