QRIMOLE – Christmas 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!

Last month, I mentioned how I find idol life disgusting for teenagers, but that’s just the normal stuff (i.e. the crazy work-hours, isolation, harassment by the public and staff, unhealthy diets, objectification, etc.). It ignored the sexual harassment/assault that could occur. The Madein allegations are fucking disgusting. It’s pretty obvious that CEOs are attracted to a lot of their artists. Do you know how deep the rabbit hole goes? Are pedophiles (I guess ephebophile is the correct term in this situation, but I’m really referring to attraction to any underage children) common in the industry?

Well they’re not more common than they are anywhere else… so in other words, they’re pretty common. Pedophilia (we’ll use it as an umbrella term for simplicity) is just really common and always has been. I don’t think it’s more common in the music industry specifically, but yes of course they do exist and you will run into people with those preferences from time to time.

The main issue for me with all of that isn’t so much that there are creeps (just a fact of life unfortunately), but that the way the k-pop system is set up, creeps definitely do have a lot more power than they otherwise would. Think about how the church has a power structure that creeps can easily exploit, the music business feels a bit like that. That doesn’t mean that every pastor or every CEO is out there assaulting people… only that the ones who are, can benefit from a structure that makes it a lot easier to get away with it.

By the way, one of the reasons why the music business Illuminati rumours annoy me enough to write snarky articles about them is because chalking up pedophilia to some kind of grand Skull & Bones conspiracy is to me trivialising and obfuscating the much more garden-variety actual real and proven pedophilic conspiracies that go on, stuff like Burning Sun and Nth Room.

I just saw that dreamcatcher is going to have a tour stop in Australia! Will you be going? I went to see them when they came to the US, they were so awesome, their vocals were insane

I tried to see them last time they came down, and the venue burned down! Whether I go again depends 100% on my financial situation, as I’m sure they won’t be coming to my city so I’d have to book not only the ticket but flights and a hotel room. Last time the ticket was refunded but the other stuff wasn’t so I lost quite a bit of money, this time I can’t afford to take chances because I am weighing up every cent these days.

A lot of songs are boring because they’re plodding. Would they be improved just by increasing their speed? Or, do songs have to be written for a certain tempo?

Sometimes, sometimes not. A music educator told me once that every song has three ideal tempos, and ideal slow, medium and fast tempo. However I think that was just his opinion as he didn’t have any research to back that up or anything that I was made aware of. Persionally I think some songs can improve with more speed and others can get worse. Extra speed specifically tends to hurt anything with a swing feel, for instance NewJeans “Supernatural” sounds like absolute ass at a higher tempo, try speeding it up on YouTube and have a listen.

Songs that I believe specifically would sound good at faster tempos, I tend to mention then in roundup when they appear.

Why do you think KPOP music from the trailers are so different from the actual music they put out? I’m still super pissed that the music playing on izna’s debut trailer is nowhere to be found in their snoozefest album.

Because these companies are cunts and they don’t give a fuck about you, or about music, only about selling their idols. Congratulations, you have learned the lesson the hard way.

I’m guessing someone already asked you this but just in case: what are aussies thinking of the ban on social media for the kiddos? As an american, I’m glad a country that’s not us is doing this just as an experiment to see what happens.

I think social media has not been great for a lot of gen z and gen alpha but 16 sounds old, maybe 13 would be better. Also feels big brother to me and idk how this will be reinforced. I expect if it’s successful (however success is defined) other countries may follow suit and we would have less depressed youth?

The big problem that I have with it is that if you’re going to age check everyone who is 16 or younger, then you obviously have to age check everyone who is older too, otherwise what’s the point, how are they going to know you’re not under 16 otherwise. So really, this new legislation is a mandatory age verification for ALL Australians. The age check is either going to be invasively annoying, OR so lenient that anybody can circumvent it, or maybe both, but certainly not neither.

The other main issue I have with it is that the entire country is in a massive housing crisis and the government doesn’t seem to have any political will whatsoever to fix that, yet they’ll ram through badly-thought-out bullshit like this, which is now going to take up so much media space for the next year while they figure out how the hell they’re going to implement this crap. In the meantime, now’s a good time for Australians to change their account location on social media to another country and start using geo-relocating VPNs.

Against Me! posted this recently

I’m surprised, like other commenters in the thread, that a successful band with a large following would have these money troubles. Based on your experience, is this something due to choices Against Me made with mgmt/venues/touring or is this a fact of the music industry?

And what do you think is a reasonable ticket price for a show to cover costs and give artists some income?

Hard to be sure how much they could economise their touring expenses without looking at their balance sheets, but just going off this information the management is the actual problem here. All management companies do is fucking send emails and make phone calls, you can learn to do that shit yourself easily enough. Dumping their shit touring management would save them a ton right off the bat – hopefully they’re not contracted and can actually do that. All the money that management is taking sounds like it’s coming right off their revenue so they should be either renegotiating the deal or just getting rid of them. This is no doubt Laura’s point – she’d be making okay-ish money if it wasn’t for her management. But yes touring is difficult financially for a lot of groups, it takes a lot of successful shows plus a lot of economising to get in the black with that stuff.

Hi oppar!

I wanted to show this MV  to you and your audience, not only because this artist used to help me bust my nut like crazy in his golden days, but also because :

1. He was a K-Pop
2. MV eligible for nugu alert
3. His caring soul still pays a lot of extras in a single flopped MV
4. Song has an cool bridge in 2:14
5. Cumming by proxy by popping champagne in 2:50
6. Defies copyright rights by using Comedy Central’s logo as his own in the end credits
7. Repetitive enough to secure a place on Kpopalypse worst list
8. Still has nice abs

I also have a question:

I considered him extremely hot when he was in Cross Gene ages ago, since he was VERY ripped. I would do anything to suck his cock like it was a cherry lollipop. I would create fantasies in my mind about how he would slowly seduce me to surrender all my orifices to his unsatiable pole. Nowadays, even with his photos and videos of those past days, I don’t feel near the same feelings as before. Is this what people means when they say getting older gets you less hornier?

It could be. I definitely found that I’ve gotten less horny as I’ve aged, it’s definitely a good thing. I didn’t actually enjoy being sexually frustrated all the time when I was younger, being able to be more chill about that stuff is actually great. The sex drive is definitely still there but it doesn’t dominate my every waking thought like it used to, I can actually go stretches of up to ten minutes at a time without thinking about boobs now.

