It’s time for QRIMOLE! Let’s take a look at more reader questions for Kpopalypse!

In your top 30 ever from 2010s: – T-ara

– BigBang

– Miss A

– Twice

– Orange Caramel

– After School

– Crayon Pop

– Secret Literally some of the biggest acts in Kpop ever. You also had other top groups like SNSD, TVXQ, 2NE1, Gfriend, Apink, Sistar, SHINee, AOA, Sunmi, 4minute, and countless other mid-tier to semi-popular groups like Lovelyz and CLC. And your yearly lists have shit ton of popular groups. Looking at your lists, nugus are actually a minority! Lol Please continue supporting nugus! And it also just emphasizes the point that many people do not find the music in Kpop as important as the “cultural” aspect, or they ignore it almost entirely. Lots of lists I found just talk about how “big” the song was, but not any of its merits, but when they actually do, it’s those generic “fun, upbeat song, with trap beats” that also applies to many fucking songs, and honestly the song was only there because of the artist who sang it, not because of its merits. So, for my question, do you think, once kpop sorta kinda “slows down”, or normalizes, that the focus will shift back to the actual songs and whatever “impact” it had? Since by then, there’s not much cultural impact anymore because Kpop would be a normal thing? Or would kpop implode before that ever happens?

Notwithstanding something happening to Korea itself, k-pop is here to stay, and I don’t see it “slowing down” either.

It’s harder for nugus to have good songs simply because nugus have less money which means less resources, including the resources to hire professional songwriting and production teams. Therefore the proportion of nugus to known artists in my favourites lists is slanted heavily in the known artists direction – and probably always will be. Nevertheless, I still get a reputation for being someone who is biased toward nugus simply because I give nugus ANY attention at all as opposed to completely 100% ignoring them at all times, which is what I’m expected to do because that’s what everybody else does. The only people who don’t ignore nugus are people like Korean Indie because championing unknowns is kind of their thing, but they’ll still mostly ignore stuff which is very unpopular if it’s also very obviously commercially-geared because they’re not a pop site, whereas I’ll pick that stuff up if it captures my attention. I get a ton of abuse for daring to put stuff like Aseul above stuff like Apink, but really, so what. Nugu support at Kpopalypse will continue!

So i just finished to read and listen to your list of your best kpop songs from the past ten years and it was really fun honestly, theres a many hidden gems there, when i heard so many great songs beast fiction came to my mind, would you mind to explain briefly why is that song soo friking good? Are those dominant chords or suspensions? From my superficial understanding you can use those to convey more intense emotions. Thanks and again really interesting list.

If I were to guess what you like about Beast’s “Fiction” it’s probably the countermelody in the keys in the verses. At least that’s what sticks out to me. The chord progression isn’t anything unusual, and a song is a lot more than the sum of the chords used anyway.

Hi kpopalypse. So i was trying to catch up with so many new realeases and then this strange song apeared. I never studied in a music school but i do play the guitar and had a garage band with my friends so i kinda know some basic stuff, whats wrong with this chord progression? Is this a “modal” “greek mode” from the begining is kinda dissorienting! Why does that happen? Thanks pal

The melody just doesn’t hit the root note a lot, it’s fairly flat and sticks on another note instead. All that non-root emphasis sounds odd and gives it the “modal” flavour. Mind you I’m just guessing here, I haven’t analysed this in depth as I don’t like the song and listening to it enough times to break it down may have negative side-effects on my mental health.

Frustrated Loona stan venting ahead, brace yourselves: I am officially tired of Loona stans aka Orbits trying to force the group into following the usual procedures that other groups go through. For me, personally, the appeal of Loona is that as far as we know, they’re loaded in cash and therefore shouldn’t be doing all the shit that nugus on life support have to do, or even big 3 groups who still have to pay up their own debt and then build profit for the next group that will replace them. They’re desperate for people to stream the So What MV and vote on the bullshit music show apps even though literally nobody outside kpop gives a shit about youtube views and music show ratings are minimal and nobody actually watches them. It’s nice that they go there to perform but at this point every kpop fan should be aware that music shows are a ritual for agencies to get their foot on the door and metaphorically beg the PDs to put the idols on the varieties and dramas people actually bother watching (there’s articles about this, music shows are a waste of money for agencies because they have to pay for the stage and outfits without any tangible return) There’s also some lawsuit that came forward that I’m sure nobody cares about because it’s about a business transaction but Orbits have been acting like it’s the end of the world, that Loona is bankrupt and that is BBC fault for “letting” the lawsuit news come during a comeback era and ruin Loona’s “reputation” jsjshdjsd, there’s a prominent Orbit on twitter with 7k followers whose display name at the moment is “So What comeback is in shambles”…having a million dollar MV and the support of former Interpol most wanted list member Lee Soo Man is being “in shambles” now? wow. And I know business is business and that Loona probably does need to turn a profit somehow and respond to investors but the narrative switched to “Loona is a front for arms trafficking” to “BBC only has 10 employees so clearly Loona is poor and struggling” so fast, I don’t know when fans started buying into it. Normally what I do is just ignore the wails but this time they’re seriously deluded themselves into believing, with all honestly, that this comeback is a mess and that Loona are being seriously mistreated because… they’re not printing enough albums and the girls aren’t going on vlive 24/7 apparently. There’s a letter with “Orbit concerns” making rounds on twitter that they plan to spam en masse to whatever intern checks BBC’s emails and only one or two of those concerns are valid, the rest is bullshit and there’s zero mention of REAL mistreatment instances such as the members being overworked or Hyunjin’s drastic weight loss. I don’t want Loona to go through the meat grinder, I don’t need 652836 different tv show performances of So What, and I don’t want BBC to cater to these dumb fan demands. This culture of overworking is what leads to anxiety and depression among idols, it’s what led to Ladies’ Code’s tragic accident because they were speeding up to get to a concert on time in the midst of a packed schedule, and I am tired of it. What are your thoughts on this, am I being delusional? is BBC’s management really that bad or do they just don’t care about inconsequential things? or maybe they really do need more employees? If Loona really is loaded and a passion project do they still have to go through all the other shit everyone else goes through? should I just take the L and accept that kpop sucks for the performers no matter what? Cheers to you and anyone who made it this far, and please look up Byung Chul-Han’s The Burnout Society if you’re interested in learning more about our fucked up relationship with work.

All fandoms lack zen, but Orbits should be well aware of Blockberry’s secure position and have no excuse. I agree with you – they obviously shouldn’t stress so much about the group’s future. Loona will exist for precisely as long as Blockberry want it to. However you can learn from this too – in your case, you also need to not stress so much about the fandom. You won’t be able to change the direction of their concern, just let them do whatever it is that they’ll do. It really doesn’t matter what they do because Blockberry will still do what they want, as they always have.

It’s a bit of a big request but could you do a top 20 non-korean songs of the 2010s?

Absolutely 100% no hope in hell of this happening, now or ever.

