Damn Idol Episode 188* * *Title : Stage Side BArtist : Choi JaeseongTrack : 07Track List
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1. Drop (Title)
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2. Undercover Boss
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3. Name Twice
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4. Do Dream
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5. DmmHmmEmm
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6. I’m Still the Same
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7. Stage* * *As of January 2018, Lil Nas X is a singer who has not debuted in the mainstream.
But I drew a lot of inspiration from his songs and marketing methods, and in particular, I studied “Old Town Road” a lot.
It was only natural.
“Old Town Road” was a monumental song that held number one on Billboard for nineteen consecutive weeks, and it proved that short-form content could be connected to music.
“Old Town Road” was clearly a song that succeeded because of short-form content—TikTok.
After that song, countless short-form stars were born, and what I thought would be a brief trend became content that ran through the 2020s.
As far as I know, things like Shorts and challenges became extremely popular in Korea after the 2020s too.
But here in 2018, short-form platforms don’t exist yet.
No, to be precise, they do.
In the U.S., there’s Vine, which has a fairly long history, and TikTok began service in November 2017.
But if you ask whether those are truly functioning as platforms, the answer is no.
They feel more like content known only to those in the know.
And we don’t call that a platform.
I’ve gone on at length, but what I want to say is that the age of short-form content has not yet arrived, and I have no intention of going out of my way to open it.
I planned to wait until the flow of the times came on its own.
Being the frontrunner on a certain platform comes with both good and bad points.
If I open the age of short-form content, then from that point on, the image of short-form content will be included alongside the name Sedalbaegil.
What I prefer is to become the fastest latecomer, but…….[I tried dancing to Drop!][Drop! Drop! Drop!]
Absurdly enough, it seems that frontrunner might end up being Choi Jaeseong.
Even before this, when certain songs became popular, there were flash mob-style trends where celebrities would dance along, but this felt different.
Short videos imitating the most upbeat part of the highlight section of Choi Jaeseong’s “Drop” poured onto social media, and more and more people began uploading compilations of them.
“Drop” is a song I made for the first time in this life.
I had spoken several times on the phone with Mary Jones, the master of techno who had shown great interest in me, and he once played me a song he was working on.
Ah, of course, that doesn’t mean I stole it and used it.
The song Mary Jones was working on was, if anything, one that had discarded quite a bit of its techno color.
Should I say it was a song that left only the essence of techno behind while grafting another genre onto it?
According to Mary Jones, he said he attempted it after seeing me mix a classical feel into his song.
I drew inspiration from that.
I took the genre of synth pop with a touch of new jack swing, while making it give off the feel of techno, or perhaps tectonic, at first listen.
It sounds complicated, but the work itself was simple.
After all, I’m someone who has researched and studied countless genres.
And Choi Jaeseong pulled it off perfectly.
Choi Jaeseong really does suit dance genres.
His dance lines are refreshing, his breath control is long, and there’s a feeling that he’s genuinely enjoying himself.
As a result……
“Ah, second place has arrived.”
“It’s second and third, you know?”
“Isn’t this a world that only remembers first place?”
“……”
Choi Jaeseong began teasing Lee Ion and Gu Taehwan.
The public says I don’t have much affection for Sedalbaegil and that I use the members like some mad scientist.
They say I don’t care what happens to our teamwork.
But that’s all wrong.
I do have affection for Sedalbaegil, and I truly hope we do well.
To the point that if this life fails, I won’t have the confidence to attempt another idol group again.
Besides, we aren’t a group whose teamwork gets shattered over things like this.
It’s teamwork we protected even through Choi Daeho’s filthy and despicable schemes.
I know Titi worried when the fan signing events were divided by member, but we had no problem at all.
It was the same this time.
Choi Jaeseong teased Gu Taehwan and Lee Ion, and Gu Taehwan and Lee Ion were pleased by Choi Jaeseong’s success.
Seeing that, On Saemiro and I also wanted to release our unit quickly.