Does smoking affect a singer/rapper’s voice? Like does it make it really really worse? Referring to the change in GD’s voice here

Any smoking, or vaping, isn’t good. Your lungs are designed to have air in them, and that’s it – anything else in there besides air is bad news. Having said that, smoking affects different people differently. You probably know people who have experienced lung cancer, but we also all know that one person who has been smoking since they were 13 and lived until they were 90 and are either still kicking, or died of something unrelated to smoking. It’s the same with the voice – some people can chain smoke every day and their voice holds up fine, lucky them, other people can really go downhill fast after smoking for a short amount of time. The most common issue is “smoker’s polyps” where the vocal chords become inflamed.

Bigbang is currently performing at the MAMA awards.. Am I wrong for sitting here in disgust at having to endure this messy group again in 2024? I thought we moved on, but everyone seems to love it

People like nostalgia. BigBang had some okay songs back in the day, if people want to enjoy it… I think that’s fine? I didn’t really care about it so I didn’t watch it. Never underestimate the value of ignoring something that you’re just not into, rather than letting its existence annoy you.

Do you think you or your readers are financially comfortable, maybe even trending towards the wealthy side? I know it’s a weird thing to ask, but I’m having financial difficulties and seeing classmates doing well is making me feel miserable about my own situation. I graduated summa cum laude of my cohort, but it hasn’t translated to job opportunities. I know it’s partly due to my neurodivergence, but I keep failing interviews. It just keeps getting worse, too, as I spend my time doing work unrelated to my degree since I can’t get any, so I don’t know how to respond about my lack of experience.

I guess it’s all relative. On some level we’re all rich – just the fact that you’re reading this on a computer or a mobile device means that you have access to those things, which automatically makes you richer than billions of people. On the other hand if you look closer to home you might be poorer. I have no income right now aside from a small trickle of book sales, and I own the cheapest car on my block, my neighbours have a fucking mansion with a tennis court in their backyard and floodlights (the are incredible dickheads, too)… but then hey at least I have a car. Good luck with the job hunt, I feel your pain right at this moment.

Oohyo is my top artist this year and with a binge to your blog I found out you had favorable reviews to her songs too. Do you mind recommending similar artists (dreamy-sad-vibes but not boring, good in electronics(?) too (sometimes reminded me of early Banks, what do you think?), just almost perfect discography) to her, K-pop or not? Also can you tell me what make her music works compared to other K-indie acts (why is Jannabi and The Black Skirts (Cigarettes After Sex Lite) so annoying to me?)? Thank you!

Nothing is really quite like Oohyo. However, Oohyo sounds to me like the musical chance-taking and laid-back feel of Pink Floyd combined with the pop sensibilities, vocal style and modern instrumentation of Aseul, so that’d be my starting point for checking out stuff with similar vibes on some level. I think the reason why you don’t like Jannabi or The Black Skirts is the pop songwriting aspect – those groups sound dreary to me, poorer melodic choice and just a little too laid-back to be interesting, it’s more in the area of coffee shop background music.

Today some guys in my batch told me that they’re scared of me (I’m a girl), which honestly surprised me cos there are a bunch of people who think I’m naive and have tried to take advantage of me in various ways – getting me to do their share of the work, trying to humble me or point out my flaws totally unwarranted and so on. Then I recalled, another guy (who has a pattern of making jokes at my expense and pointing out my humiliations a bit too much for my comfort) once said that when he and his pals talk to me, they always expect a pushback. Funny think is, they used to roast me so I learned to roast them back as a thing between friends (till I realised they’re fake friends) and developed this habit of roasting people as an ice – breaker cos I thought that’s the culture here (so many people roast me that’s why) and that they wouldn’t mind.

Also, this ‘pushback’ guy – his behaviour always came across as subtly demeaning and disrespectful to me, but I used to shut up out of fear of overreacting and seeming over – sensitive. He started calling me ‘bestie’ in front of others, added me to a ‘best friends’ chat even though we are in no way best friends or even acquaintances who hang out and have pleasant chats. I told him many times (albeit gently) that I don’t consider him a friend, that it makes me uncomfortable when he calls me one despite there being no bond between us, and that his disrespectful jokes sometimes irritate me. But one day I had enough, I was a bit snappy towards him in a sports group chat – he responded to my messages in a way that looked like he was making light of me, he called me ‘bestie’ like he’s done plenty of times earlier(imo insincerely) and I called him out publicly in the chat. I fear that maybe I misjudged him and cemented my scary rude bitch impression further. But I never could shake off the nagging intuition that he’s disrespectful towards me. I think I come across as scary cos I’m unpredictable – I bottle up my grudges initially out of politeness and fear, then react angrily when I can’t anymore, and often that reaction is mismatched with the situation and people think it’s a bolt from the blue.

Idk, I’m scared of being labelled a rude angry PMS bitch or something. What’s funny is that on one hand I have this image, on the other hand there are people who see me as innocent, placid and an easy target. Perhaps one reason I don’t get dates here is because I have this inconsistent persona and scare off guys with my bluntness. Online lots of people say that guys will never date a dominant, blunt woman – which makes me fear ending up single. Is it my personality or the guys around me that suck ? I try my best to help people and be warm and kind, but I also naturally am straightforward af, socially sort of oblivious, can’t fake amusement or warmth or compliments out of politeness like so many do, and prone to roasting even new acquaintances to show that I’m comfortable with them.

My immediate thought when reading this was “gosh this girl’s personality doesn’t sound all that different to my girlfriend”. I think the guys around you are douches and pushing back at them/making them know their place is exactly what you should be doing, so don’t second-guess yourself, keep roasting those idiots for laughs, and in the meantime try to expand your social circle a bit so you can find some other peer groups who are less dickish.

every generation has a representative group, which one do you think is a good representation for this era?

