It’s time for another episode of QRIMOLE!  Let’s take a look at some more questions for Kpopalypse!

Firstly, thank you to all the question-askers who gave well wishes regarding my car accident.  I’m recovering well, thank you for all your concern and support!  However I probably will post at a slightly slower rate for a while, as long periods of continual typing are actually quite painful now.  Rest assured that Kpopalypse has high determination levels and posts will definitely appear in time!  Let’s get on with the questions!

Hi, because you are a man I really would like to ask you a question about men in general, because I am a woman and it seems like I don’t really get it and I don’t have anyone in real life to ask this. Is it true that all men are just obsessed with sex and bodies at all times and don’t care about things like love and intimacy and relationships? Do they really not want to be loved but just want to fuck and leave? In my life I keep repeatedly only meeting this type of guys and I’m honestly getting so fucking depressed about this. Some of them tried to convince me that this is biology, that men simply NEED to spread their semen as far as possible so they only care about fucking and will leave the woman as soon as a prettier younger girl shows up and they don’t want to get married because then they will miss the opportunities to fuck so many more women. Similarly, cheating on your partner is apparently also a need for men? So does this mean that men are actually animals who are incapable or rational thoughts and cannot control their instincts or what? My father was also exactly like this, using, humiliating and abusing my mother, treating her as if she was a property or his slave and then leaving both her and me for dead once he was bored of us. I cannot understand why men even exist if their sole purpose is just to hurt women and treat them like shit that is somehow inferior to them. I feel like I no longer have any hope left in me because I was just disappointed and hurt by men my entire life. As you’re a neutral stranger on the internet and in general you have very intelligent opinions on things, I was wondering what you think about this… Thank you a lot if you answer! By the way I really do not want to hate on men and I don’t want to generalise, but I’m simply finding it increasingly hard not to do it because I can’t seem to meet any man who is actually a kind and decent human being.

Guys are always going to be interested in sex (unless they’re asexual) but that doesn’t mean that they don’t care about the other stuff too, or that they can’t make conscious choices.  There’s plenty of guys probably reading this who are single and looking for someone long-term in the same way that you or other women might be.  As for the behaviour of men in your life, I’m a pretty perverted and sex-obsessed individual, yet I’ve had quite a few opportunities to cheat on women over the years and deliberately didn’t take any of them, so if I can say no, then I’m sure that they can.  I actually prefer the stability of a steady relationship and don’t like to jeopardise that, plus I think about not wanting to hurt the person who I’m with.  While I obviously have sexual urges, I’d need a really compelling reason to cheat on someone (i.e something would have to be already seriously broken about the relationship I’m in), I wouldn’t just do it completely randomly and write it up to biology.  Biology is a shitty excuse to be an asshole – I have the biological urge to scratch my balls every so often but that doesn’t mean that I do it in public – all biological urges can be controlled, if people want to control them.  A lot of guys are really quite immature and there are aspects of male culture which encourage immaturity, but guys can also make a conscious choice not to be that way.  You seem to have struck out so far, which makes me think that if you are interested in meeting different types of guys you might want to think about how you meet people and under what circumstances, as I assure you there’s lots of a few good ones out there.

Hey. I recently unsubscribed to Cinema/Music Video Sins, all because they don’t take away sins anymore, and the fact that their reasonings for making sins are getting ridiculous. What’s wrong with them?

CinemaSins is run by people who have a background in the shady world of SEO (search engine optimisation), the pyramid-scheme of web content.  The following video is worth watching all the way through as it goes through in great detail exactly why CinemaSins is so bad, but the SEO stuff is at about 19 minutes in if you’re especially interested in that.

How you managed to stay subscribed to them in the first place I’m not sure, you must be a lot more tolerant than me.

Hi. I love your blog even though you seem to not like bts so much. I actually avoided your blog at first because of this and then when I found out you were an older man it no longer bothered me for some reason. Honestly, your blog has helped me escape from some very messed up things at home and for that I thank you.

Probably the reason I am telling you this is because there is no one in my life that I would tell this to and I really need to get it out without someone judging me. When I was around 5, 6 or 7, I was sexually assaulted. To this very day its still a memory I will never forget. I’ve only spoken about it twice in my life. First with my mom to confirm that it actually happened since I was quite young when it did. I talked to her about this when I was around 14. The next time was to my brother in a fight when he was ridiculing me for never being in a relationship. (This was actually it long ago). I told him that I’m just not able because of this. He shut up about it. A week later we got in a fight again since I touched his stuff and my brother has a temper. He then started to laugh at me for being raped. And just started taunting me like a child repeating you got raped, you got raped. He’s 17 almost 18. I was so angry I grabbed his hand and told him to stop. You never touch my brother because he is violent. My mom says it’s normal for men to get angry because when a girl touches them like that, it hurts their pride. I asked he if my dad would ever hurt her like that for any reason which shut her up. I don’t know how my brother came to be like that because no one my family is violent.

Anyway, by brother punched me really hard. Its not the first time he’s done it. He once beat me so hard I had to wear long sleeves and pants for a couple of weeks to hide the bruising.

I don’t know what to do honestly. I’m leaving for uni in 2 months but I want him to pay for what hes done. I don’t want to call the cops because with him it’s going to be hell. He told me he will get his friends to lie that I hit him and punch him and then play the victim. He was even telling me that he’ll tell the police that he hit me in self defence because I was sexually harrassing him when I touched him and he felt threatened which hurt so much because I only touched him as a reaction to his mocking my asault. Knowing him he would get them to believe that. Hes really likable and manipulative.

Thanks for reading this long rant and I guess my question is what should I do? I don’t want other people apart from my family to notice so calling the police is not an option. My parents live with him and I love them. I want to be able to visit them when he’s there. Also i guess I want to know why he’s like that. Is he a sociopath or something. I envy people that have good relationships with their sibling because I definitely can’t relate.

While your situation is fairly extreme, I also understand the reluctance about going to the authorities.  Your fears that it may exacerbate the situation are extremely realistic.  I’m certainly not saying “don’t do it”, but you should definitely be prepared for a fight if you do.  Absolutely you want to at the very least decrease your vulnerability to any possible repercussions before taking any action.  I wouldn’t even consider it until you’ve physically extracted yourself from that environment, i.e moved out of home permanently, never to return.

Personally I’ve never gone through any legal channels to enact revenge on somebody, I’ve always found it not necessary – people doing shitty things to me have always found that those things have a way of naturally biting them back after a while.  I may or may not have helped that process along.

I don’t know why your brother is the way he is, but he should reflect.  Definitely not all brothers are like that.

At first, I wanted just to ask if a song from Nini Blase is eligible for the round up, but I found another question and I am a bit afraid to ask you this question.

