It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!
How are you? How is the partner? How is the cat?
Good³
Since IVE is like a top group right now for you musically, I’m wondering if you have a bias rank for all the members, bias compendium style?
Also, thoughts on Taylor Swift and her hold in the pop music industry almost as strong as BTS in kpop? Are they the same? Different?
I stopped doing the bias compendium because it got too large and difficult to maintain and I decided that I didn’t care that much. Apart from Liz nobody in IVE stands out that much for me and I honestly still have difficulty telling them apart, which is very common for me with any group that has been around for less than a decade.
Both Taylor Swift and BTS do pop music. Both of them are popular. Both have insane fandoms but then as two of the biggest artists right now that just comes with the territory, it’s not really a reflection of anything about those artists other than their popularity. More fans means more crazy fans, it’s just math. I don’t really follow exactly how popular things are, but I suspect Taylor is a lot bigger than BTS. As a solo performer Taylor escapes some of the stigma that BTS have as an idol group, as fairly or unfairly a lot of the general public recoil at the thought of idol groups. But I’m no expert on it really. Despite people online (I don’t mean in this question, I just mean in general) trying to strawman me as some type of self-proclaimed Anthony Fantano style “pop guru” I’m really not that person. The average person on the street probably knows more about what Talyor Swift is up to and how her career is going than I do. I’m more concerned about the more “on the ground” level realities of what the 99% of artists deal with, and music in general, not the gossip or scandal or pop music aesthetics specifically or the goings-on of the 1% at the top. Taylor Swift will be fine without my help.
Who are your favourite movie directors? What kind of movies do you like? Thoughts on John Waters and Michael Haneke?
David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino are the best movie directors out there, in my opinion, or at least the ones I enjoy the work of the most consistently, I guess this is because they’re writer/directors, so everything has a fairly consistent vision. But there’s a lot of other good directors out there. I’ve seen only a few John Waters films, and they’re mainly early ones so it’s a bit difficult to judge him these days based on that, and to my knowledge I’ve seen nothing of Michael Haneke’s at all.
I’m 22, female, in India, currently at a business school going through its summer internship placement process. It’s been a month, and I had already gained a reputation as academically smart but super ridiculous – cuz I am socially awkward, moody and inconsistent, too open, easy to take work out of, prone to breakdowns and one of the few people who challenge our draconian placement committee.
I know that some people mock me behind my back, and lots gossiped about me, thanks to my friends giving me intel. I’d probably have gone into deep depression had I not gotten one of the most prestigious companies and roles recently.
Despite this, those who mocked me haven’t stopped. The average respect my batch has for me hasn’t risen. Probably cuz I disparaged myself even after that, by honestly admitting my shortcomings. It’s a nail that sticks out, gets hammered down sort of culture among these bitches.
Also, my guy friend told me that the guy I had (have ?) a crush on once laughed at another dude’s rather harsh imitation of me and asked for an encore as he missed most of it. This crush is sweet to me in person, will even roast me to my face occasionally, but nothing of this sort.
Moreover, I’ve been told that another instance in my crush’s behaviour indicates that he may find me ridiculous and unattractive as well and is just taking the piss out of me subtly. The same source says that he’s a decent guy, just may not hold respect for me. Today I gave him the cold shoulder when yesterday I was quite positive and receptive towards him, he did seem curious about the change in my behaviour but idk.
Idk, this place is giving me so many trust issues socially. Will I ever be respected for who I am ? Why do people focus on my negatives instead of my positives ? Am I too ‘easy’ as a friend and a girl ? Do guys think I’m unfeminine and ridiculous ? Do I have to be a makeup and trendy clothes wearing, soft mannered, waits – for – the – guy – to – chase girlie to get guys to notice me ? How do I find out if my crush actually has some respect for me and is a decent person with values at the very least ? I want to be who I am but also fix some rough edges that pose big challenges. I’m not even physically unattractive by most people’s standards, heck many people here think I’m physically attractive, I just dgaf about the clothes I wear or waxing my limbs and have tomboyish mannerisms.
I’m no expert in cultural expectations in India (or most places for that matter) but I think you can probably drive yourself crazy worrying about if you’re going to fit into other people’s neat little boxes or not. All of your questions are about what other people think, but ultimately you can’t control that, and you shouldn’t try to. People will inevitably think of you whatever they are going to think, so you might as well be the version of yourself that you are the most personally comfortable with and never mind their expectations. Other people might be totally right about their perceptions of you – or, they might be total assholes. Who knows for sure, but ultimately it doesn’t matter much. At the end of the day, you can only do you, and the best people to have around you are the ones who appreciate the you that you are, not the you that they are projecting onto you. As for everyone else, as long as you’re not giving them a hard time, who you are and what you do shouldn’t be their concern, just like you should concern yourselves with what they think or do either.
