Damn Idol Episode 105
Besides, he hadn’t promoted the group itself with his killer move.
If anything, it was closer to promoting Han Sion—and making excuses for him.
Judging by the video, they seemed to be preparing a song called “Resume,” but that song would have a hard time being registered on music sites.
Of course, it wouldn’t be blocked forever.
Neither the Music Copyright Association nor the Music Industry Association would do anything that left behind concrete evidence of unfair practices.
But they could delay its registration as much as possible.
As short as one month, as long as four.
By then, it would be more than enough time for the buzz gained through this issue to evaporate.
Thinking that way, he actually felt more at ease.
From the perspective of a producer making an idol group, the difficult part of marketing wasn’t creating buzz.
Short-term buzz could be manufactured any number of ways.
What mattered was whether the buzz had continuity.
It didn’t matter what form that took.
An individual fancam creates buzz, a variety show blows up, the hair-makeup-styling shown on that variety show creates buzz, a cross-edited video blows up…
Rather than one huge topic exploding all at once, it was more important for smaller topics to keep circulating and exploding without pause.
That was how one rose to stardom.
So Sedalbaegil’s current issue wasn’t that big of a deal.
It would end as short-term buzz, and the issue would ultimately boil down to “Drop Out VS NOP.”
Having reached that conclusion, Choi Daeho called in his closest aide, Team Manager Park.
“Ask the media outlets to talk only about Han Sion. Not Sedalbaegil, Han Sion. Especially make sure they don’t bring up the self-produced content.”
“You mean you want to narrow the scope of the issue? To composition?”
“That’s right.”
“We’re being flooded with inquiries from Sedalbaegil fans. They’re asking about the contract situation.”
“Hmm…”
It had to be because of what that sly bastard Han Sion had let slip in the self-produced content.
[They’re both my songs, after all. As you know, we don’t have a company, so we’re desperate for copyright royalties…]
The nuance was very subtle.
It could sound as though they’d ended up in a difficult situation because they didn’t have a company.
But that was as far as it went.
Sly bastards were usually cowards too, and Han Sion hadn’t gone any further than that.
If he’d intended to ram them head-on, he should have gone as far as saying that Lion Entertainment was oppressing them.
In other words, Han Sion was leaving the final exit open too.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to handle?”
“There are big YouTube channels, not the small ones. Especially channels with strong influence over teenagers and people in their twenties.”
“Yes.”
When you went on a variety program, you received an appearance fee, but with major YouTube channels, you actually paid promotional fees to appear.
That was how powerful YouTube content had become.
They had to stay on guard.
“Find out if any of them are coordinating appearances with Sedalbaegil.”
“What should I do after I find out?”
“Try replacing the guests with Take Scene, and if they seem reluctant, offer a high promotional fee. If that still doesn’t work, ask if there are any celebrities they want. Tell them we’ll connect them.”
“Understood.”
Of course, they couldn’t block all of Sedalbaegil’s promotion this way.
No matter how talented Choi Daeho was, he couldn’t exert strong influence over individual creators.
But at the very least, he could stop them from appearing on major channels like mushrooms after rain.
After sending Team Manager Park out, Choi Daeho picked up his phone one last time.
Then he called the CEO of Double M.
He understood that “Selfish” was becoming a massive hit.
But this was a little excessive for simply helping out the composer of a song that had already been released.
It wasn’t as if they were strangers to each other’s circumstances.
He wasn’t going to criticize him, but he needed to hear the reason.
“Ah, CEO Gu.”
The CEO of Double M would at least tell him that much.
* * *
The reaction after our self-produced content was released was truly heated.
Of course, most of the issue was being consumed with Drop Out and NOP tangled into it, but that didn’t matter.
For now, the important thing was getting talked about.
After that, we just had to keep driving the buzz steadily.
That was what the self-produced content was for.
In truth, Choi Jaeseong had played a big role when we made it.
Honestly, I don’t know idol self-produced content.
While preparing this time, I looked up quite a few videos, but I kept feeling like they didn’t suit us.
We were caught up in a sensitive issue with Drop Out, and I didn’t think it would look very pleasant for us to be laughing and enjoying ourselves while playing games together.
When I talked about this concern, it was Choi Jaeseong who suggested a new direction.
“Self-produced content usually plays a big role in answering what fans are curious about, you know? How do our kids hang out in private, what are their real personalities like, can they watch horror movies, what snacks do they like, and so on.”
“But?”
“Rather than going in that direction, wouldn’t it be better for us to create things people are curious about?”
“Specifically?”
“First of all, the thing I’m most curious about is… Why do we have so many bodyguards?”
“This? You think this is a lot?”
“Yes. It’s a detached house anyway, so do we really need to guard it like some kind of sentry post?”
“Is that so?”
Honestly, I’d thought there were a bit too few.
Korea’s public safety was good, so this level was fine, but if it were America, I would have hired several times more.
I, in particular, had to be more careful.
In America, there were extreme racists, and every time I took over more of the American mainstream, they would fly into a frenzy.
There had actually been some pretty dangerous incidents too.
It was probably right after COVID.
That was an uncomfortable time for Asians living in America.
Thinking about that, I had asked Choi Jaeseong.
“You’re saying we should show the bodyguards? In the self-produced content?”
“What? No, I’m saying we should reduce them. I think one person could just manage entries and exits, like an apartment security guard.”
