It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!
do you like this girl’s video essay on h2h’s sudden success?
(from @7.25 for the main points. the rest is mainly lead on their reception up until that point, like it being pretty tepid compared to other SM GGs like Aespa and f(X).)
It’s fine. A lot of this is just marketing 101 and we’ve seen this pattern before, it’s nothing new. aespa also had a slow start and I remember very strongly at the time that the k-pop fan narrative was all about “this new SM group isn’t doing that well” and it took quite a few songs for them to really build. Even Girls Generation didn’t really rise to iconic status until “Gee” came out, which was a couple years after debut, a slower progression than Hearts2Hearts. And “American voices appeal to American audiences”, well, yes they do, and that’s why companies do it.
You never reviewed this song. Could you please review it for me here?
Yes, I did, here.
I don’t generally do separate reviews for different-language versions of songs that are otherwise musically identical to their original form, because the language something is sung in really means nothing to me. But even if I was going to review this song, I wouldn’t do it here, I’d save it for a future roundup bonus video or similar.
i was asking this robot nigga google gemini for kpop group bios and he started a hallucinating completely members of kiiikiii from a fictional agency. i called him out and then he started gaslighting me. then i got him to admit he made up the group. only after i showedd the wikipedia article did i get real info about kiiikiii. why do you think the robot is so confident in its delusions? what lesson should i take from this interaction?
i don’t have much choice for robot niggas to ask because gemini is 100% free and i already had a google account. the twitter grok one only let’s you ask 20 questions per day before asking you to pay and the microsoft copilot one sucks total ass.
It’s a common characteristic of AIs that they can be very confidently wrong. They’re especially bad with anything k-pop related because the k-pop world moves so fast that AI training data sometimes struggles to keep up. It’s getting a little better now that it can search the web in real time but it still fucks up all the time. The AI hallucination problem will never be fixed, because hallucination is an essential part of the machine-learning that AI is built from. So look forward to your AI neighbours being wrong in the future as well.
At the start of the video there seems to be some sort of feedback and the girl in blue reacts with discomfort (2nd from left).
1. What might’ve caused the feedback? From what I understand it’s when a mic is close to a speaker?
2. How loud would the feedback have to be to get that sort of reaction from the girl?
Later on:-
@8:34 There seems to be more feedback, the girl talking (furthest right in dark purplish blue) shakes the mic. Would this behaviour actually get rid of the feedback?
1. It could be, or just something is up too loud. You don’t have to be near a speaker (although that will do it too), you just need to be in an environment where a sound can do a loop, from the microphone to the speaker and back again. Any sound system will do that if you crank it high enough.
2. Pretty loud. Feedback tends to “take off” in volume very quickly.
8:34, no, shaking the mic won’t do shit, although quickly pointing it in a different direction might, depending on if the source of the feedback is your mic or someone else’s. She’s probably trying to guesstimate the optimal direction to point it in to stop the feedback, but has no clearly so is just waving it anywhere. In this case it doesn’t matter what the girls do, the fault lies with the sound engineer. Since most of the feedback is bass feedback, a high-pass filter on the microphone channels would have quickly solved the problem here, or if the desk doesn’t have that then just cutting the bass a little on the vocals. But I can hear some treble threatening to take off too, I think the PA is just up too loud.
1. Have you gotten better at identifying Australian regional accents in recent months?
2. Why do you think you were bad at identifying them?
1. No.
2. Don’t know. Regional Australian accents aren’t formally taught in Australia, and when you watch Australian TV it’s mainly accents from the eastern states. It just never registered with me. Still doesn’t. It also doesn’t help that I have zero interest in identifying them, and no motivation or actual reason to.
1. which members of hearts2hearts do you know?
2. is canadian girl stella your new best friend?
1. none
2. don’t know her so no
nigga, you have one of these? {an “Oodie”, description below} what do you think of them? had you heard of them prior?
“An Oodie is an oversized, wearable blanket hoodie designed for lounging. Originating in Australia, it combines the warmth of a plush blanket with the functionality of an oversized hooded sweatshirt.
Key Features
Materials: Made with a soft microfleece exterior and a thick sherpa fleece lining on the inside.
Fit: Designed as a single “one-size-fits-most” (6XL equivalent) garment with elasticated cuffs and a huge front kangaroo pocket.
Designs: Known for bright colors, fun patterns, and pop-culture themes (ranging from avocados and garlic bread to licensed Disney, Marvel, or anime prints).
While “The Oodie” is a specific brand name, the word is often used generically to describe any oversized wearable blanket hoodie (similar to brands like The Comfy).”
No. No opinion as never used. Seems practical idk. I hadn’t actually heard of this.
solo song by the shamisen player from Wagakki Band. What genre is this from?
Pop.
@4:14 Prince is having Socratic questioning thoughts on the topic of how can be 100% certain if he’s straight he’s never done any gay sexual activities. now i turn that line of questioning onto you, how do you know that you’re 100% straight if you’ve never sucked a dick before?
I’m not even sure that 100% straight is a thing. I’m not sure 100% gay is a thing either. I think we’re all somewhere in the middle, with some of us way on one end or the other but a lot of people on various points in the space in between, somewhere along it. I mean I might seem 100% straight but I’d suck a dick for the right price, I should add a dick-sucking hookup tier to my Ko-fi but that’s probably against the rules to solicit prostitution through it I guess. On the other hand Chuu might seem 100% gay but she is still willing to cosplay as straight in recent music videos and someone even gayer than her would probably find that intolerable.
Sorry for my rant and question but should I listen to my parents wanting me to study a post-university program just to make sure I may have a better job? Honestly, I feel so stucked right now because on one hand I do want to change my job, but what if my effort ends up not doing that much different? Or should I try to learn a different language course for better change? Job market sucks so much these days.
No idea, I don’t know what the job market is like for you, and I’m probably not an expert in your particular field either. But why not do the post-Uni program part-time if you can and then you can keep your current shitty job for the moolah, most Unis have options like that that you can explore. But ultimately it’s always worth remembering what Frank Zappa said:
I saw this question on reddit, I’m curious about what your thoughts on this are considering you graduated with a music degree (I only assume you studied music history and such too)
How did guitar, drum, and bass become the most common instrument that bands used worldwide?
I think the common denominator here is that all of these instruments are either damn loud, or easily amplifiable. The invention of electric bass was probably the most important development for music in the 20th century. Drums are somewhat harder to amplify but they’re also damn loud acoustically, but the idea that you could plug in a bass and suddenly you could literally shake a room without needing an entire Wagnerian orchestra and your ability to do so was only limited by the size of the speaker, that was huge. In the pre-rock days, swing jazz bands could get drowned out easily by their own rowdy audiences, so the evolution to rock was a way to play to bigger crowds without having to insist that they all fucking shut up during the performance (as with classical music). Of course the first sound systems were pretty pathetic (I’ve visited the room in the ABC building in Adelaide where they have stored the PA system that The Beatles used when they played my city in 1964, it’s laughable by today’s standards) but it was still way better than just relying on a room with a hard floor to do the sound projection. This by the way is why old churches usually have hard floors and new churches usually don’t. So the short answer is that these instruments were the most practical “room fillers”.
is this h2h song about tennis?
It is if you want it to be.
@2:45 would you bang the squirrel lady?
Didn’t click the link, didn’t include it here either, let’s not spread the virus. You lost me at “squirrel”. No.
1. You been to any of the places In the trailer?
2. A film that you’d be interested in seeing?
1. I didn’t recognise anywhere specific.
2. Possibly, idk. Not wildly interested, I’ll probably forget about it, but if my partner finds it one day during a random movie scrolling excursion we may end up watching it. I don’t specifically seek out Australian movies to watch in particular. Most Australians don’t tend to particularly love Australian cinema and there’s only a very small handful of films from here that your average Australian even knows about.
Do you think the way kpop approaches new trends and genres is because now a lot of the progenitors of said trends and genres are now working with these kpop companies?
