QRIMOLE – November 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!

You’ll probably get 3 billion of these questions, but I’ll try to make mine as specific as possible. I also know jack shit about the music industry, apologies.

1. How on earth have yg/jype/sm (and DSP when they were a bigger) not destroyed each other? Is there some benefit to them maintaining a system of competitors rather than a monopoly?
Especially SM. Why didn’t they try to monopolize and take over a bunch of labels like HYBE has?
(I mean they arguably sabotaged infinite, but that was one group. it seems like they haven’t bothered since.)

2. Plenty of creative people have left sm and yg to form notable groups without much fuss. why does HYBE have such an issue with MHJ? Is HYBE just weird in some way? Like what is happening with their company that they are so large, presumably have money for decent pr, lawyers, etc. and yet can’t maintain their shit?

1. SM did in fact do exactly this, after the merger with Woollim, they also scooped up a bunch of smaller labels a fair few years back, most notably Mystic Story (home of Billlie, Minseo) but also some others. The reason why sometimes a surprisingly ‘off brand’ artist gets an SM video is because of these mergers and deals that SM undertook to expand their catalog.

2. I think AustralianSana got it right in our latest podcast, listen here, I can’t remember where she talks about it but basically I think Bang Si Hyuk’s ego is hurt by the fact that he’s never been able to completely take credit for a group as “his”, with BTS being perceived rightly or wrongly as a group that comes from their own creative minds rather than his, and NewJeans being MHJ’s baby. His two most successful groups are ones he didn’t really have anything to do with. The problem with having ultimate power is that people below you are too scared to tell you when you’re fucking up. It’s the same problem that dictators always have and it’s why they often double-down on really bad decisions – they get rid of all the people who disagree with them until they’re surrounded by yes-men who are too scared to warn them when they’re about to drive off a cliff.

What do you think of artists like Coil, NWW, Death in June, Pyschic TV etc? I remember you saying you liked Current 93 a long time ago, but do you like the rest of the “scene”?

It’s hard to generalise because those artists sound so completely different from one album to the next, to the point where you sometimes question if it’s even the same group. Often it’s only the vocal style which feels like the common thread. So they all have stuff that I like and don’t like. I really like “Soft Black Stars” album from C93, because it’s just voice and piano only, seems to work best for me, for what they do. DIJ I prefer the later acoustic ‘folk music’ to the earlier stuff where they were a band, and I actually really like Douglas’ acoustic rhythm guitar style which is as immediately recognisable as Eddie Van Halen’s finger-tapping. Coil, NWW and Psychic TV I find more hit and miss, but there’s individual songs I like from each. I’ll leave you with this track which I think is amazingly good.

Hi Kpopalypse, hope you’re doing good.

Recently, after Taeil was removed from NCT because of rape, SM terminated his contract. Which is kinda surprising, since I thought SM would just wait until his contract is finished (in the beginning of 2025) and then let him go. My question is, how does contract termination works in the music world when the artist committed a huge crime? I only know that it’ll take some time, as demonstrated by Taeil’s case.

I also have another question about classical piano training. I was trained in classical piano during primary school, and I wanted to start learning classical piano again, just for my personal enjoyment. I was advised by a classical piano teacher that I should start from Pianoforte 3 (Yamaha) book. My question is, at this stage should I go straight to offline private lessons or is online lessons via YouTube is enough?

I remember about your request about needing advice on how to write an antagonistic lead character in a way that it was clear that you, as the author, disagree with the character’s action. I recently started reading Han Kang’s The Vegetarian because she just won Nobel prize and the reviews got me interested. I still on the beginning of the novel, but (spoiler alert) I already hate the narrator, which is one of the lead character. Maybe you can use this novel as research material on that?

And lastly, congratulations on completing your book series! I really enjoyed it!

Contract termination: there is likely a clause in most k-pop contracts that your employment can be terminated if you do things that could endanger the reputation of the agency in a major way. I mean most workplaces in general have something similar in their contracts where if you’ve committed a legal offence you can be fired, it’s not an unusual type of clause for any job that is public-facing or where the company could suffer large reputational loss from your actions. The fact that Taeil was rushed out the door so quickly by SM means that they knew exactly what they were dealing with and wanted no part of it.

Private lessons are almost always better than online, because you can have someone corrrect your mistakes in real time… but private lessons also are not cheap. You just have to weigh it up. However depending on how self-directed you are, you may not even need lessons.

Thanks for the book tip! I’ll add it to my reading list.

Please hide everything in asteriks ! My question: so I recently got my ps( It took me 3 years to get them bc i had a shitty driving instructor who scared me ) . [stuff hidden at reader request] Do u have any tips Oppar? On how I can get more confident driving ? And any anxiety tips. I know mistakes is a normal part of learning but I’m so scared to drive bc I’ll make them.