I realise though that the stakes are high with some of that stuff in India though especially given some of the stories I’ve heard about what men there are like, so you might have to “fake compliance” a bit for your own safety maybe, I don’t know. I’m not expert in living in that part of the world. Hopefully you can find some understanding folks over there who aren’t going to do horrible things to you just because you want to be yourself, good luck navigating this, any readers with expertise in this area who can help further in the comments definitely should.
Thoughts about the K-pop songwriting “Cheatsheet” put out by Lyre Music?
It’s a pretty good simple starting point from the tech aspect. If you had some songwriting skill but absolutely NO idea where to get started with writing pop music in terms of what equipment you need, how to get set up etc it’s not bad and gives you a few options. Very oversimplified though, but I guess it’s just a cheatsheet, so it’s meant to be. Their advice on the songwriting part of the music I like a lot less, but then that’s also what I’d expect from the team responsible for the sonic disaster that is “Mafia In The Morning”.
hi Oppar. I’m the person who asked you questions regarding job searching some months ago. Unfortunately even at the end of August I still didn’t any job despite many attempts of sending my CVs to several companies. As I have seen you answered some questions related to career or jobs in general, I want to ask for your suggestion of what I should do. I spent all of my university time on studying (and get good grade) so I have no internship experience. I applied for internship position but received no answer from the companies. To my distress 99% of Job Decription required for working experience (how can I have experience when no place accepted me in the first place?). I can’t even ask for my parents as they also didn’t have much network connections and their profession didn’t relate to the major I studied.
Well, if no company is letting you get to the interview stage because of your CV, then something might be wrong with your CV. Send me your CV (assuming it’s English language) and I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it (you can edit out personally identifying information of course). I did interviews and hiring for a company for many years, I know how people in those positions think and can probably tell you why you’re being rejected. If I have your permission I’ll post it in October QRIMOLE along with what I discovered.
Also keep in mind a certain amount of rejection is pretty normal. I always got rejected a ton when I applied to jobs as well even though I knew my CV was fine. It’s never just as simple as “no experience”, because if that was true, nobody would get a job ever. Sometimes someone else is just a better fit and there’s not much you can do about that. You just gotta keep spamming that resume out there, don’t get disheartened.
Favorite dreamcatcher song?
and
What’s your favorite dreamcatcher title track? I too wish for the day where they turn up the guitars more on their tracks. Hopefully one day
You people know I have annual favourites lists, right? Just type “favourite” into the search bar of this website.
what’s your mbti
Someone did a pretty in-depth and interesting analysis here, but personally I think it’s just CUNT.
Thoughts on this video about kpop choruses?
Ah the old clickbait title “X has a Y problem”. You can guarantee any video with such a title has no real insight into anything. In this case, that’s a long-ass video just to say “music fashion changes”.
It’ll change back. Don’t worry, these things go in cycles, I’ve seen enough of them to know. Also for every stupid trend that creeps into k-pop there’s always a bunch of people writing against it deliberately, because if everyone is doing thing A, a great way to get noticed is to have a hit doing thing B, then you suddenly ARE the trend. So… nothing to see here, basically.
Also personally I’m all for stupid vocal wank taking a back seat for once. If that’s out of fashion now let’s hope it stays that way… but it won’t. Everything goes in cycles. Five years ago, a huge amount of drum and bass sound in k-pop would have been unthinkable.
So I’m an MBA student going through summer internship company placement process. And there is this role at a really great financial services company (won’t share details cuz that seems to be in poor taste) that I got selected for (one of my majors in Bachelor of Arts was economics) when many other finance or economics masters students, or those who had worked at finance companies, from my college didn’t.
But I feel like I don’t deserve it and that others will know that. Honestly even during the case discussion + interview rounds, while I was able to apply the concepts they taught us in the workshop round, I did fumble and the interviewer gave me hints to correct my line of thought twice. Moreover, our college’s shitty hectic schedule meant I hadn’t even gotten time to properly revised my undergrad subjects and was just average when they asked me about it. Basically my performance in the rounds was variable, some good answers others supbar. I did try to smooth things over with confidence and being honest about my missteps though.
I know that others from my college had also done really well in the case discussion. It was a very close call. A bunch of them made it to the concept – based technical interview with me, but weren’t able to clear that. I have no idea why I did. And people easily get jealous or dejected here, it’s a very competitive environment. I’m worried sick that people will judge me as not deserving of this opportunity. Heck, even I’ve been frank about not knowing why I got selected. But I’m not emotionally strong enough to deal with other’s negativity and my own feelings of not deserving this.
