Damn Idol Episode 22
Kang Seokwoo, if one considered only his musical knowledge, was an ordinary layman.
None of the programs he had directed until now had anything to do with music, and he was not particularly passionate about listening to music in everyday life either.
A so-called Top 100 user.
If a man like Kang Seokwoo was surprised upon hearing the name of a foreign composer, it meant one of two things.
Either the person was unbelievably famous, or they had become an issue in Korea because of some particular incident.
Right now, it was both.
“Are you sure it’s really Chris Edward? I don’t think the composer name for Flowers Bloom was anything like that.”
“Chris Edward is his stage name. His real name is Danish. Anyway, it really is him. I was surprised too, so I checked from several angles.”
“Uh……”
Chris Edward was a composer who had become incredibly hot over the past two years.
He had three songs that had reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and over twenty songs that had entered the Hot 100 chart.
On top of that, he had a handsome face and a gift for speaking, so he appeared on American talk shows quite often.
He simply lacked any vocal ability whatsoever and therefore had not become a top star; had he been active as a singer-songwriter, he would undoubtedly have become a world star.
But the reason Chris Edward had actually become famous in Korea was because of film music.
By chance, he had ended up serving as the music director for a Korean film, and that film had gone on to record ten million admissions domestically.
Not only that, but it had also been invited to prestigious film festivals including Cannes, earning recognition for its artistic merit, and at one awards ceremony, it had won the award for film music.
Thanks to that, Korean film music made by a foreign composer had entered the Billboard chart.
He had even, unusually for a foreign singer, reached number one on the domestic music charts.
“Hey, hasn’t Chris Edward been on Korean variety shows a few times?”
“Other than interviews related to the film, he’s only appeared on an actual variety program once.”
“Hmm. Then did he talk about making a K-pop idol song back then?”
“I don’t know that far, but…… he probably didn’t. If he had, NT would have made a huge fuss about it.”
NT was Way From Flower’s agency.
“Yeah, you’re right. NT was quiet about it.”
“Considering they didn’t do any media play at all, maybe NT and the composer had a fight during the process?”
“That could be…… Or they might not know at all.”
“Pardon?”
“Think about it. It came out four years ago already. Chris Edward wasn’t famous in Korea back then, was he?”
“That’s true too.”
Kang Seokwoo stroked his chin and sank into thought.
Honestly, with the budget allotted to Coming Up Next, bringing in Chris Edward was a stretch.
No, it was not even a stretch. It was impossible.
Wasn’t that the kind of market where they demanded an enormous amount of money just to get a video interview?
To cast a composer who had reached number one on Billboard multiple times, the ratings would have to be around 10 percent.
In other words, whether Han Sion’s words were true or not might remain a mystery forever.
‘But is that necessarily a bad thing?’
Kang Seokwoo, who had been deep in thought for a while, finally opened his mouth.
“Hey. Producer Go.”
“I’ve told you several times, but my surname isn’t Go.”
“How many times have I told you I call you Producer Go because you’re a hopeless case? Anyway, find a way to send the composer the video.”
“One-sidedly?”
“Yeah. We just need him to see it somehow. Send Han Sion’s stage and the interview afterward with subtitles.”
“Should we do it in Danish? Or English?”
“Ah, seriously! Just do both!”
“Why are you getting angry?”
“Forget it.”
If Han Sion’s words were true, Chris Edward would react.
Because musicians were that kind of people by nature.
And if there was no response?
The protagonist of Coming Up Next Episode 1 could be pushed with
It would become a topic that no one could know the exact truth of.
“And find someone who left NT and has a loose tongue. A source might come from there.”
“Understood.”
* * *
Thinking about it again, the broadcasting station people really were something.
How had they thought of making a choreography room in a convention center?
At a glance, it did not look like an original space, and seemed to have been constructed by buying mirrors from somewhere……
With the money used to make this, wouldn’t it have been cheaper to just rent a large choreography studio somewhere?
Of course, broadcasting often involved far more complicated relationships of profit than what was visible on the surface.
Perhaps the convention center side, for some reason, had sponsored the broadcasting station and accepted their conditions……
“Sion hyung!”
“Huh? Yeah.”
“Are you listening to us?”
“Ah, sorry. I was thinking about something else for a second.”
At my answer, the members of
“We were wondering how it looks to you, hyung. From what we can see, the group dance seems a little off.”
“I don’t know. It seems fine to me.”
“It’s fine?”
“Yeah. Isn’t this much already excellent?”
We were currently monitoring.
After the choreography practice that had gone on for four hours from 5 a.m. came to an end, we were watching back a video of the stage we had run through as if it were the real thing.
But…… it was a little boring.
It was not that the act of monitoring was boring. It was that this moment itself was boring.
Saying it like this might make it seem as though I had no real interest in preparing for the stage, but that was not the case.
Standing on stage was still enjoyable.
I also found enjoyment and fulfillment in the process of preparing for it.
If I had not even had those emotions, I would not have been able to endure this Truman Show-like infinite regression.
Nevertheless, the reason I felt bored was……
“Doesn’t something feel subtly off?”
“It looks a little strange to me too. The angles of the arms and legs are fine, but……”
“How about changing the formation a bit? Like having the taller people move out to the sides.”
Because the team members were engrossed in meaningless discussions.
I did not know whether it was my original personality or a personality that had changed because of regression, but I hated putting in effort in the wrong way.
