QRIMOLE – July 2025

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

So Ablume had a multi-million dollar judgement against them that they and their families could expect to be paying off for the rest of their lives from what I read. So how does it make sense to join another nugu idol company, rack up more debt and never be paid? Unless they formed the company themselves, maybe?

But still, there looks like there was a lot of money spent on their debut just now. They were all regular people so no way they could have afforded to set up anything without major investment. And that also seems weird because they were vilified in the Korean press.

People who go to the casino and constantly lose still place big bets in the hope of turning it around. It doesn’t mean it’s smart, but it’s pretty understandable. Also a case of “sunk cost fallacy” happening here. If you’ve invested all your life into being an idol, and you nearly made it big but then something happened to mess it up (often the case), and then you get one more shot, it can be a lot more tempting to carry on and hope for a miracle so at least you didn’t feel like you wasted your idol training years, rather than to start afresh in another field by learning brand new skills from scratch. A lot of young people in idol groups have become so invested in that path that they literally don’t even know how to do anything else, so the thought of abandoning everything they trained for isn’t appealing.

what do u think of EXO’s Git It Up?? it’s a “cover” of an HOT! song but i think it’s way better than the original….. if SM can do a convincing rock song with real guitars idk why Dreamcatcher couldn’t with their last few comebacks….. thinking of Dreamcatcher’s lost potential makes me acc livid so I’m just gonna end this here b4 i start ranting

Well, original H.O.T songs were all so absolutely abysmal that it’s really not hard to improve them. Horrid writing, dated samples, muddy mixes, and vocals so poorly recorded that half the time they vanish into the mix completely, it was H.O.T that ensured k-pop remained something the rest of the world avoided during that early first-generation idol phase. EXO’s version is of course better, but anyone’s version of a H.O.T song is always going to be the better version. It’s like covering Bob Dylan songs, they’re impossible to ruin more than the originals.

I’ve been thinking about the Exo-CBX contract dispute the other day. Why didn’t the men get the support they needed for proper leverage against SM? Is company stanning really that much bigger than idol stanning? You’d think the actual face would be more popular than the corporate overlords. Or do most Kpop fans not understand just how exploitative the industry is and thus somehow think the existing contracts are okay, when basically every piece of evidence we get is that they’re almost universally practically debt slavery contracts?

Look at how fans caped super-hard for for corporations during the whole NewJeans disputes. It seems to be very easy to get supposedly “progressive” fans to fellate the corporate cock, the company just needs to throw a few rumours around, spread in some “you’re breaking up the FAMILY, don’t you feel bad” peer pressure and most fans will fall straight in line.

hey kpopalypse oppar, can i just ask for some elder advice.
tldr: am i doing ok for a person in their mid 20s?
at 25 i got my first big boy job, my dream job, i have a group of friends i really, really love, a partner i really care about and a family who supports me a lot and my relationship with my older sister is the best its ever been.
however, i still am battling addiction issues i drink semi frequently, i do gym like 4 times a week, swim, rollerskate and play tennis. for some reason, I can’t shake needing to smoke to disassociate and finally relax after a long ass day. its probably like 4 ish times a week. i also randomly invited a friend after work on thursday, and we had a movie night. i drank almost an entire bottle of wine. idk how to navigate this. i feel like i am so functional, but in so many ways, so guilty for my addictions. i know it’s because im Young and its like a canon event to fuck up your body before u get your first consequence, but i can’t shake the guilt, even if in the moment it helps me so much when i am so exhausted. do you have any elder advice?

Stuff like drinking and smoking and taking substances will work for you… until it doesn’t. The age when it’ll start to hit you hard and cause health problems varies from one person to the next, but the time will come for you, like it comes for everyone, when you just can’t do it because it’ll fuck you up too much, and it’s better to quit before you get to that point if you can. If nothing else you’ll save yourself a ton of money. Mind you, because you’re young you’re relatively resilient, so the chances of you fucking things up massively are low… not zero, though. Not worth feeling guilty about though, I mean as long as you’re not doing stupid shit when drunk that’s fucking your life or the lives of others. You don’t have to go cold turkey either, it’s okay to indulge in vices occasionally (my father would say “everything in moderation – including moderation”), but you might find that now other areas of your life are pretty well sorted out, you may start to find it easier to ease back. It’ll help you be more present in your life for the other things in it that are working so well for you right now, that’s where you’ll find more happiness ultimately.

This Katy Perry album is genuinely her best one.

I couldn’t give a fuck this is Kpopalypse.com not musicthatI startedlisteningtokpoptogetawayfrompopalypse.com

Any advice on learning music theory properly? Throughout my life I’ve always struggled with remembering anything about it. Im not a shit musician by any means (bragging is gay but ive sang semi-professionally since young, can play a few instruments well etc bs) but when i study music theory it’s like looking at hieroglyphics after being hit on the head. the thing is that through practice and experimenting with music-writing in general i can understand WHY things work but i can never name them. its like trying to explain your native language if that makes sense. of course i know the basics by name but beyond that im cooked. where and how do i start?

Fortunately for you this site has an entire music theory series, perhaps you should read all of every single post and then get back to me with what you find are your remaining knowledge gaps.

What are your top 5 favorite songs of all time, kpop or not?

I have no idea. Would be an ever-changing list anyway, what I tell you now would probably be wrong by next week.

Hi Kpopalypse, thanks for your ‘guide on how to tell if someone is actually singing in “live” performances’. One of the points you repeated was how singing and dancing are not compatible. I was wondering: do professional live musical performers also mime or mask vocals during dance numbers?
Thanks!

It’s a lot harder to get away with in musical theater, because musical theater stages tend to rely on acoustic venue sound more, so the audience at least in the front rows tends to be more aware that miming is happening. It can definitely be done anyway though, and has! Sometimes it’s done for comedic effect, or surrealism or other theatrical reasons, and sometimes it’s done for the same reason that k-pop does it – to make a very demanding dance routine easier to perform without the fear of fucking up the vocal part at the same time. Mind you dancing in musical theater is usually not quite as demanding as that for idol groups because in musical theater being relatively still is often important so the performers can direct their “character” into the audience. Obvious exceptions exist of course, but generally speaking in theater the importance of projecting stage presence outranks the importance of doing a technical dance routine.

