It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!
I was watching Idle’s Queendom performance of Lion and was genuinely startled to see Soojin. And then I thought about Enhypen, and then Katseye, and how fans automatically roll with the Enhypen is 7 and Katseye is… whatever # they are, basically [thisgroup] is [t#] if a member leaves or gets removed. And it strikes me as… pointless, because I had literally forgotten Soojin was part of Idle. And it just goes to show how disposable idols are, and how a group doesn’t crash and burn most of the time if it loses a member. Enhypen is fine, Katseye is fine, Soyeon (and friends) are fine. Were there/are there any idols so indispensable to their group that if/when they left or were forced out, their group did/would fail?
i-dle would be significantly different without Soyeon as she’s a principal songwriter and producer. Also hard to imagine BigBang without G-Dragon. Such cases are rare though. If someone isn’t pulling significant weight behind the scenes then yes they are essentially disposable and that’s the way the machine wants it. “Star quality” makes no difference, because it’s an illusion anyway. Witness Jessica being kicked out of Girls’ Generation, she was arguably the k-pop it-girl at that time, but in the end it didn’t matter.
Any lovebites songs and or album/s you can recommend or do I just go to your BTS album review and just listen to the ones there?
The April Fools BTS album review is actually a review of Lovebites “Judgement Day”, which is a great album. I haven’t heard all songs on all the Lovebites albums so I can’t really say with authority which album is best but I do like the sound of the group in general a little more since new bass player Fami joined (so from Judgement Day onwards).
1. your thought on his thoughts in general?
2. do you agree that “doom scrolling” social media is a sign of a person having no hobbies?
3. if writing about kpop wasn’t your hobby would you have been a mass shooter or something?
1. 100% agree! “Hobbyloses Verhalten” is just one of many fantastic German insults and it truly applies in the modern age to a lot of people who would be so much happier if they found something meaningful to do (or even non-meaningful). However get too extreme with a hobby and you can turn into a “Fachidiot”, someone who knows a lot about a very specific field and nothing about anything else. Balance is important. Although I’m probably a Fachidiot myself when it comes to music so I can’t really talk.
2. I wouldn’t say people with hobbies are immune from doomscrolling, but I think that they are slightly better immunized against it. I don’t doomscroll because I’m simply always doing stuff.
3. No, I’d probably just write about something else. Strange as it may seem to some, I’m not really someone who likes being violent.
if reincarnation was real, and you knew it was in all of your lives, would you be more comfortable with the idea of ending things early? maybe even multiple times in a row until you re-roll into a pretty desirable life like a gacha?
Depends on the pain in life-ending involved. If it’s anything like what’s in Girls909 I think I’ll stick out each life as long as possible just so I don’t have to go through so many painful transitions.
is melodic sensibility something that can be learned? or is it something youre born with? and to what extent?
There isn’t really a lot of research in this area, because “melodic sensibility” is subjective and determined by individuals and also culture. Certain truths about music are universal, every culture recognises the concept of an octave and a fifth for example, but melodic choices are hard enough to even categorise let alone trying to work out who does what and why and if they should be doing it. But more music exposure is definitely better than less.
who is the most fuckable male idol by your personal, real-life standards and how much alcohol would it take for you to cross that line with him
I’m very boringly straight so I don’t really have the capacity (pun intended) to answer this question. But if I wasn’t straight I don’t imagine that alcohol would even be needed?
how have your feelings about doing qrimole changed over time, if at all? do you like it more or less than when you started?
I don’t think my feelings have really changed much. I do like doing it when the questions are good. I don’t like doing it when the questions are just the very basic stuff that I get through other channels. Something that can be answered in five seconds probably isn’t a good fit for QRIMOLE and lately I’ve been excising a lot of those questions…
thoughts on the song “sun has set” by yabbadabadoo? i feel like it’s almost good but can’t explain why i’m left wanting
…and attempts to make me westernpopalypse are especially boring. I’ll bite for yabbadabbadoo though because I do bias her a lot. Song is very mid, it’s not the kind of music that she does well. She works best in shoegaze mode, this more hard-edged rock style doesn’t work for her, at least not so far. It’s everyone else’s fault for making her angry with all those memes.
1. haseul preformed blooming moon/crystal ballad at one of her solo concerts with heejin, and we never heard of the song ever again. do you believe there are legal restrictions preventing MODHAUS from officially releasing this song in particular?
2. why can’t orbits let go of hyperballad. please stop kicking the dead pregnant horse. i personally don’t want it’s stillborn to slip out of it’s carcass.
1. Maybe, or maybe they just don’t think it’ll do much for her commercially. Remember that everything is about selling the idol as a product, it’s not about music, so a song that might be good (or might not) but that doesn’t effectively sell the kind of image that the label wants isn’t going to be chosen.
2. Ask them, not me.
You used to be a cyclist, right? Can you explain the “holier than thou”, “the rules of the road don’t apply to me” attitude that some of them have?
I did like cycling, but I was never a lycra-wearing, flashy-gear-spending “cyclists’s cyclist”, and I never cycled with another cyclist (eww), I just wanted to save a bit of money going to work and going to the shops and get fitter. I agree that some of the lycra brigade are absolute total dicks, including the two in the video… but then so are plenty of people in cars. I don’t think it’s a cyclist problem, I think it’s just a people problem. Although perhaps the cyclists are extra pushy because car users won’t respect them otherwise. By the way what is this shitass reactionary bullshit Facebook page. “Be the 52%” jesus fucking christ you guys need some better social media accounts to follow than this populist crap… you’re not this easily fooled, are you?
This video reminded me of your christian horse girl post. more specifically because it makes the argument that it’s basically “Kpop does Jpop.” As someone who is the worlds biggest Jpop hater but also loves christian horse girl music I would like to hear your opinion on this matter. This is basically one of those song recommendation videos interspersed with commentary. My opinion is that they for sure lifted the visual concept and marketing elements but it’s not musically that similar. I basically agree with all of your criticisms of Japanese idol pop, which is why I’m a bigger Kpop fan, but don’t feel as strongly about it as you. I think I got inoculated to Jpop-isms because I grew up with vocaloid. but yeah some of the twinkly-no-low end-high-pitched-screeching-girl group music in here is too much even for me.
I’m aware of this video and I deliberately didn’t include it in my Christian horse girl post because as you point out, while image and marketing is certainly similar (although both industries are ultimately copying Motown), the musical connection is lacking. Korea and Japan do influence each other quite a bit in terms of various cultural aspects but the musical preferences are absolutely not the same. When k-pop deliberately does consciously try to do j-pop (example: Bonusbaby) the results definitely sound absolutely different, not massively 100% different but certainly different enough for me to actually like the Korean versions sometimes.
