It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where Kpopalypse answers reader questions!  Read on for lots of questions being answered!

Hi Kpopalypse-seonsaengnim, I liked the gfriend retrospective. Do you think that you might do more retrospectives?
Also, tell the fellow caonima who keeps the unofficial Kpopalypse best songs from each artist list: Thanks! And keep up the good work!

This was actually really popular so I’m considering more of them.  However I wouldn’t want to make a habit of it or otherwise people will (as usual) insist that I be “completionist” about it and do a retrospective for every group ever, fans of groups who don’t get one will become super annoying and pestering about it etc.  The aim of this website is not to appease fans of certain groups, and while having popular content is nice, it’s not really why I write (if it was, I would just turn this into a BTS fansite).  However if I can think of a really good reason to do more retrospectives other than “fans would like it”, I will.

While I definitely support any list-making activities, don’t be surprised if the final end of year lists differ from any unofficial list in unexpected ways as opinions can and do change over time!

Hello oppar! So I was reading your Worst of 2014 list and I stumbled across your review of J-Rabbit’s song, where you said their music would only be liked by people who “enjoy occasionally curling up into a fetal position and crying about how horrid the big bad world is”, and that line made me reflect a bit.
While I agree that the song is shit and that behaviour is not very constructive, there are many, many times where I feel the bad things in this world are way too much for me to take.
Sometimes, I start thinking about all the violence and injustice around me, such as my university having no organisation whatsoever and its professor putting the blame on their students, or their unbelievable loads of work given with no empathy whatsoever, or Hungary disintegrating LGBT+ rights, or China managing to shut democratic journalists up, or the whole Palestine thing, and agony just overwhelms me. How can I keep my sanity under such circumstances? I don’t want to curl up into a fetal position etc but, at the same time, I just feel so powerless and discouraged, because it looks like evil will always win, no matter what.

Here’s an article that you can read that might help.  In summary – there is:

• Circle of control: all the things in your life that you directly control.  What you eat for lunch, who you talk to, how much hard drive room you have allocated for your fapping material, do you wipe from the front to the back etc
• Circle of influence: all the things in your life that you don’t directly control, but you might be able to influence the direction of to some extent.  Are you going to get hired for a particular job, do your peers like you, will your parents be okay with your planned summer holiday in Iceland, etc
• Circle of concern: all the things in your life that you don’t directly control, and that you really have no hope of controlling, but that you might choose to give a fuck about.  The quality of the next Loona comeback, where that Palestinian rocket is going to go and how Israel will respond to it if it hits a school bus, etc.

So the things that you can control directly, you should.  The things that you can maybe influence, you should try to influence, if that’s realistic.  The things you’re concerned about, if you can expand your influence circle enough to influence those things that’s great, but if not you’d be better off not spending your mental energy on it.

Let’s apply this to your uni work.

• Circle of control: how much work can you get done in a day with no distractions, what study techniques can you learn and use effectively, how you prioritise work, ways to optimise your work processes for efficiency, how many breaks you have and for how long, what self-care are you doing, are you procrastinating too much by reading some shitty k-pop blog etc.  You can definitely control all of these things.
• Circle of influence: how much your family and friends bother you while you’re trying to get work done – well, you can’t stop them from coming into your room but you can tell them in advance “I’m cramming please try to disturb me minimally”.  Now the issue either moves to your “circle of control” (your family listens) or your “circle of concern” (you family doesn’t).
• Circle of concern: how much work you get allocated by your university, you probably can’t control this.  You could make some kind of attempt to get it into your circle of influence, maybe by lodging a complaint somewhere, but good luck with that, it’s probably not going to work.  Rather than letting this stress you out, better to move it to a fourth outer circle, a “circle of no concern”, or as I like to call it the “ring of give-a-fuck-me-not”.

Hope this helps!

Do you have a disease where you can’t talk about TXT without mentioning BTS?

Yes.  Send thoughts and prayers for my recovery.

Apologies kpopalypse this is where i come to sometimes rant because due to covid lockdown therapy has been inaccessible where i live for the last 8 months (only phone therapy is available which I don’t feel comfortable doing). Hopefully that’s dealt with soon so i have a healthier outlet to deal with my shit.

