QRIMOLE – February 2018

Kpopalypse is back with another QRIMOLE – let’s take a look at the questions readers had for Kpopalypse in February 2018!

hi ❤ i really love your blog. one thing i’ve been wondering about is…do you know what pc music is? if your answer is no, please check it out. if your answer is yes then, what do you think of it?

Yes, I know what this is.  I’m not very excited by the music coming out of the PC Music label, they spent too much time trying to be “twinkly” instead of writing good songs.  I was surprised to find that they’re supposedly controversial for whatever reason, I guess we really are living in a snowflake generation if this limp fluffy angel music is enough to get people all riled up.  Here’s the best song I’ve found related to this label, it’s not too bad, but I can’t get into anything else of theirs so far.

So I have seen some very interesting stories on QRIMOLE previously, and I thought I would share mine along with questions. I first got into k-pop 5 or 6 months ago because of my friends(who VIGOROUSLY insisted that I become an EXO fan but I didn’t anyway), and since I’m not Korean I immediately realized the benefits of listening to music, along with all other aspects of K-pop, in a language you can’t understand! The strange thing, though, is that I had a rather unusual K-pop experience which led me into K-pop. I live in a town which is actually 50% Korean, so I grew up surrounded by Korean culture. As a result, everyone(Korean or not) knew about K-pop, and most of my friends were fans of some K-pop group or another. I think that people like K-pop in my town so much that it has just become part of the town(you can walk down the street and buy EXO merch for goodness sake). Anyway, I don’t know how you came about liking K-pop, but from your blog posts it is evident that liking K-pop is completely out of the norm where you live, so you are quite unusual for being a K-pop fan there. Of course there is so much K-pop in my town because of the huge number of Korean people, but do you think that K-pop can become as popular worldwide as it is in my town? Of course, this would take an extremely long time since K-pop must overcome the “why would I listen to something I can’t understand?” barrier, but in the future? BTS is already becoming popular in America after all(there are many better groups which could become popular, in my opinion, but oh well). Ok that’s it, come to think of it that was a rather pointless question which you have probably answered before. I’m not very original; I should probably keep reading your blog for better inspiration.
P.S. Your blog is great; keep up the good work!
P.P.S. This is bound to be dismissed by you(or whoever reads these) as really annoying and a waste of time. In that case it’s just too bad that you wasted your time. Sucks for you.
P.P.S. ? Smileys for positivity. I swear I’m not 8.

I think k-pop is gradually increasing in popularity.  Quite a lot of people where I live are into k-pop, just not in the professional circles that I move in (where pop music of any type is generally looked down upon).  Australian cities have large Asian populations, and there are a lot of young Asian people where I live who listen to k-pop.

p.s – thanks

p.p.s – yes I guess it does

p.p.p.s 🙂

in the songwriting process, what typically comes first? do the lyrics or the actual music?

Depends on the songwriter.  Sometimes people will write lyrics to fit pre-existing musc, sometimes vice-versa.  Which order it happens in usually depends on the songwriter’s comfort zone, assuming it’s the same songwriter in charge of both.  People tend to start with what they know they can do well, and then fit the other thing around it.

So I had a case of deja vu and realized I heard about “vocal soup” almost three years ago when I did a high school musical. Except it was called “blending” (vocal blend) and the vocalfags were encouraging it. I’m sure I’m just telling you what you already know, most of the cast members (except useless ensemble members like I was) had mic packs anyway so the result would be the engineering soup for group numbers anyway. (Just live, rather than pre-recorded.) Just a random memory I had that kinda proves your point and makes it vocalfag-official.

In k-pop fan land, vocalfaggots don’t like the idea of the “vocal soup” because it denies them the ability to fag away about the abilities of a particular singer.  However you are correct that in practical terms in singing it’s common for groups to “sing in unison” to create this effect.  In musical theater it’s done to give more power to the vocal line and also so the averaging-out effect of many voices singing at the same time means that any pitch mistakes are minimised.

I don’t really have a question, really, just an interesting radio show to link:

Important bits:

It was just really refreshing to hear someone talk about bigger company settings (in this case, JYP) and bitch about the training process in a really honest way, and I thought you’d find it interesting!

He’s obviously choosing his words very carefully so he doesn’t get into trouble!  I liked the passive-aggressive “arrive indoors 1 minute after curfew” though, that’s cute.  Maybe once Day6 breaks up they can do Kpopalypse Interview and then say what they really want to say… but then JYP is probably checking this post and saying to them right now “hey guys, never talk to this Kpopalypse dude, even after your contract expires, or I’m gonna kick your ass”.

