Ever heard of Lee Seong Min from Five Senses of Eros or Goddess of Marriage? ...Probably not. Well, ever heard of that one chick who kept whining about how she was about to be a Girls' Generation member and her regret for not agreeing to the offer? Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Not only is she, Clara, the actress (seems to be unknown to most K-Pop fans) who constantly cries or verbalizes her pain and woes, but she also is the actress who gifted her face in Jay Park's JOAH music video, started controversy with her boobtastic exercise routine and the queen of media play. What is 'media play' you might ask? Though there's no official definition (unless you're into educating yourself on 1992 Musicland media) however, in my words Media Play would most likely be described as what it actually is:

A play on the media.

A way to get your group or artists' name known in a subtle (or not so subtle) way.

A way to advertise without spending money or straight-fowardly advertise a product which is usually seen on journalist articles.

Yes. All of those describe media play. However, although to most netizens, they vent their frustrations almost all the time that media play is the most repugnant thing they have ever seen and they wish that it didn't even exist, I want to analyze both sides and bring out both the good... and the bad of media play.

Media play may not always be a bad thing. Many people complain about media play and whatnot however, without media play, all of our favorite artists potentially would not be as famous as they were now. I mean, in the beginning when artists such as Girls' Generation, 2NE1 or Big Bang were trying to rise to the top, I am almost positive that they used this same method to tell people around the country that hey, this group actually exists. Media play is just a less time-consuming method of going on variety shows or advertising a new song however, a lot of media play can not only be entertaining but also be something to pay attention to. For example, when Girls' Generation's Mr. Mr was released, a small boy group still in nugudom called Mr. Mr took that opportunity to strike at SM Entertainment by media playing and venting their frustrations that Girls' Generation didn't know the nugu group and made their promotional track as well as album go by the same name as their group. Although many SONEs thought this was outrageous and said the group Mr. Mr were nothing but attention whores, I have to admit, that article did bring some conflict in my mind, me seeing substantial arguments to both sides and even taking a few minutes to google the group, Mr. Mr, and check out what they were about. As noted before, without shameless media play such as this, many groups would not even be discovered or spoken about, another great example being Girls' Day's Hyeri during the time when it was revealed she was dating Tony Ahn and articles bringing that group to famedom.


Media play may not always be a good thing either. Media play only deems useful when an artist is either at the brink of losing relevancy or is not relevant at all and is basically useless when an artist is well-known. Many companies, YG Entertainment being the prime suspect of this, already have all of their artists being well-known with pockets stuffed however, still takes the liberty to media play tiny aspects such as scouting Yoo Jae Suk. Though it's not always bad to have a company on the public's mind, over-saturation of media play can lead to lack of trust, diminishing reputation and simple tiredness from the general public turning the media play to a negative in the case of losing fans.

Hello, media play. Hello.