It’s time to celebrate the upcoming Christmas season with QRIMOLE!  Read on as Kpopalypse tackles more questions from readers!

This will be the last QRIMOLE for 2019!  Kpopalypse blog will now slow down the posting frequency slightly as I am very busy drafting all sorts of end-of-year content, but don’t worry, you nice folks will still get at least one more Roundup, clearing house posts and more, and QRIMOLE will also return early in the new year with a 2020 new year’s edition so do continue to send your questions in!  Anyway, let’s get on with this month’s episode!

Is “post-pop” a real music genre? Will it ever be? What would it sound like?

People just make shit up.  Basic rule of thumb for genres – if it makes no fucking sense to file music under that category in a record shop, it’s not a genre, it’s just some music journalist having a wank.

Hello kpopalypse, do you have any information or update about Soyeon (from t-ara aka best gg ever) as soloist? Im pretty sure i read somewhere that she was going to release an album but the year is about to end and theres no news about it, thanks.

No.  Kpopalypse is not a news site and I generally don’t get “scoops”.  When I do, I ignore them, and sometimes I refer the “scooper” to an actual news site that might give a shit.  I also don’t follow other news sites generally speaking, apart from Asian Junkie which is very trufaxual and you should all visit as much as possible.  I hear about most things because my readers tell me!

oppar why do you like haseul’s solo so much?

I don’t know about “so much”, it didn’t appear in any favourites lists.  However it’s definitely more good than bad.  I dig the 1950s musical style that it starts with, and when the beat eventually drops it’s like a modernised continuation of that.  It also has a pretty strange quasi-tango rhythm which you don’t hear much in k-pop generally – or anywhere else for that matter.

Hi oppar! A long while back you recommended some of your favourite albums on your FAQ and some of your other posts. I managed to find some great stuff to listen to thanks to you! It’s been about 4/5 (?) years since those posts and I was wondering, could you recommend any new albums (both k-pop and non k-pop) that have been released since then that you liked? Thanks!

In case you think your readers might want to know, here’s a compiled list of most of the albums you’ve recommended on this site before:

Celtic Frost – Into The Pandemonium
Mobb Deep – Hell On Earth
Swans – White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity
Ministry – Psalm 69
Current 93 – Soft Black Stars
This Mortal Coil – It’ll End In Tears
Darkthrone – A Blaze In The Northern Sky
Anti-Nowhere League – We Are … The League
Front Line Assembly – Caustic Grip
Lolita Storm – Girls Fucking Shit Up
La Roux – La Roux
CSS – Cansei De Ser Sexy
Belly – Star
Alizee – Gourmandises
Miss Kittin & The Hacker – The First Album
Cocteau Twins – Head Over Heels
New Order – Substance
Throwing Muses – Limbo
King Diamond – Fatal Portrait
Queen – Queen II (Queen and ABBA in general)
T-ara – Absolute First Album
IU – Modern Times
Wonder Girls – Reboot
f(x) – Pink Tape and Red Light
2NE1 – To Anyone

This is a good list and I don’t feel the need to add to it right now, although I suppose I could, but I won’t, because I don’t want to encourage questions about albums.  Really, I spend so much of my time when I’m not working just writing this blog and listening to tracks, that I don’t even have time to check out whole albums any more, Korean or western.  People keep asking me questions about albums but really there isn’t much more I have to say.  I might drip-feed in some more album stuff into various upcoming posts but only as it becomes relevant to other stuff that I’m writing about, so just keep reading the blog I guess and I’ll get there when I get there.

Hi Kpopalypse, I’m curious how music licensing works for the Kpopalypse radio show. I figure that your radio station pays licensing fees to either the Korean rights management agency or an Australian agency affiliated with them, but I’m interested in the details of the system, like:
– Who keeps track of which songs get played on the air (for the purpose of paying licensing fees?)
– Do you have to assemble your playlist from songs that have been approved by their licensors for broadcast play? Or are licensors obliged to allow broadcast use as long as they get a nominal fee in return? (This is called “compulsory license” in the US)
– Roughly how much does the station pay per song? And where does that money come from?
– Where do the actual audio files you play on the air come from?

I realize these questions are probably applicable to all music, not just K-pop, but I’m also curious about any ways that dealing with the Korean licensing machine differs with its domestic counterpart, if it does at all. And anything else you think worth commenting about.

And a completely unrelated question:
– What does Kpopalypse’s cat think about (G)I-DLE’s Lion and its music video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oanIo_2Z4Q]? Does she feel it appropriates feline culture?

Thanks!

Who keeps track – the radio station has admin people who do that.  My part is that I have to log every song that I play on every show.  You can check out a list here!

Playlist – the second one.  Three D Radio is rare along radio stations in that announcers have no fixed playlist that we must play, and can play (more or less) what they want.  I can’t overstate how unusual this is, globally, for radio stations.