Took me a while to realise “ps” was “probationary driver’s license” and not “plastic surgery”, I was like “what has your double eyelids got to do with driving, is this a safety issue because now they hang down and you can’t see the road, I don’t get it”. Also not sure why you wanted me to hide the stuff in the asterisks, it wasn’t exactly incriminating. But anyway, best way to get over it is to just do it more. Being a bit anxious about driving is good, because you should be super cautious and super attentive on the roads, anxiety just means you care and you realise the gravity of the sitaution, that you’re piloting a tin can of death. You do also need confidence to be able to drive smoothly. It just comes with time. I’d recommend getting as much practice as possible on side-streets and low-traffic areas, if you can, and also drive with more experienced people and ask them to pull you up if you’re driving badly and give you tips.

Hi Kpopalypse Oppar. Unfortunately, I am still the one sending questions about my CV in the October Qrimole and I still need your help. While I have been asking my friends to proofread and gave feedback on it (and they said it was fine), I am still paranoid so I still sent this to you for further feedback as none of us have our native language being English (maybe what makes sense to us is actually wrong). This time I am slightly more confident with how my CV looks like so I guess I am fine with it being exposed to the upcoming Qrimole episode. Here is the link that leads to my CV (this time I change the doc to allow editing so you can jot down what is wrong, either in typo, grammar errors or word choice)

This is the resume he sent, I screencapped the page rather than share the link as publishing a publicly editable link to thousands of people is probably not wise.

Okay, so this is actually looking reasonably good. You’ve got the general idea, breaking it down into education, skills and achievements is great. I’ll make a few changes:

Edited version, I made these edits on the asker’s editable document so they now have them.

 

• I tidied up your introductory statement a bit. The person reading it is going to be thinking “what can this person do for our company”, so rather than talking about “I want a job because of x” you want to phrase it more in terms of “here’s what I can bring to your company”. My changes are with this in mind. The resume has to be about what YOU can offer to THEM.
• Relevant coursework, your gut feeling is right that this isn’t relevant. They only care that you passed. Since your GPA is over 3.5 it makes sense to leave that in, so I’ve left it in. If it was a low GPA I’d remove it.
• Dean’s merit list definition, I removed this. It sounds impressive even if you don’t define it. If they care, they’ll ask you about it in the interview, then you can tell them what it means.
• Wasn’t wild about the ‘soft skills’ descriptions, you want to avoid negative language like ‘did not’ in a resume, so I just made that less wordy.
• Also removed a few redundant words in the achievements section. Mentioning how many people got the scholarship doesn’t mean a lot as they don’t know how big the student body is. 20 people got the scholarship… out of how many eligible? 21? 21,000? Best to leave it out.

Now the next question is – does it look good? A resume has to make a good first impression so it isn’t skipped over. If this resume was your k-pop bias, would you invite it out for tteokbokki or patbingsu? Maybe not. While all the information is there, I think the format is a bit drab. Let’s give you a nice new template and just switch things around slightly.

New template. Click the image to be taken to a Google Drive version that you can then download and play with.

The changes:

• Achievements are now listed as a subset of education
• Scholarships are impressive so they have their own section
• The most recent/relevant educational experience should be listed first in a resume
• Ignore the “key responsibilities” bit you can delete that

Have fun playing with this format if you like, then once you’re happy, start sending it out and see how you go!

Some of my other questions:
1) What is your opinion on “the majority of job postings are ghost jobs”? I may have unknowingly submitted to some of them in the past and only learned the concept of “ghost jobs” lately so that may explain why I received no response from the companies despite I was quite sure I met all of the requirements….
2) In the October Qrimole you said that I could refer an essay with high mark to prove I could work in team setting, but to my disappointment my school has already kicked me out from their system (already 6 months graduated) , so I was prohibited from searching for my study record. Furthermore, I could not ask for my teammates (whom I never contact after we were done with the subject) at that time because my Facebook account was hacked and I lost most of my network due to it. The most I know now is the final mark for each subject. What should I do now?
3) My parents suggested me to work for the government as the jobs in there was stable despite the low salary and low chance of promotion. Have you worked for the government before and would you recommend anyone to work there? I know each country differs from each other but maybe I can still learn something from your experience…
4) You said that I could choose to do any volunteer work (also from the October Qrimole), but do even 1-day volunteer still worth it? Like a festival occurred in a specific day in the future and they want some volunteers to help them with the setup on that day?
5) Should I also write a cover letter whenever I contact the HR?

