It’s time for QRIMOLE, the series where readers ask Kpopalypse questions! Let’s take a look at the mailbag for the last month!
I found this video of NMIXX Jiwoo that made me wish that best smile was a category in the objectification survey. Does Jiwoo mrs as a successor to Nayeon for the bunny teeth throne now that the latter has removed herself from consideration?
I think her teeth are too straight to be bunny teeth, they all protrude about equally. You really need the front upper two or four really protruding a little past the rest to get the bunny effect. The fourth category in the objectification survey “most attractive” is really all about faces (because most people consider the face to be the most attractive part of a person) so you could certainly vote for Jiwoo there if you wanted. Also, for anyone who hasn’t cast their vote in the 2025 Kpopalypse Objectification Survey yet, what are you doing with your life. CLICK HERE to vote! Also I’ve seen a few recent photos of Nayeon that seemed a bit more bunny-ish so she may have just gotten veneers rather than a total jaw reset. Here’s hoping.
Last year, Jojo siwa did a kpop methodology by buying a song and poppify it some more. Did she succeed in making the song better?
OG song:
Jojo’s version:
I don’t like the original at all really and I don’t like the new version either, but if I had to choose one to listen to at gunpoint I’d pick the original because the backings are somewhat less generic. It’s still the same uninteresting-as-fuck song at its core though so the quality variance isn’t huge.
Thoughts on Anthony Fantano?
Don’t really give enough of a fuck about him to even watch him enough to have an informed opinion. Doesn’t he cover western pop? I’m kpopalypse not westernpopalypse.
thoughts on this blantant i am ripoff that’s topping the charts? it’s from an animated movie about a kpop group that seems cheesy as fuck. there are other songs but i know you’re gonna say they’re shit
and
What are your thoughts on the K-Pop Demon Hunter soundtrack? Do you think the soundtrack’s popularity will bring the return of actual athemic and good choruses? How long do you think it will take? (probably like 2-3 years). Idk, I just felt like I’ve been underwhelmed by 2025 releases so far. I thought Kpop was making a comeback since around 2020, but all the momentum has dropped off. Makes me wonder if K-pop will ever even get a “silver era” – before I bore of it – that is if it never reaches 2009-2011/12 standards again.
Kpop Demon Hunters is on my list of things to check out and review for this site, and when I do, I’ll also review the songs from it at that time. Expect it fondly.
Two music related questions for you. Putting your degree to use, if the other questions this month aren’t.
They sure aren’t. Anyway let’s go.
Question 1: I occasionally get migraines. Besides meds, this YouTube audio has been extremely effective with even the worst migraines I’ve had in making the pain tolerable or even nonexistent. Is it some sort of placebo effect? Or is there something scientifically going on with this music that helps you relax or something? I’ve been using it for years and it works well. And naturally if I still have a migraine and turn it off, the pain comes back in full force. I’m not one of those people who believes in specific “vibrations” having spiritual power or any shit like that so this has to be a natural phenomenon?
Probably nothing scientific about it other than music in general tends to help people relax just because it gives them something else to focus on. I mean okay yeah there’s a very slim chance that there’s a frequency in this shit which has a wavelength which matches the length of whatever it is in your head that’s hurting, but you’re just as likely to get a match like that with Napalm Death as you are with someone’s ambient relaxation music. But hey if it works for you, why not keep using it. You could use this for the same purpose if you wanted.
Question 2: One of my favorite songs at the moment that I’m sure you’ll hate due to the genre (R&B) is this short one by Halle Bailey.
It’s a pretty simple, repetitive song, but the thing that seems cool to me is whatever is going on with the keys. Like the song starts and seems to generally be in one key, but when she sings “back and forth” or “shut the door,” it seems slightly different and sort of unusual? It also gives the song a specific vibe. Like a lot of the ad libs and vocalizations seem like they should be off key but aren’t. What’s happening there?
