Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 121

Music Monster Overnight! 112

“……What happened in the meantime?”

I’d heard Director Hong Ui-chan say something meaningful about how I could look forward to it, but I hadn’t expected *this* much.

In just two weeks, she had changed so dramatically that I even questioned if what I was seeing was real.

“Ah, this is troublesome.”

Thanks to that, I found myself in a difficult situation.

The songs I had originally planned for her to sing after learning from Director Hong Ui-chan were no longer good enough.

Fortunately, I had gained quite a few inspirations from seeing her sing now, so I quickly said to her, who was looking nervous in the recording booth:

“Great. I have something to prepare, so let’s meet in 2 hours.”

“Yes? Yes! I understand.”

I smiled at her, who showed a hint of relief amidst the tension, and hurried to my private composing room.

-Da-da-da-dan-da!-

Since time was short, I decided to explore the inspirations that came to mind through the piano rather than organizing them into sheet music.

I had listened to a lot of trot music while working at the company or because of my mother’s taste, but it was a genre that was difficult to easily define.

However, it was only this time that I properly learned about trot and realized that it was quite an interesting genre.

The biggest characteristics of trot that I found are three things:

Standardized repetitive rhythm, pentatonic scale (a five-note musical scale), and, most importantly, a singing style that seems to be influenced by Korean folk songs.

In simple terms, trot is a Korean emotion contained in a popular and highly addictive easy rhythm form using a minor pentatonic scale of ‘la-ti-do-mi-fa’ or a major pentatonic scale of ‘do-re-mi-sol-la’ with a high proportion of ‘la’.

In fact, it is a popular song style that was established in the mid-1930s, and as it was loved along with *Sinminyo* [popular songs in the style of Korean traditional music created from the end of the Korean Empire to the Japanese colonial period] at the time, its history is long and has shown many variations.

In any case, because of its time of birth, trot often has lyrics that resolve unique desires by suppressing them, resigning to fate, and resolving defeat with attitudes and emotions of self-blame and self-pity.

Of course, the case of songs that have maintained their vitality through countless mixtures with new styles, called *ppongjjak* [a fast-tempo, electronic-influenced style of trot], is a bit different, but that was the form of traditional trot.

The genre of trot that I wanted to deal with was this traditional trot.

“Only this traditional trot can contain the most Korean emotions.”

And at the center of these Korean emotions was *Han* (恨) [a feeling of deep-seated sorrow, resentment, and unresolved grief], a feeling of being wronged and resentful, unable to be resolved and stuck in the heart.

It is an emotion created by the social custom that traditionally considers patience a virtue, and in fact, the disease created by this *Han* is *Hwabyung* [a Korean culture-bound syndrome characterized by suppressed anger and emotional distress].

In fact, the official name of this *Hwabyung* is also written as Hwabyung in English, and it is a mental illness unique to Korea, which generally defines depression accompanied by physical symptoms.

In summary, Koreans cannot help but pay attention to songs that express this *Han* well.

Because everyone has felt a *Han*-filled emotion at least once, even if it is not as severe as *Hwabyung*.

“When people have an unfair situation that cannot be resolved at all, who do they look for?”

There are many answers to that question, but there is also only one.

It is a transcendent being called God.

‘Muhee’ was born that way.

A being that connects God and humans.

A Muhee who offers songs and dances, hoping that God’s mercy and care will be bestowed upon humans, is as noble as she is perhaps the most *Han*-filled being.

As I was creating it mindlessly, the song was created in less than an hour.

There are parts to refine, but that can be adjusted slowly, so it was safe to say that the composition was almost finished.

But a problem arose.

“……Can I do this?”

Because I was so excited while creating it, a song with an unexpectedly terrifying level of difficulty was created.

The high difficulty does not mean that the high notes are high or the rhythm is complicated.

Rather than that, it was difficult to convey what this song was trying to say.

“It looks like it will take more work than I thought.”

I grumbled, but in fact, my heart wasn’t like that.

The moment I realized that what started as mere curiosity had grown bigger than I thought, I thought it would be fun.

“I guess I can write the lyrics in this way.”

Since the lyrics must properly contain the singer’s heart anyway, the first draft was written to contain the direction the song wanted to sing.

After that, I immediately started recording.

The best thing would be to show it directly in front, but if I did that, I might become a copycat, so I decided to give instructions in this way.

“Kheu-heu-heum.”

It was harder than I thought to capture that unique emotion. It took as many as three attempts to get a satisfactory result.

However, I was not satisfied and immediately continued with the 4th and 5th recordings.

And I smiled at the last 6th recording.

“This isn’t bad.”

After listening to the final recording one more time, I checked the time and had to get up.

Because I knew that the promised 2 hours were approaching.

When I returned to the recording studio, Ms. Kang Ah-young was there with a nervous face.

“Have you had a meal?”

“Ah, not yet.”

I showed concern at her answer and then nodded.

Because if she ate while being as nervous as I was, she might get indigestion.

I handed the engineer the USB containing the recording and said.

“Let’s listen to this song first and then talk. I did a guide, but I’m not good at trot, so you might not like it.”

-gulp-

Just listening to the song made Kang Ah-young, who seemed to be opening her ears with an even more nervous face, laugh, and then I looked around and the smile on my lips deepened.

