Damn Idol Chapter 124
* * *
The video began with a pitch-black electric guitar sitting alone in a space of pure, pristine white.
Behind the shot, which lingered on the guitar for a long while, a crackling—
—of white noise could almost be heard.
Click, click.
From somewhere came the rhythmic sound of dress shoes.
The moment someone’s hand grabbed the guitar sitting there by itself, the pitch-black cable of the electric guitar, connected to a speaker, appeared as if by magic.
As the camera tilted up from the hand, Han Sion came into view.
Han Sion grinned and began playing the electric guitar.
It was a high-level guitar solo.
One so good it would be believable to say it had been performed by the lead guitarists of a legendary hard rock band.
The shot held tightly on Han Sion as he played passionately, even swaying with the music.
Then Han Sion, as if lost in the performance, struck the body of the guitar roughly.
As though shoved away by that motion, even the camera was flung to the side, and there stood Lee Ion.
As I look around me! (I look all around me)
The first line, the first phrase, was practically shouted.
As if receiving that opening phrase, laden heavily with reverb, Han Sion’s guitar blazed.
But what was interesting was that the power of the guitar performance had weakened.
Instead, it showed off its melodicism.
As if Lee Ion were the lead electric guitar, and Han Sion were the second melody guitar.
Satan wanna put me in bowtie. (Satan wants me to wear a bow tie)
Until now, Lee Ion had been trying to make his sharp, rough tone harmonize by hitting the notes precisely.
But not this time.
He did not hide his prickly tone at all.
In response, Han Sion’s guitar created an even softer performance.
It had seemed to begin as an intense rock guitar piece, yet within just two lines, it was giving off the scent of contemporary rock.
But then, Gu Taehwan, who had appeared at some point in the pure white space, began to sing.
Soon, the color of the space changed into a vivid orange.
What you gonna do? (What would you do?)
Regarding the talent of 3 Months 100 Days, Han Sion had evaluated them as being on the lower end among the teammates he had met so far.
It was a cold assessment, but also an accurate one.
After all, the teams he had put together until now had been people who climbed Billboard and the Grammys as casually as a neighborhood hill.
But if there was one member Han Sion made a single exception for, it was Gu Taehwan.
I need all the love, (I need all the love)
Tone, pronunciation, and vocalization could all be fixed.
Unless one was born with an unfortunate vocal color like Lee Ion’s, correction was possible.
But the sense of rhythm Gu Taehwan was born with was, exactly as the phrase said, something innate.
Even if one used a voice-correction program like Auto-Tune to create identical timing, it would be impossible.
How much breath to use on a single word.
How long to hold one’s breath in the empty space between bars.
Where to fill the breath, and where to let it out.
Because “sense of rhythm” was something in which an absurd number of elements instinctively blended together.
I mean all of us (I mean, all of us)
Gu Taehwan, singing beneath the vivid orange light, was exactly the version of him Han Sion had wanted to see all this time.
The strength in his voice was so supple that the genre, which had clearly seemed like contemporary rock, began to sound like rock-based contemporary R&B.
Then, the moment Gu Taehwan finished his short part and drew in a breath—
The camera whipped around, and the whole world changed to purple.
At the same time, Choi Jaeseong danced excitedly to the electric guitar performance.
The “breakdown” that gave birth to the genre called hip-hop was, in the end, born because of drums.
A person’s heartbeat has the property of adapting to external sounds; when the drumbeat speeds up, the heartbeat speeds up as well.
Then the brain automatically concludes, “I’m excited,” and one truly becomes excited.
The point where Choi Jaeseong’s dance struck was the same.
The dance came in first, and when the drums entered a beat late and began thumping, at first it made one wonder what this was supposed to be.
Starting from a guitar solo and arriving here, the progression could feel scattered.
But before long, one was enjoying the beat along with Choi Jaeseong’s dance.
Han Sion’s guitar solo, which had felt so intense, had somehow been reduced to a loop section made through sampling, and Lee Ion’s declaration of war had been laid underneath as melody.
The lingering trace of rhythm Gu Taehwan’s singing had given was hidden inside the drums, and Choi Jaeseong was enjoying it to his heart’s content.
So the message this kind of stage composition sought to deliver was simple.
We are outstanding as individuals, too.
But what do you think happens when people like us come together as one?
Soon, the light filling the screen changed to blue.
The color of 3 Months 100 Days.
As I look around me! (I look all around me)
Lee Ion shouted once again, but it was not aggressive.
It was still prickly, but even so, his voice was buried in the beat.
This time, it was not a declaration of war.
It was a single strike that signaled the song was beginning.
Receiving that, On Saemiro, whose voice shot up an octave, began to sing.
Colorful Struggle.
A brilliant struggle.
Originally, this was a song Han Sion had made because he was sick of show business.
The public could only think of splendor when they looked at him, but behind it lay a struggle.
Just as the lyrics said, Satan wanted him to wear a bow tie, the kind tied at funerals, but the only thing that could save him was love.
That was why he had no choice but to sing.
