Damn Idol Episode 187
Album 1
7. Stage
The album Stage Side A, suddenly released by Three Months and One Hundred Days’ unit Masked Robber, caught a warm tailwind.
There were two kinds of strong winds blowing.
The first was the wind created by Self Made’s viewers.
The second was the wind created by faith in the brand called Three Months and One Hundred Days.
People began listening to Stage Side A, one after another.
Of course, the reason they could ride that wind and climb even higher was because the music was good.
As with every genre of music in the world, if there are strengths, there are also weaknesses.
Some listen to rock and say their emotions boil over, while others say it’s noisy.
Some listen to hip-hop and say it’s raw,
while others say it’s childish.
That two-sidedness of genre existed in idol music as well.
A fairly significant portion of idol music’s weaknesses stemmed from “the large number of participants.”
Because idol groups had many members, their parts had to be divided up, which meant the texture of the vocals was not consistent, but split into several strands.
There were listeners who found that uncomfortable, and Han Sion was one of them.
In fact, Han Sion found the weaknesses of idol music far more uncomfortable than other composers did.
If ordinary composers worked hard to pour out beautiful melodies, Han Sion was a bit different.
He worked hard to sell a lot of albums, and he composed songs by thoroughly calculating the individuality of the people who would sing them.
That was why Lee Ion had taken so many losses within Three Months and One Hundred Days’ albums up until now.
He had even said it directly to Lee Ion before, but any ordinary producer would not have paid much attention to Lee Ion’s vocal tone.
Unless they were on Han Sion’s level, there was a high chance they would record the album and still not know exactly what the problem was.
They would probably just think the track stuck out and try to fix it somehow with correction.
In any case, for these reasons, Han Sion thought Masked Robber’s unit album was easier to work on than Three Months and One Hundred Days’ album.
Because there were only two vocalists.
What’s more, one of them was Gu Taehwan, who had an innate talent even in Han Sion’s eyes, and the other was Lee Ion, who had completed his acquired talent.
So it was only natural that Stage Side A would succeed.
After finishing every track, Han Sion himself had been satisfied, saying, “It came out clean.”
Which meant……
“Ah, those fucking bastards.”
“Isn’t this way too lacking in business ethics?”
“We had our January plans all set……”
Other agencies were shedding tears.
The end of the year was a time singers avoided.
Because of carols, rankings got pushed down or buried, and since everyone had many personal appointments, time spent consuming content decreased.
On top of that, if promotions awkwardly overlapped the end and beginning of two years, there was also a high chance of being disadvantaged in yearly records or award ceremony nominations.
So at the end of the year, everyone toured concerts or events and postponed digital releases and album releases.
In other words, everything that had been pushed back then burst out at the start of the year.
Especially since major singers who cared about yearly charts tended to like January releases.
So agencies often tried to read the room so that the promotions of major singers would not overlap and the buzz would not be dispersed.
After all, the major agencies had connections with one another, and since there was a lot of groundwork needed to release an album, they would end up knowing one another’s schedules by word of mouth.
But because Three Months and One Hundred Days were, astonishingly, “indie singers,” no one knew.
If they had filmed the music video domestically through a domestic company, people would have known, but that was not the case either.
As a result.
“CEO. Minjae hyung said yesterday that maybe we should pay a little more attention to promotion……”
“Minjae did? What did he say?”
“He said it feels like we’re getting too buried in promotion by the Three Months and One Hundred Days unit……”
“……
All right. Go on out for now.”
There were increasing cases of major singers who were about to release music soon, or had already released music, requesting additional marketing from their agencies.
But what made this utterly absurd was that, in reality, Three Months and One Hundred Days were not doing any promotion at all.
They had promoted through Self Made, but that was hard to call a large-scale promotion.
They had merely talked about it on a variety show they were already appearing on regularly, even if it was a pilot program.
And yet the whole world was talking about nothing but Stage Side A.
Everyone was going wild over an album they had simply tossed out without promotion.
In other words, this was a natural phenomenon.
The public’s natural interest was not something marketing could do anything about.
“This is driving me insane.”
So from the agencies’ perspective, they had no choice but to groan in pain.
-------------------
1
– Separate(new)(hot)
2
– If We Look Elsewhere(new)(hot)
3
- Courtship(new)(hot)
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They had no choice but to watch the name of Three Months and One Hundred Days’ unit get stamped at the very top of the music charts.
From fourth to eighth below them were the names of various singers who had come back in January, but honestly, they were on thin ice.
Because if their digital power dropped even slightly, it felt as though the tracks from Stage Side A would come charging up.
Since these lunatics had called it a mini album and released eight tracks.
In the middle of this situation, episode 5, the final episode of Self Made Season 2, began airing.
With ratings this high, there was a strong chance a special episode would be scheduled if only because it would be a waste of the advertising rates, but for now, episode 5 was the last one.
“I just hope they wrap it up well.”
“Exactly. Without doing anything weird again.”
“Please. Amen. Buddha.”
Employees of every agency in Korea began monitoring it while praying that there would be no issues at all.
* * *
Neutral K-pop fans who had no major connection to Three Months and One Hundred Days were a little dumbfounded the moment Masked Robber’s unit was released.
-Why are these guys so serious about splitting the group apart??