I enjoy listening to music but I’m completely ignorant about music theory. I got a little more understanding from your posts but I’ll be honest, even when paying close attention a lot of this stuff still goes over my head. Can you explain why this song sounds so ‘off’ to me? It feels like there’s a nice melody in the background with something discordant on top of it.

Please ignore the awful AI video, I don’t think this guy has the budget for anything better.

I’d say that what you might be noticing is the key modulations, the song changes key every few bars. Every time there’s a change in the tonal center, that changes the context of the melody, so there’s a fraction of a second there where things seem “off” until the new context embeds itself and your brain locks back in. You can hear the same thing happen in the guitar solo at the end of this song:

I’ve been getting asked about my favorite albums, which I struggle to answer. I do listen to albums and often find some tracks enjoyable along the way. But there are always a few dull ones, and because of this, I can’t decide whether I like the album as a whole. How do you determine your favorites? Do you think liking just 1–2 songs is enough, or do you need to appreciate the album as a complete art form?

I think a “good album” isn’t just one with my favourite songs on it. For me a good album is one with no skips, where I can listen to the whole thing and feel like the entire thing was generally excellent and the mood and feeling is consistent and there isn’t one track that breaks the flow or pisses me off so much that I just want to move past it. K-pop has precisely zero albums like this, even the very best ones have some bullshit on them somewhere. Obviously the longer the album is, the harder it is for it to be good because mathematically the odds of a shit song appearing to do a combo-breaker become higher the longer the album drags on. A unifying concept to the album can sometimes help, but a unifying sound is even more important. My favourite albums tend to sound like one thing and one thing only, and are very all-in on just exploring that one thing.

Since Kpopalypse is one of the 2 greatest things to ever come out of Australia, I have to ask: What do you think of how much Kpop stylists seem infatuated with the logo of the other greatest thing to come out of Australia, AC/DC?

It’s in Wonder Girls’ “Like This”, Loona’s “So What”, Billlie’s “Ring Ma Bell’ and “Ginga Minga Yo”, and Le Sserafim’s “No Celestial” dance practice, p1harmony’s “Soul”. 4Minute’s Gayoon wears the AC/ER parody in “Hot Issue”. 60% of (G)I-dle wear it in “Tomboy”, as Miyeon, Minnie, and Shuhua all sport the logo at some point. Last week, Kiss of Life dropped the “k bye” MV, and Julie doubled up, wearing AC/DC on her shirt and boots.

Did you have a hand in this? Do Koreans love AC/DC, the way Germans love David Hasslehoff? What say you?

I think for them it’s a logo that looks cool on a shirt… although I’m sure at least some of them are fans of the group too, I mean AC/DC are huge worldwide so I’m sure they get rocked in Korea as well as anywhere. I certainly don’t see a lot of korean AC/DC soundalike groups coming out though, so perhaps they’re not as big as “Cherry Blossom Ending”… nothing to do with me though, I’ve never been a huge AC/DC fan, although like any novice guitarist I learned their riffs back in the day because they were one of the few hard rock groups to make a lot of use of open chords. Also AC/DC saved me from getting beaten up once, I was walking through the school oval with my guitar on my way home and one of the school bullies stopped me and told me he was going to fight me if I couldn’t play AC/DC right then and there, fortunately I knew the chords to “T.N.T” and so he let me go. There’s a lesson there somewhere.

have you heard jeongyeon’s solo? if not, what do you think of it?

Hang on, so did you mean to say that if I had heard the song, you wouldn’t want my opinion on it?

Anyway I guess this is why I’ve been getting so many questions lately about “stomp clap hey” music, it’s because of the new Jeongyeon. Not really into this musically at all, but I’m more offended that JYP didn’t give her a proper music video with Jeongyeon shot from lots of pretty flattering angles in nice clothes. He’d never do Nayeon this dirty. What a misogyinst.

Are you going to review the K-pop-inspired film Demon Hunters?

Probably at some point. Not soon. Like with most things I review that aren’t music I like to wait until the hype train has died down and any potential controversies or issues have filtered out. Years of k-pop writing has taught me that being the “first!” or “exclusive” or “breaking” about any special content is always a mistake, every single time. It’s like playing Squid Game glass time hopscotch, it’s the sort of game where you might get attention going first but you get a huge advantage in accuracy by going last (and I’ll get to Squid Game 3 soon too, but not very soon).

As stupid as Kpop fans can be, are you aware that your dog whistling, “healthy porn for men” post actually has quite a good reputation in Kpop circles?

Strangely enough, it will sometimes be the exact same people writing comments all “FUCK YOURSELF” “GET A LIFE” after you don’t like a Seulgi b-side, who are citing your post in discussions about concepts for younger Kpop girl groups. They may do so reluctantly, but saying Kpopalypse “ate that one thing” may be the better outcome as opposed to a random diehard stan, who will never be swayed on their opinions towards Kpopalypse because he called Kep1er Kep-one-r or something.

They’ll give me that, but then try to get them to admit that most of my other commentary about boobs or whatever is really just different ways of me highlighting similar veins of hypocrisy, and you’ll have a harder time. Still, I’m happy to take any praise but I don’t seek it out, I just continue to write and let the chips fall where they may. The smart ones will “get it”, in time.

So a new documentary about astroworld came out recently and it got me thinking, would something like this be allowed to happen in Australia? Specifically, the documentary went over the layout of the barriers for the stage (poor design which led to overcrowding on the left side with nothing to really combat that) the overcrowding (sold for 50k – they realised later that the main stage was probably more suited for 35k, and there was a ton of non-ticketed people because they rushed the gates so ended up ) and little care generally (there were text messages from people in live nation communicating that it could be an issue, early warnings before the main stage that overcrowding was becoming an issue) and I all I can think of is how the actual fuck that was allowed to happen. I’m not super knowledgeable about the music industry, but from my experiences at festivals and concerts it seems like Australian regulation for live events is pretty strict? Even seems like events sometimes struggle with all the rules and regulations – the waves of recent event cancellations in NSW has had some chatter about NSW event laws. But in terms of crowd control I’ve been at festivals where the big screen flashes that everyone has to take steps back before a show continues (and the crowd wasn’t even that tight), and generally seems like there’s a lot of active management, surveillance and engagement by event managers at shows. Even small time shows tend to have some level of participation from someone, even if it’s just making sure the crowd doesn’t get too rowdy. Just touching on overcrowding, i feel like capacity is taken pretty seriously in Australia and an event would be fucked if they allowed thousands more people than planned in. And at the end of the day, despite 10 deaths and hundreds of injuries no one was found criminally liable. Am I just oblivious to how sketchy events can be or is Australia more regulated or something – I just cannot wrap my head around how despite the many many ridiculously blaring red flags astroworld still happened.

