Damn Idol Episode 47
In other words, he was saying they should take the most famous part of an extremely famous pop song and make a song that suited Sedalbaegil.
What pop song would be good?
‘No, wait, does that even count as self-produced?’
Having experience with monthly evaluations, when Lee Ion heard “self-produced,” what came to mind was something closer to reinterpreting a famous song.
Leaving the beat as it was and changing the verse, or changing the chorus, that sort of thing.
They did that especially often with pop songs.
Of course, since this was a survival program, they would have to do better than that, but at the very least, it wasn’t anything close to what Han Sion was talking about.
Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
“Sion. This question has nothing to do with the production meeting, so I’m just asking.”
“Ah, yes, go ahead.”
“What would you do if I insisted we take Baby, change only the verses into Korean, and keep the chorus in English as it is?”
“For the mission song?”
“Yeah.”
“That isn’t producing, is it? That’s just a cover song.”
“Even if we reinterpret the verses into Korean in our own way?”
“Maybe if we completely changed the rhythm of the verses too… But then, if we brought in the original chorus, the balance would fall apart.”
“No, leave out the musical opinion. Just emotionally, how would you feel?”
“I’d think, if we’re going to do that, wouldn’t it be better to just sing the original as it is…?”
Dear God.
Lee Ion realized the source of the sense of dissonance he had been feeling ever since the meeting began.
Han Sion’s musical standards were absurdly high.
The meaning of the word “producing” that the current members of Sedalbaegil had in mind was completely different from the meaning of “producing” that Han Sion had in mind.
The faces of the Sedalbaegil members changed as they realized the significance of Lee Ion’s question.
Han Sion was the only one who had no idea why Lee Ion had asked such a question.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Mm, okay. Let’s start by choosing the song.”
The same thought flashed through the minds of every member except Han Sion.
‘A song that’s famous no matter what.’
‘A song that’ll still keep its original form no matter how Sion hyung touches it.’
‘A song that most people like.’
Of course, the members’ thoughts were based on a slight misunderstanding.
Han Sion was not someone who stubbornly insisted on his own musical standards.
If anything, he was someone who constantly studied and referred to things the public would like.
But the members, unaware of that, put their heads together and chose a song that had swept the entire world in 2015.
Even now, in March 2017, it was a song you could easily hear on the streets.
“Isn’t this song too famous? This isn’t major pop, it’s mega-hit pop, so listeners might feel fatigued…”
“Sion.”
“Yes?”
“Just do it. It was majority vote.”
“…
Yes.”
Feeling as if Lee Ion was scolding him with his eyes for some reason, Han Sion changed his mind.
‘Well, fine. If it’s an extremely famous song, I can arrange it even more differently.’
* * *
When I said I wanted to personally control the entire process from sampling to arrangement, the production staff looked a little flustered.
This was something I only learned after appearing on Stage Number Zero and American survival programs, but in truth, contestants have less freedom in their musical choices than you might think.
They have to choose songs within set guidelines—usually because of copyright clearance—and even when arranging a song, there are almost no cases where the contestant does all the work.
Prearranged experts work according to the contestants’ intentions through meetings with them.
No matter how genius a contestant might seem, they couldn’t entrust the fate of a program with tens or millions of dollars riding on a single broadcast to them.
Of course, on the show, they make it look as if the contestant did everything.
Coming Up Next was the same.
But I had a special move.
“Ah, really? You think you can do it?”
“Of course.”
“Good. If you need a recording tech or an engineer, tell me. Do you know how to mix and master too?”
“I can do the basics… Once I’m done, I’ll let you listen to it.”
“By the way, why didn’t you come drink soju with us that day?”
My special move was Lee Hyeonseok, the CEO of LB Studio, which was in charge of Coming Up Next’s music releases and production.
The production staff did make it clear that if the quality was lacking, an expert could intervene, but that wasn’t going to happen.
I might not know more than anyone else about music as art (音樂),
but when it came to the science of sound (音學),
there was no expert in this world greater than me.
I had been doing this work longer than anyone else in the world.
And so I began arranging Uptown Funk…
“Sion, is there anything difficult? Is there anything we can help with?”
“If there’s anything you’re worried about, we’d be really grateful if you told us anytime.”
“Hyung, do you maybe think it’d be nice if we all worked together on things like melody concerns?”
The members were acting strange.
They should have just quietly practiced singing, but I had no idea why they were clinging to me like this.
I would obviously take care of it and do well.
Two days passed like that, and the intermediate result was finished.
There were still parts of the sound that needed a little more work, but as far as the direction of the track itself went, this was final.
The response to the song was good too.
“Wow, insane.”
“Can we really not release this as a digital track? Why not? Why not? Why can’t we? Why not? Why can’t we?”
“We have the rights to broadcast the audio on the show, but not the rights to commercially use the work…”
“Saemiro. You’re supposed to empathize, not state facts.”
“…
Yeah.”
I was satisfied with the result too.
But we weren’t audio-only singers; we were idols who had to fill a stage, and now we had only come exactly halfway.
It was time to build the stage.
* * *
“What should we do for our concept?”
At Choi Jaeseong’s question, Han Sion tilted his head.
From the moment they chose Uptown Funk, they had decided on the concept of retro disco.
They already had a concept, so he didn’t know why the concept was suddenly being brought up again.
