the dark side of K-pop

All you have to do is Google "kpop star suicide rate" to be presented with a lot of dark articles about this globally popular genre. Having seen and reviewed "KPop Demon Hunters," I can say that K-pop—like postmodernism when discussing art and literature and nothing else—has its uses, but beyond that, it's just fluff and style. Here are some article links and excerpts to let you in on the dark side of K-pop and of Korean society in general.

First up—Google AI's sad summary:

South Korea faces a serious issue with a high suicide rate compared to other developed countries, and this issue extends to the K-Pop industry.

Factors contributing to suicides among K-Pop stars

• Intense pressure and competition: The K-Pop industry is characterized by rigorous training, high standards of perfection in performance and appearance, and constant pressure from agencies, fans, and the public to maintain a flawless image.
• Mental health stigma: Despite the prevalence of mental health disorders in South Korea, there is a strong societal stigma against seeking professional help. This stigma can be particularly pronounced within the K-Pop industry.
• Intense fan culture and cyberbullying: K-Pop stars are subjected to intense scrutiny from fans and the media, facing cyberbullying, invasion of privacy, and relentless criticism.
• Lack of support systems: Many K-Pop agencies and the broader industry have been criticized for prioritizing performance and profit over the mental health and well-being of their artists, leading to a lack of adequate support systems and mental health care for idols and trainees.

Impact of K-Pop star suicides

• Werther Effect: The suicides of prominent K-Pop stars can have a significant impact on the general public, especially young people, leading to a "Werther Effect," or copycat suicides. Studies have shown increased suicide rates following the deaths of popular K-Pop artists.

Addressing the issue

• Increased awareness: There's a growing awareness within the K-Pop industry and in South Korea generally about the importance of mental health and the need to provide support for artists.
• Policy changes: Some initiatives are being implemented, including increasing access to psychological consultations for entertainers and focusing on better mental health management within agencies.
• Open dialogue: Several K-Pop idols have bravely opened up about their struggles with mental health, helping to normalize discussions around the issue and reduce stigma.

While some progress is being made, there's a continued need for greater attention to the mental health and well-being of K-Pop stars and the broader socio-cultural factors that contribute to mental health issues in South Korea.

It seems unfair, as religion fades in modern Korea, for these pop stars to be held to the standards of saints. Who can survive the scrutiny without either attempting suicide or cracking under the pressure?

Suicide in South Korea (Wikipedia)

South Korea has the second highest suicide rate in the world^[3] and the highest among OECD countries.^[4] The elderly in South Korea are at the highest risk of suicide, but deaths from teen suicide have been rising since 2010. In 2022 suicide caused more than half of all deaths among South Koreans in their twenties. It is the leading cause of death for those between the age of 10 and 39.^[4][5][6]

Relative poverty among senior citizens in South Korea, although declining since 2011, has contributed to their high rate of suicide. Because of a poorly-funded social safety net for the elderly, many choose to take their own life so as not to be a financial burden to their families. The social tradition of children looking after their parents in old age has largely disappeared in 21st century Korea.^[7] Rural residents tend to have higher suicide rates due to self-reported high rates of elderly discrimination, reaching 85.7% for those in their 50s, especially when applying for jobs.^[8] Poverty, age discrimination, and suicide often occur together.^[9]

In 2011 the South Korean government enacted the suicide prevention act, which created a network of government funded suicide prevention and mental health welfare centers across the country.^[4] They had an effect of decreasing suicide rates when the number of suicides per 100,000 people declined by 4.1% from 28.5 in 2013 to 27.3 in 2014, the lowest in six years since 2008's 26.0 people.^[10][11]

A 2024 TIME Magazine investigation reported that South Korea's suicide prevention and mental health welfare centers receive insufficient government funding, data, and support. Senior officials from six local centers alleged that the central government withholds suicide-related data from them "to shield districts, cities, and provinces with high rates of suicide from reputational damage," obstructing their efforts "to enact policies that would meet the needs of their communities and, ultimately, save lives."^[12]

Age

An extremely high suicide rate among the elderly is a major contributing factor to South Korea's overall suicide rate. As people age, certain sociopsychological factors such as income decline due to retirement, increased medical costs, physical deterioration or disabilities, loss of spouse or friends and no sense of purpose increases the risk of suicide^[13] Many impoverished elderly people choose to die by suicide as to not be a burden on their families, since the South Korean welfare system is poorly funded and the tradition of children caring for their parents in old age has largely disappeared in the 21st century.^[7] As a result, people living in rural areas have higher suicide rates.