As an example, KimJ produced for a lot of the hyperpop rap scene in the early 2020s most notable example 2Hollis. Then he produced that same sound for kpop groups like JustB and kindie artists like the Deep and Effie. The Deep and Effie went on to make songs for girl groups like ILLIT and KiiiKiii. You can see how unlike in 2nd gen days where the musical trend would come years late and by people who was not involved in its rise and fall in the western sphere and thus they can experiment uninhibited by how its ‘supposed’ to sound the main people driving the biggest songs of the genre are the ones who helped start it in the west to begin with which is why is it less personal to the group and dare i say doesn’t have much of the ‘kpop magic?
Some other examples:
-Gnarly was an Alice Longao Gyu demo. Started kpop or at least katseyepop hyperpop
-Antifragile was a Isabella Lovestory demo. Started up again Latin kpop flirtings and maybe the Brazilian funk trend
-Cortis’ first album (HYBE loves doing this) was partially produced by artists like Teezo Touchdown who has made rage songs before now is the new genre for rapping kpop boys
-Jump started the whole eurodance techno thing going on and that was produced by Diplo who helped bring back that sound in the early 2010s
-Hell you can even add Sweetune producing Can’t Go Back for Odd Youth. In this wave of 2nd gen nostalgia you have one of the main producers doing a pitch perfect unmessed with example of the sound.
Basically do you think now that the people who helped along trends in the west are now creating and selling songs unchanged to kpop artists are the reason why Kpop trends move quicker and don’t necessarily have that kpop gold that kpopified versions of genres used to have?
I think that k-pop has settled into a point where it’ll be usually a couple years behind trends elsewhere, and I don’t see that changing. The reason why is that the pitching process to k-pop labels is complicated and long (something Azodi talks about in my interview with him) and it can actually take a couple years for a k-pop song to wind its way through the system, by which time trends have usually changed a little. There will always be exceptions though – AAA-list artists can move slightly quicker if they choose due to having instant access to pretty much any producer they want at any time, and in-house producers can keep up with trends quicker than outsourced producers, which is why YG in particular has managed to stay on top of trends a bit faster than other labels. But the really good k-pop songs mostly didn’t come from someone being very current with a trend anyway, the true “k-pop gold” has always lied elsewhere.
hello oppar, i’ve seen in the news that your shithead pm “albanese” has been sent to the timeout corner after saying he’d rail kylie minogue thricefold after saying he was freshly married. if you had the misfortune of becoming the next pm, which k-broad would you shag, marry and date and then be thrust into the fires of msm hell for it?
I hadn’t heard about this, but honestly this just makes me like him. Obviously his mistake was giving any answer at all, but if he didn’t play the game people would have criticised him for being a boring cunt, so he was placed in a no-win situation. At least he played.
However Kpopalypse is not after your vote so just go here and it’s the #1 for whatever year we’re in for all three until I do a new one of these posts, and then you can check again.
Since you’re an Aussie, you probably know who they are, 5 Seconds O’ Summer.
1. Honest to god thoughts on this song?
2. They’re a boyband, but they play instruments, so in the same vein as Day6 and Xdinary Heroes and all those other idol bands.
3. In one concert, in response to a fan, I recall them saying they would collab with Stray Kids and/or Enhypen because they got Aussies in their line-up. Do you think that it would result in music that is at the very least listenable?
Yes, very well aware of them. Don’t listen to them, don’t really care about them, couldn’t even tell you a single song of theirs. I am not westernpopalypse and ESPECIALLY not Australianpopalypse, why do you think I write about k-pop instead, it’s because all the pop in my country sucks so much ass that I couldn’t even be bothered paying attention to it at all. This song isn’t great, isn’t horrible, is too short to even give a fuck about really. If they did a k-collab I’d review it, odds of it being decent are the same as the odds of any k-pop collab being decent, in other words not fantastic.
What is your opinion on Nigerian Nicholas form &team also known as Nicholas Adeyinka
This question is either wrong or too meta for me to understand.
Can you review/opinons on…
Don’t ask for k-pop reviews in QRIMOLE, it’s a waste of a question. I do enough of that elsewhere! B-tracks will make it into album reviews, one day. Nugus will make it into Nugu Alert if they’re worthy.
In a recent roundup you said that NEXZ’ Loco had a good beat but randomness chucked on top of it. I realised that said beat was pretty similar to this song by indopop girl group No Na and it also has a lot of the same problems. Is it because of the chanting and sing talking? I doubt it would be improved with singing because it’s pretty melody less but there has to be a way to go over this kind of beat without sounding stupid right?
What a shit song, wasted a few minutes of my life there. This is even more nothingy than the NEXZ song, it’s literally just a beat and a bunch of yap. Next time you hear a shit song and think “gosh this reminds me of some other shit song I know of which also sucks dicks why don’t I ask Kpopalypse about it” perhaps stop and consider that maybe I’d like to hear something good instead hahaha.
But to answer your question yeah some melody would have helped, harmony would have helped even more. Where are the chord progressions?
This is such a specific topic to bring up. Kpop elitism over idol name pronunciation is something you’ve personally come across?
Not personally, no. But then, I don’t tend to have verbal discussions with k-pop fans where such an issue would even come up in the first place.
when are you coming back to instagram?
Highly unlikely unless social media laws change in Australia, or Instagram loosens its account creation so you no longer need a phone number to sign up. Both unlikely to happen. I am completely banned from there and as soon as I make an account and give it my phone number I get instabanned again. That shitty site is hardly worth getting a new phone number for, I can live with one less lies-spreading planet-destroying social network in my life.
These are the idols I think are the hottest in my favorite groups you tell me if you agree or disagree and why. TWICE – Momo EXID – Hani ITZY – Yeji KARA – Gyuri BESTie Dahye Sistar – Dasom NMIXX – Haewon Red Velvet – Seulgi STAYC – Yoon. Also if you want give me a list form your favorite groups of who you think are the hottest in the main groups you like
Disagree on all of these. I’m not getting the bias compendium started up again if that’s what you’re wondering, but I’ll throw you a bone and tell you Hyeyeong still the hottest one in BESTie and some of the other answers you can find here.
hello kpopalypse oppar. after a long burnout stage and a little quarter life crisis i decided to learn how to make music, and i have a couple of questions to ask:
1) how important is it that i dont know shit. like zero. i cant even tell a time signature or what key something is in. im literally starting from zero. ive never even attempted to learn an instrument.
2) all i have is a midi keyboard and reaper and some shitty free plugins (or are they called VSTs? I still dont know) is that okay? i dont know what im missing
3) how would you start learning to make music? what process would u take?
4) what is “good ear”? how do you even train that? whenever i look up threads on learning how to make music without knowing music theory, everyone just says “if you have a good ear you can tell if something works or not”. idk about a good ear but its like i cant send the input from my brain to my hand and every note is off and the rhythm has no rhyme or reason…
4b) on that note of something sounding good, how can one even quantify that. for example, i like experimental shit like bjork’s fossora, which in theory should feel like nails on a chalkboard but to me feels unique and interesting and like it still follows a narrative.
i dont wanna take the joy out of it bc im in corporate so this shit is literally just me having fun and wanting to express myself (i already paint, sew, make short films, ive always been a very creative person) but i wanted to ask for some advice.
Don’t even worry about it. We all start from nothing. Sure, you might never be as good at your shit as someone who started when they were 5 years old (like youres truly) but hey Tosin Abasi is one of the best guitarists in the world and he didn’t start early. So how much work you put in also has a lot to do with it.
Fine to start with! I know a guy who scored an international record deal with less.
If i were me starting afresh I’d go to a music school. I guess if I didn’t have money for that I’d start at home on YouTube search. You can learn a lot from YouTube but what it can’t do is pick up on your bad habits and correct you, or tell you where you need to improve. So there is really no substitute for a music teacher. Just pick one instrument (keyboard/piano is the logical choice, since that’s what you’re starting with) and try to learn some stuff. Be aware piano teachers are “old school” and may not show you relevant stuff but there are people who teach production too.
