Damn Idol Episode 21
“Then is it okay if we change the song structure a bit? Like doing rap in the vocal parts….”
“It doesn’t matter.”
The rappers gathered in Team Jin are seen heaving sighs of relief.
Well, if they have to pick songs to match three rappers and two vocals, the choices would be too limited.
While listening to the following participants’ questions, I organized my thoughts.
I’m an unquestionable qualifier.
I probably got four passing marks on the first stage, and even if not, they’ll pass me in the end anyway.
If so, what I need to show here is decided. ‘A gap.’ I have to show weakness.
Especially, I want to hear evaluations that say the individual stage was cool but the team stage was disappointing.
If anyone heard what I was really thinking, they might ask if I’m crazy, but this is necessary.
I have experience appearing on numerous audition programs.
Especially whenever I tried to change my environment like now, I chose audition programs.
Because there’s nothing better for rapidly learning the culture and building connections and experience.
What I felt through those experiences was that there was no need to be perfect.
Only when there are weaknesses do viewers find a point to cheer for, and a character has room to grow.
A participant perfect in every way?
Of course that’s good.
If I could do that, I’d want to as well.
But perfection for a singer is not an absolute evaluation, but a relative one.
If I keep scoring 100 points, at some point 100 becomes the default value.
If I get 100 again after that, I’ll hear this kind of review. ‘It was a stage as skilled as always. However, you only show the same thing. From now on, I want to see your added value.’ It’s a review I actually heard.
It still pisses me off thinking about it again.
Even though they sold far fewer albums than me.
Anyway, for that reason, I’m planning to hold back in the upcoming team mission.
It’s not that I’m going to deliberately ruin the stage.
There must be no doubt about the individual capability of a participant named Han Sion.
However, I have no intention of standing at the center of the team.
* * *
The members of
The table was filled with PPL snacks, and the writers said we could eat as much as we wanted, but no one touched them.
I figured I’d need to at least pick a song before I’d get an appetite.
Especially for those who thought they messed up the first main competition stage.
Then Choi Jae-seong directed a question toward Han Sion.
Choi Jae-seong was that participant who couldn’t, for the life of him, remember where he had heard Han Sion’s voice before.
“Hey, do you happen to have any ideas about song selection?”
The participants looking at Han Sion had eyes filled with desperation and expectation.
They too were people who had witnessed what Han Sion had done in the pre-mission and first mission.
So they were hoping he would come up with another tremendous idea this time too.
But Han Sion disregarded the team members’ expectations.
“I’ve never performed on stage with other people before……. It’s a bit difficult.”
“You’ve never performed with others? Not even once?”
“Yes.”
“Han Sion, weren’t you a trainee?”
“No? I taught myself at home.”
It’s hard to believe that he’s never been affiliated with an entertainment company, but looking back at the stages Han Sion has performed, it seems possible.
Certainly, Han Sion’s stages deviated from the framework demanded by entertainment agencies.
He covered everything with skill, but they had a feeling quite distant from being an idol?
Perhaps because the cheat key of Han Sion they had been inwardly hoping for had disappeared, the meeting progressed quickly.
“Should we focus on weekly charts with five-member senior groups? How many years back should we look?”
“Shouldn’t we exclude songs released within the last year? They’ll be compared to the seniors’ stages.”
“There are a lot of good songs among recent ones……”
“That’s true.”
“What about including six-member groups too? If we distribute the parts well, five of us should be fine.”
Then Choi Jae-seong opened his mouth.
Choi Jae-seong was the participant who couldn’t remember despite clearly having heard Han Sion’s voice before.
“I think we need to worry about the rap parts first.”
“Ah, rap…….”
It’s safe to say that idol groups always have a rapper in them.
But currently, Igin Team has no rapper.
Team Jin had too many rappers, which was a problem, but here, having none was the problem.
“Does anyone here feel somewhat confident about rapping?”
Onsaemiro, Choi Jae-seong, Gim Seong-u, and Sim Ju-wan looked at each other, but no one particularly stepped forward.
They could do it if asked.
They even had rap songs they liked to sing at karaoke.
But it wasn’t to the extent that they would step forward in a situation where they had to show charm to the judges and receive passing marks.
Since everyone was more confident in singing than rapping, they were vocal participants.
Then someone raised their hand.
“I’ll do it.”
It was Han Sion.
“……Rap?”
“Yes. I’m not bad at it.”
“Hyung, you don’t mean you’re going to do both main vocal and main rap, right?”
Han Sion shook his head at Gim Seong-u’s question.
“I’m only going to rap. Onsaemiro can do main vocal.”
Onsaemiro, who hadn’t said a word since the meeting started, stared at Han Sion and slowly opened his mouth.
“Why?”
“You sing well, don’t you?”
“You…… sing even better.”
“Who says that? It’s not like we’ve sung the same song together.”
At that indirect way of saying that it was only because my song choice had been better, Onsaemiro eventually nodded.
The ones most flustered by Han Sion’s declaration to rap were the production crew.
The writer in charge of Han Sion, who had been standing behind the VJ, briefly cut filming and even asked if he was really only going to rap.
The participants also felt ambiguous emotions.
If you only considered part distribution, it was a good thing.
They had naturally assumed Han Sion would take main vocal and Onsaemiro lead vocal.
Considering the two’s skills, anyone greedy for those positions would likely get cursed at by viewers.
