On Kpop and Kayfabe

There’s a term in professional wrestling used to refer to the “fake” reality that exists within the ring: kayfabe. Audiences know (well, audiences over 10 years old know) that the outcomes of matches are decided in advance, that heels aren’t necessarily nasty guys and nor are faces necessarily good ones, but kayfabe says that we all play along and cheer for the face to win a match as if the outcome was not predetermined.

Ew, why do you like a fake sport? But that’s just it. Professional wrestling isn’t fake; it’s just not a “sport”—it’s entertainment.

The wrestlers go into those rings and perform dangerous and very physically demanding choreography. Those moves aren’t “fake”; they take an incredible amount of skill to perform safely.

Wrestlers also play out storylines that can be months long, slowly building a feud or rivalry as fans follow along match by match. Or they can make sudden heel turns, sending crowds into a frenzy of boos and shocked outrage as the man they thought was a Good Guy turns out to be a jerk. I’ve been in wrestling audiences on many occasions, both professional and amateur, and there’s nothing fake about the way a good team can craft a drama in the ring, leading the crowd along in a cathartic release of emotion. We aren’t pretending to boo; we’re booing.

Of course back in the old days, before social media, kayfabe was less of an open secret and there were fans who would get furious if you even hinted that professional wrestling wasn’t a “real” sport. As a child I had a treasured T-shirt with a slogan that read “Who says professional wrestling is fake” over top of the face of an angry wrestler. But audiences became more sophisticated and wrestling has absolutely boomed in this new era.

Why am I bringing this up? Because Kpop has its own kind of kayfabe and I’ve seen a lot of evidence over the past couple of weeks that there are fans acting like the infamous old lady who is so mad at “Hollywood” Hogan’s heel turn that she tries to beat him up.

Hilarious, right? She got carried away with the kayfabe.

Well, so are the people insisting that Kpop awards are 100% absolutely awarded on pure merit when their fave wins one and absolutely 100% fake news attendance awards when they don’t.

I said this on twitter but these awards shows are as “real” as professional wrestling… maybe even less so. There are narratives dictated by behind-the-scenes politics and personalities. Export Kpop is a huge business for Korea and the men with the power and money are the ones drawing up the business plans. Where did the manipulated votes come from in 2017 MAMA? How did a certain group that didn’t make a particular impact on anybody win Best Debut Act over others who very much did? Is it a coincidence that groups who don’t attend happen to not win any awards even if their songs were extremely popular over the year?

There are two explanations: 1) awards are decided according to behind-the-scenes politics and aren’t necessarily a reflection of merit or 2) TXT is more talented, objectively a better group, and more popular than ATEEZ, ONEUS, or WAYV.

But I’ll say it again… just like wrestlers are extremely skilled in what they do, so are all of these idols who get up on stage and perform for us. Does the fact that awards shows follow a script mean that it’s not a lot of fun to see underdogs rewarded or see your favorite group make a victory lap? No, it doesn’t. If we didn’t have awards we would not have seen Jackson’s hilarious reaction at JYP’s plastic pants.

The drag is when the fans don’t understand that it’s all a show and try to, as the old lady above, flail around trying to prove, objectively, what cannot be proven and getting angry when reality outside the Kpop kayfabe is brought up.

It’s not like the artists themselves don’t know the reality…. G-Dragon spells it out quite clearly in his kayfabe-breaking rap from 2014.

We can either accept awards for the pomp and nonsense they are or become like the old lady getting carried away trying to beat up Hollywood Hogan. It's fun to boo and cheer but when you let it get too real, let that anger or gloating get too real, that's where the problems come in.

There’s a reason that Johnny’s & Associates never participated in awards shows in Japan for years and years…. the gated Johnny’s world had no place in the broader entertainment business. How can Hey! Say! JUMP compete against a “normal” band like One OK Rock when they are creating two completely different types of art? One is an idol group who makes music, yes, but also personalities and ships, who have fans invested in the idols' career narratives, cheering on drama and stage appearances, and so on. The other is a rock group. Is there some overlap? Of course. Arashi has songs that almost any Japanese person could sing for you from start to finish (“百年先も、愛を誓うよー”) but the appeal of these songs exists in the heart more than the ears and it seems almost profane to evaluate them on the same criteria as you would an artist like Shiina Ringo.

Export Kpop is also a walled entertainment sphere. Things like voting for music shows, streaming, watching the sales charts… this is part of the kayfabe. It’s real but also not real. Nobody outside the export Kpop subculture cares which group won the award on Music Bank this week because the awards don’t mean anything. Or, rather, what they mean is not something that can be measured in an objective way. Sometimes it means the acknowledgement of years of hard work from the group and of love from the fans—Nu’est and Astro both getting their first wins this year fall into that category—sometimes it’s flexing from a fanbase to sweep every single award. But the award itself is just plastic.

Much like winning the WWE championship doesn’t objectively prove anything except favored status, neither do Kpop awards. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t fun to watch and discuss and cheer and boo… just remember what it is that you’re cheering and booing. And that claiming a group or artist is better or worse for winning or lack thereof makes you look as silly as child me in my wrestling T-shirt. Let's just have fun instead...

(Originally posted 12/8/2019)