I have a question about korean music. It is not entirely KPOP, but it is definitely K. I tend to listen to underground K-Rap and I kinda like the recent underground movement, regarding the sound/melody as well as visuals. I think, I need to explain a bit, because K-Rap is mostly known for Mumble-Trap or old school stuff, if people are thinking about old artists like MC Sniper, Wang Hanyuk or Tiger. Underground tends to be weird sometimes like, for example, european metal music in the 1990’s or early 2000’s.

The year before the last year, people tried to combine Rap with Grunge music. Last year and this year, I kinda get the impression that Rap-Artists are combining Rap with european weirdness. I am dropping some K-Rap songs from youtube and soundcloud, thus you can get a proper picture, because I don’t know a thing about music theory and I am probably writing embarrassing bullshit right now and I feel anxious to ask you even these questions.

(Como song starts very aggressive, decrease the volume for ear protection, if you are using headphones or similar things)

I apologize, if the song from Como is not available anymore. She actually had more stuff, but she is constantly deleting it. The Metallica stuff vanished fast, especially The Unforgiven.

Nini Blase and Dikkboy are the new people from the crew that made music and promoted Jvcki Wai as well as Swervy in the early years and they (Swervy and Jvcki Wai) are now people on the rise, due to the contracts with Hi-Lite and indiGO, but their sound is rather unusual in comparison to the current mainstream Rap climate/scene.

This can also be said about Nini Blase and to a certain degree with Dikkboy and Como. They also have a fresh sound that is not usual in the “Trapper” Community. My question is: Do you think, that there is potential that the upcoming Rap-Scene is changing in a more whacky era, where we have these weirdness like, for example with Jvckai Wai or Nini Blase? I haven’t really seen these kind of things prior the year of 2016 and I see more people that are trying to rap and having some “mystical” euro metal band sounds and visuals with the trap genre. Some people are staying like Jvckai Wai and some are vanishing very fast like Kana Bathe. I am saying “mystical”, because these sub genres from metal reached the point of absurdism.

I see more and more hybrid stuff from the underground korean scene and I remember that you are totally into the Punk scene that is sadly dead in the korean market. I want to ask, what do you think about the current musical trends in these niche market and do you think it can grow and establish something new in the korean mainstream market? Is it even something that the world should even listen to? Or is just the ignored child that was created through Visual Key rock bands. Maybe, we will have Rap- Punk music in Korea one day. I am not really used to see these things in the underground scene and I always like variety, when I am listening to music, thus I am a bit excited to see something new in the country of ballady ballads and mumble trap music.

If the stuff is too bullshit, please feel free to ignore my question with the crazy prologue, comparisons and song suggestions. I just wanted to know, what an expert like you thinks about these niche trends, but I lack knowledge to describe the things that I wanted to ask.

Besides, I want to apologize for my abhorrent use of the english language. I never needed to write stuff in the english language, besides school and that was too many ages ago, thus I can imagine that my writing is awful to read, especially the morphology and the syntax.

The Nini Blaze song made it into Roundup.

I wouldn’t say any of the sounds I’m hearing here are particularly “new” at all.  The best track here by a mile is Como (the others are rubbish) and it reminds me of what “digital hardcore” groups were doing 20 years ago.  The Korean music scene is “reactive”, it doesn’t do anything new and never has.  What’s interesting about the scene is not the innovation (because there isn’t any) but the strength of the reinterpretations, getting already-existing ideas and refining them with (sometimes) outstanding results.

Korea has always seen fairly ripe for a punk scene to me, but I think that the reason why it doesn’t happen is because Korean culture seems to have such a strong element of “keeping up appearances” and conforming to social codes, whereas punk is specifically against that (at least superficially).  This is one of the reasons why I’ve never had any urge whatsoever to visit Korea or participate in their music scene there.

Also what’s with these people apologising for their English when they have better English skills than half of the fucking bogans in my country.  Seriously, your English is fine, you could go to a One Nation rally and teach a few white people where I live how to speak the English language.

Hey kpopalypse, it’s been a while since I posted something, but I’m back with a few questions.
1. A couple of months ago, the American version of the masked singer ended. To my surprise, the show wasn’t bad and lots of people seemed to enjoy it enough for a second season. My question is do you think other shows from Korea could have the same success like the masked singer here did or is this all just a fad?
2. I graduated high school a year ago and began subbing at the elementary school this semester. I found that I’m wanting to go into teaching when I go to college(3rd to 5th grade at least). What do you think of my choice?
3. What do you think will be the future of the groups and soloists from YG that have nothing to do with the scandal.
4.Right now here in the states, there’s a whole deal going on with the anime dub community. Basically, a popular VA is being accused of sexual assault by not only various women(which have been online for years), but fellow VA’s. He lost his job at 2 different studios where he worked at, with one of them conducting an investigation. Now here’s the catch. The side of the VA’s have been acting immature, with one of them threatening to call the authorities on people who questioned her (or in her case, “harassed”). There’s also been other incidents like fake swattings and blaming the side defending him and threatening to have supporters arrested at cons for example. It’s come out that some of these accusations are false. So now, he’s suing one of the companies, and the VA’s for a million since they’ve slandered him and insulted those who’ve questioned them at this point. I know you’re not Animepopalypse, but what do you think about situations like this and false accusations?
Thanks for reading this and have a great day!
p.s., the investigation was over a jelly bean joke in which he said now I can say I’ve eaten insert triggered VA. Plus, there’s gonna be a second round after this with another VA
and the chick who started this whole deal, though her case will be tricky since she lives in California, and this whole deal is taking place in my home state is Texas. Hopefully I explained the situation good.

1. I don’t watch TV so it’s impossible for me to answer this.  You might want to drop this question into AustralianSana’s inbox!
2. Why not, someone’s got to teach a new generation of assholes.  It’s a lot of work.  If you can handle it, more power to you.
3. Nothing will change.
4. I wasn’t even aware of the incident to which you’re referring, but I’m not a fan of forming an opinion on guilt or innocence based on “allegations”.  While I definitely sympathise with genuine victims who have found strength in #MeToo, there’s a cancerous flipside to that which is that anybody can say any fucking thing and people now get guilt-tripped if they don’t believe allegations without evidence.  The third question in this very QRIMOLE demonstrates exactly how allegations can be used by very convincing and charismatic people to get others on their side.  It ultimately becomes a personality contest – if two people are alleging certain things, others will just believe the person that they like more, because they don’t really have anything else to go on.

I would’ve left a comment on the Qrimole May 2019 post but I have none of the social media required so I’ll be writing here.

I was really happy to see you mention that Contrapoints video, your blog and her channel are some of my favourite places on the internet. Do you have any other youtube channels you watch and would recommend?

