Death of SHINee's Star Kim Jong-hyun Raises Questions on K-Pop's Tough Competition
The sudden death of K-pop star Kim Jong-hyun has started a worldwide discussion on the pressure that the entertainment industry's tough competition brings to celebrities.
On Monday, Kim, 27 years old, was found unresponsive inside his apartment in South Korea. According to reports, paramedics were able to bring him to the hospital in an attempt to revive him but he was later pronounced dead allegedly from suicide.
Kim was widely known as the lead vocalist of the South Korean band SHINee.
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According to reports, police recovered what could be Kim's suicide note. It read: "I'm broken from the inside. The depression that has slowly eaten away at me has finally consumed me, and I couldn't beat it."
The Korea Herald recalled Kim in one of his previous interviews where he admitted having a hard time opening up and talking about what he really felt because he feared it would not be taken positively by the public.
The same report noted other statements made by different K-Pop stars citing how public pressure due to fame had affected their mental health.
K-pop fans may recall that earlier this year, the 27-year-old star Park Cho-a, or ChoA, of the girl group AOA announced she was taking a break from the limelight due to insomnia and depression.
Korean psychiatrist Kim Byung-soo explained to the news outlet why K-pop stars were some of the people who were most vulnerable to mental health issues. The expert said: "Psychological studies have already shown that celebrities, who are engaged in creative and artistic activities, have a higher possibility of developing depression than ordinary people."
The psychiatrist added that celebrities in the same environment as K-pop stars were more prone to "mood swings and emotional consumption" which are both related to suffering depression.
Meanwhile, public pressure has also been cited by several celebrities as something that greatly affects how they feel. According to reports, RM of the world-famous boy group BTS previously shared how a simple negative comment from a netizen that he read for five seconds affected his feeling for five hours to five days.
On Thursday, many fans flocked to grieve and pay their respects to Kim at his funeral in Seoul despite the harsh winter weather.
