QRIMOLE – April 2024

It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!

does the ILLIT “Magnetic” mv have creepy dogwhistley vibes to you at all (thinking about the article you wrote about “healthy porn for men“)? after reading that I feel like my suspicion towards girl group concepts has been permanently heightened so maybe I’m overthinking lol, but I was vaguely bothered by how babyish the styling and makeup was + the sleepover concept… those girls are literally older than the newjeans girls but look a lot younger somehow?? also the long black hair on all five members reminds me again of the newjeans debut look and the emphasis on “natural young beauty” that min heejin is kinda obsessed with. i guess this group and newjeans are under different HYBE subsidiaries but i still feel like theyre going for a similar audience/vibe. idk!!

Older people doing youthful concepts, just in a general sense: I don’t really have a problem with older people having a youthful look in general or being dressed in clothes associated with youth, it’s the underage people being dressed older that I find weird (like kids’ beauty pageants etc). I’d like to see more hot schoolgirl cosplay from grown adults (Chrissy Amphlett of The Divinyls did it all the way up into her 50s, and always looked great doing it too, people are so impressed with her legacy in my country that they named a street after her) and less 15-year olds crammed into german milkmaid fetish clothes while wearing fuck-me lipstick or inviting you in for cookies at their house only I wanna see you taste it I got sugar bet you want some.

Wtih Illit specifically, yes it is kind of babyish apart from the thigh-high stripper underwear that they sort of snuck in there. It’s pretty obvious where they’re going with it, anyone getting weird vibes from the presentation isn’t imagining it. Now some of them are of age and some are not, and honestly I really really doubt that the agency staff are sitting there going “ok well girl X is 20 so we’ll give here these clothes because she’s 20, and girl Y is 16 so we’ll give her these other clothes because she’s 16”. That would be vastly overestimating how much most of these companies give a fuck about anything at all other than money. A more likely scenario is someone in management said “we want a cute but flirty and subtly sexual concept for these girls’ debut, because that’s kind of trendy right now and it will make money, and these are the girls we’ve got to make our money with, and they look pretty enough to do it so let’s make ’em do it, what do you think” and some other people said “gosh great idea boss you’re always so clever please don’t fire me for the love of god please I have a family to support, I’ll get the girls right onto this straight away yes sir”. You should understand it through that lens.

I adopted a kitten off the streets a few months ago. She is the cutest thing on earth and the love of my life, almost 6 months old now

Why does she come into the bathroom when I’m busy on it though? And does your cat do the same

My current cat doesn’t do this often but my previous ones did. Not sure why but make sure they’re not hungry.

How much outlining/drafting do you do for longform stuff like the books and theory posts? Do you like to write chunks and (re)arrange them, or a skeleton that you fill in, or just freewrite…?

Theory posts, I know all that stuff straight off the top of my head, so I don’t really need to plan it, I just sit there and write til it’s done. Most other long posts are similar, I just start writing completely out of my ass. It’s only really list posts that have a template that I fill in (“The Kpopalypse Awards” etc). Posts that are part of a series generally conform to the pattern of previous posts in that series, so I usually just copy over the format of the previous post and use it as a template.

For books which are obviously a lot longer, it’s kind of similar. I don’t draft anything, instead I just think about what the story would look like in a broad sense, what would be the most effective and entertaining way to tell what I want to tell etc, I think about it in my head for a long time (at least a month). Then when I’m ready/have time I just sit down and just start writing. No notes to start with, but as I go I start to make note of key points so I can keep track of plot threads “situation x need to resolve somehow” etc otherwise I lose track of shit. After I finish every chapter I summarise into about three or four tiny dot points to refer back to later when writing future chapters. As I think more, my ‘dot point list’ starts to extend forward into chapters I haven’t written yet. By the end of a novel I’ve usually got a bunch of leftover dot points. Again I use my previous book as a template for the new one so they keep the same uniform appearance and so I don’t have to do all the setup and formatting again (which is pretty involved, as anyone who read my book publishing post knows).

Hi oppar! I’ve always wondered what artists who include poor countries in their tours do. Do you know if they charge the same amount of money they’d charge in countries like the US or Japan or Germany for their shows? How is that sorted out? Thanks!