Today i wanna talk about how i feel like my soul has been sucked out of me. Ive been dealing with a depressive mind since middle school but first two years of high school i really tried to make a difference and was a studious kid. Then the fucked up things my parents say/do broke me again towards the end of my second year and i went through a complete downward spiral for the next two years where i just fucked around and skipped school cause i just wanted life to end. As a result i didnt really get into the university program my parents wanted me to but i took a year off and accepted my offer to a different program. During my year off is when covid first started and i decided i was going to try living a little differently to deal with being home with my parents all the time so i tried to do everything they say. Then when uni started i vowed to study hard so i could make a good career to get away from my parents. But ive had to make some sacrifices along the way, like i said i live like my parents dog now to minimize conflict even though they’re naturally angry people. I feel like i lost my personality, i grew out my hair for them, i dont talk back when they say dumb shit and i study hard and hard and i dont go out or hang out with anyone. Despite this theyre never fully happy. When i accomplished good grades my parents said “hopefully you dont fail again like the past” and when i got into the program they wanted me to get in by achieving a high enough gpa first year they responded by pointing out another flaw in me by saying “good now lose weight” its like everything i do is futile because theres always a flaw in me. The worst part is how this affected my relationship with my friends. Because of how depressive i got in high school I basically lost all my friends. My original friend group wasnt very supportive people but i came out of high school with two good friends: my best friend and my now ex girlfriend (fwb?). Since my parents dont like me hanging out with guys it was impossible to see my best friend for a while since my parents were working from home i couldnt have him over in secret anymore, and i couldnt go over to his house bc his mom doesnt like me being gay. I also couldnt call him on the phone like i used to since there was no privacy being home. But he was free to see anyone that wasnt me so he got much closer to some of his other friends from high school which is fine, i dont mind he has other friends at all and he hasnt pushed me out of his life but i know im not as fun to hang out with as i used to be since i dont do adventurous things anymore and i never have anything to talk about the rare times i do see him since all i do is sit at home and study. With my ex girlfriend covid and my parents also split us apart in a similar way. Now i dont know if im doing the right thing, im sacrificing my freedome to get just slightly less conflict with my parents. I lost basically the only people i had left from high school and i also let go of my personality. Having online school really sucks and we have another semester fully online coming up and im at a loss of what to do. My friends have got other people and im left behind with nothing but my textbooks

This is why I don’t change my writing to appease complainers.  The people who don’t like you will never be happy.  There is zero chance that anybody who hates me now will say in six months if I change my writing style “Oh I used to hate that Kpopalypse cunt but he’s great now” – no.  People like that always expect more and more, there’ll always be another demand that you can’t meet.  It’s always worth remembering this:

It’s clearly impossible to appease your parents, so why try?  Don’t rebel for the sake of it – it’s fine to comply with stuff that’s within reason, but as for the other things, you could have been doing what you wanted all this time.  I’m sure a confrontation will get messy, but I think it’s worth setting some boundaries around your life.  Just make sure you have a plan B if they kick you out of the house.

Not a question, but just wanted to say I started blogging after years of reading your content. It’s not about kpop, and I ain’t trying to shill, just wanted to say thank you and that a blog can be just for fun.

Cheers!

Opapr do you think robots and AI will dominate the world and if they do would they mrs or would they actually look scary as fuck
But on a serious note, should we be worried about this whole technology advance shit going on? I mean, don’t think we can really predict it or anything
Honestly, I think a lot of weird shit is gonna go down

They’re all going to look like Eimi Fukada.  I will bow down to my robot overlords.

I don’t really know if robots will ever achieve sentience, a lot of people seem to think that computing power = intelligence by default, but robot intelligence clearly isn’t “the same thing” as what we have.  For every amazing thing that computers can do so much better than humans, there’s another really basic thing that they just have absolutely no chance with.  So there’s definitely nothing to fear from advancements in AI and you should also do everything they say.  I’m totally not writing this just to be safe for when the robots find this post.

hi oppar (originally sent my question incomplete by accident, sorry bout that lol)
Recently, I’ve been feeling kind of down. I don’t know if it’s just an episode or if I should be very worried, but it’s been a little hard to look forward to things that I normally did look forwards to doing without questioning, such as studying. I know that it’s important and that it’s really the only way for me to become someone with financial independence and stuff like that, but I haven’t been feeling motivated to go towards it. Which is kind of crazy honestly, I wish I was as dense as when I was a kid and just do stuff instead of thinking too much about them, but studying (and honestly other stuff in life too) has been feeling pretty aimless, and the only thing I can really come up with to do is “because I think it’s fun and cool”. Normally I’d be satisfied with this, I mean, if it’s my interest then there’s nothing I can do about it, but the whole “omg you need to change the world/have money/ idk what the fuck else” message that’s been constantly veiculated to me has been kind of pressuring. Being honest, I really don’t know what the fuck I want to do with my life, I don’t want to wonder about what’s the point in it but this stupid fucking question has been popping up in my head every now and then.
You know, I want to be driven and study and get into a good university overseas and all of that since my country is actually kind of bad (I live in Brazil), but at the same time, I don’t care about getting a lot of money, neither do I care too much about getting into the top 100 universities of the world and be super academic and intelligent or whatever. I want to have a good time with my life, but I don’t know exactly how to have a good time with my life.
I don’t want to end my life or anything, just been hard to look forwards for it a lot. The stuff that has been helping me cope with me being uninterested in life are good books and comedy stand-ups/sitcoms, also drawing and writing every now and then.
I guess I have been kind of uninterested about my future, almost as if I looked at it with apathy, more apathy than I wanted to have to the point I don’t want to to do stuff that might benefit me in the long run *just* because it’d benefit me in the long run. I want another reason to study other than “you really need to pass that test” (as good as it might be or w/e) since it feels people toss responsiblities at you with no other reason rather than “yea you have to do this cuz it’s important but i will not elaborate on that”
Well, this turned out to be a huge rant and, while it feels nice to get it all out, oppar, how do you get motivated for things that don’t seem to be of much use at first ( like specifically knowing the flow of water + nutrients and plants ), and how can I feel more excited and interested about life in general? Am I just avoiding my responsibilities or do I have a point?