You seem to get an awful lot of relationship advice questions. Could you write a post about this subject? Is there any general advice you would give?

And do something with the comment box, I would love to comment more often but it’s just so much work.

I’m considering some relationship advice stuff because yes I do get a ton of questions about it.

I don’t watch Contrapoints a lot but she just had a video that perfectly demonstrated a concept so it was a good video to use.  I do watch it from time to time, I agree with her a lot more than I agree with Blaire White, who I watch at about the same frequency.  Who to recommend I think hinges on why you like Contrapoints.  If you like Contrapoints because she is a tranny who MRS and you’re into that, then watch Blaire.  If you like Contrapoints because you like to see some in-depth analysis of online political strangeness, then I’d recommend Shaun.  Here’s a random Shaun video.

Shaun’s skull motif isn’t as sexy as Contrapoints but I reckon he’s equally as erudite.

I actually like it how the comments box on this site is shit.  It means that anyone who wants to comment has to battle through the crappy user interface, which means that it weeds out the people who aren’t really passionate about making them.  Also with my current comments I can completely block all images and links which is fantastic, because I’m not here for people who can’t read, write or think posting lazy memes, this site is slow enough to load as it is without all that crap.  My own crap memes are bad enough without adding everyone else’s into the mix.

Given that drug use is so prevalent in the music industry, can music trends be explained by understanding whatever drug is more fashionable in the industry at that moment?

I realize a lot of stupid, reactionary dumbasses like to say “this person was high” whenever they see anything slightly weird or extravagant, but my question isn’t about this. It’s more about how the neurological effects than the result (and as any artist will know, being on drugs has no effect on the overall weirdness of the final product)

Based on the TOP weed scandal, I think a lot of kpoppies don’t know that it’s well known that cannabis exacerbates the “aural state” while listening to music, for example, and I know a lot of dadrock stans claim that “classic” rock sounds a lot better while high (debatable but that’s what they say). And just looking at videos of old raves it’s clear that acid trance and adjacent genres were designed to enhance the effects of acid, mdma etc.
But what about recent music like the “EDM trend”? and would you say this phenomenon exists in kpop music, despite being designed at non-druggie tweens?

I’ve had this hypothesis for years ever since I read that the side effects of the lethargy caused by lean (the purple drink) was that the artists who took it preferred slower songs, to the point they artificially slowed down the tempo of contemporary rap songs. Hence, mumble rap with its super lean beats was born. Maybe the reason why we hate mumble rap is because we’re not drinking lean and therefore don’t “get it”?

I do realize that not everyone making mumble rap, specially in S.Korea, is high. But I do think it’s funny how things that are kickstarted on drugs (or without) are copied without any regard of how good or bad it sounds… specially when it’s done by idols lmao

Although I’m not a drug user, it’s apparently very true that a lot of “classic rock” music sounds better when high, for a fairly obvious reason – the people who were making it were all high as fucking shit.  It’s not a surprising fact – music writing is a creative function and anything that allows people’s brains to “think differently” is obviously going to open up some new ideas.  There’s probably something to your “lean” theory, and that probably also partly explains the purple discolouration in the videos for a lot of the really shithouse trap songs, you could probably go a lot further than that and trace the peaks and troughs of popularity of a whole bunch of recreational substances throughout history and correlate it to the invention and fashionability of various genres of music.

The obvious difference with k-pop is that the performer is very rarely the writer.  Even supposed “songwriters” like G-Dragon and T.O.P smoking weed really has no consequence whatsoever on the sound of BigBang because G-Dragon is just a cog in the wheel at most, it’s still somebody else who is really making the big decisions about what everything actually sounds like.

The other thing to consider is that just because someone who is high as a kite invents something doesn’t mean that other people who are not on drugs can’t do something with the musical form and enhance it etc or reinvent things, and k-pop excels at reinvention.

How do you avoid offending people in a professional situation? Recently I found myself in predicaments where I had said things to my coworkers that offended them to the point where they complained to HR. They weren’t slurs, microaggressions, or any sort of “problematic” behaviors, so I really had no idea that they were offensive until I was called into the HR office. I feel especially lost because I already work hard to censor my not-SJW-approved thoughts and words in my job, yet I am still offending others. In my personal life I’ve already accepted that sensitive cunts aren’t gonna like me, but I’d rather not lose my job. How do you deal with this problem?

When I’m working I just keep things work-related and don’t talk when I don’t need to, that’s basically it.  I don’t find it that hard.  I guess in the music business the boundaries are a little different to an office job or whatever, but there’s obviously some lines somewhere.  Sorry, that’s not a good answer.  I’m probably the wrong person to ask about this given the uniqueness of what I do, but I think the basics is that if people can see that you have respectful intent then that probably overrides offence about a small comment or whatever, just don’t say things that are douchey and you should be okay.

I hope that you’re well,Oppar.I’m just pretty downtrodden,I guess.My marks for class 12th were really shitty. Now my country’s top uni considers the percentage of best for subjects which is what my parents are telling everyone that I’ve got.My Mum really wanted me to go to that uni and she’s upset (she intially tried not to express it,not anymore tho).And the worst thibg is that scores have been pretty high this year so the cut-offs will be horribly high so I don’t have much chances.There are a few other places that I’ve applied to but I have no fucking confidence now.Granted that I’m sort of lazy so I’m the only one to blame in this.I took legal studies because the subject was new and sounded sort of interesting without knowing that this subject drags down scores (this happened for everyone who takes it but it’s pretty rare as a subject).I just don’t know what to do.I’m just so fucking sad.My family had a lot of expectations and I’ve fucked up.And the worst part is that I’m considered studious by everyone I know (I read a lot of fictional books) so everyone’s like ‘this is so low,we expected better from her’.
Sorry for the rant Oppar but I’m just bloody lost right now.Thank you and have a nice day/night!

P.S-Please don’t put the numbers and percentages on the blog.I don’t feel comfortable with them being put on display like that.I only revealed it to you because I trust your judgement.

In this question of yours (which isn’t really a question, because I don’t know what you’re asking or if you’re even asking anything), I’m hearing a lot about your parents’ expectations of you, what your friends and people you know think, and so forth – everything about what OTHER people will think of your scores.  You’re even concerned about what myself and readers will think!  What I’m not reading is anything at all here about YOU and what YOU actually think about it all and what you want to do with your life.  Maybe you performed poorly at certain subjects because you just weren’t into them?  Do you even want to go to uni?  If so, why?  Fuck what people think.  I think you need to think more about yourself and what your actual goals in life are.  We all are going to die one day, you owe it to yourself to have as much fun as possible before then and make sure that you’re pursuing the things that really make YOU happy, as opposed to things that just make other people happy.  It’s impossible to make everybody happy with you anyway, some people are always going to complain and bitch no matter what you do.  So, do what you want – while also making the smartest and best choices that you can.  I know what I chose – when I was uni age I didn’t even go to uni.