There are ways to test for this. Try this test as for bjork you’re probably just insane but that’s okay we all are or we probably wouldn’t be here
have you ever any encountered any portrayals of your people (australians, i guess) by foreigners (eg hollywood), that you’ve actually found at least borderline offensive?
Nah dgaf tbh, they will always get it wrong and I’m fine with that.
Anyone from [insert any culture here] who seriously thinks that people around the world will understand your culture enough to stop offending you – all I can say is you must think your own culture is pretty fucking shallow and crappy if you think the entire rest of the world is going to magically “get it” just by watching music videos or movies or whatever without anyone actually doing any explaining of anything to them.
So is it metal in the same sense that you say that Kara songs by Sweetune are?
“Finnish cello metal band Apocalyptica perform ‘Path’”
No it’s just literally metal without the drums and a bit more orchestration than usual.
Sweetune is somewhat different, that’s pop but written with occasional metal influence and concessions.
Is Seulgi lipsyncing in this performance from around 1:09 onward when somebody hands her the hand mic? (And would such a thing even be possible given that the sound quality changes?)
Additionally, is Wendy lipsyncing? Her voice sounds a little more faltering than the other members which makes me think it might be real, as she’s the strongest singer.
None of them are lipsyncing. What all five of them are doing, is what k-pop groups usually tend to do – they sing over their own song, but the recording of their own song that they’re singing over also has an equally loud vocal track. So what you’re hearing is a double-tracked vocal – live vocals, and studio vocals, at the same time. This has the benefit of hiding dogshit vocalists (the poorer singers can just sing quieter and let the backing track do more work) while still being “technically not miming” and therefore satisfying “omg my bias is so talented” narratives. It’s almost like training wheels for singers.
This is made extremely obvious during that mic handover at 1:09. Before then Seulgi isn’t literally lipsyncing, but the mic is busted so you can’t hear her, what you hear is only the studio audio of her voice on the track. Then when she gets given the new mic her voice gets a little louder – not much, just a little. That’s because now you’re hearing the studio vocal and her live vocal, at the same time, at around the same volume, but those volumes are multiplied together a little so the end effect is a slight boost in volume.
gun to head, you have to choose, which of these gentlemen would you prefer to pound your ass and why?
link
(context: how Beast has looked in the X-men movies over the years. Actors under the makeup/CGI: Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Hoult.)
If they’re pounding my ass they’re behind me so I don’t think the visuals matter. Just whoever has the smallest cock would be fine.
Is this a gen AI video?
I removed the link because I have no idea what the video is, and I couldn’t access it. I don’t have an Instagram account anymore which means I can’t look at any link that Instagram has flagged as being for adults or from an adult creator. But I really don’t want to answer questions like this anyway. Save the short and basic questions for livestreams or ask.oppar, that’s why they’re there. QRIMOLE works better if you actually want to know something more than a yes or no.
In relation to this Q&A on your ask oppar fm [my observation that “BTS has had plenty of impact charts-wise but zero impact musically”, yes I hate clickbait so much that I’m even spoilering my own link}:
Do any other artists spring to mind who have a similar dynamic within their respective musical lanes, kpop or not? Because this sentiment around BTS rings true for sure, to literally any kpop stan who does not stan the group, which is a lot of them as it happens.
Girls’ Generation, 2NE1, Bigbang, Blackpink, Twice, aespa, NewJeans; hell even IVE. They have all had made a footprint in kpop musically speaking, but BTS? Nada, they’ll be remembered for their commercial success and their rabid fanbase.
I’d probably also include: Stone Temple Pilots, Nickelback, Oasis, 2Pac… all artists who are/were hugely popular, who brought absolutely nothing to the table musically that hadn’t already been done exactly the same way before by others.
Is “rock organ” a specific instrument, or is just a nigga running a specific keyboard setting?
On keyboard workstations the “rock organ” is usually a patch that mimics the sound of the Hammond organ with rotary speakers or other similar sounding organs. This organ sound is the one most commonly associated with early rock music (well known examples: The Doors, Deep Purple).
Long time reader here. Youtube recommended that awful “Like Money” Wonder Girls collab with Akon the other day and I decided to watch it for the lolz. One thing that struck me was that, you know, people were singing.
hot gargage for reference (1:42):
I’ve always agreed with you that kpop fans are annoying as fuck when it comes to vocals and they worry about vocal prowess too much (even though, as you’ve stated many times, it’s barely there most of the time). And while I still believe people who think every group should be five Ailees + a rapper and a visual are morons, I’ve come to realize that I’m hungry for better singing in A-list kpop. I shouldn’t have to watch some poor 2nd gen survivor sitting in a chair and singing a ballad to hear some pleasant singing coming from new releases in Korea.
Where did “the one that can sing” go? 15-20 years ago every group had that one girl who would carry the vocals and would deliver the chorus (the Sunyes, Hyolyns and Taeyeons of the world). Even if they either dubbed or sounded shit live, the studio version was nice. Groups debuting in the mid 2010s still had the concept, and we’d try to find who was ‘the one that could sing’ even if that wasn’t always met with reality (e.g. your Rosés, Jihyos, etc). However, groups debuting this decade simply don’t have that anymore (I want to say this took off post NewJeans especially). It seems like scouting these days is only looking for girls that would fit right in with the Sohees and Suzys and Sullis of the past – in other words, the ones whose job is to be pretty and get modeling gigs.
That’s probably because everyone’s vocals is smoothed out to shit and back these days, so looking for at least one girl for your new group who has a marginal sense of rhythm and can hold a tune if nothing else isn’t a priority anymore. But still. I ended up listening to a bunch of old k-pop songs and even the ones drowning in autotune still seemed to have some semblance of decent singing somewhere.
All that is to say: I know a lot of your stance regarding vocals is didactic and I honestly don’t hope you change, because we need someone with visibility keeping fans grounded, but don’t you agree that singing has taken even more of a backseat in kpop these days compared to when you started writing, to the point where it’s actually harming the songs? Sorry for rambling.
Yes I agree with you that it’s taking more of a back seat. No, I don’t agree that it’s harming the songs. I personally like it that most singers these days are barely capable of getting through the melody as-is, it means they won’t venture off into solo wank-land quite so readily. If anything it’s given the songs a boost because songwriters have to rely on actual songwriting instead of falling back on wowing people with high notes that their singers can’t do without pitch assistance anyway. But all musical trends go in cycles. The current trend of fairly nondescript breathy vocals, or alternately just lots of yelling, that’s setting the conditions for the next mega “vocal’s vocalist” to appear, which undoubtedly will happen at some point. I mean arguably it’s already happened with “Golden”…
You heard this “sacrificial lamb” theory before? That Hybe supposedly use Tag PR to astroturf the hate that one particular member receives, to boost the public awareness of the rest of the group?
Your thoughts on it?
(Video “5 shady things that Hybe has done in kpop” by a supposed top marketing university graduate)
Going through his points one by one:
1. TAG PR agency hired by HYBE to manipulate public opinion against Min Hee Jin and NewJeans – true, although one detail is wrong, Min Hee Jin was being accused of grooming NewJeans long before TAG PR got involved.
2. “Sacrificial lamb” theory – never heard of this, but it’s just bullshit fan speculation. If this is true, how come Garam was removed from Le Sserafim immediately yet Wonhee is still allowed to be in Illit? There’s no consistency applied here. This one has nothing to do with TAG PR by the way, Garam’s removal from Le Sserafim pre-dates HYBE and TAG PR’s cozy relationship.
3. and 4. Signing group members as independent contractors so they don’t get rights that employees would get – true, and not just common in HYBE or even just in k-pop. When you sign a record label contract they call it a contract for a reason.
5. HYBE sabotaged Gfriend to make way for Le Sserafim – we all know this one is true. Light a candle for Yerin’s toilet paper.
is his strategy for protecting hardcover book dust jackets a good one?
Never done it but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.
Do you have some insight into the Madein situation that people in the fandom bubble might not be aware of?
