K-pop fan convention KCON faces up to mental health, truth of idol life as suicide of Shinee singer Jonghyun still echoes
Mental illness, depression and suicide – the often overlooked issues that can get lost in the fizzy fun of being a K-pop lover were given light at this year’s annual KCON fan fest
Inside the Los Angeles Convention Centre last weekend, KCON, a yearly celebration of South Korean pop culture, saw 94,000 K-pop fans mob their favourite artists in meet-and-greets, dance like crazy in choreography workshops and bond over a music scene that has largely been built on the joys of fandom.
But in one convention centre conference room, others were fully acknowledging that there is a darker, less discussed side of the K-pop lifestyle.
Last year, the singer Jonghyun of the K-pop group Shinee took his own life at 27. It devastated a corner of the music industry that had never really addressed the personal toll on artists, especially given its roots in a culture that values an intense work ethic and private resilience.
If depression and suicide could claim even one of the biggest stars in the genre, now, said some at KCON, was the time to talk about it.
“We can chip away at the stigma that there’s something wrong with us,” said Dr Andrea Bishop-Marbury, a therapist who spoke on the Saturday panel “K-pop and Mental Health”. “If we can deal with ulcers, we can deal with the idea that mental illness is illness … We have to have compassion for ourselves before we can improve.”
