Few musical genres have had the meteoric rise in the past decade quite like K-Pop, the musical style and larger industry hailing from South Korea. And while music fans worldwide know about massively successful groups like BTS, BLACKPINK, TWICE, EXO, Stray Kids and Red Velvet, among many others, you might not know about the highly competitive and manufactured "idol industry" that produces these global K-Pop stars. Tonight, The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper is digging deep into the K-Pop phenomenon and the machine that made it with a new special, “K-Pop: A Star is Made."
Airing Sunday, January 5, at 8pm Eastern Time on CNN, the one-hour special will be led by CNN Senior Investigative Correspondent Kyung Lah, who will take viewers through the rigorous vocal, dance and fitness training required of seven aspiring K-Pop stars as they prepare to audition for a premiere idol group in Seoul, South Korea.
Lah speaks with the trainees about the pressure to maintain a certain appearance, and how extreme dieting and plastic surgery have become common amongst K-Pop hopefuls. The episode also features interviews with singers Amer Liu and Min, YouTube personality Megan Moon and more to talk about the global impact of the South Korean music industry, which has infamously come with international scrutiny for its many stars.
“As a Korean American growing up in Chicago, I never imagined my native language would be streamed across platforms in the US as a multi-billion-dollar industry,” said Lah in a press release, per CNN. “It still shocks me to this day. What I wanted CNN’s audience is to see and experience how this happened, through the intimacy of the struggle of the K-pop trainees you’ll meet in our hour. They’re more than perfect young men and women of the TikTok era — they’re utterly human, some as young as 14, and as vulnerable as the young fans who listen to them.”
To tune into tonight's special edition of The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, you're going to need access to CNN. The cable news network is available on most traditional cable TV providers, as well as live TV streaming services like Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV. It will also be available to pay-TV subscribers on CNN.com and CNN connected TV and mobile apps.
Check out a sneak peek inside a K-Pop trainee program above before watching The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper on CNN tonight.
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