In front of a dirty mirror (Only in front of a stained mirror)
Because the only one who knew his entire life was himself inside the stained mirror.
But thinking about it, it was strange.
Han Sion had sung Colorful Struggle in almost every iteration.
When circumstances made it difficult for him to sing it himself, he had given it to someone else.
That was how much he liked the song.
But not once had he ever sung it as part of a team.
This was the first time, with 3 Months 100 Days.
They found me (They will find me)
* * *
“……”
Paul, the chief manager of Colors Media, closed his mouth, which had been hanging open, once the portfolio video ended.
Then he fell into thought.
When he first heard the team name <3 Months 100 Days>, he had wondered what on earth it was.
Three months and one hundred days?
Even if bands tended to name themselves carelessly, wasn’t that strange?
It felt similar to when he had first heard band names like
But once the song ended, it somehow suited them.
Yes, that was the feeling.
Just like when he had first heard a band name like that and found it absurd, only to understand once he heard the music.
Even so, Paul found himself feeling a strange resistance.
Why did he feel this resistance?
Was it because they were Asian?
Absolutely not.
Paul was not a racist; on the contrary, he had tremendous interest in the Asian market and its singers.
Because the video quality was poor?
Bullshit.
The reason he had been impressed while listening to this song was that the producer and performers had achieved an incredible harmony.
In truth, if he looked at it coldly, the stage composition was a bit scattered.
A guitar solo?
A genre shift that began by bursting out with a prickly tone?
A sense of rhythm that suddenly gave off an R&B feel?
A dance break that erupted even more suddenly?
If they were to release the track, they would probably have to cut everything from the guitar solo in the intro to the dance break.
It would be appropriate to say the song began after that.
It would probably actually be that way.
Nevertheless, the reason Paul had watched the video in a daze was that the performers perfectly carried out what the producer intended.
If they made even the slightest wrong move, it would become chaotic and unfocused, yet it did not feel that way at all.
It was perfect.
Then was the music a little lacking?
“Fuck.”
Even more bullshit.
After cursing himself once for having such a thought, he observed the thoughts inside him.
“Because there are too many members?”
That did bother him a little.
Normally, Color Show was content that spotlighted one performer, and at most two.
But if a team sang with this much unity, wasn’t it fine?
So he did not know.
He did not know what felt so uncomfortable.
In the end, Paul, unable to find the answer, took the video as it was to another manager.
Of course, he had trouble explaining it.
“So you’re saying he’s an unknown genius, but he’s a K-pop artist who collaborates with masters?”
“I know it sounds weird, but just watch it.”
“No, isn’t this fake?”
“Whether it’s fake or whatever, let’s watch it first and talk after.”
He showed the video to the manager, who had the same question he did.
The reaction was the same as his own.
For a while, the manager could not wipe the look of admiration from his face, and then he opened his mouth.
“Whoa, who are these guys? Three Months One Hundred Days?”
“They say they’re K-pop artists.”
“K-pop boy bands don’t usually feel like this, though?”
“Let’s think about that later. How was it?”
“The song and video are really good, but I feel kind of offended.”
“Huh? Why?”
“This is the format of Color Show. Aside from the colors changing way too often, it’s the same.”
“Is that a problem? There are lots of portfolio videos like that.”
“Ah, that’s true, but…… Huh? Then why was I offended?”
“Right? Something about it bothers you, doesn’t it?”
“You too, Chief?”
“Yeah. That’s why I showed it to you.”
Absurdly enough, the one who gave the chief manager and the manager the answer they could not figure out was an intern.
The intern, who had been handling work nearby, happened to see the video and spoke up.
“Wow, this is it!”
“What is?”
“A new media team worked on this, right? It feels so good.”
“Huh?”
“When does this get released? I think people are going to go crazy over it.”
At that moment, the chief manager and the manager realized the true nature of the discomfort they had felt.
The portfolio video for the team called <3 Months 100 Days>……
looked better than what Colors Media made.
Of course, he was not talking about the quality of the video itself.
The performers’ presence was so overwhelming that it erased the sense of dissonance, but there were many disappointing points in the camera work and use of cuts.
But those were all problems that could be solved by spending money.
More important than that was the fundamental feel of the video and the concept through which it developed.
And that was better than what had been uploaded to their official channel.
There were parts that were clearly superior.
Then the manager opened his mouth.
“Chief.”
“What?”
“If we take this on, can we make it even better?”
“……”
“At the very least, we’ll have to make it better than the portfolio video……”
He could not easily answer that it was possible.
But that was precisely why he felt challenged.
“We’ll have to try.”
“Should we contact the artist right away?”
“Yes. There may be a language issue, so find an interpreter too.”
“Understood.”
“For now, I need to analyze the portfolio video with the art team.”
And so, Paul caught fire.
But what Paul did not realize was that he had decided on 3 Months 100 Days’s appearance far too easily.
Until now, no K-pop artist had ever appeared on Color Show, and no group artist had ever appeared either.
The reason was simple.
The panic button labeled “it looks better than our own content” had been pressed.
Just as Han Sion intended.