Goddamn, we got one person worried about never getting a job, and now we have this person worried that they DID get a job! There’s no pleasing you folks hahaha…
What actually happened here was that the people selecting knew you weren’t the “most qualified” on paper but that didn’t matter because they decided that you were the right personality fit and someone they’d like to have on the team, so they did what they could to help you jump through the hoops and get in. This is how things work, a lot of the time. Just because someone has everything on paper doesn’t mean that they tick other, sometimes more important boxes. Yes people will judge you, but people will judge you always in all walks of life, no matter what you do. I get negativity every single day from strangers but so fucking what. Let’s see their novel series. It’s better to get judged while winning at life than while losing.
For this year’s Halloween party, I want to wear a sexy type of costume that I’ve been wanting to use for several years, but my insecurity towards my own body and my age keeps stopping me. I’m 35 years old and in my normal weight range (I’m 155 cm tall and 48 kg) but I’m basically skinny fat because I don’t work out as often as I wish so I have a normal belly if I’m not sucking in. The outfit shows my midriff and I wanted to get super swole and athletic to get the ~flat stomach~ but because of work and commuting I’m always too tired when I get home to really start working out, so it’s only on the weekends when I I’m able to exercise and do cardio in the equipment I have at home. Do you have any advice to motivate myself into working out in weekdays? there is a gym nearby my job so I guess I could go there straight after work, but I’m scared of losing motivation and/or start making up excuses for skipping. Also I do want to genuinely work out for my health because I have an office job, and not for losing weight for the costume or having the stereotypical idol body which I’m aware is only possible through starvation anyways.
I know the logical answer is to just wear the fucking outfit and have fun at the party but I think all the increased focus on ageism and pro-ana content and Ozempic is starting to get to me. I know it’s all made up bullshit by the beauty industry to make bank on my insecurities, and that what matters is me being healthy and happy regardless of my weight or how my legs look but… it IS hard to overcome when lookism is already so ingrained in one’s culture and media. Like it’s not just in kpop, it’s everywhere, it’s on western pop culture too, people are fucking ruthless when anyone over 30 starts to show wrinkles or signs of aging. And the messaging only gets more intense as I age! I want to be free of this bullshit!!
Beauty standards aren’t going anywhere, the only way to be free of them is to free your mind. But as you said, you know that. And yes society pressure etc makes it hard but anything worth believing in is hard.
At the same time, nothing wrong with having body goals, just be realistic about it and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t make them. Personally I tend to workout mostly when I’m not doing other work, because if I’m still kinda stressed from work, working out doesn’t make me feel good. Also on weekends the gym is quieter, because most people prefer the routine of working out after work during the week. For losing belly fat… good luck, honestly. But I believe in Nari’s advice – do strength training as well as cardio. Not abs exercises in particular, which I think are kinda stupid – it’s a myth that you can spot-reduce fat, what happens in reality is you lose weight and build muscle tone and the fat falls off wherever it wants to. Just core exercises in general will help, stuff that engages multiple muscle groups. But personally I wouldn’t bother going too hard at it I’d just rock the clothes you want anyway, the people who have super flat stomachs at 35 or older dedicate a shitload of time to it, more time than I have quite frankly!
I had a dream recently that I was a kpop idol. I’ll call dream idol me Youngsook because she’s the person from your books most similar to me, probably.
Being a kpop idol was like a game of Civilization where various things about my success were determined by different stats which would expand over time. But a lot of these stats involved audience’s perception of my hotness—like there was a specific module for “Youngsook’s ass, “Youngsook’s boobs”, which would get affected depending on what I wore day to day, what pictures I posted, etc. There were other things which mattered (Youngsook’s singing ability, Youngsook’s performances, Youngsook’s obedience to staff, etc.), but the ass/boobs stats struck me the most because fan opinion of Youngsook’s beauty was actually very easy to manipulate.
Anyway like in early Civ I was trying to max out these stats for a while bc I just wanted my group to succeed, and was pretty happy any time I like wore a miniskirt + crop top and got a bunch of thirsty fanboys because it meant more money and success for my group. But after a while when my group was more established, I’d wind up frustrated that this interest felt so transient and impersonal, and feel the urge to wear more knee-length skirts/cardigans/baggy outfits, because “group approval” based on something as shallow as how good my cleavage looks from a specific angle doesn’t feel like a real accomplishment at all. It also became tiring to just wear something I think looked cute and notice such desperate attention/shifts from fanboys I don’t really care about in real life, as if they’re assuming all my personal choices are for them.