1. I guess it depends where you apply. They are worth applying for anyway, just because a company doesn’t want staff right this minute doesn’t mean they won’t ever – things can change fast, and that company putting out ‘ghost job ads’ to research the job market one day might be genuinely in need of staff the next.
2. Nothing you can do about it, hey at least you tried. Your resume as is should suffice though.
3. Where I live government jobs pay quite well, but are hard to get and there’s all sorts of red tape and regulatory requirements, plus once you get such a job there’s often very little freedom in how you work because of goverment rules covering anything and everything that you do in your role. I worked for the government briefly in my teens, I absolutely hated it. Of course not all governments are equal…
4. Yes, in fact one-day volunteer work is one of the best kinds. Just one day of your effort in exchange for something cool you can add to your resume, that’s a pretty sweet deal. Do a fantastic enough job and your boss might even agree to be a job reference for you.
5. Personally I think cover letters are a bit of a wank. Just write HR an email, and effectively that email IS your covering letter. Then just attach your resume to it and send it.

The other point I want to touch on is that while job ads are good to apply for, a lot of people get jobs through people they know. So let everyone know that you’re job hunting. The applies especially to anyone who has a job in or adjacent to the field you want to work in. Good luck!

Hello oppar~

I don’t know why, or how but I ended up sabotaging the company I work at. I work in an office, with 10+ people in the same room, and when I get bored or my responsabilities don’t please me, I cut off electricity for everyone else. Right behind me it’s the control panel and I can reach with my hand very easily.

It just makes me feel like a kid again and the fact that NOBODY even considers me guilty makes me have more fun.

I do it everyday, like 2-3 times, for a brief period of time and then, turn on electricity again. The technician keeps coming and making up weird stories about how the wires are burned or some shit. It’s just so much fun.

On the other hand, being a male 30yo+ I feel like I shouldn’t be doing this. But it is what makes my day interesting. The reaction of my colleagues and having to act like I’m another victim of the company’s bad electric system it’s just so exciting.

Do you have any suggestions? Should I stop doing it?

You should get in touch with the other reader above on the job hunt and see if he wants your position. I feel like he’d do a better job than you. He might not have your expertise or experience but I have a feeling that he’d probably keep the power plugged in.

considering what has been happening recently between newjeans and illit, do you think any member of those groups will commit suicide?

It can be pretty shit being in ANY k-pop group, doesn’t really matter whether you’re in the media over some bullshit or not. I mean, who would have picked Moonbin from Astro? The severity of a situation is not necessarily a reliable way to determine how well someone is coping. Everyone handles things differently.

have you ever fapped to any html fangame

I’m not even sure if I’m played a html fangame. What’s a html fangame, anyway? Do you mean like my interactive fanfictions? Or something else? I’m confused by the non-specificity of this question.

It’s been almost a year since I last entered this page, and you upload and behave the same. Did anything important happen recently that, me, as a kpopalypse enjoyer for so long, missed by any chance?

• I released some more books and some more free games (but stopped using itch.io for hosting, all games are hosted locally at oppar.party now)
• I fucked Twitter off completely and migrated to Bluesky
• I changed donations from Patreon to Ko-fi
• Black music features in roundup are now Asian but not-Korean not-pop not-world music features

Other than this, pretty much the same old shit. Thanks for checking in!

How do you feel about Charli XCX? If you haven’t listened, she has some pretty experimental/heavy/abrasive stuff you might like since you like metal music (I’m thinking of the first two tracks of How I’m Feeling Now specifically)

I get asked this a LOT, unsure why. Never been much of a fan. I mean it’s okay I guess but I just feel like the songwriting isn’t quite there?

I’m only an occasional visitor, so apologies if this has been asked before, but who are all these people with writing credits on Kpop songs? I have been wondering for some time about the slew of names, and recently I came across a Rick Beato video where he is surprised by the 15 people mentioned on a Coldplay song. On Cherish by ILLIT, I also count 15 names, outnumbering the members 3 to 1. What is going on?

I’d recommend reading my interview with k-pop songwriter AZODi, reading this will help answer your question, as he goes quite in depth about how the songwriting process happens and the chain of people that a song can pass through.

As I’ve grown older, I find myself drifting away from K-Pop. I’m just so turned off by the sexism in South Korean youth culture, and I see the inherent exploitation in K-Pop more and more. Has it just gotten worse, or have I gotten better at perceiving it? I know my leeriness of the ages of debut idols is almost certainly due to being an adult now. I thought it was okay when I was the same age as them since I could empathize having similar dreams, but now, I feel nothing but disgust seeing kids thrown into the life of a K-Pop idol.

