Damn Idol Episode 138
* * *
-What the hell. In the end, there was only one teaser, and the rest were individual member fancams?
-Ahh lololol individual member fancams lol-That actually makes sense lol-They’re making it up to us like this because there weren’t any music show fancams. TT
-Sedalbaegil can’t go on music shows?
-No haha, they can! Their first music show is this Wednesday!
-Somebody tell me about these guys!!! Please!!!!
-How am I supposed to wait until midnight tomorrowㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ I already want to see the MVㅠㅠㅠㅠ-The MV looks seriously promising.
-If Sedalbaegil does well, won’t other agencies come to their senses too? They’ll have proven that idols can do it by themselves.
-I was passing by and had to laugh lololol Idols aren’t doing this, Han Sion is doing this lololol-Agreed. Under the Streetlight, Falling Flowers, Seoul Town Funk, Crossroads, Sedalbaegil, Dropout title track, NOP title track, self-content song Resume, Colorful Struggle. Even this pre-release track. Not a single misstep lol-Wow, seeing it laid out like this, it’s actually absurd. Is this even possible?
-How is the album going to come out, then? EP? Full-length?
-Probably an EP.
-I want to see the MVㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ-From now on, when we cry over Sedalbaegil content, let’s cry with TT.
-TTTTTTTTTTTT
The YouTube comment reaction to Sedalbaegil’s teaser was nothing but praise.
In particular, people who had never consumed idol-related content before were almost bewildered.
Because they couldn’t tell whether it was always this good, or whether Sedalbaegil was just especially good.
That was how outstanding the visuals were, and how interesting the story was.
However, in some corners, controversy also arose over whether Sedalbaegil truly had no company.
There were certainly cases of independent musicians showing excellent ideas and visuals to shoot good music videos.
But Sedalbaegil’s State of Mind smelled of money.
Far too much money, at that.
-How do they do this without even having a company?? Judging by the teaser quality, the MV must’ve cost hundreds of millions??
-They probably secretly signed with someone behind the scenes and got investment lol They can settle accounts later lol-What are you talking about? Are you ignoring Billboard and Color Show? The scale of royalty payments is different from Korea.
-What are you talking about? How many weeks has it even been since they charted? You think they’ve already been paid?
-I don’t know what fantasy you have about Billboard, but you can’t earn that much from one song.
-Don’t talk nonsense. Billboard is where one-hit wonders earn enough money to live off forever.
-That’s because they hit No. 1 on the Hot 100. Sedalbaegil is at the bottom of a minor chart.
-You’re fighting over the most pointless thing lololol They must’ve earned it and done it themselves.
It was a debate where no one but the parties involved could know the facts, but in truth, this was a risk factor for Sedalbaegil.
To be exact, it was the bowstring Choi Daeho was drawing against Sedalbaegil.
If the controversy erupted, it would become a clue that Han Sion was freely using his parents’ money.
But Choi Daeho had not yet released the bowstring, and the issue had not surfaced either.
If the general public reacted like this, idol-related communities were a little different.
-Hehe.
-Hehehehehehe.
-Hehehehehe.
-Look how confident TT is lolololol
-They deserve to be confident. Even from a multi-stan’s perspective, it was surprising.
-But am I the only one who thinks they just skimmed the surface?
-What are you saying; if this is skimming the surface, then what the hell is licking the inside?
-No, was Han Sion always this good at dancing? This is kind of bewildering.-(link) (link) Please take a look at our desert fox Sion’s dance lines TTTT
-Rather than a desert fox, he’s kind of Slytherin-coded lolololol-You’re overreacting so hard over a teaser lol Well, I guess they never did anything like this for you before?
-Huh? This is their first domestic promotion, though?
-Resume was made for fun in their self-produced content, and Colorful Struggle was made while they were appearing on content....
-Ah, I guess you got confused because both of them hit No. 1 on the charts!
-Lololololololololol
There was a lot of talk about Sedalbaegil’s K-pop-like musical direction.
K-pop Struggle, the K-pop arrangement of Colorful Struggle—a nickname used for distinction—and State of Mind, whose teaser had been released at midnight, were certainly familiar dishes.