Are you going to make a Honourable/Dishonourable mentions list for the Dark Ages of K-Pop? Even though I’m sure the good songs will be 3 and the bad ones will be 154 lol

I’d like to one day, but it’s unlikely to be soon, for the reasons you’ve pointed out.  I don’t really have enough material.  Early k-pop was pretty fucking shit.

hello i love your blog and i wanted to know your opinion of this topic (everyone was fighting about it on my twitter timeline)
who you think paved the way for kpop?
some say only bts for their international records and others say thay tvxq & boa too for their japanese records.
sorry i didn’t use caps lock and i wish you a good century!

This is a very good question and you can expect the answer fondly in a future post!

Which are the Roundup weeks with the highest and lowest amount of good songs you have stumbled across so far?

I don’t keep track of this particular statistic.  My readers would probably have a better chance of telling me the answer to this than I would telling them!

Hi Kpopalypse! So I wrote a few months back about my Dad’s girlfriend’s son “Shithead Bratcunt the 1st”. Well he’s 10 and took a huge shit on my kitchen floor (not kidding) then went off to play fortnite without cleaning it up or bringing attention to the fact that he fucking SHAT on my nice clean floor. He’s also still fucking attention seeking and always talks about money and wanting things (when he already has more than most kids his age). How the fuck do I discipline this cunt and get him to stop being such an ungrateful shit without ruining my Dad’s relationship? Thanks dude

Make him EAT THE POO POO

Okay not really.  I think fuck your Dad’s relationship, that’s his problem, just be straight-up with him.  “Dad I know you like banging this chick, but her son shits on the kitchen floor and then if that’s not bad enough, he even plays Fortnite”.  I mean he probably won’t quit the relationship over that, and he can’t really discipline her child because it’s hers not his, but you’ll feel better.

I just showed SHINyan’s Because of You to my own cat while she was sleeping and she kept sleeping and not giving a fuck lol. The most noteworthy thing she did was twitching her ears. I don’t mind the song, though.

You should have taken some video like I did.

Anyway you gotta try again when she’s awake.  Your cat probably just had a dream about another cat, or something.

Hi oppar! I’m moving away from home fairly soon, and in fact moving to a country which is quite far away. Do you have any advice for me? Thanks!

• Make money
• Don’t get pregnant, or get anyone else pregnant
• Make more money
• Obey all local laws
• Make enough money that you can support Kpopalypse on Patreon without it affecting your lifestyle
• Don’t lose touch with people back home, you never know when you might need someone

MRS?

Why even ask this question about someone who is on the bias list when you know the answer.

Someone did this shit drama with best girl Chuu:

What’s your opinion about her acting? Also, your logic to judge rap performances in another language apply here somewhat?
Have a nice month!

All k-drama acting seems ridiculously cheesy and over-the-top to me.  Which actually makes Chuu perfect for it, obviously.  I still wouldn’t watch this though, I’m flat-out not interested in k-drama.  There’s only one type of drama that I’m really interested in.

Hi Kpopalypse,

What’s your opinion on those poorly-written, Mary Sue k-pop fanfics? I have been reading k-pop fanfics since 2013 (mostly in Chinese, because I’m a native Chinese speaker), and Jesus Christ, most of them are just downright awful.

For instance, I just read a TWICE fanfic*, and at some point of the story Tzuyu, a prosecutor, decided to have a “date” with Momo, her childhood friend who became a criminal mastermind (and apparently had a crush on Tzuyu), in order to gather enough evidence against Momo in a huge criminal case. After they had some normal couple activity, Momo decided it would be a great idea to force herself on Tzuyu, because she was making any progress. Although the author tried to package all of these as romantic, to me it’s nothing but a rape case.

And believe or not, the fanfic is written by a female.

Sometimes I can’t help but to wonder what if someone present a Japanese/Korean translation of said fanfic to TWICE members (Tzuyu can read it directly), what sort of reactions they would have?

* For those who can read Chinese, here’s the link.

I don’t really read them, I actually come into contact with this type of stuff extremely rarely, generally only when other people point out to me that it exists at all.  Obviously my own various “fanfictions” exist partially to provide a counter balance to this type of thing and I’ve talked about this before in Qrimole and in the AustralianSana series.  I think celebrities would know that this type of thing these days is part of being a celebrity, that people are going to write unhinged fanfictions about you.  I don’t anyone would bother to seek out their own fanctions and read them earnestly though, they’d lose interest after one or two because they’re all the same and there’s not much writing quality there.

Hi oppar, just wanna ask you to elaborate on the similarities of metal and jazz in terms of lead guitar techniques. Oh and are there other similarities as well? When I told my uncle about the similarity you said, he said it’s true but there are also other similarities, not just in a musical sense. That made no sense to me ahahaha cos I’m ignorant about this stuff. Thanks oppar!

Both jazz players and metal players tend to do a lot of arpeggios.  Django Rinehart was the first “virtuoso” jazz guitarist and his playing was very arpeggio-based (by necessity as only two fingers of his fretting hand actually worked, so he couldn’t really do scales much).  So jazz and metal guitars tend to employ sweep-picking a lot.  The only people I’ve ever taught sweeping to are either metal guys or jazz guys.  Jazz lead guitar is often more about isolating the chord tones than playing within fixed scales, and metal guitar is sometimes like that too.  Also jazz and metal guitarists both like playing with “modes” for the same reason, it opens up a bunch of different moods beyond typical major and minor.  I haven’t discussed modes yet in my music theory posts but eventually I’ll get to it.  These are similarities which aren’t just musical, they’re also theoretical.  Then there’s the fact that both styles tend to have an aesthetic of speed and technicality.  Compare:

Certainly the songs are different but there are some common structural elements (soloing surrounded by a reoccuring theme) and very similar guitar techniques throughout.

I wrote a good song (or at least one that is waaayyy better than my old shit) and now I don’t know what to write. I’m stuck.

Another one like that one.

Hi oppar! I hope both you and your car are recovered from the accident by now.

I’m the university instructor who wrote to you a couple of months ago to complain about my unmotivated students. The bad news is that they didn’t get more motivated with time, but the good news is that last week I had a dream that I was hanging out and taking selfies with Chuu, and a few days later I was offered a really good academic job out of the blue! It’s a one-year position at a much better university. They initially offered the position to another candidate, but then a second position opened and they offered it to me! My question is: do you think stanning Loona had something to do with this windfall?

Yes.  Good luck in your new position!

Hi there! Sorta long time reader here. I just broke up with my boyfriend whom I’ve been with 7 years – and I don’t really feel bad about it, kinda confirming my thoughts that he wasn’t adding that much to my life anymore.

