QRIMOLE – October 2024

It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!

It seems like bambam is really going through something difficult. is there anything fans / kpop followers can do? it makes me nervous to see someone post stuff like this. The fanbase seems to be trying their best but…

I added only these posts since retrospring is not a site for depth, but this isn’t even the first time Bambam has been posting concerning, vague messages like this. When he first posted this kpop fans reacted with concern and he reassured he was fine. Now it’s happening again just a couple of month later, which means obviously whatever is going on hasn’t really changed.

There’s a very limited amount that fans can do, and the reason why is because artists dealing with their own fanbase often forms a big part of the problem. People imagine fame (the ‘apex’ of clout ahem sorry I mean c-word, recognition etc) to be somehow liberating or connecting but in fact the exact opposite is true. People who are well known have to be extra cautious about who they connect with, because as a famous person you don’t know if the next person you see actually cares about you for you, or for some of that perceived reflected c-word/bragging rights, or because they want to advance their careers, or because they’re psychos, or so on and so on. This is one of the big reasons why famous people in over 98% of cases tend to only have serious relationships with other famous people or other people within their inner circle. The higher up the fame ladder you ascend, the worse it gets, because the less and less people can relate to you and the more and more people might have a perceived ulterior motive for contacting you or having anything to do with you. The same applies to friendships, emotional support etc, people who are famous can usually only rely on family plus the friends that they gained before they had any likelihood of achieving fame. The ones who fame tends to hit the hardest are the ones who dump their family/friends support network when fame hits, thinking that what they’ll get out of fame will be sufficient enough to replace those connections. It’s your family and friends who will have your back and be there for you when things like overwork, stress, performance pressure etc start grinding you down, not your two million social networking followers…

That’s not to say that you should stop following people or NOT send supportive messages or whatever, I mean knock yourself out I guess, but be aware that the fan/idol relationship is isolating by its very definition. Trying to send meaningful emotional support to an idol as a fan is a bit like sending food aid to a war torn country by putting it inside a rocket and firing it at them. The sentiment might be good but the delivery mechanism is all wrong for the intended audience.

I was listening to IU’s Above the Time this morning, and though I’ve listened to it hundreds of times before, I am always startled by the Irish jig in the middle. While it works when you take the video into context, just listening to it, it can be quite jarring. Why do you think artists sometimes do this with their music?

Also sorry if my question this month is shit; so is my health lately and it’s spilling over into everything.

Partly it’s just good marketing to find a way to make something stick out. If everyone else is doing A or B, doing Z will get someone’s attention. One thing it’s very difficult to do with that Irish jig is to ignore it. Of course if everyone starts doing something like that, then it becomes expected, it becomes something in the A or B category, now it’s really easy to ignore. Hence when people latch onto trends everything starts to sound the same and the momentum builds for someone to try Z again.

Aside from whatever commercial reason, it kind of works in the IU song, it’s not that spectacularly unrelated. There’s that moment at 2:49 where it starts and that’s supposed to be a bit shocking but it’s at least in the same key and eventually it all just sort of winds its way back into everything else, by reintroducing the same tonalities and ambience that it left behind, which is actually a fairly slow process when you listen to it. If the NMIXX change-ups had this kind of finesse to them I would have been a lot more charitable about those early songs, but they don’t, so I wasn’t. The early NMIXX songs especially O.O sound like someone moved the dial and changed the radio station.

So, I am kinda in love with an artist called Yseult right now. She seems to have a very ecletic body of work and some other nice shit but, she also has a songs about sensistive themes, like one called Suicide.

While I believe that music should be a media which every topic could be used as inspiration for the art itself, I also believe that the approach used in sensitive matters also should be considered before releasing the content. Because of that, I asked other people’s opinion about the song itself, which actually got me intrigued since they were drastically different from mine. While most people said that she is “trivializing pain for profit”, I, a person who has dealt with suicidal ideation for most of my life, actually felt a very different impression of it.
A part of the song has specially caught my attention (starts at 2:08), where the melody drastically changes into some “Queen” vibes. Right at the first time that I heard this part, even before the lyrics returned to be sung, the first feeling I felt was that the “lyrical person” who is suffering in the song has reached the point of “resolution” that, wrongly, there is no other solution to the problem other than doing the aforementioned act, and that the change in the melody was to exemplify the feeling of “relief” that the cycle of suffering will end soon.
This part has resonated so deeply with me that even now that I don’t suffer with suicidal ideation anymore (if anyone interested to know how, it’s because I changed to a career path that made me feel more worthy to society, made me gain more money and allowed me to break toxic bonds with abusive people) I could remember the feeling that I felt right when I finished the plan to, supposedly, end my own suffering.
The fact that the melody changes back to the original one is what made me feel like the “trivializing pain” isn’t really the case here. The fact that the pain never really goes away, if not for the “lyrical person” it still resides in who was close to him, seemed like an adequate way to finish the song without being an irresponsable approach to the heavy topic.
While I didn’t like the song itself, I felt like I was being “seen”, “represented” in a sort of way by it. Well, at least a small aspect of me, that is, lol.
With all of that being said (sorry for the long context caonima), I want to know your personal view about the song and it’s connection and approach to the topic. Also, Yseult MRS?
Hugs from a tropical caonima from a burning land in ashes

Yseult is great! What a great song, too. Aside from all the other reasons to like it, what a really good example of where pushing a voice actually adds to the song instead of taking something away. She clearly can sing exceptionally well, but she never sounds like she’s just showing off how good she can sing. Every note has a reason for being there, it’s not “oversung”. A super-rare example of someone who got their start in a TV competition show being a genuine talent worth paying attention to.

Agree with your observations about why that middle part is there. It’s clearly representing someone on the verge of suicide, where they get to that state where they’re over the pain and feel relief because the end is in sight: “I’m going to finally go through with it”… but then they pull themselves back. It’s about their struggle to resist that final state and keep pushing on through the pain, the structure of the song reflects this. Great conceptual writing.

I honestly have no idea what the fuck people who say “x trivialises y” are even fucking talking about, and I’m not talking specifically about this song. I’m talking about EVERY time someone brings up some objection that centers around a piece of art, music, etc that focuses on X “trivialising” it. What the fuck does that even mean? It just sounds like a buzzword to me. I mean, if someone thinks they are looking at something and it makes the subject seem trivial, that tells me more about their own attitude to the topic than the artist’s attitude. I can’t think of one single case where it actually applies in a way that makes sense. To give you an extreme example, I don’t even think Avril Lavigne’s “Hello Kitty” trivialises Hello Kitty, or Japanese culture in general.

Okay, the song sucks tremendous amounts of ass, but the fact is that if she didn’t love the culture she would never have done this – and yes we would have all been better off for it, but that’s not the point. There is no ‘trivialising’ going on here – none at all. It’s entirely projection inside the heads of the accusers. And if it doesn’t apply in this case, it sure as fuck doesn’t apply in Yseult’s case.

Okay, okay…. maybe it apples in the case of “Yayaya”:

…but even then, if your reaction to this is “it’s making Native Americans look trivial” then I have no respect for your opinion because 1. you’re missing the song being shit which should be the real issue and 2. how low must you think of Native Americans if you think this silly video actually has the power to trivialise them for real like any person with any kind of soul or sense of self or character wouldn’t just wave this silliness off in a heartbeat as irrelevant, not to mention 3. you’re missing Eunjung looking cute here, I mean if people think having their race and culture represented by Eunjung is a bad thing, I don’t know what to tell them…

Not a question, but it sucks that you can’t go see loona! If they do come, I would 100% recommend it. I’ll tell you about my experience seeing them and g-idle.