I also remember talking to my (real life) boyfriend in the dream and going “your approval of my ass doesn’t depend on what I wear/isn’t gameable like with the fans; I care way more about your approval anyway”
It seems pretty clear to me what my subconscious social commentary is, but if you have any dream analysis feel free to let me know.
Interesting dream! Maybe I should write this game, although a decent looking Civ-style k-pop game might be a little bit above my budgetary constraints. Can’t say I’m a dream analysis expert either but I channeled Boram’s super ESP powers and they told me that you could probably decrease your k-pop and computer game consumption just a little without suffering any ill effects.
What do you mean when you talk about “millennial-whooping”?
Constant oscillating third intervals, usually sung with a “eeeehh-oooo” kind of voice.
So I met this couple on vacation where we were on a group tour together.
I mostly talked to the wife, but I noticed when I was feeling awkward or tired sometimes he’d make a joke with me or whatever and cheer me up. I never assumed anything of it. The couple had a nice dynamic and they seemed to really be in love with each other — not just infatuation, but like best friends and romantic partners.Unfortunately…the husband ruined it. I went into an elevator and he joined me as we went for hotel breakfast. So just the two of us.
We started joking and laughing as usual, and I said something about not doing drugs.The guy said “Of course not…you’re a good girl, aren’t you?
” with a suggestive tone and the same look as that emoji.
It was really weird and I wasn’t into him like that at all, let alone another woman’s man lmao. I just stood there in silence.
I didn’t really talk to him for the rest of the trip. He didn’t talk to me again either really.I noticed when we went out to a bar later on that he had moved targets so to speak. He had his hand quite low on one of the other girls in the group back, like right above her ass
and was holding her closely. she wasn’t into to him but she was drunk so probably not in the state of mind to handle it well. I wasn’t really a fan of him doing it, as I noticed again he did it in a way so his wife couldn’t see it.
I followed both of them on instagram and checked who they were following. There wasn’t anything notable about her. The husband however was following various “sexy women” and an account dedicated to polyamory…
From what they had told me about their relationship they were not poly at all. And I noticed he was hitting on girls (me, the other one) deliberately away from his wife, which makes me think he either didn’t want her to notice or she just didn’t want to see it? I don’t know.
Anyways, I’ve been wondering if I should reach out to her?
Part of me thinks — it’s her relationship, she may already know. Is there any point sticking my head where it doesn’t belong?
But it’s also feasible that she doesn’t know. I don’t want her to get cheated on or hurt somehow and have 0 warning. Some people are very responsive to hearing about their partners not being stand up, I know others get defensive. So even if I am right she might not take it well.
You see my dilemma. I’ve talked to a couple people about it and they don’t have a good answer for me either
The problem is that you don’t exactly have a “smoking gun” here. I mean, I also follow various “sexy women” online but I’m not about to go and arrange a date with any of them. It’s going to probably sound a bit catty when you talk to her about it if you just come out and say “your bf is a slut, and I can’t prove it but I think so because of these reasons which don’t actually prove anything but just seem a bit sus”. Having said that I feel like your instincts here are probably correct, but how are you going to prove that what you think is happening, is actually real.
Maybe a better way to go about it would be to just befriend the woman and then just find a way to casually drop into conversation the things you’ve noticed, without making a big deal about it. (“Yeah I saw him out the other day with some girl…”) So that way, it gives the opening for her to say “WHAT girl?!?”, but on the other hand if it turns out they are polyamorous you haven’t just put your foot in it. Personally I wouldn’t even bother because I don’t love socialising that much, but that’s the most socially deft way to tackle it I can think of. Disclaimer: I’m an idiot. This advice is probably bad. Maybe my readers have better ideas about this one.
When you write up your weekly roundups, do you usually listen to entire albums/eps or just the promotional single? And if so are there any recent k-pop b-sides you like?
I never listen to the entire albums. Like I have the fucking time, I barely even have time to listen to the song in question. Roundup is ultra time-consuming to write each week and as it is I chop over 50% of the songs I’m given to look at each week out of the roundup completely because I just can’t squeeze them in. If k-pop agencies want me to give a fuck about their B-sides, they can put them on the A-side. Maybe if I didn’t have to work three jobs it would be different.
Just found out my most listened to artist are Australian? They’re a band called Vacations. They don’t seem that popular on the social medias but they have 9.6M monthly listeners on spotify (probably from their 2 albums made in 2016 & 2018 that blew up on tiktok in 2019). I’m top 100 listeners and even I haven’t heard any songs outside those 2 albums.