This just means that as you’re getting older you’re getting smarter. I feel like my experience has been similar When I first got into k-pop it took a little while to register just how weird the culture around it was. People often criticise me for writing Captain Obvious stuff, but the fact is that to a newcomer a lot of things actually are not obvious and do need pointing out. I never know when someone reading my takes on k-pop is reading about k-pop for the first time or the 11000th time, so I try to keep that in mind, that’s why I have a lexicon that explains basic things about the site and the k-pop world and so forth.

What’s your opinion on Olivia Rodrigo?

Pretty much this:

i know you complain a lot about vocal fagging / useless vocal showing off, just out of curiosity, do you feel the same about certain classical pieces that do the same technical showing off, but with physical instruments instead?

Yes. Some of that stuff is needlessly hard for no reason.

what does QRIMOLE even mean ????

See here.

if u can be bothered to check it out (no hard feelings if not lmao), thoughts on adela’s superscar ??

It’s oaky, I don’t mind it. Sounds like something that would fit aespa.

What do you think about the Mamushi remix with TWICE?

I didn’t really like the original and this is really no different apart from the different voices, so I don’t care about it really.

Hi oppa, I’m the jazzfaggot from last month’s qrimole! I’ll try to keep it short this time: basically absolutely everywhere everyone keeps saying that Newjeans have made a lot of money already, calling them “multimillionaire teens” or similar, and I think it all stemmed from this one article. I mean, it’s a legitimate newspaper/news site and not a rumor mill like allkpop and friends so I don’t have the rights to discredit them (neither I want to do so), it’s just that:
A) their reasoning seems somewhat flawed to be honest. They state that since the company made xyz amount of money and x was spent for this and y was spent for that, then the remaining z went no doubt to the members; but I don’t think it works like that? It all depends on what’s written in their contracts and we don’t know what their conctracts say. But most importantly:
B) this article basically contradicts everything you’ve written on your blog until now. They’re just a 2 year old group and it’s been speculated that they are no less THE most expensive girl group ever created, with a debut that cost nearly 15$ millions. Now we know that debt only keeps increasing and those money were for their debut ONLY so no doubt that it grown larger, so how is it possible that they were able to fully repay it in 2 years only given the pittance that idols get paid? I know that they’ve done a lot of commercial but still 15 plus million is an awful lot of money.
Isn’t all this just a bunch of bullshit oppa? Maybe a narrative that Ador has put out for good publicity?

P.S. If I had a boat ready to sail to China, wouldn’t Anal Cunt like to get on board? Would you like to come too? I promise I didn’t already inform Xi Jinping.

Yeah what’s in the contract is everything. While I’d love to think that each girl is bagging multiple millions of dollars, and that all revenue just goes straight to the girls, sadly it’s likely a lot more complicated than that. I mean yes they probably are one of the few groups out there right now making SOME money but I don’t see them buying a yacht just yet.

What do you think about this song?  It reminds me of a Black Sabbath song

Well it’s basically the riff from the verse of “War Pigs” mixed up a bit. Don’t really like this interpretation though. Tyler is a great rapper but his beat choice is very hit and miss.

Thank you for all the informative posts about writing, self-publishing, etc! Watching your success unfold here has inspired me to at least try to write something and publish it. I haven’t written anything but fanfic in years thanks to depression, but y’know, maybe I can do it too. Can I ask what note-taking app/program you use to keep up with your continuity? I’ve tried fancy shmancy programs like Scrivener, which gets too far into the weeds for me, and apps like Obsidian which are a bit too loose to keep my thoughts coherent and linear. Any suggestions you have would be great

I just open a blank Word doc and shove everything in there. What I put down in this post is just screencap copy-pastes from that actual Word document. You could even use Notepad. You don’t need anything fancy. I’ve never used Scrivener or programs like that. Hell, a physical notepad would even do the trick. Just a document that you can look up and find bits of information so you don’t have to keep re-reading your book because you can’t remember what colour the dress was supposed to be and you sworre you mentioned it in chapter 12 but I guess it was chapter 11, fuck it’s not there either, guess I’ll find it one day…

I’ve been toying lately with the idea of doing the next book’s notes in Excel. Vertical axis for characters, horizontal for chapters, and in each cell you put the plot developments that concern that specific character. I’ll try it and let you know how it went. Anyway trust me you CAN do it, just pick an organisational system that works for you, and it doesn’t have to be massively deep and complicated, it just needs to be something that you can feel comfortable with. Don’t spend too much time fussing over this point, to the point where it takes you away from actually writing your story.

have you ever considered adding a section to your bias list of idols with the largest “caonima energy” (im thinking lily cosplaying as hana from your books, jisoo, han seohee in general, etc.)? i think it would be interesting to see but i know you’re a lazy australian cunt so

It’s something I’ve thought about. I don’t know if the bias list is the right place, or if it’s better off elsewhere. I feel like “The Kpopalypse Awards” covers this maybe, but not exactly. Something for me to think about!

