QRIMOLE – May 2023

It’s time for QRIMOLE! Let’s take a look at this month’s questions for Kpopalypse!

Now, we’re going to flooded with even more trashy pop music. I can’t wait for your weekly threads to include true AI music using the voices of the members of Aespa.

More seriously, what could one do about one’s voice being used like this? We know most music artists can’t sing and rely heavily on vocal processing to do the heavy lifting. What’s the endgame when even their actual voices can be synthesized? Yes, there are more to success in the industry than just music skills (clearly. Most popular songs/artists are pure shit.), but I just see this as an extension of what’s happening to visual artists right now.

Probably not much that can be done in the short term. The law hasn’t really caught up to where AI is yet. We’re kind of at with AI where we were with sampling in about 1985. People are recognising that there are legal and ethical issues at play but nobody’s really decided on the best framework for tackling it yet. If you want to be creative with AI you might only have a small window of opportunity to do it in before people figure these things out with some kind of weird new law that makes AI art in its current form legally sketchy and the gate is semi-closed.

I’m not that worried about it. The thing about tools like this is that while they’re very good at creating something in a style that has been done to death, what AI tools are really bad at is innovation, and a certain amount of innovation (however small) is necessary in popular music to drive things forward, whether you’re synthesizing the sonic elements or not. Note how it’s easy to get an AI to write an article in a generic website kind of style, but trying to get one to “write like Kpopalypse” literally breaks the machine. So yes it’s going to put a lot of creatives out of work, but mainly just the ones that sucked anyway.

Hi oppar, I hope you are doing well!! I thought you might find this site interesting, it compiles some of the apologies that Super Junior members have issued. However, it doesn’t have some of the more recent events.

The earnestness of their hypocrisy is hilarious and depressing. Do you think that people will grow out of this sort of thing, or should I avoid at all costs?

They really missed their opportunity to claim the domain sorrysorry.com

This brings up an interesting issue that I plan to tackle in a future post…

How can a huge, mature and experienced JYP entertainment get to the conclusion that lyrics such as “It’s “I-need-you-o’clock” right now” are acceptable to anyone?

I don’t really get into Korean pop for the lyrical side, but honestly I don’t mind the silliness of a lot of Twice lyrics. The people who write this stuff know what they’re doing, I don’t think there’s anything accidental about it.

Hi, I’ve recently read your kpop and western pop differences article, which was really interesting (It’s super old so I don’t even know if you remember it.) I was wondering if this song is on a major pentatonic scale that you mentioned? (anywhere from 0:17-1:17). Apologies for sending your hated jpop lol.) For some reason it has that sound but I could be wrong. Also, do you recall any new kpop song that runs on a pentatonic scale other than Miss A’s song?

That article is pretty long in the tooth and could use an updated version. Maybe soon I’ll do new versions of some classic Kpopalypse articles, but then a lot of the old points still stand so maybe not. Things have changed a little since 9 years ago, but not that much.

The linked song (eww sounds like shit btw) does mainly work around the minor pentatonic scale but not exclusively, there’s some parts where they add the minor second for instance.

Honestly there’s probably quite a few modern k-pop songs that run purely on a pentatonic scale but damned if I can think of any at this moment. In today’s k-pop songwriting “change up” world it’s rare enough for them to stick to even just one seven-note scale let alone a five-note scale.

Before the question I would like to offer a kind of an “answer” to your “Who is Ciara”.
Didatically, I like to think about Beyoncé like the corny cousin from the countryside and Ciara like the cool cousin from the city (that pretends she’s from the hood).
Her first single’s lyrics theme may have inspired a certain lewd song already discussed by you and some senile k-pop group (I think it’s called SNSD) made an insipid copy of the concept from her music video in a mining environment.
Ciara made featurings with a lot of the black-american dudes from hip-hop/R&B that Bey rejected since she started sucking Jay-Z’s dick, like Nelly (who wanted Bey to suck his dick instead), Chris Brown (Ailee’s favorite dick), among others.
Also, unlike Beyoncé, she’s also not afraid of being filmed around a taller women. Here she’s expertly objectifying herself with brazilian goddess Iza while singing the chorus in clear portuguese like the badass she is.
She also visceral in her work, using her wedding and childbirth scenes in her music video . I think is really environmental of her to limit her carbon emissions by reusing her personal footages. Also in the end of this MV she appears with absolutely no makeup, teaching CLC how to do a proper “No” concept.
She has three kids and somehow STILL look like a model

Talking about Chris Brown… it seems like they will collab again very soon. The last one was in Turning Tables from 2009. It’s one of my favorite Ciara songs, besides Chris stupid adlibs in the last chorus.

01. I’m very ignorant about Middle-East and South-Asian culture. Is it true that the female choir harmony in the back of this song is inspired by Indian vocal style or something?

02. Returning to the music video of the baby popping out of her like an Alien parasite, even though I hate ballads more than I hate babies, the piano on this one really keeps my attention to the song. Could this be because of the chord progression on the aforementioned instrument?

03. What the fuck is wrong with Australia? I mean, why the hell you have so many different dates to celebrate Workers/Labour Day?

04. Is it true that people that snort cocaine can act more impulsively, like most of Azealia Banks’s verbal abuse history on Twitter?

05. What do you think about Prince discography? Would you recommend a song/album?

Oh, since I always discover something good with it, thank you for the black music weekly lessons!

I wish you an excellent month!

Well, I was being kind of rhetorical and silly when I wrote that, but thanks for the education on Ciara. I mean yeah I could have searched her up and it would have taken all of five seconds but if I think the song sucks I don’t feel especially motivated to. I’m not fucking kidding when I say that I’m too busy following k-pop to even notice western pop artists at all.

1. Which song out of the ones you linked do you mean? I’m not massively familiar with such cultures either, but then it depends exactly where.

2. Who knows. Possibly the chords, might also be something to do with the way it’s played (very simply, i.e rhythmically steady, not getting in the way of the vocal) and also I quite like the sound of the bass notes from it. They did a good job of recording the lower register.