ARTMS
For starters. I am NOT joking, literally every single guy I saw in that theater was some sort of gay. It was mostly women, and then maybe about ¼ gay men. I did not see a single straight looking guy coming in or out LMAOOOO. General age was early to mid 20s. I didn’t see much of anyone noticeably older or younger.

It seemed most fans were from the loona era, because there were a lot of audience requests for music from that time, and everyone was screaming out the lyrics.

The girls themselves:
They all look the same as they do on camera, which was surprising. Generally quite small, skinny women, especially Heejin

In spite of their presumably poor diets, all of them had really good stage presence and dancing abilities, like more than what shows up on music shows. They seem to genuinely really love performing, and this was clear because they fed very well off of audience reactions even though it was a fairly small crowd in America, and they spoke very little English. Like they were dancing and singing their asses off lmao. Especially for me being on the more cynical side, I was touched by their efforts.

All of them in general seemed very confident and relaxed with the crowd. It makes sense though given the amount of stage exposure they’ve had. I guess that’s the one perk of their expensive predebut experiences.

It seemed like they did have their mics on, but adjusted. So for the more physically demanding songs, they had a backtrack, but you could still hear them. Heejin and Jinsoul belted over theirs a lot. It was kinda funny….like damn girl, I get it! You can sing!

Heejin is a very good singer, to the point it surprised me as a person who sings, has been in choirs etc. combined with her visuals and dancing abilities it really is a waste she ended up in loona and didn’t end up in SM or something.

Kim Lip has a very unique voice. I mean obviously, you can hear it in their music, but it’s even weirder in a good way irl.

Haseul emitted a lot more confidence than I assumed she would, even calling us disappointing when we didn’t cheer loud enough for her lmao. She has the best English of the group. Her voice is very pretty and a lot stronger than I thought. She got the loudest cheers out of anyone in the group the entire concert.

Choerry has a more sexy, intense vibe while performing than I thought she would? She was the only “bad” singer and even in her case she wasn’t really bad at all, just was just able to keep a note.

They performed some loona songs as well for us. It surprised me how much shit they remembered. Like a lot of choreo, lyrics, etc.

With ARTMS being a smaller group, the parasocial relationship was really parasocialling. Some of the members started actually crying at the end. They played this fan video of various people telling them “thank you for not giving up after loona ended, artms has changed my life. etc.”

Whatever Jaden Jeong and co wanted us to feel definitely worked! I do feel more encouraged to spend money on them lmao. it was an experience i felt to be worth the cost.

G-IDLE

I saw g-idle next because my friend had a free ticket for me.

G-idle fans were a lot more all over the place. a lot more straight guys (lmao) and more like…general kpop fans rather than specific g idle stans, so the crowd wasn’t as passionate. There were a lot of foreigners — I heard a lot of Chinese. I suspect wealthy Shuhua fans travel each stop to see her. Hearing Wife, Lion, and Tomboy live was definitely the highlight. The stage lighting and design were insane and done really well with the budget being obviously massive.

They definitely weren’t as reliant or feeding on the crowd energy as loona, but it was also a much bigger venue and so they couldn’t really see or interact with the crowd in the same way.
All of them seemed nervous during their solo stages, and seemed much more comfortable during their group performances. G-Idle was not as vocally competent (or at least confident) as ARTMS. I wasn’t really sure if they were ever singing live, except for one time when they were taking audience requests. That one time they did sing live they all sounded fine though, so I wasn’t sure why they were so scared. Shuhua was the exception. I did not hear her sing at all, not even once.

Miyeon is shockingly pretty irl, and very charming. Like I couldn’t stop looking at her. She has a very YG-esque flavor to her voice, like Bom and Rose.

Soyeon is much, much prettier looking than kpop fans act like she is…she has that “small face” thing that koreans love, and she has a sort of delicate aura that’s hard to describe lmao.
She kinda looks like a fairy. Very thin and delicate looking. She was the only one who seemed to have a distinctive “stage presence” in g idle’s concert, funnily enough. I thought her transformation with some of these stages from this cute looking small woman to a pretty badass seeming lady was cool.

Yuqi seems to have a cheerful, sort of spontaneous personality. She would do like…random handstands and shit? It was funny.

Shuhua’s “Water” performance was particularly awkward for me, as she didn’t really show any sex appeal or charisma. She didn’t lipsync either, just danced. it was just like this youtube video. it looks like she performed in the same emotionless way every stop.

The thing that made it even more confusing is that she performed it again a little bit at end as encore and made it much more sexy? so i’m not sure what she’s holding back for lmao.

All in all I’m glad I spent money on artms, and I’m happy I did not pay any money to see idle. It was definitely fun, but I definitely not worth $100+ that most people payed.

Holy shit ass christ the questions sure are coming in with the word count this month! Fortuantely this isn’t a question so I don’t feel the need to chime in with a long answer. I’m glad you enjoyed yourselves and got to see these concerts and it was interesting to read your recap especially of the individual performers, but you still don’t escape your punishment for asking a non-question which is getting the JAV of the Month as the answer, which is LZDM-065 (which should please those looking for patbingsu-on-patbingsu drama content, not typically featured here as it’s not the kind of JAV I usually go for but every rule has its exceptions…)

Could you say a little more about the “weird dancehall rhythms” in Oh My Girl’s “Classified”? I’ve listened to the song dozens of times (I agree that it’s decent but not their best), and I think the classical-inspired instrumental is making it hard for me to hear any of the other trends that you say are shoehorned into the song.

Well it’s the same rhythm that NewJeans have in “Ditto”:

…and as far as trends go, that’s about the trendiest thing out there at the moment. It moves back and forth between a straight 2/4 and a dancehall style hitting on divisions 1, 4 and 7 in an eight-division measure of two beats, a sort of lopsided rhythm and that’s what you hear in Jamaican dancehall music a lot (but slower there).

I just moved into college, and while I thought I would get along with my roommate, they are the most exceedingly negative, annoying person I’ve ever met. I have a history of mental illness, and thus internalise comments like that super easily and adopt them into my own viewpoint. Should I request to swap roommates? Is there a way I could learn to tune them out? I’m worried about becoming annoyed enough to actually start fighting with them rather then snarking to my mom.

You could probably try to swap, I don’t know what the process for that is or how easy it is to do but I’m sure requests like that come up from time to time.

The other option is just find a friend and do all your studying in their room.

Or, just confront them and see what happens. Politely though, don’t be like “you’re an annoying cunt”, more like “when you do x, I feel bad because y”. I’m pretty sure I wrote some passages about this type of conflict resolution in my books, just don’t use it to troll like Hana did.

Sorry in advance if you’ve already talked about this topic, I wasn’t into kpop much less reading your blog when these things happened.

I watched this video:

and I was kind of confused because all of these listed off “controversies” read to me as… not controversial? At all? Just extremely overblown nitpicking by people who probably weren’t even Day6 fans? Clearly the last one about Jamie did hurt her, but they’ve also apparently made up and it really just strikes me as a dude joshing someone and not realizing that it would hurt her more than it would if someone said something similar to him. Even in the grand scheme of kpop controversies this seems like a nonissue.

So why does everyone so unflinchingly refer to Jae as controversial? Are there actually no sane people? Did nobody question whether these things should even be deemed controversial? Maybe it’s because I’m new-ish to kpop and don’t have a twitter but it seems genuinely insane to me that anyone would react to all of those “controversies” as if they are controversies, to the point I’m questioning if labeling them as controversies is just revisionist history/the video maker’s bias?