Questions:
1) Have u heard of them?
2) Are they popular in Australia?
3) While searching up more about them, I found out they got a few plagiarism accusations from Mac Demarco fans 3 years ago which they “addressed” but didn’t deny. (https://www.reddit.com/r/macdemarco/comments/rmvhmf/thoughts_on_this/). Apparently they “straight up stole rifts from Mac”. Mac Demarco is my 2nd most listened to artist but I figured they were both just indie rock artists.4) Plagiarism or no? (Do u see where the claims are coming from at least?). All these vacation’s songs are from their most popular EP/songs which came out 2016. The Mac songs came out 2012 & 2014. Claims are mostly about the intros.
Intro
Vacations “Home”: https://youtu.be/UeHd4wLrpJg?feature=shared
Mac “Ode to Viceroy”: https://youtu.be/6bfTTeZOrs4?feature=sharedIntro/Chorus
Vacations “Away”: https://youtu.be/xQc67IKNNYk?feature=shared
Mac “Let Her Go”: https://youtu.be/RSACSNBOloo?feature=sharedIntro/Guitar solo
Vacations “Relax”: https://youtu.be/3LxU0PrsAFQ?feature=shared
Mac “Just to Put Me Down”: https://youtu.be/J80tFxcTOis?feature=shared
Mac “Go easy”: https://youtu.be/GrmhZlZmNfo?feature=shared4) How do u feel about alternative / indie rock as a genre? It’s pretty calm and a snooze and that’s why I personally enjoy it, wbu? (If u did find it bad and boring, sry for making u listen to the plagiarism claims lol)
Two things I hate:
- Pissfartingly boring clean-guitar “indie” music (it’s cool that you like it, I guess someone has to, but I do not)
- Questions about plagiarism after I already did a very annoying-to-write multi-part series on what is and isn’t plagiarism that I wrote in lay terms so anyone could understand it
I have not heard of either of these artists. Or maybe I have but then I forgot about them again immediately after I found out what they sounded like.
Home/Ode To Victory – you cannot copyright one chord over a beat.
Away/Let Her Go – these are only similar in feel, nothing else. Like literally nothing else at all. Just because Marvin Gaye’s greedy disgusting money-grubbing family got away with the “Blurred Lines” case because Thicke and Farrell acted like such pissears in court does not make every song with the same “feel” as another song plagiarism.
Not even going to look at the third one because I can guarantee you even without looking at it that it also isn’t plagiarism. I get the idea, and the less of this music I have to listen to, the better I’ll feel.
can u rate underground by f5ve and wish me luck in my exams i really need to get into my school
I don’t rate j-shits. I’ve said it approximately 2345987623408765234 times since I started writing – Japanese have great musicians in all sorts of styles but they should stay the fuck away from pop music. That is your review for every j-pop song ever except that one from Perfume in my FAQ.
Good luck in your exams.
so I asked you a bit ago about a guy I met in another country that I had been kinda an ass to in retrospring and wanting to tell him how I felt. I ended up sending this message. You can redact this since it’s boring and personal btw.
[redacted]
and he responded with this, which I would also you prefer redact.
[redacted]
He means he didn’t sense that I was interested in him in the first line lmao. But anyways, I took this as a rejection. He was a bit of a people pleaser so I feel like he may have not wanted to hurt my feelings and so made his statement sort of vague on purpose.
However I thought about it again and [redacted because you’re quoting his message here] I’m a little confused.
Oh FFS he literally told you to go and talk to him so just do it! Oh wait, he’s in another country. Oh well, too late unless you want to fly back there. Let that be a lesson to you – next time just do it.
What do you think about kpop fans in general recent obsession with vocals and calling idols dozens.. I feel like all I see on tiktok/twitter or even instagram is vocal analysis, ranking idols skills or things along those lines and the comments are always filled with “___ is a dozen, ___ is a dozen, ___ is a dozen” . Idk why but I feel like it’s really weird… like it’s kpop, not everyone has to be a vocal powerhouse or even remotely talented to be an idol. I thought everyone knew that. There’s been idols only good at dancing (even sometimes not even that) debuting for years upon years and I really dont get why people are just complaining about it now.