I’ll try to be brief: there’s this person who I always thought was attractive but before my relationship never quite had the confidence to go for it, then I got into another relationship and etc. Now, I’m single, he’s single, we’re friends and I kind of want to see if it could turn into something more; I don’t even know if it would work out, but I’d be interested to test it out. My question is not related to whether I should do it or not – but how. Like, how do you even introduce that kind of topic in a conversation? How do I create a moment which will make it obvious enough that I’m interested, but won’t make it super awkward? We always see each other in a group so I’m not even sure how to be alone with him, or even if he’d be interested. Flirting is this wild thing which I haven’t really experienced much (because of the previous long-term relationship) and I just don’t get it. Help? (I also thought a guy’s perspective might be good)

I think ask him out somewhere.  Not all heavy and awkward like “do you wanna go out with me” but more like “hey there’s this thing on that I’d really like to go and see but I don’t wanna go on my own, do you wanna go with me?” or “you should check out this cool place, why don’t I take you?”, just start talking about the thing and then drop it naturally into the conversation.  If he says no, eh, no biggie, it was just a friendly invite right?  If he says yes, then start with the flirting if you want to and feel comfortable.  Remember with guys that most guys have very under-developed non-verbal communication skills, so the more obvious you can make the flirting, the more likely you’ll succeed.

I think I found a non-KPop version of Dinosaur, where it’s a trophouse song, only guided by Suhyun’s voice during the chorus.

I think this song below has that factor, where instead of some fiddling instrument playing with the beat, it’s someone making noise playing along the beat, or in this case, yoiking:

Yeah it’s definitely structurally and texturally very similar.  I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the west doing what Korean pop usually does – deliberately making a “soundalike” of another country’s song.  I think AKMU’s song is a lot better though.

Hi oppar! I expect your are feeling better now!
What’s the structure of this music? Does it even have a chorus?
Have a nice month!

The chorus is the bit where he sings “Mr Jones” and sounds like a dying dog that you just want to step on.

I’m not going to listen to one of the worst songs ever made enough to break it down structurally, you can do that yourself, that was the whole point of my “structures” post anyway, to give you readers the tools to do that rather than relying on me having to do it for you.  Asking this type of question about any song defeats the entire purpose of why that post exists.

Hi! Hoping you get well soon!

There’s this soundtrack on Pump It Up (like DDR but Korean and better) that sounds suspiciously a LOT like GFriend’s Rough. (im linking it below) Do you have any thoughts or possible reasons why? Do they share a sampled piece? Or same chord progressions or some other music technical stuff (im not really into these terminologies i just listen to music lol)? I don’t think it’s outright plagiarism tho, since the track’s been up for so long and GFriend’s songs (Me Gustas Tu and TFTMN, if anyone’s wondering) have been featured in the game, so someone had to notice it if it was indeed plagiarism.

Thank you for your thoughts (if any LOL), and have a nice day oppar!

The chord progressions, melody and tempo are all quite similar.  However you could say exactly the same thing about Gfriend’s “Navillera“, or Apink’s “Remember“.  This is what’s called “genre similarity”, not “plagiarism”.  I’ve covered this before many times.  “Similar” is not “the same”.  Just because Marvin Gaye’s money-grubbing family won a court case because Robin Thicke is an unlikeable dickhead and jurors don’t understand how music works doesn’t mean that the rules around music plagiarism actually have changed.

In your May 20 roundup, you write, “SM must be mad. Think about them every day looking at the success of BTS and thinking ‘hang on – why wasn’t this one of our groups?'” This reminds me of the SM/Woollim merger back in 2013. Do you think there’s a chance that SM might acquire Big Hit (or at least try to)?

I’m sure that it’s at least been considered!  I mean they’d be crazy not to at least put an offer out there.  My post on the SM/Woollim merger talks about why this might even be a good idea from the smaller company’s perspective – but then again it might not be.  It just depends on what SM brought to the table, and I think they’d have to bring quite a lot to have a really good offer.

Don’t you think time is passing too quickly these days? It seems like only yesterday when you published qrimole, and the next one is coming in a week.

If time is passing quickly that’s a sign that you’re falling into a routine and you need to schedule things ahead of time that you’re really looking forward to.  I’m finding that time is going very slowly because of the Blackpink concert coming up and some other events happening for me soon professionally.

Greetings Kpopalypse, hope you are fully recovered from the car crash by the time you read this, I have two questions for you:

Idols have their fair share of woes and shitty job conditions so It’s no wonder that many break that dating ban rule, but they also profit from giving fans the ilusion of availability. How much blame should they take for it? They are under draconian rules but also profiting from them. Is it unethical to break any unreasonable agreement you are profiting from if you accepted it at first?

I find myself fantasizing about kpop girls more time that I would want to, any advice to help me stop it?

If you’ve got a job, you might not enjoy your bosses’ work policy but you still have to abide by that policy to keep your job.  If you had a choice, you’d choose to not have the rule, but you don’t have that choice, so you put up with it and take the money – or, you quit the job – or you try to convince the boss to change the rule (good luck) – or you break the rule and then the consequences happen.  Personally if I thought that the rules were really stupid I would choose to extract myself from a situation where I didn’t like the rules rather than break them simply because I think breaking the rules of your employer isn’t professional.  That might change if my employer was also being unprofessional too, for instance if I wasn’t being paid fairly.  While personally I would never break the rules of a fair employer, I can understand the motivations of idols in those situations to break the rules because the chances of them being fairly compensated for such a ban are minimal.

I don’t really fantasise about k-pop girls, but I think fapping more might help.  Okay, you probably won’t fantasise any less, but you’ll enjoy it more.

Why do rappers always scream their lines on top of their lungs when they’re live, instead of singing them in the same pitch as they are in the studio version of the song?

When people are onstage they tend to get a bit more adrenalin going, so they tend to push out their voice harder.  Rappers in particular do this because almost none of them know the first thing about vocals and aren’t self-conscious enough to realise that they’re pushing out way more than they need to.  This is why those “rapper vocal evaluation” threads in k-pop forums are so fucking retarded, if they know how incredibly little their favourite rappers knew about anything to do with vocals they’d be amazed.  If there’s one style of music where vocal technique is needed even less than it’s needed in k-pop, it’s rap.

In your scales post you said that basic major/minor keys work for 98% of kpop. I remember last year you said that In2it’s Snapshot used quarter tones, so is that song in a “normal” major/minor key with occasional quarter tones or is it something else entirely/part of the 2% of kpop that your post doesn’t cover?

It’s a fairly typical k-pop song tonally apart from that one little quirk.  The few k-pop songs that step outside the bounds are generally like that, it’s just one little section and everything else obeys the rules.