You say that popularity doesn’t matter, but if a music act isn’t popular enough, they’re at risk of disbanding, and not making more quality music. So isn’t popularity a legitimate concern for fans?

Well, it matters to them perhaps but it doesn’t matter to me, because I care about the music these groups create, which isn’t determined by the groups themselves.  If agency X has group Y who disband for some reason, agency X is just going to shift whatever songs they were going to release with group Y over to some other group Z for the future.  So as a music fan I’ll still get to hear those same songs eventually anyway and I’m cool with that.  There’s pretty much no actual difference in sound between one idol group and the next, quite the opposite – these groups are working with a strict template and trying to sound as simialr to each other as possible.  So who performs the song doesn’t matter to me as long as I get to hear it eventually (and often it’s usually the same ghost singers anyway actually on the recordings).

Note that this is only for idol groups.  For groups not in the idol system and who self-create their own material, then yes those groups disbanding affects the musical quality of my life much more.

Heya, from a caonima who cares about “pointless” popularity here!
1. You keep repeating that popularity is pointless and all that, but I still have a very big interest because more often than not a group being popular or not will determine the amount of comebacks/content that they get. For example, I’m a big fan of Park Jimin, and you and I both know how little content she gets of anything just because she isn’t popular enough, and I tend to be an outcast in my general tastes so this kind of thing happens a lot. In that sense, wouldn’t it be normal to have at least a slight interest in popularity and how things blow up? I just want the artists I like to make music but if money’s not coming in for them then that obviously won’t happen.

2. My second question is semi-related to the first. I’ve noticed in the past year that rock music is slowly starting to break through in South Korea because of a bigger international fanbase. Do you think there’s any chance of this possibly coming over to the mainstream or not? I just really like that style and I want to hear more of it.

  1. This question is similar to the other question directly above (a few variations of which came through this month), so I’ll refer you to my answer above.
  2. Rock music in Korea is already mainstream.  For instance, Jaurim are a household name and a bigger group than the large majority of idol groups, you just don’t hear about them in k-pop circles.

Can you make me hate kpop?


Do you like chocolates????


So, dumb question, but, how how much do you think GFriends Yuju gains from fanboys, because she’s generally a less “attractive” Hyomin.

Dumb answer, I don’t know what this question means.  What do you mean by “gains from fanboys”, gains what?  If we’re talking material success then I don’t really know (or care).  If we’re talking something else, like bedroom faps maybe, then I think many sperms are dying.

I think I am a VJW (Vocal Justice Warrior) because I always want justice for the idols that don’t get a lot of lines/presence in songs. For example, DIA’s Eunice is a main vocalist that sometimes get the lower than a vocalist like eunjin, which is unfair because of her position in the group. A more recent example is, “Kim sejeong group” aka gugudan where sejeong just dominates the song vocal and in terms of lines. My question to you is, is there a point where we take stand to this injustice even if the music is great song?
(sorry if it is a bit long winded, also, I am not a SJW they are crazy)

You shouldn’t worry about it so much.  Half the time the person you’re looking at in the video isn’t even the person singing on the track (more info here).  The other half of the time, one person was just easier to work with/prettier/had more of an idea what they were doing/whatever.  The fetish that k-pop fans have for “even line distribution” is really strange because in idol pop there has never been even lines with any group.  Going back to New Kids On The Block, the Spice Girls, Jackson 5, Girlfriend, The Supremes etc it was always the same people carrying all the vocal weight, and the other members were really just there to look pretty while dancing, make up the numbers, and appeal to fans’ differing sexual tastes.  It’s the same now, it’s just a little less obvious.  To make things “absolutely even” would often wreck the song formula anyway, you’d have to completely restructure the song, like in So Solid Crew’s “21 Seconds” where they literally allocate 21 seconds to each singer, and are forced to use a really unusual song structure just to make this happen, and it still comes out slightly uneven anyway plus it spins the song length out to five minutes which is way too much for k-pop where brevity is seen as important.

what do you think of this Mashup and do you listen to Mashups ever/on a regular basis?

The link you sent me was broken, but I hate ALL mashups.  Mashups in general are absolutely a waste of time.  The only time I’m in favour of them is for musical education purposes i.e to showcase similarities between two tracks for comparative purposes (and even then they’re often misused), but I’d never listen to a mashup because of entertainment, or because I liked the sound.  I’d rather listen to the two songs separately.