It’s pretty funny to me how k-pop fans crap on about vocals in 2024 when the current trend is for shout/chant choruses that are so undemanding on idols’ voices that they don’t even require the Autotune to be switched on. It’s pretty obvious that confirmation bias is doing all the vocal work inside their own heads. The amount of delusion is shocking. This is how religions get started.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this already, but a video of PinkPantheress talking about how she doesn’t listen to albums circulated on Twitter, and Twitter users were quick to jump at her and say she should know better, and they called her “incurious about art”. Which is insane, because if she didn’t care about music, she wouldn’t be making it in the first place… And it made me realize some things:
1) Those people are too butthurt;
2) Now that the entry barrier to the arts has been lowered, there’s always a reaction to “protect” the dignity of the craft. But, as you’ve said before, isn’t it cool that younger people have it easier nowadays? Finding new music, making it… Now, we have software and tools to make all the hard stuff easier on us and let the creativity run freely.
What do you think about this line of thought? Is it bad that we listen to playlists instead of albums; or is it just a natural consequence of the current streaming era? Is there a “right” or “wrong” way to appreciate/make art?
She can listen to what she wants.
I’m incurious about a lot of art too, so I can relate to her. She probably feels like I do – she just wants the fucking good shit she doesn’t have time or inclination to crawl through fucking album tracks. That girl has more important shit to do and so do I.
What inspired the QRIMOLE Thumbnail? Would you consider just changing it to Chuu?
I might change it to something else one day but Qri is still a k-pop at the time of writing so she’s still relevant.
I know this is completely random but what do you think of Sheena Ringo?
A lot of musical variety but gobsmackingly terrible songs.
is lissa caonima actually you or is it somebody else
Lissa is not me. If I wanted to run a TikTok myself I would just do it under Kpopalypse, I wouldn’t make up another identity. Lissa now joins the esteemed list of “people suspected to actually be Kpopalypse but are not”, which includes Anti Kpop-Fangirl, Asian Junkie, Jacques Petersen/Arcadey, Annie, Kpopfapcomments Twitter, about half a dozen different readers, anybody who posts any of my stuff on 4chan, anyone who says anything nice (or at least not nasty) about me on TikTok or any subreddit other than my own, my girlfriend, and a few other people I’m forgetting. Lissa has truly ascended. You can find out more about Lissa here.
There is actually a Kpopalypse TikTok, it is here. It has no videos, and probably will never have any. You can follow it if you want and enjoy the total lack of content. Maybe you’ll find it a nice break from the overload of content everywhere else.
What exactly do you think idols who are 30+ should pursue for their music whether it is as a soloist or a group ?
In their 20s cute songs worked well but it feels so odd when they are at a later stage of career
Otherwise its ballad hell
What concept should be that is beyond the tired office worker or 10 times divorce
I remember a comment that said that older groups are often just for legacy companies will not make efforts to actually give songs and budget that gurantee success
Heavy metal. Not sure about the commercial aspect here but at least I’d enjoy it.
Older artists can rely on an existing fanbase to follow them, so companies tend not to make the effort required to attract new fans, they save that for the younger artists.
Do you like “Girls Talk” by your two faves Yves and Chuu?
Not really. LIke 99% of B-sides it sounds like it’s a B-side for a reason.
You actually haven’t reviewed TripleS’s ###, I think you wouldn’t hate it even if it has jpop influences because it’s their first Japanese track, what’s your opinion on it? .
Also, has there ever been a kpop vocalist that has caught your attention or just a singer that you especially like in kpop?
Haven’t heard it, couldn’t find it when I searched for it.
I don’t really care about vocals. Songs catch my attention, singers don’t.
Hey dude, long time no write. Anyways I wanted to leave this here in the world either for me or who else relates.
I know this is all happening because I’m hitting my mid 20s, and the veil that covered my eyes before is now lifting, but it truly pains me sometimes the insane information overwhelm I live in and how hard life can be and how easily you can be destroyed.
Anyways, I grew up in a really shitty place. however even I thought around 2013 things were starting to take a shift for the better; gay marriage, feminism became more talked about, racism was becoming more and more something people were generally being educated on, and while definitely there were bad actors, it felt like the (western and central) world was generally in consensus over some basic things.
Now it feels like everything is always pendular, week by week, I see trans people’s rights eroding even more again, antifeminism dogwhistles that were called out before now have started to become norm, the depp vs heard trial has set the worlds perception of abuse and rape cases back by 20 years, the wealth gap is now even more immense, where families living on the same street two doors down will have even more things setting them apart.
[a bit redacted]
I’ve heard other fucking weird shit from other women in my life too, about fatphobia, how skinny is back in, and some women in my life are peddling the tradwife shit they’re not even aware of.
Not just women, but also some in the men in my life sometimes let out little tiny quips, that to me flash like red signs, about certain shit they’re withholding opinion wise.