Hey Kpopalypse! Two questions here:

1) Is this video recording diary series by NCT of their time in the studio an accurate depiction of what it’s like recording a song? For example, with the parts showing Mark and Taeyong rapping, would members of a Kpop group normally actually have any say in how their parts are sung or do you think what they’re saying’s just a facade to make the members seem more involved?

2) How are you so good at writing?

1. It’s a pretty good overview of the kinds of processes that happen, as well as the time taken. However these companies don’t release anything “by accident” and it’s clearly content that has been released to try and sell NCT as being more “in control” of their music.  Recording vocals is hardly the last stage of the process, all the mixing happens after that, and that’s where an engineer can step in and do a whole world of stuff, change things up, slice different vocal parts together, even bring in other vocalists to re-record parts or chop bits out completely.  It’s obvious that SM see the hype around BTS being creatively involved and are trying to replicate this a little, whether it’s for real or not I don’t know but I wouldn’t put money on these boys having any say in what goes into the final mix.
2. Practice!  And thank you!

How long does it take to write a song?

Between 5 minutes and 5 years depending on how creatively inspired you are.  A song is at heart an idea, and a good idea usually germinates a song very quickly.  A song taking ages to write is usually a sign that the song is going to suck when it’s done.  Unless it’s a super-technical song that would naturally take ages to write anyway just due to the complexity.

Hello again. Just wanted to report back to say that I had successfully overcome karaoke day with your help. I listened to your suggested songs and ultimately decided on WG’s Nobody. Even though I initially wasn’t really feeling the song, and looking at my roommates cosplaying as their faves and ‘rehearsing’ excitedly made me question whether I made a good choice, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and embrace the potential ridiculousness of the situation. All in all, I sang the song well, did 90% of the arm-movement choreography along with it, and covered up my nervousness and lack of outfit budget with a pink feather boa and side-feather headband for that flapper-girl-on-the-cheap impression to go with the concept. So I want to say thank you for reading my question last QRIMOLE and giving me your suggestions!
P.S. Just read about your accident. I wish I had your strong mentality and professionalism. Despite your predicament, you made time to inform caonimas of the situation knowing that they might worry, and you used that announcement to reinforce the importance of seatbelt safety (in witty Kpopalypse fashion) while also promoting LadiesCode’s new song and raising LOONA quota. And you’re back to writing already. You’re such a fast healer. Or at least I hope that means you’re recovering well and not in any pain. Take care, Kpopalypse!

Glad to know that you overcame it!  Remember that people tend to consume any musical product with their eyes before their ears, and that includes karaoke!  Sounds like you killed it, good stuff.

This isn’t an actual question, just wanted to point out your nugu alert featuring Nightoff didn’t feature the official channel for their song. That would be here:

and it has over 20,000 views which makes it ineligible. Pity as it’s a great song.

Yeah that’s a pity – just as well I didn’t know they had an official channel at the time, hey.  But then it’s also good because it means they’re getting views.  Why not click on it some more and make it even more ineligible.

Oppar, I have so much free time now, so I have finally decided to stan Loona. So, my question is: how to stan Loona? Where do I start? I’m not completely clueless myself (I figure I should watch the solo and unit MVs in order for starters) and I know you don’t actually engage in proper “stanning” but I’m interested in getting an answer from you anyway, since you seem to appreciate Loona significantly more than other groups you cover. And if anyone is passing by and reading this too and is a Loona fan, hopefully they can give me tips in the comments, too.

You can stan Loona in the following ways:

• Buy these products
• Play this game
• and this one
• if all else fails collect these

Readers feel free to suggest more actions in the comments!

Can you explain, the way you explained why you like Roly Poly, why you like One & One? Thank you!

Yeah but I won’t, at least not here.  Maybe one day I’ll find an excuse to discuss this.

Why did so many people fall for some irrational bullshits like astrology & metaphysics?
Do you believe in it too?

They watched Oh My Girl’s astrology-themed “Closer” choreography.  I’ve got to admit, it’s hard to remain cynical when seeing this choreo, but I’m let down by the omission of Ophiuchus.

It’s been nearly 4 years since Twice debuted. Overall, how would you say they’re doing when compared to Girls’ Generation? I suppose that what I’m really asking is do you think Twice are less than, greater than, or equal to GG back when they were in their prime?

I have no idea.  I guess they’re that “one big girl group” so they occupy the same market position, that’s probably what matters, comparing individual achievements seems pointless especially with an almost-10 year gap between the groups’ career peaks, enough has changed in that time.  I don’t think it’s a meaningful conversation.

Sorry to hear about your accident, hope you are doing well.
You are a person that has experience or knowledge about the shady parts of the music/entertainment industry, could you give general advice to someone young and inexperienced about what to be aware of? Don’t want to be naive but neither overly cynical. Any interesting reading material about the subject?

Here’s some reading material that might help.

Generally, too much caution is better than not enough, and if something sounds shady then it almost definitely is even worse than you think.  The same sort of skills that will help you with street survival also apply to the music business.  Which is kind of sad when you think about it, but true nevertheless.

were you aware that there is going to be a proper k-tigers group and that they’ve been doing a reality show about putting it together which is not only subbed but hosted by shindong? it feels like something you would’ve made up

(i would’ve just sent this on curiouscat but they wouldn’t let me send a link without creating an account so whatevs)

I was not aware of this.  I will fondly expect a debut from the full group.

