LE SSERAFIM’s Debut MV Reignites The Conversation About Underage K-Pop Idols And Risqué Stunts
As most K-Pop fans probably have heard, HYBE Labels‘ subsidiary Source Music just debuted their new K-Pop girl group, LE SSERAFIM, on May 2 with the song “Fearless”.
Among their member lineup are former IZ*ONE members Sakura and Chaewon, along with four other talented young women who are undoubtedly set to become stars: Yunjin, Kazuha, Garam, and Eunchae.
However, the two youngest members of the group, Garam and Eunchae, are 16 and 15 respectively, and there’s a particular part in the music video that many fans have expressed their discomfort with due to their ages.
During the bridge of the song in the music video, the girls are seen performing a choreography that involves bumping their hips on the ground. While only the upper half of their bodies is shown for the most part, it’s still clear to see what they’re doing.
4th gen girl groups and their “we love the floor so much” choreos 😭😭😭#LE_SSERAFIM_FEARLESS #LE_SSERAFIM #FEARLESS pic.twitter.com/XghU0XVdOw
— Manifesting Blackpink JUNE comeback ✨🙏🏼🫧 (@jis00preme) May 2, 2022
Fortunately, this part of the dance seems to have been taken out of the live performance and replaced with something less suggestive.
The live choreo for Le Sserafim’s Fearless has completely different choreo compared to their music video, thankfully.
It is still very weird that hybe included THAT move in the official music video tho since Eunchae and Garam are still minors and it should be removed/editted out pic.twitter.com/EZUFnzKMhj— C (@129Joon) May 2, 2022
While the commentary on their debut song and music video is overall positive, it has sparked conversation among some fans on Reddit over the ongoing use of underage idols — both male and female — performing more “risqué” dance moves and other stunts.
The original poster, u/Cestune, brings up several examples in the past where this has happened before.
It feels like companies will make underage (especially girls) members do risque stuff and nothing has changed. from kpopthoughts
The conversation quickly took off, with many people agreeing with the Reddit user’s opinion on the matter.
Several commenters posted other examples they could think of where this has occurred with underage idols.
Some people also brought up the fact that, unless companies face some kind of repercussions for doing this to their underage idols, nothing will change.
This is, unfortunately, likely to be a conversation that keeps happening unless something drastic changes in the K-Pop industry and the fanbase. In the meantime, we can only hope that the members of LE SSERAFIM are comfortable with what they’re doing, because they really do have so much promise already!