Can you give me some k-pop songs that are so bad it wraps around to being fucking hilarious?
Dbo is the master of that.
{is this live cover of Dreamcatcher’s “Piri” by ex-member Siyeon’s ChRockital} better than actual dreamcatcher?
For the clickbait question-asker, I’ve add text in curly brackets to show you how you could have asked this question in a non-clickbait way, and I will continue to do this in QRIMOLEs where appropriate. I’m not doing this to shade you, I’m grateful for your questions, I’m just trying to reverse some of the mental damage that has possibly been done to a lot of you by social media, while also “paying it forward” by giving my own readers the option to either click or not depending on if the content interests them. (And I of course will be clicking anyway in order to answer the question, so the original clickbait question format serves no function.) Anyway yes, it’s definitely a better song in a live rock band context.
On this note, there’s a news marquee that I walk past a lot in my city that has really made me notice that news sites are trash now. Instead of “poll reveals political party x is trending at record lows” it’s “poll reveals shock result about how people are voting”. It’s clickbait style titles for a marquee that I can’t even click on! Resist the mental damage, people. Don’t write like a clickbaiter.
On quiz thing, {a mental age test} what result do you get?
41. I didn’t think this test was very accurate though, I thought some questions showed some very stereotypical beliefs by the person who created the quiz. I wouldn’t trust it. “Oh it’s just a silly quiz” but people who takes these sometimes form actual beliefs because of the results. Be wary of “fun quizzes”.
i am sure you’ve been asked some variant of this question but i’ve read through a few qrimoles and can’t find it so i’m asking again:
your engagement with kpop (and other media sent by fans) seems pretty time-consuming and probably requires a decent amount of motivation. you also write books, make games, stream, etc on top of all that. does this affect your ability to consume other media that you like? i’m asking more about the enjoyment factor than the mental load.
would you consider writing more about music you enjoy outside of kpop? i often find that i really enjoy some of the things you’ve include in roundups and would love to see more. obv you have more readers than just me, but it’d be cool.
also i’m big fan of the technical posts that include kpop examples. super cool to read from my perspective as i kno next to nothing about music theory etc… so thank you! it’s nice to learn something new
The main effect is just time. There’s only so much time in a day and I don’t want to spend more of it than necessary just passively consuming content. Hence why outside of k-pop I don’t investigate culture that much unless it’s pointed out to me.
I insert non-Korean stuff into roundup each week specifically to satisfy people like yourself who would like me to look at other music. I don’t mind if people send requests in. It doesn’t have to be something I’ll like! I think I’ll store them and from 2027 onward I’ll make roundups have random western songs but instead of actual recommendations it might just be me throwing down on anything regardless of my opinion. Let’s share the hate, I mean love. But probably hate.
More technical posts I’d like to do but it’s a big time commitment, and my fairly sad economic situation right now means I have to prioritise things that make money (work) before I do fun stuff (writing). Unless I become a bestselling author (not likely) I can’t devote myself to the site as full-time as I’d like to.
Tool, Opeth, Death, Mastodon, Dream Theater, Voivod, Meshuggah, Gojira, Ne Obliviscaris
Death are actually good >>>>>>> meh meh meh meh etc >>>>>>>> Tool
Guess what {Trent Reznor in the audience at a Katzeye show, looking off to the side, is} thinking?
He looks to me like he’s looking out for someone else in the audience and isn’t even that concerned about the group. I suspect he brought his daughter along to this.
British trip hop legends Massive Attack covered Seo Taiji at a show in Finland. The last slide of the original instagram post reads
The modern “idol model” K-pop genre is a multibillion-dollar machine of total managerial control, designed to create monetised brand products. State “pre-censorship” has arguably been replaced by the supremacy of mass commodification.
Facts… ik and also fav massive attack songs? (Mine is angel and inertia creeps!!!)
Massive Attack never topped Unfinished Sympathy. To this day still one of the only truly great R&B songs ever made.
Don’t tell people that I think this is one of the best songs ever made though because k-pop TikTok thinks I’m “anti-black” and I’d like to keep it that way because it’s funny to annoy idiots hahaha
Hello oppar, is your modem a wired or a wireless one? My ma wants to get rid of our wired one because its a tripping hazard however my brother objects and thinks wireless ones are less secure. We use the bell giga hub which is a modem plus router in one.
Mine can do both but I always use a wired connection. Wireless isn’t notably less secure if you’re on a private network at home with a secure password, but it’s sometimes a less reliable connection depending on the geography of your house. I bought some flat-style white ethernet cable and run it along the skirting boards, where it’s pinned down with plastic brackets, and then hidden with guiding rails when it has to go around doors etc. It looks fairly seamless. You could try that, but I own my own property, if you’re younger your parents might not be happy with you modding your house haha
real live or no? {link of Beyonce and Jay-Z performing some horrible song removed for the good of humanity}
Sounds real to me. Real bullshit music.
So Cortis went on Amoeba Music’s “What’s In My Bag?” A show where all the indie musicians go on to talk about the music and films they like. The standout picks were Alice in Chains, Oasis, Pixies, Libertines and Mad Season. Alt rock classics and also some modern indie popstars like Tyler the creator, Mk.gee and Dominic Fike.
All of the comments were slobbering over their “niche” taste in music. Anyways.
1. What picks do u think were handed to them vs they actually listen to and like
2. What percentage of the stans praising them for said taste have actually heard any of the music present?
3. Thoughts on hybe portraying them as self-made and “indie” (eugh)…
1. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the picks were genuine and they do like those albums. Although they might have been encouraged to pick a bit eclectically. However, I’m also sure that they weren’t allowed to go on there and say that they liked NWA, or 2 Live Crew, or GG Allin, or Freaxxx Nastee…
2. What’s probably happening here in a lot of cases is people who are Cortis fans watching this video, hearing some music they’re not that familiar with, thinking “well Cortis likes it, maybe I should check it out” and then discovering some new music. That’s not a bad thing! Even if I don’t personally like a lot of it, it’s still good for people to discover new things they like. If what it takes is their idol crush digging it to get them to check it out, I’m fine with that. It’s a potential way out of the cult, HYBE should be careful.
3. Marketing bullshit of course. Just ignore.
a couple of seeya sound tech questions! not sure how to structure questions to make it not seem like a billion sub-questions at once.
1. how is she able to walk around in front of the audience-facing speakers {above video 12:40} without triggering feedback like she does a few times here {below video 10:20}?
if you’re walking around in front of the front row, how strict do you have to be about facing the mic away from the speakers, or blocking the mic with your body?
2. yeonji doesn’t even flinch at the feedback here while singing.{below video 1:30}
is this just a case of immoveable focus, or does feedback not overwhelm the entire sound system? i’d assume as long as a mix (monitor or pa) includes the channel of the mic that’s triggering feedback, it’d go crazy.
