QRIMOLE – August 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!
I read folks crapping on Lisa’s Rockstar for having bad lyrics. I know that song is in English, but I think Kpop has trained me quite well not to pay attention to the meaning of the lyrics at all. The voices now only register for the way they sound, basically as an instrument.
I think it also helps that Korean as a language fits well with pop. Translate a kpop song into German, with all the hard “ichs” and “achs”, and it doesn’t work as well. I’m sure this is why Rammstein chose metal over pop.
I’ve got no music training or background; I’m strictly a consumer, so I’m curious what how much you think that the Korean language is helping or hurting K-pop’s popularity now, and whether it’s affecting how much attention listeners pay to pop lyrics in English.
The expectation that pop lyrics are in English is something that only really affects primarily-English speaking countries like the USA, UK and Australia. In most other countries in the world, people are already quite used to having pop lyrics in a language that they can’t understand. However due to the desire for pop musicians globally to appeal to the lucrative USA market plus certain English phrases being seen as “cool” internationally, English has sort of become the “default language of pop music”. Think about how Italian has become the “default language of opera”, opera just sounds “right” in Italian and just feels a bit uncanny in any other language until you get used to it. English kind of rules the roost at the moment for pop music in a similar way, and has for a long time, due to the very early recorded global pop hits that popularised the form internationally all being English songs.
Have a listen to Adriano Celentano’s “Prisencolinensinainciusol” from 1972. This is a song from an Italian singer with nothing but nonsense words that make no sense in any language (other than the occasional “alright”), but the nonsense words are designed to sound like someone is singing in American English. The point of the song is to cynically point out the idea that anything at all can be a successful pop hit as long as it looks and sounds something like American English, thus parodying the idea that American English sounds and mannerisms in songs are “cool”. So this is “Americanface”, if you will. (Another interesting fact, the music doesn’t change, making this the first instance of a recorded loop making up the music of a pop song.)
There’ll always be a desire for something different of course, and as more music from different countries has gone global, this trend of English dominance has reversed – a little. The “Macarena” opened the doors for Spanish language in songs to be more accepted globally, and PSY’s “Gangnam Style” did the same for Korean, allowing Korean language to not sound so odd to global ears and paving the way for groups like BTS and Blackpink to have more success in this realm later. Most Korean pop songs that are designed to appeal to a global audience and sound “cool” therefore have key phrases in English (and sometimes Spanish or other languages too) so I doubt there’s much affect on popularity at this point. I honestly think that at this point k-pop agencies doing “English versions” of k-pop songs are completely wasting their time. BTS’ “Butter” would have been huge even if it had Korean verses, they just had so much market traction at that point.
my highschool crush was really into this band but I always thought they were a snoozefest, i disliked the prog-shoegaze-whatever sound and the main singer had this annoying voice… kinda fuck with it nowadays though, really hated this song in particular and now it just reminds me of simpler times… does nostalgia affect your perception of music and personal tastes, too? Also why doesn’t more people do the “desert goth” thing nowadays really neat visual style imo.
I don’t hate this song, it’s different enough to be interesting although I really dislike the vocal style a lot. Nostalgia generally just makes me bored of something. I’m always looking for the next new thing, unlike almost all of my peers I don’t listen to the same music that I did when I was growing up. Desert goth was huge in the 80s.
Hi oppar! How are you doing these days?
It’s Olympics season time again, and I know you hate sportsball as much as the next person, but I just wanted to ask: how do you deal with seeing people competing/performing at the highest level on the field that you really wanted to be on but couldn’t because your family didn’t want to support you? Please allow me to set modesty aside a little bit—I was once a highly competitive athlete who had received invites to national team tryouts in two sports. I really enjoyed playing sports and my parents supported me…to a degree. Whenever I get too good at a sport, they stop supporting me because the only acceptable careers for them are law, medicine, business, or music (and just jazz too, lol—they would get mad at me for forming pop or rock bands unless they are queen/led zep/classic rock cover bands). When I was younger, I didn’t really mind, but then I got good enough at several sports that I started getting offers to play as a varsity player, and soon enough, I was scouted for national team tryouts. My parents were adamant about me not doing it because they said it wasn’t a good career. So I really had no choice but to stop. When I graduated uni and got a good job, that’s when they started saying I could do whatever I wanted, but by then, my peers had already left me in the dust.