Putting aside the elephants in the room for a minute with the 143 agency: There’s only Japanese members left, the majority of their vocal fanbase on social media on both Twitter and Youtube comments seem to be writing in Japanese text. Yet they still seem to be promoting in the Korean market, including performing on Korean music shows and releasing songs in Korean (eg Mashiro solo song, Hotline). What’s the logic here?
The Japanese market makes more money, and since they’ve latched onto the group they are going where the money is. Japan has twice the population of Korea, their currency is worth more (so Korean companies make decent bank on Japanese sales) and the Japanese are also really into buying physical product. It’s the second-biggest music market in the world behind the USA. If the Korean door is shut but the Japanese door is open it’s a no-brainer.
Hey, as a 50-something man, could you please explain why kpop is currently going to such extreme ends of the spectrum? Why not try for a comfy medium, or will that go unnoticed by your “dirty old man” demographic?
60% of Ourbirthday JYP new girl group are minors and they released a song about giving handjobs, “Squeezy”. Of course.
Meanwhile Cube flop adult girl group Lightsum are redebuting to appeal to the Japanese market. They’ll probably release some bullshit which sounds nursery rhymes recorded on the MIDI synthesiser chipset from a Sega Mega Drive console. They’ll probably be dressed like Strawberry Shortcake/Victorian lolita fashion out of a Lewis Carroll book.
On one end you’ve got underraged teenagers singing about adult sexual activities. On the other end you’ve probably got adult woman acting infantilised.
(Probably worth noting that I think Cube had tried to go a “more mature” route with Lightsum, when they kicked out the minor members in 2022.)
The “dirty old man” demographic is definitely there, but it’s relatively small. Young girl groups aren’t marketed primarily to men my age, they are marketed to men of University-going age i.e people in the demographic who could realistically visualise themselves as their partners age-wise. Because that “my chances are one in a gazillion, but not nothing” feeling strengthens the parasocial fantasy all the more.
Can’t speak for Lightsum in Japan I am not Jpopalypse who the fuck knows what j-pop fans are into.
is Gavy NJ – He Broke Up a copy of Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)?
I refuse to listen to check. I value my time more than this.
Hi, you’re one of the few people I trust on the internet. I’m curious about what makes experimental music well … experimental. I’ve seen that term around these days reffering to some disliked kpop songs like: ‘Good Thing- Idle’ and ‘Sneakerz- Itzy’. I just think it’s because they don’t know genres outside kpop and they label it as such. I tired searching on Google about experimental music, but sadly I’m a dummy cunt and couldn’t understand, so I need other knowledgeable cunt like you to explain me like I’m five. Have a good day btw.
It’s a very subjective term. You can safely assume that precisely zero of k-pop idol music is pushing any sort of “experimental” boundary. The closest k-pop probably has to something like this that I’ve written about might be Cacophony, but we’re not really talking pop music at all at that point.
Probably the first time that any very well known “pop artist” did anything truly “experimental” might be The Beatles with “Revolution #9”.
And Lou Reed did an entire album:
However they weren’t the first, just the first who were also “pop stars” or “rock stars” of a sort to do anything like this. I guess you could define experimental music as “experimenting with sound” as opposed to than “making a song”. But there’s no broad consensus on what experimental music is or isn’t, other than that your k-pop bias definitely is about as far away from it as you can imagine.
are there any specific kpop songs that you think are very good but wouldn’t recommend to a western pop fan? or, at least, would expect them to strongly dislike?
Almost all of them! It would be easier to list the ones that I would recommend rather than the ones I wouldn’t. (That list is “APT“, by the way.)
what kpop groups/soloists would you say are most inconsistent in terms of quality – which of their songs are really good and which are really shit
Would take an entire series to answer this coherently, but Red Velvet and NCT 127 probably take the award for the highest amount of quality variance across their entire catalogue.
Hi dearest oppar, I hope you’re feeling okay reading this! I saw you recommended Brazilian funk recently, and it got me thinking: I know you hate the “latino trend”… I mean, I get it because it sounds like gimmicky tropical house most times to my ears. But like you said, you enjoy other “latin” genres and, for Kpop exemples of the trend, you reviewed Antifragile positively back then. Are there other “latin” genres, or artists, that you think are consistently decent?
METAL
Brazil is the other metal capital of the world, along with Japan.
Was your dad in the Hitler Youth? Any stories about it, if so?
No, he was too young. He of course wanted to be in it but the war ended before he reached the age where he could have joined. All German boys loved Hitler Youth because life in Germany in the 30s was pretty drab if you were poor but if you were in Hitler Youth you got to go on government-funded camps and stuff and do fun outdoor activities that you’d never get to do otherwise. And yes you of course got the Nazi indoctrination along with it, but it’s no different to Christian camp in that respect, it’s just different indoctrination, and as a kid you just do what the adults say and sit politely through the boring shit where they lecture you about politics and how great Germany is and then you get to have camping adventures. The vast majority of adults in Germany had no reliable information about any of the Nazi atrocities, so it’s not like any real alarm bells would have been going off for these young people.
respectively, who did you personally declare to be the queens of Waterbomb Seoul, Busan and Sokcho?
No opinion, I am yet to do research on this. Once I start tallying up the objectification survey results I’ll probably decide at that time. (But Kiss Of Life, probably.)
Why would someone want to strum so close to the bridge on the bass?
1. the strings don’t flop around as much because you’re hitting them closer to the bridge where they’re harder to move
2. the sound is the instrument has more high harmonics
Neither of these things are objectively good or bad, and ultimately the sound of the bass changes significantly once it’s amplified anyway, so the main factor is really the first one. If you have a bass (or guitar) you can try picking at various points along the string and you’ll notice that the sound gets bassier and the response gets floppier the further you move toward the neck.
What are your thoughts on Han Seo-Hee now? Looking back, I thought she was super feminist, but that turned out to be nothing but dunking on trans women for ‘ruining feminism’. I’m a trans girl and all that really rubbed me the wrong way, as if cis women online who deliberately infantilise themselves and attack other women online aren’t already doing a fine job of that, but hey what do I know, this seems to be as good as it gets when it comes to k-pop feminism.
She was doing great. I mean yeah it’s a pity about the transphobia thing but I can’t expect every person ever to agree with me on everything, and I don’t expect any young person in Korea just figuring out feminism for herself with no real education in it and in a country that is generally hostile to it to have any clue necessarily about shit like that. The levels of education about trans issues in Korea are I think fairly minimal compared to other countries. I’m more forgiving of Han Seo Hee than say, J K Rowling, because J K Rowling has the age and education levels and cultural environment to know better, Han Seo Hee seems relatively less stable and her opinion on things has probably flip-flopped a few times since we last checked in on her. Also she was an idol trainee for a while and that shit literally curdles your mind, expect occasional ignorant takes from Korean idols to continue to happen on a regular basis in the rare times when they open their mouths and speak on things.
Why did JYPE terminate Gunil for allegedly being rude towards fans but they didn’t terminate Jun Han for actually being racist?
Because as an idol, respecting your fans is #1 and takes precedence over everything, if you don’t appear to respect your fans you are literally unsaleable as an idol. Whereas a bit of racism, okay not a great look but it can be PR-spun/educated out/fxied/ignored/swept under rug etc and most fans won’t care if they’re not in that demographic. Racism is only disrespecting some of your fans, so from an agency point of view, it’s manageable. Agencies don’t actually like dropping people from groups, after all they spent all that time and money training them, they’ll do it if they feel they have to, but if they think they can salvage the image they will try.
Dear Kpopalypse,
I write to you hoping for some advice, and potentially explanations…
Please remove everything between the brackets, as I don’t want a chance of this being found out by my IRLs. Or you can just shorten whats in the brackets so it’s harder to identify who’s written the complaint. Either one. BUT: Do feel free to reference any details in your response.
[details removed]
I suppose my main question is – what do you think Jennie is trying to get out of this situation????? I’m more confused than anything else. At first I was really mad, but honestly I just find the whole thing funny now, because it’s started all this unnecessary drama. Wonyoung has admitted to Sana and I that she finds the whole situation awkward, and that she doesn’t like that Jennie reads all the messages in the group chats but never says anything.