I don’t know the fee per song but it’s not much.  The radio station pays money to APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) for their ability to play songs and then APRA allocates royalties from this to the artists.  I don’t know the exact figure of these fees or how often they’re paid as I don’t work in the financial side of the station.

The radio station has a massive record library, I’ve been told it’s the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere, but I don’t know if this is accurate.  The reason why it’s so big is that most radio stations don’t keep what people send – they keep what’s on the playlist and throw out the rest.  Since we let announcers play pretty much whatever, and since the station has been running since 1979, it’s in our interests to keep everything, so we have a large collection and throw out very little.  As for where I get the music for my show, I get my music the same way all of you people get your music, however I also do get sent quite a lot of stuff, because people know that if they want airplay (and they do) it’s in their interests for the DJs to have their recordings so they can play them!

My cat wasn’t very excited by “Lion”, as you can see here:

At the beginning of the 21st century, I was completely obsessed with Avril Lavigne and her first 2 albums, Let Go and Under My Skin. In 2005, I went to one of her concerts, and it was one of the best nights of my life. Shortly after that concert, I gradually began to lose interest in both Avril and her music.

Fast forward to more than a decade later. Blackpink have just released “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du”, and I’ve become completely obsessed with them. I listen to their music pretty much every day for almost a year. And when I hear that they’ll be having a concert about one hour away from my house, I of course cannot resist the urge to buy a ticket. Once again, I go to their concert, and have another one of the best nights of my life. And now, here I am more than half a year later, and I rarely ever listen to Blackpink’s music anymore.

Is it common (or normal) to be less interested in a group after you have seen them in concertÉ If so, then perhaps I should not be so eager to see CLC or Twice in concert.

I doubt it’s got much to do with seeing them live, it’s more likely that you got a bit sick of hearing the same songs all the time and wanted something fresh.  I know from when I went to see Blackpink that when you go to a k-pop concert that is just for one artist, you get to hear every song they ever did like ten times that night because they play them on the PA while waiting for the artists to come on etc, but even without that, if you play the same songs to yourself every day you will lose interest in them eventually.  Maybe not everyone feels that way but I certainly do.

Do you feel stabbed in the back by your mom abandoning T-ARA to pursuit her acting career?

I unconditionally support my mother in all activities.  After all, she’s family.

about this japanese bravesound song: why does it sound kinda different in the chorus from the verse? it’s mostly noticeable if you compare that “oh oh oh oh oh” hook at the beginning and after the chorus. also how does the song hold up compared to all the k-pop songs bravesound writes? is it done by the same formula?

I don’t really know what you mean by “kinda different”.  All songs sound different in the chorus or there would be no purpose in having a chorus.  I don’t think it’s a very good song, not one of Bravesound’s better ones, guess they’re trying to write the kind of rubbish that the awful Japanese pop market wants to hear.

Just a disclaimer, this is probably going to be the most first world problem of any advice qrimole you’ve been sent, but it really is getting me down. In my last school, I played in the orchestra for four years and eventually became leader of the flute section. I was really looking forward to joining the orchestra in my new school because I heard that it was really good. However, there were no auditions and it was super unclear how to get in. My friends who were in it had played for the Director of Music before they came here. So, I’m not in the orchestra at all. This has made me really sad because I really enjoyed playing in an orchestra, much more than playing the flute by myself. Also, because I only have two years of high school left, I wanted to make to make the most of them as I probably won’t be able to play in an orchestra after I leave school. Now, every time I practice I feel depressed about my situation. Just now, I went to a concert where the school orchestra was performing in order to support my friends, and I started crying in the middle of it because it hit me how I was just watching instead of onstage actually doing something. Another shitty thing is that I used to be such good friends with all the other flutists in my old school, but now I feel so hostile towards the flutists in my new school because of an irrational sense of jealousy. In summary, I feel like shit for an incredibly dumb reason, and I wish I could stop feeling like shit.

I can understand that emotion.  I’ve felt similarly upset in situations like that in the past.  My recommendation here would be to redefine what performing the flute means to you.  Obviously every time you grab the flute you’re going to think of this stuff – but not if you start doing something different.  An orchestra is one option, there’s also options like making videos:

Or if you prefer the face-to-face interaction with your audience, there’s busking:

Or if you like playing with others, why not form your own group with some of your friends?  Orchestras don’t play very often and some of them are probably hungry for more gigging, and would potentially be quite happy to play with you again.

If you start creating new good experiences with the flute you’ll forget about the old ones, or at least they’ll start to bother you less.

Please tell me a way for me to stop watching Lim Kim – Yellow!

You’re trapped, sorry.  Here, have this behind the scenes video, which I think is actually a lot more interesting than the final result.

Hi Kpopalypse Oppar,

I’ve been a longtime reader/lurker here, but have never asked you a question until now. I’ve really enjoyed reading your responses to people in previous QRIMOLE posts though, both the humorous and the heartwarming ones, so I thought I’d try my luck maybe with a question and see how it goes.