I think that’s all very subjective and not necessarily true, but if I had to pick one it would be SPEED.

hi!! do you think the tick tack eng ver ft ava max is ai (specifically the ones where they just masked the original singer w their own voices) ?? because i think it is. i know jack shit abt sound engineering let me act like im more knowledgable than not–but ive spent my life listening to people singing, things w autotunes and not. and this song is certainly not just a simple editing on their voices right? my afternoon today was just comparing how theyre singing usually, to this song and other ai covers. like idk how ai cover works, but ive came across this selena gomez cover of celine dion and there were some comments abt how it sounds weird because selena have never held a note that high hence an incomplete data = weird results. idk how ava max is live but ive heard songs and even her sounds kinda off. next q is that how profitable is australia for musicians? do local bands that tour accross the country gain as much as the ones in the us? does the music chart there matter? also is australian celeb news cover as much as british acts as i thought? and this isnt a question but chappel roan acknowledged that she didnt make good luck babe an mv bcs it was already a hit, one more prove of how long youve been acquainted w how these artist work smh

Who knows, but you don’t need AI to fake vocals. Audio tech has been perfectly capable of faking vocals completely convincingly for the last decade, and that includes faking vocal ranges. Look at all the k-pop fans who are fooled, but it’s not just them, it’s in other genres too. I think the US remix is a big improvement on the original, the melody writing, chord writing and (generic but much more functional) instrumentation are much improved, it doesn’t have all this confused mess of sound and random melodies everywhere, it’s rewritten and stripped right back. They’ve kept the good elements that make the song work and turfed out a whole lot of junk. The new lyrics are even oddly poignant if you pretend that they’re singing about some abuse somewhere inside their own record company… I hope they do a video for it because it has a realistic chance of favourites list inclusion.

Australia is a very difficult place to tour. Long distances between major urban centres, plus low population in general, means that it’s hard to make money. California has a higher population than the whole of Australia, so does Texas. A band in Australia could make more money just touring Texas alone and no other US states, because it’d be more people to play to and shorter distances to travel.

I don’t care about music charts, I couldn’t even tell you what was a #1 hit over here at any time in the past 20 years. Whether other people care about them, I couldn’t tell you.

British acts have always been covered heavily in Australia, often more so than our own local acts. Radio here tends to play a lot of overseas music and tend to favour that over the local stuff, it’s a pretty even split between USA/Canada artists and British Isles artists. The radio station where I used to work had a quota where they made DJs play a certain amount of Australian content, because the other radio stations often weren’t playing any at all except for a tiny handful of legacy artists, new Australian acts mostly couldn’t get on radio here. It might have changed a bit these days (I avoid listening to radio), but probably not all that much.

okay this is still the bit delusional reader that sent the illit ai question earlier and ive listened to ive supernova love in the meantime. aside from being in the same category of ultra processed disco ish released in english but they already know they were going to fail anyways slop, i think ive really sang theirs bcs how they pronounce the words match with their previous english releases? meanwhile w illit, it really sounded like they just overlaid the machine learned voice of the members to a no name ghost singer. the members’ singings sound as safe as possible, like the kinda way you do with your mouth half opened. they dont sound like that w their english lyrics in magnetic, in that song at least i get the impression of each lines taking some takes before assembled together w a vocal couch present. being processed later is a given for every recorded songs nowadays but its still different w tick tack eng ver!! im going crazy. how the song sound as a whole also feels so robotic and too smooth?? and is a really weird change of direction compared to the original song btw. if this was true feels like its easily top 3 violations their agency have done to them. i knew musicians using this feature will happen sooner or later, but the illit girls just dont need anymore shit on their plate. dont even get me started on the lyrics, somebody safe those girls asap:(

Basically what they did with the Illit song was they ripped out the original verse melodies (which were absolute fucking crap by the way), threw some new ones in there that are significantly better, and got the girls to sing it with the pitch-correction turned up to 11. Then they just gave the whole thing “generic 202x disco 101” treatment, while keeping the original harmony (more or less). It’s probably not AI involved, because as I said, you don’t actually need AI to do any of this, in fact the tools are so ubiquitous at this point that using AI to make a machine-learned version of the Illit girls would have actually made the process longer, defeating the purpose.

Do you have tips for disconnecting from life sometimes and just relaxing? I have a tiring (but interesting) job and i also balance a lot of community organizing and volunteering across 3 different orgs. I find it all enjoyable, but it slowly feels like it chips away at me and makes me tired. I start to feel anxious like it all is moving to fast and I don’t have time for “myself”. When i have days off from work, i don’t really use them well enough to rest up. I always feel like I have to “go go go”. Some days I just want to calm my head. Things I’ve tried:

1. Substances, I’m sober now and think they’re overrated
2. Hanging out with friends. This is both recharging and exhausting. I enjoy it a lot but it doesn’t feel like I’m disconnecting
3. Traveling. In the moment it’s good, but then i come back to my routine quickly and it’s like i never left.
4. Staying indoors. Not a fan of just being indoors in my head honestly.
Or maybe i’m approaching the above things wrong…

Anyway, wondering what works for you.

Maybe try quitting some things. I think you’re just doing too much, perhaps find the least favourite/most time consuming thing you do as a volunteer and lose that. I tmight be tricky but it seems to me like you need to take a bit of time to smell the roses somewhere, or it’ll lead to bad things down the line.

The other day I was showing my boyfriend some Korean celebrities to illustrate a recent trend going around (cat-face vs. puppy face) and ask him which I looked more like. This ultimately ended with him unprompted going “you’re hotter than all of them though.” After some reflection, I’ve realized that this is his reaction when virtually any famous woman comes up. So according to him I am hotter than:
-Yeji (Itzy)
-Han So-Hee (actress)
-Jung Ho-yeon (Squid Game actress/model)
-IU
-Jennie
-Han Ye-seul (Teddy’s ex)
-Seulgi (Red Velvet – but he admits that she’s the prettiest to him of the list)

Admittedly most Korean celebrities might just not be his type bc he prefers thiccness and finds the standards in Korea kind of painful to look at/boner-killing. If I lost more than 10 lbs or so he’d probably be pretty disappointed. However, Western actresses can often MRS of thiccness and he thinks I’m more attractive than the Western actresses he likes (young Salma Hayek, young Kim Kardashian, & most of all, Jenna Coleman.)