That James dude from the Royal Pirates who had his hand almost chopped off is looking to produce an Ep through Kickstarter. He’s laid out his budget for the project as this:

Production $4,500
Mixing $600
Studio Musicians – $500
Mastering – $1000
Graphic Design – $500 min
CD Replication (1000 CDs) – $2,000(For digipak packaging with tube)
THE LIGHT EP total $9,100


Cinematography (dp) – $2,500
Gaffer (lighting) $1,500
Editing $2,000
Director – $3,000
Equipment (cam/lens) – $1,800
Equipment lighting – $1,300
Locations – $2,000
Traveling, electricity and amenities $3,000
MUSIC VIDEO total $17,100

Do you think this is a reasonable budget for a (presumably) mid-budget video? I know the lower limit is technically whatever you can get a few communications majors to grab some of their school’s equipment and do a shoot for (so, like a pack of beer). But is this a reasonable cost for a base-line music video shoot? What about the recording?

Recording costs seem fairly accurate, but he’s probably going to go overbudget on that music video.  It depends what kind of standard it’s being produced to and what kind of concept he has in mind, if it’s just a “band on a stage” type stuff then maybe this would be enough, but the fact that there’s travel involved suggests to me that there might be a little more involved than this.  Let’s hope he’s travelling to Nugu Park.

What is it that makes you assert that Primary is the best producer in Korea and that it is a crime he doesn’t make good music?

He’s very good at producing in all sorts of different styles, which for a producer, is what you want.  To take a rare example where he got the production and the song right, he absolutely nails dub reggae on “Don’t Be Shy”:

Now that’s a dub groove as good as the fucking Jamaican originals, but which a much better song on top than most of the Jamaican stuff which is relatively bereft of melody.  It’s a really moody tune that sits perfectly with the rhythm.  However most of his songs aren’t cool shit like this, they’re just that typical weaksauce R&B/pop hybrid stuff which is just like everything else coming out of Korea right now.

Sure, some of it has great beats, because he’s so good at that, and the sound of the backings is always fantastic, but what’s going on over the top is so often just the same-old, same-old, warbling R&B nonsense:

If he ever teamed up with someone who could throw a bit of discipline at the vocal lines, he’d be unstoppable, but right now it seems like he feels that his production smarts in producing grooves is enough to carry everything else, which is sadly not the case.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve noticed that on YouTube that there’s a lot of videos of x idol reacting to their own mvs… why is this? Do you think the reactions are legitimately because they’ve never seen it before (which brings up the question of; how much are idols involved in mv production besides being the subject of it?), just reacting to it because they can, or some other reason..? Because I’ve watched some of the reaction videos and tbh it’s no different to when non-idols do reaction videos of idol videos (a.k.a extremely dull) so I don’t quite understand the purpose of them…

I think the purpose is to get clicks, or “engagement” in YouTube speak.  After all if it’s the idols doing the reactions themselves it’s a bit more “special” or whatever I suppose, so it might attract some more traffic.  Actually I didn’t even know that this existed.  Obviously idols would have seen their own music videos anyway most of the time so it’s not like you’re getting a genuine first-time reaction, which is usually the point of reaction videos, even though these are usually faked.  The value of the idols doing it might be in some sort of “actors commentary” like what you sometimes get with DVDs where there is a commentary track and the people in the film can reveal insights about the movie, but in the case of k-pop videos I doubt much of it is that deep because they probably can’t tell you stuff like “we stayed awake for two days straight and only ate one museli bar the entire time” or whatever because their CEO would crack the shits.