I was just reading about the latest developments of the Burning Sun/k-prostitution scandal and it’s all getting convoluted and much too extensive for me. Depraved celebrities, chaebols and corrupt businessmen, politicians and fugitives. Apparently reaching all the way to Hollywood. It’s difficult to wrap my head around it. These are the sort of things I’ve only seen in movies and in my mind they were designated to ‘fictional scenarios created for entertainment purposes and ratings/sales’. Reading about them in news outlets means that they are a deeply rooted reality. I guess if k-pop has one talent, it’s creating this very strong illusion which even when receiving a blow like this, it still makes people think ‘This is an unfortunate occurrence. It’s only YG. Surely my bias group and their company can’t be involved in something so heinous’. That it’s still this self contained universe where it’s just ‘innocent boys and girls chasing their dreams’, ‘everyone is a family and they love each other’, there are no conflicts, everyone is always ‘working hard for the fans’, practicing dancing, gwiyomi and variety, and should there be any deviation from the designated pattern, a bout of ‘reflection’ is all it takes to restore paradise. If anything, despite the recent scandals that would have crushed anything else, the hallyu wave seems to be rising more than ever. Initially I thought maybe it’s just an online thing, but even my classmates who used to ridicule all of c-pop, k-pop and j-pop are currently exclusively staning BTS (with a smaller segment worshiping BlackPink) and acting like every terrible trope of the delulu k-pop fangirl. It was surreal. Even attempting to broach the topic of ‘Have you considered who and what you are supporting?’ will cause a fuss and get buried immediately because it’s not of interest and it will only be used to attack their perfect bias. I don’t know how the k-pop hallyu machine works? but it’s disarmingly efficient.
While I’m relatively new to your blog and mostly an occasional lurker rather than a fan that’s always up to date with what you post, I can’t help but wonder should I have seen all of this coming? Did I miss the ‘signs’? What were they and how was I supposed to see them? I generally fastforward through whenever idols do interviews or companies release statements because even a naive fool like myself could tell that they are all reciting from a script/telling lies, but the thought that there are so many who can lie so convincingly and have an alternate personality and a criminal double life while sleeping peacefully at the end of the day…I guess k-netz were right about having a strong shameless mentality to succeed in life.
So in case I missed it, I kindly request a current events related post ~2019 edition~ in the spirit of 2014’s “How drug-fucked is your bias?”.
Also should your site choose to get prettier again in the future, would you consider grouping your posts based on theme/subject and add sidebar girls for each unit? You are a prolific writer and you’ve been active since 2012 (and you will probably go on until 2050 with your determination skills), so scrolling through the Kpopalypse article index or through the trufax tag will take long and even people with good attention span might miss a post they could be interested in.
Thank you

While I don’t forsee a site redesign soon, I’ve gradually been adding more tags over time and may diversify them even further soon.

Generally speaking, people accept the reality which they have been presented.  The struggle of a blog such as this one is to say that the presentation is false in the face of overwhelming “evidence” to the contrary.  This gets into deep territory which is probably deserving of a post of its own, which may even be an updated version of the “how drug-fucked is your bias” post, or something similar.  Thanks for bringing it up because it’s probably something I should write about more.

Hello! First of all, thanks for your diligence in explaining audio technicalities to us, stupid morons. I’m a more educated member of society thanks to the premium content™ provided by your blog. I have two questions!

1) Once you mentioned in passing (I think it was in the 2017 honourable mentions post) that most of the songs in kpop are really well produced, meaning that the ones which are not stick out a little. In this week’s roundup, you referred to NCT’s “superhuman” as SHINee’s lucifer but polished to the point of a bland mush (If I got it right). Do you think there’s such a thing in Kpop nowadays as “overproducing” a song? (I’m so sorry if I’m butchering the language here). I don’t know if it’s me, or if I’m just too tired for Kpop already, but I do get the sense that most major Kpop releases these days tend to be very one dimensional and bland. Would love to hear your thoughts as I genuinely learn a lot from your input.

2) A not-so-long-as-shit querie, what do you think of this song?

(PS: to the Brazilian girl from the last Qrimole: based on your description of the program you’re attending, I’m 99% sure we went to the same school. Hang on in there, you’re gonna make it. Take one step at a time and, if you can, push your parents for some therapy.)

Thanks once more and hope you’re recovering well from your car accident!

I think that it’s more common for k-pop to have “too much” than “not enough”.  A really good example is Fromis_9’s “Love Bomb”.

It’s a great song but there’s just a little too much going on.  Now that’s a completely different thing to a song being “one-dimensional” which to me is just another word for “simple” and I think that’s fine.  K-pop isn’t supposed to be deep.  Maybe you mean something different by this, like perhaps the over-abundance of soft ballads or R&B – but now we’re not talking about one song specifically but a trend of songs generally.  I guess you could say that some ballads are bland while also being “over produced” and I’d definitely agree, I discuss this more in my post about ballads.

I don’t mind the song, sounds like something Tank & Mary would have danced to.  I miss their YouTube channel.

I keep seeing in ear monitors with pretty designs that Orbits have given to LOONA as fan gifts. Is it actually commonplace for singers to have their own personal iems? I thought that they would just borrow them from whichever place they were performing.

I think that it would be unusual for a group to use fan-gifted equipment unless it really was very good, and fan-gifted in-ears would probably not be used much simply because of the hassle of using different equipment plus the visual aspect of having non-matching gear.  However singers do often have their own favourite microphones that they take to shows etc.  It really depends on the singer, and it also depends on the setup and what conditions they do shows under.  I’d say that in k-pop it’d be very uncommon, they don’t get to decide much of anything and microphones would be no different.  Exception might be somebody like IU or similar.

Hey oppar,

Apologies, I’ve had a few things stewing in my brain for a long time that I’ve wanted to know your thoughts on, and since my anxiousness generally extends onto the internet as well as real life, I’ve only just mustered up the courage to vomit all of my feelings onto Qrimole. I’m sorry for the huge novel of questions.

So in your last huge survey you did, you answered one of my questions (actually you answered two but we’ll get to the second one later) where I asked about your posts having hidden symbolism or extra meaning behind them in addition to what was presented on the page. In response to my feedback you said “It’s okay not to get it, if that’s inspiring you to think about the articles more and what they might really be saying, then I can only say that that’s a very good development and you should pursue that.”

Instead of taking your advice, I decided to take absolutely everything at face value and try to figure out the meaning of the literal words you string together instead of looking for abstract symbolism and hidden messages, because I was curious about how it would read if I tried it that way. In a strange way, it’s been so much more rewarding for me to read your posts like that instead of questioning the meaning behind everything you write, because I’ve become a lot more reflective on myself and what my own reactions are to your words and how I interpret what you say. Like when you make some comment about the terrible way women are treated in the industry, I’ll try to access any prior knowledge I have on the subject and reconcile what I know with what you have said, disregarding whatever hidden meaning I think might be behind the words. Does this make any sense? I don’t know, anyways, thank you for the advice, because in doing the exact opposite of what you suggested, reading your blog has become much more rewarding.

Another thing I’ve been thinking about in regards to kpopalypse content is related to your twitch streams. I usually join them whenever I can (which isn’t very often because you always stream super late in the evening where I am) and I enjoy them a lot because you have this way of royally pissing me off. Truly, sometimes you’ll say things about not caring about some video a person sent to the stream questions and I’ll think “How can this asshole not care? The person asking the question probably cared a lot about this video of a dude reacting to the Star Wars trailer, and this fucker just completely invalidating the other person’s feelings!”

I like moments like these, because it forces me to take a step back and examine my own reactions to what you say. Really, you’re just some random guy on the internet whose opinions on music and Kpop I happen to respect. I don’t actually have to give two shits about what you say (especially if it isn’t about music or Kpop), and to be honest, I didn’t care about that Star Wars reaction either.
Instead of getting angry at you for having different opinions from myself, I have to consciously examine why I feel that way towards you, and it’s really improving the way I relate to people irl as well. So thanks for that, even if it’s sometimes infuriating.