A. this is a k-pop blog, I don’t mind doing off-topic stuff in this QRIMOLE series but an entire post dedicated specifically to music that isn’t k-pop, just no. There are other blogs for that.

B. I wouldn’t even know anyway, I don’t follow western music much anymore and would find it difficult to name 20 songs of any type at all released this decade that weren’t k-pop. So if I did make a list like this it would suck, there would be so much missing from it, it wouldn’t even be worth bothering. It would literally be picking the first 20 songs that entered my head, just because after 20 I would probably run out, the inaccuracy of such a list would be laughable.

I really expected a question about the Australian fire problem to come up 9in the previous QRIMOLE], but it didn’t. Are you ok, are your family ok etc? How bad is it over there, it’s so unheard of to hear any news about Australian things that it must be fairly terrible.

Stay safe, man.

There a few days that I woke up and a blanket of smoke had wafted over the entire city, apart from that I’m fine. I live in a built-up urban inner-city area, bushfires don’t get here because there’s no bush. There were some close fires though in the nearby hills. Also my local pub did burn down but that was unrelated!

Hi again Mr. Kpopalypse oppar sir, I swear I will keep this short this time but I just wanted to thank you for your response last month and other times prior. Right now I’m fighting some sort of respiratory infection and suffering a lot of suicidal ideations but I’ll try not to take that any further since your words still resonate with me. I also wanted to thank an anonymous commenter (well, not so anonymous since this person seems to be a YG hater–I approve) who actually responded in length to my New Years Qrimole. I didn’t see it until like a month or so afterwards and that person’s response touched me a lot as well. I’m a mental mess right now so any kind words are appreciated. For once, I don’t want to clog up your qrimole again with a bunch of whinging nonsense so I’ll leave it at that. But if I’m on the verge of gouging my eyes out, I’ll hit you up next qrimole. Take care, sir.

It’s okay to be who you are, don’t let anyone ever tell you different. QRIMOLE is here if you need it.

Hi Kpopalypse, Speaking of that crazy nayeon stalker, I just read some reports stating that he would go back to South Korea. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this guy’s mind? It seems like not even that whole coronavirus mess can convince him to give up. Another thing I want to talk about is the IZ*ONE vote manipulation scandal. Ahn Joon-young said he rigged the final results to remove trainees who want to leave. I really want to know whether he came up with this BS himself, or his lawyer taught him that. 🤣 Also, do you think the trainees were never told who would get into the group no matter what (due to their low seniority within the company), or that is just another BS Ahn Joon-young came up with to save his ass?

The Nayeon stalker is mentally ill, and dangerous. K-pop infrastructure isn’t equipped to deal with the threat, because agencies and fandoms have spent so long deliberately cultivating the types of conditions that lead to exactly that kind of mental illness, his presence is the logical conclusion of their actions. Twice fans are upset at the stalker but the fact is that he couldn’t even exist at all without them. Why do you think he reached out to them first before anyone else. The braindead idiot fandom thinks he wants “attention” – NO, dickheads. Nayeon’s attention, yeah, of course – but not the fandom’s. His real reason for approaching them is that he knows that they have the access that he wants… and they gave it to him, too. How do you think he knew which plane to get on? How do you think he got Chaeyeon’s phone number? He’s plugged into the sasaeng network now, good luck getting him out of there. Deludu fandumbs set up all the infrastructure for hardcore stalkers to operate (sasaeng taxis, phone network spies, “plants” within agencies and third party companies, fancafes that share private schedule information, etc etc fucking etc) – all he had to do was walk right up to them and say “here I am” and ask for the key. The stalker isn’t smart, but ONCEs are far dumber, they played right into the stalker’s hands, patting themselves on the back all the while, because under ther surface they’re really not that different.

I’m not following the IZ*ONE thing. All I know is that every single Korean TV competition show is rigged in some way and always has been. No idea what trainees get told, but they probably do get told something in at least some cases. Busker Busker were very well aware that they were on a rigged show, for instance, because the show’s producers told them directly.

My question: hey kpopalypse, it’s the sub who wants to be a teacher Anon. It’s been a while since I submitted something here. This question is mainly from my little brother. He’s in a tough situation right now because there’s one kid in his friend group who gets annoying at times, and ‘touchy'(I’ll leave it at that). Problems really occured when another one of my brothers friends had to work with this kid on a science project, which the kid barely did any work on. Then the teacher asked my brother’s friend how much work the kid did and his friend said “less than 5%”. Then the kid got an 85 for the grade, which made him really mad. This incident spread throughout my brothers classmates in his grade. This kid got mad at my brother and his friends, and told my brother’s friend that he shouldn’t have gone that hard on him. My brother responded and told him that if he only did 5% of the work, then he should be lucky he got an 85. Later, my brother and his friends told him to stay away from them, and he did for a couple of days. But my brothers friend forgave him because this kid said that he was sorry and didn’t mean all of that. My brother and his other friends remain skeptical and believe that he hasn’t changed, and will do all of those things again. My brother and his friends have talked to 2 adults and both have said to stay away from the kid. This kid went to one of the adults and told him that my brothers and his friends were bullying him(which wasn’t true and got cleared up). What doesn’t help is that this kid is a rich kid. My brother is really confused on how to deal with this situation. Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

Wow this was really super hard to follow. Anyway, from what I can tell it’s not something to concerned about. Seems like people in general are already fairly aware of this kid’s reputation, so really you’re more or less “protected” against any future funny business, i.e if bad stuff happens (and it might) it’ll get sorted out soon enough. I think if you were to get the consensus of people in that environment they’d probably all say similar things about that kid who sounds like they have some growing up to do.

What is your take on this person’s analysis? As someone who doesn’t really know what I’m listening to, I do find Ellie Goulding’s voice very different than the other person who is presented as signing in her style. She just sounds like herself to me. I also find that most kpop people don’t. Which is maybe language, maybe training, maybe post-production (inducing the person signing not even being the person we think we are hearing). Some of it seems reasonable to me, but OTOH this person is worried about people having “stressful technique” in ways you’ve made fun of. And isn’t every way of signing a style of signing, like every way of speaking English is done with an accent?

Oh, this is that “kpop vocal analysis” guy. I have an entire series debunking the strangeness that he’s perpetrated in the k-pop world (mainly misappropriation of various terms and concepts). That said, I didn’t watch this video, damned if I can stay awake through 24 minutes of someone talking about vocals in k-pop as if they actually matter. If you want me to address something specific here, you gotta timestamp it.

Cheska finally went on live and talked about Fiestar members and her experience (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/554378079) It seems the be the first time a former member’s actually gone and named names about this kind of stuff. Thoughts?

I’m aware of this. Will discuss in a future post.

Bang Sihyuk, the CEO of Bighit, seems to suffer the same issue as JYP, in that he can never get his boy groups right, and when his boy groups does have a good song, he’s usually not the one involved in production; but he does get girl groups right. Some of his best work include: T-ara – One&One

GLAM – In Front Of The Mirror

Gfriend – Labyrinth My question is, is it easier to make girl group songs? Because it’s not only Bang PD and JYP who suffer from this, but most producers, they’re just the biggest names that I know. Second question, what fundamental songwriting differences are there between girl group and boy group songs? Thank you!