I’m not entirely sure what I’m trying to ask, but I’ll try my best to turn this into a question (Also, I don’t want to get punished with another JAV, that was a pretty boring video)

So, I just kind of had this thought in my head and…well, it kind of made me wonder what kind of people prefer hard beats with a heavy bass compared to other people. As far as my knowledge goes, most of music that has drums in it takes it’s roots from Africa so it makes sense music like Jazz, Rock, and Hip-Hop comes from black culture.

But I’m kind of starting to really see a divide on how much people can really take. Like, I’ve heard so many times “I like rap music, but now about the songs about bitches and money, if there songs have some actual thought to it” and I’m just kind of thinking it misses the point of the actual music? I’m kind of starting to notice a theme in a lot of early rap songs where the lyrics are basically like “You guys used to ignore me, but now I’m taking the spotlight and have money now”

Like, there’s a real story behind these songs, but with the people I meet who just seem to kind of “tolerate” rap music, they’re general preferences are really soft. Like, Bob Dylan, The Carpenters, Taylor Swift. Like, to put it in one context, I met a Taiwanese guy who really put on this tough guy attitude but he invited me to a conversation and what he was wearing was a hoodie with a baseball cap and some serious manspreading going on but then I find out he likes Slipknot? I’m kind of wondering if this guy has been bullied for the longest time and has been made fun of it so he gets some sort of emotional release by listening to something as heavy as Slipknot.

Also, I was hanging out at a Karaoke bar and there was this one girl who dropped this one pretty heavy Taiwanese rap song but then she went back to her group. They were all Taiwanese people but the way they were dressed made me think they were hip-hop fans. I didn’t have any interaction with them so didn’t think much of it.

It was my turn and…I was drunk enough to try out Doowhuchyalike by The Digital Underground and this group just started dancing all of a sudden. I don’t think they knew this song, nobody really knew this song until I had a conversation with one of the bartenders who thought it was pretty cool that I did that song. The bartenders there are real music nerds. And I also found it kind of interesting that this group of Taiwanese people were suddenly dancing because I usually have to push song recommendations really hard to get people to listen to any song I suggest while they just keep shoving that soft shit in my face (LOL)

I guess my question is, is there a certain personality type that’s just happy to hear new music just because it has hard beats in it? Also, what makes people resistant to hear these kinds of songs? I know I used to have a general aversion to rap music and heavy metal but…honestly, I’m not entirely sure what happened that made me change. I’m in my 30s now and wish I didn’t miss out on this kind of music when I was younger. Like I can tell I started expanding my music tastes after reading your blog but I don’t think I could get my younger Beatles obsessed self to hear the music the same way that I do now.

All I can offer on this is: I knew a guy at a workplace I was at once, he was a super angry guy. He used to get in fights all the time at sports matches, and he’d always lose them and/or get violently thrown out of venues and come to work with bruises on his face etc. Anyway this guy HATED heavy metal and any sort of loud music, because he said that it made him agitated. I tried to explain to them “no, it’s a release, it’s a way for you to get your anger out, if you listen to it you might find you’re less inclined to start fights” but he just said the music made him angry. So he was definitely of that “other” personality type that can’t appreciate heavy music. I also like what Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden says about it, that it appeals to the teenager inside people, and if you ever lose touch with that then you won’t like heavy metal. How that all fits together I’m not sure, I mean I’m not a psychologist, but hopefully that makes some form of sense.

Hello cunt. I have several questions. Thank you very much for answering all of them!

Aren’t you tired of having a blog and reviewing K-pop each week for how many years now, especially without any impact on the industry or the majority of the fanbase who are just totally brainwashed? Aren’t you tired of dumb teenage fans who cannot accept that you speak about K-pop with the standards of any other music genre and a dry humor they’re too dumb to read through? Don’t you feel “too old for this shit”? Honestly, I admire your dedication.

I’m a 32-year-old male, and I don’t assume listening to K-pop when people ask me about my music taste. I exclusively listen to female K-pop because I like its more creative and “bubbly” approach than male K-pop and also obviously because I’m heterosexual, and sure, I find Eunha’s thighs pretty when she dances. However, in today’s world, saying you listen to (female) K-pop as a man makes you sound like a horrible pervert (inversely, being a woman listening to male K-pop is okay) with a racist yellow fever. So, how to deal with that shit?

What makes songs like Viviz’s “Untie,” Le Sserafim’s “1-800-hot-n-fun,” or Billy Idol’s “Flesh for Fantasy” (yes, that’s not a K-pop song) so “hot” and “sexual” from a musicological point of view? Is it their bassline? Is it something else? Am I just baited by Eunha’s thighs?