K-pop fans have no clue about what is actually controversial. That’s quite clear just in the amount of fuss that I personally supposedly create. I’m not controversial to anyone with common sense, yet every month something of mine is going viral because some fandom got upset because… I have an opinion? Apparently that’s not allowed in k-pop. So someone like Jae who speaks his thotty thots every now and then is going to draw attention I guess. I think the video creator is playing up to it too, milking that k-pop fandom wowserism for some views. Jae to me just sounds like a kid who shoots his mouth off a bit too much and hell I probably did the same thing at his age (wait, I’m still doing it now…). Until he burns a church down or shoots one of his groupmates, he’s about as controversial as that kid I knew in school who lit his own farts.

What the fuck is even happening? How did things devolve to this? I’m genuinely flummoxed.

Donald Trump is like an improv politician. He just says stuff, and if the crowd likes it he keeps saying it. His followers lap it up because in America, politics is sport. It’s all about supporting the team and winning points, it’s not about wrong or right, or policy, or what’s best for the country. It’s about your team winning and the other team losing, and being entertained along the way, and Trump is if nothing else entertaining to watch, because you never know what bullshit is going to come out of his mouth next. Especially lately where he seems to be cracking at the seams, succumbing to some Biden-like mental illness and saying more and more extreme shit just to keep his audience riding along with him. I think he craves the attention from his audience more than anything else, even at the expense of actually being elected.

A lame heartbreak question but yeah. I’m 23, female, never dated or did anything casual / situationship – like with a guy. For 3 reasons, running separately or concurrently – social anxiety, depression, used to be very overweight and shoddily dressed. Now I’m still chubby but getting better, dress snazzier, doing well in terms of accomplishments, much more confident and lively. There was this guy I impulsively took a liking to a few months back, thought it could be mutual since I interpreted his behaviour as mixed but promising. However turns out he hangs out with another, prettier, fit, much more feminine chick regularly – whether platonically or otherwise. I know I’m quite pretty too, but overweight, tomboyish and not a smart dresser. I didn’t have the confidence to do anything but shyly banter with him, so couldn’t establish much rapport, plus I guess my awkwardness, nonstandard conversation and dumbfuck social gaffes make him think I’m a funny oddity and not a dateable option. I have no shame in being bitchy and jealous, so I’ll say this – the only advantage I have over the other chick is that I’m much more accomplished and erudite. But not that guys ever go for that anyway, they’re more about looks and a comforting feminity anyday.

I’m not sad about losing the guy. It’s just that my ego took a huge hit at probably not even being considered dateable by a guy who’s not much above average himself. I feel like it’s too late for me to build the social skills necessary to get guys, and that I’ll send up a lonely spinster who’ll have to resort to an arranged marriage. It kills my spirit tbh. The FOMO is incredibly strong. What’s wrong with me ? Why are other girls getting dates rn but not me ? Yes I’ve got a lot of improvement to do in terms of maturity and common awareness, but I have a bunch of excellent and not very commonly found qualities too – I’ll go over and above to help people out of genuine desire, I’m smart and very passionate about researching whatever I do, have many varied skills and am 100% honest about whatever I say or do.

And re: the question about my ego taking a hit cuz I wasn’t considered by my crush – the girl he hangs out with seems to be a very nice person too, and genuine and helps where she can, though idk her well so can’t be sure. Ig it makes sense why he’d like her better. I have my accomplishments, my smarts, passion and let’s – fix – this helpfulness : but I’m not as refined, unruffled, composed or perhaps comforting to converse with as her. I managed better and more in a very competitive course, but I managed by letting my stress out even if it was socially embarrassing. I’m more fiery, quite rough around the edges, my instinct is to discuss fixes to people’s problems instead of giving them a motherly listening ear. Maybe this comes with age, as she’s older and more experienced than me. Still, I wonder if I’ll ever be a guy’s first preference the way I am, if I smooth out my rough edges but retain my other traits. I wonder if I’ll have to change myself to ever get a genuine romantic partner.

Actually not a lame question because at least it’s a question, so I don’t have to put a JAV of the Month here, but… I don’t know, I feel like maybe I should? I feel like that would actually help and I’ll tell you why. Bear with me on this.

A story: many years ago I had a crush on a girl who we’ll call X, she would often go to a venue that I frequented. She’d always be seen out with her friend Y, a much more “generically attractive” kind of person I guess (i.e X was plus-size and Y was skinnier). Eventually me and X got talking, can’t remember exactly how, I think she caught me staring at her a lot and said something and that kicked it off. She then started flirting with me very outrageously and obviously (which was helpful for me because women have to be obvious or I’m clueless because I’m so fucking stupid), and we ended up dating for a while kinda on and off. That night after we first got together, she said to me “I know I was flirting with you but I didn’t think you’d be into me all that much, I thought you’d go for my friend Y, everyone in the scene who talks to us always goes for Y”. I said to her “I’m sure they do, but you’re much more my type. I’m not really into Y.” Don’t ask me where Y went that night, I have no idea to this day. Haven’t seen her in over a decade actually.

So. The part you got right is that hetero guys are undeniably about the visuals. That’s absolutely true, there’s no doubt about it, unless they’re literally blind, they all want someone who looks “attractive”. However, what is “attractive” varies hugely between one guy and the next, like you have no idea how much. The media will not clue you in on this information. Women’s magazines sure as hell don’t get it – “generic thin attractive” with the occasional “generic plus-size attractive” followed by five articles about how to not look like that plus-size person and then another two articles about how you should feel confident looking like that person anyway. Not confusing mixed messages at all, ahem Mainstream media outside of that isn’t any better, it’s all about what people think other people think it’s socially permissible to want. To find out what guys actually want, you need to look at what they’ll actually pay money to look at, so in other words, porn. If you go to any porn site you can name (and I’m not suggesting that you do this, you can just imagine it if you’d rather not), you’ll of course be immediately assaulted with images of the most popular videos on the site, and they’ll usually conform to a certain type, but what you’ll also notice just one click away is that porn websites always have lots of categories, and by lots, I mean usually a few hundred. Every body type you can think of, is represented. Every body part is represented. Every ethnicity is represented. Every activity is represented. Why all this variety? Because each category has a niche audience. There’s guys out there (and girls too, but we won’t talk about that seeing as you’re into guys) specifically looking for [insert whatever you can think up here].

What this means for you, is that you don’t need to worry too much about fitting into a certain type. Trust me, there’s plenty of people out there and you are just their type. Whether they’re your type, well, that’s another story, and that’s why finding people is hard. It’s got nothing to do with social averages either, people who are considered “generically attractive” by society end up with people who are not, all the time. So don’t worry about what you look like, vs someone else, that shit doesn’t matter. The person you like is either into you or they’re not. So you can say all the bullshit you want, be as awkward as you want, be as nice or as nasty as you want, but as long as you find a way to keep the conversation going and not just kill the interaction stone dead, you’re either in or you’re out.

The reason why you’re struggling is probably because you lack confidence to keep those interactions going, or find them in the first place, and that’s stopping you from really putting yourself out there in the best possible light. Confidence is a universal attractant, not just because people like confidence specifically, but because it tends to have a way of highlighting the other things about you that people will like. Of course then the question is – “how do I get confidence if no-one likes me”. It’s a bit like the “can’t get a job without experience in a job” situation, but like that situation (see last months QRIMOLE) this one has an answer too. Confidence comes from having a sense of self and being unselfconscious in how you carry yourself. Nobody can give you it, you just have to know that you’re a person of intrinsic worth, and that’s regardless of if you’re nice or you help others or whatever. You don’t need to do anything special to be someone special. NGOD-221 for those who still need more confidence after reading this.