3. (same video as 2) towards the end of the song when they’re all somewhere in the crowd, they’re all a solid 8th late. tech-wise, if they’re wearing iems, what could be happening, weak rf antennae? music-wise, if you’re in a group playing to a backing track or click, what’s the protocol when this kind of thing happens?
1. Blocking with your body isn’t going to do much if the microphone is in front of your face. Air and soundwaves still travel in and around. Proximity is very important though. At 10:24 in the second video where the microphone starts really howling, that’s because she’s walking directly in front of a huge speaker which is that big-ass black box you can see come into frame right behind her. As soon as she realises and steps to the side of that speaker, the feedback stops. Whereas in the first video there seems to be a bit more clearance between the performer and the speakers behind her. There are other factors too which are much harder to determine by watching a video, the main one is often just how high the vocals are cranked in the PA overall.
2. Firstly yes she probably just is very focused, secondly it’s possible that she didn’t even hear the feedback because she’s singing a loud note at the same time and has the music in the backing track going on, thirdly it’s possible that the feedback is coming just through the front of house rather than the monitors. The “front of house mix” and the “monitor mix” are not usually the same. Performers will usually have a specific balance of instruments in their monitors that helps them perform, which might be totally different to what sounds good to the audience. For instance when I play guitar at shows I don’t enjoy hearing myself loudly in my own foldback… but I do want the audience to hear it loudly! So in my case, my own monitors might be too quiet to generate feedback, but there still might be feedback from the front of house if my guitar is so loud that it’s triggering a resonant frequency in the room or something like that. Another thing to consider is that it’s an audio engineer’s job to dive on and kill any feedback when it does appear, so any feedback if it exists won’t exist for long if the engineer knows their stuff. Ideally these issues are sorted out at soundcheck before the show even begins, but sometimes there isn’t time, or conditions change. A room full of people sounds different to an empty room.
3. Sound takes time to travel, and the further the girls move away from the stage, the longer the front of house sound will take to travel to get to them. Meanwhile their in-ears are probably delivering the same sound without that time delay (because it’s delivered through RF), which means the girls are hearing the backing track drums in their in-ears first, and then all around them in the air a fraction of a second later, creating an echo effect. This can be really disorienting. Even if their in-ears have really good sound isolation and don’t let the front of house sound in, they will still feel the front of house audio through their body, especially the bass, a split second after their in-ears reproduce it. So that could be causing them to get a little bit out of time. Weak RF antennae wouldn’t cause a big-ass time lag though, what would happen if the signal was too weak is that your monitor would just drop out altogether. That might then cause you to have to “guesstimate” where you are in the mix until you get your signal back. However that sort of stuff tends to be well and truly tested during soundcheck.
Is this remix AI-assisted at all? I feel like it is too detailed to be, but also I am paranoid now. I think it sounds really good (sort of SNSD “Mr Mr”ish):
I’m no expert on what is AI-assisted and what isn’t but this doesn’t really bear any obvious hallmarks of AI to me.
What incident in K-pop was most similar to the Milli Vanilli live lipsync fail?
Probably Gfriend’s Eunha getting caught miming on “live” radio.
Iconic. Your bias could never.
Why the fuck do you constantly shill fifty fifty’s starry night even though it’s absent from the 30 favourite songs and honourable mentions lists of 2024
It’s just a good song. Not great, I hasten to add. But it’s better than average. You could be listening to it right now, if you wanted.
Seriously though the Lexicon has you covered here.
Do you like dissonant black metal
Doesn’t even sound like black metal to me anymore with those riffs, more like a more evolved form of Morbid Angel. I don’t mind this, the raw sounds are impressive but my patience for it wears thin before the song is over, because there’s not much here that’s memorable once the initial “shock and awe” of how heavy it is wears off. I couldn’t imagine myself listening to a whole gig of this.
Kate Bush or Björk? And favourite song of each?
Bjork.
Not sure if I have a favourite song but this one is cool. Such great lyrical sentiment and absolutely suited to her style of delivery.
Kate Bush I couldn’t even tell you a favourite song. Has never really quite hit the mark for me.
At what point is an idol considered rich? Like, are the Twice members all set for life? Are they making bank on their current tour? The revenue they generate is certainly comparable to those of Western artists, but I assume the profit distribution between them and JYP is vastly different?
Even at the absolute top of the A-list, Korean celebrities don’t make that much compared to celebrities from other countries. Yes a lot of that is to do with the contracts. That’s why contract renewals these days for the really big Korean stars are all about “I’ll stay in the group if you like but I am NOT signing another lock-in contract”. That’s why Lisa has seven Ferraris now. Labels like SM, YG, JYP, HYBE, we think of them as the “big” labels but in the grand scheme of the music industry these are actually “indies”, and they simply don’t have the capital to retain a huge megastar once their contract runs out if they get big enough to attract significant global attention. That’s why these companies always try to sneakily extend contracts as much as possible, and why contract length is such a big issue.
Ador said “We are currently reviewing internal records to determine whether former CEO Min properly conducted a similarity review of the track at the time.”
Are similiarity reviews a thing? Or are they just trying to pass the blame?
Surely not in any formal sense. Never heard of this.
how did you know that you wanted a pet cat, and how would i know if i’m ready to take care of one? i’d be interested in a cat, but i’m a bit scared because its life is in my hands! is there anything that you didn’t anticipate about it?
I wanted a cat because I like cats and I thought why not. Animals are unconditional love as long as you treat them right, and cats are low-maintenance, as long as they have food, fresh water, a litter tray and some places to sit (preferably some up high) they’re good. The downsides are cleaning poop, vet bills, getting the odd clawing, and organsing cat care if you travel. Also cats really hate moving house and travel in general. The thing I didn’t expect the most is that cats are not social animals and they don’t like other cats all that much. If you get multiple cats when they are young they will get along okay, but if you already have one cat and try to introduce a second, expect tension that will never really go away. Also cats are sensitive to smells. If two cats are together and one goes to the vet overnight, they will pick up different scents. When that cat comes back the other cat won’t like it and will fight it until they’ve been back at home for a while and regained their previous scent. The other surprising thing is how claws are really not something you should worry about. Never declaw your cat, never cut its nails in any way, just give them a solid scratching post and they will do the rest all on their own. Claws are good and kitty scratches really aren’t that painful.
The Prika character is probably an I-dle Soyeon equivalent. I.e. a kpop producer and kpop idol. Did they get the technical jargon correct in this short VN segment?
Short? I can’t believe I wasted four minutes of my life watching this overlong crap. Anyway yes the jargon and advice is on-point, clearly they had someone sensible write the script here. What’s less sensible is why anyone would think I’d sit through this crap if I wasn’t being asked questions about it. I’m so glad I don’t play Nikke.
