From Sung Joon to Cool’s Lee Jae-hoon, K-pop stars are opening up about their personal lives. Here’s why
- While such idols were once worried their popularity would drop once they announced their love lives, fans want to see a more personal side these days
- The likes of BTS have harnessed social media on their path to global superstardom, and others now see the merits of deeper connections with fans
On January 2, Kim Hee-chul from K-pop act Super Junior and Momo from Twice admitted they had been dating for two years. February saw Lee Jae-hoon of the group Cool admit that he had been married for a decade and had two children.
That same month, model-turned-actor Sung Joon revealed that he had married his pregnant girlfriend before his military service in 2018. Chen from boy band Exo had a similar situation earlier this year when he announced his upcoming wedding to his pregnant girlfriend.
In Chen’s case, while there were disappointed fans calling for his dismissal from the band, there seemed to be a bigger push to support his decision to share his personal life with the public.
“I started to cry when I read his letter on social media, but I started to think about his happiness and the fact that I can’t control his life and never will,” said Peki Chhakchhuak, an 18-year-old fan from India.
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“If, 10 years ago, the most popular stars tried to keep a mysterious aura about them, it’s become the trend to show their natural behaviour in front of fans nowadays,” said Park Sung-hoon, a producer for Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS), which airs music programmes and reality shows that feature celebrities.
“It was unimaginable that a celebrity would show up in front of the camera with no make-up on, but now there are so many shows where celebrities sleep in a house overnight with other celebrities.”
Kim Dae-oh is one of the most influential entertainment reporters in the country, having covered the industry since 1991. He said social media had become a huge contributor in accelerating this culture of celebrities opening up their personal lives.
“We’re no longer in an age where interviews and television appearances are the only access to a celebrity,” Kim said. “Stars are now able to speak personally to fans and speak for themselves on various platforms.”
Park agrees on the significance of social media for celebrities in the country. “The worldwide success of BTS has imprinted a very positive image on the use of social media for many K-pop acts,” he said.
The Korean boy band has won the Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist every year since 2017. Bang Si-hyuk, the chief executive of BTS’ label Big Hit Entertainment, has credited social media as being the key to the band’s success.
Kim adds that attitudes of celebrities and fans have undergone a massive change as the level of intimacy between the two groups has evolved.
“[For a time], celebrities held on to the strong fear that their popularity and relevance in the industry would drop drastically once they announced their love life or marriage, but [this is] changing,” he said.
“Since fans are acknowledging the personal choices of their favourite celebrities and contributing to make a positive environment in the industry, it has made it easier for celebrities to choose to be more transparent.”
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Singer HyunA and her boyfriend and label-mate Dawn caused a considerable stir among fans last November when they made an unprecedented appearance on the major television show Knowing Bros, becoming the first K-pop couple to appear on the programme.
“I wonder if this will become a thing in K-pop now, for idols to start dating publicly like Hollywood stars do,” said one commenter on the YouTube trailer for the show. “They could appear on television shows together and go to red carpet events together.”
Famous K-pop stars have also become popular YouTube vloggers, or video bloggers. With singers like Chen and Baekhyun of Exo and Solar of girl group Mamamoo showing their millions of subscribers what they eat for dinner or how they work out in the gym, fans are thrilled at being able to see a more personal side to their stars.
Park, the producer from SBS, said that as a result of this increase in accessibility to their favourite stars, fans would likely want to see more personal moments in the future.
“Fans don’t want to see their stars all dressed up and made up any more, they want to see someone friendly who seems like they could live next door,” he said.
