Chapter 73
Contrary to what people think about idols dominating the entire scene, bands surprisingly do exist in Korea’s major music market. The problem is… most of those bands are used and consumed just like idol groups.
Project groups produced by major agencies, lip-syncing at live shows, battles over music charts, releases centered on singles and EPs, and so on. Whatever the members and fans may think, ordinary people see them as nothing more than another kind of idol group.
The musician known by the stage name ‘Ryu Jin,’ whose real name is Seo Jinwoo, belongs to one of those groups.
His life journey resembled the way people perceived him. He was scouted by an agency one day, moved to Seoul, trained, debuted in a boy band, and achieved success. He might have felt that he was ‘special,’ but to others, his journey was the kind they would describe as ‘typical.’
And what came next? Like everyone else, he was a member of the boy band ‘Projeckt 6,’ living a life of doing as he was told while wondering, ‘What am I even doing?’
“Hello. Are you composing again today? Yes, I am. What kind of song should we make today? You want me to make a good song? I’m only just starting to study composition, haha.”
One day a week was when he turned on Instagram Live. Thanks to his years at a major agency, Jinwoo instinctively filtered out subtly provocative comments like [has-been] without even letting them enter his field of vision, then began chatting with his fans.
“You’re asking what’s in my hand? It’s a beverage that clears my head~ Ahahaha.”
Sipping beer, Jinwoo worked with the program again today. He spent more time talking with his fans than composing, but perhaps his efforts over the past few months were finally paying off… The song was beginning to take shape.
“Everyone, I think we’ll end today’s stream here… Hmm. You want me to keep going? What was that KakaoTalk notification just now? Right? What was it? Why is Jaehyeon hyung messaging me at this hour? What song did he send? You want me to play it? …”
And that brings us back to the beginning, to the moment when Jinwoo, having had a drink without thinking much about it, leaked an unreleased Group Sound song.
“Wow…”
The song called [Ashen Days] had been sent by Seong Jaehyeon, a composer from the same agency. Having already had a beer, Jinwoo listened to it while slightly drunk.
At first, he was surprised. Then he fell silent, and by the time it was almost over, his eyes had reddened.
Ashen Days.
Though it had a short title and no lyrics attached, Jinwoo somehow felt that he understood what the song meant. The atmosphere of the song seemed to speak of his own life exactly, which made the feeling even stronger.
“This song is so good.”
When he had first been scouted, he had thought he would be able to spend his life doing only the music he liked. Playing guitar, singing, composing. Making good music with good people…
But what was reality like? Practice, practice, and more practice. His youth had long since passed. Before he knew it, military service had arrived. His youth had vanished without a trace. That sense of injustice had turned into regret, and now even that regret had faded away.
The song seemed to summon memories of his younger days. It seemed to make him recall the time when his life had been brilliant. It felt as though it was compensating him, even if only a little, for the happiness he should have enjoyed back then…
“Can you see me, everyone? I told you, I’m tearing up. Sniff! Sorry. I had a drink… a beverage that clears my head, and now I can’t control my emotions.”
= Ryu Jin, what song is this?
= Whoa
= Is it a new song?
= Holy crap, it’s leaked;;
= Aren’t you not supposed to upload this?
= This is huge
= The guide vocalist’s singing is so good
= We’re screwed
The chat was going wild, asking whether he had leaked an unreleased song, but Jinwoo was too absorbed in the music and too drunk to pay close attention to the comments.
“This is so good. I’d love to get a song like this. A band song. Who made it? Oh, Jaehyeon hyung just sent it. He told me to listen to it. Huh, there’s no name on it… Hm? This is… huh?!”
Hearing the panic in Jinwoo’s voice, the viewers’ reactions split into three groups.
First, the loyal fans of Projeckt 6. Something seemed to have gone wrong, so they rushed to their community to cover up the incident and did everything they could to end ‘Ryu Jin’s’ Instagram Live.
Second, the fans who did not think too deeply about it. This was obviously an unreleased song leak, so they needed to grab a recording quickly. They had to listen to it before it was taken down.
Third, the antis of Projeckt 6. ‘Ryu Jin’ had obviously caused a scandal. Let’s record the song quickly and shout from the rooftops that this guy caused trouble. A title like Projeckt 6 Ryu Jin Controversy.jpg seemed appropriate. Everyone, come look at this!!
Unable to deal with the situation and dazed over what to do, Jinwoo played the song once or twice more with his drunken head because it was so good. Fans tried to stop him, other fans recorded the audio, and antis tried desperately to turn it into a controversy…
The absurd synergy created by those three groups had enough firepower to burn at least one corner of the internet that night, if not the entire thing.
* * *
“What is this?”
When Myeongjeon woke up in the morning, an enormous number of KakaoTalk messages were waiting. There were voice calls, other messages, and all sorts of things. Thank goodness the notifications had been set to silent while sleeping. If they had been set to vibrate or make a sound, Myeongjeon would not have been able to sleep.
“Is this spam?”
Messages had even arrived from people Myeongjeon did not know at all. Some said things like, “I’m a reporter from such-and-such internet newspaper.” There was also one saying, “I’m Ryu Jin, a member of the boy band Projeckt 6…” What was that supposed to mean? Why would someone like that message Myeongjeon?
Myeongjeon thought it over, then decided to deal with it later. If it was urgent, someone would call. Stretching and cleaning were more urgent than things like that.
“Suyeon, did you see this?”
“Yeah. I saw it.”
As soon as first-period break began, Iseo came barreling in. Without even having time to greet the children, Iseo ran over and thrust a phone screen in front of Myeongjeon.