Actually I think it is easier to make girl group songs. There’s actually a lot to this topic and it demands a post entirely to itself because I get asked about this a lot and it’s not one simple answer.

Hi, have you ever heard of Anita Lane – I’m a Believer? I’m in love with the industrial drumming and the strings, do you know anything that sounds like it? I was thinking about Neubauten or the Bad Seeds, but their discography is quite extensive and I don’t know where to start. By the way, do you like Severed Heads? Your country has produced so many good artists in the 80’s haha

Anita Lane is great and she definitely sounds like a female take on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds circa the same kind of era that she was active. As far as I recall that’s not coincidence, I believe a lot of the same personnel were involved.

Severed Heads are generally good. Sometimes I think to myself that I don’t like Australian music much but then I remember all the weird stuff and some of it’s pretty decent.

Hi oppar! I have a lot of questions today, hope you don’t mind answering them 1) On one of your previous Qrimoles you stated that “Also, anyone expecting another person to like Swans on the first listen (or even the tenth) is pretty fucking hopeful, he might want to consider more realistic expectations (and I say this as a big fan of certain Swans albums)” and I was curious as to why that might be the case. How would one go about “approaching” Swans? 2) I recently discovered Oohyo’s ‘Butter Chicken’ thanks to your site and really enjoyed it. In your write-up for that song you mentioned about how it was quite similar to Pink Floyd and I consequently wanted to listen to them but I found their discography to be really overwhelming. Could you recommend me some of your favorite Pink Floyd songs? Or perhaps songs that are similar to ‘Butter Chicken’ 3) I was the guy who sent that livestream question regarding Daughters (the band) and was surprised to find out that you were unimpressed about them. Which is a good thing btw because I already found their songs pretty cool and the fact that you’re generally unimpressed means that there are even better songs in the same genre? Could you recommend some songs? I’m really sorry if you are annoyed by the fact that all 3 questions are all about your recommendations especially since they are not k-pop related. I’ve always listened to a lot of K-pop and recently wanted to listen to different genres but always found it difficult because my studies stop me from listening through the huge range of songs available to find songs that I like, especially since non-pop songs tend to have a longer run time. Hope you can humor my stupid requests

Swans are a very weird group to talk about because their sound has changed incredibly over the years. I haven’t watched this video guide to Swans but it might be helpful and just the fact that it goes for 46 minutes alone should tell you something. The first albums of theirs that I actually liked were the early 90s “bunny” albums, which are “White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity“, “Love Of Live” and the very odd and very rare live album “Omniscience“. I think they’re the most accessible of all their stuff, however they’re also the least representative of what they usually sound like. Early 80s Swans is pretty noisy and oppressive kind of like a harsh slow punk group but without any melodic concessions whatsoever or even normal rock rhythm, and latter day 90s/reformation Swans is really ambient and strange heavy post-rock feel with lots of very long songs. I haven’t heard their very latest stuff, but I’ve heard everything else and the only truly awful Swans album is a late 80s one called “The Burning World” which just has too much of the edges shaved off to be any good, everything else is good on some level but a lot of it is really hard to listen to at first, especially if you’ve never heard anything like it before (and you probably haven’t). I bought the “Filth” album and it sat in my CD collection for about five years before I actually started enjoying listening to it.

Oohyo’s “Butter Chicken” sounds like Pink Floyd between about 1970 and 1975, after they shook the 1960s psychedelia out of their system but before Roger Waters started turning the group into his personal therapy session. Best songs from this era for me are “Echoes” and “Welcome To The Machine“.

Daughters aren’t too bad but they don’t really excite me. They sound to me like a very modern, very smoothed-over version of Nick Cave’s old band The Birthday Party. Here’s a random song.

While I thought this February is going to be exciting since Kpop is filled by girl groups, it’s just half of the month and the comebacks are not a cup of my tea …. And how can like a half of them recycling Itzy’s songs so much it’s like I think they are the same? I know pop music will always be like this, but seeing the obvious in just less than a month got me thinking… Loona should have a sexy unit

It’s the shouty trend. Annoying, I know. Don’t worry however, it won’t last – melody will come back in a big way.

Danny Brown has mastered the impressive feat of sounding more annoying vocally than Eminem.

Hi! I have an unhealthy obsession with your lists as I’ve discovered so much great music thanks to them! Instead of doing something more productive with my free time, I spent 8-10 hours reading through as many posts on your site as I could and compiled the Kpopalypse list of the best songs from each korean group/artist. The list is obviously incomplete and somewhat inaccurate so I was hoping if you could read through the list and correct all the inaccuracies or additions you would make. I know you’ve been really busy lately and reading through the entire list would probably be too time consuming so could you perhaps just look at the ones I marked out with an asterisk (*) ? If an artist is marked out with the asterisk at the front it means that either a) the group has multiple great songs that you liked and I don’t know which you prefer more or b) I’m not sure whether that particular song is your favourite from that group/artist. Though it’s totally fine if you’re unable to comment on this list because I think this list still serves as a fun overview of some of the great kpop songs that so many artists have made. Most of the songs from this list are taken from your annual kpop rankings so I think this list should be about 60% accurate. Some others are taken from your weekly round-ups or other posts in which you talk positively about the song. Also the list is about your favourite songs from that artist in general regardless of feature track status so that’s why I put IU’s Love Of B and T-ara’s One & One are considered here. Additionally, I excluded groups/artists whose “best songs” you have not liked that much. Subunits are considered separately from their original group (thanks to stuff like Orange Caramel and Loona) Ok sorry for the ramble, here’s the list: Kpopalypse’s Best Songs from each Artist/Group as of February 2020

(Cltr + F is your best friend!) 015B & Jang Jane – Camellia Flower

100% – Bad Boy

1TYM – Hot

2NE1 – Hate You

2PM – A.D.T.O.Y

4minute – Heart To Heart

* 4ten – Why / Severely

912 Crew – Roller Skate

A-Daily – Chu

A.C.E – Callin’

A.KOR – And Go / Always

After School Blue – Wonder Boy

After School Red – Into The Night Sky

* After School – Bang! / Flashback / Heaven

Ailee – I’ll Show You

Akdong Musician (AKMU) – Dinosaur

Alice Vicious – Luna

Amber & Luna – Heartbeat (ft. Ferry Corsten, Kago Pengchi)

Amber Liu – Other People

AOA – Heart Attack

Apink – %% (Eung Eung)