Australia venue laws are very strict about things like capacity. Australia in general is a highly regulated place and while that has its fair share of downsides (I whine about the Australian “nanny state” quite a lot because I do think they take it too far) the plus side is that public safety is a huge priority and as a result events here tend to have really good OH&S compliance. Basically no venue owner wants to be held liable for deaths at their facility, and the fines for breaching various codes and regulations are high as well, it’s taken very seriously here. Oh and I have a post on crowd crushes if you’re interested.

Are there certain k-pop songs that you love but can’t listen to all that often because they’re just TOO good? In my opinion, IVE’s “I Am” is the greatest k-pop song ever made, but I can’t listen to it on repeat or in the background as I can with other k-pop songs I enjoy. “I Am” has too much meaning for me and the melodies are just too beautiful; I feel like I’m not doing it justice if I’m not giving it my full attention. I’m curious if you’ve had this experience, and if so, what qualities of a song make it “unrepeatable” for you.

Yes, I understand this. Some songs are so good that they almost make me cry and I don’t always feel like going through a heavy emotional experience each time I want to just listen to some music.

Wait?! You sold 100 copies of Love Carousel? So you have to get to know every TripleS member?! (Something somewhere in this Qrimole implies it). I knew this comeback would be the one! Since they made their Are You Alive comeback on my birthday, it was divined this would happen to you by Min Heejin’s Shaman, who’s been communicating with me from the spirit realm. But don’t worry! If you can subject yourself to K-pop roundups each and every week, you can survive getting to know 24 random kpopper girls. After all, my useless delulu ass did it.

Actually, still sitting on 97 copies at the time of writing. Which is just the way I like it. My ego doesn’t need those extra three copies and I sure don’t need the TripleS memory exercise.

Anyway, here’s pictures (and a TikTok) of Chaeyeon. Bias her. She seems like someone you would bias ~~ (or at least find hot, I dunno). ~~ A veteran Nugu too as a former Busters member (*shivers*)!

Not my type tbqh although I salute anyone who had to put up with being in Busters for their sheer mental fortitude.

Here’s a TripleS song Midnight Flower. What do you think? I thought you might like it since it’s got a chugging guitar instrumental and doesn’t have any stupid breakdown bullshit. It’s kinda like New Look, but less 80s inspired synth.

Weak honestly. Doesn’t have any really stupid moments or anything, it’s just not a very well written song. Having good sounds doesn’t mean having a good song. Loona’s “Star” it is most certainly not.

You might also like Choom, Too Hot, and Love2Love (check Choom first). ~~I’m sure you don’t like most of their Pinkpantheris-lite NewJeans-lite NJZ-lite ILLIT-lite Loona-not-really-lite~~ truly forward thinking liquid DnB sound, but for a KPop group, they have an usually large discography with unusually few shitty ballads.

Yes, Nakyoung is the one holding the guitar in your recent music theory post (I especially like the part of that post where Red Velvet’s song writers were basically on acid writing Ice Cream Cake, not that you asked). You’re welcome.

How is getting to know the TripleS members anyway? I expect a detailed response.

Haven’t even started but I feel like maybe, under certain lighting conditions, I might be able to pick out Chaewon now, so thanks for that. 23 to go, yay me.

How did Katseye succeed at catching the attention of the greater kpop fanbase and gaining tons of new fans with their latest comebacks, after flopping at their debut? I’m asking this because I remember that message sent by your nazi fan in a past qrimole in which he stated that the kpop fandom’s fetish for asians and hypocritical conservatism was one of the reasons groups like Katseye and VCHA flopped. I’m not asking this as a gotcha, in fact I think the nazi was correct!

Something that’s puzzled me is that the members of Katseye have gotten in controversies that would end other groups’ careers. For example, they accidentally curse all the time which yes I know it’s normal but it didn’t stop a million kpop youtubers from making videos dragging them or trying to make it into a huge issue because kpoppers are insane, and it seems nobody really cared but mostly because nobody cared about Katseye back then I think. Still, it doesn’t seem to affect them in the same way because they still curse nowadays lol.

Do kpop fans cut them some slack or hold them to a different standard just because 5/6 of them aren’t Korean? if that’s the case, why haven’t they been accused of cultural appropriation and cyberharassed to near death like Lana and Kaachi were?

I’m really not sure, and to be honest I’m not even completely sure of Katseye’s popularity anyway at this point. I think “Gnarly” probably really helped, a risky song that pushed them out there with a very different kind of style to before, I think a lot of people didn’t see that move coming and really liked it. We need that girl with the gloves to break down HYBE’s branding techniques for us but she seems to only really focus on Blackpink members for some reason.

I think Katseye get a bit more slack from international k-pop fans because some of them are “people of colour” and k-pop fans don’t want to be seen to be dogpiling on a dark-skinned person or they might cop racism accusations themselves. At least, they don’t want to be seen doing that in public. Any visible black k-pop fan with experience in fandom communities will happily tell you first hand how k-pop fans are very good at dogpiling on black people in private via DMs, anonymous channels and so forth… so as usual it’s just performative free-pass-giving, it doesn’t really mean anything. K-pop fans just want to be seen as “good people” on the surface, while still getting away with whatever they want to get away with in private. It’s typical American style “quiet racism”.

So I was gifted funko pops by ppl who didn’t know I hate them. Now they’re rotting somewhere in the basement. I want to get rid of them asap but selling is hardly an option. There’s not much of a market for this sort of thing in my country and international shipping isn’t easy either. But throwing them out is gonna make me feel so guilty – apparently these stupid chunks of plastic are not recyclable. I want them gone. Should I try to find some facebook group of nerds willing to buy these things and if I don’t succeed just get rid of them and then stop eating meat for 10 years or some shit to absolve myself of the guilt of polluting the environment

There has to be a trading network for shit like that or whatever. Another option might be to just hang onto them for 20 years and keep them in their packaging and eventually they’ll be worth ten times the price on the retro Funko Pop market. Or I dunno just landfill or whatever.