A familiar dish made with familiar ingredients.
But the taste was different.
There were many who said people were overreacting after seeing only a teaser, but it wasn’t only Sedalbaegil’s fandom that reacted this way.
Unexpectedly, the general public and neutral community users in the idol scene reacted similarly.
They said something was different.
The reason was simple.
Because what Sedalbaegil had done so far was just too incredible.
Sedalbaegil had one particular record, and that was that every song they had released had reached No. 1 on the charts.
In fact, with the exception of Crossroads, whose stage had been butchered on Coming Up Next, most of them had also reached No. 1 on the weekly charts.
Going further, every song Han Sion had composed had reached No. 1 on the charts.
In truth, from Han Sion’s perspective, it was nothing special.
After all, whenever he made a song, he composed it with No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in mind.
Or he released a song that had already made the Hot 100.
But to people who didn’t know that Han Sion was a regressor, it was impossible to understand.
Amid these issues, time began to steadily pass.
The teaser had been released at midnight on Sunday, and the music video was scheduled to be released at midnight on Monday.
It was only twenty-four hours, but countless stories poured out.
Those cheering for Sedalbaegil wanted the music video’s quality to match the teaser, while those who wanted Sedalbaegil to fail hoped the teaser was all there was.
And finally.
Monday midnight arrived.
The song was released, and at the same time, the music video was revealed.
* * *
Park Sangwoo, a music college student majoring in violin, entered Sedalbaegil’s official channel about thirty minutes after midnight.
He had been waiting for the music video since early evening, but a drama he happened to watch was so entertaining that he had forgotten.
‘Well, it’s not like it’ll wear out if I’m late.’
Thinking like the very casual fan he was, he checked the music video that had been uploaded to Sedalbaegil’s official channel thirty minutes earlier.
[Sedalbaegil - ‘State of Mind’ Official MV]
The thumbnail showed the five members of Sedalbaegil standing under the moonlight.
There were no flames visible in the background, but the location seemed to be the vacant lot from the teaser.
‘Hmm.’
They were definitely handsome.
How would it feel to look like that?
Thinking that, he clicked the music video.
Come to think of it, it was a little funny that he was watching Sedalbaegil’s music video.
It was true that classical music majors, in general, liked Sedalbaegil.
But that meant they liked the music, not that they looked forward to their activities.
Men, in particular, had no interest in things like music videos or music shows.
He had originally been like that too.
But because of an unrequited love, he had somehow ended up joining Sedalbaegil’s fan club, and now his feelings had changed.
He couldn’t support them fervently like the core fans, but he did want to enjoy their content.
If there was a concert, he wanted to go see it too.
As Park Sangwoo thought that, he focused on the music video.
The screen that had gone dark was brightening, as if it was about to begin in earnest.
“Huh?”
However, the music video began at a point he had never expected.
‘This is Colorful Struggle, isn’t it?’
It wasn’t even the remix version the fans called K-pop Struggle.
The intro of the original Colorful Struggle that had appeared on Color Show flowed out.
Meanwhile, onstage, Sedalbaegil exchanged tense glances, and the people below the stage cheered.
It seemed like a high school festival or something of that sort, but he couldn’t know for sure.
Because not a single symbol was visible.
The song began.
Lee Ion spat out the first line as if shouting.
As I look around me!
At that moment, with a thunk! the lights onstage went out.
The Sedalbaegil members were flustered, but Lee Ion was not.
Satan wanna put me in bowtie.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
The lights went out one after another from the left.
At the same time, the scale of the beat dropped, becoming slow and heavy.
Bzzzt.
A strange sound that was like radio noise and also like wireless frequency static slipped into the beat.
And the distinctive feeling of lo-fi was completed.
It was exactly the progression that had been shown in the voting video on Sedalbaegil’s official website.
They were even wearing striped suits, so the outfits were the same too.
But when the camera turned, the audience that had clearly been below the stage had vanished as if washed away.
Lee Ion, whose expression had completely changed, opened his mouth.
What you gonna do?
It was a lyric that had always been in Colorful Struggle.
But this time, it felt meaningful.
At that moment.
With a pop! all the lights went out.
The stage was plunged into darkness.