April – Oh! My Mistake

Aseul – Always With You

Astro – Always Us

ATEEZ – Say My Name

* B.A.P – One Shot / Warrior

B.I.G – 1,2,3

Baby V.O.X Re.V – Never Say Goodbye

Badkiz – Ear Attack

Baek A – Time Slip

BeatWin – Your Girl

Berry Good – Angel

BESTie – Love Options

BewhY – Gottasadae

BigBang – Monster

Blackpink – Forever Young

Blanc7 – Drama

Block B Bastarz – Zero For Conduct

* Block B – Nalina / Shall We Dance / Nilili Mambo

Bloomy – Because Of You

BoA – No. 1

Bolbbalgan4 (BOL4) – Fix Me

Bonusbaby – If I Become An Adult

BOYS24 – E

Broken Fingers – My Blood Vessel Filled With Your Scent (ft. Hwayang)

Brown Eyed Girls – Oasis

BTS (Bangtan Boys) – War Of Hormone

Bubble X – Follow

Busters – Pinky Promise

Cacophony – Comme Un Poisson Dans Le Ciel

Chaboom – Lord Of The Flies

Chanyeol & Punch – Stay With Me

Cherry Bullet – Hands Up

Chohyun – Last Summer

Choi Sam – Taboo

CLC – To The Sky

Click B – Love Letter [Later on remade and improved on by Berry Good]

Crash – Machines Of Silence

Crayon Pop – 1,2,3,4

Cross Gene – Noona You

D-Unit – Talk To My Face

D.Holic – Chewy

Dal Shabet – Have/Have Not

Dalparan – Lies (ft. E-Pak Sa)

* Davichi – Beside Me

* Day6 – Time Of Our Life / Shoot Me

Delight – Hate You

Delight – Mega Yak

DIA – Mr. Potter

Dorothy – Purple Lips

Dreamcatcher – Good Night

Dreamnote – Hakuna Matata

* Drunken Tiger – Yet / 8:45 Heaven

Dynamic Duo – J.O.T.S (ft. Nafla)

E.via – Hey! (Can I Rap?)

Elris – We, First

Epik High – Born Hater

Eunjung – Desire

EvoL – Get Up

EXID – I Love You

* EXO – Overdose / Power / Obsession

Eyedi – & New

f(x) – Hot Summer

F-ve Dolls – Can You Love Me?

Fanatics-Flavor – Milkshake

Favorite – It’s Mine

Fiestar – Mirror

Four Ladies – Move

Fromis_9 – Love Bomb

G-Dragon – Crooked

G-reyish – Candy

Gain & Minseo – Imi Oneun Sori (The Sound Of You Coming)

Gangkiz – Mama

Gfriend – Rough

Girls Girls – Girls Girls

* Girls’ Generation – Chocolate Love / Oh! / Girls’ Generation

* Girl’s Day – Don’t Forget Me / Expectation / Nothing Lasts Forever

Glam – In Front Of The Mirror

Global Icon – Beatles

Goofy – The Rule Of The Game

Got7 – Stop Stop It

Great Guys – Last Men

* Guckkasten – Hunt / Pulse

Gugudan – A Girl Like Me

Ha Minwoo – Let Me Love U (ft. Lee Youngji)

Han Damhee – Life Is

Hello Venus – I’m Ill

* Henry – Fantastic / Trap

Hexagonal Water – Adduddu

HeyGirls – Follow Me

Hi Suhyun – I’m Different (ft. Bobby)

Hint – Tang Tang Tang

* History – Dreamer (ft. IU) / Might Just Die / Queen

Holland – I’m So Afraid

Honey Popcorn – De-aeseohsta

* Hong Jin Young – Boogie Man / Love Tonight

Huta – With Melody

hyangni – Hot Sauce

Hyo – Badster

Hyomin – Sketch

Hyukoh – Wanli (万里)

Hyun Young – Sister’s Dream

Hyuna – Ice Cream

iKon – Killing Me

Im Chang Jung – Open The Door

IN2IT – Run Away

Infinite – The Chaser

Iron – System

IU – Love of B

IZ – Final Kiss

* Jambinai – Time Of Extinction / They Keep Silence *

Jang Moonbok – Red

Jang Nara – Sweet Dream

JBJ95 – Spark

Jerastar – The Dreams In Dreams

Jimin – Puss (ft. Iron)

Jiyeon – Never Ever (1 min 1 second)

Jun Hyo Seong – Find Me (ft. D. Action)

Jun Jin – Wow Wow Wow (ft. Eric)

Jung In – UUU

Junoflo – Bonez

K-Tigers Zero – Side Kick

K-Tigers – Hero

K-Trance – Hey Hey

K.A.R.D – Rumor

K.will – Please Don’t

KARA – Wanna

Katie – Remember

Kid Milli – Why Do Fuckbois Hang Out On The Net

Kim Heejin – I Can’t Forget You

Kim Sawol – Bloody Wolf

Kim Soo Chan – You & Me

Kim Wan Sun – The Dance In Rhythm

Kooki – Choae

LaBoum – Sugar Sugar

Ladies Code – Hate You

Lady Jane – Just 2 Days

Lana – Take The Wheel

LC9 – MaMa Beat (ft. Gain)

Lee Hi – Rose

Lee Jung Hyun – V

Lim Kim – All Right

Lizzy – Not An Easy Girl

Loona (Solo) – New (Yves)

Loona 1/3 – Love & Live

Loona – Hi High

Loona/Odd Eye Circle – Loonatic

Loona/yyxy – love4eva (ft. Grimes)

Love X Stereo – Call My Name

Lovelyz – Ah-Choo

Lucente – Your Difference

Luluz – How About Me?

Luna & Jambinai – From The Place That Is To Be Erased

M.O.A – Run For Your Dream

Macho King – Credit Utopia

* Mamamoo – Piano Man / Destiny

MASC – Run To You

MBK Project – Don’t Forget Me

MC Sniper – Pine Tree, Pine Tree, Lush Pine Tree

Melody Day – #LoveMe

Minx – Love Shake

miss A – Touch

Mommy Son – Star Song (ft. Eugene Park)

Momoland – Wonderful Love

Monsta X – Shoot Out

Musky – Secret Of My Heart

MVP – Take It

N.Flying – Awesome

N.Tic – Once Again

Nada – Trippin’

* Nature – Allegro Cantabile / Dream About U

NCT 127 – Cherry Bomb

Nightoff – As Always As We Are

Nine Muses – Gun

Numori – Cheer

Nu’est – Face

Oh Hayoung – Don’t Make Me Laugh

Oh My Girl – Secret Garden

Oneus – Valkyrie

ONF – Complete

Oohyo – Butter Chicken

Orange Caramel – Magic Girl

Papaya – Listen To Me [Later on remade and improved on by Oh My Girl]

Park Bom – You & I

Pentagon – Shine

Peur Kim – Manyo Maash

Pink Fantasy – Fantasy

PK – Mask Play

Platform Stereo – Whale

Playback – Playback

Pocket Girls – Bbang Bbang

Postino – Our Cloud

Primary – Don’t Be Shy (ft. Choa, Iron)