Hello, dear Prudence/Kpopalypse oppar. A year has passed since my last message.

I’m the caonima who is a university professor and wrote about the weird office dynamics in academia. I’m happy to report that I tried to follow your advices to the best of my capacity and I’m currently still employed even after the admin went on a massive layoff spree. Unfortunately this layoff spree is what caused the shitshow that I’ll detail shortly and has kept me chagrined in the last days. Last time I asked you to redact my entire message because of a specific reason and a lot of my students are kpoppers (I might be overestimating how many people truly read QRIMOLE) but I don’t give a shit anymore and I want the caonimas to enjoy the full drama this time. Yes it’s really long but every detail in this is important because everything will come together at the end to make me suffer! yay!

So. The place I work is entirely ran by one single family, chaebol style. The founder is the president, the principal/head of college is the president’s wife and their sons are in the most important roles, and the rest of the family fills the other admin roles, faculty deans etc. most of them are members of the extended family.

The principal is a hag who looks like a mix between Thatcher and a potato, and is also an ABSOLUTE CUNT. I could fill another QRIMOLE submission with all the horror stories I’ve heard about her. I’ve been told this place has always resembled less a university and more a big shitty private school because of her influence. She wasn’t the principal when I was hired, but the former principal, who is the youngest son, embezzled a ton of money*, his brothers ratted him out, so his hag mother took over again and went on the aforementioned layoff/cutting corners/””””austerity”””” spree. This is very similar to what goes on Calarts btw, and the students in my university all noticed the obvious changes but they’re too entitled and babied (more on this later!) and faculty/admin is so afraid of being fired that there wasn’t any attempt to protest or anything, unlike what the students of Calarts are currently doing (they run the alarts_calarts account on instagram, for those curious)

So as a result of the layoffs we, the ones who weren’t laid off, all ended with a teaching load of 6:6, which in academia parlance means we have 6 subjects per semester. For comparison, a 4:4 teaching load is considered a bit large. I kept two of my subjects and had to take over four brand new subjects and do class prep every week with 0 time to do so and all that shit and I was obviously fully and hopelessly unprepared at the beginning but instead of feeling too anxious about it I mostly spent the semester angry at that fucking hag for putting us all in this situation and I carried on like usual.

At the end I managed to do a good job in 5 out of my 6 subjects, all things considered. Unfortunately the sixth subject, the one I didn’t do a good job at, is also the most important one lmao. It’s a workshop type of class that’s held twice a week, the students work in big projects and each semester focuses on a certain skill or topic. By the end of the semester there’s a two day event with a large exhibition held at campus where every group showcases a final project. These projects tend to be showy and extravagant and the professors lowkey compete between each other to see whose group puts out the most creative results. You can guess where this is going!

My student group’s focus is on large exhibition design (which is something I had never studied or been exposed to in the previous jobs I’ve had in my professional field, so I always felt lost preparing classes for it), but things went smoothly at first. The group I was in charge of is one semester away from graduating so it was expected of them to be proactive and do high quality work, which they did. On the later half of the semester, when planning the final project, I divided the students in groups and assigned them specific roles, everyone contributed and agreed, etc. they seemed to have a good idea of how to put together the exhibition and they had AN ENTIRE MONTH to do everything but then the day of the final exhibition came and EVERYTHING went wrong.

I arrived early at the exhibition space at the campus while other groups were starting to put together their exhibitions, but I noticed my group hadn’t arrived yet. I was very busy with other things related to my other subjects, so I went back to my office, expecting to go back a couple of hours later and meet up with my group. This turned out to be a BIG mistake. When my students did arrive, they found their space had been taken over by another group and apparently they just sat down and did nothing, expecting me to come over and fix everything (this is NOT what is expected mind you, and the program director scolded the group. Once again they’re all young adults six months away from graduating).

When I went back to the exhibition space, I was horrified to find out that my students’ project was A MESS. They cheapened out on the materials, some things they had planned were missing and apparently there was some big drama among them so everyone was upset with each other, but they were the most upset at MEEEE because ??? I don’t know??? I really don’t know what I was supposed to do lol. Anyways their exhibition was so awful it contrasted really badly with all the other groups and I felt like SHIT. After the first day of the exhibition was over, I went back home and cried myself to sleep. I spent the next day trying not to cry and feeling very embarassed among the other professors. Thankfully they were all very nice and told me several times to not feel bad over the results of my group, but I still felt like the shittiest teacher and as if I had done *something* wrong. Oh yeah and to make things worse this exhibition was supposed to be shown around at a different city the next day, so we gave the students 24 hours to fix whatever could be fixed, which they did! they managed to put together something decent and people who saw their exhibition liked it. That same day I gave each student a co-evaluation sheet to rate themselves and each other (this is customary among all semesters) with an extra blank space to write any additional comments.

The students were very mature and recognized their mistakes and failures as a lesson to be learned… is what I would say, except that DID NOT HAPPEN. Six students gave me sheets full of complaints against me and me only, even though they were supposed to write only about their classmates. According to them, “everything went wrong because of the professor”, and “the professor abandoned us” and honestly, I was a bit shocked. As I said, all the students are already adults and they’re graduating this year. During the last class, a week before the disaster exhibition, I asked them for feedback of the way I conducted the classes and everyone gave me positive comments, so I didn’t expect them to act like such babies. And it all really soured my week and I’m still feeling really bummed out over it. Moreover, they’re totally going to review bomb my evaluations, but I’m hoping my good performance at the other five subjects I gave will tide me over.

My questions are:

1. How the fuck do I stop feeling bad over this mess? I’ve been reflecting on this shit and I’ve realized I’m terrified of confrontations and of being disliked by certain people. These students dislike me and I’ll have to see their bratty faces next semester, so now I’m terrified, even though there’s no logical reason behind it. I know I tried my best and my colleages told me I did what I could aswell, so how do I get over the fear of being disliked?

