Damn Idol Episode 158* * *I had spent a very long time agonizing over what made a “good album.”
No, I hadn’t only agonized over it.
I had tried all kinds of experiments, too.
I had once released an album made up of twelve singles that would each reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.I had also once made a fifty-minute song, divided it into eight tracks, and released it that way.
I had even done the ridiculous thing of putting hip-hop tracks in the first half and hard rock in the second half.
The experiments I conducted sometimes achieved results better than expected, and sometimes failed so horribly it was impossible to understand.
Some people might think that after going that far, I would have come up with a definition of a good album……
But I still haven’t reached a conclusion.
I don’t know what kind of album you have to release to reach two hundred million copies.
But at least I’ve realized what elements are necessary.
First, you need an intro that drives people insane.
The opening of Guns N’ Roses’ is probably the most successful guitar riff in Earth’s history.
Someone once said this about the intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine.
That unless they were facing the danger of imminent death, no one would hear only the opening of this song and then stop it.
But that doesn’t mean Guns N’ Roses’ guitarist is the greatest technician.
It’s not so difficult that no one can imitate it, and it wasn’t made with some special chord progression.
The notes are easy, and the chords are easy.
But it drives people insane.
Track 1 of our album is like that.
I don’t understand why people don’t heap praise on our first track.
In the West, a lot of people choose Track 1 as the best track, but in Korea, they don’t.
It’s probably a difference in sensibility.
We deserve greater praise.
We deserve rave reviews and awe.
We have earned it.
And Gu Taehwan has earned even more than that.
If the time given to us isTik TokFirst day, this songIf there was one part that got an okay in one take while we were recording the album, it was this.
At the time of recording, even Gu Taehwan’s inhales and exhales felt rhythmic.
He was definitely in top form.
The one who took over after Gu Taehwan was me.
If the time given to us isTiki TokFirst day, a song like thisThere are singers like that.
Singers who shine brighter when they’re compared to someone else.
Gu Taehwan is like that.
The more outstanding the person he’s compared to is, the better Gu Taehwan’s music sounds.
I, who sing several times better than Gu Taehwan, filled the bars with a similar feeling.
In that case, normally, the rhythm of the intro gets forgotten.
My voice erases the voice of the speaker before me.
But strangely, Gu Taehwan’s sense of rhythm becomes even more vivid.
It feels as though Gu Taehwan’s voice, which shouldn’t be heard behind Eric Scott’s guitar riff, lingers like an echo.
I don’t know the reason for this either.
It’s not something you can do just because you try to.
And that satisfies me so much.
That even I, who have devoted my entire life to music, have an element in my team that I can’t precisely understand.
And that it’s being used for our album.
Meanwhile, I can feel the audience staring at us with their mouths hanging open.
How is it?
Better than listening to it on the album, right?
And if you haven’t listened to the album, it feels like you should buy it, right?
As Track 1 progressed like that, we barely moved.
It was the same whether Choi Jaeseong sang or Lee Ion sang.
We just stood still and sang.
As idols, it was dereliction of duty.
Because idols are performers before they are singers, and they’re people who have to fill the stage.
But for this moment, it wouldn’t matter.
Because Sedalbaegil’s voices pouring out over Eric Scott’s guitar riff filled the stage completely.
But that didn’t mean……
That we didn’t want to dance.
Boom!At about the point where Track 1 had progressed one-quarter of the way.
At the chorus where Onsaemiro’s singing was supposed to begin, a rough synth burst out along with the sound of a shell falling.
The transition was natural and dazzling.
It seemed there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know this intro.
Why?
“Kyaaaaaaaaaak!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
Because screams began to ring out.
K-pop Struggle.
The group dance began.
The distinctive choreography, which split the beat finely while carrying large movements, moved forward.
Originally, Track 2 of the album is the original version of Colorful Struggle.
But this was a performance, so we brought out the hidden track, K-pop Struggle.
Chiiiiik!
Our dancing grew more intense, and flames, one of the stage devices, burst forth.
For university festivals, except for sound checks, you can’t rehearse.
So I didn’t know there were flame devices like this, but they were very appropriate.
Bang!
Because at the same time the flames shot up, our group dance stopped perfectly with our freeze pose.
The people, who seemed to have loaded up the sing-along for K-pop Struggle, stopped.
Sorry, but not yet.
We’ve done this song on broadcasts too many times, haven’t we?
From the freeze pose, as though playing the movements in reverse, the members formed movements opposite to one another.And then Track 3, , set off.
I co-composed with eight musicians, but our album has more than eight tracks.
This song, like , is original.
Freedom is not free.
For Sedalbaegil to gain freedom, each of us paid our own cost.
But it’s tacky to scream that it was hard.
Behind the firm, bouncing melody unique to Jersey club, Choi Jaeseong opened his mouth.
No Role ModelsIt feels like a good nightDedede
- DirveThis is the only song on our album where a member other than Gu Taehwan takes the intro.
Why?
Because Jaeseong was better for this rhythm.
For reference, this song has no choreography.
It’s just freestyle dancing.