Pritz – Sorasora

Psy – Right Now

* Purfles – 1,2,3 / Bad Girl

Rainbow – Black Swan

Rania – Style

* Red Velvet – Russian Roulette / Rookie / Psycho

Road Boyz – Show Me Bang Bang

Rockit Girl – Little Cat

Romeo – Lovesick

S#arp – 100 Days Of Prayer

S.I.S – I’ve Got A Feeling

S2 – Honeya

Sand Pebbles – What Should I Do [Later on remade and improved on by T-ara]

Sandy – Teen Swag

Saturday – Mmook Jji Bba

Secret – Shy Boy

Seenroot – Paradise

Seo Taiji – Ultramania

Seungri – Gotta Talk To You

Seven O’clock – Searchlight

* SF9 – Now or Never / Mama Mia / Easy Love

Sha Sha – What The Heck

Shannon Williams – Why Why

Shin Jung Huun And The Men – Beautiful Rivers And Mountains

SHINee – Lucifer

Sistar – I Like That

* Sixbomb – Hiccup Hiccup / Wait Ten Years, Baby

Sixth Sense – Feel Me

Skilleto – Get High

Sleepy – Trouble (ft. Bang Yongguk)

Slowstones – Slowstones

Smells & Reno – Nothing

Snuper – Platonic Love

So Chan Wee – Tears

Sonamoo – I (Knew It)

SoReal – My Heart Says

Spectrum – What Do I Do

SPEED – It’s Over

Spica – Russian Roulette

* Stellar – Marionette / Vibrato / Crying

Stray Kids – Side Effects

Sugar Tint – Heart Ppyong

Sugardonut – Imagine, Close Your Eyes

Summer Soul – A.I

Sunmi – Siren

Sunny Hill – Pray

Super Junior – Sorry Sorry

Swervy – Art Gang Money (ft. Reddy)

* T-ara – One & One / Roly Poly

Tae Jin-Ah – I Love You Darling

TaeTiSeo – Holler

Taeyeon – Four Seasons

Tahiti – Oppa, You’re Mine

Teen Teen – It’s On You

Teen Top – Love Is

Texas Karaoke – Texas Man

The Seeya – Tell Me

Tiffany – I Just Wanna Dance

Tiny-G – Miss You

To-day – Secret

Tren-D – Candy Boy

Trouble Maker – Now

TST (TopSecret) – Love Story

* TVXQ – Hot Hot Hot / Rising Sun

Tweety – Bad Boy

Twice – Knock Knock

Two X – Ring Ma Bell

Twofive – What Is At The End Of The Universe?

TXT – Run Away

U-KISS – Believe

UN – Wave

UNI.T – No More

UV & Shindong – Marry Man

Uza – Suitable

Venus – Turn Signal

Very Very Good Life – Dance

Vincent – Burn It All

VIXX – Eternity

Wassup – Wa$$up

Weki Meki – Crush

WJSN (Cosmic Girls) – Boogie Up

Wonder Girls – Nobody

Year 7 Class 1 – Oppa Virus

Yery Band – Romeo Mannequin

Yoona & Lee Sang Soon – To You

Young Turks Club – Jung [Later on remade and improved on by Tren-D]

Younha – Winter Flower (ft. RM)

Yoyomi – Hong Kong Express

Yu Chae Young – Emotion

* Zico – Bermuda Triangle (ft. Crush, Dean) / Veni Vidi Vici (ft. DJ Wegun) And here’s a short list of songs from artists that you seemed to have a somewhat positive impression of but I wasn’t sure whether you liked them enough to be eligible for the list above: Bandgirin – Beautiful Days

Chillin Homie – Wassup (ft. Eptend)

Eric Nam – Can’t Help Myself

Everglow – Dun Dun

Golden Child – Without You

Hoody – Hangang

Imlay – Asteroid (ft. Yangyang)

Rocket Punch – Bouncy

Seventeen – Thanks

Taemin – Want

The Night of Seokyo – Diving (ft. BiNi)

The Rose – Red

Woosung – Face And here are some of the more mainstream artists/groups that have been excluded from the list above cos they haven’t had any songs you seemed to have liked: AB6IX

Astro

Beast / Highlight

Chungha

CNBlue

FTIsland

(G)I-dle

Heize

Highlight

Itzy

Iz*One

Kang Daniel

Nell

Pristin

Up10Tion

Wanna One

Winner Artists I’m unsure about:

– NCT Dream (I remember you saying that Dream had the best output of all the NCT subunits but I couldn’t seem to find a song you seemed to somewhat like from them. Chewing Gum perhaps?)

– JYP (I know you like stuff JYP has produced like Signal and Tell Me but I’m not sure what songs that JYP himself performs that you like. Fever perhaps?)

– BTOB (Not sure if you liked ‘The Feeling’ enough for the list)

While your obsession with placings on my list probably is a bit unhealthy, I can’t help but bow to such high determination levels and co-operate with your request.

Afterschool – either Bang or Flashback.

4Ten – Why

B.A.P – Warrior

Block B – Nalina

EXO – Power

Stellar – tough call but maybe Vibrato

TVXQ – Hot Hot Hot

Girls’ Day – Don’t Forget Me

Girls’ Generation – Chocolate Love

The rest too close to call.

Oh and Pristin’s best song was their debut, it was all downhill from there.

Most stuff I simply can’t remember that well.

The problem with a list like this is not making it, but maintaining it. Good luck with that.

My question: Actually I just want to share that Honey Popcorn want to sell condoms

This is a (very clever but) fake mock-up, sadly. I contacted the person behind this demanding that they reach out to Honey Popcorn and make this a reality because I wanted to do a condom review. However they seemed reluctant to follow this up, which is a shame.

Hi Oppar! What do you think about Gfriend’s current discography? I’m a fan of Gfriend who quite frustrated on how they (or their label) seem to pick their title track as safe as possible. While it’s understanding they want to stay floating in the popularity, I always thought their albums are cohesive and they have many better songs to choose. It seems like their signature rookie songs are so tiring so they take softer approach after Time for the Moon Night.

I guess they’ve tried risks before and they haven’t panned out so I guess it makes sense to stick to their brand at least in the public eye.

Hey oppa! You know, I usually ask you stuff related to Kpop, but I think this time’s diferent.

I just want to get some stuff off my chest. I feel like If I talked to people close to me, they’d just think I’m whiny. But since your question box is always open, and you’re always free to ignore questions you dislike, here it comes. Well, I’ve started a new internship and things have been chaotic ever since. It’s an abnormal amount of activities and they just keep piling stuff on top of interns, especially the dirty awful parts of the job. As we don’t have enough time to do everyhting, I’ve been feeling like a failure there – and freaking out. I feel like I’ve been drained by it: I’m always working like crazy, including in my house, and it’s never just enough. I can’t take all of it. But the thing is: everyone there is too overworked. Especially the boss. I don’t want to stay there for too long, but I fear that anywhere I go, I’ll just face the same issues. There’s no way I can run from it? It’s never enough, people may thank you, but don’t appreciate the effort and time you put in the work you do and there’s always new unexpected activities that make you crazy. I mean, the first part of my question was something I was struggling with for some time, and hanging on. However, something worse happened yesterday: as I was rushing around activites, I couldn’t finish something that one of my bosses required – it wasn’t urgent, so I thought “I’ll do it later”. After some time, he just asks me about it and says “you haven’t done that? You’re just fooling me around. The other intern has never done that to me”. He meant as if I was purposely thying to deceive him and not get the thing done. I felt ultraged. I still feel hurt. Been working non stop, till late at night – everybody knows that -, I’ve been given stupid tasks that take too long and I’ve been called a flaky person. I’m really pissed that he felt disappointed, I guess? That I’ve been called out even though I’m working my ass off? Anyway, I don’t know how to deal with this. I want to know how to cope with it until my contract is over – or maybe, learn how to do deal with my own frstrations and work even harder in order to be employed there – it’d be good to receive the salary they pay. Thanks in advance!