In addition to the manager and engineer temporarily assigned to her, Team Leader Ahn Si-yeol, who is in charge of the Trot Revolution project, was listening with a similar face.

‘Why am I so nervous.’

I felt like I was being evaluated for the first time in a long time, and then I let them listen to Muhee.

-Da-da-da-dan-da!-

They flinched at the sound of the piano, and soon their shoulders began to tremble as my voice began to come out.

I couldn’t tell because they were looking down, but I guessed that the story I was trying to tell was being conveyed just by their trembling shoulders.

Before I knew it, the song reached its climax, and then a cozy piano sound and a folksy instrument sound followed, and the unique emotion of trot wrapped around the room.

And the song ended with a solemnity filled with more tension than at the beginning.

“…….”

The silence that filled the room was not easily lifted.

However, I didn’t try to wake them up.

No, to be exact, I didn’t wake up Kang Ah-young, who was looking at the ground.

Because what is important now is not praise or evaluation of this song, but the emotions she felt after listening to this song.

But this silence was longer than I thought.

It was only after 5 minutes that it was disturbed by the deep sigh of the engineer.

And after that, those who raised their heads showed emotions that they couldn’t express in words, and Kang Ah-young was the same.

-Drip, drip, drip-

I didn’t know when she had started crying so much, but she was sobbing silently, and it took another 5 minutes for her to calm down.

“I’m, I’m sorry.”

“Haha. No.”

Her makeup was smudged, so she didn’t look good, but I really thought so because I liked that appearance.

In any case, the fact that she reacted like that after listening to this song meant that she knew the meaning contained in this song, Muhee.

“Then I’ll give you homework. By next week, write down the lyrics of this song with the feelings you are feeling now.”

“Yes?!”

Kang Ah-young’s surprised appearance reminded me of a startled baby fox. But unfortunately, my homework was not over.

“And…… I hope you can act out the Muhee of this song as much as you can.”

“Acting?”

“Yes. You can ask Director Hong Ui-chan if you want.”

“……I understand.”

Perhaps because she knew the skills of Director Hong Ui-chan, whom she had been indebted to for the past two weeks, her expression was a little more relaxed.

“I wasn’t expecting it, but how could you do this!”

When I met her the following week, she was so surprisingly different.

I didn’t know what had happened in the past week, but she had become Muhee and came to the recording studio.

And that was the end.

Without having to teach her anything more, she completed her own Muhee.

“This is crazy! I can’t believe you became Muhee and came here?”

After the recording of the song was over, she was released from her immersion as if it were a lie, and I was left with a dumbfounded face for the first time in a long time.

Later, when I saw her on TV on the stage of Trot Revolution, surprising people, I couldn’t help but smile.

Because it was Muhee itself, just as I had imagined.

“……By the way, this is unexpected attention.”

The problem was that the story she told in response to the MC’s question because she was nervous was now dominating the portal search [major search engine trends].

“Yes? Touched? No, this is nothing. What’s really amazing is the guide song written by the CEO. Really, really…… How amazing was it.”

Because of this, there were so many requests to release the Muhee YC version.

However, since I couldn’t release the guide song as an official song and push out her, who is currently number one on the music charts, I uploaded this song to my account on YC Revolution.

The Muhee guide version that was uploaded in that way exceeded 10 million views in less than a day.

Considering YC Revolution’s current market share, this was a truly unbelievable number of views.

“The market share suddenly increased by 2% in one day, so I wondered what happened, but it was because of this.”

Thanks to this, a happening occurred in which even Rainy, the president of YC Revolution, contacted me.

The Trot Revolution, which started amid such buzz, produced several trot stars centered around Kang Ah-young.

Thanks to this, the trot market, which had been stagnant for so long that it seemed stagnant, began to see a new breeze again.

The veterans who had been eating up the existing trot market also welcomed this phenomenon.

Even if their pie shrinks right away, in the long run, the trot market will grow and its lifespan will increase.

“By the way, trot is more popular than I thought?”

And this was thanks to Kang Ah-young.

Because of her, even young people who had been distant from trot became interested in trot. These people uniquely enjoyed retro trot rather than recent trot, probably because of the influence of Muhee.

In addition to trot, there were others who piqued my curiosity.

It was a band called Red Witch, which was gaining insane popularity by exceeding 1 million views in the shortest period of time at YC Revolution.

As someone who wanted a new rock star to emerge, this was nothing short of a great thing, so I quickly searched for and listened to their videos.

“???”

And I couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Where did these guys suddenly come from?”

A band with amazing skills that were hard to believe were unknown suddenly appeared.

However, unlike me, Lee Ah-hyun, who had come to see Uncle Jang Tae-sik, seemed to know them.

“Oh my! Red Witch is here?”

“Do you know them?”

At my question, she shrugged her shoulders as if to say, how could I *not* know them?

“I can’t *not* know them. They’re the main band at Que Sera Sera Hongdae.”

Due to the influence of Black Tiger, Que Sera Sera now has 10 branches.

However, the hottest place among them was still the Hongdae branch.

Occupying the main spot at that Hongdae branch was not an easy task.

“Hmm. These little kids…….”

It was surprising but also understandable that these people, who looked older than the G1 band but were still made up of people in their 20s, occupied that spot.

At this rate, winning ‘Legends of Rock’ wouldn’t be difficult.