There’s also something that really bothers me and that is, as a result of my fear of confrontations, I’m also very uncomfortable with being assertive and stern in some situations. This is obviously bad as a professor, but it’s REALLY DIFFICULT to change. I’ve tried to consciously change this in classes and it’s like I’m physically unable, I feel petrified. This is BAD because another group, the first year ones, are LITTLE SHITS, really nasty pieces of work, so next semester I’ll need to lay down the rules since day one and be harsh.
So 2. How the fuck do I become more assertive?

Thank you so much for reading.

*Nobody knows about the embezzling, this was a juicy detail shared by a former professor.

Well it’s situations like this that will probably bring the assertiveness out of you. I’d actually go straight back to your group and discuss this with them openly, straight up. Just call a fucking meeting and say “I’m happy to take on feedback but you didn’t use the appropriate channels and then you little cunts pull this shit, how about next time you actually share your grievances earlier when it’s actually directly solicited from you and meaningful and then use the feedback forms for the exercises in the way you’re goddamn supposed to” but try to find a better way to word it than that that wouldn’t raise the ire of the school board. Then invite them to give you feedback right then and there.  They’ll probably have their own things to say about it too, and then you can have an open dialogue about it and work things out. The students may have the right to feel the way they do, but with rights come responsibilities… make it clear that you’ll only accept bitching from people who are at least making an effort…

I want to buy a portable CD player (so I can feel good about buying mid k-pop albums back in high school). But every audio forum or Reddit post I’ve come across so far says I should either get a high-end stereo or a second-hand Walkman. I can’t afford the first, and I don’t want to deal with potential scammers for the second. Do you think there’s no hope in buying modern portable CD players? If not, what should I go for? I’m not an audophile btw I just want something that works & won’t damage my CDs.

I haven’t tried to buy a CD player in many years so I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s cheap ones you can get. You don’t need something special, a CD player is basically a CD player these days. Zero difference in audio quality between them in 2025. The only real red flag you have to watch is stuff that’ll damage your CDs but once again only the very cheapest nastiest units will have that issue.

Have you seen this?

No I haven’t. To ensure that this response is maximally truthful, I still haven’t seen it at the time of writing.

Dear Oppar,

I’m 25, female, and I’ve been in a relationship with a guy for about a year now. One of those whirlwind things — we met at a theatre rehearsal, hit it off instantly, and were dating within days. I know, I know. WAY too fast. Unusual for me, but at the time, it just felt right. We connected so naturally, shared tons of interests (we both dance, skate, like anime, etc), and had lots of chemistry.

Looking back, yeah, maybe we rushed it. But we stayed pretty strong for a while, mostly. Here’s where it gets complicated.

He’s very traditional. Which, at first, meant sweet old-school chivalry and that sense of manliness that’s practically extinct these days. Seriously, have you SEEN the men out there? Exactly. Neither have I. I genuinely admired that about him — it felt refreshing. But… it came with strings. The old-fashioned kind.

He started by asking me to dress more modestly. Fair enough, after some back and forth, I complied. Then came the part where he wasn’t comfortable with me having male friends — even the ones I already had. Then came his disapproval of me performing and dancing in public — the very thing that brought us together. Slowly but surely, the list of “unacceptable” things grew. Jealousy was a huge factor there.

And I changed. Willingly. My clothes, my friendships, my hobbies, my outings. I gave up the occasional smoking. Not because he forced me, he was always gentle and never raised his voice with me. But we kept having these back and forth arguments that never ended anywhere but me making the compromise, because I genuinely loved him and wanted us to work. He said if anything bothered me about him, he’d change too. I never wanted him to change, I just wanted him to accept me as I was, but clearly that was really hard for him.

Now I’m at this strange crossroads. I’ve put in so much time, so much effort, and so much of myself. But I feel like I’m shrinking. Opportunities pass me by because I know they’d make him uncomfortable. And while he thrives doing what he loves, I sit back and watch — supportive, but stifled.

He’s not cruel. He listens. He tries, in his own way. And I know a lot of his beliefs come from his upbringing — it’s not just him, it’s the environment he was raised in. I mean, it’s also not like he’s out there partying and smoking and hanging out with girls. He wasn’t like that even before I got to know him, he’s mostly this really proper, down-to-earth, family-oriented, health-focused and introverted type of guy. But we’ve had this same conversation so many times, and I think he simply just doesn’t get it, because he didn’t have to face the same kind of stigma and restrictions a woman has to face in this kind of society. And despite him being the guy I love, he’s the very type of guy that’s part of the problem.

Lately I’m not sure. I still want to be with him. But I’m scared this will only get more toxic as time goes on. I just kinda wanna enjoy myself and not worry about being all “righteous” and “proper” when I’m still at the age where I don’t need to be, you know?

Oppar, in all your infinite wisdom, what should I do?

I’ve had many girlfriends and they’ve all liked one thing about me which is that they’ve always felt that they can just be themselves around me. The fact that they all made a specific point of mentioning that to me just underlines for me how important an issue this is for women. That’s how it should be for everyone, neither men nor women should have to change who they are just to be with someone. Editing yourself to not cause offence to a stranger or whatever can make sense but you shouldn’t have to do that for another person that you’re sharing your life with, the person you’re baring your soul to, etc.

So I think you have two choices with this guy and neither of them will be pleasant but I think picking one is necessary. Choice 1. get the fuck out of there (my preferred option tbh). Choice 2. he needs to seriously give you some form of leeway. You need to set some hard boundaries around what sort of control you will accept and what you consider as going too far. So far you’ve let those boundaries slip. Don’t let them slip once inch further, and try to claw back what you can. Comporomise isn’t always a bad thing but when it’s only you doing all the compromising, that’s not cool at all, he needs to pull his weight too by accepting that you’re a certain type of person who likes certain things. Is it worth the heartache to have that conversation? I don’t know, but this will all become worse over time if you let it fester and before you know it, you’re pregnant with his kids and trapped and living your entire life for someone else. Good luck.

honest opinions on the beatles? and what are your top 3 songs by them if you like any

I don’t mind them too much in their early “merseybeat” two-minute pop song phase. Thought they got immediately boring and stupid as soon as they started growing their hair and getting into drugs and hippie shit. One of the few things I agree with my mother about regarding music. Not sure if I have a top three songs, honestly cbf listening to them any more than I’m absolutely forced to.

Do you think idols are sharing their apologies on Bubble etc. so that it would be less possible for international fans to hold them accountable/start hate campaigns on X?