Sometimes, when I think about it, it’s strange.
When I struggled so desperately to gather members, went around scouting talents, established a company, and trained people, ambition was always the problem.
If you go to Billboard, there are plenty of singers with talent far superior to Sedalbaegil……
No, at our current level, maybe not plenty.
Everyone has improved a lot.
Still, it’s not as if they’d be impossible to find.
But apart from talent, the attitude after gaining success always hurt me.
Especially when I was active as a producer, the time I spent urging singers to release albums was longer than the time I spent working.
I had prepared all the good songs, and I had prepared the marketing too, so I couldn’t understand why they simply wouldn’t release the album.
Later, when I heard that it was because working with me was exhausting, there was even a time when I regressed without realizing it.
Recording work took a month at most, and because of that, I felt disillusioned about aiming for two hundred million copies with bastards who didn’t want to release an album.
But thinking back on it, it probably wasn’t really because working with me was hard.
If they were the kind of people who wanted to avoid it because it was difficult, they wouldn’t have been able to do their best during the earlier work either.
They simply wanted to enjoy the money they had earned and the popularity and honor they had gained.
They wanted to lead a better life more than they wanted to make better music.
That isn’t bad, nor is it wrong.
But that wasn’t the kind of ambition I wanted, so I gave up on life as a producer.
That’s why I like Sedalbaegil.
They aren’t people I gathered by activating my eye for talent, nor are they people I produced by directing the direction of their lives.
They are people I happened to meet along each of our paths in life.
Sedalbaegil was born from that intersection.
How do people like that possess this kind of ambition?
“Sion, what are you doing?”
“Hm?”
“It’s your turn.”
“Ah.”
At On Saemiro’s words, I got up from my seat.
Since things had turned out this way, I intended to push Choi Jaeseong a little more, so we decided to film “Drop” Shorts for each member.
The idea was that the Sedalbaegil members would be sprawled around the dorm here and there, then dance together with Choi Jaeseong when the chorus of “Drop” came on.
In my case, the scenario was that I’d be sitting in the studio making music, then dance with Choi Jaeseong.
On top of that, since I knew Titi was curious about our dorm, we decided to subtly include various things in the Shorts.
In my case, I don’t particularly have a favorite character or accessories, so my room is a bit bare.
But I didn’t deliberately add anything.
There are times when a staged appearance is necessary, but it’s not bad to show things as they are either.
“Ugh, this really isn’t it.”
But apparently that was only my opinion.
The members came into the studio connected to my room, said it looked like an elderly person living alone, and started bringing in all sorts of things from their own rooms.
On Saemiro, in particular, who had bought tons of cheap and seemingly useless things as part of his bucket list after receiving our first settlement payment, brought a whole lot of them.
“This is a bit……”
“It’s a gift.”
“Still, this is a little……”
“Sion does have a tendency to treat gifts poorly.”
“I do?”
At Gu Taehwan’s words, I tilted my head.
The gift I’d received from Gu Taehwan was the humidifier he gave me for my birthday, and I had used it very well.
It had been a thoughtful gift.
“Ah, we don’t have time for now.”
And so, filming began in the room where the members had plastered all sorts of things everywhere. It was only a thirteen-second video, but we did several retakes and filmed it with all our effort, and I liked the result.* * *When the Shorts video for “Drop” was uploaded to Sedalbaegil’s official YouTube channel, Titi swarmed in.
At first, they were bewildered by videos that weren’t even twenty seconds long being uploaded, but the more they watched, the more fun they were.
And there were surprisingly many things to gush over and analyze.
-No, look at how different each of their dance lines are haha-Sion always splits the beat one more time.
-Looking at the dance, the Jaeseong and Taehwan combination would’ve been good too.
-I hope they upload the members covering Drop later.
-This song’s become an insider pick lately, so I hear it like crazy on the streets;-My eyes go more to the accessories than the dance lines.-22222 I’ve felt this since last time, but Saemiro’s tastes seem consistent.
