Recently, the subject of minors making their K-Pop debut came up in response to LOVEnew girl group NewJeans. Many argue the potential for adverse mental and social effects on young adolescents, as they are expected to meet highly competitive expectations and accept busy schedules.
K-Pop idols debuting at age 14 have become increasingly common, calling into question the long-lasting effects the notoriously critical and nurturing entertainment industry could have on someone at such a young age.
Recently, insiders weighed in on the trend, saying that young idols are missing out on crucial childhood experiences and not learning the necessary life skills in case they don’t get the chance to debut.
Debuting at such a young age usually means missing out on such experiences. In the worst case scenario, if they don’t succeed as celebrities, they end up with limited career options as they most likely missed a significant part of their education due to idol activities.
— Ha Jae Kun, pop culture critic
An example is byeon-seungmiknown professionally as Janey That is JNEY. Janey was born on December 14, 1998 and debuted in July 2008 with K-Pop boy group, Affection. The oldest member of the band was 13 at the time and the youngest was only six.
The group released a mini-album before disbanding. At the time of Sweety’s debut, Janey was only nine years old.
Despite his very young age, he quickly gained attention for his confidence and rapping skills. It wasn’t long before Janey was set to debut in a new band called basic generalist. While GP Basic was not meant to be a boy group, the average age of its six members was 13.5, making them one of the youngest K-Pop groups at the time.
Janey was 11 when the band were promoting their debut single, “Game”, in August 2010. Janey was able to appear on music shows without issue until the release of GP Basic’s second single, “I’ll Be There”. “Recently changed age regulations banned Janey from appearing on music shows.
In response, his bandmates gave him a special greeting at the beginning of the song and changed the name of the song to “I’ll Be There (To J)”.
Janey eventually joined the band on music shows for their next single, “Jelly Pop”. So far, the band had only had moderate success, with core members Trinity and Janey to participate in the show, The last audition of my life in 2012. The competition show allowed idols who had failed debuts to compete for a second chance at stardom. During the show, she shared that she was constantly rejected because of her age and that “people didn’t care [her] Music.“
Trinity and Janey were not part of the final lineup on The last audition of my life, but Janey had a rare opportunity to debut again the following year. In 2013, it was announced that Janey, now 14, would be joining a K-Pop group. Unit D as a special guest member under the stage name of JNEY. It was added after a recommendation from Zico. GP Basic fans expressed concern that the sudden announcement meant Janey would be leaving the band, but clarified that she would only be joining D-Unit for their second album. Affirmative Chap. 1.
Janey returned to GP Basic after finishing promotions for the album, but sadly the band only released one more single before going on indefinite hiatus in 2015.
In 2015, Janey appeared in the KBS2 drama, The producersProtagonized by user interface Yes Kim Soo Hyun. Joan played jini, a trainee K-Pop idol. He had previously acted in what is it mom? in 2012 and The Queen’s Class in 2013.
At 17, Janey hadn’t yet given up on her K-Pop idol dream, so she joined Not Pretty Rapstar 3 in 2016 as a competitor in the same season as (G)I-DLEit is soyeon. On the show, contestants competed in a series of rap battles for the chance to record an official song. Her appearance on the show was short-lived after she was eliminated in the sixth episode.
Before she turned 18, Janey had already debuted in two bands, appeared as a guest member in a third band, appeared on two idol survival shows, and had a brief acting career. Having multiple opportunities to make it big and fail didn’t seem to deter Janey from pursuing stardom.
In 2017, Janey joined Unit: idol reboot project (Also known as unit). This competition show gave contestants who had already debuted the chance to show off their talents in ways they couldn’t before.
Janey’s nine years of experience in the industry helped her when she appeared on ten episodes before being eliminated just four episodes before the finale in 2018 and two months after her 19th birthday.
It seems that after years of hard work and effort, Janey has stepped away from the spotlight a bit. His last Twitter update was in 2014 and his old Instagram account was reportedly deleted.
According to updates from Janey’s fan accounts, Janey has been spending time with her family and was seen dancing and having fun with her mom and sister at a baseball game in 2019. Not much is known. -thing of his recent whereabouts, but it looks like he’s doing his best. most of his return to normal life.
Check out the article below for expert opinions on the trend of young teens making their K-Pop debut.
Is the debut of young teenagers as K-Pop idols a worrying trend? Experts say yes
Janey has a new Instagram account with just seven posts, all uploaded in the last year. Her most recent post was a video of herself singing in February this year.