I have trauma with this, and I know no one is responsible for my traumas, but it pains me because I feel like if something were to happen to me, only 2 people, my sister and best friend, would believe me. I have this constant fear people are becoming more radicalized due to algorithms and I can’t stop it, I can’t mediate it. I barely have that power over those in my life.
Objectively I know we are now living, at least in these parts of the world, in one of the better times in history, but we still have so long to go, and I’m starting to lose my spark. I used to be someone who went out of her way to have those hard talks in my life, trust in my network of people, now I’m feeling small. I feel like others are feeling similarly and we’re letting hate and vitriol win because we are so burned out.
I guess I just wanted to let it out. I’m so terrified of things going back to the way they were. I just want to build a nest of likeminded people with good souls in my life but I’m scared of them turning on me.
Has this always been the case, am I just finally growing up? I try to be the best person I can be, and I know that’s the most that I can do, but it’s hard to let yourself be engaged in life, in people, when you have that fear looming over you.
Hope you have a nice day man.
I think as you get older you just realise that real friends tend to be quite few and it’s better to have a few really good friends than the illusion of lots of friends who don’t really give a fuck about you and also look after yourself, see a doctor if burnout is really geting to you, and stan Chuu.
do you think most artists actually care about music show wins? I’m a casual EXO fan and during Cream Soda people were writing entire essays crying about how EXO didn’t get a music win and how terrible they felt for the members…… when the members are A listers, being hired for mainstream movies / tv shows, buying expensive properties lol. Really makes me think that most artists likely hate their fans 9 times out of 10.
The tears and stuff are usually not bullshit because those artists work like hell and generally get shat on a lot behind the scenes. There’s a pervailing view in k-pop management that “negative reinforcement helps people to do better”, something I tried to convey in the books. You can see it here.
You can bet that ALL these group have managers who are bringing them back down to earth constantly and telling them that they ain’t shit. So when they get something nice said about them fromt he industry it’s a pretty stark contrast to everything else.
1- I’ve been really constipated recently. Any advice on shitting better? I’m already eating a decent amount of fiber.
2- Oasis reunion, yay! What do you think about Noel having written My Sister Lover and Lock All the Doors, which are both romantic songs about Liam? Do you think they were fucking and sucking on the low?
1. I personally find whenever I quit sugar that I shit better after a couple of days so try that.
2. Yes I think they’re just like that brother-on-brother gay porn couple that someone linked me a while back.
the almighty algorithm has blessed me with this put it in round up cunt
Actually I already have this shortlisted for Nugu Alert. Expect it fondly.
1. I have a theory that the reason why soloists especially ones that didn’t originally debut in a group aren’t as popular compared to the groups is that fans crave interaction not just from idol to fan but from idol to idol so they can play off each other and more interesting moments can come about. Soloists often complain about how lonely it is to promote by themselves and there’s a reason why the more connected companies make sure their soloists is good at variety and send them off there, for example IU and Somi. People crave interaction. Does this seem plausible to you?
2. What are your thoughts on F1ve’s Underground?
3. You released four books in a year meanwhile I can’t even bring myself to write one 2,000 word fanfic about my boypop of choice without screaming crying and throwing up and letting myself procrastinate on it. how do you get the motivation to continue on writing.
- Yeah maybe that’s part of it, I’m not sure.
- What the fuck is everyone obsessed about asking me about this one particular shit j-pop song? It’s no more or less shit than any other j-shit in existence, there is literally nothing special about it.
- Well, four books in about 18 months. But yeah I don’t really know, but I find that it’s easier to go once I make a start. If I’m in doubt or lack motivation I just force myself to make a start and see what happens. I’m taking a little break from novel writing right now to enjoy my success but I will definitely do more.
Did you hear about the GOAT Wheesung preparing an album for release later in the year? The only info I could find about this was a lone [media outlet censored in adherence with Kpopalypse boycott] article and his supposed insta (bboong_choi), but I’ve been dreaming about this day
This isn’t a question (well, it kind of is, but it’s a rhetorical one really), so JAV Of The Month for September is SONE-319.
Apparently, Viviz was at Waterbomb Singapore on August 24th. They really missed the most important deadline by that much. The organizers need to do better.
Also not a question so PPPE-249.
Hey kpoppy baby
A quick few questions my lub
1.
You mentioned being low on funds at the moment.Might I suggest alchemy? Not fake turning lead into gold, but spiritual alchemy with the symbols and stuff.
I’m not a recruit for the Illuminati nor offering a Faustian deal…. at this point in time. I’ve just recently paradigm shifted into an abundant timeline by… um… let’s just say replacing my previous metaphysical assumptions.