3. Fuck knows we just take the holidays and don’t ask questions or else someone might decide to take them away from us.

4. Yes. Azalea does use SNS a little bit like someone high on cocaine, come to think of it. To see a pretty realistic depiction of how cocaine use makes people act see the Samsung spokesperson in this video.

5. Never been a Prince fan, any era. So no I wouldn’t recommend a song or album. I generally just like him for the one thing he’s underrated at which is being a guitarist, but I don’t really care for his songs. Have this compilation of Prince guitar solos.

Black music in roundup all throughout 2023, and no I don’t mean Nile Rodgers or Ciara, I mean actual artists people have heard of, like Wesley Willis…

Am I totally off in thinking that Heize’s “VingleVingle” sounds a bit like Jisoo’s “Flower,” but actually interesting?

It never occured to me. The beat alone makes a massive difference to how I hear those two songs. Where they are fairly similar I guess is texturally, similar instrument choice and density (a bit sparser than the usual k-pop track). Yes I agree Heize’s song is much better!

Helloo kpopalypse. Hope you’re doing well. Sorry to write a whole trauma dump or whatever it’s called hope this doesn’t trigger. btw please hide this ask.

so i think theres something really inherently wrong with me. I have pretty bad mental health and i have no idea what to do about it.

See a GP. Seriously. Anyway, continue…

I used to go to a counselor but now i lost access to one because i’m not going to school anymore for some reasons. As a result of no schooling i’ve also lost communication with everyone my age or whoever that could help me get along a little better. Sure school isn’t so great, and i lost all my friends there, but it’s better being around people, feeling like you’re on the right trajectory in life, than sitting down at home all day extremely isolated.
I also value my academics a lot, i was borderline obsessed with my schoolwork and my grades, that if i wasnt doing anything related to school, i was constantly thinking about it, thinking about my last assignment, if i should change a word here, or the structure there or whatever and trying to figure out how many points i would lose if i didnt do x or y, and then i would immediately go back and read it over and obsess over everything. My life basically revolved around my grades. It was a result i liked seeing from my efforts, something that i could get validation from my parents and other people for. Not that they cared too much about my grades. But it’s at least better than whererever i’m at now, living like a human parasite.
One would think, now that i dont have any grades to worry about, my life would be infinitely better. But now that ive lost control over academic validation, ive learned that i would just try to control something else. I developed this weird need to control how/what i eat. I used to never give a thought about my how much i weigh, i was always perfectly healthy and fine, but i found that at one point getting on the scale in the morning and seeing the digits go down became the highlight of my day and my life began to revolve around that. At one point i thought id develop an ed so i stopped weighing myself. But then i just go back to worrying about academic related stuff, trying to write tons of essays and apply for a dozen things so, if i didnt have school to prove anything i’d have something else to put on my uni applications.
I also became a really angry person. I would get so annoyed with my sibling especially that it would give me headache, and no matter how i let it out, it just recurs. Additionally, if I perceive said sibling to be doing something better than me, i would revolve my life around trying to beat them at some self-fabricated competition.
At this point i struggle to see anything hopeful ahead of me. I’ve exhausted the thought of suicide so much that im becoming desensitized to it, it just seems like an option at this point. There are things i live for, that i like to do, but they dont get me out of my predicament. The thing stopping me is the thought that my parents and family would have to take emotional collateral damage. But i really don’t see what else i can do.
I also refrained from ever mentioning suicide because it’d probably freak them out or anger them.

I figured i couldnt talk to my parents about this because they’re dealing with a whole lot of stuff and really dont have the time and energy to deal with all this. The few times i tried, I’d feel better immediately after but it had no real effect long term. I’d still relapse into my old habits. I’ve read dozens of self-help books, pages, guides whatever at this point. They all have the same effect.
I tried redditing my problem but they give you the basic healthy lifestyle checklist: drink enough water, get exercise, hygiene, eat not too little not too much, sleep enough etc. all of which i’m doing.

I’m waiting to get to uni so i can move out, change my environment, return to a normal life, have better access to help etc. but i really don’t know when that would be. And if i’d even live to that point. lol

what should i do. thank you in advance.

Okay, so you know you should see a doctor in the first instance, right? They will give you way better advice than I possibly could. People on the Internet tend to act like “healthy living choices” are enough to beat depression and it’s all just a matter of thinking the right way, but anyone who has been through clinical depression (raises hand) knows it’s not like that in reality. Yes those things can help some people, and it’s better to be healthy than not, but it’s not like that for everyone. When I was younger I was depressed and I just thought it was because I was a virgin who was being bullied at school. Later I grew up, and acquired all the things that I thought would beat my depression, like a house, a car, a circle of friends, a loving partner, an occupation that made money, interests in my free time that I enjoyed etc, but I had an epiphany when I noticed myself still feeling blue and crying randomly even though I had everything in my life sorted on paper. Visiting the GP was able to put me on a process to finding out what was actually wrong. In my case it was vitamin deficiency. In your case it might be something else, who knows, but you should definitely see a pro about your concerns. You seem to have done everything else, so why not try that…

What do you make of FriendlyJordies and his whole being harangued by politicians and whatnot? A lot of his reporting seems really credible, but without more context about Australian media, sometimes I feel like he definitely engages in some tactics that bias his audience towards him. (Like anyone else, I suppose) Been fun learning more about Australian domestic politics through his videos though!

I’m not in the loop but I did read the wiki on him, I also clicked on a couple of his videos in order to look at his ‘tactics’ and prepare some sort of reply and found them unwatchable to the point where I couldn’t tolerate sitting through them long enough to find out why he was upsetting people. His personality to camera I find a huge turn-off. Nothing against him personally, just some sort of cultural cringe I guess plus I just hate the way he edits by throwing in the memes and shit, I hate it when YouTubers do that, it doesn’t make the content funnier. People from other countries might see it differently, but to me it’s like talking to the drunk dickhead at the pub who just won’t leave you alone and keeps showing you goatse on his phone.