So I was never really able to move on; I don’t think I’m good enough to even qualify for the Olympics, but I mean, you never really know, you know? And for the past 12 or so years, that has really bugged me to death, and every time, not just the Olympics but just high-level sporting competitions in general, come to pass, I always get really depressed because I feel like I have not been living the way I truly wanted to. I thought it would get better with time, and on days where there are no big events like that, I don’t really feel anything. But whenever it comes to mind, or whenever I watch these events, I can feel the pang in my chest again, it feels like even if everything changes, my heart’s still stuck in the same place—and it fucking sucks, you know? I’m really at my happiest when I’m competing at the highest level, but now I’m here where I am. I don’t really want to sound ungrateful for the life I have, so I’m really conflicted. Because I’m not really living a bad life right now—I’m in a good place—but there’s still that part of me that deeply regrets not being able to live the life I truly wanted. It’s like I’m making my inner child cry every time.
Shout out to your parents for exceptional parenting, keeping you away from ruining your life with sport, high five them for me! But seriously, I kind of feel this because in the musical realm I feel like a similar thing happened to me – I know that I had the ability to play in basically any band, doing anything at all at a very high level, but because a lot of the people I knew were not capable or not committed or just had creative ideas that were definitely not going to fly (but also had massive egos so they couldn’t admit it to themselves) or had drug problems or reliability problems or…etc, and on top of that I made a lot of my own dumb choices, I remained eternally nugu. The thing about getting to that very top level is you really do need to have all your ducks in a row and if something isn’t right it can mess you up and someone else gets the spot. Yeah it’s a bummer but it’s just the way it goes. The way I deal with it is by not looking back and instead always looking forward to the next thing, these days I do a lot of contracted musical work and I get to play large venues and stadiums that were beyond my reach back when I was in those lower tier bands in my 20s. Sport I guess is different because there are things you can’t do at a high level once your body hits a certain age, but there may be other ways you can still feel fulfilled through it, maybe do teaching and live vicariously through your students, I dunno…
did u listen to brat by charli xcx
Hi Oppar! This is a very specific (and long…) post so I hope the people that I will be talking about aren’t secretly caonimas and trace this back to me.
I recently created a new account to live as a true Caonima and keep my main free of calling people in Lissa Caonima’s comments illiterate with lack of reading comprehension. But most importantly, it was created mainly to promote the objectification survey because I found it fun and I was bored.
It all started when I planned to make a magazine-style post explaining the survey, how to vote, and answering FAQs. I joined this server of a very niche group of K-pop Tiktokers that do K-pop reviews and are big on graphic design. I checked in with my design a few times, and while some people suggested a few things, they didn’t say much.
After 4 days of hard work, I showed my results. I was SO proud. And the first response I got was, “WHY ARE WE VOTING BOOBS?” I explained that it was an objectification survey, but they said “Objectifying is weird anyways imo” and then 4 other people came in saying the layout is cute but it’s “not something they agree with”. I argued that K-pop as an industry is inherently objectifying, and fans sexualize idols daily. But it’s only when you explicitly acknowledge it that people find it weird. Then they said they agree with me but “to make a list and rank people specifically (is weird)”.
Ironically, a few hours earlier, one of the people (a mod) who said it was weird commented that Stray Kids could “fill (him) up.” When I pointed this out, some said it was “very different” and they “don’t think this is comparable”. That person then defended themselves saying “but (i’m) not actively promoting people to go and vote for who has the biggest t*ts” and that they didn’t agree with the idea at all but if “that’s what you’re into continue ig”.
One of them acknowledged that my post had some truth, saying, “is an industry that uses idols bodies and faces for profit. Though that doesn’t mean you have to engage in this kind of behavior.. If anything you’re aiding in the problem.” But In my opinion, it’s not necessarily a problem to begin with..?
It’s a fun server and I didn’t want to leave so I just said I’d scrap the idea and it wasn’t something I’d fight to the death for, since I get where they’re coming from. Then they said “thank you for being understanding” and the conversation ended. Then while explaining the situation to a friend… I realized how that convo was complete bs.
K-pop stans objectify idols daily. The industry is built on this. Even photocards literally turn your favorite idols into objects for you to buy. Not saying idols wake up hoping to be sexualized, but there’s a reason they wear tight costumes, show abs, and perform sensual choreographies where they grind the air and shake ass. There’s a reason why they get plastic surgery to fit beauty standards. Their attractiveness directly influences their success. If it weren’t about appearances, they’d just release music from the studio.
Even on TikTok, there are constant edits of idols in “sexy” moments of their choreos. Or people commenting on their physical attributes (e.g back, abs, biceps, etc) while calling them hot or fine or referencing sexual songs. But the second someone says “nice boobs” or “nice ass”, it’s suddenly objectifying and wrong. Yes, it is objectifying and sexualizing, but it’s not necessarily bad. The entertainment industry, especially K-pop, is centered around this.
As much as I’d love to, I can’t post it anyways as I’m still mutuals with many of them on TT. And If I leave the server, I don’t want to be known as the person that fought hard to sexualize kpop idols. So I fear the idea is scrapped permanently.
