(A Work in Progress)

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer…….,.,.

Shawol twt promptly lost their damn MINDS abt it, and prececded to get the man trending by tweeting abt how sexy he and his music was, and the whole thing remains the funniest shit I’ve ever seen in my life bc shawols are funny as fuck and petty as hell when u really get them going.

But what was really fascinating, was the underlying point buried underneath all the crass comments and jjong fancams. Which is Shawols insistence that people stop telling them how they should interact with him and his legacy. 

I’ve made no secret of it on this blog that I hate what I used call “hollywood bullshit” but now simply call “idol bullshit”. The crux of my soap box is this: Hollywood romanticizes celebrities who died young, especially of overdose, accidents, or suicide, so that it doesn’t have to take responsibility for the role the Hollywood system played in their deaths. A few examples would be the 27 club, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and River Phoenix. I’ve been passionate abt this for a long time.

But the thing abt the people I focus on, like River, is that they have been dead for 20+ years. Their legacy is settled, and in some ways there’s nothing more tragic. They are remembered for dying young, because that’s what Hollywood chose to focus on. People remember tragedy. It’s often the only thing people know about them.

So, from an objective standpoint, it has been very interesting to watch that battle over legacy play out in real time. I remember when the news broke about Jonghyun, and how I saw him trending on Tumblr and clicked on it. I read abt how a guy from SHINee had died, and although I was not into kpop, I had a very very good friend who was. I immediately contacted her, because I had remembered her talking at length about SHINee. And I scrolled through the tag. I read articles. I posted on Facebook, even, “another bright young thing dead at  27, when will we learn?”

But even then, Shawols were taking control of the narrative. I remember y’all saying that ppl shouldn’t talk like he kept it all inside and nobody knew. He spoke openly about his mental health, y’all insisted, he was a real advocate for things that mattered. He wasn’t sad all the time. 

And when they did the concert in February. God. The images and gifs of SHINee dressed in white, flanking that microphone, will haunt me until the day I die. That was over a year before I got into SHINee. I got into them, finally, this August.

And what I found here, and what I’ve observed, has really changed the way I interact with celebrities who die young. It made me realize that I, too, was focusing on the wrong things. To y’all, he is still very much with us, and you talk about everything but his death. SHINee really is still five, because you haven’t let him become a tragedy. You talk about the vast diversity of his music, his talents and skills, his words and his love. The way he loved you, the way he loved his members and family, the way he loved Roo. Like all of us, Jonghyun was more than one thing, and Shawols have worked hard to keep him alive in your hearts as the wonderfully complex human being that he was. And every time people try to reduce him to just that one day, you fight for him. You refuse to let people turn him into tragedy porn. You stand up for his legacy and say, No. Here’s who Jonghyun was, and it is more than just that one moment. 

I hope they mention his struggles he had to overcome as a child being raised by a single parent, and had to essentially live on welfare for part of his life. 

I hope they mention that despite the opposition, he dropped out of school and got a GED in order to invest himself fully in his music. 

I hope they mention the years he devoted as a trainee before debuting and consistently ranked as one of the top vocalists from the time he was signed. 

I hope they mention his on-stage charisma with Shinee and as a soloist that captivated audiences for almost 10 years. 

I hope that they mention what he was able to crossover from being an idol to being an artist, and a singer-songwriter at that. 

I hope they talk about how his feat was unprecedented and all of his music has been subject to critical acclaim and praise across the board not just in Korea, but also recognized by Western critics and publications. 

I hope they mention that he wrote and composed not only for SM and himself, but for other artists outside of the company, creating collaborative ties that helped to facilitate SM’s investment in such collaborations musically with the start of The Station. 

I hope they mention his years as a radio DJ on Blue Night becoming an outlet for him and his skills, and for helping to appeal general audiences to take notice of his work despite the bias against idols. 

I hope they mention his skills as a poet and writer for contemporary literature with his novel Skeleton Flower: things that have been released and set free, which also received commercial and critical success. 

I hope they mention how he released 4 solo albums (with 1 to be released posthumously) in the past three years while still promoting with Shinee as a group in between. 

I hope they mention his four series of sold-out solo concerts in those three years, each of them artistically diverse and marvels. 

I hope they mention that he broke away from his “assigned” image in order to be true to himself and to his fans. 

I hope they mention that he put his career on the line to advocate for education, LGBTQ+ rights, mental health awareness, and anti-discrimination for minorities.

I hope they mention that he never hid his emotions, and his lyrics came from the depths of his soul and touched countless others.

I hope they mention his undying love for his family and his members.