Yuqi has said before that when she was a kid she got a cough which made her lose her voice, and it never fully recovered, leading to her iconic husky sound which enhances songs like “Bonnie and Clyde”. (Couldn’t find a source that wasn’t Koreaboo or a YouTube short so ig it’s just my word for it)

My question is: is this sort of thing possible? Was the cold likely something that could have permanently damaged her voice? I’ve heard of vocal damage from botched surgeries or too much screaming but not from colds, usually.

Generally unusual but yes it can happen. You can get scarring on your vocal cords from a bad cold. All sorts of things can damage your vocal cords and if they do, it can affect your voice. I have vocal cord damage from a throat operation (which wasn’t botched, it was just a natural result of the operation) which is why I can’t talk for very long in livestreams, I find talking exhausting now.

Kpopalypse Oppa! I am not sure how to reach out to you other than through QRIMOLE.

1. If you have the time, could you write a post on mood and tempo that allows change-up songs to sound good or bad (example: Girls’ Generation – IGAB, NMIXX’s first two bad experiments)?
2. How does mood and tempo relate to Blackpink’s final breakdown/change-up/whatever the term is/or is it let’s just jump into the sea and Loona’s Why Not?

Sorry for the messy question! I think I wanted to learn more about song mood and tempo!

I think that the first question I’ve already kind of answered it with the IU response earlier. In short, change-ups have to fit musically in with everything else somehow, it shouldn’t sound like someone changing over from one radio station to another, it should sound like there’s some musical relationship between the parts. I guess “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the classic “change up” song in pop music but it all thematically and musically fits together. That’s a good example of how to do it right, and it’s very hard to write a song like that well. That video has a Blackpink-tier viewcount for a reason.

The second question, I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking. I guess they do change the mood and tempo somewhat, usually to something with a bit more rhythmic punch, kind of a “go out with a bang” type of feel or at least “go out with something memorable”. You can hear this in YG songs all the way back to the days of 2NE1, the part at 2:50 here doesn’t happen anywhere else in the song:

It’s clearly the climatic part of the piece and that’s true for newer YG songs that follow the same format.

Hi Kpopalypse Oppar. I am the one asking you about CV problem in the September Qrimole. Here is the link to it: [link removed] If anything please don’t show my CV in your October Qrimole. I don’t want to feel utter shame whenever I reread that episode Qrimole with how shitty my CV looks like

Some information regarding my situation:
– I am from a country that doesn’t have English as the native language. English is highly appreciated in any job descriptions in my country, which explains why I include “Language” in my CV (and also the result of my IETLS test. Although it’s already expired, I put it in because my CV is already empty enough)
– I literally have 0 jobs beforehand nor any internship experience (myself being too focused on my study process and have almost zero connection) so I reluctantly omit the Experience part in my CV, which is already a huge drawback because in every sample CVs the Experience part is supposed to be the most central asset for a candidate to be hired.
– I faced troubles writing my skills as I don’t really know what to write (I have to compensate for the lacking of Experience). Normally when I observed the Skill parts of sampled CVs they only contained a few lines at most, which in turn makes my CV more barren.
– The only aspect I am proud of is my education
– I am already graduated from my university and because of that I can’t rely on my school to offer me internship opportunities

As I watched video and tutorial how to write CV, most of the advices either focus on Experience (which I have none) or Extracurricular activities (which I also have none). I have asked some of my acquaintances (who didn’t even have internships during their school years) for advice, they either say “you should aim high, don’t aim for internships as you are already graduated from school and the employers prioritize 3rd or 4th year students” or “just find jobs that don’t require experience”. The problem is that I also sent my applications to such positions (don’t require experience) and I also received no reply. I don’t even know how their CV was like so I couldn’t know what was it in their CV that made them get a job despite having no internships or work experiences while I had none.

I also heard advice such as “you need to cater your CV to the job description” and the requirements for the job positions I applied to (all of it was either internships positions or entry level positions) was as easy and little as it looked in my CV (only requires the candidate to be honest, hard-working, can work in team, study in financial major, go to work on a daily basis, can communicate well and be good in English) so I can’t cram my CV with anything more (and also it’s not like I have anything more to give given my lack of experience).

I want to ask you what do you think about these advice that I got, and what should I do given my dire situation (no experience or social activities as my leverage, also no big social connection circle to rely on both for me and my parents)? Thank you for listening to my rambling. Right now I am trying to get a computer certificate to “prove” that I am at least know how to work on Microsoft Word and Excel (I suspect the employers do not trust that I am able to work with them if I just list it in the Skill section of my CV).

I can’t show your CV which makes this tricky. I’ll do my best.

* Do you look like a million dollars? If not, don’t put your picture (or any picture) on your resume. Exception is that it’s okay to do so if your country demands this culturally. Most don’t, and if you do it in a country where it’s not the norm you’ll just look kind of vain and weird.

* Don’t break down exactly what you can and can’t do in Excel because what you’ve written sounds a bit babyish like “I can use a calculator to add”. It’s unneccessary detail. Just write “MS Office Suite Word/Excel/Powerpoint” in skills and leave it at that. Don’t worry about getting that certificate though, with two Bachelors already under your belt they will believe you that you can use these programs. Again with Google Sheets, “Google Sheets” will do. They can use their imagination as to what you can actually do with it. Again with time management take out the reference to templates. Also remove the thing about opinions, sounding “opinionated” is not a good quality. Change it to “proven communication skills” which is more flattering plus more relevant to an employer. Proven how? We’ll get to that in a bit.

* Because English is not your first language I will assume you would be submitting this resume in your native language to a native language employer, therefore I won’t pick on and correct any of your spelling, grammar etc. Just know that it has to be PERFECT and the English in it currently is not good enough especially for someone who has “can write, communicate and read in English” in their resume because this resume makes it look like you only barely can. No mistake of ANY kind (spelling, grammar, puncutation, etc) on your resume is ever acceptable, because if you can’t get this incredibly important document right even after you’ve had infinite time to check and refine it, what sort of quality work will you be producing if they hire you? If you had sent me an editable version of your resume I would have fixed a few things up here for you, unfortuantely it was a PDF. But yeah if you’re submitting this in a non-English language, then I’m sure you’ll get it perfect in that language. Won’t you?

* If you have nothing on your resume and you’re going to do anything with your time while you wait for a job offer, do volunteer work. Doing what? Any goddamn thing, hardly even matters what. Volunteer work is super easy to get, always looks fantastic on a resume, also solves the problem of no work experience.

* Put all your IT skills in there. If you know a programming language, or can use any software that isn’t a computer game, put it in. I bet you know more than just Word and Excel. Also consider broadening your skillset while you wait, too. What, you don’t know any programming languages? You have two degrees, damn you could probably learn Python in a day.

* In the meantime, leverage your academic activities while you studied to pad your resume. No work experience, no problem. Have a section “achievements” and put in it the most impressive shit you did while you were doing those degrees. Wrote a killer essay that got top marks? Mention it. Participated in an impressive-sounding group project, well that’s proof that you can ‘work as a team’ and ‘communicate’, right? Put it in there. You can even think outside university. It’s amazing what can be used in a resume. Play sport? Well that’s a teamwork activity, who doesn’t value teamwork in the workplace? Ever babysat a kid? You must be good at risk management, conflict resolution. Good at MOBAs? Well you must be good at team-building and negotiation, getting four other complete strangers (who lets face it are often toxic af) to get along, co-operate and achieve a common goal in a 30 minute timespan… that’s a skill, just saying…

* Get any fucking job you can, entry level is great, it’s entry level for a reason, you move up and get the job you want later. Just spam your resume, everywhere. You will land hits eventually but first tidy up everything typographically (no errors) and remember this key point: you have two degrees, that shit is legit impressive. That will sell you on its own, not because of what the degrees are, but because you’ve proven that you have the sheer discipline to finish two degrees. Employees value that kind of staying power and determination. So the secret is just to not fuck the rest of the resume up by selling yourself short or making simple avoidable mistakes. Good luck!