My dad’s just been diagnosed with liver cancer.

He’s not one of those people who seem to live a really virtuous life and then through a cruel twist of fate get landed with cancer – he used to smoke, he drinks, his BMI doesn’t bear thinking about and he’s not at all active – but to be honest with you, the only reason I mention this is because it’s the first thing people seem to talk about whenever they talk about cancer diagnoses. The lament is always “they lived the healthiest of lifestyles but unfortunately this happened” but I’m not sure how… relevant… this is? I guess the way I see it, you either have cancer or you don’t. My dad does. I think the news hasn’t really sunk in yet.

I’ve always been quite a data-driven person, so my first instinct was to jump to research. Unfortunately the research has turned up more disheartening/negative news than anything else. Almost every source I’ve read hits you with the one-two combination of 1. Liver cancer is a bitch to treat once you get into the later stages and 2. Liver cancer only really gets diagnosed in the later stages because the symptoms only show up then. We only got Dad to go see a doctor in the first place because he’d lost something ridiculous like >5% of his body weight in a month and had this horrible taste in his mouth. Turns out the taste was from the cancerous lesion on his liver that was encroaching on his bile duct. It all makes sense once you think about it, right?

I’m sorry that you’ve gotten this far and I still haven’t asked a question yet. Or maybe you’re not reading this at all because you saw the wall of text and decided against it. Fair enough. I don’t know if I have a question at all, or if this is just a way of getting my thoughts out of my head because they’re messy and taking up space, like some furniture in your room that you’re not quite used to and so keep stubbing your toe on. Either you don’t read and/or publish this, and I can forget I ever wrote it (good; I don’t normally talk about my feelings this much so it would be nice to not remember this), or you do read this and I hopefully get to find out what your response is (also good; I like your writing and there’s this weird sense of gruff??? comfort???? sometimes that I think I’m in need of right about now).

I realise this sounds like I’m demanding your time and attention, which I’m sorry about – please don’t feel pressured to reply/publish/give mental energy and space to this. This whole thing feels kind of self-absorbed???? Sorry about that. I’m still going to send this though because of the aforementioned getting-thoughts-out-of-my-head-and-associated-benefits thing though. Sorry.

Maybe we’ll finish up here with a thank you. Thank you for this blog. Your sense of humour is really neat!! But the main reason I keep reading is because you come across as a really decent person. I’ve been trying to think of a better word to use, but nothing’s come up yet. The way you respond to readers and the way you speak about kpop and idols is (despite/even in the boobs and ab posts – which I do enjoy pls don’t come for me) is gratifyingly real, in the sense that you’re aware of the curtain between person and performer, but you don’t allow anyone a pass because of it. Not sure that’s the best explanation but I’ve already spent entirely too long on this chunk of text so maybe we’ll have to wrap this (softly) up.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for bearing with me. I understand if this is maybe too heavy a thing for you to want to publish/respond to – please don’t feel like you have to at all; I’ll probably have forgotten I wrote this by the time the next QRIMOLE rolls around. I hope you’re having a good day and that if not, you find the time and space to seek out something that might make your day better. Stan Loona.

Sorry to hear about this, and it’s hard to know what to say in these situations so I’ll just write randomly.  Cancer is such a random thing, but then it really isn’t because there’s reasons for everything – it’s just not really understood.  Medical science is still in its infancy, and in the future probably after I’m dead and can’t benefit from any innovations in the field, we’re going to have amazing new treatments that are going to be much better than what we have now.  We do know for sure that an unhealthy lifestyle is definitely a cancer risk factor, but then there are people who drop dead mysteriously while exercising too, so we never can really be sure of how the reaper is going to catch up with us, only that it will get us all in the end, somehow.  I think that until the human race figures out more about it, “you either have cancer or you don’t” isn’t that irrational.

There isn’t really a question in your text but I’m going to proceed as if you asked one anyway, and tell you that from having people in my own life die of cancer, the best thing you can probably do to help apart from support them in their treatment and lifestyle is plan the rest of the time you’ve got left together to make the best of it that you can.  One of the silver linings of cancer is that it while it’s definitely a horrible way to go, it doesn’t act quickly until the absolute very end, so you’ve got time to resolve any unresolved threads in your lives, do the things you’ve wanted to do and say whatever you need to say to each other.  That’s assuming it’s terminal of course, and liver cancer generally is, but there’s no reason not to bring a fight to it anyway.  Good luck with that, and hopefully things work out and your dad gets to stan Loona more.

I don’t know how trustworthy these stats are. It seems that while boy group fan demographics are much more tilted towards a heavier female to male % in the case of girl groups the % aren’t reversed. Does K-pop appeal to females more in general regardless of the group’s gender? Why do you think is that?