Did you listen to Joey Valance & Brae’s new album No Hands? It is very good hip-hop reminding me of Beastie Boys. I guess you’ll like it!

Thank you, cunt!

Do I feel tired and too old for this shit? Yes! But I also enjoy it in lots of ways. Yes writing roundup is a tedious bore more often than not, but sometimes bangers of songs come out that make me so glad I bothered. Being able to write and publish books is amazing, I never thought I’d be doing that. Designing computer games is fun even if they’re basic af, I wish I could do that more but they are very time-consuming. Being able to use k-pop as a vehicle in general to say stuff about tangenital topics in the world is also something I enjoy.

I deal with being called a pervert by saying “well… yes? And?” I couldn’t be bothered defending myself from people who think I’m something I’m not (or something I am, hahaha). But I generally agree that on average the female songs are more to my taste because they tap into that very extreme bubblegum pop style more than the male songs, some of the time. Not always though. But that’s a very separate issue from if I like the performers. Having said that, performers with good songs do have an advantage in the “noticed by Kpopalypse” department simply because I’m more likely to rewatch their videos and notice them if the song doesn’t suck.

I don’t think there’s a common musical thread with the songs you picked, but maybe a common thematic one. In other words, yes it’s Eunha’s thighs.

That rap song is pretty cool!

ITZY recently re-released a new “final” version of Untouchable and other Born to Be tracks that includes Lia who was in hiatus before.

The final version of Untouchable however sounds off in some parts though (0:37, 1:40 that seem the most obvious) – it’s like it’s too quiet or not mixed into the track correctly. Am I just imagining things, or is it just because I’m used to the original version?

I listened to it without listening to the original and I didn’t notice anything wrong from a mixing point of view.

Am curious to know what about R&B in K-Pop turns you off so much? I align with you with so many takes, but I always find myself disagreeing on your takes on R&B inspired tracks. I remember you disliking Automatic by Red Velvet and that’s the song that got me into them believe it or not LOL (please don’t shoot me). Do you have any examples of K-Pop tracks that you think do R&B right?

Well I just don’t like R&B in general whether in k-pop or elsewhere, and I go through my reasons why here.

There’s exceptions to every rule though. I know that there are R&B style tracks in k-pop that I do like, but I can’t think of what they are right now. I tend to mention it in roundup each time one comes up (because it’s a fairly rare event) so caonimas may be able to fill you in below in the comments section.

would it be fair to call the first 32 seconds of Lexie Liu’s ‘Shadow‘ fugue-like? or kind of classical sounding? i might just be throwing around random terms incorrectly lol

It’s not a literal fugue, because the parts don’t actually repeat verbatim, but it does still kind of sound like one because what is there is reasonably close to a repetition most of the time and the vocal parts do get introduced sequentially, so I guess “fugue-like” technically isn’t incorrect. It has that kind of feeling, at least at first.

Had asked in twitterX, but thought will ask in QRIMOLE, since concert/unreleased songs are not covered by roundup, what is your take on IU’s “Bye Summer” & her use of orchestras in her concerts – conductors, violins, cellos, polyphonic vocal backing (whatever that is) etc., I have little idea of how common such are & what impact they have on live singing. I thought pop only did guitar, drums & keyboards.

Well, IU has a bigger budget than most people, so she can afford to pay the wages of a large ensemble setup of performers like that, not to mention a pretty nice looking guitar, gosh. (I couldn’t find that particular guitar finish on a Telecaster anywhere for sale so I guess it’s one she had custom built.) Most of the time a performer with less of a budget would just use keyboards and backing tracks to get layered sounds like that because it’s cheaper. I like here how she plays one chord on the guitar before the song starts to confirm “yes it’s live I’m really playing it” and then the song actually starts and it’s completely obvious that her guitar isn’t even in the mix at all. Still, it’s a nice prop. Sorry I keep talking about the guitar but it’s the most interesting thing about this video.

have you listened to imaginal disk by magdalena bay?

No. (Easy question, I like it.)

So there’s this professor that’s making us analyse his electronic compositions for his class. Idk if this is common for music professors or just someone huffing their own farts – but keep in mind I live in the Balkans so it’s messy. I’m also not a music major, I’m in CS and this class was kinda described as an introduction to sound design for games, but the university is putting the same classes in multiple majors so now we’ve mixed with some music majors. My music vocabulary and knowledge is limited and I have to write a full page analysis of a concert that made me nod off, and it’s a different composition by this prof every week. My question is how do I stop myself from going insane without any illegal drugs and how do I make up some decent enough bullshit

He sounds like he just wants validation from his class for his shitty electronic dirges so just write something where you blow smoke up his ass and throw in a few technical terms, that should do it.