Since vocalists provide nonsense advice, how would you recommend one learn to sing? One of the main things they use to justify their ideas is that it protects one’s voice, so how can a normal person preserve his or her voice? I don’t plan to sing often or as a hobby, but I would like to be able to participate in Karaoke with friends without being so obscenely off-tune that I embarass myself and make things awkward for everyone. I just find it hard since the voice I hear sounds so different from what I hear from recordings, and I really hate what I hear in recordings. What’s in-tune in my head is clearly off-tune in recordings, and I have no idea how to fix that.

Everyone has a big aversion to how they sound on recordings (at least until they’re used to it), and that’s because when you hear your own voice inside your own body it’s a very different sound because the waves are traveling through your body and you’re hearing that internal vibration as well. This makes the voice sound richer and fuller, but when you listen to a recording, that inner-body vibration is removed. The best way to learn to sing is to get singing lessons. If your goal is just to git gud at karaoke you probably won’t even need that many, but preserving your voice is all about knowing techniques and your teacher will go through that stuff. Yes you can learn from the net but a physical teacher there in the room with you is better, because they can pick up on any mistakes you’re making and tell you exactly what you need to work on to achieve your goal.

Just noticed the blurb of Show Me Love describes Hana as having “no friends, no freedom and no aspirations for her future.” This is my life right now, except that any aspirations I have are suppressed by the “no freedom” part. Any advice welcomed. I resent my parents so much but can’t show it to keep the peace, given the chance I would also join a questionable girl group for a way out. Please send my well wishes to your cat.

In the absences of Mr Choi from True Miracle Entertainment to snatch you out of there, and assuming that you’re stuck in a Hana-like environment (i.e high school plus shitty home environment) I think… that it’s tough. Your life will increase in quality exponentially when you move out of home and claim some independence, so see that as a goal and work towards it. Getting a job can help with this stuff, it gives you something to do, a new circle of people to be around, plus earning your own money means freedom because money while not the be-all and end-all of life certainly does enable a whole bunch of other useful stuff. Any crappy job will do, just something you can do that doesn’t require too much brain power so you can save your thinking for other things. I dunno, I don’t have much to go on here but that’s what I’d be thinking about. Your short term situation sucks so don’t think about it – think long-term instead and prepare for a better life tomorrow.

Dear oppar, I am, or rather, a colleague is in a perilous situation. She had been harrassed at work for two years by some of her fellow PhD students, the later being supported by *the* big shot and leader of the team. Now these PhD students have left and my colleague had a few months of respite… Before a new intern came in and seemed to understand she was easy to pick on, and made her life hell again. This intern however, doesn’t get along as well with the big shot, which among other things makes me think that if I intervene, or other people do or I get other people to do it, it may trigger positive change in my colleague’s life. However I am not sure what the steps to this “masterplan” may consist of and am looking for advice. Recent events convinced me getting other people to be witnesses to the harrassment and spreading the word subtly might be effective, but ideally I really want my colleague to be at peace. What do you think is to be done?

Well it’s really up to her. You can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to. Perhaps talk to her and see if she’d be comfortable with you bringing up the issue. Then when you do bring it up with the big shot, rather than phrasing it like you’re doing it on her behalf e.g “she told me to tell you x” instead phrase it as though you are doing the company a favour e.g “she told me about x and I thought it best to come and see you so you were aware of it because as the boss I think it’s important that you know this is going on” because bosses like to know that their employees are thinking of the company’s interests. All but the most toxic of workplaces take this type of thing very seriously (because the risk to the bottom line of letting this type of thing go unchecked is huge), so the chances of a positive change if you come forward with this type of approach are very good.

Hello kpop man, so I’m getting kicked out of my house and I have a month to move. My parents are abusive so this wasn’t surprising, and I’m happy I’ll finally be free of them and never have to speak to them again. My parents take every opportunity to bully and belittle me. For example, I got accepted into my dream school and offered a scholarship (which I took) and my parents only belittled my achievement, told me the school was a scam and that I would never graduate because I’m too lazy and that I only graduated high school thanks to them.
So I’ve learned to stop giving them information because anything I say will be belittled and made fun of. Nothing I ever do will be good enough in their eyes. I’ve severely limited the information I give them and I just give them simple, one word answers when I talk to them. This has caused them to become increasingly mad and they gave me the ultimatum to either tell them every detail of my life and tell them what I do everyday, or I have to move out. I chose to move out.
Anyway, I guess my question is that I really don’t know how to live on my own. Right now I’m getting all my important documents together and packing, but I don’t know the first thing about living on my own. I’m nervous because it’ll be hard on my own but I’m excited for the future.

Sounds like you’re making a good step. Quick tips:

• Make sure you have a reliable source of income. If you’re not living at home, you need money. Your biggest challenge when first moving out will be financial. With enough money, any other moving/living solo problem can generally be solved.
• Save up enough money for a bond. A bond is usually about six weeks rent but that depends on country and situation. Save as much money as you can right now, because it will be a lot harder to save once you’re out of your parents place.
• If you have hardly any stuff, move it yourself. If you have a lot of stuff, get friends to help you move. Unless you’re moving something next level heavy/fragile like a piano, do not hire a moving company. A friend with a van, stationwagon, big SUV or a car with a towbar that can tow a trailer is good to know and can save you serious money if they can help (be sure to thank them appropriately, shout them a meal/case of beer/whatever). Don’t buy packing boxes either, shops and pubs are always recycling cardboard boxes, ask if you can have some.
• Don’t take shit you don’t need. Especially kitchen shit. The less kitchenware you own, the less you have to clean.
• If the idea of moving out on your own is intimidating, consider moving out with friends and house-sharing. Lightens the financial burden by splitting rent and bills multiple ways, and it helps to have other people around to figure out shit and learn life skills from. Just try to avoid dickheads. Sometimes what makes a great friend doesn’t always make a great live-in house-sharer.
• When you first move in to the new place you’ll probably be given an inspection sheet, where you go through the house and inspect the place for any damage to items that already exists, plus the conditions that items and fixtures are in. On this sheet don’t be tempted to rush through it, go slow and be as brutally honest as possible. Why? Because you’ll have to do another one of these sheets when you move out, and the two will then be compared and anything that isn’t deemed “fair wear and tear” you’ll be charged for (it’ll be deducted from your bond, which gets refunded when you move out).
• You’ll need to get electricity, internet, water, maybe gas on at the new place. Research companies ahead of time, compare rates. Some properties have gas, some don’t. Some properties the landlord pays water and you only pay excess above a certain amount. But electricity and internet you’ll almost definitely be paying for. Be prepared for a bit of down time between when you move in and when you get these things switched on.
• Once you’re in the new place, keep it clean. Most landlords do inspections (usually every 3 months) and you want to pass those, doing a massive tidy-up blitz on the day before the inspection because you’ve let the place get messy is a hassle.
• Try to keep a good relationship with the landlord. Be someone who is pleasant to deal with, doesn’t trash the place and always pays rent on time and you are highly unlikely to get evicted (I never did in the two decades of renting I did before I bought a place).
• Landlords are usually responsible if anything big breaks, like air-conditioning, glass windows, cupboards, electrical switches, taps etc. and as long as you didn’t mistreat it or break it yourself by being careless then you shouldn’t be paying. Landlords generally have insurance that covers these things. Report anything that needs fixing to the landlord. However learning some basic handy skills can help. Knowing how to unblock a toilet or a sink can be a lifesaver. There’s a lot YouTube can teach you about house maintenance, just remember that a lot of things are landlord responsibility so only do what you’re allowed to/expected to.
• If your landlord is a cunt though, be aware that most countries have free advice lines that will give renters basic legal advice when dealing with exploitive landlords. One piece of advice from me for free – if bad things are happening, get a diary and write everything down that happens, when it happens. A diary can be used as evidence later if needed. However most landlords aren’t that cunty and their biggest crime is usually getting behind on getting maintenance work done.
• If you don’t already know how, learn how to cook. Start with the basics. Learn how to make pasta and rice dishes and soups and cook vegetables because that stuff is cheap and quick to make. Asian groceries are your friend, if you’re lucky enough to have one nearby to where you live, get to know it. Western style “meat and three veg” meals are more expensive to make (in terms of both ingredients and energy consumption), avoid them until you’re financially stable. You can save a lot of money by cutting back on meat alone. If living with others they will LOVE you if you are good enough to cook for them, it’ll get you off the hook for other less pleasant chores. But even if you’re on your own, cooking will save you a lot of money.
• A cheap bagless vaccum cleaner is a solid investment. If you really fuck up a carpet though (destroy it with ink or some other shit that won’t come out) you might need to steam-clean it, where I live all big shopping centres have steam cleaners that you can hire for a small fee per day, not sure what it’s like in other countries. Also steam-clean carpets before you move out if they are dirty af.

Good luck!

What do you think about this year’s Eurovision song of Australia? I think you’ll either gonna love it (still gonna bitch about a few things) or criticize it really harsh.

Speaking of Australia on Eurovision, since they aciddently sent the mail to Australia instead of Auistria, but now there is no turning back, you may aswell check Austria’s song of this year.

It talks about how artists are not getting paid enough for their labour. I highly recommend for you to check it’s Genius page.

What do you think?

The Australian one isn’t bad, but the Austrian one is great!

soooo… what is a subunit for and why would a group be too new to have one?

A subunit is when a k-pop group has a smaller sub-group which only consists of some of the members of the larger group. The most famous and successful and legendary and bestest subunit ever was Orange Caramel, a subunit that consisted of three members from the group After School. Orange Caramel far eclipsed their parent group in terms of both song quality and commercial success and are the best subunit to ever exist in the past, present or future (but sadly these days, just the past), no I will not tolerate refutation of this point.

While there’s no crime in having a subunit straight away in a group’s career, for marketing purposes it’s probably just sensible good practice to establish the “unit” before establishing the “subunit”. Notable exceptions do exist however, such as Loona 1/3, which existed a full year before Loona themselves.

What do you think of the music in Kpop dance breaks? I think they’re usually shit, except maybe for itzy’s wannabe dance break. I find them to be a lot of loud rubbage/garbage. Check out this video and tell me what you think:

From these only Blackpink’s is really suited to the song and even that would have been better off as a new song all its own. Generally dance breaks suck, because it’s either really good in which case why didn’t they expand on it and make it more than just a short break, or really bad in which case why did they bother at all.

Someone made a playlist that placed a kpop song and a song that “most likely inspired” it. IIRC you did make similar comparisons in the past somewhere, and I actually think theyre accurate (tho I can only say that to the pairs I’ve listened to). How accurate are the pairings to you?

Original tweet:

Spotify playlist:

294 motherfucking songs, I ain’t got time for that! However the existence of such an extensive list reiterates what I’ve always said, which is that almost every k-pop song is a “soundalike” of a western song of some type. I have no doubt that most of these are quite accurate in their “inspiration”.

Since you said the ideal headphones are ones that seal properly to keep as much outside sound away as possible, what’s your opinion on noise cancelling headphones? Are there any that are wired and can be driven with a proper amp? I’ve heard a lot about Bluetooth latency and overall natural wireless signal degradation, and I’ve definitely noticed some weird behavior in the pair of wireless earbuds I have (cheap ass shit for exercise so definitely not meant to be for meaningful listening).

Also, what’s the deal with planar magnetic headphones? I see that mentioned a ton as a major feature, and I know they make things sound better while also making cans harder to drive by increasing resistance. How do they do that?

What headphones you want depends a lot on purpose. For just listening to music, sound quality and comfort are the most important things, do they sound good and would you feel comfortable wearing them for an album worth of songs. For mixing, flat frequency response is far more important than whether they sound “nice” because you want to mix “accurately” and “accurate” doesn’t always mean “best to listen to”. For gaming, sound quality is nice but latency is arguably a more important factor, you want to hear that player shooting at you when it happens, not after you’re dead, but this is not a factor for music. For business work, noise cancelling and comfort are the most important things. For going to the gym, sound isolation is probably the most important thing so you don’t have to hear the shitty music being pumped through the gym PA, and also are they solidly constructed and firmly gripping your head enough to survive a workout session without breaking/falling off.