Although lower than the rate for the elderly, grade school and college students in Korea have a higher than average suicide rate.^[14]

Over a 5 year period, the number of suicide or self-inflicted injuries has increased from 4,947 in 2015 to 9,828 in 2019, and most cases involved people aged between 9 and 24. Kang Byung-won, a Parliament member from the Democratic party announced that "26.9 young South Koreans either attempt suicide or suffer self-inflicted injuries per day."^[15]

Gender

On average, men have a suicide rate that is twice as high as women.^[11] However, the suicide attempt rate is higher for women than men.^[14] According to a study, because men use more severe and lethal suicide methods, men have higher suicidal completion rate than women. The Risk-Rescue Rating Scale (RRRS), which measures the lethality of the suicidal method by gauging the ratio between five risk and five rescue factors, averaged out to be 37.18 for men and 34.00 for women.^[16] One study has translated this to the fact that women attempt to die by suicide more as a demonstration, while men die by suicide with a determined purpose.^[17]

A star dimmed by suicide (L.A. Times, 2017)

In recent years, South Korea has earned global recognition for its glossy and youthful music industry, known as K-pop. At the same time, the country has grappled with a much more ignominious distinction: Its suicide rate is the highest in the industrialized world.

These contrasting facets of South Korea’s identity collided this week with the apparent suicide of one of the nation’s most-famous K-pop stars, Kim Jong-hyun, who used the mononym Jonghyun.

The singer, songwriter, producer and member of the boy band SHINee was found unconscious Monday in a multi-family building in Seoul’s Gangnam district, a neighborhood made famous internationally by fellow K-pop star Psy. Authorities found burned coal briquettes, which produce carbon monoxide, in a frying pan in the room, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

Jonghyun’s death, which shocked and saddened fans worldwide, is one prominent example of South Korea’s alarming suicide mortality rate, which two years ago surpassed all but nine countries worldwide.

South Korea’s rate also leads all nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 35 industrialized countries that includes the United States, Japan and Germany. In 2015, South Korea reported 13,500 suicides, or about 37 a day. Suicides were the second-leading cause of death by injury, after vehicle accidents, according to the World Health Organization.

A musician friend of Jonghyun’s posted a note on Instagram that she described as his suicide note. The writer of the undated note speaks of suffering from depression, questions whether he was cut out for fame, and says, “No one alive is more tormented nor weaker than myself.” Jong-hyun’s management company said the note was made public after discussion with his family.

Jonghyun’s death has highlighted a societal ill that has grown more common over the last generation — even as other developed nations have seen a decrease in suicides. There is some evidence that rates are beginning to decline, though they remain high.

“It is a social phenomenon that stems from a combination of individual, societal and generational issues,” said Kim Hyun-jeong, a psychiatrist at the National Medical Center who also works with the Korean Assn. for Suicide Prevention.

Some suicide causes transcend borders, but many here are unique to South Korea, a nation that in two generations was transformed from a poor, agrarian society to the world’s 11th-largest economy.

That rapid development after the Korean War helped cause income inequality and a society that many think values competition and achievement over individuals and quality of life.

Another theory, Kim said, is that many South Koreans think they would rather die than suffer humiliation when honor is at stake.

The suicide rates are particularly high among young people and the elderly, two of the nation’s most vulnerable cohorts.

The country’s economic transformation, for example, hurt many elderly residents, some of whom struggle after they leave the workforce — and some of whom were left behind entirely. Roughly half of the elderly live in poverty or have limited incomes because a government pension plan began only three decades ago, according to the OECD.