Just depends on the market there. Sometimes artists can make a profit just by volume, so artists will usually only go to a poor country if they have an established market there who they know will attend shows. Note that in a poor country, the take from ticket sales or the door might be less, but the cost of touring in a poor country is also less as well because all the transport and logistics stuff is generally cheaper too. So it evens out, but it’s still a high risk unless you have a very known hardcore following in a specific part of the world.

This documentary about Norwegian black metal band Mayhem touring Central America might be of interest, it’s a good insight into why an artist would launch a tour to a poorer part of the world and how such tours often play out. Definitely worth a watch if you’re interested in this topic, and it actually shows a pretty balanced view of the pros and cons.

Idk what it is but ever since my workplace mandated us being in office for 3 days a week, I feel my social skills within the place have taken a massive nosedive. I’m coasting off the good reputation I built up for my first year but beyond that….well

(Can you not publish everything else after these parentheses? Thanks)

[stuff removed]

I’m hardly the best person to talk to about being social at work, but it sounds like you either need to force your way into the social situations. You don’t have to go out drinking, but at least try to get into that Whatsapp group. The social aspect of work is important. Failing that, you might need another job to get you out of the rut. That doesn’t mean quit your current one, just perhaps put out the feelers. In the meantime don’t make a rod for your own back by willingly taking on other people’s shit. There’s a thing called ‘scope creep’ where your job can gradually expand and people will take you for a ride if you let them! Use the power of delegation if you can!

If COVID brought anything good to the world, it was forcing companies to adopt working from home out of necessity. Personally I think any company that can implement 100% work from home successfully, is absolutely crazy to do anything else. If management can’t see the obvious benefits of migrating to WFH and keeping it without trying to walk it back, they are probably making questionable decisions in other areas too. It’s a red flag.

hi mr kpopalypse, you may or may not remember (probably not you get millions of questions a month) but i sent in a response about switching my major from physics to music in either october or november qrimole. (there were a bunch of extra factors i sent such as switching unis, teacher’s college afterwards etc that may help you identify the question). anyway i just wanted to come back and say that i auditioned for the piano performance major at my current uni and i got in! so i’ll be studying that starting september. which is great because while piano may occasionally frustrate me and practicing consistently is tough, it doesn’t make me want to kill myself like physics! and i know people in the music programs unlike in physics which certainly helps me feel not lonely and not like no one gives a shit whether i live or die.

i know you’re going to be all “you stupid cunt piano performance is a useless degree what are you thinking” but i’m 99% sure i’m going into either teaching (where the exact degree doesn’t matter) or composition (where no one will give a shit about my degree anyway). if i’m wrong in my assumptions then feel free to correct me. anyway cheers hope you’re having a great day!

Congratulations! Yes your degree might be ‘useless’ but remember that the main value of a degree isn’t actually the skills you learn, it’s just that an employer knows that you’re disciplined enough to finish a degree. So a degree that you enjoy and WILL definitely finish is better than a degree that could get you a lot of money if you finish it but you probably won’t plus you’ll be hating life. Uni is still 4 years of your life so you might as well enjoy it!

this was posted a couple of months ago oops but kyla from pristin who was ur sidebar girl in 2018 is doing very well!! she posted an update video via tiktok where she stated that she’s doing research in college and sounds like she wants to go to medical school. i KNOW this is not a question but i feel like you’d appreciate it. the video is here

People generally have a much better life once they leave the system. Good on her. Good fortune always befalls all “no reason” sidebar girls.

what do you think of this song

It’s not by the one true Yves so I don’t think I give a shit

I’ve been thinking about why I’m not as socially proficient as I’d like to be, and I’ve concluded it’s because:
1) I don’t really know what to say when the initial follow-up of things is over. After I answer a “Hi what’s up/what are you doing” question I don’t know how to take it forward from there; looking at a random object to talk about feels weird and showing a random meme will get out a chuckle and nothing else. I know you don’t have to keep up a steady stream of conversation always, but for me it’s more like idk what to say to hold interest for more than 2 seconds.

2) I might be coming off as someone more…. sensitive? I notice people laughing and making jokes about each other but I get a basic politeness around me. I haven’t said or done anything that indicates I’m sensitive to a few jokes about me here & there, so idk why I give off this vibe. I want people to be totally comfortable with me

3) it could be that I just don’t do much that people would be interested in? I have a few hobbies here & there but I tend not to talk about them much.

