Damn Idol Episode 78
* * *
I nodded as I watched Gu Tae-hwan go up onstage.
Gu Tae-hwan would do well.
He understood exactly what I wanted, and he had the ability to make it happen.
That was why, of all the members, Gu Tae-hwan’s training had gone the most smoothly.
Not that the others had done poorly.
Over the past fifteen days, the members of Sedalbaegil had worked incredibly hard to digest my directing.
Part of it was thanks to how well I taught them.
But that alone wasn’t enough to make them put in this much effort.
Especially this time, when the time constraints had forced me to demand effort from them without detailed explanations on many points.
Even in that situation, the members had followed along in silence. It was almost surprising.
I didn’t know why they trusted me this much.
Showing overwhelming talent didn’t always earn you this kind of response.
So I wanted to repay them.
So that those who had worked hard until the end could produce good results.
And now.
The stage for
After a short intro, Gu Tae-hwan’s voice rang out.
I never knew
The intent and meaning
Held in your gaze
The subdued, low-pitched melody seized the ear at once.
It was like expressing the calm before a storm on the verge of collision, and also like someone barely suppressing his rage and speaking with a thread of reason.
Gu Tae-hwan had definitely hit his stride.
The reason Gu Tae-hwan’s training had gone smoothly wasn’t because he had less to practice.
It was because he didn’t go through trial and error by moving in the wrong direction.
There are many areas in which a singer’s talent can be evaluated.
A natural vocal tone, abundant volume, a wide range…
But from my perspective, after countless regressions had taught me training methodology, there was another talent that mattered most.
Direction.
People whose skills improve in direct proportion to the amount they practice.
For people like that, if they learn 1, their skill grows by 1. If they learn 2, their skill grows by 2.
At first glance, their growth may seem slow.
So-called geniuses often improve by 10 when they learn 1.
But that’s only in the short term.
What happens if they work hard for one year, five years, ten years?
Those who climb upward in a straight direction end up standing at the very top in the end.
Gu Tae-hwan had that talent.
On top of that, he had a talent for rhythm.
The word your lips
Tried to say then
Disgusting
Gu Tae-hwan’s chilly voice flowed out slowly as he stood there in a sharply tailored suit.
The rhythm, subtly slower and more languid than the original, created a sophisticated feeling.
Not everyone did it, but from some sections of the audience, a singalong of the lyric “disgusting” rose up.
It had ranked ninth on the annual chart in 2015, a typical rapper + vocalist type of song.
In truth, songs like this were a dime a dozen.
Pairing a decent rapper with a female vocalist had been common even in the American hip-hop scene of the ’80s.
Even so, there were two reasons
First, the rap design was quite good.
This was the first hit song of Breed, a rapper whose skills had been recognized in the underground scene.
Second, the concept was good.
The emotion was closer to hatred than love, but they were clearly fighting within the category of love.
Choi Jae-seong called this kind of thing a toxic relationship, though I didn’t know about that. At the very least, it wasn’t cliché.
When you listened to the lyrics, there was a sense of being pulled into the story of the two speakers.
And this was where the trap of a duet stage lay.
The role of exploding with emotion was entirely concentrated on the rapper.
The vocalist’s role was closer to gathering up the released emotion again and passing it on to the next verse.
No matter how pleasant the chorus was to listen to, this was why Ready had no choice but to be the protagonist of this song.
Because the public was more sensitive to the beginning, development, turn, and conclusion of content than one might think.
Just then, Ready took over Gu Tae-hwan’s intro and began rapping with flashy accents.
I still remember
Your gaze and attitude
The orbit of arrogance
That treated me like an insect
It wasn’t bad rap.
In the past, when people said “idol rapper,” it had been a position given to those who couldn’t sing.
But not anymore.
With the explosive success of Show Me the Money, rappers had begun taking over the charts, and the public had begun distinguishing between good rap and bad rap.
In other words, an era had arrived where idol rappers had to rap well, too.
And objectively speaking, Ready was a good rapper.
The rage he poured out through rap while glaring at Gu Tae-hwan was fairly convincing.
I’ll pay you back
You’re no longer inside me
When you’re in pain
I’ll watch and laugh aloud
But…
Gu Tae-hwan didn’t react to that rage.
He moved according to the set blocking and choreography, adding harmonies, but he didn’t react to Ready’s anger at all.
If anything, it felt as if he was dancing and singing alone.
It required a bit of acting through facial expression and atmosphere, and Gu Tae-hwan carried it out well.
This was the first thing I had demanded of Gu Tae-hwan.
When two people are fighting, what happens if one person doesn’t react at all?
The person crying and shouting ends up looking like the fool instead.
It takes two palms to make a sound; if only one side raises the tension, it looks strange.
Of course, this was a shortcut to ruining the stage.
The verse and chorus would end up playing separately.
But surely I hadn’t directed Gu Tae-hwan by saying, “I don’t want Ready to be the protagonist, so let’s go ruin the stage.”
It was time for the second device to come in.
As the verse ended and Gu Tae-hwan’s chorus began.
We’re still in conflict
—I hate you and loathe you
I’ll spit, turn away
And fill my mouth with curses
—
A chorus in a low octave.
Considering the original chorus had been sung by a female vocalist, it was so low that it almost felt awkward.
This was my second plan.
In order to perform a song by a female vocalist, Gu Tae-hwan had to adjust the octave, and here, I demanded a fairly low range from him.
Then during practice, I asked him to sing as if he were moderately angry.
“Moderately angry?”
“Like when Choi Jae-seong spilled chicken breast sauce on the floor.”
“…
I was extremely angry then.”