Are Australian “2 min noodles” the same thing as American “instant ramen”?
I have no clue as I haven’t tried the American version.
The ripping electric guitar is one of the best parts of Rough. What other examples are there of electric guitars in songs in the same style as Girls’ Generation’s and Gfriend’s early works?
I can’t even remember right now but I tend to comment on these when they come up. It’s extremely rare. K-pop hasn’t really discovered shredding to any major extent, which is actually weird to me because such a culture obsessed with perfect performances you’d think shredding guitar solos would be right up their alley. I guess not.
kbobbalypse how can i train my voice to be louder? i typically speak in a high-ish breathy voice, where it feels like i’m only tapping into half of whatever’s happening in the larynx. when i’m asked to speak up, i feel like i tense up really badly and i cant maintain a loud voice for longer than 3 syllables. it feels like my voice starts and ends right in my mouth, though i’ve read good projection starts from the diaphragm. i’m pretty good at taking sustained breaths where my lungs expand in all directions, so it feels odd that my breath control would be so crummy when it comes to speaking. it’d be so nice to not sound like speaking regularly, like not straining or yelling, and still be heard across the room.
a silly anecdote from this was that i had to do a small group recording of some dialogue for a class in a studio and one of those fancy mics, and reading that mic post of yours that said “you don’t need to project if you have a mic,” i thought i’d be fine speaking normally. sigh……. we had to splice the audio and crank the gain up so much for my lines even after rerecording a couple times.
If you have a teeny tiny voice, learning to project is helpful. The way I was taught to do it that actually worked for me is by visualising a person at a distance from me (a few metres) and then trying to project acoustically to that distance, but without yelling, just with using my diaphragm to help project out through my throat. It’s the sort of thing a vocal coach can help you with. It’s very difficult to diagnose an issue like this via text.
Thoughts on plot twist about halfway through the story? {some hentai lol – link removed}
Not sure if this one really even has much of a story beyond a basic fantasy setup to enable lots of sex scenes. I removed the link because if I hotlink to sites like this it causes me issues but for everyone else just imagine someone drawing people having sex a lot.
do you think that kazuha might be able to give a man head injuries by squeezing their head with her muscular thighs?
I think a lot of people are capable of that! I’m currently doing sets of 15 reps at 95kg on my gym’s hip adduction machine, I wonder if that’s more than Kazuha.
Do you think that the comments under this video {pointing out that Babymonster’s Ahyeon is looking awkward, the outfit doesn’t fit her properly, and that she is trying to cover her chest with her hair} are over-reacting? I mean, she’s turned 18 now, its not that big of a deal, amirite? People are too conservative these days, idols necklines don’t have to be so stingy.
If nothing else she certainly seems concerned about a wardrobe malfunction, but the idea that she’s specifically concerned about her boobs, that’s just k-pop fans with an obsession about boobs projecting their interest. People think I’m obsessed with this stuff but I’m nowhere near as into it as supposedly “concerned” k-pop fans – I wouldn’t have even fucking noticed that Ahyeon had any cleavage in this video were it not for it being pointed out. Let’s face it – these people just like to look at boobs and are using “I’m concerned for Ahyeon’s welfare” as an excuse to stare for a long time at her cleavage over and over again to determine just how uncomfortable she is. Of course it’s fine when they look but it’s not okay when you look because they are concerned… yeah right. Sheesh, indeed. The Kpopalypse Objectification Survey (open at the time of writing, click here to vote) exists partly to cut through this type of fraudulent moral grandstanding.
1. Would not many Australian have crash outs like this?
2. What about Pauline Hanson supporters?
1. I don’t really see how this is a crash out. She’s just pointing out facts.
2. What about them?
Curious what your opinion is on Whitehouse, or noise/power electronics in general
I don’t mind it but I have to be in the mood for it.
i feel like ttyl by loosemble and chat by girlset are basically the same kind of song, but i’m not sure why outside of a fast tempo. would you say they’re similar from a technical perspective? i also feel like both of the songs are generally annoying even though i like the verses in ttyl, the post-chorus in chat, and the fast tempo in both. i feel like i would love “this kind of song”, but i don’t know of a really good one. are there other (kpop) songs that you think succeeded where these songs didn’t, even if you don’t think they’re similar?
Apart from tempo, and them both being pop songs, I’m not hearing a lot of similarity. I mean if you’re asking if they are both fairly fast-paced upbeat pop songs by girl groups, then yes they are, and as far as similarities go, I guess that’s not nothing, but it definitely didn’t occur to me that they are any more similar than any other two girl pop songs with a fast tempo.
why do you think that KFN Comfort Train, the music show on KFN TV (Korea Defense Network TV), has largely gone under the radar for global kpop fans? their youtube channel has relatively low view counts on videos and relatively low follower count.
as an expert kpop gooner, surely oppar must have some insight?
Couldn’t tell you why this is the case, or even if it is the case. I don’t generally follow the popularity of YouTube channels, unless I’m noting it for Nugu Alert or something.
what’s your analysis of these lyrics?
“Capitalism is great, it got us where we are today. No I will not join your socialist alliance.”
Why do you think that k-pop women idols are so conservative about showing their upper body, but not so with their lower body? My theory is that only grown women tend to have more cleavage, so of course this becomes an uncomfortable and taboo thing within conservative k-pop run by old men in suits with..dubious intentions. Also that having fat on your chest likely means that you have more body weight in other areas, which is of course a huge no-no( also explains the rise in padding and implants). Curious to hear your take on this, though.
I think part of this is legs being more of a focus is just the beauty standard in Korea. Another part is yes slimming diets aren’t going to promote cleavage. The dubious intentions of old men running k-pop companies are largely in the “making money” direction, they’re (mostly) not doing it for sexual gratification, at least not their own sexual gratification in most cases. “Nine Muses Of Star Empire” demonstrates that really well, you get to see the execs talking about “honey thighs” not as a prurient interest of their own but more as a stock investment opportunity. Sexual presentations, like the music itself, is just a means to an end.
I saw last month’s QRIMOLE asking about Jacob Collier and looked him up out of curiosity. One of his top hits on YouTube is him “improvising” with a live orchestra. It’s clear he’s a skilled musician who can conduct / direct, but I found myself bored with the video. The comments really praise him, and the audience and orchestra members seem to be enjoying it. I play and instruments, but by no means professional. Still, I don’t find anything impressive about asking professional musicians to play a few arpeggios or hold some long notes/chords. Maybe trills sound impressive to people who don’t play instruments? But otherwise the things being played are quite rudimentary.