But Myeongjeon had already seen it. More than that, the person involved had even made contact. Myeongjeon had no idea what had happened or how.
“Why did that person advertise our song… What? Advertise? Anyway, they did that?”
“I’m not really sure.”
Something had happened out of nowhere while Myeongjeon slept through the night. People met through session work were asking, [Did you sell the song?], an internet newspaper had published an article titled ‘Projeckt 6 Ryu Jin’s New Song Leaked?’, and the song in question was the one Myeongjeon had circulated while saying, “Please help promote this.”
And the song Myeongjeon had renamed [Ashen Days] had somehow become an unreleased song by a group called Projeckt 6…
A few White Room fans had even raised suspicions that it was a plagiarized version of the indie band [Group Sound]’s [Come Back, Ashen Days], which Myeongjeon had uploaded to YouTube. (It was unavoidable, since Myeongjeon kept changing the song’s structure little by little.)
As a result, the boy band had become a plagiarism band overnight. KakaoTalk messages were pouring in from the agency and the band members themselves, begging Myeongjeon to talk with them and asking for an explanation, help, or anything at all.
The entire internet was not exactly on fire, but the people involved certainly seemed to be in a hurry.
“What should we do?”
“I don’t know…”
At Iseo’s question, Myeongjeon ran a hand through their hair. What should they do? The easiest thing would be to simply say, “It isn’t a plagiarism song. It’s our song.” Then every problem would be solved.
But wouldn’t that be a shame?
“They’re doing the viral marketing themselves, aren’t they? What was it? Uh… the promotion is replicating itself.”
Myeongjeon boldly used an MZ buzzword they had learned, but Iseo did not understand it at all. Ignoring Myeongjeon’s slight disappointment, Iseo spoke up.
“Still, those people look like they’re in trouble. Shouldn’t we do something for them?”
“Well, I suppose.”
Since they were promoting it on their own, Myeongjeon wondered why they should go out of their way to intervene first. Myeongjeon had already wondered whether this incident was actually providing any publicity, so they searched around online. It really was becoming publicity.
[I listened to that thing to see whether it was plagiarism or whatever]
It was seriously good
I think I understand why that male idol was crying lol
I’d be pretty disappointed if it really was plagiarism
The band fans are saying they copied it completely
- For real
- It’s not plagiarism. There’s evidence that someone from that band circulated it asking people to promote their song. If you keep spreading false rumors, I’ll save them as PDFs and send them to your agency
ㄴ Sure, take lots of PPTs~
- Even I teared up a little
- I’m a current high school student—is it normal to cry while listening to a song?
ㄴ Why is a high schooler crying while listening to that song? That’s hilarious lol
[But who made that song?]
I seriously have no idea
- It’s fine, nobody knows
- I heard they’re an indie band
- It’s the indie band Group Sound, which performs once or twice a month at Hongdae Paradox!! It’s an unreleased song even we haven’t heard ㅠㅠ, but please listen to it a lot!! Please visit our Twitter and fan café too! https://twitter.co~
ㄴ Holy crap, the guitar is gorgeous. What the hell??
“For now, let’s leave it alone and watch how things develop. The longer we stay quiet, the more we benefit, right?”
* * *
Of course, they could not keep brushing the matter aside indefinitely. The intermediary process was strange, but in principle, that idol? Band? Whatever he was, the member himself had not done anything particularly wrong.
Myeongjeon had started the distribution and even promoted it by asking people to listen. In that situation, they were not thick-skinned enough to keep insisting, “We’re getting publicity, so whether you’re in a bind or not has nothing to do with me.”
In the end, after going through the process of deciding how to apologize, whether the apology would be accepted, and how to clean up the aftermath, Myeongjeon saw the expression of the member called Ryu Jin or whatever who had come to apologize in person and thought that this was going to be troublesome.
“Ah, hello. I’m Ryu Jin, Seo Jinwoo…”
“Yes, hello. I’m Ha Suyeon.”
Jinwoo wore an utterly dazed expression. The man standing beside him gave him a light poke, and Jinwoo’s eyes returned to normal.
“You’re the composer who made that song, [Ashen Days]?”
“Yes. I made it.”
An impressed “Oh!” burst out from beside him. Myeongjeon held back a sigh and looked at Jinwoo’s expression.
‘That Juhyeon guy has been pestering me with KakaoTalk messages lately, too. I guess this one will be the same.’
The guy’s face was obviously out of it. Myeongjeon simply wanted to send him away quickly and get back to working on the EP. It was almost time to write the next song, too. Where could they find some inspiration?
“Your composition and arrangement skills are incredible. If you ever leave the band, contact me. We always have room for promising talent.”
Leaving Jinwoo being dragged out in a daze behind, the man handed Myeongjeon his business card. It read [Associate Producer Kim Seunghu, Production Center 2].
“Do you take outside commissions, too? In demo form?”
“We’re always happy to. Still, that sort of Ashen Days song isn’t really our company’s specialty. Anyway, give me a call.”
‘So there is a way to make money by selling songs.’
Why had they never thought of that before? Well, whenever Myeongjeon wrote a song, they had been too busy taking it to the band to use. They had never once thought about selling it elsewhere… Not that they seemed likely to sell any songs. In any case, Myeongjeon thought they should be satisfied with having made one more connection.
‘I’ve been strangely craving a cigarette lately.’
Could it be because writing songs was stressing them out? Should they buy some nicotine gum or put on a patch? But did they even sell those to minors?
While having those pointless thoughts, something suddenly flashed through Myeongjeon’s mind.
‘Instead of sitting around like this, why not release the first song as the EP’s prerelease track? Then we can build on this momentum much more decisively.’