I doubt it, it’s probably just more about marketing. If you’re going to have to grovel before a bunch of spoiled little entitled cunt fans for forgiveness for every little thing you do, you might as well monetise it.

What’s your opinion on this song?

Poop.

Thanks to your suggestion a few months ago, I became a fan of the song “Good Girl” by At Heart. I watched their performance video when it came out a few weeks ago, and found myself filled with a very strong feeling of disgust when not two seconds into the video, the whole group smiled at the camera and nodded. I came to the K-pop fandom, from J-pop, so I am used to overly cutesy concepts, but the reaction I had to this ‘nugu nod’ filled me with such contempt that I turned off the video. Why do so many cutesy groups do this move? It gives four year old doing their first dance competition.

I’m not sure how you even noticed that nod, I must’ve blinked and missed it the first 50 times I watched this video. I mean we’re k-pop fans, aren’t we used to these groups doing stupid cutesy bullshit to the camera by now? And someone who came over from j-pop should be especially hardened. I don’t see what’s so special about this one move in particular, maybe the aegyosposure finally broke you.

At what level would you say performing a rap takes particular skill?
Something like Rap God isn’t something just anyone can perform (even if the result is more about showing off than about making an actually good rap or song).

Obvious there is a point somewhere within rap music where it goes so fast that some minimal form of vocal skill is required, but it’s not really that more advanced than what an auctioneer or horse race commentator does and I don’t see people going to auction houses to appreciate the vocal style (well okay, maybe I wouldn’t put it past some weirdos, but…) the real skill in rap music is thinking up the words and also the vocal meter that goes with those words, not in the performance thereof. That’s why “biters” are so hated in rap music, because it takes literally no skill at all to rap the lines of someone else and claim it as your own. It’s like stealing someone else’s stand-up comedy jokes. Anybody reading this with reasonable command of the English language could teach themselves to rap any Eminem song that exists easily enough… but could you write a rhyme like Eminem does, probably not.

how would you rate the stage presence in this video? i’ve been seeing people praise it but she honestly just looks stupid to me.

THERE IS NO STAGE PRESENCE IN CHOREOGRAPHED KPOP ROUTINES.

NONE.

In fact k-pop dances are designed to ignore the stage completely and just focus on the “routine”, it’s almost the opposite of stage presence, it’s “stage absence”, they literally perform exactly as if they’re still in the gym. There’s a bit of “camera presence” but it’s not the same thing and don’t let anyone else tell you different. Just like you shouldn’t look to k-pop for “vocal performance” you should also stop looking for “stage presence”. For those things, you have to go outside of idol pop. I’m going to have to do another full post about this just to get it into people’s thick heads, aren’t I.

isnt it odd for idols to be super skinny but also have tits?????? i wonder how that works out, is it just genetics? boob jobs?

Actually it’s just that when you’re super skinny, and you have underwear on, that underwear represents a larger degree of overall thickness. There are a few girls with boob jobs but they’re in the minority, most “busty but skinny” k-pop girls, what you’re looking at is simply 50% bra, most of the time, then enhanced a little by whatever the creepy agency does after that (photoshop etc). Could it be that the entiire point of the boobs posts all along was to point facts like this out in an amusing way in order to laugh at the kpopfap types who lose their shit over an upturned ankle AND the puritan “protect my bias” k-pop fans who are horrified by people looking at flesh but totally fine with endorsing corporate slavery and mental torture? I wonder…

Really disappointed in you man, can’t believe you read STARS-309 instead of START-309, smh my head. I was confused why you were talking about Honjo Suzu instead of my goat Hoshino Riko (she kind of reminds of Nmixx Lily now that I think about it). Those Jav titles make it easy to share dramas but a single typing error can throw you in completely different tags.
But I totally agree with you on the weird racism in jav.guru comments. Another horrible thing a stumbled upon recently and I know you did too is official deepfakes like in YMDD-445.
I know you’re not exactly Javopalypse but what is even the point of this ? Would the actress playing the body get paid more or less than usual ? If you want to stay anonymous, like v-tuber, it would make sense to do it for less but if you are a semi-know actress, not showing you face would make it harder for you to become famous.
Do you think this is as much of a fad as AI groups in Kpop or is there actually a public for this in Jav ?

For those not in the loop here, there’s a trend in JAV at the moment where they superimpose an AI filter of another girl on top of a JAV actress, much like what the k-pop group Eternity became known for doing. It always looks like dogshit because the girl who is having the shit projected onto her has to always be facing straight to camera or it breaks the illusion. The result is always awkward, passionless scenes where the girl looks stiff as as board. I don’t think it will take off in JAV to any big extent, it’ll probably always be around as a gimmick but just like with k-pop nobody is actually here to see AI shit.

I was listening to ITZY’s Imaginary Friend because ofc is great song but i realized that the song could be even better if the chorus were more explosive loud and dramatic (kinda like this song). Do you agree oppa? I mean ITZY’s song totally works but i wanted MORE

The ideal solution here would be for Itzy to do a live arrangement with a band where they can lay into the heavy instrumentation a little.

My question if you were gay which male and female groups would you stan

The same ones because I’d be gay for the music just like I am now.

hi kpopalypse !! what do you think of pinkpantheress’ mosquito? i think it’s her best song tbh

It’s basically fine. She’s pretty consistent. I mean, she got into my black music roundup feature, so you know she’s good.

i don’t understand the concept of this video or why there’s disasters/lightning storm at the end, or why one girl looks fine through the video but is the only upset/disturbed one later. The focus on cameras/stage opening and closing/audience with phone cameras makes me wonder if it’s a sort of Truman show type thing and the unhappy girl is Truman?

Yeah I think you’re on the money. It’s not a literal retelling of that story but they’ve certainly used it as inspiration. You understand it better than you think.

As a professional musician, how much does your music taste correlate with the general public’s? Or rather, does the public notice when a song is good (by a pro musician standards) even without knowing why?

In your weekly reviews you often dislike songs that tops the charts and praise songs that don’t chart, so your taste doesn’t fully predict what the public will like (although I guess even a crap song will chart if it’s BTS or Blackpink).

But your taste matches the general public more often than chance. Does the public notice the same stuff that makes you like e.g. I AM by IVE by we don’t have the words to explain why the song is great?