My questions:
1) My passion for graphic design has vanished with my inability to promote voting inThe Kpopalypse 2024 Objectification Survey! I tried to think of new ideas but none seem as fun. Any Kpopalypse-inspired post ideas for me?
2) Is there a way I can show you the results?
3) I’m fairly new to this kpop thing. Are kpop stans always this hypocritical?
1. if you want to promote a kpopalypse-related project, promote my books instead, that’s probably slightly less on-the-nose because it’s not completely obvious what’s in them, so people won’t be like “wah wah objectification” or whatever.
2. sure, you could email me if you wanted
3. YES! the whole point of even having the objectification survey isn’t really to objectify idols – that’s already happened long before me or you get to them. It’s called the “objectification survey” for a reason – because k-pop fans aren’t actually doing any objectifying at ALL, they are being surveyed on the objectification that already exists. K-pop fans hate this because they are allergic to being honest about what the industry they follow really is, because they worry that this makes them culpable somehow, and “oh no I might be seen as a bad person on the Internet by total strangers” is k-pop fans’ greatest fear. By thrusting the obvious truth in people’s faces, they have to confront the reality of what’s being sold to them and deal with their role in it. But I’m not saying that role is bad, if you’re not a sexually conservative idiot then it’s quite possible to be at peace with it. It’s okay to just be honest and say you like titties or abs or butts or bulges in shorts or cute smiles or whatever (and you DO, and we ALL know it), it’s okay to like those things and even to comment on them. Just be respectful about it. Like, I wouldn’t get into an idol’s DMs with “I like your boobs” but if she’s out there showing her boobs, or if he’s out there showing his abs in a public forum, or diving into the crowd while topless or whatever… then if anything NOT commenting seems more disrespectful. It’s fine to show some appreciation for the hard work these people do on their appearance to give you the best visual experience possible!
Hi! I’m the one who sent a question about P-pop last time. Within the month, the group I sent, BINI, ended up performing at KCon as the opening act.
While I’d like to ask your thoughts on the song as well, I want to know your expanded thoughts on the immediate growth of the group within a few months and what this means for these Kpop-inspired groups in the future. And yes, I can confirm, BINI did not receive nearly the same amount of training as most Kpop trainees.
Obviously with Korean idol pop being huge there’s going to be attempts at it from all over the place. BINI I don’t think have the song quality to really cut through for me and make me give a shit, they sound like Twice-lite and why have the lite version when I can have full-strength, but they do get the image more or less right. I hope that some of these groups from elsewhere do hit it off just because the Korean system is stupid behind the scenes and I’d really like a group from elsewhere to prove that there’s no need for all the torture. But as for “what it means” or whatever, who knows and honestly I couldn’t care less. I don’t care about what is popular, I don’t follow music like a lot of k-pop fans do, which is they treat it like sport. Music is not sport. Just worry about if the songs are good, don’t worry about how successful it’ll be or whatever crap.
Did Kara get back together for the money, for the attention, or just for something to do? I’m not in the music/entertainment industry, but I can’t see a case for any of them to bother, much less all of them.
K-pop fans are hilarious because they’re so incredibly obsessed with “attention” and “clout”, it really speaks to their immaturity (for an example, look at how Twice fans dangerously misread the Josh stalker situation through the lens of “he’s just after attention” instead of realising him for the dangerous stalker that he is, and moved to silence all dialogue about him, putting Nayeon’s life directly in danger in the process – fucking idiots). In the music industry, nobody does anything purely for ‘attention’. Yes attention is a good thing to have and worth getting, but it’s never the endgame like it is with fans, instead it’s the means to an end, which is making that money and earning a living from music. But people also do things for fun and it could just be them wanting to have another crack at it for fun nostalgia times (and if we make a bit of money on the side, great). I’ve done a few “get the old band back together” gigs and it’s kind of cool… until you start playing and then the reasons why you broke up in the first place come flooding back to you hahahahaha… that’s why reunions tend not to last…
You’re the only person I know in kpop that talks about the phenomenon where some songs can have solid instrumental backings but the end result is shit simply because the track and the vocal melodies are made by completely different people (Cheeky Icy Thang is the most recent example but I remember you pointed out Bad Boy and GOT’s Girls on Top in the past). It would be nice to see more posts talking about this because it really changed the way I percieve kpop; throughout the years I have realized there are too many songs out there with cool backings but horrible melodies. Is writing vocal melodies significantly harder than writing a backing track? Is there an instance of the opposite case (amazing vocal melody but horrible backing track) aside from song remixes?
