Damn Idol Episode 180
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Sedalbaegil carried buzz with them as they worked through the schedules for the year-end music festivals.
Of course, the buzz they created wasn’t about awards.
Sedalbaegil received some ambiguous awards hastily created by the three terrestrial broadcasters.
The reason they had been hastily created was simple.
If they gave Sedalbaegil an award they had given to another singer the previous year, there would be no way to avoid criticism that “the level doesn’t match.”
But if they gave them a newly established award this year and attached some plausible-sounding praise to it, they could dress it up by saying, “We’ll be giving this to the team that leads the year’s trends from now on.”
Still, they didn’t go completely empty-handed.
They received Rookie of the Year and Best Award on M Show’s music program, Mix Down.
For reference, the grand prize went to Drop Out.
NOP’s fans, who had released at the same time as Drop Out, were furious, but in truth, it was a fair result.
It was true that Sedalbaegil had monopolized the second half of 2017, but if one looked only at the digital performance of a single song, Drop Out’s “Selfish” had better numbers.
Drop Out had fans both domestically and overseas, and “Selfish” really was a good song.
“Looking at it now, it’s kind of a shame.”
Han Sion had thought that as well.
When he first tried to sell “Selfish” to Drop Out, he had assumed he would debut as quickly as possible on Coming Up Next, then regress again around the time he got sick of it all.
At most, maybe three or four years?
But life was something no one could predict, and that applied even to a regressor.
Now that he had come to stake so much on this life, he found himself thinking it would have been nice if they had sung “Selfish” themselves.
But whatever happened with the awards, Sedalbaegil didn’t care.
Even TT, who had been disappointed and angry for them at first, quickly calmed down.
-Wow, these crazy bastards;
-Whenever these guys get on stage, it feels like they’re using completely different sound equipment lololol
-Wow, this is seriously brutal. Why did FFBA have to perform right before Sedalbaegil lololol
-They’re in the same category, though. FFBA debuted in the first half of this year and hit it big, and Sedalbaegil debuted in the second half and hit it big.
-What category are they in together lololol Their skill levels are this different lololol
-Why are TT always picking fights with other singers?
-I’m not TT? Why would I join a fan club or whatever.
-Don’t look down on muggles. We have ears too.
-And how are FFBA and Sedalbaegil similar lololol FFBA has a major agency backing them, and Sedalbaegil are independent musicians.
-Sedalbaegil is making me confused about what the word indie even means.
-But if you think about it, doesn’t Sedalbaegil have the biggest agency in Korea?
-Why?
-An insanely good agency = just Han Sion.
-Ah, agreed. He thought, “Should I try landing an Apple ad?” and just gobbled it right up.
-lolololololololololol
-Ah, I hate year-end programs. When is Self-Made Season 2 airing;
-This is no fun. Is it for real that they skipped a week after the special episode?
That was because Sedalbaegil’s stages had created such a huge buzz.
Absurdly enough, Sedalbaegil performed at four year-end music festivals and put on a different stage at each one.
If on MBN they wore masks so that no one could tell who was who, then on SBN they mixed their songs together.
It was common for singers to mix their hit songs at year-end music festivals, but Sedalbaegil, as always, chose a special method.
They did not mix the four songs in order.
They mixed them all up.
The intro of “Summer Cream” would play and then connect to “Colorful Struggle,” and the chorus of “Colorful Struggle” would form the chorus of “State of Mind.”
Sedalbaegil had once made a name for themselves by performing all their songs at a university festival, but this was different from that method too.
The all-song performance had involved cutting down parts of the songs because of time constraints, but this time, Han Sion mixed several songs together to create a single song.
It was just that the song was nine minutes long, and the four references inside it were so famous that people noticed.
Then, on KBN, they put on an entirely orthodox, tightly packed performance.
Without any arrangement changes or stage devices, it was a feast of perfect synchronized choreography and live vocals.
-This is what’s really precious lololol
-Wow, how long has it been since Sedalbaegil performed the original songs cleanly and in full without arrangements or devices?
-This is precious. For real precious.
-lolololololololololol
At this point, people were even saying that a standard performance was the rare thing.
But whatever the case, what received the most applause was the fact that Sedalbaegil did not use AR at all.
-AR isn’t bad, but it does end up burying the singer’s own voice.
-Then can’t other singers just do it without AR too?
-You think they can? lol With raw live vocals at this level, even singing one note flat would stand out right away.
Instrumentalists were third-rate if they were worse than virtual instruments, and second-rate if they sounded similar to virtual instruments.
First-rate meant surpassing virtual instruments by far, even when playing the same piece.
Han Sion believed singers were the same.
There were more and more ways to correct voices now, and auto-tune was the device people knew best.
The public thought of auto-tune as a device that produced a mechanical sound, but in truth, auto-tune was a voice correction device.
Through auto-tune, one could add all kinds of effects to a voice—a phone-call voice, an underwater sound, and so on.
It was just that, among them, the electronic effect had become famous.
But a truly first-rate vocalist needed to have a class that machines could not create.
And if one was a singer who had to stand in front of people, they had to be able to show that class on stage.
Han Sion was still not one hundred percent satisfied with Sedalbaegil’s stages.
Still about seventy points.
But even that seventy was enough to make people go wild.
And so, after the year-end music festivals organized by the broadcasters ended, other year-end music awards arrived.