I think that pop music in general appeals to women more than men.  I’m not really sure why this is but it’s certainly a pattern I’ve observed my whole life where more women would be into pop and the guys would like heavier stuff.  This is on average of course – I mean of course there’s girls who like heavy metal and guys who like Britney Spears, but demographically the pop audience has always been majority female.  Even my own writing, which obviously has a very heterosexual male point of view, still attracts more females than males.  One day maybe science will figure out the reasons for it.

Hey oppar. Okay, last month a creepy guy followed me around a thrift shop and I just blocked him (before you published the qrimole answers) and tried avoiding every place I’ve met him on before, and so far it’s worked :). BUT NOW i have even more problems regarding men.
Lately, I’ve been hanging out a lot with two of my friends from my previous school. Out of all the people I thought I’d still keep in touch with after we finished the mandatory school in my country, I’d never thought it would be them (as I was never super close with them) but now they are honestly my two closest friends. One of those friends is very outgoing and has a whole bunch of friends. She tried to get a girlfriend for me because I told her that I’m lonely and sad. I have a huge crush on one of her friends (who is now also my friend… Yay!!!!) but she isn’t interested in a relationship right now, which is fair and I respect that. bUT that wasn’t the point. I just wanted to tell you that I’m happy that I’m finally not sitting inside and doing nothing all day.
Anyways, this tuesday we had a day off from school, so I hung out with my friends and it was really nice. I met up with them at a burger restaurant and we sat there and talked and had fun. Nice. But, there was a guy there who I had never met before who is one of my friends friend and we didn’t talk that much with each other but we added each other on snapchat. He isn’t creepy but he’s more flirty and kind of a bit pushy. My friends when I first met him joked a lot about me being gay because they were talking a lot about very straight things and I don’t know if he just didn’t hear it (even though they said it like every 5 minutes) or if he thought they were joking but pls oppar, help me, how do I tell this guy I really am gay and I’m not interested? I’m scared I will hurt him or make him sad or idk. Everytime he flirts with me now I just reply with some uwu gif or smiley. We haven’t even known each other for a long time but he’s friends with both my friends AND my brother so like, idk… I just want to let him down. Smoothly.
Also, thanks for the australian facts. Now my english project will be perfect.

What your previous experience should have taught you is that there’s a time to be “smooth” and there’s a time to be “blunt”.  You need to get over this worry about making other people hurt or sad if you think they’re into you, because they’re going to get hurt or feel sad or whatever no matter what, and the quicker they find out that they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, the less it’s going to hurt them, as well as the easier it will be for you.  Things are right now at a (relatively) low-stress level compared to the last dude, so hopefully by now you’ve already gone up to him and said “look, seriously, all kidding aside – you’re a cool guy and stuff, but I’m actually into girls, sorry bro”.  If you haven’t, the next time he “pushes”, say that like you mean it (no uwu) and honestly if he’s a decent guy he’ll respect you and appreciate that you told him the truth (because that’s how a reasonable guy will react, even if they do feel a bit let down)… and if he’s not a decent guy and is a dickhead, well then who cares if he gets hurt, honestly.

After I drafted this response, an update came in:

OK KPOPALYPSE I HAVE SOLVED MY OWN PROBLEMS. That’s right, I don’t need your help anymore. You can just ignore the problem that I tried to get you to solve for me and just pretend like it never existed. Oh and it was me who asked how do I tell my friend’s friend that I am gay and not interested because he is always flirting with me. He is now aware because my friends said very loudly that I am a lesbian and he replied with a very quiet ‘I know’ but he’s still flirting with me so I don’t know, maybe he just likes flirting.

I guess he does.  Hey this is actually really cool because now you have someone you can do your uwu with and there’s no chance that he’ll take things to the next level.  Well, almost no chance.  If you’re a true Chuu level aegyo master you might find out because you might “turn” him hahaha.  Here, get some practice in:

Now that four members of Pristin have redebuted in Hinapia, do you think they have more independence than they did in Pledis? Their company is brand-new and very small, so I’m curious how much say they have over their songs, styling, diets, etc. It seems unlikely that their contract totally screws them over, given that they were four of the most popular members of Pristin, but I really have no idea. Can they even be considered “idols” anymore if they put the group together themselves?

I’m not familiar with how their company formed and how much the girls are involved so I can’t really answer this well, but if nothing else I think they would have slightly better contract terms just because even if they’re not in control, they would have at least been known from Pristin.  I’m sure the Pristin contract was rubbish.  It’s pretty common for pop idols in the west to be self-formed so I don’t see why it couldn’t be that way in Korea, if true I’d like to see more of it.

oppar

Is there something happening to the beat in this song at 1:58 and more specifically at 3:05 like it gets more prominent or im just tripping?

In both sections the bass drum is sort of going from a 1 and 3 pulse to a 1 2 3 4 pulse, but that’s happening at various points all over the song actually.  Not sure what else you might be referring to, your question is a little vague.  I think that whatever drugs you’re on, you should share with everyone else here.

