The Dark Side Of K-Pop?— Top Choreographer Reveals How She Was Cheated Out Of Millions In Potential Earnings

A top choreographer recently revealed how, despite choreographing one of the most iconic dances in K-Pop, she never got paid her dues thanks to the industry structure.

The choreographer in question is Bae Yoon Jung, one of the biggest names in second-generation K-Pop, having worked with artists such as KARA and Brown Eyed Girls. She is also well-known as the choreography coach and judge for Produce 101.

Bae Yoon Jung | Namu Wiki

Bae recently appeared as a guest on a YouTube show, B-Class Hearing , and candidly shared some untold stories from her decades-long career in the industry.

Bae Yoo Jung on the show

Whilne talking about her past works, Bae was asked if the success of Brown Eyed Girls’ “Abracadabra” was due to the song or the choreography. She confidently responded that it was her choreography that made it shoot up in popularity. However, she went on to share how she never received the proper credit or compensation for creating the routine.

Bae disclosed that at that time, someone in China claimed that they had made the key dance moves of “Abracadabra” and made billions of won posing as the main choreographer of the song.

She explained that at that time, the K-Pop industry didn’t pay choreographers proportionately despite their influence.

Now choreographers get paid a lot for their work, but back in our day, as you know, if you were close to a company CEO, you might choreograph something easily—but you wouldn’t make much money from it.

— Bae Yoon Jung

She revealed that she received around ₩4.00 million KRW (about $2,890 USD) for creating the choreography of “Abracadabra,” which went on to become a huge hit. While lyricist Kim Eana and the company of Brown Eyed Girls shared the profits, which was reportedly ₩10.0 billion KRW (about $7.23 million USD).

Bae Yoon Jung’s legacy in K-Pop is uncontestable as the creator of iconic routines such as EXID‘s “Up & Down,” KARA’s “Mamma Mia,” Girls’ Day‘s “Expect,” and so on. Despite this influence, the fact that she had to struggle to get her fair seat at the table only underlines a startling reality of the past K-Pop industry structure.