Damn Idol Episode 200
* * *
Korean society is sensitive to trends.
This is my impression after having been active in America for over a hundred years, so I’m probably right.
I thought about why that was, and I think it’s because the population is small and the social networks are well developed.
People feel psychological stability when they belong to a group of a certain size.
But when the population is large, the scale of minor cultures grows as well.
For example, when I was studying gospel in America, I was surprised by how large the gospel market was.
If you made a gospel album well enough, it wasn’t hard to go platinum (one million copies).
But in the K-pop market, there aren’t many albums that have surpassed one million copies.
Later on, I know overseas fans will attach themselves in staggering numbers and albums will easily break past a million, but for now, that’s how it is.
It’s all because of population.
Given these circumstances, Korea has a culture where mainstream opinions are forced on you as though they’re the correct answer.
There’s also a tendency to treat you like a failure if you can’t get on board with the mainstream.
I’m not qualified to discuss whether this phenomenon is good or bad.
What could a duckweed-like existence, unable to properly attach itself to even a single world, possibly discuss?
So what matters right now is what has been placed in Korea’s mainstream.
Namely……
Us.
“D-does this even make sense?”
At Lee Ion’s words, I shrugged.
“It became a trend.”
“Did you expect this?”
Sometimes, the Sedalbaegil members have a tendency to overestimate me.
How could I have expected something like this?
This is an extremely enjoyable moment that rarely comes to an artist who has worked hard.
The moment the content I created shines brighter than I expected and embroiders itself across the world.
Of course, when we distributed the digital tracks for our second album, I did believe it would do much better than usual.
There are many people talking about our album, but the actual album sales had only just surpassed one million copies (excluding unit albums).
So I knew that once the digital tracks were released, even those who hadn’t bought the album would click on them.
And those who had bought the album would want to listen comfortably on their smartphones too.
But I didn’t know it would be to this extent.
To think our name would be engraved from the very top of the music site down through as many slots as there were tracks on the album.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before……”
Seeing Choi Jaeseong mindlessly capturing screenshots of the music site nonstop, I organized my thoughts.
This is a temporary phenomenon.
It won’t carry over to the weekly chart, and by tomorrow, several songs will fall behind.
As time passes, I can already see tracks losing strength on the real-time chart.
This can’t be helped.
Just as Choi Jaeseong is in charge of balance within Sedalbaegil, an album also needs tracks that are in charge of balance.
The desire to make every track a best-selling track is the main culprit that makes an album exhausting.
The songs are good, but the album becomes difficult to listen through in one sitting.
Albums like that leave hit songs behind, but they fail to receive positive evaluations as albums.
There are far more singers like that in the world than one might think.
Writing songs with innate sense and instinct isn’t difficult, but creating a work on the scale of an album isn’t something that can be done by instinct.
But this is exactly what I need to avoid the most.
I don’t care if every track on the album is criticized as being bland.
All that matters is that it sells a lot.
So there are tracks that leave behind a slight sense of dissatisfaction when heard individually, and those will fall in the rankings.
But it doesn’t matter.
I’m not Choi Daeho, but I can get a sense of what the atmosphere at Ryan Entertainment must be like right now.
They’re probably intimidated.
But our push doesn’t end here.
Because the music video will be released at midnight tonight.
This music video is my favorite out of everything we’ve shot so far.
So there are no problems at all with Sedalbaegil’s music work or activity style.
However, what I’m a little worried about is—
“……Wow.”
“Would it be a bit much if I screenshot this and post it on SNS?”
“Wouldn’t it? Mix Way fans are probably watching us closely right now too.”
“Mmm…… Then I’ll only post it in the official site message.”
The reactions of the Sedalbaegil members.
Until now, every time the Sedalbaegil members achieved success, they had been bewildered.
Even when we appeared on Color Show, they didn’t really understand what it meant to appear on Color Show.
When our first album, TFD, succeeded; when it was revealed that we had co-composed with masters; when it started selling in America as well.
They couldn’t truly feel exactly what kind of success we were achieving.
It was only natural.
Sedalbaegil had never taken a familiar step.
Because they were walking a path quite different from the K-pop idol groups they knew and had studied.
That was why what the members considered important were the fan club numbers and music video views.
From my perspective, I’m not sure those are all that important.
More important to me than the total number in the fan club are the people who will love the music I release for the rest of my life.
More important than music video views is the correlation with people watching the music video and buying the album.
But the members were different.
The reason they focused on fan club numbers and music video views was because those, at least, allowed direct comparison with other idols.
Album sales figures vary greatly depending on fan sign events, overseas fans, and the distributor’s tallying methods.
To be honest, there are also places that engage in bulk buying in appropriate ways.
But no company buys fan club numbers with money, and they don’t buy music video views with money either.
In other words, those two indicators are results from competing in a fair ring.
That was why the members focused especially on those two things when looking at Sedalbaegil’s success.
But strangely, this time feels different.
I can see that the Sedalbaegil members have the conviction that “we’ve succeeded.”
It was probably around the time the filming for Self-Made reached the middle stage.
Around when I landed the Apple commercial and HR Corporation presented us with the contract for releasing the English version of the album.
From then on, there had been a slight change in their hearts.
From “Have we really succeeded?” to “We really have succeeded.”
I don’t dislike that.