Related question: Mariah Carey’s Loverboy was originally composed sampling YMO’s Firecracker, but after Tommy Mottola and J.Lulu stole the sample for one of Lopez’ songs, Carey was forced to change the backtrack to a different song, thus making the version of Loverboy everybody knows.
I remember listening to the song back when it was released and finding it extremely jarring, like the vocal melody didn’t match the sample backings. Apparently a lot of critics felt the same way -one called it a “mumbo jumbo of disparate elements”- so it wasn’t just me (I eventually came to appreciate the Loverboy remix version though, because of how kitschy it is and because of Da Brat’s playful interpolation of Firecracker in her diss verses))
After I found out about the sample stealing and such I guessed the ambivalent feeling I had was precisely because the original backing of the song was very different than the one that was used for the final version. The thing is, when I listen to the original “Firecracker” version, I still feel like the vocal melody doesn’t quite gel. What’s going on here? Also I’m curious to know your thoughts on the song.
Cheers!
Writing vocal melodies, I wouldn’t say it’s harder than writing backings, but it’s a very different type of skill. It’s very rare to find someone who can do both really well. People who are very good at producing tracks usually aren’t good topline writers, so they tend to farm out that stuff to other people and because of that the results can be mixed.
Your other question, i have to listen to not one but THREE shit Mariah Carey-related songs just to answer it? You’re clearly trying to torture me. The song in its original form is fucking trash, just Mariah blues-wanking over a beat basically. The final “Loverboy” is slightly better because someone tried to put her warbling into some kind of context but it’s still pretty much beyond all redemption really. The rap parts are only relatively tolerable because Mariah shuts the fuck up for a few seconds. Kill it with fire.
Is this a good example of using a mic correctly? Im just curious
If by “correctly” you mean “not really singing a lot and making the backing track do the heavy lifting” then yes. She knows how to do mic control clearly, but she’s doing it in a really lazy half-assed way here because she can get away with it, because there’s a backing track with her own voice on it playing. Right at the end of the video she’s so far away from the mic that there’s no way she would be able to get the sound she’s getting out of it.
What have been factors that led to different genres’ golden ages? Do things just fall into place to create the conditions necessary for an entire industry to raise quality levels across the board?
How did it happen for K-Pop the first time around? Do you think a second golden age can ever happen for K-Pop? Based on your current observations on the industry, what needs to change in order for a K-Pop second golden age to happen?
I think it really started happening around 2008 because the Hallyu Wave started picking up steam, which meant more songwriters and producers got drawn into it who were able to bring forth modern production techniques. The k-pop from 2000 sounds like western pop from about 1987, it was very dated sounding with horribly muddy production, but by 2010 k-pop was maybe only about two years behind, they caught up almost completely to current style by that point and the quality of sonic production was equaling pop from anywhere else. Then a few years later everything fell to shit because there was too much trend-riding. To get a second golden age we need another wave of really good songs/songwriters who all are able to resist the latest wave of trendy bullshit and just focus. Listen to anything ten years old with dubstep in it, it sounds stupid now. Soon the tropical house stuff will too if not already. In ten years from now, NMIXX’s change-up songs will sound embarrassingly shit also. All those groups trying to be Blackpink won’t date well, and neither will the groups copying NewJeans now. Stay away from trends, people.
I’ve thought of someone for Asian Music feature, Yaelorke! From what I can tell she’s Filipino. She makes folk rock music has has all of this elaborate fairy tale lore to it. Shit like this is the reason I watch TikTok compilations (the app would make me want to jump off a bridge) because sometimes something cool like this gets traction.
Well since you’ve brought it up here it now doesn’t really need to go into the Asian music feature. Never heard of her but I had a listen, probably wouldn’t put it in because honestly I’m not really into it. Kind of like Death In June if instead of a gay British man he was a Filipino girl with no songs. One criteria for the Asian music feature is I have to actually like the music. Yaelorke just kind of sounds a little bit too much to me like… any other folk artist.
I don’t get GFriend the way everyone else gets GFriend.
I mean, I must admit that they are very good synchronized dancers, but none of their songs have ever appealed to me. I think it’s because they sound a bit like an anime opening (I don’t have another way to describe it), which is sonic style I just inherently find cringe. It’s all too cute.
Sometimes I wonder if it means I have bad taste in K-Pop, but then I remember two things.
One: it doesn’t matter.
Two: Untie is fire. And from that you can conclude what my taste in music is like.
Felt like I really needed to get this off my conscience.
It’s okay, you’re allowed to be wrong. Kpopalypse.com is a safe space for incorrect opinions on Gfriend. We are very tolerant and kind here.