Young people here face intense familial and societal pressures to perform well in school, spending hours in special academies to learn English, for example. High-paying, salaried jobs in South Korea’s highly competitive workplace also have become more scarce since an economic crisis in the late 1990s.

“Our society pressures us too much,” said a 23-year-old Yonsei University student who asked to be identified only by her family name, Shin. “When I think about studying in high school, I don’t wish that kind of pressure on anyone.”

In 2015, suicide was the No. 1 cause of death for people ages 10 to 39, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service.

HIGH RATES OF SUICIDES AMONG K-POP STARS: CAUSES AND BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM (Researchgate.com, 2023 research abstract)

High rates of suicides among K-pop stars have become a pressing issue that demands attention from researchers, policymakers, and industry stakeholders. K-pop stars, who are known for their intense work schedules, fan culture, and societal expectations, face unique challenges that may impact their mental health and well-being. This article provides an overview of the causes and background of the problem, including the role of intense work schedules, fan culture, societal expectations, mental health challenges, and other contributing factors. The relevance of this research lies in the urgent need to address the mental health and well-being of K-pop stars and develop effective interventions to prevent suicide. Further research is needed to better understand the complex interplay of various factors that contribute to the high rates of suicides among K-pop stars and to develop evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies that address their unique challenges.

A K-Pop Star’s Lonely Downward Spiral
Goo Hara’s life was a struggle from the start. She ended it at 28, isolated and harassed online.

(NY Times, March 1, 2024)

The K-pop star looked utterly drained. Her face scrubbed of makeup, Goo Hara, one of South Korea’s most popular musical artists, gazed into the camera during an Instagram livestream from a hotel room in Japan. In a fading voice, she read questions from fans watching from around the world.

“You going to work, fighting?” one asked.

In halting English, she gave a plaintive answer: “My life is always so fighting.”

By the time she climbed into bed at the end of the livestream in November 2019, she had reached a low point after a lifetime of struggle. As a child, she was abandoned by her parents. Her father at one point attempted suicide. After grueling training, she debuted in a K-pop group at 17, early even by the standards of the Korean hit-making machine.

With the group, Kara, she found international fame, and Ms. Goo became a regular on Korean television, eventually anchoring her own reality series. But with celebrity came ravenous attacks on social media from a Korean public that is as quick to criticize stars as it is to fawn over them. Following a sordid legal fight with an ex-boyfriend, the harassment only intensified, as commenters criticized her looks, her personality and her sex life.

On Nov. 23, 2019, less than a week after her Instagram appearance, she posted a photo of herself tucked in bed, with the caption “Good night.”

The next day, she was found dead in her home in Seoul.

Ms. Goo’s suicide, at the age of 28, shocked South Koreans. But it was just one of several among young Korean entertainers in recent years. Weeks before Ms. Goo’s death, one of her best friends, a fellow K-pop star known as Sulli, 25, also died by suicide. And last year, two performers — Jung Chae-yull, 26, an actress at the start of a promising career, and Moonbin, 25, a member of the K-pop band ASTRO — were found dead within days of each other.

The deaths have exposed a darker side to South Korea’s entertainment industry, a cultural juggernaut whose crushing demands often fall on the performers who fuel an insatiable assembly line of pop bands and streaming series.

The industry represents an extreme version of a pressure-packed South Korean society pummeled by educational, economic and other stresses. The country has the highest suicide rate among the world’s wealthiest nations, with the gap especially stark for women.

In the K-pop world, the squeeze starts early. Many young recruits are isolated from their families and deprived of the socialization that is essential to adolescence. They are often told what they can and cannot do in public — down to what they can eat, whether they can date and how they can interact with others.

There's a lot more. The movies and shows might give us the bright, glittery side of K-pop, but there lurks a vast, swampy dark side just waiting to suck young souls in. Kind of apropos, then, to see animated K-pop girls fighting demons. It's demons all the way down, and this is Korea's version of soul-crushing Hollywood. This is also why monotheism warns us against idolatry.