Internships are bullshit. People need to be paid for work. Internships are supposed to be for training, they’re not supposed to be so people can just give you all the shit-kicking jobs to do because nobody else wants to do them and the boss doesn’t want to pay. I probably would have told them to fuck off by now. I guess I’m the wrong person to ask this question to but my knee jerk response to hearing about shit like this is “fuck that, you can do better”.

If you’re in a position where you’re contractually obliged to bite your tongue then it might be different but I have a super-low tolerance for doing anything I don’t want to do if I’m not being paid. However if I am being paid I’ll move mountains. It seems like your time is being wasted, I’d move somewhere if you could.

My question:If you had to write a song for a JAV star entering the K-Pop realm (excluding Honey Popcorn, of course), how would it sound like?

I wouldn’t write it differently if that’s what you mean. Honey Popcorn’s genius was deliberately not going the “sexy” route or doing anything particularly “special” to signify that they were JAV stars. They don’t need to throw down the flesh exposure or suggestiveness, just their reputations are enough. Same for anyone else in their position.

Why do you think vocal harmonies aren’t as common in Kpop as it should be? Given that most groups nowadays are like 6 people above, you’d think there’d be more of it? And I understand that not every idol is good enough of a vocalist, but you don’t really have to be a good singer to harmonize? Our uni’s a capella performance group of 8 singers have about 2 good singers, and the rest are mediocre at best (basically like a normal kpop group lmao), but that doesn’t stop them from harmonizing.

You still have to pitch notes and hear your place in a harmony to harmonise though and most k-pop singers are so bad at singing that they can’t even get that right. Serious. Sure, it doesn’t matter for the songs themselves, Autotune, miming, prerecords and non-commital mumbling over vocal-tracked backings will get them through any live work, but at some point every “harmony-based” vocal group will be put on the spot on a variety show or something and then the cat will be out of the bag. Also vocal harmonies aren’t really a trending sound right now.

What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever received through QRIMOLE?

Read through them, you tell me.

I know you’ve reviewed some song(s) of PLT, but I’d like to know your opinion about Gaho’s solo releases (since I don’t care about the group: their overall sound doesn’t appeal to me)

Just curious what you’d think of it. Does his music still qualify as K-pop? I heard some people refer to him as indie, but I’d disagree.

His stuff that I’ve heard and can remember just sounds exactly the same as everyone else’s boring ballad trash.

if hypothetically the superior Sexy Love backtrack was used in the official release, would Sexy Love have been above Roly Poly in your list as the best kpop song?

Depends how they did it. If it was the usual “8 bars at the start of the song and then we forget the track even existed” style MBK remix, then definitely no. Sensible integration throughout the entire song would have more of a chance of success but remains to be seen.

I saw this video linked to on an article about the “girl crush” concept, but what really struck me was it seems to be an example of a k-pop person using a Shure Supper 55 correctly. Crazy! So I though I’d submit it for the not (yet) existent list of this happening.

Instead of singing into the top, she’s singing into the rear. She still has no clue!

So I came across this channel called Soft White Underbelly and tried watching a couple of videos. I was really put off by the interviewer’s style of questioning… The directness/ robotic tone felt insensitive. Here’s the link to one video I tried watching: Is my discomfort towards the interview questions and style of questioning warranted?

I think that in the case of the linked video it’s the obvious discomfort of the interviewee that really is hard to watch more than the questions. You might be picking up on this instead. I watched a few of these and didn’t see any obvious problem although when he was interviewing some of the pornstars who actually enjoyed their work he seemed a bit lost when they didn’t fit into his “showing the broken bits of society” narrative!

Hello, Kpopalypse. Just thought I could air out my feelings and alleviate some confusion. A year ago, someone I thought really cared about me broke up with me, I was extremely sad, and was made to feel even worse when I found out that the girl he left me for had the same name. Of course it’s not illegal or morally wrong, but it still felt bad, like I was replaceable. I found out that they started dating on my birthday *we were still together and he even wished me a happy birthday* and called him all sorts things and I assumed he actually cheated even though he said he didn’t when we broke up. He came back at me denying everything, saying not to call him names and I ended up feeling really bad and apologizing to him both on person and a letter because I felt so bad. He forgave me and said “you never know what could happen in the future,” and I left feeling a bit better. Come a year later I found out that my suspicions were correct. Not only did she have the same name, but the day they started dating was on my birthday and she even had the same birthday as me! Adding more to the blow was the fact that she is pregnant, has bad hygiene that you could smell, and he appears to be in drugs.My feelings about him are almost completely gone, but I was still devastated. I was so sad over some dude that left me for a girl with bad hygiene, a trailer trash version of me that is apparently ok with him being drug addicted. After that long explanation my question is, why do people leave you for people that are known to be “gross” as a mutual called her. I don’t understand. I know I did things wrong I’m the relationship, but to be cheated on with someone that everyone is thinks is disgusting really put a blow to myself esteem. Is it some warped mental view on his part, or was I worse than I thought I was?

People break up relationships and fall in love with other people for all sorts of reasons, who can explain it. If I were to guess from the slim amount of details provided, it sounds like he wanted someone who was more on his level (i.e a lower level) so he wouldn’t experience judgement (real or imagined) for his lifestyle choices. How valid such a concern is, I wouldn’t have a clue, only you know that… but what’s done is done anyway, at least he’s given you the opportunity to get out of that trap and find someone you deserve – or alternatively just live your life without the drama that he would have no doubt brought to the table.

I have two questions regarding the Superbowl halftime performance (and other performances on such a big scale): 1) In the case of one or two single main performer(s), how do stage directors (and I guess the performer themselves) create stage presence for the audience actually in the stadium? I was watching the recent Superbowl performances and they literally seemed like a blip from long shots. Katy Perry’s seemed to fare better with the huge ass tiger and her flying across the stadium. Also I was reading how Prince’s performance was “iconic”. Was it iconic for TV only or did it actually seem that way in person considering there weren’t a whole lot of dancers in stage? I have similar questions for Queen’s Live Aid performance. 2) How do they do the audio for performances like this for the audience there? What kind of speakers are used? What about feedback and the microphone picking up noise? Also does the singer’s voice actually sound nice? How do they get it to sound nice? Thanks Oppar!