As a fellow old fart, how do you feel about performers “turning 20” when they’re 30+? Because I’m finding it really alienating. I’ve been following the same guy group for over a decade now, and it’s painfully obvious that the members have had varying amounts of plastic surgery, at a minimum fillers and Botox. Meanwhile I’m looking in the mirror and seeing wrinkles and the effects of gravity on my face — I can literally push up on my cheeks and see the difference between my fortysomething face and my past twentysomething face. Now, I like myself better now — I was often a depressed egomaniac making bad decisions when I was 22 — so I tell myself not to get too self-conscious about all this, but watching healthy people in their early 30s be shot in glazed soft-focus, as if the camera needs to hide all kinds of imperfections, is disheartening. They’re human! Let them age! And once I started seeing the plastic surgery, I stopped being able to unsee it; so, for example, my first reaction to the “Justice” video was to wonder when Dami got half her nose chopped off. Meanwhile I’m finding it hard to talk to other fans, even my age, because they’re swooning over their faves and I’m finding the idol in question (Felix from Stray Kids, for example) too far from “natural” to be enjoyable. But I’m putting “natural” in quotes because I read an essay a few weeks back where the author gently raised the question of why some plastic surgery is decried and some isn’t — like, what’s the difference between objecting to surgery to show yourself to the world as a different age, and surgery to show yourself to the world as a different sex? I’d like to say that I’m not objecting to the surgery itself, but to the end results, that there’s a difference between, say, a boob job and facial surgery, since anything that takes away from the ability of the face to express emotion is alienating. (My understanding of facial feminization surgery is that it doesn’t usually affect communication of emotion, that it’s more about hairlines and chin shape. But that is not my area of expertise!) But I’m wondering if my Let-Humans-Age! stance is actually a symptom of a grumpy conservatism that’s going to take me to bad bigoted places if I don’t check it. Anyway, thank you for listening to me rant — I suspect my friends are all sick of it. Best wishes to you and Jennifer and continued good health to Stiglitz.
I think plastic surgery isn’t any different to gender surgery, or getting a tattoo, or a piercing, or any number of other things you can do to your body. I mean, it’s your body, you should be able to fuck with it any way you want to. Where I get concerned is when people feel like they need to do these things because of outside pressure, that’s when it sucks, when people who normally wouldn’t consider these things feel like they HAVE to do it or people won’t like them (which is incorrect, but a depressingly common belief). I think that kind of sucks and that’s a very different kettle of fish to “I want a tattoo/bigger boobs/a jawshave/whatever because I personally think it’s awesome and that’s what I want to look like” which I think is a much better reason. I don’t personally like it most of the time, but if you’re going to do it, then that’s great – but if you do, do it for you, not for some other bullshit reason you’ll probably regret later.
On a related note, and contrary to popular belief, agencies very rarely force idols to get surgery. The fact is, they generally don’t have to do much more than politely suggest it would help their careers, and the wannabe idol’s self-doubt will usually do the rest of the heavy lifting that gets them to the surgeon. That is, if they didn’t already have a whole bunch of surgery before they even signed up to the agency just to maximise their chances of passing the audition…
Hey oppar. I’m that high schooler that was complaining about a guy like two months ago. That whole thing went to shit, but there’s a new guy now. Anyways two questions for you!
Do guys like flowers? I bought this guy a bracelet and he really liked it, so I was thinking about getting him flowers but i’m not sure.
And why is kpop tiktok so illiterate. It genuinely makes me so violently angry
. The queen herself, lisa’s caonima, posted your take on Te Quiero by KIOF and like YOU CLEARLY STATE HOW AND WHY YOU TALK ABOUT OTHER SHIT but these people like don’t understand!!!! And like I was lowkey hate reading some of the arguments and like when people get called out for being stupid they sum it down to sarcasm. The call is coming from inside the house… like your pleading sarcasm when you can’t recognize it yourself. Okay sure..
From your view point it’s probably just funny which it is but like lissa caonimas comment section is an actual example of what consuming too much social media has done to gen z/gen alpha. Like I don’t agree with your takes a lot but you say a lot of insightful and like well thought-out statements that like make me do more thinking that i’ll ever do in my day to day life.
Sorry if it’s incomprehensible lol, whenever you read this i hope you have a good day/morning/night oppar!!!
I remember when I had a crush on someone in high school and I got her a box of chocolates. I went to her house to give it to her and there were some flowers that some other guy had bought for her. She saw me looking at the flowers and laughed, she was like “dude you’re not the only person out there trying it”. Anyway, I asked her what was the better gift and she said “well, you can look at flowers, but you can eat chocolates”. So I won on that front even though I struck out on the romance thing – ultimately it doesn’t matter what you get him, either he likes you or he doesn’t. If you choose flowers though maybe just don’t give them to him if he’s around people who will pick on him for it…
The comments on Lissa’s TikTok are dumb to the point whether it’s hard to know if people are trolling or they really are that stupid. None of it is worth taking seriously.