But from somewhere, an eerie red light seeped out, making it possible to distinguish the shape of the stage.
Within it.
[...did you rock it?]
Along with Lee Ion’s voice, a booming drum and rough synth sounds burst out.
With the beat transformed into intense lo-fi chipmunk soul, the dance began.
Under the wicked red light, Sedalbaegil danced as if they had lost their minds.
The glimpsed silhouettes shone under the red light, and their dance lines shone under the moonlight.
“Wow, shit.”
Park Sangwoo let out an exclamation without realizing it.
With dancers becoming a professional group of their own, it had become an era where dance felt unfamiliar, but originally, dance was instinctive.
Since ancient times, people had expressed instinct through dance while praying to the gods.
In that sense, Sedalbaegil’s dance had the power to make one watch in a trance.
It was then.
The air changed.
The range of the beat shot upward in an instant and became an incomprehensible sound.
As if the eerie and wicked red light were flames, it made the whole world boil and bubble.
It seemed as though it would surpass its boiling point any moment and vaporize.
It was then.
A faint silver moonlight descended through the red light and illuminated Lee Ion’s face.
Lee Ion, who had been possessed by something, startled and came to his senses.
Then, looking at the members who were growing faint as if they would disappear at any moment, he shouted.
[Focus!]
Focus…….
Focus……. Focus…….
Lee Ion’s cry, heavy with reverb, rang out like an echo.
When Lee Ion raised his head, three moons were floating in the sky.
[State of Mind!!]
With Lee Ion’s shout as the end, a light that was half eerie red and half warm moonlight exploded.
And when the screen darkened, then brightened again.
[…….]
Han Sion, who had fainted, opened his eyes.
Beside Han Sion, a boy with a daenggi braid who had been playing with a straw doll sprang to his feet and ran outside.
Then people dressed in clothing similar to hanbok poured in and looked down at Han Sion.
The moment he raised himself up.
????????????????????????????
The beat flowed out, and the music of State of Mind began to play.
“Haaah…….”
Park Sangwoo let out a long sigh without realizing it.
An incredible amount of content and symbols had flashed past, as if he were watching the intro to some movie.
‘What did Lee Ion say?’
Focus.
And State of Mind.
It seemed to mean something like focusing on the state of one’s heart.
Meanwhile, the music video unfolded, and the members awakened in five different camps.
As someone’s teaser analysis had said, the camps they woke up in were independent places, and seemed hostile toward the other camps.
“No……”
But looking at the music video, it wasn’t merely hostility.
If people from different camps saw each other’s bare faces, they died.
They melted away on the spot, or became monsters that lost their reason.
The camp where Choi Jaeseong woke up was among those who had become monsters like that.
That was why, whenever they hunted or moved through the neutral zone, they always had to wear pure white masks.
And so.
[…….]
[…….]
It was only natural that Han Sion and Gu Taehwan, who passed by each other in the neutral zone, failed to recognize one another.
In that way, the five members adjusted to their respective camps, but…….
There were always those who threatened peace.
Those who desired conflict started a massive conflagration, and the great escape began.
From here on, because he had seen the teaser, it was something he could predict.
The people of the five camps fled in their own directions, but the Sedalbaegil members were different.
Wearing their masks, they advanced toward somewhere the song could be heard.
And then, they encountered one another.
One by one, they removed their masks, and beneath the light of the three moons, they danced.
[La- La-]
[Focus on me]
The music poured out, and the group choreography blazed.
Surprisingly, this song’s chorus had no individual parts.
All the members sang one word at a time, and each piece fit together perfectly to form the chorus.
Yet it didn’t feel fragmented at all.
Rather, it fully carried the addictive chorus feeling unique to K-pop.
Only, its level was tremendous.
And the moment the chorus and dance ended simultaneously.
Boom!
Moonlight poured down……
[Waaaaaaah!!]
And it returned to the intro.
To the moment of the performance, with the people below the stage cheering.
The Sedalbaegil members were flustered by the sudden change in situation, but only for a moment.
Han Sion grinned and grabbed the stand mic, and the music video came to an end.
It was the end of a music video that would usher in the age of grand interpretations.