Hey Kpopalypse! How are you? I’m going through a shit time personally and somewhat professionally. Before I continue, I’d really like to thank you for reading this and maybe replying. I appreciate it. Anyway… I don’t want to talk about the personal stuff but the professional shit has been bothering me and I really would like your perspective. So I do theater not as a career (only because it doesn’t pay me in my country and city) but because I absolutely love it. As most artists, I have opinions about what art should be and should not be. And I understand that this is my subjective understanding. Side story: my undergraduate degree was in a Humanities course and it basically involved me studying about cultural movements, ideas, social theory, philosophy, art in all forms etc. You get what I’m talking about. I’m not saying this to brag but to just establish that I’ve been exposed to a variety (if not all) kinds of art and appreciating them (not necessarily positively… Just at least understanding where the work comes from, it’s background etc.) was something I studied and enjoyed. So I get abstraction and postmodernism and all of that. I’ve also loved and enjoyed abstract work. Today, I came back from watching a really really (you guessed it!) abstract performance of a really old orally narrated and preserved epic. The performance, however, felt like a cluster fuck of really really REALLY cool visuals, set, light, sound design and movement theatre abstracted from elements of the original epic to (apparently) raise questions that is left to the audience to answer. The technicality of the performance and the performers was no doubt, excellent. But throughout I was just waiting for something to unfold…. Not even a story…. Just a something. I wanted it to move past effects and give me something of substance. And I was left feeling lost. Not in terms of not being able to understand it intellectualy… But understanding what was the point of it all. This performance is supported by really famous institutions, has a lot of funding and is organized by a company that has a large presence. So they have a really big platform. Another friend of mine absolutely hated the performance and kept saying how all of it was just gimmicks put together. And for a while I agreed and I was like “Hell yeah… There should be substance and more to art than this.” I nodded along to him saying “Artists have a responsibility”. I think I have only my personal sense of responsibility. And I shouldn’t try to impose it on others because good god people should be able to do what they want. But at the same time, shouldn’t there be more? On the other hand I think, well just because the substance of this performance doesn’t fit MY definition of “substance”, doesn’t make it a fail right? I mean I enjoy mindless content all the time. So do so many people. It’s doing SOMETHING…. isn’t that enough? I also happen to live in a country with absolute shit conditions… We are not first world by any means. Oppression is rampant. Law and order is a huge problem. And I ask, for a space and company and group of people who have THAT much presence, power to voice what they want to and a fuuuuucccccckkkkk ton of money, shouldn’t they SOMETIMES at least speak about this? All of the performances, exhibitions, shows and festivals that they put up are exactly like this. All fluff and aesthetics… Nothing actually being said. sigh. So I’m just conflicted about these thoughts and I’d like to hear your opinion. Sorry for the long essay by the way and thanks again.

In situations where art has been created to address people’s oppression or threats to their survival, it’s generally happened “outside the system”, not from within (because that system isn’t going to let you create the art that tells it to get fucked, right?).  For example, Blues music began as a way that slaves could talk to each other and express their true feelings without their masters being fully aware of what was happening.  On the other hand, art in the modern world is usually what people do when they’re not worried about survival.  Most “struggling artists” go down that path by choice, and that’s a choice they usually have because they have parents who are well-off enough so that they have some sort of fall-back if things don’t pan out.  People who are genuinely struggling to survive don’t tend to get into art, they tend to study up to be doctors or accountants if they can – fields with a greater chance of high income.  Then they have children, and it’s those children who go into the arts instead when they grow up, the security of the home having already been established by that point.

Given all this, I wouldn’t be expecting your theater company to address themes like corruption in your society, because – why would they?  They’re obviously getting funding and are doing alright, maybe they are happy with how things are and wouldn’t get that funding if they changed things up.  I don’t think artists have a responsibility to do anything in particular.  It’s fine to make superficial fluff (note – this is a k-pop blog).  I would suggest that if you want to see theater which is more in line with what you feel is lacking in current productions, that you make it yourself, or find another theater company that is doing it!  I bet they’re a lot poorer than this one… but you might find some kindred spirits there.  I’m sure there are many others who feel the way that you do about it.

So, I heard you like big tits oppar…

What do think about this ones (music opinions are welcome too)?
Hugs from the another fucking big country in southern hemisphere, Brazil

If it’s the same girl singing as the one in the green at the start of the video, then this is a good example of just how much push-up can make a difference.  Her boobs in the actual song are surely at least 50% bra and padding.  Still, I appreciate the effort and even without the padding they (and she) MRS.  Must confess I’m not really into the song though, but if I was single and met this girl in a bar I reckon I could pretend to be into it, just for a night.

Hi! How are you?

I’m fine but there’s something bothering me a bit. I’m part of a dance group and we, as a whole, are really hated around here by the other groups. It’s so massive that I posted a dance cover of Yves on the community’s Facebook group and by the next day my video had like 25 deslikes and some disgusting comments (I deleted them). As a result, I got quite scared to share with those people the coreographies I’ve started to make. Anyway, my question is: how to deal with this kind of people (when we meet, at the contests and stuff) and all that bad energy and comments towards us?

I think you should roll with it.  Be proud to be on the “evil team”.  Don’t worry about approval from others, let them hate you.  The baddies always have the best clothes, the best cars and get all the sexy-time action – I should know.  I don’t try to convince anyone that I’m a morally upstanding person, because by most people’s standards, I’m certainly not!  Yes I have my morals but they don’t necessarily match the morality of others!