I liked nmixx’s performance on ‘Tiny Desk’. Did you like it.

Actually I did, their songs work much better in that format. Probably because it’s kind of hard to do a messy change-up when you’re working with the same instruments all the way through.

What is the KPOPALYPSE consensus on the band Talking Heads?

What is the KPOPALYPSE consensus on the band DEVO?

What is the KPOPALYPSE consensus on how Keith Richards could possibly still be alive with a working liver, heart, and brain?

meh

meh

drugs

Hi oppar, I feel like I’m at a crucial turning point in my life right now where any slump or wrong decision will doom me to a life of misery and for some reason instead of locking in and focusing on what I need to get done, I really just want to start watching one piece. I’ll be 18 soon so I have exams next year that’ll decide my entire life from here on. But for a couple years (from covid and onwards) I sort of did fuck all and just sat in my room all day playing games. Anyway last year I made my academic comeback and although I had been studying hard for a few months straight, now that I’ve started 6th year, I feel like I’m languishing again and even though I can feel the pressure of my future hanging over me, I can’t really find the motivation to get back into my studies. How do I force myself to study? Should I get a job or something to indoctrinate myself into a hard working focused life or should I give up on my dreams and play videogames in my parents’ attic the rest of my life. This is not fun at all.

Don’t treat it as an either/or proposition. I still play computer games these days (even though I suck at them) but I also do a shit-ton of work and writing. You don’t have to choose. Maturity doesn’t happen when you give up the things you love and focus only on work, it happens when you learn to balance competing interests and prioritise your time and attention so you can do what you need to do but still enjoy the things you love.

You seem to play video games (like League of Legends), but hate sports. What do you think about competitive gaming (esports) then?

I like it more than regular sports. I wish it was around when I was younger and gaming more, I would have probably become motivated to be an e-sport player. These days my reflexes and vision both aren’t great so I have no hope of competing on that kind of level. Sports are very culturally important where I live, which I hate, because I hate sport, so seeing gamers be treated the same way as other types of sport is great for me, it’s like validation.

Should I ask another question?

Yes.

Are you doing Nugu alert again? Or are you just including Nugus in round ups?

The series continues! There will be more Nugu Alerts.

How many of that book have you sold? Do you need to redvelvet-ize TripleS yet?

Love Carousel, the third book in the series of four: so far I’ve sold 73 on Amazon, 17 on Kobo, and I think none on Barnes & Noble (I’m unsure though because their reporting tool is shit, I don’t know why I waste my time with putting my stuff up there, nobody actually buys from that shithole) so that’s 90 copies total. Another 10 and I’ll take on the task and see if I don’t go insane.

Does Australia have Shrinkflation?

Yes, I’ve noticed it with chocolate bars that I used to like as a kid, they’re way smaller now and I’m pretty sure it’s not because my hands got bigger. Also there was an awesome chocolate cafe that did chilli chocolate tarts with amazing chocolate genache in them, and then the total babe of an owner who I had a crush on left and the store was taken over by her partner who was a douche and the first thing he did was shrinkflate the chocolate tarts so the genache was just flat and not super stacked, I nearly cried. Fortunately they went out of business soon after that, sucks to be them.

Thoughts about the song “A House Is Not A Motel” by Love?

Sounds like hippie asspaper to me.

Will you show your Spotify Wrapped? Do you even use Spotify?

N/A, no.

Thoughts about “New Me” by WJSN?

Typical boring B-side track. I wish people wouldn’t ask me about dull B-side shit in QRIMOLE. I would have made this question the JAV of the Month if someone already hadn’t given me one below.

BOOK RELATED QUESTIONS (SPOILERS)

(spoilers for your books but)
I found your depiction of the Youtube video claiming Hana hates men/is obviously gay really funny, the description of the editing style was great. If you were a kpop girl, would you be caught blatantly checking out your in-group gf?

Oh hell yeah.

I’ve started your book series from the beginning and the way Hana was selected reminded me of the formation of Atomic Kitten: Andy McCluskey contacted local schools to find the members. The music teachers put forward girls who could sing and (presumably) were attractive enough to be in a girl group. Do you think that kind of thing happens often?

Fairly rare, but not unprecedented either. While it’s not the norm, quite a few people have been street-scouted just from appearance, or scouted by some weird random canvassing operation.