Not a question, but

SDAM-122… okay, carry on…

I’ve seen a couple of kpop concerts in-person now and wanted to rank the approximate “in-person attractiveness” of the artists I’ve seen.

Mamamoo – astonishingly attractive in person; all idols are beautiful don’t get me wrong but I think because Mamamoo have relatively distinctive features, AND kpop stylings/surgery, AND were commercially attractive to begin with, they really stood out. Another fun thing was that they sang live over the backing track a few times including the high notes. Also, Moonbyul continually does silly things to get Solar’s attention onstage, which is in-line with her camera personality. Mamamoo felt like one of the more genuine groups overall.

IU – very, very pretty person with an amazing sense of theatrics. Not personally my type but gotta respect the amount she embodies “pure kpop beauty standards.” She also wore a gorgeous violet dress she claimed to have saved for the second to last concert. Her concert hall was extremely large and still packed; maybe bc I saw her in Oakland (hi Caitlin) where there’s a lot of young East Asian people so all the Bay Area fans went to see her. She did a lot of waving to the audience and gave them some of her accessories which was cute, too.

Brave Girls – They’re one of the groups where I’d say they’re probably more average-looking than most idols except for Yujeong who is a real beauty. They all had great bodies though, maybe bc they were all in their 30s at the time and looked like they weren’t starving? Maybe wishful thinking though.
I saw them on their only US tour before they disbanded/rebranded. Because they weren’t very well-known in the states at the time, the venue was a pretty small open floor plan bar thing. They seemed to be having a TON of fun interacting with the audience, accepting plushies, and stuff. My theory is bc they had success later in their careers, they weren’t as jaded from fan attention and were able to enjoy audience interaction more. Also the members seemed legitimately healthier-looking than most groups, but maybe that’s wishful thinking on my part.

Dreamcatcher – Dreamcatcher are all very attractive but I think are more generic-looking than some of the above groups and benefit a lot from their styling. Generally, idols who are more “perfect-looking” seem less attractive in-person, and those who have unusual features that get bullied by fans tend to be the ones where I’m like “wait a sec, she’s actually super hot.” I had this reason with Dami in particular (who the US fans went crazy for.) Dreamcatcher have insanely impressive stamina and dance skills. I wish they were a bit more unhinged though given that they’re “rock idols.” The only really “less-staged”-feeling idols were Brave Girls and Mamamoo. Also Dreamcatcher are so skinny wtf; fans claim their company is good and lets them eat, but they can’t do a single push-up and among my friends who exercise a ton none of them are that skinny except one with an eating disorder.

Sunmi – VERY very thin in person but good-looking. I think a lot of her appeal is great concept choices and styling. She was surprisingly awkward? I think she’s kind of an anxious person and seems more comfortable in music videos and other more staged settings than in concerts or in variety shows. Without the styling I think she’d be kind of “average pretty,” sorry to say, like a Krystal type. She did play bass live though which was cool.

Loona – the most generic kpop-looking group overall; maybe it’s because Chuu was being black listed at the time. Also this was the tour where Kim Lip got upset and left the stage lol. Other notable facts are that Heejin is a real monster onstage with a ton of stamina and Hyeju seems to have a good attitude. They were also all way too skinny-looking (including the “thick” ones,) especially Yeojin and Vivi.

Going to see Everglow and XG soon so maybe that’ll add to my list.

Overall: the camera adds like 20 pounds, most idols who are a bit funky-looking are probably the most attractive members in-person, most idols seem pretty sanitized/restrained in public so it’s kind of hard to judge if they have fun personalities.

Noted, thank you!

My opinions on the people I’ve seen are in the reviews of those concerts so just check back.

So I (woman, 22) had a relationship crash and burn at the beginning of August, and since then I’ve been depressed. He was a hot, charismatic guy, so it was like a dream at first.

But we were kind of a weird (read: objectively terrible) match for each other, and to be honest I’m still not entirely sure why he pursued me so hard in the first place. Firstly he was impulsive. I am a pretty careful and thoughtful person prone to anxiety and overthinking. When I got upset he would just try to cheer me up or silently leave me to things. He never really explained himself when he got angry or upset either, like he would just sulk. He was generally a sweet guy, but definitely emotionally immature, like not able to really handle deep emotional issues or conflict. Instead of really talking things through he would generally try to cheer me up.

I don’t think it was all his fault like I said — I overthink a lot, and get anxious. I think him being conventionally attractive made me insecure, which I’m not proud of. I felt he was going to find someone else, even though he wasn’t really doing anything that should make me scared of that. I would say something a little snippy, he would get sad and sort of remove himself. This cycle continued until I think he eventually got tired and ended things. I wish I hadn’t been so angry at him. He never said anything snippy or lashed out at me at all.

I think for many people such things aren’t that big of a deal, but unfortunately for me I am very rarely attracted to people (shout out to australiasana lmao, maybe it’s an autism thing.) I think I was attracted to a total of 2 people in college, and I went to a pretty massive school and had a variety of classes and interactions. So when things fell through I was completely devastated. It was my first real relationship.

I’ve been trying to pick up the pieces by going to concerts and festivals, hanging out with friends, but I still have this fear that I’ll never find anyone again. Now that I’m out of college, it’s even harder to find people. I’ve tried dating apps many times in my life and hated them. I’m just exhausted at this point.

Any advice? Words of wisdom? I know I can’t stay sad forever, but it’s hard when it feels like there’s no hope on the horizon.

The guy definitely didn’t have a good sense of how to deal with others’ emotions, and I know this because I can relate – at that sort of age I was similar, as a former bullying victim and social outcast I had few conversational skills, it was very much my emotional pattern to try appeasement/”let me cheer you up”/avoidance when there was a conflict. I had no real sense of how to deal with interpersonal conflict between two equals properly, and I think that’s something a lot of guys don’t get, because nobody is really showing them, or bothering to teach them. Many boys quickly learn that nobody gives a shit about them and therefore tend to learn to solve problems with their fists, or not at all. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why a lot of women prefer older men – they want a partner who is emotionally mature and young guys often are not. Of course a lot of older guys aren’t either, but the odds are still a little better that the dude a few years older has grown up a bit.)

At 22 there’s plenty of chances to meet people though. It can be hard when you have high standards/am very selective but then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’d encourage you to keep those standards, but also keep an open mind – drill down your standards to what is specifically very important to you vs what is a “nice to have but doesn’t actually matter really”. One thing you know already from your experience is that willingness to communicate is a “must”, whereas hotness and rizz are more “nice to haves”.

I tried dating apps for a while a long time ago but had limited success, some people do great with them though, but I didn’t. Where dating apps are useful is the tools they give you for filtering out the absolute nopes and red flags, but after doing the filtering I found that there really wasn’t a whole lot left. What worked for me really well was getting involved in the local music scene, pretty much everyone I’ve dated over the last decade up to and including my current partner came to me in some way through that. For you it might not be the music scene though, maybe some other scene… depends what you’re into. But I didn’t go into those things with meeting someone as the primary objective, I just did music because I wanted to. If you approach the things you do in life in that kind of way because you genuinely love them, it’ll happen for you eventually, probably right when you’re so busy enjoying yourself that you’re not expecting it to.

Hi oppa, greetings from one of your three jazzfaggot readers hahahahahahah!
My question is about… well, Min Hee-jin. I know you’re fed up but you’re really the only one in the entire kpopsphere (as you call it) with a functioning brain, so I can only ask you.