I’m not really a gear head so I can’t advise you on specific models though. I do all my audio work on crappy AKGs that are 20 years old and that I won’t be upgrading this decade. There are way better headphones out there than what I use. There’s tons of headset reviews on YouTube though, search “best headset for (x)”.

Planar magnetic headphones are… too expensive for me to care about. You can find out how they work here. Personally I haven’t tried them but I’m not an audiophile and I wouldn’t spend big money on that type of shit anyway, even if I had the money, which I definitely don’t (btw I’d just like to give a shoutout to my Patreon supporters and also those who are buying my books, I love all of you, every contribution no matter how small helps me more than you know right now). Like a lot of tech, headphones suffer a lot from a case of diminishing returns. A $300 pair of headphones is massively better than a $30 pair of headphones, but a $3000 pair of headphones is only slightly better than a $300 pair of headphones. I have never paid over $300 for headphones and I don’t recommend anyone else does, either!

Hi! I hope you’re having a nice day.
Just wanted to know if you liked any french bands? Mostly because I’m french and very disconnected with any kind of local scene so for all I know cool bands could be touring the country and I would be missing out! Or maybe europeans bands if french doesn’t cut it? I would still have a reasonable chance to see them live then.

I really find most metalcore stuff boring but I have a huge soft spot for Danforth. French do this style better than most countries. Investigate the Paris hardcore metal crossover scene.

If you like more traditional punk here’s a playlist. Those fuckers are rioting right now, punk’s not dead in France that’s for sure.

Oh and the French are great at rap too. I’d definitely go see Keny Arkana if I could but there’s plenty of others…

1. after i saw the alizee question on retrospring i wanted to ask, what do you think of mylene farmer? she’s like the proto-alizee musically with a much longer career (she’s considered the madonna of france) and most of her music was produced by the same guy who did the first two alizee albums.
2. what is up with french culture and pedophilia? in particular french intellectuals being pedophiles and petitioning for the removal of age of consent in the 70s?

i really hoped this was another qanon conspiracy thing that only idiots believe but I’m pretty sure it’s real

I haven’t found any Mylene Farmer songs that I really like yet. I didn’t know that the guy who svengali’d Alizee was behind her, that motivates me to check her out more because that dude is a good songwriter when he wants to be.

The French intellectual thing doesn’t surprise me one bit. I’ve heard those Serge Gainsbourg records.

I just wanted more people to know our heterophobic king. More importantly though, I wonder how this is perceived back home in China. LGTBQ+ rights in China are infamously terrible, though admittedly not remotely the worst amongst the human rights abuses of China.

I mean, having your textbooks call homosexuality a mental disorder kind of says it all about the kind of discrimination and utter indifference the government has towards the community.

Not sure, you’d have to ask someone living in China. From what I know culturally though, I think the main objection to homosexuality in China isn’t anything to do with the act itself, but more the idea of not producing an offspring to carry on the family line/inherit/create wealth.

I try to maintain a strict “no talking about politics” policy with my grandparents. Today, I accidentally said something vaguely politics-related and my grandma went on a horrific boomer rant, concluding with her shitting on gays and saying “I could never be friends with a gay, they’re not normal”.
Well, I’m closeted in a pretty conservative country and have gay friends, so that kinda hurt. I’m bad at lying so it’s hard to be nonchalant around her after those comments because my perception of her has completely changed. I wonder if she’s noticed me acting off. I’m honestly not sure what to do right now. Furthermore, I was planning on coming out after achieving financial stability, which might not be possible, my grandparents would probably cut me off and everything could get very messy. What would you do in my place, oppar

If there isn’t a compelling reason to come out right now then might as well stay in the closet while it benefits you. Come out once you’re completely financially stable plus your grandparents are dead and they’ve left you their life savings. That’s what I’d do but then I’m a massive cunt so maybe my advice isn’t the best, others in this position may have better advice!

Hello Oppar! I have been having a lot of problems with OCD or what I think is OCD (I hadn’t thought about my behavior in this way, but recently I started to analyze and I have excessively compulsive behavior)

Well, it turns out that I do certain types of movements and things daily that, if I don’t do them, I don’t feel like I can progress during the day, even feeling very bad, if I don’t do them later. These behaviors are ridiculous and unnecessary and do not generate anything good in my life but I just can’t stop thinking like that.

What these actions do generate is consume a large amount of time and energy from my day to day, making me feel tired to do the things that really matter. The worst thing is that even dedicating a lot of my time to compulsive actions, I rarely manage to finish them and I find myself making huge lists of these actions to do in the next few days in order to break the “routine”.

I am writing to you because I recently have to start university and all the time I had to be productive and study or dedicate time to my health is now gone. With these intrusive thoughts still inside of me. I thought that I could put a “stop” on them if I listened to them but I think that this is not the correct way to deal with them.

Anyway, do you have some tips to be more productive and use your time better?

and I know you’re not a psychologist but… tips to get these thoughts out of my head?
Thank you!

I had these thoughts when I was younger, I had several OCD symptoms. When I was a child I always felt pretty miserable so I think that OCD was partly a reaction to that – i.e I couldn’t control the things I really wanted to about my environment, so instead I tried to exert control over the things that I could control, like how many steps I took from one place to another without stepping on cracks, making sure I touched an object an even number of times with both hands, that kind of thing. When I grew up and started to feel better I got over it really quickly without really even thinking about it. So I think for me the solution wasn’t to try and consciously break the routine, but to increase the quality of my life to the point where I had better and more fun distractions to focus on. Of course what may work for me might not for you, it’s probably a psychologist’s field, this type of thing.

Hi oppar! I was reading this old post of yours and the song No. 20 is really funny but the linked film is no longer available and I can’t seem to find it subtitled in English anywhere. You said it’s a great film and I trust your taste. Do you have another link?