When you meet them you should be nice.  By nice I don’t mean “come over to my house and fuck my sister”, I just mean be cool, don’t start any drama and just treat them the same as you would treat anyone.  People have noticed that I’m nice to people on Reddit/kpop, various comment sections and other places where people disagree with me and often say quite mean things.  I’m nice because I actually have a standard for my own behaviour that I adhere to, rather than doing what they do which is insisting that other people adhere to a moral code that they themselves don’t even obey.  I actually believe in being nice to others (within reason – i.e not doormat level nice).  The best villains always come with a smiling face, after all.

Hi Kpopalypse!

Did you have any influences on your sense of humor? If so, who/what are they?

It’s hard to pinpoint any one specific thing.  The first humourous writing that I ever read was Douglas Adams, but I’m not sure how much of that influence, if any, is present in my own writing.  The way I write is similar to way I talk, if I’m just talking informally among friends, so I guess you could say that my interactions with other people might be an influence.  This also probably has a lot to do with where I’m from and the culture around my social circles.  I don’t really know for sure though, there are plenty of other people in my city who were raised in pish-posh neighbourhoods and don’t talk like me, so maybe I’m just a dero cunt.

How big of a deal are BTS’s gold certification by RIAA in America and double-platinum certification by RIAJ in Japan for Mic Drop?

Proof that k-pop as a whole is slowly penetrating into the west.  BTS fans don’t like this, they want BTS to be “special” but really they are not – this could have been any group.  BTS just are lucky enough to have very smart people behind them who are sensitive to overseas markets and know how to push the product.  One day it’ll probably all unravel due to their label lying about various details concerning the members sheer bad luck, but for now I suggest that their fans enjoy the ride and not get too precious about any of it.

Hey I’ve been listening to Kpop for less than a year, but already I’m listened to the same things over and over again and am getting kinda sick listening to the same songs. What’s the best way to find new songs/groups?

You could try reading through all the Kpopalypse roundups and especially the Kpopalypse Nugu Alerts.  I guarantee you’ll find music you’ve never heard of.

Hey Kpopalypse! So I just had a comment I wanted to give on your stage presence article. I wanted to basically say I disagreed with the article, not because OPPAR IS GREAT11! but because I think you completely ignored the fact that stage presence is necessary in choreography as well. As youvey mentioned many times, you don’t know anuthian about dancing so youvey never been able to comment on the dancing aspect of Kpop. Luckily for you, I used to attend a pretty well known prestigious performing arts school in my country, and I had some friends who were dance majors (I was a vocal major and specialized in classical music so like opera and stuff. You can see why I wouldn’t be of help). I also have two friends who are ex-trainees from Korea from small companies. So my dance major friends basically were like it’s not enough to just dance well. You have to find a way to bring your personality into your stage. I had one friend who was like lots of people dance well, but those people aren’t the ones who survive on stage. Those who have a certain something that makes you look at them are always better than people who are just technically good. My ex-trainee friends said the same thing basically, although they mentioned like how casting managers look for like an “aura” this word was used a lot, and how in training they’re taught how to look at the camera. The difference I noticed was that my dance major friends felt it was important for a dancer to have a natural charm of some sort or an advantage. My ex trained friends were like that stuff can be learned, even though itsi better if you naturally have it. To note, the trainees emphasized ability to make natural gestures and expressions towards the camera a lot, whereas my dance major friends talked more about total control over the stage. The trainees also mentioned that stage presence isn’t super important (a point you noticed!) because if you’re pretty enough and dance well enough, they’ll put you in a group, because not all 5 people are bound to have presence. So basically what I wanted to state is just because choreography is synchronized doesn’t mean that stage presence doesn’t exist in the performance. I think in Kpop we will see more idols without than with stage presence but I’m pretty sure it goes beyond CL and Gdragon. I would argue for example Seulgi should go in there too because she’s capable of walking around and commanding a stage or BoA for example. Now you know a little bit about stage presence from a dancing perspective! I hope that helps!

I’d argue that “personality” and “stage presence” are two very different things.  If I was to think of someone who brought personality into their dancing performance to take it to the next level, I’d consider Momoland’s JooE and her iconic dancing that was out-there enough to lift her group from nugudom to fame.  But that’s not what stage presence is.  K-pop has evolved a bit from when I wrote that stage presence article and anyone who thinks that maybe there are more examples of it now could be right, but the bottom line is that whether there is or whether there isn’t, pointing this out wasn’t the reason for the article, in fact I hoped that it would raise an awareness of the redundance of it so people could stop giving a shit.  The point was that stage presence doesn’t really have a function in k-pop, so whether your favourite group or favourite member has it or not doesn’t matter, because they get so little chance to use it, and it matters so little in the media language of k-pop, that they might as well not have it, and may even in fact be better off without it.