Honestly when people talk about “iconic” performances they’re usually talking about cultural significance rather than how good the performance was. I mean, The Sex Pistols’ Winterland performance was also “iconic” apparently. Just like in k-pop, people are blinded by cultural factors all the time.

I’ve done many sound for much gigs but I’ve never done sound at a sports stadium. However similar principles apply to other acoustic environments. The music theory series will eventually cover this, as “how do they get it to sound nice” is actually a telephone book sized essay to answer.

I have an entire article on stage presence that should answer your other questions.

How loud do you think is too loud? Do you have any experience with hearing loss/tinnitus? For my whole life I’ve always felt like I listen to my music too loudly when I’m wearing headphones. Not only that, when I was a teenager playing in a band, I made the big mistake of playing the first few months without earplugs. That’s when I first started to notice the first signs of the beeping. The past week I’ve been severely under the weather, heavily congested and coughing a lot. Naturally, I’ve been continuously blowing my nose which puts pressure against (I’m guessing) my eardrums. It feels like the past few days my tinnitus has gotten much worse. I’m actually getting a bit concerned about my hearing.

My ears are about average for my age but only because I use earplugs a lot on stage, however I do have a notch at about 6k which I reckon is probably from standing too close to drummers’ cymbals back when I didn’t use them as much. Headphones will kill your hearing quicker than playing in a band though, if you have to pick one to stop doing, pick the cranking of headphone volume. A few months of not using earplugs as a teen probably did no damage at all.

If you’ve never had your ears syringed I recommend that you do that. No need to get a doctor to do it, you can do it yourself. First, wait until you’re not sick (important). Then, buy some ear drops that loosen wax, put some in your ears every day for a few days, that’ll soften it. Then you need a small plastic ear syringe, fill it with warm water and (gently) blast the water inside your ears to remove the wax. It usually takes a few goes for each ear. You might find your hearing gets somewhat better after that.

It’s a bit pedantic, but I was wondering why you consider 2011 to be the last year of K-pop’s golden age. What was so significant negatively about 2012? I’m especially curious because, if I recall correctly, you generally consider 2013 to be the worst post-golden age year for overall K-pop quality.

One word: dubstep.

Cryptic Oppar, are you getting married?

Fuck no. Decrypt that.

Hi Kpopalypse! I’m an Indian-American teenager who goes to a fairly small private school. I’ve started to notice that a lot of my (mostly white) friends are losing their virginities and having sex on a regular basis, and whenever they talk about it it makes me feel excluded and weird. I don’t want to be a prude and they’re allowed to do whatever they want with their lives, but I wish they would stop talking about the copious amounts of sex they’re having around me. One of my friends even suggested that she and my other friend (who recently lost his virginity) do a fucking competition to see who can get more in.

Even if I wanted to have sex just to fit in, my parents would freak out. Having sex in high school and just premarital sex in general is a huge no no. Listening to my white friends brag about how much they’re doing it reinforces that I’m different. Idk, maybe I’m coming off as an uptight incel. What should I do?

Ignore it seems like the way to go. I mean personally I would have had sex all over the place as a teen if I could have, but I didn’t because I was ugly and had a shit personality and was basically an asshole. However the enforced abstinence probably saved me a lot of headfucks, plus my parents would have freaked out too probably, ignoring social standards and blah blah there’s something to be said for not rushing into shit before you’re ready. I think it’s fine to have sex but it’s also fine not to. However, you know this. Your real question is “how do I deal with feeling weird about my friends” and the best suggestion I can give is make some new friends. Don’t brush off your old ones but if you can find a social group that wants to talk about things other than how much dick they’re planning on receiving that might be helpful. Hobby groups are good for that, because they tend to talk about their hobby first, so if there’s somthing you’re passionate about try to find like minded people who are into that thing. Then when your friends do have the sausage-hiding conversations you can probably take it in your stride more because you’ve got other people you can talk to about actual stuff that interests you, that might dilute that feeling of difference. Having said that it’s also not a crime to be different, I’ve been different my whole life, fitting in isn’t so great especially if what you’re trying to fit into isn’t interesting to you anyway.

In your opinion what kpop groups and/or soloists would you say have had the best discography (can be just main tracks obviously, not bsides)? Also what current groups have the best music in your opinion? I don’t know too much about pop/current music; what makes second generation kpop music so good? I do enjoy it but I really can’t understand the huge difference between the quality in the music then compared to now. For example, f(x)’s pink tape album is praised by a lot of people but I don’t really understand what makes it so good musically even though I quite like f(x). Why do you like/invest so much time into kpop? I know how you got into liking kpop and how you started this blog, but it really baffles me why you are so invested in this, especially when you clearly also have other musical interests too. While obviously some songs are great, there are a lot of terrible songs too and I don’t really see how it appeals to someone with a lot of musical knowledge to have to listen to hundreds of releases every year. Why do companies not create more music for popular groups? Why doesn’t every company do what JYP does (overworking Twice and giving them releases practically every other month) to make more money, especially when they have popular groups? It baffles my mind why big companies don’t go all out and utilise the success of the groups that have big fanbases that will carry them through any comeback. Why do companies debut so many sub-standard idols and generally don’t train them well enough? I simply don’t understand how some idols can be trained for 5+ years only to result in fairly decent dance skills and sub-par vocals (I don’t need them to be incredible vocalists but I don’t understand why some of them can’t carry a tune to save their life after so many years in training). It also really bothers me when a company debuts a group with one idol who simply is not good enough and clearly stands out because they don’t have the skills of the others, even in big3 companies. Surely they have more than enough suitable, talented trainees? Also something that really bothers me is when non-kpop fans judge me for liking kpop (especially because I am female). I don’t really understand why so many condescending (often older) people try to “educate” me when I say I like kpop, as if I am stupid…I know perfectly well that idols are under an company, that there’s a lot of things happening behind the scenes, that it’s not “real” etc. I just really enjoy the music and find it a load of harmless fun, and I don’t understand why so many people are pressed to try and change my mind, as if I don’t know better than them what the kpop industry consists of.

T-ara has best overall discography in k-pop out of veteran groups with a large catalog. No contest.

Current groups with best averages – Dreamcatcher, Loona (at least up until “Hi High“)

K-pop quality vastly improved in the second generation because production quality improved. Listening to 2006 vs 2011 k-pop is like night and day, production-wise.

I like investing time in k-pop because it’s like an alternate reality of pop music, where there’s more pop music being made more often by more people and mostly better quality. As someone who likes music generally, this is relevant. Even at its worst k-pop is generally better than western pop at its worst. I can always skip the crap I don’t like (which is most of it). Also I’m interested in the idea of writing stuff that has a tangible benefit to people who are musicians or thinking of becoming musicians. If I opened a few peoples’ eyes up to how k-pop is, then that’s a good thing. Sure tons of ex-idols are doing AMAs these days but I was bringing people this type of content six years ago.