Sadly no but here’s an IMDB link that might help. The film is… well I don’t know if “great” is the right word, objectively as a film I’m not sure if I “enjoyed” it as such, but it definitely has a lot to say about Korean culture, even if that’s not immediately evident. Definitely a film that needs to be put into the cultural context of when/why/where/how it was made for the viewer to make any sense of it.

ChoColat’s Tia did an interview with Korean Cowboys and confirmed what Melanie said to you regarding their disbandment at 14:56. Then at 17:21 she explained how she created a solo album without having a company and talked about living with Amber in the US before coming back to Korea to start her acting career. There were barely any biracial entertainers when ChoColat debuted in 2011 and now we have quite a few including members of various idol groups. Is this caused by kpop’s global rise in popularity or something else? It’s a bit of a mystery to me why some biracial idols are well received by the Korean public like Somi but others like Bahiyyih are not that well liked in Korea and mostly popular abroad.

I have no idea about it honestly. I guess it just boils down to what the public like and I have no way to gauge Korean tastes nor do I particularly care about it. I guess yeah it’s happening because there’s more overseas recruitment now, and companies realise that having an overseas member is a good way to potentially link into a fanbase for that country.

This is a heavy subject, I just really need someone to talk to.

I found out my best friend`s boyfriend, who I got along quite well with, has been abusing her for years. Their relationshup finally ended when he refused to confront his infidelity. He tried to have sex with me, and I won`t lie, I found myself attracted to him for months after (before I knew about the abuse of course), I never let it get any further than light touching because I knew she wouldn`t be comfortable. She didn`t tell anyone she found out about the infidelity for months. Yesterday she told me he hit her. Only twice, but once is more than enough. I`m disgusted. I want to kill him. How do you cope with the fact that abusers are everywhere, and that you can`t avoid fraternizing with them no matter how hard I try? As someone with an abuse history it gives me so much anxiety to even think about-it makes me never want to talk to men again. I know none of this is exclusive to men but it just seems that every single man I get close to exhibits behaviors just like this.

There are a lot of dickheads out there, and while I know “not all men” are like that, it’s certainly more than enough men for women to be justifiably wary, which is why I don’t mind boosting a bit of misandry via my novel etc and I’m not going to make excuses for shitty male behaviour which is all too common. I particularly hate male abusers of women because I know that when women see men like me who don’t abuse women they’re probably going to lump me in that category of “potential abuser” anyway just for their own safety, and I totally understand that, I don’t blame them. I’ve had female strangers cross the street to avoid me because I look scary, and I get it – if I were female I’d probably do exactly the same if I saw a guy who looked like me coming. However while it’s tempting to punch every dickhead who has made this a rational reaction, it’s impossible because there’s too many of them, I would just be punching people one after another for the rest of my life, and there’s more productive self-affirming places I could be putting that energy (like writing them into a novel and getting Hana to go to work on them instead). So I guess that’s how I deal with it, but then I’m a man so it’s obviously easier for me to do that because I don’t have to deal with the physical reality of it in the same type of way. If every man you get close to exhibits these behaviours, then perhaps there’s a pattern with how you’re meeting them, perhaps if you mix up that pattern you might meet some different types of guys. But then maybe not, it’s hard because abusers don’t always follow a stereotype, and it’s not like it’s your fault and you should have to change anything. I think one of the best ways I’ve seen girls that I know handle this is get a female “wingman” (or two, or several) who you trust to assess your picks. A female friend of mine would often date with her entire girl punk band in tow and introduce him to the entire band, partly to be nice but also to see how he would react, they would all then discuss whatever warning signs came up (or didn’t). Having a second objective eye cast over your choices and assess their character can sometimes really help because people on the outside are often better attuned to the red flags. As the book says “girls look after girls”.

Have you seen the Russian footage of castration and beheading of Ukrainian POWs? I haven’t, but what I’ve read about them make me think they’d scar me for life, yet I almost feel obligated as a bystander to witness the atrocities and do something about it. I know I don’t have to actually see the footage to call it out, but it feels cowardly. I don’t know how to feel about that?

Also, there’s this.

Now, I can’t claim that the volunteer was some kind of saint. We surely don’t know enough about him, and his family deserves the privacy while grieving him. Still, if one’s on Reddit, surely, one will know how utterly unpopular Russia is and the numerous war crimes committed since they appear on the front page very often. How can people remain so callous about lives? Obviously, even the titles of the Reddit posts show the biases, so propaganda clearly plays a role here. However, how does propaganda still work when content directly contradicting said propaganda is on the same website?

I’m aware of the footage but I declined to seek it out. I don’t think people should feel obligated to watch it, I certainly don’t. Things like this happen all over the world and yes it’s horrible but seeking out the footage and seeing it doesn’t really change anything. Remember that the Russians who filmed that no doubt did it at least partially for western consumption, so they want you to look at it.

Propaganda works because people want to believe it, so they will seek out the things that confirm their beliefs. Russia’s war on Ukraine has been a failure for the Russians in every single aspect that it possibly could be (Putin has now put Russia on an irreversible course that will set it back for decades to come, even if he somehow does gain more territory, which he certainly isn’t at the moment, it’s taken them nearly a year and 100k casualties just to conquer two-thirds of one smallish town) but there’s still plenty of pro-Russian content out there that’s doing quite well because people who are on that side will seek out the things that allow them to deny uncomfortable truths. The most popular website worldwide about global warming is a denialist site, for the same reason, it’s comforting to read that things aren’t all that bad, whereas confronting a reality that goes against your pre-existing beliefs can be hard, not everyone has the mental fortitude to do that. People get very invested in what they already believe.

hiya kpopalypse, i’ve been a reader for a few years and generally trust your advice, so i’m here to vent about my life, standard qrimole stuff ig. [could you please delete everything after this point]

Damn shoulda just said to them “tell them you’re dating me instead” right off the bat, missed your chance there.