Hello bkitten oppar, hope you’re out of bronze when you read this message.

I have a big problem, and that is I am a guy that cries very easily. It’s not movies, it’s just when I get super angry, I just end up crying instead.

I’ve cried at work in front of my managers because of something. A bit of context, I’ve worked in this company for three years, and I’m still the lowest paid in the company (confirmed) , and potentially have a newcomer that is under me, which gets paid more than me.

My managers said they have pushed to ask the general manager to increase my pay, as they said my pay is ‘anomaly’ and need to at least be the same minimum as everyone else. I am one of the older people that has been working there, because it’s such a high turnover environment. One day, I was called to have a meeting with the managers, in which I was informed that the general manager does not want to get my pay increased. I was not surprised to be honest… But then I just cried during the meeting, probably because I felt like I’ve dedicated my time there for nothing, and just the lack of appreciation, and the situation just feels pathetic (even more after I cried). Anyway, not long after that incident, I was informed that I would be getting an increase (by how much is still pending), so there you go.

I feel like society looks down on guys that cry, but I couldn’t do anything with that view and so I try to cry less, but it’s been hard. Any suggestions? I feel embarrassed even until now when I remembered about the incident.

I am not out of bronze.  Maybe it’s me who should be crying because I’ve been playing League Of Legends for four years and consistently not getting any better.  Perhaps 2018 is the year when I’ll finally reach silver… but probably not.

I used to cry a lot when I was a child but I hardly do it at all now.  I don’t like it now mainly because it gives me a headache, but also because if I do it in public people find it hard to deal with, and dealing with that created social discomfort on top of whatever is upsetting me is a chore.  In Australia, and most western countries, it’s okay for women to cry, but it’s taboo for men as it’s seen as a sign of weakness and an indicator of a lack of masculinity, and therefore people tend to react oddly to it.  In Asian countries people seem to have a much more relaxed attitude about crying, and I think that’s good, I’d like to see Australia adopt more of that attitude.  I think it’s fine to cry though, if that’s what you’re feeling like doing, better to cry than hold it back, which is really unhealthy and usually results in the emotion coming out in some other (more harmful) way.  Fuck society, do what you need to do.

Sounds like when MV directors make high concept visual imagery, eh?

“Every day I get questions on Facebook from all around the world, from people I’ve never heard of, asking things like, ‘Who does the corpse [at the end of the game] belong to?’ People have started to read too much into the game, and they have made up their own new mysteries surrounding it. The entire setting and context was just stuff I made up as I went along. The questions are endless, so I just ignore them all.””

(That’s an interesting article worth a read BTW.)

This question is in reference to this analysis, which was posted in a roundup.


I think people do read too much into things sometimes, but also fail to read into things at other times.  For instance, it amazed me how many people didn’t understand that Twice’s “Likey” was a fairly dark song and just thought it was a superficial Chad Future style piece about social networking.  The darker undercurrent of “Likey” is fairly obvious to me, and I would have thought, to most people.

Here’s a video which explains it, and unlike the Yves videoanalysis, I think this is pretty spot-on.

Hello 🙂
I was watching a video of a live of DAY6 and I was suprise to see the bassist to play with a pick. I think it was the first time I saw it. Is it usual ? Does it not limit the technic ?

Playing with a pick has the advantage of a higher ceiling of both speed and dexterity, but it comes at the sacrifice of some control over the notes.  There are certain bass techniques that are not really possible with a pick, most notably slap and pop, a common style in funk and also pop music.  Also without a pick it’s harder to cut notes short and keep specific control over string muting.  However with fingerstyle playing it’s difficult to get speed up, difficult to equalise volumes between notes, and skipping over strings requires some fairly esoteric picking-hand movements that take practice to perfect.  As a result, many rock and metal players tend to gravitate towards pick playing.  If you want to know which one to practice, my advice is “both” as both have situations where they are the more useful method.

Hey, this is my first QRIMOLE question so apologies if it’s stupid.

Will you write an article regarding music production/engineering in the near future? As an aspiring producer, it would really help if you could give your opinion on how to maintain the workflow and know how creative you can be. Like in a week or so, I can come up with 4-5 “songs/tunes” but I don’t have the musical knowledge to put them down on paper or use them.