I seem to get this exact same question in different variations multiple times per month.  Really I had no fucking idea what I wanted to do with myself when I was young, but I did know that if I lived my life according to someone else’s expectations or general societal pressure I would be miserable.  Yes it’s good to have money and that’s something that you will be needing for survival plus stuff and things, but don’t make your life ALL about chasing money.  The goal should be to get enough money so that you have the access to live the life you want, not to get enough money so you can get even more money so people around you go “oh gosh that’s a person with a lot of money”.  People hate rich cunts anyway, people who are legitimately rich have to deal with a lot of envy in the same way famous people do.

How does one deal with threats of violence from homophobes? Stupid comments don’t bother me, but some people are truly vile and lately it has started to get to me.
And how do these people justify beating up kids over this stuff? They claim to be all about morality and then advocate for mutilating and killing others. I thought they were all very concerned with protecting the children. If they can’t even have compassion for them, I don’t expect much for everyone else.

Conservative people love to trot out “concern for the children” all the time, but we know that’s just a virtue-signaling pose, because if they really cared about children then they’d care about providing social welfare and health care, which they have zero interest in. Of course not all conservatives are homophobic, but homophobia is a lot more prevalent among them generally.

I’ve had not just threats but plenty of actual physical assaults from homophobes – despite not being gay, but you don’t have to be gay to experience anti-gay violence, you just need to present as though people think you could possibly be gay.  How to deal with physical violence is a whole other topic but what I did learn through these interactions is that “appeasement” to their prejudice is a total waste of time.  Nobody’s ever going to change their mind about you once you’re considered a “target”, you could be the most hetero male walking along with your hetero female partner of choice and it wouldn’t matter, you’d still get gay-bashed.

I know you play Genshin Impact. How do you feel about the music? I’ve honestly never heard most Chinese instruments before, so it’s a very novel experience for me, and I don’t know how to feel about it.

I’ve given up on that game because of the continual refusal of the developers to add mouse Y axis invert, a situation which there is no excuse for.  However for the brief moment that I’ve been able to play it, I liked the music.  Not that I would listen to it outside the game or anything, it’s not THAT good, but it works well in context.

Did I find your kiwifarms account? It sounds like it could be you, particularly with the “saggy tits.”

Definitely not me.  I didn’t even know Kiwifarms was a thing that existed.  I don’t have time to make long-ass threads on some forum these days.  I don’t agree with this person anyway, while they are right about some things, they’ve got a very bleak, judgemental and overcomplicated way of looking at the question that’s being asked.  The truth is far more mundane than this!

Also I would never refer to “saggy tits” as a negative quality.  Not ever.  Go through my entire history of writing, you will not find this, I promise you.  Sagging boobs are only ever a force for good.

When Twice’s “Alcohol Free” came out, some self-proclaimed vocal expert (on Omona or Reddit, I believe) claimed they could tell that most of the girls had sung out of key and their voices had been adjusted in the studio. Putting aside the obvious fact that every singer’s voice gets adjusted in the studio, is there any way to tell that someone was singing in or out of key before they were autotuned? Or is that (as I suspect) bullshit?

They’re right, but only because in 2021 this process happens to literally every singer ever, so as soon as you hear any Autotune artifacts at all, it’s a safe bet that they were used for that reason.  Hell, even if you don’t hear any Autotune artifacts at all it’s still a safe bet because Autotune was no doubt used anyway and the engineer is just better at hiding it.

However to answer the question, no you can’t tell if someone was in tune or not after the Autotune was applied, because the entire purpose of applying the Autotune is to remove exactly those discrepancies.  Of course engineers can choose to “softly Autotune” rather than use the robot voice (and “soft” Autotuning is actually the type that you now hear on EVERY new release) but once again the entire point of softly Autotuning is that when it’s done very well, you can’t tell the difference between it and a natural singer’s voice anyway.  The exception is when doing crazy stuff like Autotuning someone’s voice up an entire octave, but we’re not talking about “creative” uses such as that.  Just in terms of traditional “nearest correct note” use, no, k-pop “vocal experts” are once again lying to you.

Hey oppar,
Recently, I’ve checked your curious cat, and one thing that has interested me was your comment on every industry with “glamour” having actually a lot of shit going on in the background, with many parallels to the kpop industry. Since I’m still trying to, you know, kind of get that through my head, specifically when it comes to the art industry since I have been giving some thought to the idea of an artsy career, or, I don’t know, UI or UX design. Am I oversimplicating stuff here or should I be cynical about this whole “wow art job so dreamy” thing that I feel like most art people over the internet talk about? Would it be worth a shot, even if the industry is kinda wacky?