You don’t have to distance yourself from a crush etc as long as you can cope with them being around you etc. it’s just a way to help get over the feelings. If you don’t mind still having the feelings and are willing to put up with a bit of existential angst because you like the social group then just ride it out slow I guess. Things do tend to fade with time, but it’s not quick, if that’s a compromise you can handle then there are benefits like access to the social group and potentially more people BUT there are also other social groups that might have more fertile prospects so consider that too.

hiya i’m the person who vented about liking someone who doesn’t like me back. [you know the drill please delete everything after this point]

Helping someone through their issues is very nice of you but it’s not going to generate the kind of feelings you want people to have for you. At the end of the day someone is going to either like you or not, for whatever random-ass reason, and there’s nothing you can do about it. So you can say or do all the bullshit you want, you’re either a possibility or you’re not and that’s it. Think about the people you like, and why you like them, it’s probably not because you made a very careful assessment of their character and how virtuous and kind they were to you and then made a rational choice to give them a chance, it’s probably more just because “this person hits me in the feels and that’s it”. To find someone it’s really just a matter of circulating through the exposure to enough people until that moment happens in a mutually reciprocal way. It’s really just a maths game – put yourself in front of enough people, and eventually you’ll find the situation you want. Tends to happen more often when you’re not expecting it in my experience, the amount of times I’ve gone from “single, definitely nothing on the horizon, planning my eternally single life forward into the next 20 years” to “oh shit I have a situation with a woman and we like each other” very very quickly…

NCT 127 Taeyong is suffering from permanent damage to his back from the extreme back-bending move in the Cherry Bomb choreography. I bet companies have a clause in idol contracts to stop them from suing if they get injured while performing dangerous moves. Not all idols experience injuries this severe but they probably all have some degree of knee cartilage damage at the very least. Would you consider writing something about idol injuries in the future? You’ve written many posts about idols being exploited and this yet another way they are abused and neglected.

Yes there’s definitely something I’m writing that relates to this but I’m not revealing where/when just yet.

Oppa would you ever share pdf versions of your roundup posts? I only want to read your commentary, but the amount of videos embedded makes my browser unable to load your posts most of the time, even in reader mode. I’d just look up songs that sound intriguing if needed…

This may help.

Why does Jimin have a crotch bulge in this interview?

He’s aware of it and trying to cover up, he probably just had an inopportune boner from being crammed into those leather pants. If you look at the “most watched” parts of this video they’re all the times when he moves his hand away from that area.

Hello, Kpopalypse. I hope you, and your cat are doing good. Before I begin with my questions, thank you for introducing me to so many of the K-pop songs that I play on repeat these days.

I’ve recently picked up a fascination with the electric guitar, and I want to learn how to play it, maybe make songs of my own in a few years’ time. The problem is that even though my parents have agreed to buy me a guitar, and the cheapest, good enough “setup” I could find; they can’t send me to classes. I would pester them but I already feel guilty enough asking for the guitar, so, I’ve accepted my fate. We’re not poor, I’m blessed enough to have all my needs, and wants fulfilled, but money’s a sensitive issue… And, I’m turning 18 in a month, I feel like I’ve demanded enough things from my parents for a lifetime.

Anyway, I’m a blank slate when it comes to music theory. I don’t even know the literal basics of it, no joke. I’m not even a beginner. I’m not tone deaf though, thank the gods. So, where do you think I should start with both learning about music, and learning how to play? Any online resources you think would suffice (even those that are only for beginning)? Even books would do, if there’s any important ones for the “theory” part, I really like reading. (I even plan on getting Show Me Love when I get my first paycheck for my summer job lol)

One last thing… sorry, I try not to be a whiny baby but I’ve got some learning/socialising issues (can’t specify, again, sorry. gods, I apologise so much, sor-). So, going to classes, most likely, wouldn’t have helped anyway. I do best when I have a minimal chance of stressing myself, mostly when I teach myself things. I just hope that learning an instrument by myself with all of this isn’t impossible… or is it? -.-

It’s entirely possible to teach yourself with YouTube resources these days and I don’t even need to link you any, a quick search for “beginner guitar lessons” and you should be fine, there’s so much high quality content out there. Guitar teachers don’t really teach anyway, because you actually do all the hard yards yourself in any case, what they do is just guide you in the right direction, and also fix bad habits and so forth. Which beginner lessons you go with depends a little on what sort of music you want to do with the guitar, i.e do you like pop or do you want to play heavier stuff etc, but even learning stuff outside your preferred genre is useful. Since you probably want recommendations anyway, MEGA-basic playing video, this creator is good, lots of good beginner stuff, the rudiments of pop playing, basically:

If you want heavy style instead, here’s a great video running through metal super-basics:

Music theory basics for guitar, in 3 minutes.

Once you can do a few things, send me a video of you playing and I’ll give you some technique pointers (the ‘fixing bad habits’ stuff a teacher would do).

Are you sad about yua mikamis sudden retirement announcement

Not really, she had a good run, and honestly while she does mrs and is easily on top of my k-pop biases, she’s nowhere near the front for JAV biases.

Hello Oppar,

– Assuming you’ve read your fair share of books, are there any that you would recommend? It can be of any genre and category. I often find myself wasting my time watching short vids on social media, so I’d like to attempt to make myself a more literate person by reading more books and lengthening my attention span. I’m also reading your “Show Me Love” book right now, of course.

– Also, any safety tips for going to a concert on your own? I couldn’t find any friends to go with since it falls on an important holiday, so this would be my first time going by myself. It’s going to be at a small venue, a bar restaurant type place with only adults allowed. Despite being over 21, I’ve never gone to a bar on my own and I have an appearance of a teenage girl to top it off. With my overprotective dad often talking about news of girls going to bars/parties and bad things happening to them, I’m a bit worried about how my experience would be. I really want to see this band though, since it might be one of the few chances that they come here.

I mainly read non-fiction, believe it or not. I bought Kaho Shibuya’s book, and I want to read that, I know it will be great, I’m saving it for when I next have to tour (soon) because touring is dull and it’s good to have something to read on a plane trip.

Safety tips for concert-going are here and here.