It’s either all this or I’m just undiagnosed autistic, but it’d be nice to know how I can present myself as more open and chill

You could be asking the wrong person, I’ve had everything you’ve described above and never worked out any solutions to any of it. Instead, I just stopped giving a damn and my life got immediately better. I suggest you stop giving a fuck. Disclaimer: this advice may be bad and someone better at social situations than me might have a better response for you, perhaps they could leave it in the comments below.

I wrote to you about building muscle last month. I’m not really interested in bodybuilding or anything like that, just getting some muscle and growing stronger. I know enough to know that muscle takes a really long time to grow, especially as a woman. I was just wondering how many others share this desire since I haven’t seen any women in my gym use the weights. All of them just use the treadmill, indoor bikes, or elliptical. That’s not to shame anyone. I also run on the treadmill for cardio. It’s just that I’ve always learned that resistance training is especially important for women because we’re far more susceptible to osteoporosis, especially after menopause without the bone protection of estrogen. It seems weird that so many of us are so leery of lifting weights.

At my gym a lot of women stick to cardio, but there are also quite a few who do weight training, and they all have crazy fit bodies. I think a lot of women are intimidated by the machines, or worried that weightlifting will bulk them out, but the ones who embrace it, really embrace it, and they get results. When I first went to the gym with my partner I learned all the machines so that way she would have someone to help her get used to them. I think strength training is good for anybody, you don’t have to be superwoman to get the benefits, as your body ages a bit of strength will go a long way. I’m not doing gym so I can be superman, I’m doing gym so I can still climb stairs comfortably when I’m 90.

In hopeful celebration of your pegging adventures, I offer you this gem: featuring Australia’s own Courtney Act. She’s hot, and holy shit the notes she can hit. Also, she helped me broaden my sexuality, so yay to us both for discovering new things!

Thanks for this, wow this song is absolutely terrible. Mind you I haven’t progressed in my pegging adventures at all and probably won’t for a while yet (I have to wait for the economy and interest rates to stop fucking me in the ass first before I can put anything else in there) so perhaps I’ll feel differently about this song after the Reserve Bank has pulled out and wiped its cum on my asscheeks.

oppar sweetest I know you’ve probably answered this already but… there’s no way vinyls are better to listen to music than CDs right?

Right. 44.1KHz .wav/CD audio is the best consumer listening format that has currently been invented. Vinyl is not better – scratches, pops, extremely sensitive to dust and dirt, higher noise floor, can’t reproduce high-volume subs reliably without the needle jumping out of the groove, records wear out faster, records are more prone to damage, and even removing all these factors listeners still hear no benefit from vinyl in blind tests, vinyl’s only advantage is bigger artwork (and there’s no reason why CD can’t have same size artwork, companies usually just don’t). Even higher bitrate MP3/FLAC formats aren’t better than CD, at best they’re as good, but never better, and usually worse. Higher sample rates for individual tracks during multi-track recording makes sense because of the lower noise floor, but for the consumer, 44.1KHz is superior. (If you want more information and receipts, the links I’ve provided go into a LOT of the technical background information if you’re interested.)

Are there any western equivalents to Swervy and BewhY’s songs here? Seems like they’d be in similar vein to early 2000’s hip-hop but not sure since I was barely sentient back then. Do you have any recs of certain artists?

As I mentioned in my reviews of it, the BeWhy song is basically Kanye’s “Black Skinhead” if the song didn’t suck ass like everything Kanye does, and I hate to recommend any Kanye content of any kind to anybody but if you want to know what inspired that song musically, well, there it is. Can’t think of an obvious equivalent to the Swervy and Reddy song though, or even anyone doing rap in that style as so much rap music is over slow sloooooow beats (because it’s more freestyle-friendly, it gives rappers time to think up their lines), but I’m sure there’s something out there, I might palm this one off to readers.

Vince Clarke said in an interview that he was terrified of committing plagiarism by accidentally incorporating elements of a song he heard in his own songs (as far as I know, he has never been accused of plagiarism with any of the material he wrote for Erasure, Depeche Mode, The Assembly and others). It’s something I’ve never thought about because every time people talk about plagiarism, they do it with the assumption it was done on purpose. We’re exposed to so much media, it’s very easy to hear a song, forget about it and think it’s your original work later on but you’re just recalling a melody you heard. How can a songwriter avoid accidental plagiarism?