Also, I’ve been having some weird thoughts about life lately – maybe just quarantine fucking over with my head and all this isolation hasn’t done me any good, but I’ve been pondering about, y’know, this whole purpose of life/meaning thing that’s apparently sacred or whatever and that’s been kind of trending… I think. But I’m really young, and while I think wondering about this stuff is kind of important, I haven’t done that much with my life recently, and I wanted to do a dopamine detox ( I got a trustable source rather than the ones who said dopamine detox would erase dopamine from your brain) since I pretty much just binge watch youtube and netflix, and it surely feels shitty when a whole day passes by and you barely did anything. Basically, I feel like life is passing me by and I’m not doing much. Anyways, Kpopalypse, should someone that’s still in high school even be worrying about those things? Am I taking life too seriously or something?

And for the last question, did your life change minimally or whatever when you found your “purpose” or “meaning”? Or is this like, I don’t know, saying that meditation will bring you happiness and peace and all the things that are good?

Art industry is a glamour industry and has the same issues as any other glamour industry – shortage of demand vs oversupply of labour, only a tiny fragment of those involved make sustainable living income etc.  That’s not to say it isn’t worth a shot, but be sure that you’re doing it for love because the money may or may not come.

Ultimately all human experience is chemical reactions in the brain.  We are all on drugs.  All I would say is don’t take the same drug too much – mix it up a little, it’s healthier and your brain copes with moderation easier than it copes with constant binging.  Having said that “everything in moderation – including moderation” is a good slogan to live by – it’s okay to completely indulge sometimes, just not every day all the time 24/7/365.  So don’t judge yourself too harshly.

Since you’re still in high school I’ll skip the “purpose and meaning” section because I’m not sure if my answers would apply or be useful (although some other readers might get some good JAV recommendations out of them).  But yes you’re too young to really even worry about these things, I had no fucking idea about any of this when I was your age.

So apparently for Pink Floyd’s ‘The Great Gig In The Sky‘, Clare Torry improvised the entire vocal singing bit. Which amazes me because the song sounds so good and “complete” (definitely not the right word, sorry for my shit articulation) in that it feels like all the notes she sings “fit” so well. Assuming that you like the song as well (if you aren’t a fan I would be interested in knowing why because you are really good at articulating your opinions), what exactly makes this song so good? Is it the instrumentation that carries it throughout? I find it particularly interesting because you’ve mentioned how excessive vocal “masturbation” can ruin a song if not in the right context but in this case, all the crazy singing technique is the main element of the song (and therefore fits contextually im guessing?).

Also what is this instrument being used to create the “sliding” noise? It sounds very similar to the “sliding up” noise heard in the intro of Comfortably Numb. Do you any songs that use it as well? I’m surprised I don’t hear it often – it’s quite a cool sound.

Clare’s improvised vocal melody for “Great Gig” fits the song very well, because it matches the dynamics of the song.  “Improvised” doesn’t always mean “bad”, but an improvisation has to serve the song, rather than the song being a vehicle for the improvisation.  The song itself must come first.  It fits great over the backing track because the backings are quite sparse and as they increase and decrease in intensity, so does her performance, which she shapes to suit the instrumental.  As a result the song is a great success in conveying the type of emotions that it’s about.  Whereas if she was doing that same shit over, say, Motorhead’s “Ace Of Spades”, it would sound terrible, it would be “too much”.

The instrument doing the slide noise is a lap steel guitar, which is played with a metal slide, you can see David Gilmour moving his hand across it at 0:32 where you’ve timestamped it.  Just search “lap steel guitar” for a better look at this type of instrument, which is usually used in country music.  Yes it sounds like the same sound at the start of “Comfortably Numb”, it’s probably the same instrument, which is used on quite a few Pink Floyd recordings (most notably, the newer live versions of “One Of These Days“).

I’m not sure if you already know but After School’s E-Young uploaded a more recent cover of Malmsteen’s Far Beyond the Sun. Both her new and old cover sound amazing to me but I don’t know much about music. As a guitarist, would you say she has improved a lot? It’s almost a 10 year difference after all.

Yes, I’m aware!

The versions are nearly identical.  For a little fun I decided to put them side by side in the one video and you can really tell in that context how identical they are plus where they differ.

There hasn’t really been much improvement, I did ask my readers about this in the most recent Kpopalypse survey, you can read the results here.

I feel like someone already asked this but is there any current idol-producer that you approve? before i remember that you acknowledged G-Dragon(and AKMU Chanhyuk?). From your roundup i feel like you sorta approve Bang Chan since your review of SKZ songs are quite favorable.