Eventually, the song culminates into a rendition of “Yellow” by Coldplay, which makes me wonder how much of the direction was actually improvised or rehearsed in his head beforehand. I’m not trying be a hater, but I’m failing to see what’s so amazing about this. I was wondering if you could give me some perspective I might be missing?
It’s literally not improvising if he’s telling people what to play and they’re playing it. It might be an interesting video for people who have no experience with arranging for orchestra and wondering how that works though. Essentially he’s breaking down the process of arranging a song for orchestra in a granular fashion and narrating it for the audience. Which is a cool idea, I’ve never seen anyone do that live. However it’s not technically magnificent or even particularly unprecedented, people do this sort of thing all the time, just not with an audience present. A more correct title for this video would be “Jacob Collier gets some musicians to play an arrangement of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ that he wrote”, but I guess that doesn’t generate the same amount of clickthroughs.
How does she {Blackpink’s Lisa} still have a noticeable ass with meat on it despite being so skinny?
Just genetics. Some people gain and lose weight more on certain parts of their body than others.
Is the Stray Kids song “Ta” anything to do with the aussie slang word?
Also, why do you reckon aussie idols tend to keep blond hair throughout their career? Looking at you, Felix, Rose and Lily. Not many other non-aussie idols are known for staying blond for more than a year, forget their whole career.
Looking at the lyrics for “Ta”, definitely not.
Not sure about the blonde thing. But it’s probably better for the idols to keep their hair one colour for a while. Constant redying of hair in different colours and the maintenance involved and the damage it can cause is something that people who do it stress about.
Hi would u like this song called “not the same” by british heavy metal band haunt
I don’t hate this but while they absolutely have the old school heavy metal sound intact I don’t think the song itself is very good.
Is Cocona going to be the first man ever on this year’s bias list, or have you unstanned him out of sheer misandry?
With the amount of content I’ve been given to work with so far, it seems unlikely. It would help if Cocona actually was a little bit more active.
1. do you notice the difference or no with this supposedly “fixed” movie poster {for the film ‘La La Land’ which has Ryan Gosling’s hand at a slightly different angle}?
2. why do you think they waited 10 years to “fix” it?
1. It’s a pretty obvious difference but I don’t know why they bothered.
2. No idea. Movie posters, book covers, album covers change all the time, most don’t get their own article. I don’t even see why this is notable.
I was reading your latest roundup and I totally agree with your Latin Hybe boy group review, so I’d love to know some Latin American artists/music genres you enjoy. I’m mostly familiar with Brazilian artists but I always learn a lot from some of your non-kpop group features and I’ve genuinely found a few new artists and groups I like that way!!
Here’s a great list of latin American metal bands.
Also the entire Brazilian funk genre.
I sometimes see IZ*ONE’s song Vampire mentioned as a default example of bad mixing and/or bad production in K-pop spaces, but I don’t really know enough about music recording to tell if this is correct. What is it about this song from a technical perspective that makes it sound so different from other K-pop songs- the mixing, the production, the way it was recorded? Is it a mistake/ inherently bad or just a stylistic choice that K-pop fans are unaccustomed to?
I’ve heard a few theories on why this song is produced poorly and they’re all wrong. People saying they didn’t use pitch-correction when they definitely did use it. People saying they didn’t use reverb or vocal effects when they definitely did use those too. Etc etc. The real issue is simple – the vocals are just mixed far too loud compared to the backing track. The drums in particular are buried waaaay in the back of the mix which is pretty unforgivable for a pop song of this type. Because the instruments are so far in the back of the mix, this also gives the effect of making everything sounds very midrangey because that’s where the vocals are. To get decent bass out of this thing you have to (due to Fletcher-Munson curves) crank it to the point where the vocals are truly annoying. Even re-EQing the song probably wouldn’t help because it’d bury a lot of the other backing track detail like all the strings parts. So yeah, it’s ass.
idk if you care about music video aesthetics but i thought this article was interesting and puts a name to this aesthetic trend that has been going around for the past few years what do you think of this style? i think out of every music video mentioned ive does it the best imo
Holy fucking shit what a thesis. This isn’t shit I would have ever noticed but it’s interesting and I don’t necessarily disagree with any of it, I just have never thought about it all that much. I don’t mind the look but like with anything it gets old, and will soon be replaced by something else, and I’m not wildly concerned with video visuals to this extent anyway, I’m more about music. For what it’s worth I do prefer the high-production visual sheen that IVE used in “I Am” to the “Bang Bang” style he’s referring to in this article.
If you were interviewing an actor are these the sort of questions you would ask? {some girl talks about some new Spiderman movie (as if anyone even gives a fuck, holy shit are we not over lame superhero fucking bullshit movies yet?) and she’s pretty much vetoed from saying anything at all, the interviewer tries to work around it to limited success so the interview ends up being a few minutes of two people discussing absolutely nothing}
Well I think I’d probably just call off the interview if I was given something like this. What’s the point of interviewing someone about the thing, if they can’t talk about the thing.
Is this {video of a wombat} a video of a real animal, or is it gen AI? I’ve never a thing like that before.
Wombats are real. This is a real video. This is a very large wombat though, it’s not unusual for them to be this big but most are smaller.
Do Australians IRL actually say the things she’s rattling off in the middle of the skit? {a girl rattles off lots of Australian slang to prove she’s Australian}
Not very commonly. Check here. If it’s not here, it wasn’t common enough to be worth putting in. I guess “mad as a cut snake” isn’t too uncommon but since the meaning is just “very mad” it wasn’t worth including in any sort of explainer as there’s no ambiguity there.
What’s going on in the (higher) chorus vocals {above at 0:50} to make them sound so synthesized, and is it similar to what’s happening here {below at 0:32}?
I hear a phaser and triads, is that correct?
The thing is, in Bingo, I don’t hear any oscillation, just that the vox are a lot less rich-sounding than the chorus vox throughout the rest of the song. The quality just sounds similar.
Bingo just sounds like regular gang vocals, recorded very distantly.
Not sure if the Kara song is triads, might just be a two-part harmony. It’s legitimately difficult to tell with the dense mix. Sounds to me more like a vocoder that’s causing phase shift than an actual phaser. Vocoders tend to create phase shift when used for multi-tracked vocals because multiple vocals locked into one machine-designated pitch can partly phase-cancel each other.
Why the fuck do you always make fun of soyeon for pirating her daw piracy is great you should you cheering her on or its sarcasm right
I just think it’s funny. Given the choice between saying something virtuous but boring, or something morally sketchy but funny, I’ll often pick the funny thing. I have no vested interest in being liked or admired, but I do like to entertain myself. Maybe it’s funny to others too, maybe it isn’t, your mileage may vary. Unlike every other person on the Internet ever I’m not trying to convince you of what a wonderful person I am.
do you care about this news? {some girl leaving some group that hasn’t even debuted yet}
maybe because i’ve been listening to kpop for a very long time, i don’t really care about line-up changes, especially for a pre-debut group.
is it ppl just being para-social cuz they had a katseye survival show?