I’m not sure there is such a thing as “a pro musician’s standards”. I think musical taste is a product of upbringing + culture + brain chemistry + secret sauce and while there is some commonality between certain types of music taste and what people like, there’s enough variation there among people who might be similarly or equally “educated” to determine that there’s so much subjectivity in the mix that a true “gold standard of music” is not possible, or even desirable. So I think that’s why there is some commonality, but not consistent commonality, if that makes sense. It’s why I don’t put too much stock in my own opinions and you shouldn’t either. Just use them as a guide: “here’s what person x who likes Y thinks” and maybe that’ll give you some idea about whether you might also like it, or not, as the case may be.

hi i sent in smth a couple months ago and i have procrastinated on sending anything else in since

couple things:

– i know you’ve mentioned in the past that you get some of your roundup songs from readers. how do you receive that info? this ties into my next question, which is:

– what do you think of this? i follow music charts because for some reason it gives me a lot of enjoyment and this song’s been high up in japan for a couple months, which is notable because 2025 for that specific chart has been pretty bad and incredibly samey so i remember anything even remotely different. i am fully aware that you hate jpop but you review groups blatantly trying to mimic kpop like NiziU and JO1 and XG, no matter how good or (usually) dogshit (oh god is NiziU dogshit). so im curious how this one stacks up in comparison to the ones you usually review.

– also i’ve noticed that you’ve never reviewed INI, from the same company as JO1. is there any specific reason why, like that they’re somehow even more terrible and it’s not even close, or just that you werent aware of them (i wish that was me). that company also debuted a new group last year called ME:I if you want to review more jpop trying to be kpop for some reason

– have you ever listened to a song from a group under Johnny’s? (they have some really bad group names. Snow Man, SexyZone, Kis-My-Ft2) they’re kinda similar to kpop as well but also not quite, at least to my untrained ear. again just curious about how you feel about these kinds of musics and whether they actually are similar or not (i personally think they’re mid-to-bad)

– i think everyone’s heard of groups like AKB48 but despite also being called “idols” they’re really different (at this point the examples are for the readers too lol). still, would like to hear your opinion on them solely because of that similar nomenclature (i personally think they’re completely awful)

– not quite as related to the previous questions but: do you enjoy writing about songs you dislike? obviously you wouldnt enjoy listening to them because if you did you’d like the song. but that doesn’t inherently mean you can’t enjoy shitting on them. i ask because i have more shitty jpop, but not in the “mimicking kpop” or “yes they’re called idols but thats not the same thing” vein so not relevant to the ones i’ve already talked about. i want to hear more people be exposed to and shit on some songs because of my burning hatred for them and i was thinking of sending some in next month, but if you dont enjoy writing about shit music then i wouldnt want to cause unnecessary inconvenience (as while my previous questions all actually tie into actually relevant topics for kpopalypse so i have a reason to be curious for your opinion on them, random pure jpop is not exactly that)

Most roundup stuff is submitted during livestreams. I get a big list from a very dedicated caonima who sends me a big summary of everything from the week (bless them), and then I fill in the gaps from there. On rare occasions when I don’t get that list I just hit up my YouTube subscriptions list, I’m subscribed to basically every k-pop channel ever for this reason. If you watch a Sunday livestream you’ll see the first part of the process in action where I pick out about half a dozen high profile releases for the week and give them a quick listen. The actual writing process comes later when I listen again properly to everything.

People already complain that roundup is so big that it doesn’t load properly on their devices so removing stuff like INI which is borderline-eligible is part of trying to make roundup function better and make space fore more stuff that is 100% eligible. I didn’t know JOI was the same company but I should probably remove JOI come to think of it too, because nobody really cares about them and I think I’ve worn out the “jerk off instructions” joke at this point hahaha. I don’t closely keep track of what company does what, so there’s always a little inconsistency in what I cover and I fuck up sometimes… or even often. Of course there are some groups that are borderline that I do cover anyway, like Niziu and XG, for some reason people care more about these groups. I gauge what to cover based on feedback, if I get 57 questions saying “why didn’t you cover x” then I might think about including it even if it is borderline, but usually very reluctantly. I try to keep roundup slim so the stuff it’s actually there to cover can actually be covered.

I don’t care about groups under Johnnys, or AKB48, or (insert whatever other jpop here). I am not jpopalypse, I do not cover j-pop unless it is somehow very k-pop adjacent and very relevant to k-pop fans (like XG being Japanese but working the Korean market specifically, or Niziu being launched from the Korean system but being Japanese and working in Japan). Again, roundup needs less “tangenital” not-quite-kpop content, not more. I don’t have time to also follow j-pop anyway, it would make roundup unmanageable. It’s already unmanageable. For the record AKB48 are pathetic, decades long career and not one single good song anywhere. Useless. Groups from Korea who took the AKB48 formula have made actual decent songs with it (Year 7 Class 1, Bonusbaby, etc) but AKB48 themselves never got there. Other j-pop groups aren’t much better. Japan is great at all sorts of music, just not pop music. Japan and pop music need to be kept far away from each other.

Don’t send j-pop. I don’t have time to cover it. It will not be covered. You can safely assume that I hate it. Writing about shit music is sometimes a fun writing exercise but I already have tons of shit k-pop to write about and that takes up enough of my time to the point where it’s tricky to sometimes get anything else done with my day. I do not have time to cover j-pop as well, thank you for your understanding.

I think Sydney Sweeney is kind of the perfect example of how some women say they support all women… until a woman is hot in a way that really caters to the male gaze. Like, big boobs, blonde, blue-eyed, super traditionally feminine.

I’m using Sydney as an example since she is very famous, but this could apply to say, Jeewon and Eunbi too if we’re keeping it Kpop.
Idk how to articulate this but a lot of “concern” for these women feels like thinly veiled copium.
Like when they have these takes that go “oh men won’t like her for long, as soon as she turns 35 they’ll move onto the next 20-something and THEN she’ll regret not catering to women!!!”…..are you saying this because you care about her, or are you angry that your boyfriend might like her?

It’s totally fair to question how the entertainment industry works or how it frames women, but when the hate gets so personal, it stops sounding like critique and starts sounding like resentment.

TLDR: won’t someone please think of the big boobed women?