In your last survey, you also answered my status update thing, where I said that I was physically fine (though iron deficient. I still am. It sucks), and that I was having trouble finding people I could relate to in the Kpop sphere (specifically: Twitter).

Well, after you answered my input I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflecting (if you can’t tell by now, that’s pretty much all I do) and I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason I find it so hard to relate to people and make friends is that I’m just a shitty person in general.

I’m almost socially stunted, because I was just an angry, anxious mess of a human being for the first 11 years of my life. Hence, few friends and a nonexistent social life. I’m fifteen now, and trying simultaneously to figure out what I missed all those years when I was checked out of life and if I even really missed anything at all. On top of that, I’m still very unsure of how to deal with my anxious tendencies regarding actual human interaction, while thrusting myself into social situations that I just don’t feel I’m ready for. This results in me just being a huge dick most of the time. I’m either overthinking absolutely everything that happens, or being stupid and not thinking before I speak. I lack tact, empathy, and any pleasantness that should come from interacting with any functioning human being.
It fucking sucks to be honest. I feel bad saying that because I know that my own problems are nothing compared to what other people have to go through in life.
I’ve been trying to change the way I behave for what feels like forever, but my habit patterns are so impossibly hard to change that it just feels hopeless.

I guess I’m writing all of this because I know that you think very differently than I do, so you might have something to say that hasn’t occurred to me yet. I also take everything you say with a grain of salt, and it feels safer to ask advice of a random aussie dude on the internet than anyone else.
Until then, I will reflect and return with a more confident and self-assured image.

On another note, I’ve been worrying a lot lately about what I’m going to do post-graduation. I can’t even take the fricking bus by myself but I’m going to have to move away for university. It’s terrifying. Even more terrifying is that I decided a while ago that I wanted to study psychology one I got out of school. I was always interested in it because I’ve had some problems with my mind in the past (and present) and I wanted to be able to overcome those challenges and help other people dealing with similar issues. Unfortunately, I’m terrible at talking to people, and on top of that, I’m not really passionate about psychology as a field of study. My mother is pushing me to study some sort of fine art, most likely design or creative writing. Only I hold not even the slightest modicum of talent in drawing, and writing sucks the life out of me.
It’s very disheartening, because my best friend is your typical Asian overachiever. She volunteers almost every day, bakes vegan/low sugar/great-tasting treats, takes all the honours courses and is planning on becoming a doctor. Meanwhile, I’m just over here, spending a full hour writing out a question to a grumpy kpop blogger in the dead of night about my various insecurities instead of working on my homework that’s due tomorrow.
Should I should just pursue psychology? Go into fine arts and die a broke boi while my friend gets rich and successful? What really matters in life anyway? Can you tell that I’m a super insecure teenager that is experiencing angst at this moment in time?

Based on your radio show (which I enjoy a lot by the way), you live in or around Adelaide? If this is true, could you speak to the existence of a certain building called the Black Stump? This is very important to me.

Anyways, my last question is just about why I enjoy female kpop music more than male, even though I am a super straight girl who should hypothetically love the music by cute kpop boys more than girls. I guess it’s just because I enjoy girl’s voices more, but are there any actual differences between the music?
Also, I was wondering if you had any music recommendations, just any music in general. I’m really not picky and I’ve been having some trouble expanding my library. If not, that’s fine. I feel bad for writing such a long, unnecessarily drawn-out submission in the first place.

Thank you, my dude.

I’m fine for people to read the blog any way that they want.  I wrote for my own entertainment.  If it entertains you too, that’s great!  The reason doesn’t really matter that much.  Some people like The Simpsons because Homer is oafish and says “d’oh!” a lot.  Some people like it for the cultural/political subtext woven into the better episodes.  Some people like it for their sly and knowing portrayal of the family unit.  Some people like it because the actors have funny voices.  None of these are invalid reactions and the show is deliberately designed to work shadily on all those different levels, which is what makes it (at its best) a much better show than Family Guy.

Saying that I don’t care about something isn’t invalidating someone else’s feelings.  If I say “I don’t care about Star Wars”, I’m not stopping other people from caring about Star Wars.  They can still care about Star Wars if they want to, that’s fine.  I’m just saying… that I don’t.  I’m not going to pretend to like something just so somebody else sleeps better at night or whatever.  Just like I don’t care if they do care, why should they care that I don’t care?  They are free to enjoy whatever they want, but they have to expect an honest reaction should they ask me about it.  Different people like different shit and that’s completely okay.  Some weird people even like professional sports.  Like, what’s up with those fuckin’ weirdos man.

Rest assured that social awkwardness is something that everybody feels and nobody is really all that good at social situations, that’s why they serve alcohol in most places that are designed for socialisation.  If you’re socially complete crap (like I was for many years) it’s easy to have a very “fatalist” view of it and imagine the other side where people are socialising with ease – but that doesn’t really exist.  For instance an illiterate person might say “if I could read, I’d read every book in the library!” but the fact is that people who can read have got better shit to do than read an entire library worth of books just because they can, most of them are just reading bullshit like stupid k-pop blogsites written by Australian assholes instead.

You know what I’m going to say about study etc from reading previous answers.  Prioritise yourself first.  Think about what makes you happy and do that, simply because it’s a fuckton easier to motivate yourself to study and get good marks when you are actually enjoying whatever it is you’re meant to be doing.  Just research the course beforehand so you know it’s really your thing.  For instance, my girlfriend studied psychology for a while and was horrified to learn that a lot of the course material was actually about statistics.

Yes I do live in Adelaide and the Black Stump aka Grenfell Centre is a real thing that exists.  I commute past this building often as it’s right where the business and shopping hubs of Adelaide meet up.  If you’re keen on Adelaide landmarks you should also be made aware of Adelaide’s Optus building that my friends call “GG Allin’s buttplug” due to the rounded top and stained appearance that increases in colour density closer to the tip that would perform penetration if it were in fact a buttplug.

Yes there are difference between boy pop and girl pop in k-pop.  A future post will go into this in greater detail, but I’m waiting until I’ve covered off some more basic music theory posts first because it’s an impossible thing to actually talk about properly without involving some pretty heavy theoretical discussion.

If you want some non k-pop to listen to, listen to Ghost.  Ignore the faux Satanic image (which is fun, but it will give you a wrong idea about the music), the sound is more like Black Sabbath meets Queen, with some of the best choruses I’ve heard in any western rock music ever.

If there was enough music of this quality around in the west to distract me I may not have even gotten into k-pop at all.

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That’s all for QRIMOLE!  This series will return in a month, in the meantime always wear your seatbelt, even if you’re just posing out for a k-pop video – seatbelts save caonima lives!

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!