Wow, the average-ass western songs are coming into QRIMOLE thick and fast this month. Yeah I didn’t like this song, I mean it’s not the worst thing ever but it doesn’t do a lot, it’s just two minutes of nothing. The sound you’re hearing is layered (overdubbed) vocal harmonies, something k-pop doesn’t tend to fuck with (because so few k-pop vocalists are even capable of singing the root notes without electronic help let alone harmonising over them) but the better western R&B singers will harmonise a fair bit because that’s the sound of R&B from way back. Combining it with the fairly strong reverb on the track definitely gives the harmony an ethereal quality, what you’re focusing on as a “wrong” note is probably your ear isolating out the harmony note and hearing it away from the context of the root note. Because a harmony note isn’t the actual melody, it’s not “the right note”, it’s like an extra “enhancing note”… I’m trying to explain this in a non-music-theoryish way. But it’s this sound:
Hello. i have a few questions.
do you think that kplp fans will overhype a song because the dance is really cool. ive started to notice it with bts a lot. i like bts its mindless to me and sometimes i really need that but when i look at songs like dope which isnt a terrible song to me people hype it up because the footwork it hard. when a single comes out for any kpop group its always about the dance rather then the fact that werid ass noice does not stuit the beat and the autotune is ass fucking you. i do wonder which kpop songs would be popular if the dancing wasnt a thing.
also NCT the expermental unit isnt that expermental to me its just a werid noise over a normal beat with aave. maybe i heard arca all the werid latin stuff and thats created a bias but kpop to me is just who can make the most radio boring song and overwork your idols the hardest. final question do you think the issue above us because the kpop indistry was bulit on making money for the korean industries rather then other music genres which where created as a act of defiance. how can anything be a protest in kpop when it was buildt on helping the industires that harm the people.
i would like to thank you for your time and have a good day.
The dancing is definitely part of the package that sells people on k-pop overall. It’s one reason why you’ll never really see the “virtual” stuff ever be more than a niche thing. People like the human connection and part of that is the dancing.
NCT definitely isn’t all that experimental, when I talk about them risk-taking, I’m talking about risk-taking within the context of pop music, which is a pretty small degree of risk-taking really. It’s nothing all that wild, I mean it’s not fucking Merzbow. But it’s all relative – it’s still pretty risky compared to what most k-pop agencies are churning out. There’s nothing particularly rebellious about Korean idol pop, I think anyone who is looking for that should look to other genres. There’s plenty of protest music out there that people could check out.
Through a lot of factors (group drama, depression, just personal growth etc), I’ve found myself friendless since the pandemic. I’ve been trying to put in the effort to change this, to make at least one by going to clubs and hobby classes. But people seem very creeped out by a person, especially a girl, with zero social connection, especially for a long period of time. The assumption is that “if nobody wants her, there must be something wrong with her.” And this is worse because generally people do expect women to have larger social circles than men. I don’t proclaim my loneliness to people I am trying to befriend, but it’s found out via indirect means. Such as having no stories to tell that include another person, never mentioning talking to another human, lack of social skills, being always available, etc. Also, the question is sometimes posed by the other person. Not in an accusatory manner, but often in one of curiosity. Example: “Where do you like to go with your friends on the weekend?” And that’s how they find out. Should I lie? Seems unreasonable since I can’t hide 5 years of lacking social development. I also don’t want to start a friendship off of a lie. How do I get out of this catch 22? I don’t want to be alone anymore.
I’m hardly the person to ask about being more social give how wilfully antisocial I am, but I don’t know… could they really be judging you as hard as you think? To me it feels like a good segue into “that’s why I’m here, you know”. However even if so, I think most people would understand the effects of COVID on the social landscape so you can probably just blame it on that if you felt like you needed an “out”, just say you had to lock down really hard and because of that you lost track with a lot of people. Not necessarily a lie from what you’ve told me, and it prevents people from digging further because nobody really wants to hear about COVID, we’re all thoroughly sick of talking about it by this point. And if they pry even further you can tell them that YOU are sick of talking about it and you’d rather look to the future. Makes it easy to change the subject from there. Or just reverse it and start asking them questions. Most people’s favourite conversation topic is themselves so you’ll find that asking people about themselves is a great way to extract yourself from awkwardness. See how you go with that, but don’t be surprised if this advice sucks because I am very antisocial, sincere apologies if it falls short.