Hi, oppar.
You must be tired of having to give relationship advice, but I need help and I don’t have anyone I trust.
Recently my boyfriend broke up with me, but I was still very in love with him. He said that after 2 months of our relationship, he noticed that he didn’t love me, but liked me very very much, more like a friend. My heart was immediately broken, but I respected his decision and calmly accepted and we agreed to stay friends.
But now, 2 weeks later, I still miss him a lot and I’m still very in love. I really want to make up, but I don’t wanna be the annoying ex-girlfriend that can’t accept the end of things and I don’t wanna lose his friendship either, because he is an amazing friend.
That is my first relationship and I simply don’t know what to do. I’m suffering.
I’d appreciate if you could advice me with all your experience.

When people say “let’s just be friends”, they usually don’t mean “let’s be best friends/let’s be just like a relationship but without the sexual element/let’s be just like we were before we started the relationship part” – what they really mean is “let’s be friendly to each other“, in other words, let’s leave on good terms rather than bad and still be cool when we see each other around.  If you try to continue as close friends you’ll probably find it difficult, because it’s really difficult to emotionally de-attach yourself from someone you’ve just had a relationship with if you’re seeing them all the time and hanging out.  I’m still friends with some of my exes and it’s not a bad place to be, but I don’t have a great deal of contact with them, and certainly didn’t just after we broke up.  You’re going to need two things to help you get through your breakup, distance and distraction.  Sure if the guy is a great guy then definitely be nice to him etc but don’t look for him to fill up all your time, try and get time away by yourself or with other friends to give you perspective.  Also try to find some stuff you can do to take your mind off of it all – now’s a really good time to start a new hobby, do something cool you’ve been putting off, or even change your appearance/style etc.  Don’t worry the hurt will definitely ease with time, although it does take a while, you won’t feel super-duper next week or anything, but time has a way of making things easier.  Good luck.

This video is not about k-pop in any way, but I thought it was an interesting look at the impact of putting a teenager into a controlling, high-stress environment with an unrealistic weight goal.

I wonder how many idols end up with such a low body fat that their reproductive systems shut down.

Yes, very interesting.  I would argue that this video has everything to do with k-pop and everyone should watch it.

i suppose people just request girls for the boob posts through this, so i’d let to submit one new contender: JISUN FROM FROMIS9 thank you very much

Actually they use my Curious Cat most of the time.

how does one know if they are being manipulated in a relationship? (mannerisms, body lang to look out for in convos etc)

There’s a lot of different ways potentially, but from experience I’d say that the biggest red flag is when they don’t want you to talk to anyone else about the issues in the relationship, because they know the outsider will give you a perspective that they are denying you.

Recently, one of my teachers taught me about the use of “good karma”, wherein instead of wanting others, especially your friends, to fail, you should hope for others to succeed, so in that way, when it’s time to ask for support, they are there to help.

In your opinion, how does “good karma” affect you, and must it be a big deal, instead of being jealous, hoping to be more successful than your classmates?

That’s not karma so much as logic.  If you’re not a dick to others, and are supportive of what they do, then in turn they will support you.  Unless they’re Asian Junkie, who almost never links my site anymore and even deletes my comments on his articles even though they’re the only halfway-funny content he has these days and even though I send links to his site from here every damn week and am very supportive generally when I’m not abusing him for lulz.  Hey did you know Asian Junkie is a great site and you should visit often?  Now you do.  So the moral of the story is while you can’t and shouldn’t rely on or expect support, the probability is that you are more likely to receive it if you give it, so it’s just good sense to be nice to folks really.

I know you are not into dancing as much as you are when it comes to music. However, I have a thought.

Recently, Just Dance 2020 got released, and I really like the majority of the tracklist (based on my opinion), however, there was something interesting.

Kill this Love and I Am the Best had their respective routines include part of the official choreography of said songs, however, Fancy had its JD routine to not include any part of the official choreography and instead looked lazy in the end, which gives me an interesting concern: are choreographies (to be used in media other than concerts and live musical performance) copyrighted, and do you think Ubisoft (the creator of the Just Dance series) didn’t have the cash/permission to use any part when they were okay with KtL and IatB?

Actually I’m no expert but I can see parts of the original dance in their version of Fancy, albeit smaller parts, like that hand-flexing move.  However generally speaking I’ve never heard of a single case ever of a plagiarism case for choreography coming out in favour of the original dancer.  It’s actually legally quite untested territory.  I think in all three cases they’ve ballparked the routines as “close but no cigar” deliberately just because it’s easier.