Now I feel like I’m rational enough that I acknowledge that pretty much every celebrity I’ve mentioned so far is extraordinarily beautiful, objectively. And I don’t think I’m celebrity- or model-level hot because if I was I think I would have noticed by now. So what gives, such that he’s able to automatically go “you’re much more attractive” than even his favorite celebrities and seem to mean it? It reminds me a bit of when you make MRS lists and it’s always like your girlfriend >>>>>> everyone else, so maybe you’ll have insight. Is he legitimately in a headspace where he thinks I’m the most attractive woman in the universe? Does he acknowledge on some level that objectively I’m not to most people but personally feel that’s “incorrect”? Is he just being hyperbolic to make me feel better? Am I secretly super hot and not realizing it?

Yes I have insight, because I feel exactly like this about my girlfriend and we even have similar conversations. I know this probably sounds crazy to you, but yes this is actually what he thinks. Of course that’s just to him, your attractiveness in the eyes of others may vary, so no you’re probably not an incredible supermodel who appeals to all people and just hasn’t realised their calling (not impossible though… but I make no guarantees). However to him, yes you are ‘the one’, like Neo but in attractive female form and instead of hacking the matrix you are hacking his heart. This is also why he wouldn’t want you to change, whether you lose weight OR gain it, both are a change from how you are now, and to him you are perfect how you are now, so any change to him is like – if it’s not broken, why fix it? It feels like when your favourite social network changes its layout for no reason – sure, you’ll get used to it eventually, but why change it at all? When you talk about “oh I wish I was more of x or less of y” he thinks that this is just crazy talk and you need to just stop that line of thinking and not worry about it. This is also why he’s relentlessly horny all the time, being in the same room as the most attractive person in the universe is difficult, he has to constantly be polite and not just try to jump your bones every single second, it’s a constant struggle. He’s not trying to be disrespectful, he just finds it difficult. But he’s not saying that you’re the most attractive person just because he wants to have sex with you a lot (although he definitely does), he does really mean what he says. This is how guys feel when they really actually are into you with their whole body and soul. The best thing you can do (assuming the feeling is mutual) is calmly accept it.

This is my second question, you’ll probably be able to tell because they’re consecutive and I’ll have the same writing style.

I’ve been getting back into singing lately for reasons bc I’m in a music phase and for my mental health. I feel like objectively I’m a good singer, but I’m not good *enough* that I’m able to consistently listen to myself without cringing. I’m not sure if the gap here is because of:
1) technical flaws
2) stylistic boringness
3) lack of good audio engineering skills to make myself sound good when recording

I do suspect #3 is at least part of it because I don’t cringe while listening to myself sing while walking around, back when I used to do choir/musicals, etc. But I still want to work on #1 & #2 so that I can feel more versatile and confident as a singer. Any advice on the best way to go about this? I feel like when I’m recording a song I’ll feel the urge to do *something* musically exciting like play with tempo, runs, etc. but I’m not *quite* technically skilled enough to pull off everything I want to do with utmost precision, so when I listen back and hear little rough patches it makes my chest tighten up (even if the average person wouldn’t know.) I also feel like my voice is kind of lacking in a very unique/specific color or delivery—I don’t tend to sound inherently emotional while singing so I seem to want to cover with these technical choices. This undoubtedly is what most people who listen to me seem to prefer (“ooh, cool runs/high notes/harmonies!”) even though you and some other kpop people refer to it as vocalfagging. So I guess my question is how I balance technically/stylistically interesting delivery without going too far into “being annoying” by vocalfagging, taking on an over-the-top indie voice, etc.

Currently when I’m “working hard on singing” I just practice basic scales/exercises and breathing at the beginning, start with low chesty stuff and move to mix/heady stuff toward the end of the day (if I start with high notes my lower range is basically out of reach.) I feel like my versatility does improve but very very slowly. For example, I love the vocal performance in “Glory to the World” by Lovebites, but something sounds slightly off when I try to sing most rock/metal, I guess because my voice isn’t “rough” enough. I sound better when I try to sing rock music with cleaner delivery like by Ghost. But I do feel like I’m hitting a block in these issues and was wondering if you have advice. I really want to feel like I’m able to *nail* whatever I want to sing regardless of the genre The only time I improved rapidly enough for my tastes was the 3-4 years or so I spent obsessed with opera and learning to sing arias better. Ever since, my voice has felt slightly less suitable for pop/rock music.

The thing to remember about all of this stuff, is that it’s really just down to the song itself, and what does that song suit.

This video covers drums but it’s a similar concept. Play the song, not the instrument (in your case, your instrument being your voice).

As far as how your voice actually sounds tonally (as opposed to how you’re using it) I wouldn’t worry about it, everyone has their own sound. A Fender Stratocaster sounds different to an Ibanez but you can play metal on both, you can also play country music on both, they just sound a little different and that difference is really just personal preference and what you like to hear. Also other people’s perceptions may differ, you might think something sounds odd but to another person it might not even register as different at all.

What are your favorite SHINee songs?

I don’t think they ever topped “Lucifer”.

On a tangenitally related note, my girlfriend was watching the TV show “Lucifer” a while back and the actual SHINee song was used in it at some point. I overheard it and was like “why the hell are you listening to k-pop don’t you hate this shit” and she was like “yeah I do, it sucks that this song is in this TV series, fuck you and this k-pop shit” hahaha.

I’m a twice Stan and it really seems like they’re the only chill space on the internet rn. Everywhere I look is just drama and discourse. From Reddit to Twitter to TikTok. Even the ppl I talk to a lot seem to be all about celeb drama. I don’t even interact directly and I still get it. I’ll interact with ONE post from an SM group and it’s all about RIIZE SM Seunghan. One post about a random HYBE group and now it’s all New Jeans and MHJ. ONE YG group and it’s cultural appropriation discourse and bullying young girls. Even outside petty drama, the constant homophobia, racism and BLATANT misogyny is too much. The worst part is that it’s not just in Kpop even my other interests have some figure that’s fucking up and everyone’s talking about it. Can it all be over PLEASE so I can get some peace. I didn’t even know ppl could argue so much.

I’m a relatively new kpop stan as I’ve been interested in it for about 1-2 years. I’m sure you’re someone who’s definitely seen their fair share of kpop controversies, any general tips on how to deal with all this?

