Koreans debate over the mass concert cancellation: “But when I’m sad, I get comforted by music…”
Amid the period of national mourning for the Itaewon disaster, entertainment programs and pop culture performances have all been canceled one after another. However, there are also remarks that the method of mourning should not be forced.
On October 29th, ahead of Halloween, a large crowd gathered in Itaewon, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, which led to a terrible crush accident. The death toll from the disaster has been tallied at 156 as of November 2nd. The public is still shocked by this tragedy that happened in the heart of downtown Seoul, and the government has announced a national mourning period from Oct 30th to Nov 5th.
Amid a heated debate over the declared national mourning period, broadcasters canceled most of their regular shows and replaced them with news and cultural arrangements. In particular, most of the major entertainment shows have decided to cancel for a week. From the perspective of broadcasters, as long as the national mourning period is still in effect, they have no choice but to feel burdened about broadcasting entertainment programs with a bright atmosphere.
But viewers’ reactions are divided. It is natural that the news alert system is in progress or changes in real-time for a natural disaster, but many debated that the situation is different in Itaewon, where the scene has already been recovered, the cause of the accident has been identified, and the investigation on who is responsible for it is underway. While many entertainment programs were canceled and replaced by current events and cultural programs to fit the mood of mourning, it is ironic that KBO Korean Series baseball is being broadcast live as scheduled.
The fact that music performances and concerts are canceled one after another is also regrettable. In the case of performances prepared for months at most, the interests of numerous staff and subcontractors as well as the artists on stage are intertwined. Their economic activities have come to a halt. In particular, the already dampened performance industry due to the pandemic is making it even more difficult for it to stop performing for condolences.
Singer Summer of Thoughts (Park Jong Hyun) expressed his intention to proceed with the performances as scheduled on his SNS, saying, “In the eyes of government agencies, arts must be synonymous with entertainment and leisure.” He said, “For those who perform, it can be not just performing, but also a way of mourning, but also performing. I think about the repertoire I have decided to do and smooth it out. That’s the way I chose,” he said.
Bae Soon-tak, a music critic and writer, shared this post and added, “In this country, pop music is always the first to be banned. Don’t tell them that music comforts you when you are sad. We have to all pass this time of mourning the same way. But people all have different ways of mourning. Difference is natural. I hope that even the way of mourning is not forced on us,” he said.
In foreign countries, performances in mourning and remembrance often comfort everyone, and it is also true that Korea tends to stop pop music performances first in these situations. Netizens are also protesting against the atmosphere in which everything was forced to stop except for the regret and condolences for the disaster. This is why some are saying, “At this rate, the whole country will suffer from depression.”
Source: daum