Except for Gu Taehwan, all the Sedalbaegil members have a lack of affection and a longing for success.
It’s always enjoyable when the parts my friends desperately desire are fulfilled.
But I have witnessed artists lose their motivation the moment their deficiencies were filled, for far too long.
Sedalbaegil’s drive for improvement was something even I could hardly believe.
Especially since they weren’t people I had personally chosen, but ones I had happened to encounter by chance.
But I’m worried about what will happen if their hearts change because of the success of the second album.
Of course, I had made up my mind.
Until Sedalbaegil disappointed me, I wouldn’t get ahead of myself and be disappointed on my own.
Until now, when doing team activities, there were cases where I regressed before I realized it.
When several clues piled up and led me to judge, “They’ve lost their desire.”
There was even a time when I went to drink water during practice and ended up regressing.
But thinking about it carefully, that was nothing more than my assumption.
Maybe it had only been for a moment.
Maybe they had lost their desire for a moment, but soon found it again and run forward with me.
But the patience of a regressor, worn down with repeated regressions, snaps easily even over small things.
This time, I don’t want to do that.
I hope I don’t.
Thinking rationally, there’s a higher chance that this life with Sedalbaegil won’t be my last life.
The albums we’ve sold so far amount to just a little over three million copies.
That’s only 1.5% of the goal of two hundred million copies.
I’m glad we achieved that in just one year, but to reach the goal, we would have to do the same thing for twenty more years.
Still, just as I resolved at Seaside Heights, I want to go all the way to the end of this life.
Even if I reach my forties, realize in the end that it won’t work, and regress.
So……
I shouldn’t bring up something like this.
“You all know that the day after tomorrow is Mixdown’s music show, right?”
“We know.”
“Isn’t M Show kind of comfortable now? It sort of feels like home.”
“It is home. Coming Up Next was an M Show production too.”
“Ah, right. True. When I think of Coming Up Next, it somehow feels like a Ryan Entertainment production.”
After listening to the members excitedly add this and that to the opening I had brought up, I spoke casually.
“How about we add a bit to the stage composition?”
“Huh?”
“It’s a bit much to change the song we’ll sing on the live broadcast at this point, but the song we’ll perform for the prerecording can be retaken.”
“Uh…… You want to change the performance for the song we’ll film in the prerecording?”
“Yes.”
At my words, Lee Ion’s eyes trembled slightly.
Damn it.
Yeah, I know too.
I know there’s no need to put the members through this kind of test.
I know that even if the members reject my suggestion here, it won’t be proof that their passion has disappeared.
But the emotional ups and downs of a regressor make me say things I absolutely shouldn’t.
Damnably so.
And the members’ answer to my question was……
“Wouldn’t that be a bit much? There are only two days left.”
“Right. What if we make a mistake?”
“A huge number of people are watching our music shows this time. We need to do well in a stable way.”
It was “NO.”
But what was a little strange was that it seemed like the members were hiding some kind of feeling.
I’m extremely quick-witted, and I have experience accumulated from living for a long time.
But I don’t have the talent to figure out exactly what the other party is hiding.
What are they hiding?
What emotional line lies behind their answer?
Then I realized.
That such things weren’t important.
If it were the usual Sedalbaegil, even if they refused, they would have asked “why we should change it”……
But this time, there was none.
Maybe the members had discussed it among themselves when I wasn’t around.
Something like taking a rest once the second album activities ended, or having a long inactive period.
It was familiar.
“Then, well, let’s go as usual.”
“As usual?”
“No, I mean let’s go with the original plan.”
I said that and got up from my seat.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to call Uncle Hyeonsu. He texted me asking for a callback.”
“Aah. Go ahead. Give him our regards.”
I gave Gu Taehwan a rough nod and left the practice room.
* * *
In the Sedalbaegil practice room after Han Sion left, the members blinked.
“Didn’t Sion hyung seem different from usual somehow?”
“Mm. I think so.”
“It felt like he was disappointed in us somehow……”
“Was it because he had an amazing stage idea, but we rejected it?”
“That could be. Sion is pretty greedy when it comes to quality.”
But the members shrugged as if there was nothing they could do.
Their appearance on M Show’s music broadcast was on March 3rd, only two days away.
There was no time to change anything here.
“Then shall we practice?”
“Let’s do it without the beat.”
And so the Sedalbaegil members busily got up and began practicing the choreography.
Han Sion wasn’t there, but in the formation, it was as though Han Sion’s spot had been left empty.
* * *
Choi Sehui scanned YouTube with sharp eyes.
Before she knew it, a very long time had passed since she became a fan of Sedalbaegil (not even a year), and she had grasped this team’s patterns.
She had been somewhat flustered by them selling the album for two weeks without releasing the digital tracks, but Han Sion was serious about album sales, so that could happen.
And the moment the digital tracks were released, she got a feeling.
The feeling that they had released them at this timing to inflate the digital rankings as much as possible (not true).
In that case……
“They’re totally going to surprise-drop the music video at midnight.”
It was a method that differed from the principles of other idols, but if it was Sedalbaegil, they would definitely do it.
Thinking that, Choi Sehui kept hammering refresh before suddenly freezing.
“No way……”
It was because of a thumbnail with Han Sion’s face on it, smiling like a flower against a background of pure white snow.
...(Continued)