(you get the gist in the first 6 mins)
{video removed}
Here’s a brief vid wehre an ex-kpop trainee gives her 2 cents (better video, frankly).
{also removed}
I have videos with clickbait titles. Neither video actually directly says what it’s talking about so I just removed them both. Let’s stop rewarding clickbaiters. I can tell you’re all addicted to clickbait because of the way some of you phrase your questions here, so I’m going to use QRIMOLE for clickbait rehab.
As for the question, I care about the systemic problems in k-pop. I’m not that invested in what happens to any one particular group, although I do highlight these things from time to time if I think it is spectacularily unfair or I feel that people are missing important perspectives or it says something relevant about the overall system. I’m not wildly into “speculation” and “gossip” though. “This could mean X” doesn’t interest me much. “This DOES mean X” is more relevant.
Your individual thoughts on each of these slides? {Korean comebacks that were cancelled, link removed}
Saving you all a click to someone’s Shitstagram, the slides and my thoughts are:
Loona’s “The Origin” album cancelled after fan boycotts – fine with that, probably would have been pants
Lucas and Hendry “Jalopeno” comeback cancelled because Lucas got into some shit that I can’t remember – sounds from the comeback title like it would have been some “latin”-ass bullshit that sucked, the world is better off without it
Hyuna was going to come back in 2018 but label pulled it because of Dawn dating scandal – her label CUBE have shit for brains and this is a retarded reason to cancel anything but Hyuna wasn’t doing anything good around this time anyway so no biggie
I.O.I 2019 comeback scrapped after “Produced”(sic) rigging scandal – who knows what that would have been like. Hard to have an opinion about something that never happened, kind groovy how they just waited for this all to blow over and came back next decade hey, if fans make a fuss about something wait for them to become distracted
Jessica and Krystal subunit that never happened because Jessica got booted from SNSD – this would have been under SM direction so would have sounded like any SM stuff around that time. Could have been okay but who knows
Loona ballad album “La Maision” cancelled because Jaden left – hardly matters, I’m sure any songs that were any good would up on Jaden’s new projects.
CL English album cancelled – I feel like I’ve heard half the album anyway because she had about half a dozen cracks at a “US debut” to the point where it started to become a running joke. CL was never going to fly for the American market, not as a solo artist. The Black Eyed Peas should have given serious consideration to using her to replace Fergie full-time, she would have fared much better with that and her song with them was decent.
SHINee 2017 comeback shelved because Onew got a bit handsy at the club – of course everyone’s forgotten about that now and welcome SHINee comebacks with open arms, like the open arms Onew used to grope people at the club… amazing how fans who pretend their moral can just hand-wave away a bit of sexual harassment as long as enough time has passed, that’s why Kpopalypse.com keeps reminding you with Onew jokes every so often
IKON 2019 comeback shelved because of drug scandal – oh my god the FUCKING STUPID LOSER who made these Instagram slides censored the word “drug”. That’s it, link removed. What sort of society are we living in. There are standards. Anyway I’d say “kids don’t do drugs” but if you’re a kid you shouldn’t be reading this fucking shit site anyway.
Pristin 2019 was nearly done when the group shat itself – who cares, they sucked
X1 were going to do a thing in 2020 but chart rigging something something – wait, who are X1? I don’t care. All those shows are rigged anyway. Just ask Eunice.
CLC were going to do “La Vie En Rose” but then IZ*ONE got it – song came out anyway, so who cares. Sucks for CLC I guess or maybe it doesn’t because the song was ass
AOA was going to have a 5 member comeback but Jimin then became hated because of her lack of history knowledge or something so it was shelved – if it wasn’t a full AOA band reformation I don’t care
CLC 2021 material never came out – no shit.
Gfriend comeback never happened – crime against humanity, HYBE will be sent to the Hague to answer for this one day
Chungha was going to release a thing and then didn’t because label something something – and that’s it. Honestly it’s hard to get too passioniate about any of this stuff because how can I assess the quality of something that never even happened. Hey even the Gfriend comeback might’ve been shit. You just don’t know.
Accurate claims about Australia? {you can get free food at Church, discounts from supermarkets and also something calld DFO I’ve never heard of}
1. Yes but don’t trust christian fuckers they will use that free food as bait to try to convert you, that’s why they do it
2. Yes
3. idek what this is
A decent size of kpop fans i see on xitter are vocally very leftist (ranges from democratic socialists to anarcho-communists) and simultaneously extremely parasocial and consumerist (bulk buying albums for photocards, must buy every sponsorship etc. etc.) What causes this cognitive-dissonance?
Stupidity.
I’m not even joking. Just the natural stupidity that comes with being a young person trying to find their way in the world. I’m not exempting myself here, I was colossally dumb when I was younger. (I wouldn’t even say I’m all that much smarter now, but I’d like to think that there’s been some marginal improvement.) When these people grow up most of them will either turn more right-wing, or they will dump k-pop for ideologically greener pastures that are more in line with their political thoughts.
could you please write a short fanfic based on premise of this video?
I listened to a shit song that Hwasa sung into her fridge. The end.
I tried to sum up all the questions u get on qrimole as 10 archetypes, can u rank them from most to least enjoyable to answer?
1. Schizophrenic word vomit essay about some idol ship idk
2. “Have you heard about <insert artist>?they’re a… <insert said artist’s entire biography and discography>”
3. J-pop.
4. “Looks good on her/mrs?”
5. Something highly specific about kpop music production
6. General life/love/work related question
7. Not a question lol
8. Rants that were forged in hellfire itself
9. Video game time
10. Western pop time
From most to least:
6 > 1 > 5 > 8 > 7 > 10 > 2 > 9 > big wall > 4 > 3
Stuff to the right of the wall usually gets chopped out of QRIMOLE completely.
I’m sad that book writing questions didn’t even make the list. They seem to have dried up, there isn’t even a section for them in the last two QRIMOLEs.
hey, when ppl seem to be clearly ask about what specific sub-genre a song belongs to and you just give broad answers like “it’s pop”, “it’s rock”, are you doing this just to troll them? if so, is there any real reason to needlessly anger ppl like that?