Btw I’m pursuing a bachelor’s in engineering, so doing something music-related is very hard. I even doubt myself on proceeding with the music route, or sticking to the old shitty secure job way ?(idk how to phrase this, I think you get what I want to say)

Also, can you please recommend more songs with a similar style to one of my favorite T-ara songs, “If I See Her” from And&End mini album.

Thanks for going through the wall of text, I don’t usually ask such personal questions, but maybe you can help.

That T-ara song sounds to me a bit like a mellowed-out version of miss A’s “Good Bye Baby”.

I do plan more technical posts, but your question is a little vague, I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking when you talk about “maintaining workflow”.  Is this a question about time management or about musical knowledge?  They’re too fairly different things, and you only need the first one to be an engineer.  Keep in mind that even though they’re handled by the same person in many cases, production and engineering are different.  Production is more of the creative aspect, the “thinking”, engineering is more of the “doing”.  It’s possible to be an audio engineer and have no musical knowledge.  Mind you, the more musical knowledge you do have, the easier you’ll find it to communicate with musicians, which is a large part of the role.  Anyway if you’d like to clarify this I can try to address it.

Also remember, the only stupid question in QRIMOLE is the one that you don’t ask.

What’s the possible likelihood of an After School or Orange Caramel comeback in 2018? They only have 11 months left and 3 groups/1 solo artist w multiple comebacks… can they fit a decent Raina song in there too?!

I predicted it, so it’s definitely going to happen, because I am never wrong, except when I am.

I know you don’t care about popularity, but the industry itself clearly does, and I thought you might find it funny that they apparently cracked the code on getting on the US market simply by continuing to copy every trend they can.

I didn’t have time to watch all 16 minutes and 39 seconds of this – note for QRIMOLE askers, please don’t ask a question that involves me having to watch a long-ass video in order to answer it, because I probably won’t.  Timestamp relevant sections or something.  Fortunately, this person didn’t actually ask a question anyway, so I can just move on, which is convenient.  Also if someone else wants to watch this video and tell me what the fuck it’s about, go right ahead.

I was wondering what your thoughts were on the representation of food in kpop videos. Many videos of girl groups show the idols preparing to share food, often food that they very likely haven’t been allowed to eat in years (I’m not thinking of boy groups doing the same thing, but because I don’t listen/watch as many of them that isn’t definitive). Sometimes the food is clearly a stand-in for something sexual, but just as often it doesn’t seem to be (eg. here and here) rather it is a stand-in for having a party or youthful fun or something like that.

Which basically answers my question. So I guess this is more of a statement: I find the use of food in kpop videos distressing because lots of good-looking food is presented, but it is never ever eaten. Nevermind use like whatever is going on with pizza in Red Velvet Peek-a-Boo…

I’m more concerned about the actual food that may or may not be being eaten by k-pop idols, as opposed to whatever is shown on camera, which is obviously just for show.  Sure, you do have videos with the girls pigging out on food, but then you also have videos like this:

The entire message of this video is that you’re not going to look like T-ara’s Hyomin by eating shit sugary food.  Although some people didn’t like this video it’s probably a more honest portrayal of k-pop’s relationship with food than anything else out there in k-pop video land (i.e don’t eat it or we’ll shame you to death).  But don’t worry, Kpopalypse would never body shame.

Hello Cunt.

So, I know what I’m about to present to you is not Kpoop, but I want your opinion on it all the same:

(the three songs from Portal and Portal 2 that you’ve all heard before, probably – 1, 2 3)

Yes I am a Valve fanboy( also known as an immature manchild fuckwith ). All Hail Lord Gaben.

Tell that fat fucking tub of lard Gabe to stop eating Hyomin’s donuts and release Half Life 3.  He should check between his smelly fat folds for the USB stick with Half Life 3 on it if he can’t find it, he probably dropped it in his lap while fapping over the latest bullshit Counterstrike update.  Also fuck him for giving the idea of stupid loot crates to PUBG.  I want a proper shop cunts, not rolling the dice with a shitty crate system that never gives me anything cool.  What’s the fucking point of a Battle Royale computer game if I can’t cosplay as a Japanese schoolgirl?  But of course we can’t do that because Bluehole are sexist pricks who hate women so they make any girl’s clothing super-rare in the random drop so the marketplace inflates and we get sky-high prices.  I could outfit an entire class with real school uniforms for the price of just one school uniform from the steam marketplace for PUBG.  It’s worse than EVE Online’s Monoclegate.  Bluehole are such legit dumb pieces of shit if they think this is acceptable.  I’ll still play their game though just so I can earn crates and sell them to buy eroge games, if they’re dumb enough to have a crate system instead of a shop at least I can use it to enhance my fap.