Looking forward to your insights in human psychology soon, Kpopalypse.
Stream BLINGY for clear skin.
Thanks in advance,
A loyal fan and dedicated reader.
<3
I’m not great at deciphering the machinations in questions like this. I think the best strategy is to just be mindful of Jennie being a bit unhinged, but I wouldn’t be doing anything drastic about it. Just note it. Maybe Jennie wants attention. Maybe she has some other agenda that is invisible to you. Or perhaps she herself doesn’t even know what she wants. But there’s some kind of issue going on and you may never truly know what it is and ultimately it’s not your concern. I wouldn’t worry too much, just now that you’ve identified certain patterns be mindful that they could reappear and by being prepared for potential future confusions like this, you can make sure it doesn’t cause problems in the deeper friendship group. You can just nod and smile together. That doesn’t mean Jennie should be ostracised or removed from the group – she might have real issues that she’s dealing with. Just be mindful of it, that’s all. You might not be able to completely trust Jennie, but you can probably trust Jennie to continue to be Jennie.
video: “day in the life of a frugal japanese salaryman”.
probably exaggeration, but this woman suggests that she’d “lose the will to live” if she doesn’t have australian cafe food.
1. is food like that really good enough to “die over”?
2. cafe food that i’ve had in australia tends to be expensive af. how is this “frugal”? 3500 yen is approximately $21.92 USD or $30.58 AUD!
1. no. mind you I’m not big on salad in general (exception: vietnamese salad)
2. 30 bucks for some salad goddamn, that is certainly not cheap, I can dine a lot better than this for that kind of money
Why do Stays always say that Stray Kids were super nugu until Gods Menu? Sure, they didn’t get instant success like Twice or Blackpink, but they still debuted under a big3 company, were introduced as ‘Twices little brothers’, won several rotys in 2018, etc. Its giving nugu saviour complex except they’re not even nugu.
Couldn’t tell you, you’d have to ask them.
Hello! I’ve been very curious about Blue Blood – ARTMS. While fans have mainly been mad about it not matching the initial demo, I personally don’t hear that much of a difference to warrant the insane outcry. I do want to know if it does for you.
My real question is this though: why does this song work so well? You mentioned it being a grower song, and I fully agree where it’s easily become my favorite Kpop release of the year. However, there’s something about it I can’t explain outside of it being reminiscent of the (good) EDM songs of the 2010s such as Clarity – Zedd. I’d like to know if you have any further insights that I might not have as just a casual listener.
I don’t think the two versions are radically different, the drop is essentially similar. It’s more sparse in the demo, and a little more jarring because of all that cutting to empty space which isn’t in the final mix, but it’s the same sonic idea and it has a similar effect in both versions of the song.
No other real insight at this stage, other than having fast beats and lots of melody and harmony is generally a good thing. A lot of faster songs really dumb down melody and harmony or remove it altogether and replace with sound effects and chanting, “Blue Blood” doesn’t do this and that’s a definite plus.
I’ve been seeing this conceptualization of sexy kpop girl group concepts as “good sexy” and “bad sexy.” The representatives of good sexiness (consistently applauded for their socially sensitive sexiness) are Kiss of Life and recently, Dayoung. The representatives of bad sexiness are Asa from Babymonster, Jennie, and Lisa. Reductively, good sexiness looks like smiling cheerfully, energetic dancing, wearing revealing clothing but never showing any cleavage or butt cheek. Bad sexiness is sultry eye contact, skirts longer than safety shorts, cleavage, etc.
Good sexiness is supposed to exude a sense that the performer is happy and confident in themselves, with an implication that they are not performing to secure the male gaze. Bad sexiness is expectedly the opposite. It reminds me an awful lot of the old concept of classy sexiness and is especially interesting to me because under this understanding, AOA, early-mid career Hyuna are considered good sexy. I am pretty sure they were firmly in the bad sexy camp back then, haha.
I’m a woman so to me, I can tell the difference, kind of, mostly when it’s at the far end of either ends of this spectrum. But I suspect it doesn’t matter for men and we (women) are out here debating what kind of performance of sexuality is better for advancing feminism and not degrading women and men are jerking it at the same speed regardless. I’m interested in your opinion on this cool new sexiness classification system!
This is a very interesting observation. Something I’ll have to think about! I think you’re onto something with the eye contact. The face and eyes are the most sexual part of the body. They’re so sexual, that we don’t even tend to think of face and eyes as “body parts” even though they objectively are. So when a woman who is a k-pop enacts the full force of her gazy witchy gaze gaze of +14 hypnotic gazing at the (presumed) men behind the camera, riling them up into a frenzy of sexual sexy sexness, this is obviously bad because male pleasure = all that is bad in this world. Whereas Kiss Of Life don’t really acknowledge the camera too much beyond a polite wave, they do the same sexy moves but they seem more like they’re in their own world, rather than inviting you in. I think there’s something there. A potential thesis awaits someone game enough to write one.
Hi Lypse oppar. In January this year I started going to the gym and it helps both my physical and mental health as I’m someone who struggles with anxiety and a chronic illness. It was good ultil a guy that works at the cleaning there stalked me. He asked to follow me on Instagram and went to my online store page to comment catcall me (unfortunatelly I did’t took a screenshot and just blocked him). I was doing my exercise and he wanted to start a conversation when I clearly showed disconfort and was in the middle of my series. So I said what was happening to my instructor and she talked to him and said he wouldn’t bother me anymore but it wasn’t a big deal (I was so upset to see another woman normalizing harassment). He stopped talking to my father that goes to the gym with me, and would provoke making poses or something in front of him. Now he follows me to provoke, pretending he needs to clean just where I am. Last time I was in pain and bleeding a lot due to my illness and he was around stressing me out as if I don’t have enought problems. My gym contract is ending in January 2027 and I’m considering not renewing and finding another place I can feel safe, but at the same time I don’t want to feel like pushing my dad to go to other place as he is doing great there with the new instructor (not the one that didn’t helped me) and being an elderly man that needs special assistence to exercise. I also feel rage to have to go away from a place it’s my right to use and exist freely due to some guy who can’t respect women boundaries. What should I do? Since aI have no evidence of the situation to tell his boss what he’s doing? As you can see it is making me more anxious.
Sorry that you’re going through this. Never mind your instructor (who obviously barely gives a fuck, or at the very least doesn’t grasp the full context of what’s happening here), I’d escalate this straight to gym management, evidence or not. I’m sure they have cameras in the gym anyway, if they make even the slightest effort they will be able to see him stalking you. This needs to be clamped down on immediately. If they won’t take you seriously, then tell them you’ll pull your business and leave negative reviews etc also consider getting law enforcement involved and/or legal advice. Also, start keeping a diary of everything he does and every interaction or stalking event he has with you. Diaries are admissable as court evidence. Good luck.
1. Was she {Seungyeon from KARA} nick named Hammy back in the day because she’s thicc?
2. Would touring as a musician or performer in an “in demand” act be a somewhat reliable form of income?
3. I know that Gyuri, Hammy and Jiyoung transitioned to acting careers after KARA first disbanded. Both musical touring and acting are gig economy professions. Do you think they’re more in demand being members of KARA on the “reunion tour” circuit vs being actresses?
1. No idea, never heard of this, from memory she wasn’t thicc back then
2. It can be, but it’s easy to lose money too if venues don’t fill up
3. Wouldn’t have a clue, I’d have to be in the loop on their acting careers as well as how their tours are going to answer this properly and I’m really not informed on either of those things. I do not follow the “success levels” of celebrities generally speaking, kpopalypse.com is not a celebrity gossip site that tracks careers and who’s who etc
{from last month’s QRIMOLE} “Korean celebrities don’t make that much compared to celebrities from other countries. Labels don’t have the capital to retain a huge megastar.”
So you are almost suggesting that groups like Twice are probably generating similar amounts of profit as Western artist but the majority of this has to be put back into the label instead of paying the artist?
But do you think the Twice members are all wealthy enough to retire now if they wanted to?