Best way is to just switch off all the drama and just listen to the music. Even TWICE had plenty of drama in their space in the day, but since they’re approaching veteran status these days I guess the craziness has moved on from them a little. Online discourse in general is really toxic and you’ll improve the quality of your life drastically as soon as you stop paying attention to it. Also not everyone can easily separate the music out from the drama (although I do try to help people with that). The things that you loved about the music that got you into it in the first place are still there so try to refocus on those if you’re struggling.

I’ve never really been interested in celebrity discourse cuz i’ve always been like “Woah you guys have enough money/time to worry about that?” Towards both the people involved and the people who are invested in it. Cuz both in and out of kpop, to me is a bunch of rich people suing or fighting eo.

Q: But looking from outside, why does it always seem like the random ppl on the internet always seem to care about it more than the people going through it? Why do people care so much?

“They’re ruining their careers” “He’s so stupid” okay… Were they paying your bills?? Why does it bother you so much? Like there’s nothing wrong with being interested ofc I’m interested in my fair share of discourse as well but why it look like mfs on the internet stressin more than the actual ppl involved? Like genuinely crying or getting angry over it. Or talking about it EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not only that but actively trying to rile people up to do something about it. Meanwhile the actual people involved either wanna settle it, get more money or maybe wanna be messy for attention, but they never seem to match the level of stress the internet has towards THEIR matter.

and (kind of related):

The most annoying thing that has happened to kpop is the word “boycott”. And it’s so sad because it was made popular with something as serious as Palestine so the mention of the word automatically makes people feel like they’re obligated to do it.

There’s currently (as of Nov 28) a “boycott badvillain” cuz one of the members wore a shirt of a mosque in a now deleted tiktok a few days ago. *Instead of asking them to just acknowledge it and apologize like we all used to do*, they all rally around to “boycott”. Every comment under their TikToks are just some copypasta telling ppl to boycott. And then they harass their fans because “you’re supposed to be boycotting!”

Every time they use the word, esp with dumbass shit like not giving members enough screentime, (which like u said might even be their choice), the word and its impact just has less and less meaning. They seriously tried to do a BIG 4 Boycott. Cuz corporations are big and bad or whatever. I can’t think of a single company ppl haven’t tried to boycott. And I know it’s a loud minority… which is obvious cuz these boycotts aren’t doing jack shit except rally online hate in small communities, but it’s still irritating.

And the worst part is that it all begins on twitter. I didn’t even know twitter was that big of a platform but shit spreads too quickly. It’s literally the #1 app for the spread of disinformation and misinformation (cough cough fifty fifty boycott) I need that app GONEEEE. All you need to do is make a thread with random ass screenshots and all of a sudden your word is law and now people need to harass random idols and sabotage their careers. And the worst part about it is that it only spreads so quickly because ppl dont know how to do any sort of research for themselves. They think a long twitter thread and constant posts = someone already researched for me so they MUST be right. It’s sad and scary.

Long rant but I’m not sure if you’ve explicitly talked about boycotts in kpop outside of loona so I’m curious. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Well, I have my own boycotts. I’m not against boycotting things, but I am against boycotting things for stupid reasons. I also agree that boycotts and all this huge ‘care factor’ are all very performative, which is why they don’t work. I think it’s just people just wanting to be seen as good. “I care about these things, therefore that makes me a good person”. The moment that taking any action removes some kind of convenience for them the ‘activism’ generally stops there. In the rare cases where fans actually do give a fuck beyond looking cool online, the boycotts tend to work (see: Loona) – fan power is real.

In Badvillain’s case, people are just spreading the boycott thing around because they want to be seen as devout Muslims probably. However these people spreading this are ignorant as shit. Leaving aside the fact that all organised religion is nonsense anyway, the Koran has no dress code whatsoever for men or women beyond covering private parts. So they can all shut the fuck up. If you don’t want to wear something don’t wear it, and you’re also allowed to have an opinion on other people’s clothes and express it, but don’t actually directly tell others what they can and can’t wear and harass them and organise boycotts around it, that’s crossing a line and if your fictional god was actually real he’d definitely send you to hell for it.

oppar how do i get over my feelings for the singer of a mediocre emo band who’s music i don’t even like? we met up once and it was the weirdest hookup experience ive ever had. to make a long fucking story short, there were too many poppers, i had to take the gasmask off, they came from just watching me struggle to breathe, i didn’t even get close but my foot sure did touch the cumstain on the bed. it was honestly upsetting but so different that i’ve been dying for something like it again, plus they have connections to an old friend i’m on bad terms with who i miss dearly. i don’t know how but amidst all this ive become totally infatuated & it’s been months. am i just bored?

Probably just bored. There are BDSM swingers clubs where you can organise stuff like that and do it safely and on your own terms, I’d suggest going in that direction if that’s something that you’re into or making some enquiries. It’ll at the very least given you some indication about if it’s really for you or not, and possibly why/why not.

So I was thinking about what that right-wing guy said in the survey. About symbolism, image, and the sort of people it attracts.

I give off a very cute / innocent vibe. I don’t think there’s much I can really do to change the first impression — I just look very cute, and am unlucky enough to be very short. My eyebrow lady told me bluntly I looked around 15 when we first met (I’m 23.)

I’ve read on the internet if you are a cute looking woman and want to be seen as more mature, you have to change your look. I mean… I guess? I could wear heels and heavy makeup 24/7 but that’s really not me. I don’t really dress or present myself in an overly juvenile way either. I have a pretty blunt, uncutesy personality and am very openly bi so usually these guys move on quickly, but it is still exasperating to deal with.

I plan to get a couple nose piercings that’ll maybe discourage this, but is there anything else I can do or maybe something attitude wise to attract more…like progressive or hell, just non-incel men?

What type of person someone is attracted to and their political inclinations, I’ve never noticed much of a correlation there. Yes there is a stereotype about tradwives or whatever but I’ve met enough neo-Nazi punks with equally punk-looking girlfriends to know that tradwives are just a fantasy for internet consumption only that doesn’t play out in reality, even among the reality of ultra-conservative types. I think the reality is that in practice, nobody can afford a tradwife in this economy.

I think a way to attract different men might be rather than to change your image, just try to be seen in places where different men are. I don’t know what that means for you or what the opportunities are. Left-wing punk band shows? Bernie Sanders rallies? Fuck, I dunno. But just think of the kinds of places where right-wing guys don’t tend to find very appealing.

