“Songs by BEAST, Jay Park, 4minute, MBLAQ & more banned by Ministry of Gender Equality & Family” (Allkpop)

(Image source: Google)

Ladies and gentlemen, we are back with yet another round of ridiculous bans. This time it’s the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family taking action against songs that are thought to “[contain] content that’s harmful to the youth.”

Below is a list of songs and its artists that have been issued bans (which means the following: they “cannot be sold to minors under the age of 19 and cannot be aired before 10 PM KST through radio or television”):

• For its mentions of alcoholic consumption in its lyrics: BEAST’s “On Rainy Days”; Baek Ji-Young’s “I Can’t Drink”
• Sexually suggestive lyrics: Jay Park’s “Don’t Let Go”; After School’s “Funky Man”; Heo Young-Saeng’s “Out the Club”
• Usage of “slang” and mention of “offensive business” (activities in a nightclub or scenes shot in a nightclub): 4Minute’s ”Heart to Heart”; X-5’s “Fantasy”
• Illustration of violence: MBLAQ’s “Again”; DJ DOC’s “Joy and Pain”
• “Encouragement” or “promotion” of crime: SECRET’s Song Ji-Eun’s “Going Crazy”; Kang Seung-Yoon’s “You’re My Heaven” (which was banned also because of its sexually suggestive lyrics) 

This is what I think: the government has the right intentions, but they’re achieving it with the wrong means. I’m all up for educating our youth with the right morals and lessening social disruption, but banning songs and music videos is not the way to go. 

1) The media’s not the only one to blame: Time and time again the media has been our main (and sometimes only) scapegoat for society’s problems. Too many teens are getting pregnant? Blame it on the media. Crime rates are through the roof? Blame it on the media. Yes, they are to blame, but I believe not fully. I think we’re reaching a point where we’re starting to passively attribute all responsibility to televisions and airwaves — where we’re starting to get too lazy to think about the other factors of social disturbance: poverty, illiteracy, etc. Surely they’re harder to tackle, but they’re just as worthy of our attention, if not more. That’s the mistake I think the Ministry is making. 

2) Restraining values of creative expression for the sake of ‘social harmony’: Another reason why I think these bans are absurd has to do with values of free speech and creative expression. Those in these entertainment industry shouldn’t be seen as individuals there to merely ‘entertain us’ — they should be seen as artists. They’re agents of a realm whose foundations are based on creativity, free-speech and self-expression*. As a matter of fact, those are rights we as citizens of the world are endowed with. It seems like a rather backwards approach to repress such rights supposedly for the ‘greater good.’ Surely there’s another way. And I think there is. 

*Well, idealistically, at least. A friend once said to me that in her eyes, k-pop idols are “gypsies and clowns” of society — that is, people who are there to simply entertain everyone else, and are not given real respect from others. I thought it was a pretty interesting comparison.

3) The instilling of wise decision-making and morals of responsibility: I honestly think when it comes down to it, there’s no fricking way to completely deter young adults from going out to drink and dance on Friday nights. There’s no way to completely deter them for making sexual pursuits such as hook-ups and one-night stands. Heck, even if you were to shut down every single night club in the city*, people will improvise (meaning alongside make-shift abortion clinics and brothels will be make-shift clubs). There will always be ‘deviants’ in society. Artists find ways to publicly channel their expressions, the young will always be experimenting around and adopting ‘modern lifestyles’, crime rates will never be a flat zero and social violence will always exist.

*BTW, terming nightclubs as centers of “offensive business” is just…hmm. It’s interesting, but definitely kinda overboard. I don’t know, though there is a tendency for shady stuff to take place in clubs, I just feel like this will just be another case of a self-fulfilling prophecy: not all nightclubs are shady, but now that it’s been labelled as such, chances are the amount of “offensive business” taking place will increase. Not to mention the possible increase of police crackdowns may ignite more backlash against authority. Just a thought.

Instead, what needs to be done is to arm them with the power to make their own choice, and the right choice. Granted, how we perceive which decisions are right obviously differ, but if we’re given the opportunity to realize possible outcomes, we’ll come to learn how to make decisions that are at the very least justified. And assuming that we’ve all grown up learning the right morals and whatnot, our youth needs to be encouraged to use them in approaching whatever ‘social vice’ is out there. We can’t shelter the youth, force them to turn a blind eye against what our world’s come to and expect them to stay passively obedient forever. Instead of us blatantly telling them what’s right and what’s wrong, they need to realize it for themselves. These bans indirectly suppress freedom in thinking and decision-making, and will simply encourage more deviance against authority. 

South Korea’s conservative roots: But alas, every beautiful thing (arguments and OTPs alike) has its cockblocker. As amazing the above just sounded, we need to remind ourselves of the fact that Korean society hasn’t completely let go of its conservative roots. It’s a nation still new to the democratic scene, having only transformed from an authoritarian government in the 1970s/80s (Russell 2008). The same conservative sentiments that launched action against 70s singer Shin Joong-Hyun for his “long hair” and songs that were not revolutionary, but were “too noisy” and “immoral”, are still thriving somewhere beneath the veneer of Korean politics (Russell 2008). And there’s also Neo-Confucianism, one of which emphases include “order and orderly relations” rather than “innovation or creativity” (Russell 2008). Though South Korea’s come a long way from its darker conservative days, it would be naive to assert that all traditional attitudes have been completely supplanted, especially in politics. What’s in question now is how realistic a society in which creativity flourishes and free-speech really is, and whether or not South Korea will be able to loosen its grip from its tendencies of censorship.

On a side note, how ironic is it that the nation takes pride in its idols for being the poster people of the Hallyu Wave, and yet they’re issuing such restrictions? Not sure what that irony implies though. I wonder what thoughts go through their head at the mention of k-pop’s international audience. Forgive me for deviating into another train of thought, but like I’ve mentioned countless times before: what are the implications of Hallyu going global? Has it, is it, or will it have any effect whatsoever on how business is dealt in the motherland? In fact, how do these bans even impact us, the global consumers? Does it even impact us?

Anyways, in the meantime I hope this particular series of bans doesn’t turn into this colossal spree, otherwise idols like Yoseob might in fact find themselves crooning children rhymes for a living in the near future. Although that actually might be… weirdly appealing. 

What does everyone else think of these bans?

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