Thanks to that, the chorus came out so restrained that Ready even told the mentor during practice, “Isn’t this too bland?”
Of course, Choi Dae-ho, who was the mentor, brushed it off by saying that Gu Tae-hwan was singing in a range he could handle.
Since this was a stage where Take Scene was supposed to be the protagonist, he was probably pleased inside.
But what would happen if the feeling of anger disappeared completely from that chorus?
If he were in an utterly coolheaded state?
We’re still in conflict
—I hate you and loathe you
I’ll spit, turn away
And fill my mouth with curses
—
It was dry.
It wasn’t an answer to Ready’s anger. It was a different emotional line.
That didn’t mean it felt insincere.
Gu Tae-hwan and I had researched the way to make the chorus of
We subtly pushed the overall beat to create a laid-back feel, and we tried to find the timing that would best bring out Gu Tae-hwan’s unique sense of rhythm.
And we succeeded.
—Waaaaaaaah!
This song no longer had the vocalist making the rap the protagonist.
Now, the protagonist was simply the side that produced the better sound.
And Ready could not produce a better sound than Gu Tae-hwan.
“Oh…”
On top of that, if there was one more piece of good news, it was that Ready had pretty good instincts.
When the second verse began, Ready took an awkward stance.
He had realized it instinctively.
If he unleashed an angry verse here, he would inevitably look awkward, like someone making a fuss all by himself.
But if he couldn’t think of a solution, he should have just done that instead.
Now he had become neither one thing nor the other.
It was the moment when a stage that would originally have been Gu Tae-hwan’s win by decision turned into a knockout victory.
“Oh…!”
“Wow!”
The members of Sedalbaegil seemed to feel the same thing, as they all let out exclamations.
Watching them, I let out a small laugh.
Honestly, it was a bit absurd.
I never thought I’d end up using my head and immersing myself for such a trivial goal.
The things I had agonized over until now had been on a large scale.
How could I move public opinion around the Grammys to increase my chances of winning?
How could I reverse-utilize prejudice against Asians and gain the support of traditional white audiences?
Those were the kinds of things I had been thinking about.
Compared to that, who became the protagonist of a duet stage was far too trivial.
It was just a special congratulatory performance that didn’t even get scored.
Still…
—Waaaaaaaaah!
The joy wasn’t trivial, at least.
Listening to the applause pouring toward Gu Tae-hwan, I felt rather good.
I hoped the remaining trivial stages would bring me great joy as well.
* * *
Gu Tae-hwan, Choi Jae-seong, and I.
The three of us had successfully finished our duet stages.
Leaving me aside, Gu Tae-hwan and Choi Jae-seong had shattered the plan to make Take Scene the protagonists.
Did I not feel bad for the kids from Take Scene?
Not particularly.
They were all aware of the situation anyway.
They knew and stayed quiet, and that wasn’t bad either.
It was show business, after all. Only natural.
But at the very least, when the opposite situation occurs, having the manners to keep your mouth shut is important.
Now, only Lee I-on and On Saemiro remained.
To be honest, I didn’t see any special solution for Lee I-on.
The problem was simply that he had been born superior.
The fact that it was easier to emotionally identify with SeeYou, who worked hard, than with the naturally gifted Lee I-on was a matter of sentiment.
Surprisingly, the one who proposed a solution was Lee I-on.
“The reason people cheer for SeeYou over me is because emotion gets involved before they evaluate our skills, right?”
“So wouldn’t it work if I overwhelmed SeeYou?”
He wasn’t wrong.
If you were moderately good, people got jealous. But if you were overwhelmingly good, they admired you.
“Can you do it?”
“Do you know what I’ve realized lately?”
“What?”
“That I’ve been singing way too carelessly all this time.”
After saying that, Lee I-on had flashed a handsome grin.
I understood how he felt.
While focusing on training to produce accurate notes, he had realized the power that accuracy provided.
Accurate pronunciation.
Accurate pitch.
These things had a much greater power than one might think.
But until you experienced it for yourself, you didn’t really know.
Lee I-on’s song, chosen through the orthodox method, began.
Interestingly, the song Lee I-on and SeeYou were singing was With’s
A song where it was difficult to show off vocal ability, and where you shouldn’t show it off either.
A song that had to be sung calmly yet bitterly.
That was why it had been chosen.
If the audience couldn’t feel the difference in skill, they would cheer for SeeYou.
Come sit inside the dawn
Shining lights, just the two of us
Beneath the darkened neon sign
—below
Broken lights, streets with closed doors
Lee I-on and SeeYou exchanged lines as they moved forward.
In calm voices, they spoke of the city lights that had already passed.
I listened quietly to the song, then smiled.
It wasn’t obvious yet, but Lee I-on’s city was clearer.
The image of the city Lee I-on conveyed was more beautiful, more brilliant, and more nostalgic.
This difference would grow wider and wider as the song progressed.
Sure enough, bitterness slowly began to cloud CEO Choi Dae-ho’s face.
It seemed he was saddened that the singers he had chosen and taught were losing one after another.
Choi Dae-ho had probably noticed that I had intervened in this series of events.
Still, well, he should know how to endure this much.
Sedalbaegil was also enduring being disparaged because of the logic of show business.
The conclusion that I would go to Take Scene wouldn’t change, so I hoped he could tolerate a brief bout of venting.
After Lee I-on’s turn ended, Juyeon and On Saemiro put on their duet stage.
Mm, as expected, Juyeon was good.
It seemed to be the only draw today.
Still…
Toward tomorrow—!
Once again—!
You and I—!
To my eyes, On Saemiro seemed a little better.
And so, Sedalbaegil and Take Scene’s joint special performance came to an end.
Now, only the real competition stages remained.