I’m not going to just make shit up. Most “sub-genres” aren’t even real. Here’s an example: “Pirate metal”. Just because you sing “yo ho ho” and put on a fake pirate voice and put a bit of violin or something in your song, it doesn’t make it a whole new genre, it just means you’re writing songs with a theme. But everyone LOVES to say “new genre, new genre” because then they can put their favourite group in there as the one that’s important in that genre, and also it’s good for marketing, it looks impressive on a press release to claim that an artist is a “pioneer”. It’s a bit like the Amazon book charts thing discussed earlier. Have a shitload of different subcategories to make everyone feel important about dominating a specific subcategory that there’s only a tiny handful of people in. It’s all marketing bullcrap and this site is here to try and make people a bit critical and sensible about marketing bullcrap instead of just blindly swallowing it and that’s why I don’t entertain the subgenre obsessions.
what do you think of the tiktok algo? unlike other apps, random ppl with no followers can get pushed i’ve noticed. i think youtube these days favours corpos and twitter ppl paying for blue checks. idk about facebook or instagram, barely on those to notice.
Lissa seems to be doing well, she has several reposts of my content now with over half a million views each, and at least one with over a million. So if even my stuff can get up there, there has to be a chance given, because my content tends to get pushed out of most other spaces. I’m no expert though and I don’t really spend any time on TikTok, there’s a few accounts that I follow (less than a dozen) but I never EVER just scroll randomly looking for stuff.
why are metal songs largely in english even though a lot of the bands aren’t native english speakers?
Because the early metal songs are all in English so English has sort of become the default language of metal. A bit like how tons of opera is in Italian and it’s considered the language of opera… opera not in Italian just seems a bit “odd”. Also just marketing reasons, everyone wants to hit the big US market.
do you have any advice? i like to goon to bibi but it takes more step then i think is necessary cuz when i look it up usually the top posts are about israel.
You have to search “bibi kpop”. There are certain people in k-pop where if you don’t add the k-pop suffix you will get some strange results. “Kai legs” is another one, have fun with that. Also maybe right click and save the content more often, that could help. Just don’t save it in the same folder as your University thesis about Israel’s response to attacks from Gaza and you should be good.
Hi oppar,
I’ve been reading your website for a little more than a year and wanted to thank you for being so consistent with it!
My question is: would you be interested in reading an idol k webnovel? i would really like to know your opinion if you ever read one.
The most popular k webnovel for this subgenre is “Debut or Die” (the literal translation is “If I fail to debut, I’ll get a killer disease”), the protagonist has to debut through a survival show. Since is the novel that made popular the idol subgenre i recommend to read it, a lot of the webnovels that came after take a lot of inspiration from this one, and this also features the ‘system’ that is so popular in korean webnovels and webtoons for some reason.
However, if you are tired of survival shows then i really recommend reading “Assistant manager Kim hates Idols”, it also has a system but in general it tackles more problems within the idol industry
Of course, if you end up reading one i don’t expect that you read it completely (both of them have 600+ chapters), reading only one arc is enough (for Debut or Die it’s when the show ends, for Assistant manager Kim hates Idols it’s after the debut)
English is not my firts language so i hope this wasn’t very confusing :]
I would definitely be interested. Time is a factor of course, and the plot premise sounds incredibly lame, but I’d still check it out because who knows maybe they did something good with it. Feel free to send a link in the comments below. Be aware it’ll get filtered because all links do, but I’ll keep my eye out for it and approve it. Mind you if it takes ten thousand hours to read I may struggle to review it. But if people could perhaps list off the best (or funniest, or worst, or most notable) k-pop webnovels, I could review them in a future post.
I haaate to be that person, but
but you’re going to be that person anyway, aren’t you lol
I’m really curious to know what you think about Britney Spears’ music overall. Is there any song or album by her that you think is especially great—or especially bad? I’m mainly asking because of the huge influence she had on K-pop during its golden era. I mean, there’s no 2010-2012 T-ara without 2007-2009 Britney
I thank Britney “trust your president” Spears for her positive influence on T-ara’s early career and some of her songs are okay I guess but to be honest every decent Britney Spears song I’ve ever heard has a much better k-pop equivalent.
why do you think that the housing minister lady was dodging the interviewer lady’s questions?
Because the flag is a non-issue and nobody cares. It’s just a setup so the interviewer can then follow up with “so why do you like unions so much when they suggest such things”. She’s trying to drive a wedge between the Labor party (who are kind of slightly left-wing ish) and the union (the Labor party are generally union-friendly). Don’t fucking trust the Australian shitshow that is Sunrise. That show has given tons of free promo to Pauline Hanson and they are basically outrageously right-wing trash aimed at retirement-age conservatives and they push divisive issues all the time to try and score political points. Each time the journalist asks about the flag the housing minister correctly says “stop even asking me that shit, talk to me about things that are actually important”. She’s the Housing Minister, she doesn’t have a say in things like the fucking flag anyway. There would have to be a whole-ass referendum to change the flag, and Australians typically vote no in referendums. It’s not going to happen.
THE GAMING QUESTIONS CONTINUE SO THEY GET THEIR OWN SPECIAL SECTION AGAIN
1. thoughts on game mode?
2. game for you? {company of heroes 3}
N/A and no.
thoughts on game concept?
i’d assume that they go about the daily routine and take things like tools from during the day to aid the night escape later.
Seems like it could probably be good, although personally I would never play this as very story-driven games bore me to tears. If I want to read a book I’ll read a book. If I want to watch a movie I’ll watch a movie. If I want to play a game I’ll play a game. These things are not the same and I’ll thank every game dev ever for not trying to combine them. Also why does it have to be furries. Society has lost its way.
1. do you agree with his assessment of gamers? {Article is called “Take-Two Boss Knows You’re Paying More For Gas, Groceries – Says You’ll Buy GTA 6 Anyway”}
2. do you know anyone who’s committed to paying $100 USD for GTA 6 on day 1?
1. Yes. GTA6 will be a huge hit. I can tell just because you people keep asking me questions about it fucking constantly even though I have repeatedly stated that I have absolutely zero interest in it (and AAA games in general) and do not give any fucks whatsoever and am not GTApopalypse etc etc etc etc etc but you all can’t stop yourselves anyway and weirdly keep assuming that I give a crap. Whenever that happens, I know something will be huge.
2. No. But gaming habits isn’t something I tend to discuss with people. For all I know perhaps some of them are, it just wouldn’t occur to them to tell or ask me about it, or for me to ask them. They’d be much more likely to ask me about music, or novel writing, or Waterbomb performances (there’s a lesson here).
Have you played Hunie Pop 2 Double Date? I dont think you would enjoy dating sims but the puzzle system is probably the best out of any match 3 game like ever (imo ofc) markipliers playthroughs are pretty fun if u and any caonima wants to watch
I recently bought it because it was on a deep discount and refunded it soon after, just to send a message. Maybe I’ll re-buy it at an even deeper discount in the future. Can’t believe they scrapped the two best girls of the first game (teacher Aika and caonima brat Audrey) but left in the boring ones like the generic flight attendant, generic cougar etc. I also found the extra puzzle mechanics to be a chore. When I do the next Wonho game review post I’ll talk more about it then.