I think the worst thing about MHJ is not her obvious, unhealthy and disconcerting obsession with minors (because despite her constant preference for pedophilic themes and images, I don’t think she’s really a pedophile – a pedophile by definition is someone who has sexual intercourse with a child/minor, and we don’t know if she’s gotten that far – I think it’s more of a mental obsession that she doesn’t put into practice), but rather the unprecedented exploitation of her artists (NewJeans). Her first press conference literally left me speechless and I haven’t been able to stand her since that day. In 13 years of kpop I had honestly never seen anything like this: she kept bringing up the girls as if they were the ones who wanted her to do that press conference, as if they also hated and resented Hybe as much as she did and were on her side in every way, so much so that they cried for her.
Do we want to talk about the parents???!!??? Tell me when was the last time in a dispute in the world of kpop that the idols’ parents were brought up SO much. She blatantly said that THEY were the ones who wanted her to do that press conference, because THEY were the ones who were angry about the ILLIT’s similarities to their daughters’ group.
Usually when a dispute happens and is made public, everything is very formal: the agency releases a statement to the newspapers, the other party (usually the idols) release a statement through their lawyers and then it goes to court. NEVER have the parents been mentioned in this way and NEVER have the idols been used in this frankly shocking way. Of course the psychopath continues to persevere, because anyone who thinks that the latest asmr video (to put it your way) is not MHJ’s work with even a script and matching clothes really doesn’t have a single functioning neuron left.
The fight was a private matter between her and Hybe, yet she managed to drag the girls and their families into it, putting them all on the front lines. It’s scandalous, it’s disgusting, it’s illegal and if it isn’t it should be, and there’s a very strong risk that this will create a precedent.
Yet why doesn’t anyone talk about it or focus on this? When people talk about MHJ they always mention her pedophilia (or pedophilic pro-themes), her harmful closeness to the girls, her plan to escape from Hybe real or alleged… but no one focuses on how this extreme manipulation of idols and families is among the most terrible things that have happened in the history of kpop and that can be used as an example in the future by other agencies. Why??? I mean, we’re in kpop, the bar was already 100m underground and she managed to lower it even further.

I know you were among the first to harshly criticize her, while we were too busy being amazed at how innovative and different the things she did were (yes, I include myself): from her obsession with minors and pedophile themes to inappropriate and disturbing songs and MVs, to her using the group to defend herself from accusations and giving the middle finger to everyone who rightfully raised questions. But your adding her to your bias list got me thinking… I know it’s your usual sarcastic and provocative way of criticizing her and making fun of her, but a part of me thinks that maybe you don’t think she’s that evil and harmful?

I’m also torn: at first I felt nothing but pity and sorrow for Newjeans, but since the schizo’s first press conference, let’s say they have done their best to increasingly side with her and defend her. So I honestly can’t see them as victims and be on their side anymore, because it’s increasingly difficult for me not to see the two sides as one, instead of two separate entities with different interests and personalities. But at the same time I can’t help but think that seeing MHJ and Newjeans as one is exactly what MHJ wants, and I have no desire to play her game at all.

In your opinion, what is the right point of view to adopt in this situation? And what is yours? What do you have to say about all this chaos and what I said?
Thank you very much oppa and of course long live jazz!!!

Oh for fuck’s sake… I’m not sure what’s worse, the jazz stanning, another question about MHJ, or me having to do a boring “let’s spell it out” post… but people seem to be confused what I think, so let’s spell it out in simple dot points.

• I think MHJ being an actual pedophile is highly unlikely. Not impossible, but if I were a betting man, I’d bet no.
• However she does have a weird youth obsession in general, this is very evident in all sorts of ways…
• …and she’s definitely been projecting that onto NewJeans, just as she did with SHINee and f(x) to lesser extents a decade ago…
• …and yes her and NewJeans seem awfully “attached” in a way that doesn’t seem healthy and which should be questioned…
• …who knows what else is going on at HYBE mind you. Yeah sure MHJ is creepy but it’s the creeps you don’t know about that are even more dangerous, don’t think for a second you’re making those kids suddenly ‘safe’ by removing her…
• I think the hate on her is at least partly misogyny because it’s a woman being creepy when it’s usually the dudes and that’s kinda more normalised isn’t it (look at all the rapists and domestic abusers with huge fanbases)…
• MHJ is a very talented creative director, easily the best one that k-pop has ever had. She has completely changed k-pop aesthetics, for both better and worse, but her impact can’t be denied.
• She’s also quite bangable. I would look at her cookie at her place only, I’d just ask her please not to play the Serge Gainsbourg records while we do it, maybe turn those weird pictures on the walls face-down or something…
• Either way, all this still kinda sucks for a bunch of teenagers caught in the middle now doesn’t it
• Actually for deeply personal reasons I can relate to the NewJeans girls quite a lot right now, feeling allied and strongly attached to an immediate superior’s loyalty while they fight dickish corporate forces further up the corporate ladder… extremely relatable…
• Summary: MHJ weird and creepy? Yes. Possibly a manipulative bitch? Likely. Dangerous? Doubtful. Smart, talented and sexy? Oh hell yeah. Actually on the right side of history? Time will tell.

It might interest you to know that idols and their families being manipulated isn’t anything new and has been going on for a long time. There’s some references to it in my books if you read closely. I wouldn’t worry about a precedent being set because that ship sailed long ago.

Even though I feel like there no way you wouldn’t know about this and my trying to find out was probably faulty have you seen this channel

I feel like it is something you would be interested in. Sorry if I’m late and there’s some detailed post I missed somwhere.

Yes I’m already aware of it and have linked her stuff in roundups before. I find the absence of seeing someone’s face very non-appealing but I don’t show my face on my vids either so I’m clearly a massive hypocrite. She’s pretty cool, I respect anyone who can shred.

Did you know how many versions of Girls’ Generation’s “Genie” exist? I looked it up, and it turns out the producers sold the demo to several artists. The song was originally sold to Dutch singer Nathalie Makoma, who released the English version titled “I Just Wanna Dance” in June 2010, a year after SNSD’s release.

Another version, by an Uzbek singer named Dinerya, was released with slight differences, particularly in the post-chorus hook.

However, she was forced to remove it by Universal (Nathalie Makoma’s and SNSD’s Japanese label at the time) because she didn’t have permission from the producers, leading to it being considered plagiarism. Lastly, UK singer CJ Lewis released his version exclusively in Japan, which you can listen to here.

How does all of this work? Why was Nathalie able to release her version, but Dinerya wasn’t, especially considering the success of SNSD’s version that we all know? In today’s world, with K-pop’s global influence, would this kind of situation still happen? If a producer sells a song to a Korean artist, does that mean it’s automatically released worldwide?

A little-known fact: any songwriter is legally allowed to prevent a cover of their song from being recorded or performed, by anybody else. In practice this right is used very rarely, because the original artist gets royalties from the cover performance, so 999 times out of 1000 they’re happy to just sit back and collect the money and attention that a cover brings. However in rare cases artists may choose to prevent covers.

In the case of “Genie” Dinerya didn’t have permission, but Nathalie did. It’s possible also that Dinerya didn’t credit the original songwriter, hence the plagiarism accusation, but even if she did, her cover can still be legally prevented anyway. Dinerya’s slight changes to some of the song were probably deliberate as a way to make the song “just different enough” to not be considered the same song, but when the lawyers came knocking it was decided that the changes didn’t make it different enough.