But if it turned out like this, Onsaemiro became the main vocal, and the lead vocal spot was left empty.
In a way, because Han Sion dropped out of vocals, everyone’s assigned roles went up a tier each.
Not only that, but they could avoid direct comparison with Han Sion.
But……. Wouldn’t they be brutally betraying the hopes of those anticipating
Even if he takes care of his individual part well, isn’t it a minus if the team stage fails?
They couldn’t help but think that.
But unexpectedly, Han Sion was adamant.
In the end, they settled on picking song candidates first for now.
But song selection ended in an instant.
“I think this would be good?”
Because the moment they heard Boy Scout, a song by NOP that had been on last year’s annual chart, Han Sion actively recommended it.
NOP’s Boy Scout is a famous song.
The undisputed top boy group was Drop Out no matter what anyone said, but at the present point in time, NOP’s popularity was higher.
It was hard to say what would happen when Drop Out actually made their comeback, but NOP’s popularity was no joke.
So everyone was hesitant.
“It feels like we’ll end up being compared to the NOP seniors on stage……. It’s also too recent a song.”
“Are you planning to rearrange it? Then I’m against it.”
However, Han Sion shook his head.
“No. I just think it’d be good to perform it as it is. It suits our vocal colors well.”
“Hmm……. Shall we watch the stage video first?”
NOP’s stage was good.
Because the six idols wearing Boy Scout uniforms overflowing with boyish charm showed off cool choreography.
It wasn’t high-difficulty choreography befitting the Boy Scout concept, but the clean, stretching lines had the feel of mischievous boys dreaming of adventure.
“Hmm……”
Those who had felt burdened by choosing a NOP hit song showed signs of being swayed after watching the choreography.
Since they were only given a day of practice time, it couldn’t be too hard, but it couldn’t be too easy either.
Boy Scout was a song that fit that criteria perfectly.
Moreover, seeing as the rap parts weren’t prominent, it didn’t seem like Han Sion had chosen it with some kind of ulterior motive.
“Let’s look for other songs for now.”
After that, the meeting was repeated, but no better option than NOP’s Boy Scout came out.
“Let’s go with this.”
“Ah, if we mess this up, I feel like we’ll get so much hate.”
“Should we sleep for exactly four hours and practice? It looked like Team Jin was going to sleep too.”
“Shall we?”
The filming start time for the second competition, the team mission, was scheduled for 7 PM the next day.
Since it had passed midnight while having the song selection meeting, it was already today.
A certain amount of sleep was needed to get through high-intensity practice and the actual stage, so the participants headed to the accommodations the broadcasting station had arranged.
* * *
The main director of a program is like a chef.
Because he has to decide which ingredients to pick from the countless ones the camera has captured and what dish to make.
But sometimes, the final dish is set first, and he finds the ingredients to match it.
Like PD Gang Seog-u now.
Gang Seog-u had already decided what kind of dish Episode 1 of Coming Up Next would be.
Han Sion’s one-man carry.
So what he needed most right now was……. ‘The composer’s contact information, of course.’
He was the composer of Wave from Flower’s debut song, Flowers Bloom.
The words Han Sion uttered after the first mission stage were quite meaningful.
“Flowers Bloom was probably originally composed for a male vocalist. Perhaps the singer was decided during the production process, and it was changed to fit a female vocalist?”
“So I didn’t change anything; I just think I sang the early version.”
No, honestly, it only sounds meaningful because it’s Han Sion.
What if a participant other than Han Sion had said something like that?
It’d be either a target of ridicule or editing fodder.
It doesn’t make sense, does it, logically speaking.
That the debut song of top-tier girl group Wave from Flower was originally for a male vocalist?
Han Sion realized that with his incredible talent the moment he heard it?
And no one had ever said something like that before?
Nevertheless, the reason Han Sion’s words didn’t sound simply ridiculous was simple.
Because the stage was good.
‘No, because it was fucking good.’
The moment I heard it, I felt it.
This would definitely become a hot topic.
The reactions to chart performance or the music source for
But in terms of content buzz or YouTube views, this would dominate.
Because it’s full of keywords that netizens can interpret sensationally.
Moreover, PD Gang Seog-u, who had no particular expertise in music, wondered if Han Sion had really only changed the key of the original song.
If even he was like this, how much more so would netizens be.
Even if the program itself failed commercially, this stage would be passed from mouth to mouth and attract great interest.
So PD Gang Seog-u was deep in worry.
His original plan was for the song at the center of Coming Up Next Episode 1 to be the pre-mission song,
But after seeing the first round stage, this seemed like it would become an even bigger issue.
It was a shame to lump two songs into Episode 1 and split the spotlight.
Then what about dividing them into Episodes 1 and 2, introducing two songs each?
Due to the nature of the program where Take Scene had to be the protagonist, he couldn’t dedicate all of Episode 2 to Team B’s edit.
This was PD Gang Seog-u’s worry.
Then, he saw the junior PD he had been eagerly waiting for enter the filming set.
“Did you find him?”
“The composer? I found him.”
“Hey, why’d it take so long to find one composer?”
“His English name wasn’t a stage name; it was his real name.”
“He’s a foreigner? What country?”
“He’s Danish but in America right now. But sunbae-nim. I don’t think we can cast this composer?”
“Why?”
“He’s too big a shot.”
Gang Seog-u’s eyes went wide at the name flowing from the junior PD’s mouth.