“We’ll talk about that later. What are you saying we should show?”
“We should keep creating points people are curious about. Like, why is the dorm so nice, what company are they under, things like that.”
Choi Jaeseong’s opinion was that after that, it would be good to show the main content.
I accepted that opinion and made the self-produced content fast-paced, but with enough room for question marks to pop up.
We did the song work in an instant, and we did the live performance in an instant too.
Even if people had no affection for us, we made sure they wouldn’t have time to get bored.
For reference, the place that made our self-produced content was a studio called
They said they got quite a lot of work from the idol scene, and they were wary of Lion Entertainment.
But less than two hours after the video was released, they called us.
They asked if they could perhaps add it to their portfolio.
And starting from episode two of the self-produced content, they wanted to put their name in the intro too.
Naturally, we welcomed it.
The more moles there were to receive Lion Entertainment’s toy hammer with us, the better.
While I was thinking that, Gu Taehwan lifted his head from where it had been buried in his smartphone.
“We’re number one on Trending.”
“Really?”
“And number one in real-time search terms too.”
“I know that.”
“I never imagined it would turn out like this…”
This time, On Saemiro opened his mouth.
“Sion. How much of this did you expect?”
Mm, to be honest, I expected all of it.
There was only one thing I hadn’t expected.
The fact that Drop Out and NOP hadn’t adjusted their overlapping release schedules.
While appearing on Coming Up Next, I had heard about Drop Out and NOP’s release schedules through Team Manager Seo Seunghyeon.
He had said that judging by the atmosphere, NOP would probably push their release back by about a month.
But because NOP suddenly got an overseas schedule, BVB Entertainment pushed ahead with the release.
They said NOP had to promote domestically for only four weeks and then head overseas right away.
Thanks to that, two top-tier boy groups ended up clashing with only ten days between them.
“…
So other than that, you predicted everything?”
“Rather than predicted, I had plans prepared. If things progressed this way, I’d move like this; if they progressed that way, I’d move like that.”
I monitored Narak Detector from episode one to the latest episode.
Then I identified the tendency in the questions they asked.
Narak Detector tended to ask its guests a lot of questions evaluating their competitors.
They asked baseball players to evaluate players who were active in the same era, and they asked movie actors questions about rival films.
It was the same for singers.
So I deliberately scheduled the filming after Drop Out’s “Selfish” had been released.
Because I was certain “Selfish” would be number one by then.
Since I was the first guest who had never committed any wrongdoing, I figured the production team would definitely ask a question about the song ranked number one at that point.
“Ah, I didn’t know they’d compare Drop Out and NOP. That was unexpected.”
“…”
But the nature of the question was the same, so answering it wasn’t difficult.
And through this issue, I’d even thought we should make self-produced content.
Securing the dorm and practice room was also to match the timeline for that.
“And as everyone knows, Choi Jaeseong came up with a good idea for the self-produced content.”
“…
Then? Is there something after this too, by any chance?”
“There are a few plans, but for now, I think it’ll be fine if we stay still.”
“Why? Aren’t we supposed to row when the water comes in?”
“NOP and Drop Out are going to fight until their heads crack—… NOP sunbaenims and Drop Out sunbaenims. Happy?”
“Yes. A leaky gourd at home leaks outside too. Even in private, you have to attach honorifics.”
“Yes, teacher.”
He said he grew up in a family of teachers, and even his metaphors were no ordinary thing.
“Anyway, those two groups are going to fight until their heads crack, so anything we do will get buried.”
“Hmm. That’s true too.”
“Besides, another side will create issues on its own.”
“Another side?”
Drop Out and NOP weren’t the only K-pop groups that had bought my songs.
There were a few more.
They would create the next wave.
Maybe one of them was already planning to promote as quickly as possible with, “The composer of our song is Han Sion too!”
Only after that ended would episode two of our self-produced content be released.
Of course, there were plans after that too.
But it was still too early to reveal them to the members.
“They might oppose it.”
So I only said that much, but even that seemed to have surprised the members quite a bit.
“How on earth do you think of things like that?”
“When you live a long time, there are things you start to see. It’s called insight.”
At my words, Gu Taehwan laughed as if dumbfounded.
It was true, though.
“Sion hyung. Then what should we do from now on?”
“Do you even need to ask? We have to practice ‘Resume.’ Even when we filmed the self-produced content, every one of you made at least one mistake…”
I shut my mouth.
Because I realized I had dug my own grave.
“Now that I think about it, I forgot because we were listening to the story about NOP sunbaenims.”
“Forehead flick.”
Damn it.
* * *
Videos related to Sedalbaegil, Drop Out, and NOP began pouring onto YouTube indiscriminately.
It wasn’t only people who handled idol-related content who brought them up.
“Ah, right. Did you guys see that? The Sedalbaegil video?”
YouTubers who did casual communication content, YouTubers whose main content was gaming, and YouTubers who mainly delivered information all joined in.
The age range of people who watched internet broadcasts tended to be young, and there were few among them who didn’t know Drop Out and NOP.
Of course, since it was a sensitive issue, no one directly compared the two songs.
So…
“Wow, I think he’s really talented. Han Sion-nim.”
“Aren’t both of these songs so good?”
In the end, the cleanest way to wrap up the topic was to mention Han Sion’s name at the end.