It’s not really a question, I just want to say how much I appreciate you

I don’t think I would have ever gotten into hip-hop if it weren’t for your blog. But 10 years ago I started reading your blog and it eventually…very slowly….very gradually, hip-hop is now my favorite genre of music but I’m old-school as you’ll see.

After listening to so much gangsta rap a friend introduced me to 70s hip-hop and it lead me to put the song they suggested to me into my music app. It lead me into listening to this song called The Humpty Dance and I’ve literally never heard anything like this song before! Weird unapologetic lyrics

And that bass…that bass dude!

I just feel like it’s a song about being a weird and ugly freak but still just doing your own thing and…well, it means a lot to me

And you mean a lot to me too! You’ve changed my perspective on music forever and…well…I don’t know what else to say…

You’ve really ruined my life with K-pop! Lol!

I guess that’s a compliment…? Thanks, I think! MKMP-575.

Thoughts on Hatsune Miku?

No songs worth a damn. I liker her pedal though!

I thought wjsn and loona had simular sounding songs to me but from what I have seen you dont like alot of wjsn songs and you like a lot of loona songs, did I completely get it wrong that they sound simular??

Well all girl groups sound similar really. They’re all aiming for more or less the same thing. WJSN and Loona sound as similar as any two k-pop girl groups do. Quality might vary a bit (Loona generally have better and worse songs than WJSN) but it’s the same “sound” broadly speaking.

Heeelp how do I quit sugar. I have a legitimate addiction and substituting with fruit doesn’t help. I still live with my parents and I’ve asked my dad not to buy sweets for me specifically, but he keeps doing it and the only way I can hold myself back is if there is no sugary crap for me at home. I think the longest I’ve managed to last entirely without sugar is one day and the whole time I shaking like a chihuahua from anxiety and frustration. Is this what drug withdrawal feels like? Ffs

Yeah er let me know when you finally kick it and then we’ll both know how. I go on sugar fasts periodically but every time I do I find it hard to beat the cravings, and even if I do I get my ass kicked by gastro attacks and diarrhoea, and I inevitably return to it so I can poop normally again plus eat chocolate. Also sugar is very tempting in times of stress, which for me right now, is all the time (mortgage poverty yay).

Hi Kpopalypse, just wanna say, I was the one who’s complaining not getting the dog-whistling in newer KPOP male act few qrimoles back, particularly Riize topless MV and TWS high school youth act.
So Karma’s a bitch, I stan Riize now.
For the first time in my life I stan a kpop boygroup, 5 years younger than me. Hope someone doesn’t label me a predator. Anyway.
Since I stan this one boygroup now and I now check out few other kpop boygroup acts naturally, and I do feel like certain trend was set because of Riize, and thus I somehow concluded that we might be in a quite new generation now. I also think there’s no 4th gen if we regard BTS as 3rd gen. Or another hot take is, BTS is still a 2nd gen Kpop, which they cross over to 3rd when they blow up big in the West.
Maybe it’s because I’m kinda brainwashed on how to keeping up with the way current Gen-Z consume the media. I now have to keep up with subs by myself, and I have to activate a twitter account just for stanning (thanks Elon), and I was welcomed to a whole new world of kpop fans and entitled stans. And it slightly feels different from stanning a (girl) group 10 years ago.
(I mean, Asianjunkie was posting quite a lot about groups back then now he’s kinda… detached. I have to resort to actual korean forum to get updates about Riize now). It feels like to get the same information I get 10-15 years ago I have to work harder since apparently current SEO is not suitable with my train of thoughts, because this feels exactly like scouring forums just to try to download a song that was shared through 4shared.
Do you think we’re still in the 3rd generation of Kpop (can’t recall if you were saying we’re still in 2nd/3rd gen of Kpop) or have you changed your mind about this?

By the way, thanks for editing my questions, it’s been hard to actually gather my thoughts when writing a non scientific stuffs.It’s nice to see my questions was presented in a super nice non-chaotic way!

Since Wonho didn’t clean sweep the 2024 Kpopalyupse Objectification Survey, this means that the 4th generation of k-pop has officially begun!

Some questions about j-shits

I deleted them without listening sorry

What do you think of Starry Night by Fifty Fifty?

I feel like not enough has been written about this song on this website. I’d just like to say that I think it’s only slightly above average, like most of their songs. Fifty Fifty doesn’t really have any bad feature songs (I don’t think that dreary starvation picnic one counts) and there are worse groups that someone could stan, but I think “S.O.S” is the better recent song from the new Fifty Fifty lineup.

My shoulders have been improving a bit lately and I’m thinking of getting back into bass covers again, the thing that’s stopping me now is that I’m working so much to try and make ends meet that I’m too time-poor to actually learn shit. I expect that might be temporary though, so if I end up doing bass covers again I think I’ll do this one because it’s got such a great bassline.

Hi Mr Kpopalypse,

2 questions, and one guitar related thing you will care about.

Did you end up watching that Bleeding Kimchi thing I sent a few months ago? If so (unlikely tbh), any thoughts?

Authentic bogan stereotypes?

————————————————————————————————-

I assume you’re the kind of person to dislike Floyd Roses.
I do too, I’ve solved them.

Firstly lock it off if you want, one way or both. The one in my Jackon King V is a cheap one, so I’ve fully locked it off with some coins, for anti neck dive purposes also.

Then you need these screws (hopefully link still alive by the time you read this!)

These are hollow, a string can go through them. I’ve got a 46 low E through it with ease, may be worth experimenting with thicker strings.

Put the screws in and the string can go from the inside of the screws to the saddle through where the block used to be, it’s like stringing anything from there.
The fine tuners become action adjustment, and you don’t need the clamper nut.

Intonation requires the fancy tool however that’s something you do once and leave it.

All normal strings should work, I’ve used Fender Bullets and Elixirs with success.

Enjoy !

The video, no, haven’t had a chance. I did skim watch it a little and it looks cool, I want to make the time to properly check it out.

Bogan stereotypes don’t get more authentic than Darren and Damo. I swear I have overheard this exact conversation in real life:

I’m finding it hard to visualise your guitar mod, but I just get around the problem by not buying a guitar with a Floyd Rose on it. Yes I do dislike them just because I hate using “fine-tuners” and I also hate fucking around with locking nuts, because the fine-tuners never seem to adjust quite enough in the direction you want so then you have to find your hex key and undo the nuts, so annoying and really makes you question if the minimal tuning stability they provide is even worth it. I used to own a guitar that had a Kahler tremolo (what an abomination) and I kept the locking nuts loose permanently after I had it for a while because one of them snapped in half (!) and they were annoying anyway. It was such a pain in the ass. Never bought another locking-trem guitar after I sold that one. Also if I have one of those super tremolo systems I tend to abuse it relentlessly instead of actually playing notes. A hardtail guitar forces me to actually play the thing properly instead of doing dive-bombs every two seconds like an idiot, which is what I will always do if I have one of those things.

The caonima who asked about your out-of-date bias compendium got me curious, so I wrote up some guesses on the order you stan major girl groups. Is this generally accurate? (Not completionist at all and def missing some nugus, sorry.)