2.
( ◥◣_◢◤ )
Who were your favorite 90s-00s R&B boy groups? I’m sure you have many.
I liked 112 and Silk. They were better on average than Next, although Next had some bangers. Jagged Edge was okay.
3.
Now as the Hallyu subsides, and as we enter the Age of Aquarius
, we can start talking brass tax.
What do you think will be the next major development in popular music?
I think we’ll start hearing more part-writing soon.
◕‿↼)
1. I did think of this, but I don’t really understand what to do with the symbols things to make the money come in, not my area of expertise and nobody has really told me this. That’s why my Ko-fi has an Illuminati tier, so hopefully rather than me having to do it you folks can figure that stuff out instead and once you’ve finished your symbol alignment and secret handshakes in the cave at Bohemian Grove while they sacrifice the goat you can share 0.001% of that Illuminati gold.
2. Do Mobb Deep count? They were boys when they released “Juvenile Hell“, and as we all know record stores file R&B and rap in the same section…
3. Everyone’s been talking about the “chant chorus” being a thing but I predict a HARD shift in the other direction and anthemic sing-songy chorus making a big comeback.
Hi Oppar!
So… I have a couple of friends who were in a relationship together, I have a good relationship with both of them, I even went to see Dreamcatcher with her a few months ago, went to hiking with both of them, etc.
Two months ago my friend decided to split up with her after 10 months together, of course I felt kinda bummed by this and did my best to help her and gave her a few tips to cope better and even try to get back with her ex, until two weeks ago when she kissed me while we were both drunk af at a beach party. I know I should’ve stayed away but I went with the flow, and this thing between us went on the following day too. Then for a few days we pretended nothing happened but still hung out with each other until we kissed again.
For the moment we are secretly dating to avoid giving scandal in our mutual friends’ circle, but it will come a time when I’ll have to tell about what’s happening to her ex. I was thinking about waiting a month or two to see if our relationship works well or not (it will, it’s absolutely great right now and even as just friends we always felt good together) before messing things up.How should I handle this without hurting him? Will my friends tell me to go fuck myself given they’re all about the rule of not touching a friend’s ex?
Also fuck this hypocrisy, we’re both adults and we’re not hurting anyone.PS: I’m buying both last 2 chapters of the books, good luck learning TripleS’ names
“Not touching a friend’s ex” is a fucking stupid rule. If you’re both happy your ex can just eat a big pile of get over it. If he really loved her he should be happy that she’s found someone new and cool, and if he didn’t really love her then his opinion doesn’t matter.
Fun fact, when I hooked up with my current girlfriend, her previous boyfriend hooked up with my ex-girlfriend. So we literally did a partner swap. No we didn’t plan that out, it’s just how it happened.
What do you think of people who post OnlyFans leaks on LPSG or similar forums? That’s kind of tricky for me because I support sex work but, at the same time, I really can’t afford to pay for content from multiple people on a regular basis
Most porn creators just accept that their stuff is pirated literally everywhere. One of the classic ironies of this piracy is that quite a few of the well-known porn sites where their smut ends up are owned by the same companies that are selling the porn legitimately! The way I look at it is, I look at whatever smut I want, and if I really like a particular person I’ll probably end up giving them money one day just to say thank you for your service. A lot of people “support sex work” but there’s one really good way to support it for real…
Since you keep hinting your insider info (obligatory ‘buy the Hana books’), perhaps there’s a more direct way to monetize it. Write down a list of all the kpop tea you’ve ever heard, then add in an equal amount of random false rumours. I’d definitely buy that for a book’s price. Might not be as fun for you though…
That’s… kind of what the book series already is…
Just kidding. Gosh I love fiction. It’s so fictional.
By the way, I’ve cut a few prices for my “fiction” books on both Amazon and Kobo. The first e-book in the series “Show Me Love” is now $2.99 USD or equivalent worldwide. Also, I’ve cut the prices of ALL four e-books for Brazilian readers to 10.00R which should compensate for their government not letting them use Twitter anymore (don’t be sad about it, Twitter is a cesspool and getting worse by the hours, they’re doing you a favour, come to my BlueSky instead). For book buyers, store links are here, don’t forget to compare Amazon and Kobo so you get the cheapest price as there’s quite a bit of difference depending on what country you buy from. Cheers.
That’s all for this episode of QRIMOLE! This series will return next month!
Oh, and do you have a question that you’d like to see answered in the next episode of QRIMOLE? If so, use the question box below, or if no box appears, click the Qri on the sidebar to open the box as a separate webpage! Kpopalypse will return!
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