Wasting passion and effort on the wrong thing was incredibly tiresome and dull.
And frightening.
What if the amount of passion and effort a person could exert was fixed?
What if, after a long time, when an opportunity finally came to me, I no longer had any passion left to pour in?
Because that sort of fear was lodged deep in my heart.
Soon, that fear turned into self-loathing.
To put it extremely, I even felt angry at the reality that I had to match myself to team members who were worrying about things like that.
I had definitely been a Grammy winner, but right now, I was nothing more than a contestant on an idol survival program.
I knew it was a wrong thought and a selfish sentiment.
To me, this life was something that would merely pass by, but to others, it was a precious life they would only live once.
Sometimes even failure was sweet, and when they overcame it, the joy was enough to give them goosebumps.
It was just that I had not been permitted that kind of happiness.
“Sion hyung. Is it really okay?”
At the question from Choi Jaeseong, who had said he would call me hyung because he was two years younger than me, I fell into thought for a moment.
Originally, I had not intended to step forward.
I thought that as long as I intervened only in the song selection, the picture I wanted would come out to some extent.
But if the team wandered around like this, it would be a bit troublesome.
The picture I wanted for the second mission was one where I did not stand out, not one where the stage itself was ruined.
Having made up my mind that way, I opened my mouth.
“I want to ask something. Is the choreography that important?”
“Pardon? Of course it’s important. Half of being an idol is the stage.”
“No, not the choreography. I’m asking if razor-sharp synchronization is that important.”
In my opinion, what mattered on the second stage was not perfectly synchronized group choreography.
Of course, I knew that it gave visual pleasure.
To begin with, a sense of unity was a keyword that ran through dance.
Even when dancing alone, it was important to have the sense of unity that allowed the same movements to maintain the same angles.
But not now.
“
“That’s true.”
“We can’t match razor-sharp synchronization. It’s not difficult, it’s impossible.”
If that could be done in a single day, why would dancers suffer while grinding away their joints and cartilage?
When it came to dance alone, they were probably people who danced better than anyone.
“But if we put in the effort……”
“The possibility won’t be zero. But compared to the effort put in, the result won’t be very good.”
“……
The result?”
“Even if we put on an incredible stage, it’s not like all five of us will go up as we are.”
On Saemiro, who had been listening quietly, asked in a low voice.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“The direction of the stage.”
People sometimes ignore facts that are plainly visible in order to make themselves comfortable.
It was the same now.
Trying hard to make the synchronized dance fit perfectly was comfortable.
Of course, I did not mean physically comfortable, but mentally.
If they simply did their best to match the movements and then got eliminated……
“Because you can feel a small sense of satisfaction, thinking, ‘Still, I worked hard.’”
“……”
In contrast, the reality they truly had to face was not comfortable.
Personally, because of his vocal tone, I did not want to be on the same team as him, but in any case, Lee Ion would make it through.
Even if I were a judge, with a face and skills like that, I would pass him.
Next, On Saemiro would make it through too.
I did not know whether he was a definite top four pick right this moment, but his singing ability was superior compared to the other contestants.
As for me, there was no need to say anything.
Three spots were already decided.
The total number of members in Coming Up Next’s Team B was five.
There were only two spots left, and the competitors numbered seven.
So what mattered now was not a razor-sharp synchronized dance that was impossible to match in the first place.
“You need to be better than the person next to you.”
I omitted my evaluation of Lee Ion and On Saemiro, but everyone seemed to understand what I was trying to say.
“Dancing the same choreography is an opportunity, isn’t it? A chance to show that I can dance it the best.”
It was enough to match the beat and timing of the movements.
After that, emphasizing the parts I could dance well would be a hundred times better than collapsing while clumsily trying to match even the angles of our joints in a synchronized dance.
If
Kim Seongwoo, who had been listening quietly, cut in.
“Then is that why you actively recommended Boy Scout, hyung?”
He was not very skilled, but he seemed quick-witted.
“That’s right.”
NOP’s Boy Scout was a song with quite a lot of individual movements.
To begin with, the concept of the song itself was a boy scout boy, so it had many playful gestures, and it emphasized liveliness more than unity.
Of course, even so, there were group dance parts that could not be handled with ordinary practice, but what I meant was that it was not important to make every part fit like a knife.
“So let’s take our direction like this. We match the beat and timing of the movements, but each of us tries to beat the others.”
“……”
I did not know how they took my words, but everyone looked at one another, then slowly nodded.
Once I had organized the entire situation like that, belated worry came rushing in.
The cameras were filming everything, so perhaps I had stepped forward too much.
On top of that, I might have spoken too much like a superior.
Maybe I had picked up a habit from the long time I spent controlling the lunatics of GOTM.
Still, it was better than ruining the stage with useless nonsense.
Producer Kang Seokwoo also seemed to be trying to make some money with
He would edit it appropriately.
I had finished assessing the situation that way, but when I happened to hear Choi Jaeseong’s interview, I was flustered.
“Sion hyung? Honestly…… I was a little moved.”
What?
“His wording was definitely sharp, but I could feel that he really wanted us to make it through.”
Me?
“I also understood why he suddenly took the rap part.”
Choi Jaeseong smiled brightly as he spoke.
“When I was in ninth grade, I was really scared of my homeroom teacher, but looking back, he was someone who truly cared for me.”
“He overlapped with that teacher in my eyes.”
Uh, that……
Does my age show?