Answer 3. from question above also answers this question too. Impossible to answer with any authority, I suspect they’re doing okay but they’re probably still poor compared to any equivalent western pop star that has been in a group of equivalent success levels to Twice for an equivalent length of time.
1. what’s your take on this movie director’s take? {“One Night Only” director Will Gluck says it’s “100%” true that Gen Z and Gen Alpha don’t want to see sex on screen: “I went through this on two movies. I have long pages of empirical data about it. The only thing is I don’t think it’s just Gen Z and Gen Alpha. I believe it’s been a societal shift from taking nudity in adult situations and putting them on your phones at home for everybody. Now it’s more of a private, intimate thing that people don’t want to see when they’re in a shared experience. Whenever people now see nudity or very adult situations in a big theater, they get uncomfortable.”} i suppose if he has data to back up his claims, give the audience what they want, i guess?
2. slightly related, there has been a noticeable shift away from showing female nudity in hollywood productions, but the amount of swinging cocks has exploded. is this to appease mainly female viewers? something like HBO shows (etc pay TV yank shows) used to be a reliable source of goon material for teenage boys. (i think a good contrast for this would be early seasons of Game of Thrones from the early 2010’s had a lot of female nudity, but it was pretty sparse by later seasons from the mid to late 2010s. the Game of Thrones 2020’s spin-offs House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have the swinging cocks.) wouldn’t consistency be better, have nudity for all genders?
1. He would know better than me. I’ll take his word for it!
2. I watched the original 1972 Rollerball recently staring James Caan, it had swinging cocks and male asscheeks in the showers after the game, but no female nudity at all. Perhaps we’re working our way back to Rollerball. But just like with music, everything goes in cycles. I think also my generation used to stay up late at night watching films that were fap friendly on late night TV, these days that role has probably been replaced by OnlyFans, hot tub streamers and porn websites. There’s more competition for your goon these days. Women consume these things slightly less, so mainstream TV and film now caters to them slightly more. As with all Kpopalypse takes this may be bullshit but it’s just my theory.
opinions on artms’s hyper crush?
the song feels loonatic-esque but for some reason i think the mixing sounds a little bit off
You get album reviews, or you get me throwing down on every B-track ever in QRIMOLE and ask.oppar etc. You don’t get both. Rest assured I’ll get to all your faves eventually.
what are the best breakdowns in kpop you can think of?
Answered here (#2). Nothing else has really come close.
Hey, could you plz explain how Australia got to be such a big player in the global gambling industry? When I go to the bar the “one armed bandit” slot machines are supplied by Australian companies. Streaming site Kick was started by Australian company Stake because Twitch started cracking down on gambling streams. They paid big Twitch streamers hundreds of millions for exclusivity contracts with Kick.
No idea but I do know that Australians have always loved gambling. The rate of gambling addiction here is very high. Also we’re not good at it – Australians lose more money per year per capita gambling than any other country. When I was young poker machines were banned in my state because they were so addictive… so all the poker-machine addicted old people used to go on coach bus trips across the border to gamble, so my state legalised it to stop the revenue leakage. Anyway I didn’t know about the gambling industry stuff but it’s not surprising.
Which rhythm games do you enjoy, since you clearly enjoy them? I have completely exhausted the Muse Dash catalogue.
Also, anything else you can recommend me that sounds like Godflesh’s Streetcleaner? Insanely good stuff, hits the exact spot for me. I want something that sounds like whatever the hell is going on here – reminiscent of Swans’ earlier work, no?
Muse Dash is the only one I’ve ever really clicked with.
Godflesh’s “Streetcleaner” album and early Swans do get compared a lot for good reason, and not much else really sounds exactly like them. Lubricated Goat and Foetus do get close at times but both groups are more overtly rock I think, it’s not quite the same feeling. Other groups that are mentioned along with Godflesh a lot are Pitchshifter and Scorn but I think they’re also a very different vibe to that early stuff and not even close.
Blackpink have often been criticised for having too few songs over their 10 year career. Babymonster on the other hand have been releasing songs on a regular basis since their debut 2 years ago. Which approach is the best in your opinion?
The better approach for me personally is more songs, because more songs means maybe more good songs. But there are no guarantees. As for what’s best for marketing or money or whatever I don’t really give a fuck I’m not here to stan companies.
You’ve said that for you to judge songs properly you need to suit down in a place with good speakers, right? We’ve also established that the walls in your place are fairly thin, if people can hear Jennifer [edit] while you livestream. You seem to publish the weekly round-up fairly late at night. So does this mean you keep Jennifer up every Monday listening to kpop music on loud speakers?
It’s not that our walls are overly thin but our house is pretty small. But no I don’t crank my sound system at jet engine levels. That’s as much to respect my own hearing as it is her sanity. I don’t think we’d still have a relationship if I forced her to listen to each week’s bullshit k-pop songs, but I don’t exactly want to go deaf listening to the shit myself either. Good speakers can still sound good at lower volume, and when I say good I don’t mean “top of the line” just “not total ass”.
do you think that wonho used AI for his new release or is it mere studio wizardry?
Not sure what bits you’re referring to specifically but you can check out this behind the scenes video and see what you think.
Back in SM’s glory days of box videos, I was often very surprised by how much stuff that I thought was CGI was actually physical sets that were built for the videos.
why d’you reckon there are so many aussies in kpop now? american foreign members seem to be getting rarer, and forget british. its all aussies now
There’s a much higher Asian population per capita in Australia than there is in the USA or UK. That would absolutely be the reason. You can count myself in that. I went to a new restaurant that opened up in my city and no shit there was no English menu anywhere, the only English in the entire restaurant was the name of it on the sign outside. So many Asians in my city that a new restaurant here doesn’t even accommodate for English speakers.
1. When states/nations are failing, why do women commonly turn to prostitution as a first resort? Eg cases of lady doctors and lawyers in collapsing Venezuela doing just that. In the same circumstances, why don’t men commonly resort to prostitution as a first option too?
(Eg: https://www.newsweek.com/venezuelas-economic-crisis-has-forced-doctors-become-prostitutes-672035)
2. Have you considered prostituting yourself? You complain about being broke pretty regularly.
1. Prostitution is an option that works for some if you need a lot of money really quickly. If people were realistically going to pay me to fuck then maybe I’d do it too, but I’m not seeing a lot of takers. Most guys don’t get into prostitution I guess because they don’t necessarily think or know that they would generate enough interest for it to be a viable earner. Whereas women seem to get more of that attention (think about dating sites and how women tend to get more interactions) so it might cross their mind more that “hey perhaps there’s money in this”.
2. See 1. but I’m already prostituting myself by agreeing to review albums after writing a big-ass post ages ago saying how I definitely wouldn’t.
hey, could you plz sample some of these animated shorts and tell me what you think? thx.
I skimmed some of it. Looks nice, I guess? I’m more into music than video art concepts or whatever this stuff is. I don’t have anything profound to say about any of it.
1. hey, when these veteran kpops resign their contracts for just group activities and go out on their own for solo activities, forming their “one man agencies”, would you consider that to be a “high risk, high reward” gamble?
2. actually this got me going down a rabbit hole.
Hyolyn formed a solo agency after leaving Sistar called Brid3.
this article suggests that doing was rare at the time (pretty common place now, it seems.)
Now that agency went broke.
She subseqently cut ties with that agency, to form another “one man agency” soon after.
So what do you think possibly could’ve happened here? found Venture Capital investment for the new agency? the previous articles suggest that she funded the prior agency with Sistar money.
3. now this reminds me of Jay Park. he’s now onto THIRD agency. he founded AOMG in 2013, H1GHR MUSIC in 2017, MORE VISION in 2022. Seems he was CEO of both AOMG and HIGHR simultaneously until stepping down in 2021. Then he turns around and forms another agency right after, develops boy group/backup dancer group LNGSHOT, signed Chungha, etc. (AOMG still carries on, having recently debuted girl group Keyveatz.) Why do you think he did all this? why do you think he leaves one agency just to find another?