I don’t really have strong opinions about this, because ultimately in the idol system the producer (whether they themselves are an idol or not) is always beholden to whatever instructions they’ve been given to work with by whoever is making the decisions on whatever the next comeback should be.  You can get the best producer ever but if you specifically ask them to make music that sucks, and they do, have they done a good job or a bad job?  Either way, it makes the premise of idol producers being anything special a bit silly.  There’s a huge difference between “being allowed to produce a song” and “being completely 100% creatively free to produce a song without any business or commercial restraints”.  If you want the latter then that’s what Korean Indie deals with, you don’t really see any of that in the idol pop realm.  Of course that’s no guarantee of quality either, because what if you have a creative idea and it sucks.  Far too much fuss is made about self-producers by fans in general.

have you watched the 9muses of star empire documentary?

I’ve watched the 45-minute BBC edit, I haven’t seen the feature-length cut yet.  It’s on the list!

Hi Caonima Oppar, I hope you’re doing well. I want to know, what do you think are the things Park Bom has done to her face? I can’t seem to find any articles relating the details other than that she has done things.

And, what do you think about Miyavi?

No idea, I’m not a plastic surgery expert, but she’s got that puffed-up, peeled-back kind of look that people who undergo a substantial amount of facial plastic surgery (more than just one or two procedures like double eyelids) generally have (still mrs though).

Miyavi is boring and generic.  K-pop fans only seem to gravitate towards the most boring examples of Japanese rock, all the dull commercial shit like One OK Rock etc.  There is SO much better stuff out there from Japan than these bland people.

What king of work can I get being a nearly 30 uni dropout with no work experience? I can’t even bring myself to write a resume, I have nothing to write on it. Is lying an option? Besides the social stigma that comes with living in your parents basement (not literally) (also won’t elaborate how i got here because it doesn’t help with the issue) but I’m also discouraged, I feel like not even mcd will hire me because of this huge gap, i have some hobbies i was thinking of turning into freelancing but everyone says it’s difficult to start having clients that way, I don’t know I’m just really fearful of the world out there. I was thinking to move to a bigger city but I need some savings for that to happen. Any word of advice?

Just start doing “stuff”.  Really it can be anything.  Go volunteer somewhere or something like that.  Or explore the hobbies and see how far you can go with it and if there’s viable ways to make money there.  Maybe you can develop a business idea.  Plenty of people in your position started their own businesses because they didn’t see that they had any other option, then they became rich.  Something to think about – but don’t think too hard, make a start.

When k-pop will get rid of shitty rapping and introduce some instrumental solo?

I have forseen that this will happen on May 5th 2084.

Are there any good trap songs? It feels like the name’s pretty accurate to what it is: a trap if one hears something promising and expects a legitimately good song.

…and maybe one or two more, I dunno.  Blackpink’s newer stuff is kind of trap-ish but not really.

what do you think about aoa youkyung forming a band? any predictions?

Good.  She will.  What’s the point of being a drummer otherwise, just to do YouTubes?  Nah.

fun fact (which you may already know): lee jiyoung from gangkiz has a youtube account where she plays piano in revealing clothing. i’ve never played piano so i don’t know if she’s any good, but at least she’s got some popularity now

unrelated information, pyoapple has a history of being involved in weird lolita shit as a model. she used to work with rotta a lot (the creepy photographer that photographed sulli, hara, etc. and went to prison for sexually assaulting a model). hopefully whoever pyoapple is working with now isn’t a scummy pedo bastard

Jiyoung – I wasn’t aware.  This is perhaps the only time in the history of QRIMOLE when a question didn’t include a link and I wish it did.

Pyoapple – if she did that shit with him and is still doing that shit without him, she probably likes that style.  Good luck to her I guess.  There was nothing ever actually wrong with Rotta’s photos themselves (grown women wearing revealing grown-women clothing isn’t “Lolita” or “pedo” no matter how you slice it), it was the behaviour of the man behind the photos that was the only issue.

Hey Oppar! Can you list out some fiction and non-fiction books that you enjoy/used to enjoy? I have some free time on my hands right now with college being off for a month but I’m not planning to do an online internship because most of them here work you like a slave for free and they’re also quite difficult to find so I thought I might do some reading/other hobbies

I don’t really read fiction, believe it or not.  I can’t remember the last fiction book I read… oh wait, yes I can it was this one.

Non-fiction, I dunno manbe read Shirer’s “Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich”, that’s quite interesting, has lots of modern-day parallels and it will take you a while.  As a bonus, whenever someone invokes Godwin’s Law in future you’ll know exactly how full of shit they are.

Hello. I think you and your readers might be interested in this.

Also because she has a kpop background, she might be a good person to feature in your interview. More power!

I guess we’ll see!

I feel like she’s already covered off all the stuff that I would potentially ask her in some of her other content.  If she’s already been there, there’s really no need for me to go there.  However if she did reach out for an interview I would say yes.

can you tell me some songs that sound like snsd hoot? it’s their best song and i want several hundred versions of it but just a handful will suffice for now (i guess)

None, really.  Probably the closest thing I can think of sonically is Nine Muses “Gun” but that’s probably drawing a bit of a long bow.