“Don’t we already have a stage concept?”
“Huh? Not the stage concept. Sedalbaegil’s concept.”
“Are you talking about outfits?”
“No. The premise. Even if we don’t go as grand as a whole worldview, it’s nice if there’s something fun to dig into, right?”
“…?”
He still couldn’t understand.
They had to decide on a separate premise for Sedalbaegil that was different from the concept?
He tried thinking back to his For the Youth days, but no particular memory came to mind—
“It’s a parallel universe.”
“…
A parallel universe?”
“One side is an ordinary Earth, and the other is a ruined Earth. For the Youth are the only beings who can move between the two Earths.”
“…”
“If you receive love on the ordinary Earth, you can deliver that energy to the ruined Earth. In other words, you can revive it.”
“…
Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“There must be a reason the planet was destroyed…”
Han Sion flinched.
He remembered.
The days when, shocked by the worldview the company CEO had brought in, he had bombarded the company’s A&R team with easy-listening songs like a madman.
He had deliberately flooded them with songs that would make it difficult to give off a conceptual feeling, and in the end, youth songs befitting the name For the Youth were selected.
That was why For the Youth’s nickname had been the Youth Idols.
Because they released songs that made you think of your youth after it had passed.
He had completely forgotten, but it had also been For the Youth who had turned NOP, who occupied a similar position, into has-beens.
For reference, in his seventh life, he had simply found a fatal weakness of the entertainment company’s CEO and promoted comfortably.
So that the CEO couldn’t exert useless influence over the group.
But Han Sion still did not understand the need for a concept.
Fine, if he conceded a hundred times, he could understand a worldview.
It could create something fun to watch in a music video, and it could give a story to an album-length creative work.
Or it could give unity to single tracks released piece by piece.
But for this stage, where they had already set a clear retro concept, what more could they possibly need?
Han Sion conveyed his thoughts to the members…
and got scolded.
“If listening is all there is, people would listen to the digital track. There’d be no need to watch the stage.”
“It can also become an element that lets fans immerse themselves in us.”
“That’s right, Sion. Fans like it.”
“Don’t tell me you’re embarrassed right now?”
At On Saemiro’s last words, Han Sion jumped in surprise and shook his head.
The sentence “fans like it” was an unblockable move against Han Sion.
Because he was someone who could do anything if it meant selling even one more album.
“Anyway, how about a school dance club?”
“If it’s going to be a club, I think a basketball team would be better.”
“Oh, basketball team sounds good. But I’d like something more unconventional. How about werewolves?”
“Fantasy? Then aren’t vampires the standard?”
Listening to the members talk, Han Sion slowly sank.
Why on earth would werewolves or vampires appear when they were doing a stage?
At this rate, superpowered people would show up too.
“Superpowered people might be okay too. Each of us having a different ability.”
“…”
The meeting proceeded like that, and then came to an end when an idea from On Saemiro was adopted unanimously.
Should he call it fortunate, at least?
On Saemiro’s idea was something Han Sion could accept well enough.
The moment Han Sion felt inwardly grateful and glanced at On Saemiro, On Saemiro made a strange expression.
At that moment, Han Sion realized.
On Saemiro’s ears were red.
‘He asked me if I was embarrassed, but he’s embarrassed too!’
Still, he learned something good from On Saemiro.
If you couldn’t avoid it, you had to enjoy it, and if you had to do it anyway, then everyone should put their heads together and come up with something they could accept.
‘First, I’ll do my best to build the stage, then see the response.’
But Han Sion’s hardships did not end there.
“…
Hyung. Be honest.”
“About what?”
“You haven’t really watched many idol stages, have you?”
“I’ve monitored the digital tracks consistently.”
“Not the tracks. The stages.”
What Choi Jaeseong said was true.
Since he had decided to challenge himself as an idol, he thought he should at least listen to every hit song that came out in the 2010s.
But he hadn’t had time to look up every performance too.
He had only looked up stages from first-tier boy groups like Drop Out and NOP because he was curious.
And that showed.
“No, what kind of choreography did you bring?”
At the words of Choi Jaeseong, the main dancer, Han Sion looked flustered.
Han Sion had never seriously challenged himself as a dance singer.
But that didn’t mean he had neglected dance.
There were certainly moments when dance was necessary, so he had put quite a bit of effort into learning it, and if they were only considering ability to execute choreography, he was probably the best among the Sedalbaegil members.
But he had little experience creating it himself.
He had always only learned what choreographers made for him.
“Is it bad?”
“It’s not bad. The movements are amazing. You’re a great dancer, hyung.”
“Then why?”
“It’s too centered around you. With this, when the center dances, the rest become backup dancers.”
“…”
He had lived that way until now, after all.
After that, Han Sion received all kinds of criticism from the members.
His expressions weren’t bright enough.
He needed to immerse himself more in the concept.
Don’t try to wear cute props by yourself, and so on.
But all of those criticisms were about things outside of music.
At least when it came to the “music” that Han Sion was self-producing, no one could touch it.
Even the production staff stirred.
“Did you see Sedalbaegil’s stage? They say Han Sion put all of that together himself.”
“He’s a real genius, isn’t he?”
And so another week passed.
At the point when everyone was sweating hard with three days left until the next competition,
the first episode of Coming Up Next finally aired.