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Has anyone gone to K Academy? What was your experience like?
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I just learned about this awesome experience to spend 5 days at Cameron Indoor Stadium during the summer for an adult basketball camp (age 35+ required).
Has anyone here been to K Academy or know someone who has attended? I'm curious what that experience was like... and whether you would recommend it.
Top Comment: A guy I know has done It and loved it. It’s just a bunch of rich guys playing basketball, their coaches are former Duke basketball players, they use the Duke facilities and get all sorts of Duke gear. Their families can go and do all sorts of different things, watch the games, meet the players. It’s pretty sick tbh but definitely expensive but I for sure think you get your moneys worth if you’re a fan
Keens Academy for non Koreans who want to be K-pop stars: Legit, or Taking Advantage of Koreaboos?
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Today, I was shown this ad on Youtube when I clicked on a Stray Kids video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR2bL723qsg&ab_channel=KeensbyED
For those who don't want to watch, it's an ad by a company called "Keens Academy". It features someone who claims to be the lead vocalist of an SMent group. Essentially the presenter claims that non-Koreans not living in Korea will be "on the road to debut" by following this company's "curriculum" which will be taught by instructors who have a career in Kpop training at large companies.
It caught my attention and it seemed kinda scammish to me so I went on their website . First thoughts: it's a well made website despite not being secure, there's one typo, and immediately I understood their business model and target demographic.
"We want to allow anyone in the world to experience the KPOP idol training system, which has been kept from the public, regardless of race, age, and ethnicity."
On the website, it claims to be partnered with SM, and two profiles are shown: Jae Shim, a "K-pop trainer", and Jay Kim, "Lead singer of the band TraxX" and 'Current vocal coach of NCT members", who will "unveil all the key factors to passing an Audition".
The FAQ section is empty. According to the website you can be preadmitted to the online program through a waitlist. I did not see anywhere to sign up for the waitlist, but the link brings me to a discord server (I didn't join but it already has 30000 members).
They definitely emphasize that this is a program for "global" citizens. Of course, they don't outright promise anyone will become a K-pop idol, they simply say they're going to put you on the "road to debut" (which is broad and vague on purpose). They also emphasize that they are teaching you to audition for SM, HYBE, JYP, and YG (they put all these logos on the website).
I think this is pretty much just like any other program/company for other industries. Like those agencies that claim to help you into Ivy League universities. And I'm sure these kinds of K-pop audition training programs already exist in Korea, it's just that this is the first to target global citizens. This is not grounds for calling it a scam, because they've never guaranteed you're going to debut, but I think most (rational) people already know that the chance of large companies accepting a person not of East Asian ethnicity is slim to none.
They probably know some 13 year old Blackpink fan from North America is going to beg their parents to let them sign up. Which is fine, because even if there is no chance Samatha Smith is going to become the next HYBE gg member, if the company is doing what they claim, you could still gain skills in dance and vocal lessons from these virtual classes. The real problem is the legitimacy of these classes. Nobody knows the quality or consistency of the curriculum, nor if the instructors have actually worked at Big4 companies. It also seemed suspicious to me they have nothing regarding the pricing of the classes on the website and are already showing ads for it, but what do I know, perhaps it's all a marketing scheme. Me writing this post and genuinely researching about it is probably already giving them publicity whether negative or positive.
What do you think? Could we be seeing more of these companies targeting international audiences as K-pop grows bigger and bigger in foreign markets? Do you predict this company will actually help anyone?
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