There's a reoccurring theme to this documentary of middle aged men bullying teenaged girls. I don't think any of the group members are older than 22 or 23. If late teens is "in the middle" (the manager's choice for a new idol) then the youngest are what, 16? The oldest can't even be 25.
It's pretty gross, this K-Pop group in particular (Nine Muses) is so focused on image that the men managing admit that some of the idols can't sing, and a few of them don't even have the personality to be stage performers (and you can see it in the faces of maybe two of the girls, their facial expressions are awful, they look like extreme introverts who would rather be reading a book somewhere). Nine Muses was apparently farmed out of young women who had previously been models.
Essentially, they're dancers, is what I got out of this documentary. The vocals are secondary and it's just a constant, athletic grind focusing on synchronized movement. But then the managers get mad that the singing is off or that their facial expressions are wrong.
One member of the group points out that 9 girls is too many, and that indeed appears to be part of the problem.
Not only that, but the men in charge treat them as disposable ...even when they're sick, even following a car accident that was one of the manager's faults. Ugh. It's like watching a bunch of would-be pimps manage a strip club.
The end result of synchronized dance troupes is always magical but the price these K-Pop stars pay to be famous is probably not worth it in some cases. They get famous for what, 1 or 2 years tops?
Also note that I think this is the norm or close to it. I like the K-Pop group Girls Generation and they've had about 20 different members since 2007. It's not the original nine girls, there are only 8 now, you get kicked out of K-Pop by 30. However, GG or SNSD is considered the best girl group to come out of SK ("the nation's girl group") and clearly whomever managed them knew what they were doing. In fact I will be the person to admit, now as a middle aged adult, part of the success of the international hit "Gee" was an incredibly choreographed and carefully edited music video in 2009 above all.