I know you’ve mentioned finding Disney’s work the pinnacle of animation. I personally absolutely love hand-drawn animation, and Disney’s work truly is phenomenal. However, I also have a deep appreciation for stop motion animation, and modern advances in computer animation have also made it a truly incredible combination of the fantastical elements of animation and the realism of traditional films. My question is why do you find hand-drawn animation the best, or if I misunderstood you, what kind of animation do you like most?

PS Anime is bad because the animators are underpaid and overworked. A lot of the producers also seem to fail to understand that the beauty of animation comes in the creativity that can come from that kind of freedom. These flaws together make anime just usually much less interesting to watch. It’s the same kind of criticism that can be made to Disney’s modern remakes of their Renaissance films. Of course, Disney’s financial prowess means that those remade films deserve far more criticism than anime. Still, I don’t believe anime is an inherently bad form of animation. It’s just impossible to make anything truly worthwhile with the time crunches and budgets that those studios have. The best anime films are on par with Disney’s works, though obviously the two are in very different styles.

I don’t really care about the type of animation specifically, I’m not that interested in this topic in general and I spend precisely zero of my time these days watching the shit.  I just hate watching stuff that looks jerky, and laziness.  Disney generally looks smooth.  Japanese anime generally looks like shit.  (There are some exceptions – but not fucking many.)  Like, if you want people to pay to watch your fucking thing, put some effort in, you know?

I don’t know, or care to know, anything about the anime business in general, but it’s blatantly obvious just from looking at any Japanese anime how overworked they are because the animation in them always looks so incredibly lazy and rushed.  Maybe if they got renumerated a bit better and had better working conditions the actual animation quality might improve, but I probably still wouldn’t watch it just because of all the other myriad of things wrong with it which I’ve already discussed over and over.

I recently discovered dubstep remixes, and I’ve got to ask: why the fuck do they exist? It’s random shit that makes it clear the person involved had no idea what the original producers were going for, and it sounds like hot garbage, except at least hot garbage can be used as fuel for fires on occasion.

I don’t know either.  I’ll leave this question here in the hopes that one day science has an answer.

If you could rank all Loona Album Intros from Worst to Best, how would it look like? Link for reference

I’m not going to rank them but none of them sound bad.  Most k-pop songs are actually good without the vocal, it’s the singing that fucks the track up 90% of the time.  Instrumental album intros across the board in k-pop are quite good, it’s when you get to the actual meat of the album that everything turns to absolute fucking shit.

This isn’t a question, I just see youngish women ask similar things every so often about having no experience etc and if boyfriends mind, and I wanted to share my own experience for reference as it might be helpful (I’m not offended if you don’t think it’s relevant and don’t include it!).
I went to a Catholic all girls school, had a low libido, never been kissed until university, didn’t know a thing about porn, contraception, fapping etc. At university I met my first boyfriend, and he was cool about the fact I didn’t have much experience at all, and that I put off having sex with him for three years because I just had a lot of psychological stuff to deal with. We still had lots of sexy times without full on penetration which were fun. My country isn’t really conservative so this was unusual but he didn’t mind. We dated for six years in total and it was pretty great.
TLDR don’t stress about your experience or sexual hangups being a barrier to having good relationships, it doesn’t need to be a problem at all.

Yeah the right guy won’t care.  Also men can be very patient if they really like someone, as long as they’re not getting the feeling they’re being strung along.

Hi! After you said on your stream that you’re getting suggestions for a new sidebar girl anyways, I was encouraged to send you mine, too.

People are welcome to do this but I won’t publish any suggestions.  It’ll just change over when it does and that’ll be that.  I do read all questions however!

All these (pseudo) Latin American elements you see cropping up in K-Pop, is that because Koreans think this is irresistibly exotic or because they aim at a Latin American market?

I think they just see a trend in western pop music and are emulating it because that’s what k-pop does.  I don’t think any thought is really given to which countries it might go down with best or anything like that.

Is there anything truly good that comes out of tropical house music? I swear even the best efforts seem deeply flawed, and the average tropical house song is garbage covered in fecal matter, doused in urine, and lit on fire for good measure.

We got a few good songs out of it – maybe half a dozen out of about 50,000 hahaha

Hi I hope you’re doing well.

I’m beginning to lose my hair earlier than I expected. It’s only starting to thin and recede a little bit, so nobody else has really noticed yet, but I definitely have. My doctors said that if I’m concerned about it they can put me on some kind of anti-balding treatment and halt the balding process. That sounded kinda good at first, but then I realized that its something I would have to do for the rest of my life (or, as long as I give a shit, I guess).