-Is it because they don’t have a company?
-I think Han Sion has too much greed when it comes to music. It’d be nice if there were a member who could keep him centered.
-Ah, but the songs are seriously good.
-I don’t stan them because I don’t feel attached to the group, but I admit their skills are all-time level.
It was obvious that Three Months and One Hundred Days’ individual fans were increasing, and most idol groups went through growing pains similar to this.
The problem was that this was not the type of trouble that could be perfectly patched up.
So at the company level, they had to monitor things consistently and keep paying attention to strengthening teamwork.
Until enough years passed and a fandom culture firmly formed.
So from this perspective, the release of Masked Robber’s unit album was the worst possible situation.
The album’s results did seem to be good, but from the position of the group called Three Months and One Hundred Days, that is.
But by the time Self Made Season 2 Episode 5 ended, they had no choice but to be rendered speechless.
To state only the conclusion first, episode 5 was not the final episode.
A special epilogue episode would air next week, and that would be the true final episode.
In terms of the broadcast content as well, it felt less like something was being wrapped up and more like it was leading into the next episode.
However, the reason the K-pop fans watching the broadcast were rendered speechless was not because of the broadcast’s runtime.
It was because of the content of the broadcast.
Just as Separate by Gu Taehwan and Lee Ion had been revealed at the end of episode 4, and the music video and unit album had been released……
At the end of episode 5, someone sang once again.
The song he sang had a completely different feel from the R&B Gu Taehwan and Lee Ion had shown.
Because it was EDM DANCE.
Though it was EDM for dancing, it was not a genre centered on loops like the kind that flowed through clubs.
Rather, it was closer to flashy synth pop with a touch of new jack swing.
People who did not know the genre well also thought of it as techno.
The main character of the song was Choi Jaeseong.
-No way?
-It’s not, right?
People grew curious as to whether Choi Jaeseong’s song would be released digitally again.
By common sense, it made no sense.
Just one week earlier, a unit album from the same group had come out, held the top of the charts, and sucked up all the buzz.
But if Choi Jaeseong’s song came out now?
It would only become competition.
This was a setup that neither Gu Taehwan and Lee Ion’s fans nor Choi Jaeseong’s fans would like.
But as expected, it was Three Months and One Hundred Days.
At midnight that day.
Choi Jaeseong’s music video was released.
[Choi Jaeseong
– Drop Official M/V]
-All right, fight from now on.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Isn’t Hip Sion a crazy bastard? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Only the strong may become my teammates (while pushing them off a cliff)
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Ah, this is so fucking ridiculous, but it’s interesting. Is Choi Jaeseong good at singing?
-Would he not be? He won Seuneomje.
-I didn’t watch Seuneomje.
-Just think of Choi Jaeseong as another damn pitiful guy. Of all teams, he ended up in a team like Three Months and One Hundred Days ㅋㅋ
-Choi Jaeseong sings fucking well. But his vibe is a bit different from Three Months and One Hundred Days. Should I say it feels like he’s generally good at this and good at that too?
-ㅇㅇㅇㅇ The other Three Months and One Hundred Days members each seem to have one specialized field, but this guy is good at everything.
-No, but Masked Robber’s album is insane right now. Can Choi Jaeseong come out alone and actually put up a fight?
-I don’t think he can either.
-ㅇㅇㅇ Same.
-Isn’t this just the release of one single? I don’t think this is a unit album?
-Whatever.
People added an enormous amount of buzz to Three Months and One Hundred Days’ incomprehensible move of releasing yet another single after only a week.
By word of mouth, Three Months and One Hundred Days’ actions spread.
But the common opinion was that Choi Jaeseong would not dare be able to beat Stage Side A.
However, in just one day, the situation began to turn strangely.
Choi Jaeseong’s music video was a bit different from Lee Ion and Gu Taehwan’s, which had put strength into the song.
The synth pop with a touch of new jack swing was a song enjoyable enough just to listen to.
But Choi Jaeseong added the fun of watching on top of that.
A retro feel.
The music video filmed in the back alleys of LA called to mind Bobby Brown, a master of new jack swing who was also famous in Korea for the rabbit dance.
The outfits were like that, and so was the dance.
As a result, those who watched the music video even once kept watching it again and again.
-No, this is crazy, the Drop chorus has been stuck in my head all day ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Hey, I feel like this dance is going to be a huge trend. The trendy crowd is already copying it in clubs and going wild.
-The dance itself looks kind of easy ㅋㅋㅋ
-If you go to a club right now, a remix of this song is almost definitely included in every DJ time ㅋㅋㅋ
-Choi Jaeseong is so cute.
-He was kind of cute in the music video. He looked really excited.
-He was a zombie in State Of Mind. Of course he’d be excited.
-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
People had gotten addicted.
Thanks to that, in only 24 hours.
1
- Drop(new)(hot)
2
– Separate(hot)
3
– If We Look Elsewhere(hot)
4
- Courtship(hot)
Choi Jaeseong’s Drop engraved its name at the very top of the daily chart.
But this was not the end.
-?!
-Are these guys insane...
-This was an album too?
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Title : Stage Side B
Artist : Choi Jaeseong
Track : 07
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Three Months and One Hundred Days’ second unit album, titled Stage Side B, was released.