This is actually a valid concern because so much music is derivative, and music as a whole has evolved by people doing minor variations. So I’m not sure of the answer here, it’s really tough to say. I think there’s software now where if you hum a melody into it, it can “find the song” and play it back to you so you could use that as a check, of course the catch is you have to be really good at humming, or playing it on your instrument of choice. I think if you come up with something really cool just try and think about songs you know that sound like that and be careful I guess, but I know that’s probably not enough in some cases after all we’re talking subconscious after all. I don’t think there’s any good answer to this question other than be careful and pray to the deity of your choice…

Hello there, Kpopalypse-oppar! As a Eurovision fan, I’m here to rant about how annoyed I am at Eurovision fans who barely listen to any different music genres for accusing people of copying others. Last year, Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä () was very popular and loved. This year, Croatia has just picked Baby Lasagna as their representative and people are claiming he’s copying Käärijä because *checks notes* metal influence, both have big sleeves and green lights.
I love both and tbh if other people didn’t make the connection I probably would have never compared them. Quirky, non-pop songs always seem to get compared and it annoys the hell out of me. To me, they’re different songs, with different messages and the “similarities” are very small. Am I totally insane in thinking this?

…and of course it doesn’t help when people constantly try to find plagiarism when there isn’t any, in order to get attention, go viral etc. These two songs do have a textural similarity in the sense that they have very rhythm focused choruses, but the rhythms are different, and most everything else about the songs is different too. Proof that most people listen with their eyes, not their ears.

Hi! I’m attending graduate school for a doctorate in order to be a therapist. I’ve also had moderate-to-severe depression since I was a child (so have all of my sisters—my youngest sister is 9 years old right now and starting to show signs of it, so there’s almost certainly a genetic component.)

I took antidepressants for the first time two years ago while I was in undergrad. They forced me to sleep a lot but worked really well for my mood. This worked ok for undergrad because there wasn’t much of a participation component, lectures were recorded, and I’m really good at getting important assignments done on time/studying. However, I have trouble waking up on time now. I naturally sleep for long periods of time (like, 12-13 hours, and if I force myself not to it’s like 8-9 hours minimum) and my schedule has expanded toward like a 26-hour one (I’ll sleep 2 hours later each day if I’m not really careful.) When I wake up really early or late it’s like I don’t have enough “gas” to get through the day and need to sleep mid-afternoon, and then I don’t have enough time to get my stuff done. When I stop taking the SSRIs I still have some sleeping/fatigue issues but feel generally more motivated/energized. The problem is I rapidly become extremely depressed and suicidal.

My current sleep habits aren’t really conducive to most typical jobs or school things. It’s worth continuing to try other meds to see if they work without having side effects, but so far everything else I’ve tried has had extreme side effects and not worked at all, and I know that finding a medication combo which works for someone’s lifestyle can take years. I’m dropping out of my doctorate program bc it requires me to wake up extremely early every day of the week and be really energized and participate—I partially dropped out and am enrolled in half the credits, and will be leaving this semester for a part-time master’s program which will still qualify me to do therapy. (I’m a bit sad bc you can’t do as many things with a master’s, but I think it’s the best thing right now.)

The medication also gives me side effects with food, such that I’m nauseous or feel sick a lot of the time, and it’s hard to travel in vehicles (I feel uncomfortable enough after eating that if I plan on making out with my boyfriend in the evening for instance, I often just skip dinner.) This is more of a minor inconvenience than horrible but still pretty bad. (Also it helps me stay thin without really trying.)

Having experienced chronic depression and chronic fatigue/sickness, for myself, I can 100% say that not being depressed is better. I don’t even feel always happy or never anxious, I’m more depressed than a regular person, but any reduction in it is worth it for me unless I’m actively super sick all of the time (which did happen in the past.)

Assuming that I don’t manage to find a better medication profile within the next year or two (during my Master’s,) is it going to be possible to find a job if I can’t reliably wake up earlier than 10am and am often kind of tired/dead inside?