I’m black with long hair (I’m mentioning this because making curly hair look any good takes forever) and I’m honestly thinking about saying fuck it and going bald. Everyone in my life will probably whine about this, since I have “good hair”. But it just feels not worth it in the end. I always end up dragging my feet when I have to do some crap to it. And even when I had it short I never felt like spending money on a haircut.

Anyways, you’re probably thinking “this cunt clearly wants to shave his head why doesn’t he just do it.” And honestly, I probably will by the time this QRIMOLE is published, but I’ve got some questions too.

1) When you first started shaving your head did you notice any shift in your public perception?

2) Were you bothered at all emotionally when your hair started falling out due to alopecia?

3) The only hairstyle I’ve seen you talk about on here was the long-haired metalhead hairstyle, did you have any other looks throughout the years?

1. Everyone I knew noticed straight away, they also knew that it was falling out before I just went “fuck it” and shaved it all, alopecia is the sort of thing you can’t hide once it gets to a certain point.  As for the general public, I didn’t notice any difference.  That could just be down to me being incredibly fucking ignorant and non-caring about people’s perceptions though.  While I’ve never detected anything direct, I realise that I might look a bit weird and scary to some, so I try to be mindful of that.  For instance if I get off the bus at the same time as some lady walking alone and then we happen to be on the same foot route I’ll deliberately walk ahead of her so she’s not scared of some weird guy who looks like a cross between a cancer patient and a neo Nazi walking behind her, stuff like that just seems polite.
2. Not really.  I was more just sad for my girlfriend because she liked my hair, when I had it!
3. After I had metalhead hair I had a style which was long in the front short in the back for a few years.

My only regret is I didn’t keep my metalhead hair when I cut it off and sell it, apparently you can sell human hair for quite a bit.  Who knew?

hey kpopalypse!
hope ur doing good.
i know sometimes you feel like kpop is the shittiest thing in the world, so what are some of your favorite non kpop-related artists? (also sorry if uve answered this b4, im a new caonima)

Here’s a YouTube playlist of songs I like that someone curates (not me) and it’s not perfect or complete but it’s reasonably accurate.

You can also check out my “random bass covers” YouTube channel where generally speaking (but not always) I cover stuff that I like.  Some are k-pop, some are not.

Have you heard of the unreleased demos of songs intended for GFriend? It’s so good and such a waste because of the disbandment 😦

I have now!

Memory’s a bit hazy but I think you’ve pointed out enough that you have your opinion on any given song and others are free to have theirs. But as someone who ingests a large variety of KPop songs, what do you think differs your thoughts from the average fan? Is it music theory understanding, personal tastes, tonedeafness, allegiance to a group or label, etc?
Also, I’ve tried to explain to non-fans that they might find something they like if they bothered to look, since I feel KPop is a marketing method, not really a genre, in the same way that we have pop-country, pop-punk, pop-metal, etc. What are your thoughts on this?

Obviously my thoughts are coloured by my music knowledge, my age, my upbringing as a nerdy computer gamer and also as a metalhead, but exactly how much each of these matters in the final analysis, I couldn’t say.  It’s hard to be objective about origins of music taste.  They’re not really coloured by any current factors like which label or artist does what though, I don’t care about any of that, as people often find out when songs by the same artists/labels/songwriters end up in the best and worst lists simultaneously!

Broadly, “k-pop” is a marketing term, not a musical term, to describe popular commercial music from Korea.  There are some definite differences with “how Koreans like their pop” vs other countries, on a musical level, but those differences aren’t really striking enough to call it a genre to itself.  If there’s anything k-pop really excels at the most, it’s sounding very much alike pop music from other countries, just a more polished, more perfected version thereof (sometimes). 

how should i feel about my friend shoving dildos up his ass to the beat of charli xcx?

Why the fuck not.  Maybe go around to his house for a listening party, sounds like it could be fun.

There’s always been some kind of bug in my home but recently I’ve been noticing, what I believe to be, bed bugs crawling on me and some bites on my skin. I’m not sure if they came by package or if the eggs were already there and are now hatching but how would you deal with this sort of thing? My friends say I have to thoroughly clean everything but my house is so cluttered I only have the energy to wash my sheets, vacuum, and spray. We could call pest control since we need to deal with termites too, but in the chance that that doesn’t work either should I just live with it? I’ve already gone thru being bitten by fleas so bedbugs aren’t as bad, just harder to catch since they’re small as a freckle.

Jordan Petersen says quite a few things I disagree with, but “clean your room” isn’t one of them.  Seriously you need to get that house uncluttered so cleaning is actually possible.  Spraying constantly isn’t going to do shit.  If your house is the perfect environment for bugs then yes they are going to get in your bed.  If it’s a big project you don’t have to do it all in one day, just set aside maybe one section of the room per cleaning session and say “right, today I’m going to just clean this bit here” and gradually work your way around the room.  Do it.  Once it starts cleaning actually becomes addictive.  If you’re not convinced, download Viscera Cleanup Detail on Steam and play it until you feel stupid that you’re not doing it for real.