So I think Girl’s Day for a C- tier group is gonna turn into one of the most expensive groups for me as I go back and purchase the albums for the songs I like by them. I already have,…..(can’t ever remember if their albums are everyday girl’s day or girl’s day everyday and I don’t feel like getting it out to look it up cause lazy) w/e pt/#3(Something) but w/e pt. 5 I think(I’ll be Yours) which I didn’t even get it for that (Thirsty may be pretty single note but it’s great) I spent $120 which I mean also was a signed Album so cool but I only wanted it for the songs that’s just a bonus….. But dammit I just finally bought their Expectations album cause to this day that song is great and ended up having to hunt it down and then spend $110 on it >.> which I’ll be a little irritated but I’ll also have the best Girl’s Day song on CD……… Anyway end of this long rant and I think my problem is why aren’t k-pop CD’s mass produced I mean dammit I’m more than a little sure to this day if I can find a music store I can get Rage Against the Machines first CD and it’ll be the price of every other CD in there and that shit came out in 1993 when I was 6 >.<……… Sorry it’s just irritating since I’ve started buying less from favorite group since T-ara can’t be replaced and more just these are the songs I like so I will buy that album and part of that atm is catching up……… fuckin $80 for The Park at Night by GWSN cause Red Sun is straight just amazing IMO just cause I was late and they prolly needed the money for lawyer fees or w/e. For real this time sorry rant over Kpopalypse Hwaiting and swear I’ll start your book soon it’s sittin on the table just waiting <3.

You can tack this on to me bitching about CD prices had another thought… But I just wanted to say due to my anxiety I don’t read your responses to my questions til like the next month cause I always feel retarded about 10 mins after I hit send but you really are pretty awesome dude no matter what I ask and whether or not you agree with it or if it’s just flat out something you don’t like you always give me a good reply that makes me feel like my question wasn’t complete fail but also gives me something extra to think about on my thought or just be like hey I like kinda terrible music when it comes to J-pop which even I acknowledge… SO super long way to say thanks <3….. and I just wanted to comment on the nail thing from March since they used Glitch best song but at least for Eun Bi I actually love how so completely extra they went with her nails like the shots where she has the chains hanging from the tips of her nails in that video is just proof that the “perfect pitch” part of that song is wrong and it is “perfect bitch” in the best way and I’ll take that it makes her more attractive to me at least.

The reason why k-pop CDs are expensive is because you’re not really paying for the CD, you’re paying for the souvenir photobook, at a corresponding “souvenir” premium price. Basically what the western CD market calls a “box set”. The reason why k-pop does it this way is they’ve realised that people care more about the image than the music so the package is catered to this. It’s about selling the idol, and that’s easier done with big colourful pictures in a fancy package tthat you can show off that you own, rather than with some silver disc that you may or may not even own a player for and where your bias is Autotuned and half her vocals are sung by someone else anyway.

It’s actually my interest in JAV that made me notice nail art as a lot of those girls have absolutely astonishing next-level nail art on their Instagram pages. JAV of the month for April 2023 is MIMK-115.

Now that all of the Blackpink members had solo releases, how would you rank them from best to worst?

Very tough to call because none of them are even approaching good but I’ll say Jennie > Jisoo > Rose > Lisa even though there’s a bee’s dick of difference separating each one.

And I saved the best question til last.

Apparently there’s a kink where people put their poop in a plastic bag, put it in the freezer, and wait for it to become nice and cold and super solid so then they can fuck their own shit.

Anyway, how are you doing today?

I’m good!

I didn’t know about this fetish. It seems odd because wouldn’t someone prefer some shit that they were fucking to be warm and soft rather than cold and hard? Wouldn’t want to get chafing. Anyway I thought I’d ask ChatGPT about it.

Well, that wasn’t very helpful, but at least I know how to do a heart shape now.

Now it’s time for an NMIXX change-up:

i just wanna say hi how are you doing?

kpopalypse oppar is asking us to enter responses so imma reverse this for u. ASK ME A QUESTION AND I’LL ANSWER IT IN THE QRIMOLE AFTER THIS ONE

I’m really interested in writing more novels. Obviously there’s the Shin Hana books (book 2 is 50% done) and I’m enjoying writing those a whole lot. I hope I don’t disappoint with the second book, because it’ll be a bit different to the first in some ways, being a ‘middle book’ that picks up where the first one leaves off and which also won’t ‘end’ the series on its own (there’ll be at least three books in Hana’s story, and then maybe some more stories from different perspectives later) so it might feel a bit like it’s lacking structure. I’m trying to make it more structural by having various sub-plots exist and wrap up in book 2 while still having the overarching plots going. I’ll see how I go. But it’s really made me want to do another unrelated k-pop book that is a standalone one-shot and won’t have a sequel, and maybe from a male perspective this time. I’m thinking about what this might be. What I was thinking about was having a protagonist who is far more evil than Hana is, for instance a person who might engage in extremely unsavoury and indefensible behaviour (Maybe be criminal or perhaps just immoral in other ways), and the story being told from their perspective, including their own flimsy justifications etc. But I wouldn’t want such content to read like I was endorsing the character’s perspective or condoning those actions, nor would I want to create material for those who agreed with the character’s perspective to ‘get off’ on. But I don’t want to fill the book with weak-ass disclaimers either. My question is, how would you approach the task of writing first-person perspective from the point of view of the most morally abhorrent person possible (assume whatever atrocity you can think up that you couldn’t possibly defend, like maybe a Nazi, or a rapist, or someone who produces R&B for a living), while at the same time A. making it clear you do not endorse those actions B. not providing satisfaction/ideological reinforcement for readers who MIGHT endorse those actions and C. not loading up the book with pathetic hand-wringing “I don’t mean it like that I promise, I the author am totally separate from my character gosh gee golly what a horrible person they are” disclaimers that nobody who is squeamish about the book’s concept is going to believe anyway?

Have fun answering this, and anyone else feel free to chime in via the next QRIMOLE, or in the comments below if you prefer!

That’s all for this episode of QRIMOLE! This series will return next month! In the meantime remember that Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me you see straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain motherfuck him and John Wayne?

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!