Well you might struggle with a job that requires strict adherence to typical work-style schedules. Having said that there are other jobs that might not. I guess ideally what you want is the kind of job where there’s x amount of work and y amount of time to do it in, and x is rather large and y is rather a lot of time, and you can schedule that time as you see fit and as long as x gets done within timeframe y then it’s all good. Whether a job like that exists in your field, I don’t know! I guess if you do become a therapist the way to go would be to start your own practice because then you can be your own boss and schedule your appointments however it suits you, of course that however comes with all the usual risks of starting your own business. Or you can just square-peg the round hole with more normally scheduled jobs for now and see how you go, that might work for a little while while you find your feet, and then maybe you can break out into something else later. I think there are options but it might be tricky, there’s no easy answer to this, you just need to find a path that works for you. I feel for you because I know people personally who can relate very much to these kinds of struggles and they also find the demands of employment to be challenging. Good luck!

IU is always awesome. But, I’ve been wondering. Do you have to be nearly as successful as IU to do this kind of thing? Would one’s agency intervene otherwise? I know IU has carte blanche to do whatever the hell she wants at this point, but other artists are far more limited. Do agencies view ticket traders as a net negative or just accept them as revenue regardless?

Most agencies wouldn’t even have a fucking clue what is going on about anything half the time. IU’s on top of this not because she’s a bigger celebrity, but because she’s been in the celebrity game longer and is experienced with this type of situation. So she’s probably the one alerting her own company “look this is happening” and then it’s the company taking action. Whereas some young group (assuming they even fucking GET a tour) is going to be full of people who are just used to being led around like sheep and have no autonomy and they probably would barely notice something like this, and even if they did notice they might not know whether it’s even appropriate to speak up.

Hello Kpopalypse, I am here to ask for some advice for helping my malnourished younger brother. I’m an upperclassman at an American college, and my younger brother is in his freshman year at a different school. My parents are divorcing and have been separated for 3 years now. My younger brother finished high school while living with my father, and over that period he did not eat enough. My dad was super controlling about the food my brother was allowed to eat. As my brother got older and stronger, my dad got really annoyed about the fact that my brother was getting stronger and taller than him. It’s pretty dysfunctional because my dad was really focused on his own diet and exercise, and prevented my brother from doing the same. For example, he’d cook chicken breast for protein and yell at my brother if he ate some. Now that my younger brother is in college, I’ve been trying to support him so he can eat normally and healthily again, but it’s hard since we live across the country from each other. He wants to be an athlete, and my dad really stunted his progress. Recently my brother has had health issues, colds are really hard on him and he has kidney pain. He went to urgent care and they told him he was in ketosis. He’s very skinny already. Basically this is really bad and I’m super concerned about my brother and want to help him. My dad is wack. I’m doing research on how to help my brother, I’ve been around him and I don’t think it is an eating disorder because my brother is anxious about this and wants to gain weight. My brother spent the past years eating too little so he seems to just have a really small appetite. I know you aren’t an expert but do you have any advice for how to get through this situation? The health system and our insurance is bad so there are long wait times and high prices for any appointments. My dad is crazy and this situation is insane. Should I just send him vitamins and protein shakes? I feel unable to help him.

Eating disorders are tough and I’m almost certain your brother has one. I’d say see a doctor but sounds like you’ve already gone that way. The psychological aspect of have a family member bullying you out of eating can’t be underestimated. Eating disorders are all about psychology, so I think the best step would be to try and get your bro some psychological help because I feel like that’s the part that hasn’t really been addressed yet. Getting out of ketosis shouldn’t be super hard, keeping up the food intake when your brain is telling you not to might be harder. Other than that I’d say try not to badger your brother about it because that shit can backfire (he’s had enough food-related badgering in his life already) just make sure that he always has food available and that you’re always around for a chat if needed. Good luck.

Hi! Is it safe to assume now that, after the recent events, Loona wasn’t actually a joy project from a very bored and very rich person/group? Or do you think it was but something went wrong along the way

I think it still could have been, at one point, but at some stage after a truckload of money is lost I think reality sets in! Keep in mind also that it’s not always strictly one or the other.

If I recall correctly, your favorite Kpop song was T-ara’s One & One. Number 1 is now be girls2000! (Princess Project)’s Bad Girlfriend! Is T-ara’s One & One number 2? And Roly Poly number 3? That would be my guesses. And since I am asking and curious, do you have a number 4 and 5?