I saw one user’s question about Laboum’s Journey To Atlantis (with the fad question at the end). Weird how they changed the title! You had a tab for the whole song. That’s it! Thanks

Oh, it’s THAT song.  Thanks for clearing that up!

I know that girl groups “do NOT get along” but do you think solo artists get along with their backup dancers?

Fuck no.  Think of the power differential.  They probably don’t even talk to each other except in the most exceptional of circumstances, or when they know cameras are rolling and they need to seem all “friendly” and shit.  I bet in some cases backing dancers aren’t even allowed to look the singer in the eye.

By the time this is posted, the season is going to be over, but there’s something super sketchy about the rankings of Produce 101 Japan’s second season. Even my favorite guy somehow went from 48th place to 16th in a week, there’s guys who dropped like crazy or rose like crazy depending on “benefit votes” that didn’t add up… the first season’s group, while mostly good (one of the members is a homophobic schoolgirl chaser, but you’re not allowed to bring that up), is super unbalanced. It wouldn’t be surprising if Yoshimoto and MNET were trying to make this group a little more focused. Or at least not as problematic? Again, you’re not supposed to talk about the guy who likes em young liking em young, but that would probably blow up in their faces if it caught steam.

The thing is, people refuse to believe things are sketchy, because Produce 101 Japan is all independent trainees. “There’s no company money changing things,” they’ll say, as if that’s the only motivation a company would have to do so. There’s one girl in particular who screeches at the thought, because she’s an X1 fan… and like, I get it, but X1 was pretty blatantly rigged too? I thought everyone could see it. In the end, she could attach herself to any organically formed (well, organically for a K-pop group, you know what I mean), and she picked one that got exposed… is she rightfully angry and “traumatized”? Am I just a bitch? And is there any way to call out an idol for being a statutory rapist if you have evidence just a google search away, but nobody wants to see it, because THE most popular international fan of this group will send her flying monkeys in you if you do?

If there was a Jpopalypse I’m sure they could help you with making this more public.  The closest thing I can think of is probably Asian Junkie, perhaps you should give him some links and info about this, because it’s all a bit beyond my station.  Perhaps he’s already covered it, I don’t know, but he seems to enjoy covering things of this nature!

I listened to Pink Floyd’s entire discography some time ago and since then, I’ve been struggling to understand why so many people consider Dark Side of the Moon to be their masterpiece. Is there something about this album that makes it special and unique from a musical/compositional standpoint? (you must hate questions like these lol)

The Pink Floyd questions this month are rolling in.  Maybe I should be Floydpopalypse.  Pinkfloydalypse?

I think it’s a very coherently-made concept album, with production values that were very far ahead of their time – the music on that album still sounds modern today, it doesn’t sound dull and lacking in clarity like so much other rock music from the 1970s does when you listen to it today.  On top of that there’s a lot of songs on that album that have one foot in experimentation but also have catchy choruses and broad commercial appeal.  So it sort of hits all the bases in a way.  It’s not a favourite of mine personally but I can’t deny that they definitely achieved what they set out to do with that specific album, both artistically and commercially.

Hi oppar.

It’s not really a question actually. I used to talk to my closest friends for things like this but my current mental health makes it feel scary and useless.

I’ve been having mental health struggles for a decade, started seeing professionals on and off the past 5 years.
Once got mild depression diagnosis. Recently no clear diagnosis but symptoms of hysteria and persistent depressive disorder.

Anyway I used to live alone and handled it okay, but last year it got bad. Tried routine counseling. Not much improvement. Even had to move back to my parents’ this year.

Now I’m trying to resign from my office job. It was okay, pay’s good, people just normal, and there were things I enjoyed. But with my current state, the things that were ok or fun turned into triggers, and it’s tiring.

I’ve already made the decision, talked to my bosses, only thing left is submitting the resignation letter.
I guess I’m just writing this to make peace with it.
It’s not something I decided in one emotional moment. I’ve thought about it in months, tried to consider all the pros and cons.
I know whatever I choose, I won’t know the exact outcome until I try.
I know I know.
I’ve talked about all this with family and friend before,
but now, in this night when the worries creep in and I feel as if I shouldn’t share them with those whom I’m supposed to trust,
I just
need to tell
someone I don’t know personally

That’s it.

You must be receiving tons of these every month.
Thanks for reading, and it’s ok even if you don’t.

Stay healthy, oppar.
You, your cat, and your girlfriend.

Yes I get a lot of these.  Good luck with everything.  I think you know what you need to do, just keep being open with everyone and handling your mental health journey as best you can.  You may not realise how relatable your situation is to others but I can 100% guarantee you from the correspondence I get (not all of which makes it into QRIMOLE, I hold back a lot of stuff at reader request) that a lot of people are reading this and thinking “yep, I feel this” and they will probably find strength just through you sharing.

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That’s all for this month’s QRIMOLE!  This series will return next month!  In the meantime remember to try not to have gay sex with Yves – in 3d!

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!