No, they’re actually doing it to reduce risk. Multiple irons in the fire means that you have a fallback if one venture fucks up.
Oh wow that Sistar article is so annoying it keeps scrolling straight to the bottom so I can’t read it… maybe it’s trying to mimic Hyolyn’s bank balance… anyway no idea what happened, but there’s a million ways agencies can go bust, it’s a tough industry to make money from and it’s pointless speculating on questions like this because the possibilities for failure are endless
I don’t know but he still owes my girlfriend some soju, I wish he’s stop dicking around trying to rejuvenate his long-dead k-pop career by riding off his new boy group’s coattails and put some more effort into his alcohol promotions
plz write a mini-fanfic about why seulgi crying during this “for the fans” ballad performance at a concert.
Seulgi sang a shit song and she cried because it was so shit. The end.
GAMING QUESTIONS
For some reason I got zero book questions again and a ton of constant gaming questions, does this mean my games are better than my books? Or does it mean my book writing is so fantastic that nobody could possibly have anything to ask me as my book writing answers all questions merely by existing? Anyway here are the gaming questions…
is this an example of the clickbait journalism you were talking about in the august qrimole? article was made on the basis on of a couple of tiktoks.
“GTA 6’s Relationship Mechanic Is ‘Cheating’ on Your Real-Life Partner and Break Up Worthy, According to Angry Spouses”
Not really clickbait in terms of just the title, because it’s directly saying what the actual thing is that people are upset about – the relationship mechanic. A more clickbait title would be “Angry spouses think this new GTA6 feature is breakup-worthy”. It’s still very bad journalism though in terms of “let’s look for some incredibly niche thing that very few people actually give any fucks about and blow it up like it’s a big deal”, k-pop sites do this all the time, as does tabloids, political social media etc.
Thoughts on Game? Turn-based tactical strategy isometric view.
They couldn’t have made it look less interesting to me. This feels like something that would be 90% boring cutscenes and 10% ultra-shallow gameplay. I think Jagged Alliance 2 (the original one, not any repackages etc) is the best that this type of game ever got, I don’t think it will ever be beaten. Generally speaking, the prettier a game like this looks, the bigger a red flag it is, because it means they spent the dev time on the pretties instead of the things that make a game like this work well.
Do you like minecraft
Yes, although haven’t played it in years and honestly I think they’ve added too much to it at this point. I think when they added redstone and mines, that was enough, they could have stopped there. When they started adding a lot of RPG elements like potions, levels and enchantments, I thought that really diluted the experience and weaked the game a lot. The simplicity was part of the charm, and the thing that made Minecraft unique was the building, so why add generic RPG elements that are in thousands of other games, instead of doubling down on the things that make Minecraft different? I actually miss the smooth beaches of the early access version of Minecraft that vanished and were replaced by something more jagged and unsightly in 1.0, I also miss the days when caves were genuinely rare and you got super excited when you found one, instead of now where they’re freaking everywhere.
Why is violently killing teenagers seen as being okay, but doing drugs is too much?
This upcoming game, Halloween, is currently banned in Australia. Smoking weed let’s human survivor spot the killer Michael Myers easier, or something.
“IllFonic’s *Halloween: The Game* was **Refused Classification** (effectively banned from legal sale) by the Australian Classification Board due to **incentivized illicit drug use**, rather than its horror or graphic slasher violence.
**The Specific Gameplay Mechanic**
Under Australia’s Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, illicit drugs are permitted in R18+ media, but **cannot be tied to gameplay benefits, rewards, or incentives**. In *Halloween: The Game*, players could smoke marijuana in-game, which rewarded them with a visual buff/ping to highlight Michael Myers’ location on the map.
**Why the Rules Apply**
* **The “Incentive” Rule:** Australia’s Board draws a strict line between depiction and incentive. Simply showing drug use is allowed, but granting a mechanical advantage (like revealing an enemy’s location) automatically triggers a *Refused Classification* decision regardless of the R18+ rating.
* **Precedents:** Similar bans or mandatory edits occurred with games like *Fallout 3* (renaming Morphine to “Med-X”), *State of Decay*, and *Saints Row IV* due to mechanics where using controlled substances rewarded the player with health, stamina, or powers.
Because the publisher (IllFonic) chose not to modify or censor the mechanic prior to launch, the game could not receive a rating for distribution on storefronts in Australia.”
The thing you quoted (idk where from) basically answers your own question for you, saving me the bother, which is nice.
I guess the reason why it’s that way, if I were to hazard a guess, is that randomly killing people in games is seen as “fantasy” that few people are likely to do and Australia doesn’t really have a huge randomly-killing-people problem (yes it happens here but it’s hardly epidemic) whereas drugs are seen as more like something closer to reality because pretty much the whole country is on drugs of one form or another. So they’re not overly worried about games causing a mass murder spree but they might be more concerned about drugs being portrayed in games as a broadly good thing. Personally I don’t agree with this approach but that’s probably why it’s there.
i was passive watching someone stream on Twitch game Halo Infinite on my 2nd screen and noticed he had 600-700 viewers. Infinite is pretty much “a dead game” (~2500 concurrent daily players lately). Isn’t it a given that chat moves fast when you have a lot of viewers? his was barely moving. i figured he was likely view botting. today i’m passive watching someone play Sea of Thieves, a pretty boring game where you spend a lot down time sailing. this guy had 1500 simultaneous viewers and same thing again, chat is barely moving.
do you think this is normal? ppl who stream as their full time career just view bot. if you were in their shoes would you do the same?
i think things like advertising sponsors only approach streamers with large enough audiences.
I wouldn’t know. If you spend a bit of time watching streamers you’d probably know a lot more than me about it. I guess people want to appear popular, or feel popular, or whatever, and the thing about attracting sponsors makes sense to me but idk really. People have egos and nobody wants to be a “flop” so they just fake it until they hopefully one day make it. But then who knows maybe it’s legit I wouldn’t know I haven’t seen these streams.
Thoughts on RTS game {Repterra}?
Cool idea thematically, but in practice just looks like any old RTS? I’m so bored of RTS, I play precisely none of them these days.
does arcade gameplay and drug like visuals make the subject matter more appealing to you?
No.
So they just lobbying (bribing) the South Korean government?
At this rate PS6 will probably be $1000-2000 USD and nobody is upgrading their PCs. Why isn’t AAA industry trying to pivot? They seem to keep doubling down on resource hog UE5 and cutting edge, demanding graphics. Blizzard back in the day made games that were very successful from making stylised art graphics that would run on toaster spec PCs. Why aren’t AAA learning from the past?
{stuff about the current RAM crisis}
Because you crazy gamers insist on being obsessed with graphics and framerates and all that bullshit so they cater to that.
The RAM crisis is nearly over, by the way. China has seen the gap and is picking up the shortfall in RAM manufacture. In a few years there will be cheap Chinese RAM all over the place, as long as Winnie don’t mess things up with any boycott-inducing invasions.
could you plz give us brief impressions of any computer games you’ve gotten recently?
Yes, click here.
thoughts on features of latest Stalker 2 patch?
Don’t really care, won’t be playing this for many years probably. I’ll give them at least another five to iron out all the bugs.
Do you see parallels between this group of people {playstation fans discussing no longer feeling served by the playstation brand in recent years} and kpop fans? I.e. 30,40,50 something year old men who’ve made stanning a particular gaming brand (eg a console brand) part of their identity?
I don’t know enough about it to be able to say. Maybe in the sense that they might be treating it like a “fandom” but since I just discovered this literally when I read this question, and I have no skin in the console game anyway, I couldn’t throw down on this with any authority. All I know about this is what’s in the video.
thoughts on game? it’s a massive open world title. (getting around is pretty trivial once you have a helicopter though.)
It’s an UbiSoft game so that alone guarantees I’ll never play it because I hate their stupid game launcher so much. No game is worth tolerating that nonsense.
does mission customisation mode for SWAT 4 successor, Ready or Not, appeal to you?