In the Big Boobs in K-Pop Guide Part 6 post you said:
“Sometimes it sucks to be a scientist, now I know how all those climate scientists feel when they listen to Bolsonaro, but even he doesn’t stoop to the logic of “you’re talking about climate change, therefore you must be responsible”.”
I am really sorry to say to you that actually he does (or at least tries to benefit himself from that logic). There was an oil leakage in the sea near the Northwestern coast of Brazil some months ago that fucked up various mangroves and he blamed GREENPEACE for it. Like, what the fuck?

Oh well, guess he’s even more of a douche than I thought.  I stand corrected!

ever get tired of the bitching?

Every fuckin’ day, man

Why is unison so common in k-pop choruses? If you have 9 or 12 girls singing at the same time, why don’t they do a little harmonizing?

Because only one or two of them per group can sing.  Not that it matters for live stages where they just mime and fake it or do heavily edited pre-records, but everntually someone is gonna ask them to do that amazing harmony part live on a variety show or something, and then the cat is out of the bag.

Hello Oppa, have your heard about Super Junior’s Shindongs plan to lose weight from 116 kg to 75 kg? Do you think he will make it or not?
This time it seems it is not just for looks, he said he is facing health problems like high blood pressure.
He losed weight in the past but only for short time and then regain more weight.
This time he partnered up with a diet company which had a lot of celebrities made lose weight.
If he will be succesful will you be sad that he may be will not looking fatter than ever in Super Junior’s next Comeback?

I think he can do it… and then he’ll put the weight straight back on after.  He’s been relatively skinny before.  He yo-yos far more than any female idol.

Since white men were predominantly the original cultural appropriators, when Koreans practice cultural appropriation are they also appropriating white male culture?

Discussions about “appropriation” in k-pop are always hilarious to me as without cultural appropriation, not a single k-pop idol group could even exist at all.  Nor the vast majority of western music for that matter.  Also American rap music would have to go too as that was appropriated from Jamaica.  Etc etc.  Human beings of all types, in all countries, they see things, copy, change things a bit, and regurgitate – it’s just what we do as a species, and always have done.

Why do you hate 80’s music so much?

I don’t hate all 80s music, just the shitty songs that you like.

Hi, I’m a queer christian and idk if I’ll ever come out since 99% of the people I know are also christian. They’re awesome but I sometimes worry about how they’ll perceive and treat me if they ever found out I was queer, especially my parents. I don’t know what I’ll do once they start nagging me to find a guy to date, marry, and have kids with. What should I do?

Also, how can I become more socially and educationally active? I’m incredibly shy, socially awkward, lazy, and unmotivated to do anything to further my academic career (currently in community college, in the process of trying to transfer to a university). I have a part time job right now but I only got it ‘cause my mom also works there. I don’t know how I’ll survive in the real world on my own.

Who knows what reaction you’ll get, part of it may depend on how hardcore the Christian community you’re in is – some Christians think “love everyone” is Jesus’ central message and don’t sweat the details about what’s going into which holes, others are much more hardline about the bits in the Bible that are explicitly anti-gay.  One thing’s for sure, you’ll probably have to come out eventually.  I recommend that you time it so that you’re not dependent on them in any way before you do it, that way if they have a bad reaction it’s no big deal because they can’t impact you negatively.

The above alone should be a big motivator to make yourself live more independently.  Trust me it’s not that difficult, and as a gay person you actually have a massive advantage here, there’s quite a few money-hungry independence-sucking pitfalls you don’t even have to worry about (i.e pregnancy, marriage).  Nothing wrong with having your parents help you with getting ahead in life at first, after all it’s what they’re there for.  If you got this far you’ll be fine.

My friend and I are both studying our A levels. To be fair, I’m concerned and annoyed at her at the same time. She comes to school late, she either texts her bf, sleeps or looks at her phone all day in class. The max. amount of subjects to take is 4 and min. is 3,so if you take 4 subjects you’re allowed to drop one halfway. My friend says she wants to be an accountant, and I don’t take accounts, but for the rest of the 3 subjects I’m in the same class as her. We both don’t pay attention in Economics, and she’s said that she can drop econs so she’s not really concerned, but the thing is she’s like this in ALL 3 CLASSES! I’m not sure how she is in her Accounting class, but you have to take a minimum of 3 subjects, and she’s acting like she’s going drop 3.

At the same time, she’s rich so I’m not really sure if I should say anything. Is it my place to do so? She’s not doing well in tests and school exams(not the official a levels) but she doesn’t seem to be concerned. The thing is, if she can’t even perform well in tests, how is she going to take the real thing?

Help a girl out oppar

Eh, it’s her problem.  Some people just don’t have a work ethic and are lazy caonimas.  Or maybe she has other reasons.  Maybe she’s really applying herself to something else, something completely different that you can’t see.  Or maybe she’s just a riatch biatch and doesn’t care – why should she?  Why are you worried about this anyway?  If you ask her to do anything it should be to support me on Patreon for no reason, if she can afford to waste Uni she can afford that too.