I don’t know. How I feel about this depends on which side of the bed I wake up on. I’m not so OCD that I have to have a constantly curated all-time list.

In the last qrimole, another reader wrote “So Karina has committed the cardinal sin of *gasp* not being a big ole lesbian.” I did not realize that dumbass Kpop fans were being dumbasses about this. That is not surprising though. I am not sure, but I seem to recall Kpop fans being mad that Chuu also seems not to be gay.

Chuu isn’t gay? We need receipts on this. My readers right now are crying and shaking, look at what you’ve done to them, you monster…

(Actually to be honest I also doubt that Chuu is gay, only because every girl I’ve ever been out with has a Chuu-like personality in some aspect so I can totally see her ending up with a guy who has my kind of personality characteristics. Mind you most of those girls have also been bisexual, so I wouldn’t rule out bi as a possibility, gay seems unlikely though. Just a guess.)

I hope I am not late for April QRIMOLE (my birth month)

There is less than 2 months left for Eurovision!

I know you don’t care that much but I wanted to just show a few song from this years edition.

This one is my runner up, it is a simple song but I really like it. It is also the fan favorite.

This is my favorite but the ENTIRE community hates it and it is really unpopular in that case. Maybe you won’t like it too?

And this song is SO loved which I don’t understand. What am I missing here?

If you are interested in more, someday I’d like to read your Eurovision roundup one day.

and Australia is still participating, lol. Can we see you writing songs or even performing one day?

Also – I am not a fan of the new design of the site… Just letting this out…

I don’t give a shit about Eurovision really, as a contest or whatever. I feel the same way as I do about k-pop contests. Music is not sport. That doesn’t mean good songs can’t emerge from there, but still – music is NOT sport. Anything that treats music as sport is the enemy of life, love and all that is good in the world.

Your links were all broken [for reference what we want is for example in La Noia’s case https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO85laH-ATY rather than https://youtu.be/TO85laH-ATY?si=Nk21_B8O_ki784Bd%5D so I hope I’m talking about the right songs here:

“La Noia” is boring for me anyway, wasn’t worth the hassle of correcting the link. Starts off good with the busy bass actually, I really liked that part, but as the song progresses it goes further and further towards “generic latin sound”. I’ve heard this sound too much in my life. Ho hum.

I didn’t like “Europapa”, that part of the chorus with the pitch-shifted sample notes is awful and the rest of it is just kind of flat. A rare case where a good singer would have actually made a difference, I liked the pace of it but this one needed a high-flying vocal or something else, something out of the box to float over the top and make it more than just a mundane four on the floor techno groove with some guy mumbling over it.

“Zari” is actually alright. It starts off sounding a bit like a shit version of Le Sserafim’s “Antifragile”, but it gets a lot better as it goes and works for similar reasons. The weird abrasive sound clashes really work to make it stand out and be a bit different, all the twists and turns actually work. They deliberately don’t hit the root note a lot, the song has an unpredictable sound due to that.

Fuck Eurovision though. I will never have anything to do with it, unless someone pays me a ton of money, and then I’d probably happily sell my soul because fuck it who cares, it’s only Eurovision.

Can’t please everyone re: site design. I went for the most popular option with readers but there’ll always be people who disagree… just like music taste, we’re all different… seeing as how you disagree with most people on site design AND song quality I guess you’re just an unusual cat, which is certainly not a bad thing… embrace it!

I’ve just finished reading your microphone post. Can you please explain what is happening in this clip:

The lyric sheets are clipped onto a towel. Is the towel supposed to absorb unwanted noise?

It’s to prevent page noise. As the lyric sheet is just loose paper, it’s going to flutter around in the wind and that’ll possibly be picked up by the very sensitive condensor mic when the boys start singing and yelling and the air from their breath starts hitting the page. You can see that it’s also clipped down, they probably tried initially with just the clips on their own to keep the page steady and then realised the clips weren’t enough to stop the page from flexing around so they got a towel from the studio bathroom and stuck it in there.

hello kpopalypse sir, im rlly struggling with finding the right chord for one bar of a piano piece im writing for fun, and was hoping you could maybe help? no worries if not!

wasn’t sure how else to do it but here’s a google docs link, if you could help me out with the correct chord i’d be infinitely grateful, thank you!

otherwise you are slaying the kpop rating game (๑･̑◡･̑๑) (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

I assume it’s the second-last bar in the document that you wanted the left hand for? If so, and assuming you want to keep the feeling of what’s around it, I feel like either Em or C are the best choices. I’d probably go Em personally. Not strict rule on this however, I mean it’s your song, if you’re writing it for fun do whatever…

Do you have examples of songs that would be substantially better with a small change? I’m thinking things like increasing the tempo, changing the pitch to better suit the singers’ vocal range, or removing an instrument that doesn’t fit. If these songs could be so simply made better, why are they the way they are?