After watching this video about recent American pop music I understand why I’m listening to kpop nowadays. Is it just me or does everything sound pretty “vapid”, I don’t know if it’s my nostalgia goggles but I don’t recall the 2000s/early 2010s being as boring.
I don’t follow American pop music enough to answer this with that much accuracy. Contrary to popular belief in some circles I’m not trying to be Anthony Fantano or some shit, if anything I’m trying to be the opposite of that by showing how unimportant my opinion (and by extension the opinions of song reviewers in general, as well as anybody else in general) really is. However for as long as I can remember people were complaining about pop music being vapid. Pop music has always been criticised for the same things ever since it was invented. I personally think it’s got something to do with it being seen as “entertainment for young people”, especially “young girls” as opposed to “serious music for grown ups” or whatever. So basically ageism/sexism. For what it’s worth I don’t detect much different in quality through the years in the linked video, it mostly all sounds boring to me.
Back in 2017, when she was just the girl with the super cute eye-smile in Good Day going by Jiwon, were you out there buying all the Jeewon stock you could get? For some reason I was, and she’s been a fixture in my top biases ever since. Did I have her pegged as a Waterbomb bias-wrecker with a top-5 rack in K-pop? Fuck no, I did not. It’s like the reverse of finding out that Sydney Sweeney’s hobby is fixing cars.
I’ve been dimly aware that she was popular since debut, but I couldn’t have picked her out of her group at that time. Like I very often say, as variations of this question come up all the time – I usually can’t pick one member apart from another in a just-debuted group, unless they have some kind of very distinctive feature (and no Jeewon’s ‘distinctive features’ weren’t enough for me to be able to identify her until very recently). It’s often many years before I have some sense of who is who. I find that really young people lack character in their faces, and the differences that make their faces unique increases as they age and this is actually what makes the people I like interesting to me. It’s why almost everyone on my bias list these days is pushing into their thirties or older and it’s barely changed with the times. I’ll probably mix it up a little this year anyway though just to keep things interesting and annoy people.
Could you explain why the verse-chorus-(rap)-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure is so popular?
Just fashion. This formula changes slightly over time, but not much. People generally do like some repetition in their songs, a song with completely unique parts seems to be more challenging for people to remember and enjoy (unless it’s very short) so most songs balance repetition with the gradual introduction of new stuff.
In LOONA fashion, banger dance covers.^^
This isn’t a question, so JAV of the month for July is SONE-274.
This isn’t a question but JIV of the month is TSDS-42860
It’s a nope from me. I liked the ice blocks thing but I’d prefer to see that sort of action with someone who actually mrs, like anyone in DANDY-928 which can be the other JAV of the month seeing as this isn’t a question either.
hyoyeon? this is important.
Maybe you thought you were filling out the objectification survey. There’s still time to vote, so make sure you cast your vote for your faves! Anyway this also isn’t a question so the other JAV of the month is JUQ-720.
As someone really well versed in metal and hip hop and music in general, how do you feel about Falling in Reverse/Ronnie Radke’s reinvention? Was surprised to see them earnestly approach country with Jelly Roll, but overall it’s been an interesting run of releases with a lot of variety.
Country music is popular and makes money. Bands trying to have a career like money, they’ll cross genres to do it if they have to. It’s an okay gimmick I guess. Falling In Reverse isn’t a band I’ve ever really followed or cared about, but I’m dimly aware that Radke is a bit of a douchey conservative cocknugget so it makes sense that he’d be into that shit. I think it’s cringe personally but hey at least he’s not a politician (yet) let’s hope he sticks to below-average nu-metal.
im going into college to study music and I wonder if you have any advice for a successful career in that area. i assume networking and determination are important things in being successful, but other than that im clueless obvi. im not sure what exactly im asking to be given advice on whether its school or something else, but i think you do what i aspire to one day so i might as well ask. any advice about anything would be helpful at this point lolol
also, yeah YCDTOSA,vol.6 by zappa is the best, its my most streamed live album of his lol
Prepare to be poor. The money is good when you can get it but it’s unreliable in most situations. Yes networking is crucial, more so than in most industries, being shit-hot talented is good but it’s not enough. Consider that if you’re going into music you’re sacrificing a much more lucrative career path in… just about anything.
few questions, somewhat related.