Also some books related questions so feel free to remove them if you are not confortable with spoilers being on qrimole.
1: Did the 50 chapters per book ever felt like a constraint ? It seems like an arbitrary number so were you ever forced to cut stuff you wanted to write ? On the other hand did you have to come up with ideas to fill some of the shorter chapters to reach the count ?
2: Did you have the idea of Iseul having a crush on Hana since the first book or did it came to you at the end of the series ? Because maybe it’s just me being as dumb as Hana or Caitlyn lying but I can only feel pure hatred coming from Iseul. Sure the changing scenes seemed weird at the moment but feel very detached with the constant fighting and wangtta calling from the get-go.
3: What motivated you to end the book not on the very hopeful and optimistic last chapter but on the super weird Shu show ? Also what inspired this part in general because I think you hate korean tv shows and this definitly doesn’t feel like the real ones. If anything it feels more like what Gyeongja could have seen while overdosing. Also not enough Youngsook content in this book and the epilogue, you did her dirty.
Anyway thanks for writing the books, I sound salty in the questions but I still enjoyed them a lot. I even thought about writing a wiki about the series because I kept forgetting the character names and relations and I love wikis but honestly as you often say: icbf

1. I just set 50 as an arbitrary number, and then for future books I decided to keep it that way. It’s good to work with a limitation when writing, it actually makes the writing process easier. By constraining it to 50 chapters it forced me to focus in on what really made the stories work (at least from my point of view). Of course in the last book it’s different because it needs room for the epilogues so that ended up being less chapters, but the overall page count is about the same. The main reason why I wanted to keep page counts the same throughout the series is so if people bought all the physical books they’d look uniform on people’s shelves.

2. There are hints all through the series, but they’re quite subtle. Remember the story is being told through Hana’s eyes and Hana is repulsed by Iseul generally, plus has little emotional intelligence and is very self-absorbed. There’s quite a few things that she doesn’t notice, some of which will be evident if I ever decide to retell parts of her story from the perspective of other characters. Undecided if I’ll ever do that, although the idea of a Caitlin-perspective story that ties together all the smutty stuff and allows me to write more pornographically is appealing.

3. The epilogues exist because I wanted to show how different characters matured and landed in different spaces.

• The punk TV interview is there to show the different dynamics that exist between Hana’s new group and the media/public perception, vs her old group. Also it makes clear the bond between the members that has developed, they look out for each other and have each others’ back during a hostile interview process. It reinforces that Hana is comfortable in her new home and is no longer a social outcast, at least not in her new peer group.
• Hana’s solo interview shows Hana (finally) becoming (somewhat) more self-aware and mature thanks to events that transpired in the book and after, and repairing some of the damage done earlier. Also making it clear that she’s still with Caitlin. There’s so many books about LGBT people where the protagonist is “punished” for being “bad”, I wanted to show Hana landing in a good place, and specifically NOT being given some kind of moral ‘lesson’ by the plot for bad behaviour. In this way, the book implicitly condones Hana’s actions.
• Nari’s interview is essential because she’s such an important character, the one who comes to the group with aspirational dreams of making it big, the type of character that most other ‘kpop fiction’ books revolve around (even if those characters in other people’s books don’t have Nari’s muscle tone). I wanted to show how her dreams didn’t work out, why she personally felt they didn’t work for her (and, by implication, why they won’t work for many others in the real world), what she learned as a result, but also how she was able to be introspective about it and was still able to find happiness and a path forward. I wanted to give people who are actually thinking about being in the music world a demonstration that they don’t need to keep all their eggs in one basket. I hate the glamorisation of the pathway to stardom in traditional k-pop books and books about music and fame in general, Nari’s interview is there to counter that, which reinforces one of the most important messages of the series overall.
• “Shu’s World” isn’t like other variety TV on purpose. I deliberately wrote the kind of variety show that I think would fit a utopian Shu-guided idealisation of variety TV, not the kind of sucky stuff that’s actually out there. Whether it’s a surreal dream sequence is open to interpretation, but to know that it feels surreal to the reader is great, that’s exactly what I was aiming for.

Youngsook disappears from Hana’s orbit somewhere near the end of the fourth book for good reason – she’s remaining inside the industry that Hana desperately wants nothing to do with, so they have little contact. But she does appear in the Kimchi Slappers audience, just to show that the bond is still there and that they are still friends.

The fact that you sound salty is good, it means that you care about the characters and what happens to them enough to let it show! All future books by Kpopalypse will be in the same universe, so the characters are still out there! Who knows what may happen…

BEST QUESTION

Have you seen the Malatanghulu dance in FTKD-019 at 05:20 ? Is Kpop coming to Jav a sign of a future Honey Popcorn comeback ?

This was definitely a JAV/k-pop crossover that I didn’t expect! I doubt it will inspire Yua Mikami to make a comeback, but you never know… anyway with credentials like that, I guess it’s as good a selection for JAV of the Month as any!

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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!