Hiii I hope you’re doing well! I have a few questions for you.

1) What do you think of this song?

2) How is your cat doing + can we see a picture?

3) I am about to celebrate my cat’s first birthday and I was curious about how you celebrate your cat’s birthday (if you do)?

4) I have never experienced death before but I know my dog is going to die soon. She’s old and has survived in this weaker state for a long time now but my family can tell it’s getting harder for her to do basically anything. My final question is how can I prepare myself for this? I am always scared that my loved ones will suddenly die at any moment and the fact that there’s a higher chance for my dog makes me feel unsettled. I understand that death is a part of life but I am so unfamiliar with it.

1. Awful
2. She’s good! See below.
3. I don’t even know when my cat’s birthday is, as I’m unsure exactly how old she was when I got her from the animal shelter.
4. I wish I could have gotten familiar with death through a pet dying rather than my family members and friends in the music world. I had no idea how to deal with it either. It’s certainly difficult but you have to put it into perspective and try to remember the good times. There’s no easy way to go through it, it’ll always hurt for a while. Having people to talk to about it really helps so I think the number one thing is don’t withdraw. The people close to you will be there for you.

I’ve always been intrigued with becoming a session musician but I play accordion, which I assume is less sought out for (also at a beginner-intermediate level, but time and practice will hopefully do the job). Have you done session work before? What is it like? Do you have any advice for someone wanting to go into session work?

I’ve done session work recently and it’s actually some of the only work I’ve got lined up at the moment. The number one thing I’ll say about session work is that it’s very cliquey, it’s all about who you know, and getting referrals. Because I’m so introverted and tend to neglect networking because I find it mentally painful, I don’t get all that much of this type of work even though I have the chops for it. However it does still come in small amounts from time to time because word does spread if you’re good at what you do, even if your networking skills are ass, people will say your name and go into bat for you. The other thing I’d advise is that if you do want to go down this path good music-reading skills are an absolute must-have. Not so important for your own band, but for session work, it’s essential. Learn how to sight-read, and how to read different types of chord charts and notation. You need to be able to pick up new material fast. I get assignments like “here’s 15 songs, learn them, you’ve got two days” or “here’s a song you’ve never heard before, play it, right now”. Prepare yourself to be thrown into those kinds of situations.

How much call there is for an accordion sesion musician – I’m not sure. On the minus side, I’d imagine work opportunities would be few and far between, I can’t see an accordion being commonly sought-after. On the plus side, you’ve got an opportunity to score yourself a good niche as “that accordion person” that someone in your area rings up when they need an accordion player, as I’m sure finding an according player when you really need one isn’t exactly an easy thing to do either. Do some accordion playing for a few different bands and you might be able to build up a reputation… anyway good luck!

What do you think about guys like westside gunn, benny the butcher, freddie gibbs and their overall style?

Rap for me is 99% about the quality of the beats, and all three of these artists have a pretty similar rap style, so the beat quality is what separates them for me. If I had to rate them, based on the few songs I’ve heard: Benny > Freddie > Westside. None of them are awful but none of them I would actively listen to either. Westside Gunn raps over a lot of stuff which is 90% vocal ambience, I find rappers doing their thing over that sort of “vibe” kind of track really boring, I want to hear some drums. The other two are better but it’s still really hit and miss beat selection, evne the best stuff doesn’t really make me want to rush out and get an album, it’s just too mellow. I got into rap music when it was hard noises and hard-hitting beats, precisely because it was harsh, it was like a counterpart to metal. The lyrics have kept the harshness from back then but the music hasn’t kept up, it’s gone relatively soft. All these guys waving their guns around in the video while rapping over slowed-down loops of their grandmother’s gospel records is just funny to me. Knock off the valium and actually sell me that gangster image, damn.

MELTDOWN OVER TRUMP WINNING THE US ELECTION QUESTIONS

Goddammit fucking hell what in the motherfucking hell what the fuck is this shit for fuck’s sake fuckity fuck fuck fuck GODDAMMIT

Signed,

a US citizen

Well, it looks like the American Democrats don’t know how to rig an election after all! Gosh, who would’ve thought that Trump was capable of manipulating his followers into believing something that he just made up out of thin air for his own political convenience? Gee, what a surprise.

What the fuck are we even supposed to do with the insanity of Project 2025? I’m still in such shock that I haven’t been able to process what’s happened. It’s just been so much, and I know I don’t have time to waste. I should be preparing to leave if necessary for my own safety, but it’s just so hard. I’d have to give up so much, I finally have a stable job with good coworkers and a decent boss, and I like where I live. But, I feel like I’m living in denial of reality by hoping that this can continue.

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If there’s one thing that Trump has definitely proven it’s that he marches only to the beat of his own drum (however broken it is). He’s already made statements to the effect that he doesn’t really care about what Project 2025 have to say, he agrees with some of their platform but also disagrees with a lot of it, and will be doing his own thing thank you very much.

(On a related note, expect the love affair between Trump and Musk to end bitterly. Two people with that same type of narcissism and lust for power are going to clash hard, they’ll step on each other’s toes real quick once they start working together more, as soon as either of them doesn’t see eye to eye it’ll be dummy-spit time.)

LET’S FIX A RESUME BECAUSE A CAONIMA ASKED NICELY

Hello Kpopalypse,

How are you? Hope that you’re doing good.

 

I’m emailing you to ask if you could review my resume? I’m an international student currently in Australia, and I wanted to apply for a summer job here, and so far all I’ve got are rejections. I’ve attached my resume in this email. Should I write a cover letter as well to increase my chances of getting a job?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

This person emailed me privately, but gave me permission to post their resume, plus my reply, here in QRIMOLE so we could all learn from it. So here we go. I’ve changed a few small details on the resume to protect the guilty.