A lot of what I talk about in roundups covers these kind of things. If there’s something I think could have been changed to make a song better I’ll often directly specify it. You can probably find one of these in every roundup! Why are songs the way they are instead? Because different people hear music differently and thus prioritise different things. That’s why there’s no “right or wrong” in music really, and why things like idol competitions and treating music like sport is fucking dumb, and even music criticism is dumb on some level because it is subjective. Witness the debate about whether the horn in NewJeans “ETA” is annoying vs the best thing ever, which is probably a good example of what you’re asking for.

There’s a very specific reason why the horn is there, which this video-maker correctly identifies (although he takes longer than the song’s length to do it, I feel like it would have taken me ten seconds to sum up my own argument in favour of the horn but oh well). So objectively it has a good reason to exist, whereas subjectively someone may decide that they don’t like the sound of it, or the way it makes them feel, regardless of the reason why it’s there.

Sorry for the stupid question, but regarding the Asian but non-Korean non-pop non-world-music feature, what does non-world-music mean?

“World music” is sort of an umbrella term that encompasses traditional folk music of any given culture, and derivations thereof. When these things hit the music marketplace they’re generally marketed as “world”, with “world” basically implying “from some mysterious and exotic place you silly westerners don’t know much about”. Much like how “R&B” is a dog-whistle term for categorising music by skin colour, “world music” is a similar dog-whistle term for categorising music by perceived advancement of culture. For instance, this could be marketed as “world music”:

Whereas this would struggle:

Even though both are from the same country. I deliberately exclude “world music” from the Asian feature because I don’t like the way a lot of it is marketed, where they’re very specifically leaning on the “Asianness” to sell the music. I wanted to feature Asian music that isn’t specifically pushing that aspect as part of a world music style marketing strategy.

Do you like Loudness, the Japanese heavy metal band? If yes, any song recommendations? Thanks!

I’m not really a fan. They did that style as well as anyone else in the hair-metal genre but I just don’t like that genre of metal much to be honest. I think X Japan did it better because they were both heavier AND softer, they pushed it more to the extremes.

For the consideration of all caonimas, here is a perfectly innocent video of Hyeju bouncing up and down happily:

This is not a question, so I deleted the video. If you want your content here you gotta ask a question about it, or about something. JAV of the month for March 2024 is LULU-287.

been scanning old posts for songs to play on my drives home. opened todays roundup saw the suicide mention started crying for some reason. i’ve been on the edge of tears all day. don’t know what to do anymore. here is a song i like these days: you can listen to it or not. no question included here. i just want to not feel like nothing for a moment. see you around

I’m always torn about mentioning suicide in my writing because on the one hand I think it’s extremely important to not sweep problems under the rug but to talk about them openly, but on the other hand I am acutely aware of the effect that mentioning it has on people (because it has that same effect on me also).

Two things you should put on your to-do list:

1. See a doctor about your depression if you haven’t, don’t put this off, book it now
2. Based on that song you linked you should play “Muse Dash“, you’ll like the music in it I promise, as of the time of writing it’s on sale for like $2, get it you won’t regret it, you will feel better, best $2 you are going to spend in a while

SPOILERY BOOK STUFF

I liked Love Carousel!

One thing which struck me as a bit odd though was the last scene with Ora—I mean Hana’s repressed and I can buy that her whole uncertainty around everything was just repressed desire and that Caitlin/Ora could tell what she’d be comfortable with, but from what I remember a major plot point of Love Light involved negotiating boundaries with Caitlin closer to monogamy. Caitlin didn’t explicitly hook up with anyone in Love Carousel, but didn’t really tone down her flirtatious behavior much and there were some semi-fishy cases such as her sudden inrush of money, the scene with the soldier, and immediately making out with Ora before checking if Hana was comfortable with it. It’s possible she/Hana were comfortable with these boundaries, but it struck me as vaguely unrealistic for them not to have discussed it in advance AND for Hana to just go with it. She didn’t seem uncomfortable with the same behaviors at all post conversation—maybe it had to do with romantic and not physical monogamy and I just missed the subtext there?