1- i recently did molly for the first time in my life. i don’t really like being drunk or stoned so i assumed i wouldn’t like rolling much either, went in with no expectations, and ended up having an absolutely insane amount of fun. it’s been a few months since then and honestly i feel like i won’t ever have that much fun again, which sucks. on one hand i want to make this into a twice-a-year event where i go to some rave, roll, have a great time, and go on with my life as usual. on the other i do somewhat fear that i’ll be too hooked on it- it’s not a substance that causes chemical addiction, but enjoying it as much as i did does worry me a bit. what would you do? i know you’re relatively straight-edge so i know it’s a hypothetical for you but i’m sure you have both responsible drug users and absolutely wrecked drug users in your life.
2- which addicts are the most annoying to form close relationships with? i’ve heard equally bad things about tweakers and alcoholics.
3- do you think you can do anything once and be safe if you know what you’re doing, or are there substances that should never ever be done recreationally by anyone?
4- i have a friend who has done pretty much everything except heroin and has been giving hints that he’s going to go ahead and try it. how the fuck can i talk some sense into him? he’s already addicted to a bunch of other shit.
thanks!
1 & 3: People can get addicted to literally anything at all, and it’s less to do with the type of drug and more to do with the type of person and how they’re feeling at that moment. However some drugs are more addictive than others just by feeling VERY good when you take them, which doesn’t mean it’s impossible to stop taking it, but if a drug is really THAT good that you’re like “wow I’ve never felt so good” then it takes a pretty serious amount of willpower to not go back and do it some more, especially if other aspects of your life are kind of not that great. That’s how people get addicted to drugs, it’s not magic chemicals, it’s just that the shit does in fact feel great and if you’re not feeling great within yourself it’s hard to say no to something that temporary wipes the problem away. If you can make drugs work for you then whatever but personally I wouldn’t touch any of it and I wouldn’t recommend others do. I don’t like recreational drugs because they prevent me from being productive, plus that shit is expensive.
2: Heroin junkies are the worst, because heroin turns people into liars who will steal your shit for their next hit. The amount of stuff I loaned to people when I was young and naive only to never see it again and get lots of bullshit junkie excuses… people will do anything once they’re junkies including whore themselves out and steal from friends and family. Most other drug users aren’t too bad. E heads are just grossly sweaty and annoyingly enthusiastic about everything but harmless enough. Stoners are fine because they tend to just keep to themselves, and very hardcore stoners are actually less annoying when stoned than when not stoned, because when straight they tend to get cranky and irritable. Drunks piss me off, I don’t like being around people when they’re drinking, which makes being in bands hard sometimes, one of the worst things about a music career is constantly dealing with drunk assholes. Meth heads are similar, same kind of symptoms. Still better than junkies though.
3 & 4: I’ll agree with Lemmy here and say that if you’re going to pick one drug to stay the hell away from, make it heroin. I’ve lost several friends to it and I haven’t seen too many people successfully pull away from it once they started down that path, and the few who have, have a LOT of damage. Show your friend the Lemmy video, Lemmy has done more drugs than your friend I promise, he knows what he’s talking about. If your friend is already addicted to other shit, he hasn’t seen anything yet, heroin is going to destroy him utterly.
Jesus fucking Christ Trump is insane, and Project 2025 is terrifying. What do you think a young woman from the US should do in the off-chance that the Republican Party wins?
No idea, good luck. Since it’s actually now legal for a US president to break the law I think America will basically transform into a Trump monarchy if he wins. So much for that war of independence you guys fought against the British, might as well not have bothered… better get out there and vote while you still can…
What do you think about the growing trend of Gen Z men growing having increasingly right wing politics? South Korea has an especially bad problem with this. Misogyny is so rampant there, and it seems to be getting worse and worse.
In Australia everyone’s moving left, but men are moving left slower. Not sure what that means, I’m no expert on shit like this. All I can think of is Gen Z spend a lot of time online and being part of the “right wing club” probably attracts a lot of bored lonely people. Right-wing stupidity makes sense when you’re disenfranchised and you only have your computer, because you have a lack of people people around you to talk some fucking sense into you.
Adding on to the question about right-wing politics for young men, what do you think about physical health becoming a politicized issue? I’m talking about not wearing masks during COVID, which seemed to be a right-wing issue. However, there’s also the trend of fat activism, which seems to be considered a left-wing issue by its proponents. Why has taking personal responsibility for one’s health and to protect other people from infection become such a polarizing issue?
Yeah I don’t know. In Australia we had the conservative party in power during the whole of COVID and they made us wear masks too, I think it only became a polarised thing in the USA for some weird reason. The republicans campaigned so successfully against masking that they actually made COVID into a disease that statistically kills more republicans. Republicans are weird.
So I’ve just spent 12 days in the hospital fighting an infection as the result of surgery, and finally made it home yesterday. What’s your favorite kpop and non-kpop song that acts as a sort of “liquid IV,” giving you the boost you need to get shit done?