 

I changed a fair bit of stuff. Here’s what I ended up with after I finished messing around:

Summary of the changes:

• I reformatted your resume using a template from this Microsoft resume template page as I felt that your format didn’t meet required standards, it wasn’t awful but it was very old school, it actually looked similar to what my mother used back when she was hunting for jobs. Since you have Microsoft Word as a skill on your resume, you should make sure that your resume reflects a modern format that demonstrates that you can use that program.
• I changed your opening statement to include “I am” so it flows a bit nicer gramatically. I also added some stuff on the end. Remember in your opening statement, it’s not just about what you want, I mean of course you want a job, it’s also about what you can do for them. What should they hire you – what’s in it for them? That’s what they want to know. Ask not what your country can do for you blah blah, you get the picture.
• Your volunteer work is also ‘experience’ so I just threw it all under experience. Normally I’d advise against this, but it’s appropriate given that you’re only after a summer job. Note most recent work experience always goes at the top in a resume list. Also changed the descriptors a bit so they sound more impressive. We’re not lying but there are different ways to say the same thing that sell it a bit better and sound more impressive.
• In skills I’ve separated people skills from technical skills, and removed a few that sounded a bit wishy-washy or just not that impressive. It’s a bit subjective but I consider language a technical skill, although personally I’d remove the bit about being bilingual altogether if you were applying for a position where there’s zero chance of that being relevant.
• Academic stuff moved to the bottom. If it’s just a summer job they don’t really give a fuck what you’re studying, most likely, your existing work experience is actually more relevant, because it’ll probably more closely resemble the type of jobs you might be likely to pick up in a casual position. Move your study stuff back to the top when you finish Uni for good and start hunting for that graduate job, then it’ll be more directly relevant.

I’ve emailed you back the final thing. Good luck!

And yes a covering letter can’t hurt. Keep it brief. It’s really just a slightly expanded version of your profile statement, with the usual letter formalities added.

This took forever by the way and I don’t want a flood of people asking me to do this, plus I’m poor, so if anyone else desperately wants this service done, I’m gonna ask for some sort of payment… but if you read the above and follow the advice, you shouldn’t need me to directly intervene anyway.

BOOK/GAME QUESTIONS (SPOILERS MARKED)

hi head caonima in charge! i’ve worked on a novel for four years, and i always dreamed of being a writer. (i’m 27 if that helps) i’ve queried a couple of times to traditional agents, but got rejections or plain no answers. however in an age in which publishing houses will strike deals with OpenAI and the novel of my plot being “young woman tries to find her missing mom who was this whole time a mermaid”, which may not make me a lot of money, i’m feeling a bit lost. the publishing industry sucks ass but it still comes with prestige. i also feel like self-publishing is still frowned upon. do you have any advice and experience? thanks and have a good day!

I self-published my own books. This post will tell you how to do it. There’s also a bit at the very bottom of the post that talks a little bit about the economics of self-publishing vs getting a book deal. Quick pros and cons of each approach:

Self-publishing:

+ complete creative control over all content
+ set your own prices
+ release when and how you want, design your own marketing strategy
+ decent royalty rate, chance of making good money if it sells well
+ selling online is easy, but
– good luck making a book store give a shit
– you gotta organise everything yourself, art, editing, typesetting etc etc
– nobody will promote your book but you
– everyone sells online so nobody will give a fuck about you in general
– lots of scams exist, be careful

Book deal:

+ you can say “I’m a published author”, good icebreaker at parties
+ book company does all the promotional legwork
+ the publishing company can get your book into book stores very easily
+ editing and other PITA technical stuff is handled for you
– but you still need luck to succeed
– and the royalty rate sucks ass, you have to sell a LOT of books to make money
– it can take years between signing a contract and getting the book out there
– company has creative control over your book, they can force you to change things
– your manuscript legally might belong to the company, read the contract carefully
– lots of scams exist, be careful

I personally didn’t even consider getting a book deal for a second. The knowledge that someone else could have even a tiny amount of creative control over my writing is a complete deal-breaker for me, it makes the entire endeavour not worth it in the least. However the reasons I write may not be the reasons that you write, so there’s no one true answer to this question, just pick the path that works for you.

Have you looked into Scrivener for your books? It was developed for novel writers who need to keep track of lots of characters/plot points/minute details—might be worth a look!

I did look into this but apparently it’s something I have to “license”, so fuck that. I like owning software, not licensing it, and I already have enough expenses as an author, I don’t make enough money to the point where I’d splash out on something like this and it seems a little needless to be honest. The system I already have for tracking characters and events through novels (explained here) works well enough for me, I don’t really need the training wheels that Scrivener offers. Might be useful for some, though!

[The Love Complete spoilers]

What could Hana have delivered in that tiny box to eliminate her target but not the people around him? Cyanide pills (disguised as something else) like she’s a WWII agent?

Also the “daddy dearest” line intrigues me. Just a tongue-in-cheek line about her target, or [even more spoilers] a clue to the identity of Hana’s real father? Because if it turns out she’s a daughter of a gang lord, that will explain a lot.

Thanks for writing the books oppar, I loved them. As a gay woman I want a NariGym in my area now.

[very spoilers in this answer too so skip to the next question if you haven’t finished all four books, or you have but just would like to keep a little mystery…]

People have been asking this a lot so I’ll spill the beans: poisoned alcohol. Something an adult would happily consume, but that a ten-year old child would be very unlikely to even want to touch (unless they were mega delinquent, but that wasn’t the case here).

“Daddy Dearest”: the gift card text isn’t for Hana, it’s glued to the present. So it’s a message for the person who is receiving the present (Gisang, who is the one being referred to in the note as “Daddy Dearest”). It’s a very bitter and sarcastic message from Iseul, she’s basically telling her dad to rot in hell, although this isn’t immediately evident.

There are female-only gyms where I live but I’m pretty sure none of them are run by bodybuilders burned from the k-pop industry so I have no idea what they’re like. Maybe a niche for some enterprising individual?

Hey, glad you liked the JAV/k-pop crossover and book questions I sent last QRIMOLE !
I almost didn’t send them because writing anything always makes me super anxious so I kept pushing it back until almost the end of the month, as I did once again this month.

No new JAV crossover this month, I’ve been busy playing Wonho games lately. Speeking of which, your description of a book on Caitlin perspective with more smut definitly made me think of some RPG maker games with ntr/cuckolding I’ve played. Depending on how much of the rumors surrounding her are true, it would be pretty similar to President Yukino or Fleeting Iris. Not the direction I expected but I would still buy the book on the first day of release because I need more.

On a related note, considering your RPG maker experience both in both playing and creating and the fact you are already banned on itch.io anyway, did you ever consider creating your own Wonho game, kpop related or not ?