1. thoughts on this german game?
2. can you feel the very noticeable framerate drops in the gameplay shown?
1. Lost complete and total interest as soon as I heard the word “craft”.
2. No. Wouldn’t care anyway. Anything above 60fps is wasted frames as far as I’m concerned, I throttle my framerate for all games to 60 to save my electricity bill. Shit looks the same to me at 60 or anything above 60. Movies have been 24 fps for a century and that looks fine too. I am not a “power user” and I don’t give a single shit about things like framerates, performance, etc, add it to the massive list of things I don’t care about in the gaming space, that people weirdly think I do or should care about for some weird reason. If the game runs that’s good enough. The 3D games I used to play as a kid sometimes went at ONE frame per second. Anything over ten frames is a blessing.
thoughts on mod concept?
it turns a Need For Speed game into a rhythm game. IDK how it’s executed. do you still have to steer the vehicle? hopefully it just makes the racing part a background visual that’s on rails.
I have no idea. I think this is dumb. Rhythm games work best when they’re as simple as possible. Hybridising them with other types of game never works for me, it’s just an annoyance.
1. thoughts on game?
2. are you any good at games like this?
1. Don’t care about it. Add this type of game to the VERY long list of games, game types, game issues etc etc etc that I just don’t give a fuck about.
2. I find these type of games confusing. Too many things to watch at once. I was never good at them even when I was younger and I had the reflexes.
(first 10 min or so of video review should give you the gist of it.)
1. your thoughts on game? {Unclean Water}
2. does this korean indie dev high determination?
3. the likelihood that the character proportions were inspired by karina?
4. valid candidate for a wonho game review article?
1. Looks boring af
2. idk this doesn’t look like it’d be that hard to make
3. doubtful
4. I could give it a look, it’s certainly within my price bracket
thoughts on game mode? {The Binding Of Isaac multiplayer on Xbox}
Don’t care about it. I don’t play Xbox, have never owned one, never will. I also am not sure how TBOI would work as a multiplayer game. It barely works as a singleplayer game anyway due to horrible RNG. It reminds me of Solitaire if anything – no matter what you do, most of the time you ain’t gonna win. That’s fine for a card game that takes three minutes, less good for something deeper. If the multiplayer can mitigate that to some extent I guess it could have potential? I won’t ever play it though, so I don’t really care.
NOT QUESTIONS
Hi Oppar. Hope you’re doing well. Through all these years you’ve insisted that (good) k-pop is just western pop that has been refined with great production and improved with better musical choices (melody, harmony, etc, I don’t know anything about music beyond liking it.) I mostly agree as one can easily trace a song’s western counterpart/inspiration track in a lot of cases, and in recent times, western producers and composers have been employed to make songs for k-pop groups directly. But I’m thinking specifically about ~Christian Horse girl Music~ (I hate this “label” so much lol.) You did mention that this type of songs tend to have certain common elements, like the complexity of harmony (relative to western pop), the primacy of melody, the dominant textures, and so on. And you specifically said that this tends to be a feature of Asian songwriting that western songwriters don’t really get. This made me think that a lot of nice songs that you praise sound anime-esque to the untrained ear (despite your complaints, and we won’t stop saying it.) Momoland’s Wonderful Love, After School’s Wonder Boy, Year 7 Class 1’s Oppa Virus (whose chorus sounds a lot like early 2000s japanese happy hardcore! Like Jun’s Happy Angel), GFRIEND’s Time for the Moon Night… Someone who is familiar with j-pop and anisongs will find these very intelligible and familiar and will probably like them. Liiike surely there’s a pattern of Asian musical sensibilities that we’re picking up on? And that’s why I think your assertion of there not being any uniquely Asian feature to k-pop is wrong. Not that it matters now since the big companies are moving away from that specific style. Anyways, recommend me a nice lesbian JAV.
It’s true that Asian songs of the type you’re talking about tend to favour melodic and harmonic complexity a bit more, because that’s what that particular market prefers. The influence we’re tracing back here is the first jazz ballads that were imported into Asia and influenced the traditional music of the era, and essentially these songs are sped-up jazz ballads so a more modern and sophisticated version of trot (Lovelyz’ “Ah-Choo” is the perfect example). Every single “Christian horse girl” song could also work as a trot song if you just change the instruments a little. (Seo Eve is very good at stradding that line if you’re having trouble imagining what I’m talking about.) So as far as differences go between Korean and western pop I guess that’s not “absolutely nothing” but I feel like it’s also not enough to the point where I’d consider it with my hand on my heart a whole new genre or some shit. Lesbian JAV of the month is DANDYA-044.
Look pleas look
I observed the rabbit. Rabbit-friendly JAV of the month is BBTU-100.
honestly if i was a longtime army my ego would be through the roof, imagine the flop nugus i stanned 13 years ago becoming the most popular kpop group in the world. absolutely crazy
Yes, you could take credit for it. You could even say you paved the way. Construction-themed JAV of the month of JJSA-069.
Why are you so sensitive about BTS and Armys? You constantly brag about “oh, MY faves defeceate on stage! They say racial slurs ALL THE TIME!!! Kpop stans are so sensitive about nothing!” but when a random 13 year old tells someone to off themselves online or BTS go and perform in a Muslim country its suddenly the worst thing ever and should be brought up until the end of time. As if Australia and America aren’t built off the same blood money and slave labour as Saudi Arabia. Grow some thicker skin
I haven’t mentioned BTS performing in Saudi Arabia for several years now (or maybe I have, I can’t remember) but thanks to you it’s getting mentioned here again.
This isn’t even a question, more of a rant really. Culturally sensitive JAV of the month is DVMM-376.
BEST QUESTION
Sophia talking about antis living in a reality distorting echo chambers.
1. Is she a caonima?
2. Your thoughts?
Sincere THANK YOU for putting a question in that is actually descriptive of what’s in the link!
The right way: “idol x talks about topic y, what are your thoughts?”
The wrong way: “what’s your take on idol X’s thoughts in this video?”
Good job. Anyway, to answer your question:
1. certainly points obtained for saying true stuff boldly, I think this is cool
2. she’s right, online isn’t everything. Not just in k-pop or even just in music. Often I get questions that position an issue as terribly important because of the online discourse around it, but in reality most people don’t care. The average BTS fan is just a normal person who likes listening to BTS. The dickheads online who ruin it for everyone else are just a vocal minority. It’s just that when you have as many fans as BTS do, you can be a minority and still number in the hundreds of thousands. Of course I’ll continue to shit on online stupidity because it’s funny to do so and the stupidity shouldn’t go uncriticised, but don’t lose faith in humanity as a whole. A surprising amount of humans are actually pretty decent people once you get them away from their computer screens.
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!