Hi oppar, hope you’re having a grand cunty time. You might have answered a similar question in the past but I’m fairly new here and way too lazy to check so some instrument related questions for you!
I know you play guitar, are there any others you play as well? If so, which do you prefer/like more? Favourite instrument ever(regardless of whether you can play it or not)? Aaand lastly, what instrument do you wish you could play/wish to learn to play? (can’t answer ‘improve more on x with that one)
Thank you and pass my well wishes to you partner and cat!

Some of this is covered in my FAQ.  I can play most instruments, pretty much anything you don’t have to blow into, I’m good with.  I wish I could learn to play the Erhu, I actually own one but haven’t had time to sit down and really learn it properly.  It’s on the list of things to do after I listen to those 2357862 k-pop albums you all want me to listen to that I totally don’t have time to listen to.

On the last QRIMOLE foi said you despise spotify, could you explain why? I don’t think I know much about this subject.

A lot has been written about the evils of Spotify so I won’t go into detail here, but to keep it very simple: the payouts from Spotify that go to artists are absolutely craptacular.  You would honestly be better off watching it on YouTube over and over, they make slightly more money from even that, and we all know how poor YouTube payouts are.

When I saw Wonho for the first time my first thought was “He is obviously a fuck boy but he wants to be an idol?” and my second”I am stanning his ass.” Unfortunately,his company didn’t have the same opinion as me and they kicked him out. 😦 They are many fans that didn’t agree with this decision, some Koreans fans did a silent protest in front of Starshit’s building. Of course it was for nothing. So my question is : Should kpopfans even bother to protest when they don’t agree with a company’s decision or should they accept the fact that they have no saying in the matter? I am sad and frustrated because Monsta X wasn’t popular with the general public anyway and many fans didn’t care about his past but still the company didn’t want to deal with his scandals. I hope at the very least another company will be willing to hire him. I don’t want him to end up broke or like the guy from sechskies that was fucking his fanclub moderator.

Every time your favourite idol gets kicked out of a k-pop group, embrace it and be happy.  They’re usually doing him or her a massive favour, because in those situations their debt tends to get written off as well.  Not only that, but as a free agent they can sign another deal, where they’ll get better terms because they’re now a known entity with some bargaining power – or, they can go off and do something completely different with their lives where they will almost certainly make more money than the pittance they made in k-pop, that is, if they even made anything at all.  Monsta X will continue on anyway with the same songs, and Wonho is now undoubtedly living a better life – it’s a win/win.  He probably doesn’t even have to fap to anime tiddies any more and can find himself a real girlfriend, he’s probably loving it.

Hi Kpopalypse,

I am contacting you because you’re a music industry insider and I’d need some of your wisdom. I’m a writer, and I love music, so many of my characters are part of a band/singers/songwriters… and I enjoy feeling like I’m not just talking out of my ass when I write. So I’d like to know if you had some recommendations of books, podcasts, documentaries, anything that’d be a great ressource for people wanting to depict the music industry with a semblance of realism. I’m sure there must be lists on the topic somewhere on the Internet, but I prefer the opinion of people I’m familiar with over complete strangers’. (Familiarity in that case only being “I’ve read a hundred of his articles and liked it”, but that’s already something.)

Thank you for your work and your consideration,
A caonima

“This Is Spinal Tap” gets a lot of its humour from the fact that in some ways it’s disarmingly realistic.  It’s certainly an excellent depiction of band member politics.

“Bigger Than Tina” is even more accurate, amazingly so – a perfect portrayal of artist delusion, and how industry people will seek these people and milk them.  Might be hard to believe but people like this really exist and there are thousands of them, I’ve met many.  Almost impossible to find this obscure Australian film from the 1990s so good luck with that.

Books: anything by Moses Avalon.

Holy Qrimole,

is it true that all of Qri’s power is stored inside of you?
Were you the one responsible for the iconic “lalalala I like you”-line?

And most importantly, will you be able to collect all your strength in order to give us that highly anticipated t-ara comeback?

Yes.

Yes.

I’ll see what I can do.  Don’t hold your breath while waiting.

INEVITABLE GOO HARA SECTION

Hi oppar, I was wondering what you think of this, if you don’t mind:

I don’t care about boring Twitter fights about “who was to blame for x” etc, especially if it’s a situation where no clear statement was made, and I’m not interested in trying to berate people for their opinions on “who’s/what’s to blame”.  I get that people are using the Goo Hara incident to hate on k-pop generally, and how that annoys people, but for someone not heavily invested in the world of k-pop and who just stumbled up the information that Goo Hara died just like they might have stumbled across viral YouTube videos about “the dark side of k-pop” (or even my own writing about the industry), I can totally see why they would put 2 and 2 together and get 2 + 2 = 22.  That, or it’s trolling which should be ignored.  Obviously the k-pop industry is unhealthy for a lot of people in many ways, and that definitely shouldn’t be sugar-coated, but obviously Goo Hara’s situation is far more than just that in isolation.  Goo Hara had to deal with a lot of false rumours and hate from the public, which is normal for any celebrity in any country, she also had the particular issue of dealing with a fuckwit abusive ex-partner who is sadly not in jail yet, and that’s just an issue which unfortunately could affect anybody anywhere reading this who has ever been in a relationship.  She may have also had other undocumented issues too, that we may not find out for some time, or ever.