I don’t have the game so I don’t care really but anything that enhances replayability is good. In games like this I always like to max out the number of enemies so if I ever do get this thing it might be fun doing that.
NOT QUESTIONS
[someone just sent the text from this link of Wonyoung telling a fan how to mentally get their shit together, basically she says “toughen up, princess” but nicely]
Okay. JAV of the month is FJIN-153, it will make you mentally stronger.
I think No.9 is so underwhelming and shockingly overrated. Don’t know why everyone gags if I wanna listen to a t-ara song im not plugging in that bullshit. Who goes to t-ara discography and says “ooh I cant wait to listen to No.9”? No one its so boring. It’s sugar free but with somehow less interesting progressions and verses. I cant take this strangulation with No.9 supremacists anymore
It must feel weird being wrong. JAV of the month is MIDA-774 which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have any strangulation so you should be good.
I’ve never seen your face and likely never will so whenever I visualize you I imagine you look exactly like Eunjeong from T-ARA but also have a deep voice that’s menacing sounding but never says threatening things at all
This is completely true. I look exactly like the guys in JUR-638.
Kpopalypse I have a bone to pick with you. You don’t like anything your reviews are so bad and bullying and mean and bad. You’re a big old hairy Aussie what do YOU know about music. I’ll have you know I was in high school band once as a junior so I know more about oasis than you. I demand that this blog be taken offline IMMEDIATELY or I will call the cyber police to have you virtually evicted!
Hairy? I wish I was as hairy as the girl in MIMK-272.
Have you ever watched the anime backstreet gokudolls? I think it’s absolutely glorious and was comedy gold when I first watched it. But why you may ask am I mentioning this in my letter to a kpop reviewer? I think a parody of this anime would make for a truly amazing boygroup music video if the industry weren’t such scared cunts. I know it’s unrealistic because they couldn’t even handle Sulli going out with no bra but is it so bad to wish for the unrealistic because it would be nice to have? I’m not sure how well it would actually translate to a music video concept but I feel like with the right CD and styling it could work and be super funny. I’m also the same one who sent in about being a fellow blogger from July QRIMOLE :3
I haven’t seen it. I don’t care about anime. Have answered questions about why not several times before in QRIMOLEs and I think it’s also addressed in the FAQ. I do care about SNOS-336 though.
no question i just want a lesbian jav
That’s fair. Honesty is the best policy. Lesbian JAV of the month is BBAN-609.
SECOND BEST QUESTION
1 You describe yourself as “sex-positive and fap-positive,” while the Bible teaches that lust is sinful: “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). How do you reconcile your views with this teaching? Do you believe deliberately cultivating sexual desire toward people is morally harmless?
2 Your “Objectification Survey” asks readers to rank real K-pop performers for “Best BOOBS,” “Best ASS,” and “Best ABS.” You also say that you oppose the “puritanism” surrounding K-pop. Where do you personally draw the line between acknowledging that someone is attractive and reducing that person to sexual body parts?
3 You say that “admitting that you find someone in the public eye attractive” is not shameful. Do you think there is a moral difference between privately finding someone attractive and publicly encouraging thousands of people to sexualize and rank that person?
4 You describe these things as humor and say “solo sex doesn’t harm anyone else.” Is the absence of physical harm enough to make something morally good? If so, how would you respond to the Christian idea that lust can be sinful even when nobody is physically harmed?
5 If a Christian tells you, “I believe sexuality is good, but I don’t want to participate in lust or sexualize other people because of Jesus’ teaching,” would you consider that a reasonable moral boundary, or simply “puritanism”?
6 You have said that you don’t care about the criticism you receive. If your position is deliberately provocative, what do you think distinguishes challenging hypocrisy from simply normalizing sexualization of real people?
Your questions didn’t come numbered but I numbered them for my own sanity.
1 – I don’t reconcile my views with this teaching because I’m not a Christian. I know that my book Girls909 is written very realistically from a first-person Christian point of view, but that’s me dipping into my creative writing talent, not my religious belief. Apologies for any confusion.
2 – If only thousands of people would do the survey! I’m getting relatively little turnout this year. Please vote by CLICKING HERE and filling out the survey if you haven’t, it won’t be open for much longer. Anyway why do you think appreciating someone’s body is a “reduction”? Why don’t people ever say something like “Where do you personally draw the line between acknowledging that someone is attractive and expanding your appreciation of their attractiveness and beauty to encompass the glory of their individual body parts?” God created those parts, after all, and he created them specifically to be sexual, so you might as well do him a solid and show your appreciation.
3 – This is essentially the same question as question 2 so I’m just going to remind you again to vote in the survey. Also I hope that as a Christian you did actually read Girls909 – I really do want some Christians to read the book and give me some feedback so I can get a feel for how it’s hitting the Christian community, I’d be interested in your objective opinion of how well I did the characterisation. And for everyone, if you did read it, leaving a review on the store you bought it from really helps me out. Please do that if you feel so inclined. Good, bad, I don’t care really, just be honest. You can shit on it if you want and get back at me for all those horrible reviews I left about [insert your bias here].
4 – I’d respond by saying Christianity is a fairy tale. When we die nothing happens. We don’t go to heaven or hell. We rot in the ground and worms and insects eat us. Or, we get cremated and become some carbon floating around in the sky warming up the planet. So you might as well fap in this life while you can because you’re not getting another shot at this.
5 – Unlike almost everyone else in the k-pop space, I don’t dictate personal morality to others. As long as you’re not annoying or harming other people, you do you. If that means sticking big dildos in your ass all day until you cum buckets all over a photocard of that short guy from Seventeen, go for it. If that means not ever touching your junk because you think that the imaginary cloud guy is going to send you to a bad place if you experience a bit of sexual pleasure, hey that’s your choice too, it’s your body I’m not going to tell you what to do with it. It’s true that I don’t believe in Jesus’ teachings, but it’s also true that it if this matter concerns your body and not mine, it doesn’t even matter what I think anyway. It’s your body, do what you want with it, for whatever reason you want.
6 – Normalising sexualisation of real people IS challenging hypocrisy. People are sexual, and to deny that is hypocritical. But my position isn’t deliberately provocative, I just say what I think and let the chips fall where they may. My beliefs aren’t that uncommon (web traffic will attest to that).
BEST QUESTION
While I do mostly understand the rationale behind the objectification survey, I’m not sure if I’m 100% on board with the concept yet. Translating it to real life, I’d imagine that if I made a ranking of the women I know based on their body, most of them would find it pretty creepy. While there is a difference in the scale of the audience here, I don’t see why it would make objectification okay in one case but not the other.
Or for another example, if someone I know decides to go out one night, they might dress nicely in an effort to be seen sexually attractive by other guys. However, that doesn’t mean that should be okay with being catcalled, like receiving comments like “oh your boobs look really nice in that dress.” With both k-pop idols and this scenario, they are presenting themselves to the public to be attractive and they will be objectified by the people around them. But if someone actually goes up to a woman and tells them that (at least without tact such that it would be considered harassment instead of just flirting), it wouldn’t be okay.
So what really makes these cases different? Is it a difference in physical distance or potential danger to the recipient of the comments? Or something else?
There’s a reason why the objectification survey is called the objectification survey. I mean, I could have called it anything, so why call it that? You sure won’t see similar types of surveys run by r/kpopfap and other sites using that type of terminology, there’s absolutely no way. But the reasons why I do it should be obvious enough, and have nothing to do with the reasons why a site like r/kpopfap would run a similar thing. I had an entire huge response written out to this but I’m going to save it for some future content where I think it will work better. In the meantime, just know that if the Kpopalypse Objectification Survey (which you can do by CLICKING HERE, do it caonimas) is making you feel a bit ambivalent, or uncomfortable, or like you’re not sure if you’re on board with this or not, or if any of this is a good idea or not, that’s no accident. That’s the survey working exactly as intended.
ACTUALLY THE BEST QUESTION
do you think viviz willingly do human centipede at home, whos the top then?
Surely Umji. She’s the smartest one, there’s no way she wouldn’t find a way to make sure she was first in the chain.
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!