Aespa
Winter > Karina >>>>> Ningning | Giselle |

Apink
Hayoung >>> Bomi > Chorong > rest > Naeun | |

Artms
|all|

Billlie
|all?|
(though I’d guess only Tsuki is consistently recognizable to him)

Dreamcatcher
Dami >> Gahyeon > Jiu > rest >>> ||

GWSN
Miya > || rest

Honey Popcorn
You Mikami > Moko Sakura > Miko Matsuda >>>> ||

Itzy
|Chaeryeong > rest > Yuna|
(I feel like Yuna is an EXID’s Junghwa type for him)

Ive
Liz >>>>> |rest|

Kiss of Life
|Haneul > Julie| Belle > Natty

Le Sserafim
Chaewon >>>> |rest|
(if he liked anyone else I’d bet it would be Kazuha)

Loossemble
|all|

NiziU
| |all

Purple Kiss
Swan >>>>>> | | rest

StayC
|all

Viviz
Eunha > Umji >>> SinB >>>>> ||

Weeekly
Jiyoon >>>>> |rest|

Unsure: Cignature (does he like Jeewon?), NewJeans (he Stans Hanni for knowing banh mi but doubt any of them are his type)

More research required: LunarSolar, Tri.be, Lightsum, TripleS (lol), Mimiirose, Babymonster, Rescene, Everglow, Fanatics, Fromis_9, Dreamnote, Weki Meki, Young Posse

Other bias-ables: UZA, Kim Nayoon, Daisy (ex-Momoland)

Not bad. Reasonably accurate I guess.

Loossemble has most of the stannable Loona girls for me, ARTMS has most of the Loona girls I have occasional trouble telling apart depending on how they’re styled that day.

Honey Popcorn, I’d put Moko above Yua these days, just because Moko stayed in the JAV game until she was older. Have to give credit to that, because I tend to prefer women closer to my age, and it sucks for me when my favourite drama stars quit right before they start to look their absolute best. I mean I totally get why someone would want to quit JAV after making bank, because it’s a pretty physically gruelling job that most people don’t want to do for long if at all, and that makes me admire the ones who stay in the game longer all the more.

Nobody in Kiss Of Life is my type, but I respect their commitment to objectification.

Hallo! I recently realised how long are the credits for pop songs. Between credits for writing and production songs can reach over ten people who worked on them. How writing and producing pop songs works? Why the need for this many people and how input of all of them doesn’t (most of the time) create disjointed mess? Not to sound elitist or something but why I also don’t get it is because some of this songs with massive teams behind them sound very shallow and simplistic like think of Katty Perry – Woman’s World with six songwriters. Why something that sounds like it has one note needs 6 people to come up with? Thanks for answers and take care

I’ll just refer you to my interview with AZODi which answers this question and goes into a quite a lot of detail about how complex the process can be and how different people get involved. Give it a read and let me know if you have further questions (although perhaps he would be better to answer them than me!)

What would be a collab between a western artist and a kpop group you would like to see?
If you have already answered this question, thoughts on King Crimson?

I don’t really want to see collabs between western artists and k-pop groups. I don’t hate the idea, I mean why the hell not I guess, but I also don’t see it enhancing or adding anything in terms of my enjoyment. If I grudgingly had to pick one maybe Fifty Fifty and 50 Cent because imagine what they would have to call it.

Never got into King Crimson much, or any other similar prog music apart from Pink Floyd back in the day. This was probably just because the radio and TV wouldn’t play King Crimson, although I was aware of the group through Robert Fripp and his (barking fucking mad) “Guitar Craft” articles in Guitar Player magazine. By the time I finally heard King Crimson songs I was well past the point of liking that sort of music, I think if I first heard them at 13 years old I would have dug it at the time though, I had more time to listen to long-ass songs back then.

Im sending this in pretty late but I just feel so confused rn. I went to this 5 day event cuz September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. My brother passed of cancer so my family has a foundation in his name. I haven’t been able to work with the foundation much cuz it just feels terrible but I wanted to support that time. Before the event I didn’t wanna get sad and start off in a bad mood, During the event I didn’t wanna get sad cuz I still had to help my mom and participate (plus we got to stay in a pretty expensive hotel and it felt weird to cry while laying in a $600/night hotel) and after the event I didn’t even feel sad anymore. I just felt bad, like just angry for no reason and bored. I’m diagnosed with depression so it’s not like crazy that I don’t find much enjoyment in anything but I’m still so bored yk? Like there’s nothing to stimulate my brain so theres no distractions and Im actively fighting not to fall into a depressive episode. Is there anything u do to just stay entertained? Or anything that brings a smile to your face? I think maybe I need to try something new since my usual interests aren’t helping at all.

Well I write a lot, it works for me! Also playing music, sometimes, although that’s more of a job at this point, but for you it doesn’t have to be. Music is a really good funnel for anger actually, and depression is often what happens when you repress anger and have nowhere to express it. Music can solve that problem. (The right kind of music though, not fuckin’ k-pop hahaha)

Also see a doctor about your depression if it persists and seems more than just situational. Don’t wait for it to get really bad. Clincal depression makes people do strange things, hospitals and morgues are full of people who waited too long.

Hey again Oppar, so I was reading your retrospring and came across a caonima who asked,”why are intl kpoppies so much more despicable than korean ones? like i keep seeing all these sex criminals in kpop have careers overseas thanks to their international fans refusing to have morals and leave these mfs to rot ”.
I thought about it a bit and just thought to share it in case it might be of some intrest to you or fellow caonimas. I don’t know the psych/sociology term for it but sometimes groups that are in some way cut off from the main branch grow more extremist,in part because they have to validate their identity as part of the group in a different place (isolated from both sides) but also because they are cut-off from any progressiveness that the main branch has since experienced. Usually this is something I think of in context of ‘nationalism’ Or religion but I feel this might also fit with international kpop fans,isolated in their own regions from the main branch and invalidated for it by folks around,who just double down on it when something so wrong happens.

I used to be a big bang fan as a teen (2016-2019), mostly a TOP stan but Seungri was usually 2nd Or 3rd because of his general sleazy comedy schtick hence followed several of his fans. One particularly stands out in memory because I had interacted with them ans they seemed sane. But near the end of 2018 when the burning sun thing had started from a now almost minor issue of the bouncers beating up a customer some terrible rumours started emerging of drugging girls in VIP rooms of the club. The moment I read that I had mentally checked out immediately, almost all fondness vanished even before the news actually brokeout. But that fab anoungst many others doubled down and since I checked recently, are still at it, even trying to ‘cancel’ the other 4 (especially Top) for ‘being ungrateful’.

P.S, I’m really grateful for you and Asian Junkie (where I first encountered your writing) pretty early on in my ‘kpop fan era’ as a teen. You guys really kept me saner than the average stan lol. Thank you Oppar for preventing a potential case of fan dumb.

K-pop fans tend to grow up with their favourite groups, most of them don’t transition to new groups when they appear but keep loving their faves that they discovered when they first got into k-pop. Now of course there’s nothing wrong with that, but when that attachment forms and something threatens it, fans often don’t like it because it conflicts with all the time and money and attention they’ve invested in that artist. If the artist is no longer considered worthy of all that investment, some fans take that personally – “are you saying I stupidly wasted all that time streaming and buying heart balloons?” Nobody likes to feel like they spent a big chunk of their life believing in something that isn’t real, it’s easier psychologically for many people to go with the flow.

That’s why my writing bothers a lot of people, and I’d say Asian Junkie’s also. While we don’t have a lot in common (I mean, he likes sportball, ewww) where I think we see eye to eye (or close-ish) is the idea that dissecting the reality of the toxic situations in the entertainment world and actually showing them, is more mentally healthy than going around believing in a lie. We have different approaches for sure (I use humour with a very slight sprinking of news/opinion whereas he’s kind of the reverse of that) but I think the general aims aren’t that different. You’ll find plenty of people in k-pop online spaces equally butthurt about the continual existence of both our websites. I know he doesn’t even like to post a lot of the time, but I think it’s important that Asian Junkie exists because if it didn’t, where the fuck else are you going to get your Min Hee Jin updates? I’m sure he thinks I’m just a cunt though, and he’s not wrong, but at least I’m not a fuckin’ cunt.

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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!