-But if you look closely, that character is in Sion’s room too?
-Did Saemiro give it to him?
-What the heck. Our kids get along great, don’t they? Who said Masked Robber and Jaeseong were in a battle of nervesㅋㅋ-Obviously it’s stagedㅋㅋ You believe that?
-Who ordered them to stage it? They don’t even have a company, and the members decide everythingㅋ-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋSo what you want to say is that because they don’t get along, they filmed a video where they look like they get along in order to pretend they get along, and in truth they’re a group that doesn’t get along?ㅎㅎㅎ-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋUnlike Sedalbaegil’s fandom, which focused on the members’ chemistry and characters, the general public focused on the bigger picture.
-Hey, then does that mean an On Saemiro and Han Sion unit is coming too?
-Kyah. My chest swells with pride. A combination of an honorary Masing graduate and Hip Sion?-Seems like it’ll be damn strongㅋㅋㅋㅋ-Masked Robber > Choi Jaeseong > Sion Saemiro, is that it
-But this seems like kind of a forced takeㅋㅋㅋ Isn’t it just a matter of release order? If Choi Jaeseong had come out first and Masked Robber had come out after, the rankings would probably be reversed.
-But Hip Sion and On Saemiro could come out solo instead of as a unit.
-Two solos?-ㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇ-Nah, for some reason it feels like it’ll be a unit. I think that 2 + 2 + 1 thing they kept shouting means units coming out as two, two, and one.-!!!!!!!
-Oh, this is it.
-Upvote, upvote
-But then what happens to the second album? They were definitely preparing Sedalbaegil’s second full album on Self Made.
-True.
Even while the public showed plenty of curiosity about Sedalbaegil’s next moves, Masked Robber and Choi Jaeseong’s mini albums continued soaring high.
Looking at the average rankings of the included tracks, Masked Robber was much higher.
Masked Robber had entered its second week after release, and with Choi Jaeseong’s appearance, its overall ranking had been pushed down somewhat, but it still had as many as four songs in the top ten.
In particular, “If We Look at the Same Place,” which had not been the title track, stubbornly maintained its rank until it ended up lodged at second place.
If not for the absurd metrics of “Drop,” which had begun gaining explosive popularity on the level of a trend, it was a song that would undoubtedly have taken first place.
-It was the same with Summer Cream. In Sedalbaegil albums, there’s always a song that’s not a promoted track or title track but is still damn good.-ㅇㅇㅇㅇ True. There’s no feeling at all that they slack off just because it’s a B-side. It wouldn’t be weird no matter what song they slapped the title label on.
-It makes buying the album feel worth it.-I hope the second album comes out. Will it end with the units?
-If We Look at the Same Place is damn good. Seriously the best song I’ve heard this year.
-Only one month of this year has passed.
-Ah, right.
That didn’t mean Choi Jaeseong’s album Stage Side B was weak either.
It was giving off the strong scent of a retro trend that might bring retro back into fashion, and as many as three of its included tracks entered the top ten.
On top of that, it was showing signs of steady selling on the EDM side.
The electronic music scene was not one where many new songs were released, so when one good song came out, it would be used for over a decade.
But the included tracks on Stage Side B had far too wide a range of usability.
-Is Han Sion insane? The methods of expression used in the tracks are seriously beyond the times.
-Wow, there are so many times when I really wonder whether that kid actually learned everything on his own.
-I’m so damn jealous of his talent.
Because of that, group chats where active composers and DJs gathered were filled with a great deal of envy toward Han Sion’s talent.
In any case, people applauded Masked Robber and Choi Jaeseong’s songs, and they also applauded the group called Sedalbaegil.
Even though the songs had been released as units, everyone thought of Side A and Side B as songs by “Sedalbaegil.”
-So what do Side A and B mean?
-No ideaㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ-There’s less talk about this than I expected.
-Won’t it come out today? The real final episode of Self Made is today.
That was right.
Today was the day the final episode of Self Made, the epilogue, would air.