I’d definitely create a Wonho game and release it on Steam, the good ones seem to make money and technically making such a game probably wouldn’t be beyond me. However I’d need an absolutely shit-hot artist. They’d need high determination levels to consistently make art for the project, I’ve talked to so many artists who are hugely talented but have such an on-again-off-again struggle with their own drawing output, I can’t use someone like that, I need someone who is highly motivated and in it to win it and willing to make a LOT of art. They also need exceptionally smutty tendencies and willingness to draw the most extreme Wonho content but I guess that goes without saying… they wouldn’t need to come up with the creative ideas though, they just need to be able to draw from descriptions in an appealing visual novel style and take direction (because characters have to mrs, this is very important). The guy who makes my book covers would probably be perfect for it but I’m not sure if he’d like the charging model or the nature of the project, because of the quantity of art required I’d rather go 50/50 profit share from eventual sales, which means the project would carry risk for both of us as there’s of course a chance it won’t sell, but there’s also a chance that it blows up if we get it right. If you’re reading this and fit the criteria send me an email and a portfolio if this sounds like you.

I’ve thought about finding some way of creating the art myself, that gets around my lack of drawing ability. AI is of course an option but it’s not an option I like for reasons stated here. Maybe 3d modelling but then I don’t really like that kind of look in adult games, realistic comic style or even anime comic style is still better than something that looks like a Second Life nightmare. Perhaps I just need to get better at drawing but that would take a long-ass time and even me at peak drawing ability might not cut it… another option would be to go very retro-graphics to the point where it sets the bar for quality so low that even I could draw a convincing looking adult encounter… but how to make it meet required standards would then be the question. Something for me to think about. I think monochrome is a certainty, whether I do it myself or use an artist… so any aspiring artists keep this in mind…

On a related topic, JAV of the Month is EMSK-019 (although if you don’t like ASMR then SONE-438).

TAKE A MOMENT TO MENTALLY PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE BEST QUESTION

Master of Cunt, how are you?

Something has been troubling me.

In the past month I’ve been seeing this guy, that I find very attractive. His is muscular, has a nice face, a very seductive voice and a thick, big sized dick. I used to have some problems to go down on him because he seems to be that type of guy that acumullates smegma too fast on his dick. I talked about how that irks me and he promised to wash it more throughly/frequently. Happily, this problem was resolved.

Time has passed and we resolved to mess with my ass too. But, this is the first time that I don’t top in a relationship (I’m a dude BTW) and god, how it hurts! It feels like like he’s shoving a iron bar inside me! It doesn’t matter that he listens and stops when I say to, or that we use lots of lube, or that I clean my ass so much I never have to fear of shitting his dick. It simply doesn’t feel only nice. I mean, I can feel that there is a very nice sensation, but that is jammed with a lot of pain!

Sometimes I cry when I keep powering through it so he can have fun too, but he also says that my asshole can get too tight when I am “cumming”. Sadly, I don’t cum from having my ass fucked, but my muscles there start trying to contract rythmically like they are trying to fastly expulse the cock from there, like a sneeze. Usually, this event is big enough to eject the member outside the hole, but, remember when I said his dick is big and thick? Well, when this moment comes, he has to hold me by the belly (abs), or my hole hurts like I am giving birth to a coconut, lol.

When he holds me keeping his dick inside during the process, maintaining the heavy sensation of invasion inside my asshole, which for itself is pleasurable for me (I like when he holds me tight), it doesn’t work for long, though. As he keeps himself inside me the contractions gets progressively stronger, to a point I have a contraction so strong that gives me cramps on both my rectus and transverse abs! It hurts like hell and I’m simply not able to continue with the session.

Some of you might be wondering how is the sensation for him… he usually says it feels very nice when I start trembling inside, as it feels like my hole is trying to milk his cock. I probably shouldn’t but I feel elated when he tells me this lol. But he said once that, in one of the abs violent cramps episodes, my butt clenched so hard that he thought I was trying to chomp his dick lol. I highly doubt his statement, as such ability isn’t really possible with the human rectal anatomy, but well, he knows what he feels, right?

During all our sessions I only allow him to enter me when I feel prepared to receive him. He basically never forces himself in me, I always invite him when I think I’m ready for it. I also don’t see blood spots on his dick, not even in my most vigorous contractions, so I guess I’m not hurting myself with it yet. I don’t invite him to use my mouth or his ass instead, because I can’t possibly deepthroat him without hurting my jaw or his asshole, respectively (he has bad hemorrhoids).
I have already tried taking his dick slow-pace only, but obviously he gets limp because of lack of stimuli.

I like the way he plows me. I like the way he puts part of his weight on me. I like his smell (aside from the smegma), his eyes, his body… I like being with him very much. But this style of sex frustrates me! I don’t really feel like I am being capable of transforming the sensation of pain in pleasure. Maybe I am just too hasty and, with some time, things could get more manageable, but:

1. Oppar, maybe you know some way I can deal with this situation?
2. Will I simply never be able to have more than 10 min fucking session with him?
3. Should I fingerbang his hurt asshole so he can get a taste of what I feel every time I take his huge dick?
4. Should I stop my bitching and keep going until my ass finally adapts to his parameters?
5. Will I have to break up with him to secure my bussy’s health?
6. I’ve seen some gay porn videos with some passive dudes with enormous gaping assholes (dudes that still don’t practice fisting, that is). While I don’t know if that state of openess is transitory or not, I never seen mine rightly after having sex near as big as of professionals. Maybe I’m not relaxing something down there in the right way?
7. Should I STFU and stop worrying about my problems since Trump will soon bring the World War 3 and doom us all?

1. No, but readers might, feel free to leave comments below, help a man out!
2. Better for it to be short than not there at all (that’s what my gf says anyway)
3. Yes lol
4. You can try and see how you go, you might get better with practice, but maybe it won’t change things overly? I personally have very low pain tolerance so I can see how that might not change things
5. Nah don’t do that, I’d rather you keep going to so I can get more questions about this next month to liven things up
6. Get him to take some photo/video on his phone and show you (just make sure he deletes it later if propagation of the bussy is a concern). Be mindful that porn stars are pros so try not to measure yourself by their standard
7. Your gay sex may in fact be the thing that prevents WW3 think about it

Pussy pic pls

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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!