So much of Internet comments about any k-pop issue at all is people all trying to appear “the most moral”, jostling for position to try and be the person who posts the most agreeable, one-size-fits-all statement of virtue.  Everyone’s trying to get that most erudite version of “oh that’s so horrible, gosh I’m really angry about this” on a comment site when something bad happens or “oh that’s so great” when something good happens, I see this on all comments section on all k-pop sites all the time, and you really see this trend amplified whenever something really tragic occurs.  I’m not saying people don’t genuinely feel that way, but when it’s the same people saying the same type of things over and over, it just seems like a pointless circle-jerk grief circus that conveys nothing and benefits nobody… and that’s when comments sections are at their least stupid.  I’m really looking forward to the proposed closure of all comments sections on all k-pop websites ever, it can’t happen soon enough.  Happy to even close mine in solidarity with that if the trend starts really moving and Shampoobuzz loses her job, it’s not like you lovely readers don’t already have tons of ways to get in touch with me.  Feel free to let me know what you think about that iN tHe CoMmEnTs bElOw…

Something different happened today. Even with today being Sunday, I passed all day long doing chores, making schedules for the week, celebrating life with my family and other small but important things. In the end of the day, after all of the things that had moved me somehow towards happiness, I found myself with some interest to search for new k-pop songs that must have been released in this sunday night where I live. Then, to quench this thirst for music, I entered r/kpop and to my surprise, I found another highly probable suicide from a k-pop singer. Someone so successful that were able to make a good career in Japan from all places. Goo Hara wasn’t someone important for me, I didn’t ever had the chance to see her live, but that news struck me so hard that I felt a sudden urgency to write this. Dealing with people that make you happy going away is really difficult. But when, besides all that, they kill themselves, it seems like everything gets almost unbearable.
I was drinking some alcoholic drinks (I make them to the persons most close to to me and myself as a hobby) and was in my best moods and then I get assaulted with this ominous feeling without even reading the news (her lifespan was put on the subreddit banner). It was already a large walk for me to deal with the recovery from Sulli’s passing months ago and now to see this all happening again… I don’t really know exactly why I writed this while I’m drunk. Maybe I just want to show people that it’s okay to feel surprised, it’s okay to feel hurt, it’s okay to feel a little guilty for not being an fan that would bring her joy to keep living, but eventually, we are capable of being able to see an better future for us on the horizon. Don’t be afraid of asking for help if you can’t do it right now. And if the help doesn’t help you, call for another professional right away.
I was in a broken stage from a lot of personal trauma accumulated from all of my life, but I finally starting to see myself as a person more able to pursue my dreams. I personally want to thank Kpopalypse for helping me to avert myself from the herd mentality that corrupted my view for so many years and brought me god knows how much prejudices with it. But I’m slowly improving myself. I stopped seeing some things that depends basically of my ability only as unobtainable and decided to fight for them. If I will reach it, who knows? But I’m know that, while I personally does not consider people that chooses to give up their precious things as weak, now, I don’t really want to act like them. I want to act with the best that I can do to me.
While I don’t personally don’t know you who are reading this, I want you to know that I want you to be able to see and feel the best things on the world and never ever have to spend time thinking you are not worth of it.

COMPLETELY OFF-TOPIC: I actually managed to think about a question! I’m curious to know if you can see from what country I’m posting from. Can you tell me which is it? Have a nice December!

Thanks for your support and I’m glad you’re feeling better!

You’re from the USA, specifically, New Jersey, wherever the hell that is (unless you’re a sneaky caonima and it’s just your VPN pointing there).  Which brings me to an important point – QRIMOLE has now been ported over to Google Forms, by popular demand, and also because I was fed up with Crowdsignal sucking dick and spamming my lovely readers with advertising.  I want you all to have as much of an ad-free existence on this site as I can possibly bring you, and eventually my other question boxes will also migrate to Google Forms.  The reason why your country being relevant to the change in question-asking format, is that I’m unsure if Google Forms tracks country statistics.  I may not be able to know where any of you question-askers are from in future, unless you bother to tell me.  However this doesn’t really matter, as QRIMOLE is for all caonimas regardless of location!  Please feel free to use it, and this series will return in 2020!

---

That’s all for QRIMOLE!  This series will return in a month, in the meantime don’t forget to read Billboard’s top 100 k-pop songs of the decade list, and laugh quietly to yourselves at how much better Kpopalypse’s list is going to be!

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!