The entertainment industry can be promising, as it can turn a person from a nobody into a celebrity with fame and fortune. At the same time however, the industry is also harsh, cruel and sometimes unforgiving.
Inkigayo is The Music Trend, one of South Korea’s three main music shows. Broadcast by SBS, the show features some of the latest and most popular artists who perform live on stage.
And in January 29, 2012, the show was at the center of much criticism after broadcasting an apparent ‘wardrobe malfunction’ to its millions of viewers.
During a performance by popular Korean girl group T-ara, one of the group members, Ryu Hwa-young, experienced an unexpected nip slip that was visible through her left see-through top.
This incident last briefly, but instantly caused a storm over Korean netizens, becoming one of the most read and discussed stories on three Korean portal websites (Daum, Nate, and Naver). Netizens have been quick to react to the wardrobe malfunction, by flooding the forums with feedback as the controversy raged.
Making things worse, it was also reported that the broadcast, which was shown on national television, was said to be pre-recorded.
Because of this, Ryu Hwa-young's nip slip sparked immediate outrage that demanded further responses.
The incident Hwa-young was experiencing, where she exposed a part of her chest when her black shirt slid down, created quite possibly the worst live accident in years in the South Korean entertainment industry.
Dividing the opinions of netizens like never before, some even said that the incident was the biggest news since Kim Jong Il's death.
The incident was regarded as the incident that helped reformed the country's censorship laws, and what started further scandals down the road.
Officials of T-ara's management agency Core Contents Media released a statement regarding the matter.
"We feel deeply regretful about the accident that occurred on 'Inkigayo,'" said an official for the agency. "We found rumors claiming that it was pre-recorded, but that’s not true at all," the agency continued.
"T-ara’s stage was done completely live, and it was a live broadcast accident. There weren’t any problems during their rehearsal so it’s upsetting that it had to occur during the live show. Before the fact that she’s a celebrity, she’s still a minor, so we hope that people will remember that she’s a young girl."
In a statement to the media, Core Contents Media said the accidental exposure was caused by her energetic moves.
"It is purely an accident. The tape holding her microphone to her underwear came loose because of their vigorous dancing."
Officials of SBS were also asked why the incident was caught, and Hwa-young's nip slip could be seen on different angles through multiple cameras.
It was initially suggested that the incident was done on purpose, in order to boost the popularity of the girl band, and also Hwa-young.
"First of all, T-ara’s stage was live, not pre-recorded. The head PD was busy at the time so he was not able to pay attention to the incident. We are extremely sorry about what happened," said the agency in its defense.
Hwa-Young was quite devastated by this incident.
The scandal made her family to disowned her, and making her female relatives to hide their faces in shame.
"My family said I bought shame upon them," said Hwa-young in an interview.
"They taunted me and said I should join RaNia, and then put my belongings in the garbage and told me never to come home again. I told them I am never home anyway due to my schedules, but they wouldn't listen. Mother said she will only speak to me if I can become a more popular member of T-ara and land more CF deals and a role in her favorite drama."
"CCM are the only ones who have shown me support," she continued. "They said that now that I am a hot issue, T-ara's vacation will be cancelled so we can continue our promotions and gain more fans. We will be releasing a repackaged album next month called 'Lovey-Dovey on Mars'. It will feature a new alien concept, thirteen MVs for the title track, and remixed versions of all the songs from Funky Town. Please show it lots of love."
Her twin sister Hyo-young consoled her, as well as her fans, by tweeting, "Don’t worry."
It's worth noting that Hwa-young was 18 when the incident happened.
T-ara debuted in 2009, and experienced an immediate success soon after that.
T-ara has a lot of members, and Hwa-young joined the band as the 7th member in 2010.
Just as they were at the top of their career, scandals were found. The most famous, was the members' alleged bad behavior to Hwa-young. The bullying scandal was first spotted by netizens, seen when T-ara held their solo concert in Japan. At the time, Hwa-young only performed one song because she was reported suffering from an injury.
"There are differences in levels of determination. Let us have more determination," one member of T'ara wrote on Twitter.
"The differences in levels of determination ^^, Always be humble ^^ and sensible ^^ I applaud you, acting genius ^^," wrote another T-ara member.
Starting from there, the whole story about the T-ara bullying scandal started. Since then, netizens were quick to spot more and more alleged bullying that were seem to be happening under their noses.
Hwayoung left T-ara in 2012 due to the alleged bullying, and this also sparked another controversy, as many suggested that Hwa-young and Hyo-young were actually making things up and were lying about the bullying that occurred within T-ara members.
It was even suggested that Hwa-young and Hyo-young were the actual bullies. It was a former T-ara staff that first made this publication. Soon after this revelation, more T-ara staffers came forwards to say that Hwa-young had been disrespectful to the other members as well as the group's stylists, and claimed how Hwa-young once faked her foot injury in order to earn more sympathy.
Hwa-young denied the allegations at first, but later admitted that some were true. Following this, she was flooded with negative posts on her social media account, forcing her to delete her Instagram account in 2017.
Later, a number of people started wondering that the nip slip incident may have been staged by Hwa-young all along to boost her popularity among her peers. Some even started suggesting that Hwa-young was the mastermind of all these, and was the person behind the scandals in the first place.