Only, when Choi Jaeseong sings, Lee Ion dances, and when Lee Ion sings, Gu Taehwan dances.* * *It was a world where live broadcasts had become so active that people called it the era of a million internet broadcasters.
Naturally, there was also someone livestreaming Sedalbaegil’s Gunam University festival performance.
If it had been an ordinary festival, no matter how popular Sedalbaegil was, not that many people would have watched.
But Sedalbaegil had announced on SNS that they would sing album tracks at the remaining events, and those who were interested came looking for the broadcast.
-Oh lol this one has the best video quality.-Yeah, yeah, the audio’s a shame, but the video quality’s good. This doesn’t seem like it’s being streamed from a phone?
-Isn’t this being streamed by Gunam University’s student council? The angle feels exactly like that.
-Are they allowed to do that?
-Who cares lol University festivals don’t have admission fees anyway.
And people like that poked around various streams before finding their way into the one with the best image quality.
In any case, the audio quality of individual streams was all about the same.
There were some people watching the performance from the beginning, but most of them had come because they were curious about Sedalbaegil.
So as the festival headed toward its ending, the number of people increased.
And finally.
-Waaaaaaa-They’re here!!
-SO CUTE!
-What, why are there foreigners here?
-They’re Billboard musicians, you know.
-Oh, their outfits are freaking slick.
Until Sedalbaegil abruptly began Track 1, people watched with interest.
-This is good.-Yeah, yeah, I bought the album after listening to Track 1 too.
No matter what anyone said, was a masterpiece.
So much so that the critics who had initially clumsily torn the album down had to blush and take down or revise their articles.
But that didn’t mean every track received equal attention……
-Whoa, what is this. It’s Track 3?
-Don’t tell me they’re going in track order?-Lololololol Hip Sion
-At this point they’re just Hipdalbaegil lolololololol Look how much influence the kids got.
Of course, they didn’t honestly perform every song in full.Track 1 was only performed for about a quarter of its length, and for K-pop Struggle, they pulled out only the group dance and showed it separately.Track 3 was fairly long, but they left out verse 1 and took the chorus–verse 2 structure.Track 4, , wasn’t sung at all.
They honestly turned on the MR and enjoyed the audience’s sing-along.
-No, what is this, it’s like we came to their concert lololol So damn cool.
-Wow, it’s not easy to get a sing-along for a boy group song lololol-Resume is the song Yang Seokhun blew up.
-You can’t help but acknowledge it.
-Right lololol It was hilarious how they got Resume corrected and sang it again lololol-Hul, where can I watch that?
-It’s in their self-produced content lololol Go to the official channel.-Ah, that one lololol Gu Taehwan, the beat maniac lololol So good.
By then, people had become certain.
This was in track order.
They sometimes mixed songs together, and for famous songs, they showed only the killing parts, but they didn’t leave out a single song.
Like that, they passed through , arrived at , and then reached Track 7, which had been made into a music video.
-It’s SoMa!
-Please sing this one properlyㅠㅠㅠ-I want to hear the live version, not the music show versionㅠㅠㅠㅠIt was State of Mind.
As if Sedalbaegil knew what people wanted, they performed State of Mind almost in full.
-Insane live vocalsㄷㄷㄷ-Look at those high-functioning vocal cords piercing through the low sound quality.
-Wow, but you really can’t criticize these guys for their skills. For real, they’re K-pop’s top talent.
-But the funny thing is there was controversy over post-recording correction on the digital track lololol-The fact that the news resolved that was funny too lololol-Oh, now it’s Pin Point.
-This one’s good.
But Pin Point, Track 8 and the title track, began on stage almost at the very end of the song.
To be precise, it started from the interlude near the end of verse 2 and went straight into the chorus.
, which was already being treated as a masterpiece, did have exactly one weakness.
This was something most critics pointed out: in terms of album structure, the placement of the easy-listening songs from Track 9 to Track 11 felt heterogeneous.
In particular, the link connecting Pin Point to an easy-listening song was loose.
Pin Point is a blazing track based on techno, while Track 9, , is slow, sticky, orthodox R&B.
But……
Originally, there had been a device here.
The reason they hadn’t been able to put it on the album was because time had been tight.
To be exact.‘Because I couldn’t do it.’It was something Lee Ion had been quietly blaming himself for over the past few weeks.
If the first condition for a masterpiece album, according to Han Sion, was the intro, then the second condition was the transaction.
Transaction.
It wasn’t a commonly used word, but in albums, it meant connecting one song to another.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that a good album has good transactions.
Anyone who has listened to a full-length album would know, because there are sections where the feeling of one song ending and the next song beginning is so good it gives you chills.
Especially when the feeling of the thematic section changes drastically, like in Sedalbaegil’s album, this was necessary.
Originally, Lee Ion had been supposed to take responsibility for it……‘Let’s try again next time, hyung.’Lee Ion had not managed to pull it off within the recording period.
Because there had been too little time.
But now.
Lee Ion was going to pull it off.
It was time to see the result of all the practice he had done, cutting back on sleep throughout their album promotions.