Women tearing down other more attractive women (or at least women who they perceive as maybe being more attractive) in some kind of bucket-crab display is nothing new. It’s a tale as old as time, and no different to tough men wanting to fight each other to prove how tough they are (and just looking equally lame in the process). I don’t think anyone should worry about it because I sure don’t. It’s fine to be yourself, I think everyone should be able to be whatever their self is whether it be feminine, masculine, some genderfluid thing or whatever else. I don’t think I’m very genderfluid, more of a gendersolid… or maybe a gendergas… this really wasn’t a question, more of a rant or whatever, so JAV of the Month is MIDA-204.

How do you feel about le sserafim’s album intro “the good bones”? it’s pretty repetitive and i kind of have to tune out the talking but i think the chorus is rather sexy and i appreciate the drums and guitar

Le Sserafim are one of those groups that usually deliver quite a good album intro but it’s never properly developed into the song that it should be. Then once the intro finishes and the songs start they’re all relatively pissweak. Massive waste of potential, and Le Sserafim aren’t the first or only group to do this, there’s countless k-pop albums with cool opening intros that then segue into nothing, if you make a habit of buying k-pop albums you’ll know exactly what I mean.

I would like to correct that QRIMOLE caonima of May and say that you have better taste than TheBiasList, who usually has such a stringent idea on what good music is supposed to be even reading him has become boring as shit. Meanwhile you’ll throw even a ballad a bone if it’s good – so I’ll check out the songs that you say are good. Anyway, my question: do you listen to music while writing? And is there more writing on the horizon?

I listen to music if I’m writing about that particular music, otherwise generally not because I find it too distracting. When I listen to music I like to give it 100% of my attention, I don’t like having things on “in the background”. There is always more writing on the horizon!

What do u think abt this song?

It’s by taylor swift but it has a kind of experimental opening. Glitchy industrial beats. But it quickly gets covered up by a piano ballad. Who would you give the beats to so not to waste them and have you encountered a ballad like this in korean music?

I had to stop listening to Lovebites to put this on, I hope you feel appropriately ashamed of yourself. That intro barely even qualifies as anything at all, it’s so slight. I wouldn’t give that beat to anyone, there’s virtually nothing there.

Does buying an e-book count for Love Caresol? Can I buy two and have that count. Do I just buy on different devices? I have a caterpillar brain. Pls spell it out for me. I obviosslie can’t spel.

Yes it counts.

I know you mentioned suffocate in last year’s end of year favorites list, but aside from that, so you listen to poppy in general? I feel like a lot of her music, even the more generic pop sounding songs, are right up your alley.

Take ‘Crystallized’ for example. Could be wrong, but it sounds like a song you’d rate.

Yes it’s quite good. She is quite good. Not that I listen to her a lot (sooooooooooo much k-pop to listen to) but I usually like what I hear when I do. All the people wondering why I never get around to reviewing mediocre kpop album x – this is why, I get recommendations to listen to other shit that isn’t your bias every single day.

BOOK SPOILERY QUESTION

How did Hana get not one but two group members (plus someone not in the group) to thirst for her when she is apparently average looking + no procedures and there are 3 objective knockouts in the group (Nari, Caitlin, Shu)? I mean I know taste is subjective and in real life these sorts of things happen, but I’m curious if something went into those plot points. Was Iseul into her in a “well there’s one other clear lesbian in the group and I’m locked up with her 24/7” way? Is Hana insanely charismatic and not narrating it about herself? Were her crime skills irresistible?

Hana isn’t average looking, she wouldn’t have been scouted for a k-pop group at all if she was. Trust me, they don’t hire the ugly ones. She just thinks of herself as average looking, which is… pretty fucking normal for people who are not average looking! The amount of absolutely drop-dead gorgeous women I’ve met in my real life who think of themselves as “meh” is a mile long, and her school upbringing would have only magnified those feelings. The “I’m so hot and I know it” stereotypical femme fatale is very rare in reality and is mostly just an illusion created by men projecting their own insecurities and misogyny, your average extremely attractive woman is a massive ball of insecurity.

BEST QUESTION

I’ve been conducting “field research” on what songs fans consider good. One thing that surprised me is the cover of f(x) Rum Pum Pum aespa did is on a lot of lists and also that people hated it – like bottom 5 songs of the year for many of them. For me I feel like aespa played it relatively straight, I like aespa’s voices well enough, and the mixing was slightly different so I was hearing different parts of the song emphasized which I still like. I get it’s a stage version and so the audio wasn’t great but for me Rum Pum Pum does well any year. So am I missing something? I get “not as good as the original” but what did aespa do to make it bottom 5?

I agree that the aespa version is a little bit weaker, which is mainly just due to the sonic choices, the strange heavy beat they added to it probably to make it more “aespa-ey” and “cyber” or whatever just doesn’t quite work as well. It’s not a very big change though, certainly not enough to ruin it, it’s still recognisably the same song, and still done fairly well. There’s also basically zero meaningfully different about any of the vocal parts. Who knows what other people are hearing, chances are they’re probably not using their ears at all but listening with their eyes and with confirmation bias gained from the following:

• aespa are attractive and it’s trendy for international k-pop fans to hate attractive Korean women in the k-pop space, whereas it’s not so trendy for them to hate an older group with a deceased member that has now disbanded
• this cover existing reminds people about f(x) not being a thing anymore and Sulli being deceased and that bums people out
• it’s harder for people to put Sulli on the kind of pedestal that deceased k-pop stars sit at if they are forced to admit to themselves that someone else did her parts better than she did them (Sulli got lots of critcism for lazy live performances in the latter days of f(x) (to the point where I came out strongly in her defence just to piss the hater idiots off) and then later she died and then finally it wasn’t trendy to hate her anymore and she had peace)

K-pop fans do not, and never do, and never have, and never will, listen to music. Yes they do hear the music, but they filter that music through so many layers of peer pressurey, media dicksucking “oh what will my friends think if I think the wrong thing” “oh am I being the right level of politically correct at this point in time” “is my opinion following the accepted trend of opinions that are out there right now” bullshit that the actual music becomes a distant afterthought. This is partly why Kpopalypse.com exists, to refocus people on the idea that music is actually important, creativity is important, the welfare of creative people is important, and gossipy lame media bullshit shitfuckery and manipulation should be disregarded and derided at all times as mental thought cancer. Happy to be of service.

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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!