Can I ask where did you learn the ‘caonima’ phrase? (Singapore maybe?)

More information here.

That’s the end of another QRIMOLE!  If you have a question that you’d like to see answered in the next episode, ask it below in the question box, or if the question box doesn’t appear under this line of text, click on the Qri in the sidebar to open the question box in a new webpage!  Kpopalypse will return with more posts!

13 thoughts on “QRIMOLE – February 2018

  1. tl;dr for the long-ass video: (nothing mindblowing, I’m focussing on the kpop part)
    BTS were successful with “Mic Drop Remix” because a well known western artist featured in it (Steve Aoki) and it was released while in the US charts “Despacito” and “Mi gente” were in the top 5 – for many weeks. Those 2 songs became huge because Justin Bieber and Beyonce featured on them / on the remixed versions.
    Also, western and korean music is similar (he reminds us of Duffy – Mercy, Girls Generation – Dancing Queen), but there’s the language barrier and having western artists feature on non-western tracks seems to propel the tracks to popularity.
    sidenote: he said that BTS used the bassline from Bastarz – Zero for Conduct for their Mic Drop. Didn’t you call Mic Drop a watered down version of Zero for Conduct?

    • You…do realise BTS got a second Gold from DNA like 3 days later? A song that has no feature and no english. It’s really weird seeing comments like this when actually I follow the progress and see Steve Aoki thank BTS for the charting and seems reverent in promotion of song and BTS while the group itself seem to ignore the song and him entirely.

      • hahaha no, I have no idea what awards BTS got. I just summarized the video so kpopalypse wouldn’t have to watch it. It was either telling us stuff we already knew or made far-fetched claims.

  2. Man, I got all excited to see Portal songs mentioned until I clicked what was linked. That’s nowhere near Portal 2’s better songs. (1 is more ambient and only sounds cool if you haven’t experienced 2 yet.) In Kpop-Layman’s terms, the breakdown in Kara’s Jumping (Hara and Seungyeon singing “Take on me”), the beginning of Exo’s Power and Boomerang, and the main beat for the verses in Exo- Forever are examples of sounds you can find in Songs To Test By (Portal 2’s OST album)

    Songs To Test By is also full of procedurally generated music, where the music can be affected by how you’re playing. So it’s better to experience in-game rather than just sitting and listening to a 3 1/2 hour OST album. Or you can just not care either way. We can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster.

    • Those 3 play at the end of the single player and co -op modes. and It’s the lyrics that are fucking awesome. Especially Want you gone, but “I am not a moron” is my favorite.
      Now look I know we both said a lot of things you’re going to regret, but i think we can put our differences behind us . For Science. You Monster.

  3. What is the status of music copyright in youtube dance covers?

    Presumably whenever you upload a video to youtube, the allmighty computer gods automatically check your content for copyright infringement and either ban your upload, disable sound, or require your video to show ads or something. Usually there are dance covers where the performers dance to 1m or 1m30s of the original song which has been shortened for the purpose of the dance cover, since the full song is just repetition.

    But sometimes there are dance covers using the full song, especially when a kpop group asks for people to upload their dance covers to enter a contest where the best dancer is selected.

    How do the copyright lawyers cope with this? Surely the people uploading the dance covers don’t have the right to the song, but the artists themselves are encouraging the act. Now talk to the heartless youtube algorithm at it and shake it with lawyers for a bigger company whose left hand might not know what the right hand does, for a nice copyright party.

  4. “BTS just are lucky enough to have very smart people behind them who are sensitive to overseas markets and know how to push the product” – egads, the people behind really aren’t. Their (ex-) US publicist team was god -awful, riddled with bad reviews from previous clients and, leaving easily traced sock puppet accounts, kept goofing up even basic things from name dropping the group to get tickets for other boybands on their public account to beckoning vultures like paparazzi/stalkers to gain the group clout. The fandom literally cheered when they announced the end of partnership. And Bighit aren’t to bright either constantly dropping releases at bad times that even more established western artists avoid, i.e. just before the grammies and hours before the end of chart counting so a bulk of sales aren’t carried over. You can argue the group ain’t special in being the ones to do it but they certainly aren’t there because of the people backing them.

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