I found “Roly Poly” got me through about a year of office drudgery back when I needed it. I think any of my favourite list #1s and #2s have this in common! Just go to my search bar on the website and search “favourite” (yes, that’s the correct spelling) and enjoy!
Hello cunt ! What makes Chuu’s Strawberry Rush so great musically (yeah we all know that Chuu makes things better by herself but that’s not the point here) ? Is it because it sounds like a 80s pop song or something else ? Thx
Basically that, yeah. It’s no secret that it’s going to get somewhere on the favourites list this year so I’ll write more about it then.
I thought that I should help you get to know the 01)47391946&*27264682$# (or so) tripleS members.
The member with the guitar is Nakyoung. At first I wanted to believe she was actually playing that guitar (at least the middle part, but the flashing pick gives some sus differences between what I hear and see ). To be honest, it doesn’t even look like the guitar is connected to an amp.
You should stan anyway because she’s the only member with enough guts to even try pick-syncing, and it seems she clearly knows what good music is supposed to sound like.
Also, can you identify the guitar for me (and also what’s making the pick flash)?
She sure as hell isn’t playing it. The guitar falls off her partway through and there’s no effect on the actual sound of her playing at all, at 0:59 she swipes the thing and there’s no change to her already-sustained note. It is plugged in to a wireless pack though, so they got that part right, also 10/10 for carrying on like a pro when it went to shit and pretty much getting away with it (mind you that’s not too hard when it’s all on playback).
The guitar is a Samick copy of a HSS Stratocaster. Samick are a very prolific Korean guitar manufacturer and produce cheap guitars under their own brand as well as for other companies, a lot of other Korean or Indonesian-built models of guitars like Squier, Epiphone etc are made in Samick’s factories.
As for the light effect, she’s probably using the Firefly pick, or something like it.
Do you have any advice for someone first moving out?
I am trying to escape an abusive family and I am gonna move in with someone (I also have other options in case something happens to that situation). Since I am not living alone the living costs are not spectacularly high in that specific area, so we can cover it even if we’re young and still at the beginning of our careers. I am a legal adult so they can’t do anything in that regard, tho I fully expect my alcoholic father to go looking for me.
So do you have any tips to make my new way of life easier? I remember you mentioned you also moved out young so I think you know a thing or two.
The May 2023 QRIMOLE has some general advice for people moving out of home for the first time. See how you go with that and let me know if you have further quetions!
do you think OOTD is stronger or weaker than Justice?
These latter-day Dreamcatcher releases all kind of blend into each other a bit for me, honestly. “Scream” was their last really good track.
thoughts on new unlucky morpheus song, 世界輪廻?
Just kind of average, not one of their better songs. Mind you they really kicked the clothing up a notch, outstanding fashion sense even by their standards.
I just wanted to let you know that I really like your recipe posts!
Thanks! I’ll do more of them at some point, probably. Not soon though, I don’t want to make that the main thing that I do, but every once in a while…
All my Gen-X kpop stans (were few in number, but we fund most of Gen Z and all of Gen Alpha) are getting massive mid-90’s nostalgia from STAYC’s b-side “Flexing on My Ex”. It sounds like something that might have made its way onto the Singles or Dumb & Dumber soundtrack.
I think there’s an artist or group from that era that this sounds just like, but I can’t quite place it. All Saints, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Imbruglia, The Primatives, etc are all in the area, but there’s gotta be a closer comp. Can you think of any?
It’s tough because this is so generically 90s mid-tempo pop, there were dozens of groups and artists that sounded somewhat like this. It’s not exactly like any one thing but it’s awfully close to a lot of things.
Have you seen Freddie DeBoer’s latest on pop music fandom?
It seems like a pretty congenial take to Kpopalypse, and interesting to see him point to K-pop as only the worst example of the same overall trend (maybe not surprising given that his overall stance/tone isn’t far from yours). Anyway, thought QRIMOLE readers might get a kick out of the piece if nothing else.
Yeah I read this, thanks for linking it! I’m not certain about the accuracy in his generational takes (I seem to connect too easily with far too many very erudite young people for the Gen-Z generalisations to ring true) but he definitely has a point about fandom culture!
Many times in my life, I have crushed on dudes who aren’t good looking AT ALL (or are funny looking even) but just have incredible rizz, intelligence, ambition or other attributes I find attractive. But I’m afraid of starting anything with them since my parents and peers would judge me super hard for dating someone with zero good looks. How do I overcome this fear of being mocked ?
Just do it anyway. At some point you just have to say ‘fuck it’ and break through the wall. Exposure therapy works great. If they don’t approve, too bad for them.
I know it’s scary but you can do it! Keep reading this website and I will do my best in all my content to show you how to follow your own path in life and learn to disregard what others think!
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!
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