ALSO, what *was* Ijun trying to communicate through the dance video? It’s driving me crazy.

Glad you’re enjoying the books! Also, impressed that you picked this detail up, I’m flattered that my readers are paying so much attention! There is a scene in the books (and I can’t remember where) where Caitlin talks a bit about how Hana reacts to situations that she doesn’t like vs situations that she does like but doesn’t necessarily want to say that she likes, for reasons. On top of this, note also that Hana is not a reliable narrator, she leaves things out that it suits her to leave out. So you’re not always getting a completely accurate portrayal of events, rather you’re getting the “Hana-ized” version. (Most obvious example is how Hana talks about Shu. It’s obvious that Shu is a lot better at what she does than Hana is giving her credit for…)

As for Ijun and the dance video, let’s see if the girls figure it out in book four…

Have you heard of the trending documentary “Quiet on Set” about the dark side of Nickelodeon and their treatment of child actors?
I’ve never watched those shows as a kid but from the few clips I watched recently, it really is disturbing. It reminded me of the dog-whistling you pointed out in Newjean’s Hurt and April’s Dream Candy but even more explicit. More like the scenes from your Show Me Love novel.

and

This situation reminded me a bit of the kpop training system so I guess it’s relevant.
Recently a documentary came out about the dark side of a kids’ network shows and people are somehow surprised that media entities are exploitative. Who would have known?
Recently I’ve been finding a million videos of people talking about this shit as if they have any authority over the subject, with some even making “aesthetic” edits about fucking abuse.
Also, some of those child actors have been as public as possible about that stuff, but of course people get mad if they don’t follow social norms after being abused. I find it so disgusting that if a former star altered their look people are automatically saying they are insane and thus discredit everything they say. (Thinking of, this kind of reminds me of Areum and how she was treated by the general public without doing anything wrong really.)
After this context, my questions are:
1. Besides talking about the issues in the industry and not blindly supporting everything corporations put out, is there any other way to help these kids?
2 How can one feel less bothered about people either a. blaming these young kids by saying something among the lines of “they knew what they signed up for” or b. exploiting the issue as long is it’s profitable for them? People being cruel is not surprising, but it is disappointing and quite sad.

1. I guess if you know of a crime personally you can report it, beyond this, I think increasing the dialogue around the issues and making sure people have the information that they need to make good decisions is the best way (and a large part of what this entire website is really about).

2. Make a mockery of them whenever you can. Works for me. A lot of people react to my content “oh you shouldn’t joke about that” but the reason why I joke about things like poor conditions in the entertainment world/lack of mental health care factor/suicide/overwork/poor diets/sexual assault/general neglect etc and will continue to use humour to tackle these things in posts, books, games etc. is that it’s a really effective way to shine a light on these things. The best film about the Nazi concentration camps isn’t “Schindler’s List”, it’s “Life Is Beautiful”. The reason why “Life Is Beautiful” is a better film is because it uses humour to get closer to the subject. By not punching the audience in the face with constant sorrow but instead using humour as a gateway, they get to show a whole bunch of stuff that “Schindler’s List” couldn’t show (because without the humour, this stuff would just bum you out so much that you’d stop watching), as well as take a lot of snarky shots at deserving targets.

This is why I always use humour, in all the content that I do, no matter what it is. The book has dark humour for a reason. I make jokes in posts and roundups all the time for a reason. If this website was totally serious, it would bum you all out and every single one of you would stop reading. I wouldn’t blame you – I’d also stop writing, I’d just get depressed by the shit state of everything. I need the humour to keep myself motivated too. It’s important to always keep laughing, in the right hands it’s an effective weapon for change.

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That’s all for this episode of QRIMOLE! This series will return next month!

Oh, and do you have a question that you’d like to see answered in the next episode of QRIMOLE? If so, use the question box below, or if no box appears, click the Qri on the sidebar to open the box as a separate webpage! Kpopalypse will return!