The purpose of k-pop marketing isn’t to create music, it’s to create brand power. Marketing wisdom dictates that an established artist who already has brand power therefore doesn’t need constant releases (because their fans will stick to them like glue anyway), whereas a new artist needs to be kept in the public eye so their profile builds.

For companies, talent isn’t as important as looks and obedience. The purpose of training in k-pop isn’t to make you an all-rounder, it’s to hone your specialisation. This means that the dancers usually can’t sing, the singers have trouble dancing, and the “visuals” sometimes struggle with both. Nobody wants someone who is average in everything, by having a specialty you stand out. The emotional attachment that k-pop fosters will make fans believe all their faves have golden voices anyway, and the machines and engineering can pick up the shortfalls.

People will always be dicks about music taste. It probably wouldn’t be any different if you were into heavy metal, people would be lecturing you about “devils’ music” etc. It’s fine to like what you like, and we both know this, so disregard life’s fools.

so, i didnt really wanted to make this into a long Thing, but it probably will be, so sorry for that. anyways.

the basic tldr is that i was born with the birth defect of cleft lip and cleft palate, but due to the wonders of modern medicine most of it was repaired when i was really young, and thats how ive been living my life. this is where the ‘most’ part is important to me- most people not being specialists have no idea i technically still have the birth defect due to the surgeries and extensive speech training but my parents do, and my mom in particular is really keen that i have the final surgery in having it done. the surgery is a nose one, one that had been talked about since i couldnt shit on my own bc the doctors said that they needed me to grown up into my final body structure first-after i was 18.

as you might have guessed, i am over 18 and talks of the nose surgery are coming for the summer bc its convenient for everyone schedule’s and my fucking problem is that every time they mentioned how theyll fix my noise- they did the mistake of mentioning how much better looking ill be.

This made me angry bc first of all, my worth is not in how pretty i am so i did find that insulting, but another aspect is that even the mention of something being plastic surgery done on me (they called reconstructive bc technically i *do* have a legit reason but they also couldnt shut up how nice ill look after bc society as a whole demands that women especially look Pretty so in their attempts to not make me nervious they said That, so thats another way my trust in the Elders of society have backfired on me) clashes with my shitty superiority personality complex that was forged in the aspect that made me choose the career that would give me the closest opportunities to work in the entertainment industry- as a PR handler/manager/agent/you get the drill.

the reason i typed out ‘superiority personality’ is simple: the above aspect of the entertainment industry is something that most people in this country literally do not understand. like. only writing and paintings are lucrative the rest like music and tv shows/networks and all that (aka the part of the entertainment industry i want to work in) dont Exist like they do in the states, canada, south korea, etc. so when i zoned in into my dream job, the reason i did was because researched it for myself- and one of the first steps was when i fell balls deep into the analysis of the business side of kpop. this qrimole honestly feels like a full circle to me- ive been reading your business posts of the kpop industry since the first one, and as you pumped out the first…3,4 of them i realized that in reading them, a spark like nothing else ive felt before happened. i wasnt sad or angry that you were spelling out the truth like most people who are like 12/13 would be- i enjoyed knowing it. i enjoyed it so much that it led me into the rabbit hole of the western side of the pop music industry- and thats when i realized that i enjoyed the shit in analyzing how a different image affects in how much an artist can away with and such, and when college talks started i knew: i wanted to be part of what i think is a craft. every public person has a different image- and while most people dont like to think that the image of the person they consume might is crafted bc it ruins their ability to critical think about what they think is the most important part, the music they pump out, realizing that the craft image is the backbone of the entertainment industry honestly did wonders for my self esteem. it made me finally accept that the pretty humans we see on stage might be lavished by society-but the reason why many of them later um, fail in life, for a lack of a better term, is because as much power the pretty humans might have on the masses, the people standing behind them off-screen, the ‘not as good looking’ are the ones pulling the ropes and are usually the ones that have the cash.

i remember sitting in the chair 6 months after i was 18- the Elders were quick in telling me how nice ill look after my nose surgery and i honestly feel really fucking bad about myself. i feel so angry that something seeminly minor makes me so sad and mad- but the truth is that i dont like to feel like shit, i dont think anyone does really, but the thing is that theres no one in my life i can say all this shit to them- to make them understand that the way they talked about the ‘minor’ ”reconstructive” surgery honestly makes me feel like the little 11 year old i was that had a shit self esteem and when the time comes for the summer this feeling will just get Worse and i dont know if ill have a panic attack in the middle of the some clinic’s hall or ill be just crying as i lay down in the chair and they drug me to sleep but in just remembering how shit i felt at the time they were explaining the procedure to me at 18, how it felt like everything ive learned to make myself more confident was useless. and i know that i technically have the age to call this surgery off but im not the one thats paying for the roof, food, or college in my life and i dont know how to explain to the person in my life who has been waiting an entire lifetime for me to finally have everything physically ‘right’ that maybe this is not the right time for me to feel like shit about myself as a person.

If you want to do the surgery, do it. If you don’t, then don’t. It’s a personal rights issue, it’s your body, you have the right to do what you want with it and any reason for doing anything to your own body is “legitimate”. That’s why I was cool with interviewing Oli London and actually thought he was an alright guy, people characterise him on the same level as that Twice stalker but trust me they couldn’t be more different. Oli just wants to control his body, there’s nothing wrong with that, and sure we may have different opinions on how the surgery turned out but at the end of the day it’s his body so he’s the one who needs to be happy with it – not anybody else. If you can’t control your body, what can you control? Sure you’re being financially supported but you still have basic human rights and you should not feel any guilt about exercising them. At the very least if you want to take the soft option you can defer the surgery for another year or even until after college to buy yourself more time to think about if this is what you really want, which might not be a bad idea given how conflicted you currently feel. Perhaps with the passing of time your self esteem stuff might sort itself out and you’ll feel more fine with the surgery, or perhaps it’ll sort itself out in the other direction and you’ll feel happier about how you are now. Neither of these is a bad outcome. The main issue I think you need to sort through is – is your issue with the actual surgery, or with other people’s perceptions of the surgery. Ask yourself who you are really doing this for and why, and that’ll probably bring you closer to knowing if you should go through with it or not.

I’m glad that my writing on the k-pop business gave you some clarity and inspired some thought as stretching people’s thought bubbles is exactly what all my writing should be doing (yes, even those posts). In the analysis of the industry’s idol machine, is a valuable lesson – prettiness is a sharp double-edged sword. K-pop idols are impossibly attractive, but for every tangible benefit that their attractiveness brings, there is something else that they are denied as a direct result. Nothing is simple or easy for anybody, and one can change the rules of the game if they choose but new rules just means new challenges and hazards, ones which may be less familiar than the ones you know. This has relevance for your situation and I think it’s something you should think about carefully. Take all the time you need.

That’s all for QRIMOLE! This series will return in a month, in the meantime don’t forget to support k-pop nugus!

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 soon with more postings!