The Gaon Chart Music Awards.
The Korean Music Awards.
Those two.
Depending on the person, some thought the broadcasters’ award ceremonies were major, while award ceremonies like the KMAs were minor.
Conversely, there were also people who thought the broadcasters’ ceremonies gave awards according to capitalism, while the Korean Music Awards or the Gaon Chart Music Awards had credibility.
In any case, Sedalbaegil received awards there.
At the Gaon Chart Music Awards, where awards were given based on objective data, they swept the digital song awards for July, August, September, and October, and jointly won Album of the Year.
At the Korean Music Awards, they showed their spirit by sweeping most of the main prizes.
Like the Grammy Awards, the KMAs had four main awards: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Musician of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.
Sedalbaegil swept three of them.
Album of the Year, Musician of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.
It was an obvious result.
“Colorful Struggle” had sold the most in Korea that year and was evaluated as a masterpiece that transcended its time.
Sedalbaegil, who had created that masterpiece, had placed their name on Color Show and the Billboard charts, steadily proving themselves both overseas and domestically.
Rookie of the Year required no explanation.
However, Song of the Year was taken by Drop Out’s “Selfish.”
Just like at the broadcasters’ year-end music festivals.
But if one thought about it carefully, there was a fairly big difference.
The broadcasters gave Drop Out the award because they had immense popularity.
They had a good song, satisfied fans at home and abroad, put on great stages, and built excellent metrics.
But the reason the KMAs gave them the award came down to exactly one thing.
Because it was the best song released that year.
That was why the composer, no less than the singer, received great credit, and the composer of “Selfish” was Han Sion.
[……
And we would also like to thank Han Sion, our idol junior and an outstanding composer, for giving us such a great song.]
At the Grammy Awards, when the winner of Song of the Year is announced, the producer, not the singer, receives the award first.
So it wasn’t strange for Sido, the leader of Drop Out, to say something like that in his acceptance speech.
Though it was unfamiliar for an active idol to give a song to a major senior group.
No less than Drop Out’s acceptance speech, Sedalbaegil’s acceptance speeches also became a hot topic.
At the Gaon Awards and the KMAs, the acceptance speeches were given by the members rather than Han Sion……
[We will work hard to receive this award again next year.]
At the Gaon Awards, Onsaemiro gave his thoughts like this.
[2 + 2 + 1 = 2 ]
At the KMAs, they didn’t say it directly, but they briefly held up a long towel with the phrase above written on it.
It was the moment the general opinion about the still-incomprehensible phrase began to lean toward “albums.”
-Like someone said, I guess it’s two singles, two mini albums, and one full album?
-Then what’s the 2 that comes out of adding all that?
-Doesn’t it mean their second year? Sedalbaegil’s achievements in year two.
-Wow, damn. That sounds plausible?
-They’re really planning all that?
-Didn’t you watch Self-Made? If you look at how fast Han Sion churns out songs, it doesn’t even seem that hard.
-Still, if they release all that, their second full album probably won’t be a full-length, right?
-Yeah, yeah. High chance of that.
Around then, the clock of the broadcasting world, which had stopped because of the year-end pilot programs, began to move again……
[Self-Made Season 2!]
The first episode of Self-Made Season 2 aired.
* * *
The content of Season 2’s first episode itself wasn’t anything special.
After settling the money they earned in Season 1, Sedalbaegil, now with an unlimited budget, headed to the United States……
[Producer? Do we really have to go to the haunted house……?]
[Since we prepared content for it, well……]
[Hmm, then I’d like to upgrade the hotel……]
[Even more than this……?]
[If you let us choose the lowest difficulty in the haunted house, I think we can do without the upgrade.]
[Let’s do it! Upgrade!]
They made Producer Kang Seokwoo flounder.
Of course, it wasn’t to a controversial or unpleasant degree.
Even while the Sedalbaegil members pressured Producer Kang Seokwoo relentlessly, they ultimately completed every schedule the broadcasting station had prepared.
It was just that they could have more leisure time during their free time, and they inserted about one schedule a day that they themselves wanted.
-Season 2 is kind of small-scale.
-Yeah, I guess there isn’t any talk about music?
-Get a grip lololol That kind of thing doesn’t usually come up in variety shows lololol
-But I kind of want to see them make money as unknown singers in America.
-222222222
-Producer Kang has lost a lot of his touch?
Around then, the episode showed the Sedalbaegil members renting out a lounge pub in LA and putting on a small-scale stage.
Sedalbaegil rented a pub near Santa Monica Beach and went around busking to promote it.
Whether because the entrance fee was cheap, or because Sedalbaegil’s busking was excellent.
-Oh, what’s this?
-Are these people really gathered naturally? The broadcasting station didn’t mobilize them?
-There look to be about a hundred people?
Quite a lot of people gathered.
The one who opened the performance was Han Sion with jazz guitar.
He had shown countless sides of himself until now, but he had never shown himself as a jazz player, so people were more than a little surprised.
Because they wondered what on earth Han Sion couldn’t do.
Around then, Apple came to them, and the contract was concluded.
Compared to the tremendous effort they had put in, the direction of the contract itself was simple.
This was also something Apple had requested, because they were wary of their advertisement music being overexposed.
And then……
[Wow!]
Chris Edward appeared on screen.
Together with four white men.