The manager of a legendary K-pop artist once asked me to exclude the words “mental health” in any context from a pending interview profile.
It’s still a taboo subject for many, and more so in the colossal entertainment industry of K-pop. Swaths of articles have been written about the “dark side” of K-pop, but issues surrounding idols’ mental wellbeing persist to this day. Just last year, members of the boy group OMEGA X were victims of an abusive CEO and successfully won their lawsuit to suspend their contracts. More than half of the members of girl group LOONA also sued to terminate their contracts with their agency Blockberry Creative due to a lack of pay and other mismanagement claims.
Despite the K-pop industry’s reputation for secrecy and its heavy-handed use of extravagant outfits, glittery concepts, colorful merchandise and nostalgia-laced mood boosters that often belie real-world issues, some artists have managed to cut through the noise by openly discussing their mental health struggles.
Superstars such as So-yeon and Minnie of (G)I-dle; Jay B of GOT7; Joshua, DK, Mingyu and Vernon of SEVENTEEN; Tablo of Epik High; and Eric Nam have flocked to an audio and wellness app called Mindset to share hours’ worth of vulnerable stories.
He explains that the idea behind Mindset came from the success of Dive Studios‘ viral shows that focus on relatable human challenges and topics such as anxiety, depression and burnout.
We started Mindset in February of 2021, so it’s actually been exactly two years now. We set out with the mission of how…
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