Become A Music Monster Overnight! [EN]: Chapter 166

48. Hobby

Life hadn’t changed much after Hee-jeong’s wedding.

“Well, it’s only natural.”

I hadn’t seen Hee-jeong that often since she became an adult. I was busy with work back then and rarely came home.

After she went to study in England, we only talked on the phone occasionally.

Later, after quitting my job to pursue music, even that became difficult for a while. But after earning a decent amount of money, we started seeing each other more often.

However, she was still busy studying, and I was busy with my business and music, so we couldn’t spend much time together.

It was only after the COVID-19 pandemic that I came back to Korea for good, and we had more time. But even then, we didn’t live together because she didn’t want to be in the spotlight.

So, in reality, my sister’s marriage didn’t have a significant impact on my life.

If anything, her affectionate husband calls to check in on me from time to time.

I heard he takes better care of my mother than I do, and when I hear things like that, I really think my sister made a good choice.

Maybe that’s why I’ve been feeling unmotivated lately.

If it weren’t for Jamie, I might not even leave the house.

The company runs well without me, and I can work out in the gym at home.

I tried to remember what I used to do during these idle times, but it wasn’t helpful.

He was either chasing after women like a dog in heat or engrossed in learning new instruments.

But I have a different approach to relationships than he did, so I don’t want to do anything crazy like that. And I don’t feel the need to learn any new instruments.

That’s because the me in my memories has already tasted all the good stuff.

Since my uncles returned to Korea, they’ve been living under their wives’ thumbs, paying the price for their past freedom, so I haven’t had time to meet them.

I wondered if there was something wrong with me, so I talked to a counselor, but thankfully, it wasn’t burnout.

“It’s a common case among parents who have just married off their children. It seems you had a bigger place for your sister in your heart than you thought.”

“…Then what should I do?”

“Hmm. How about taking up a hobby? Something a little different from what you’re used to.”

“A hobby?”

My specialty was music, and my hobby was also music. Whether it was listening, composing, or performing, if you took away music, all that was left was exercise to stay in shape.

As I pondered the counselor’s suggestion of a slightly different hobby, she waved her hand and said.

“You don’t have to think of something too unusual. Something that goes well with your existing tastes would be good too. The point is to do something a little different from usual.”

“I understand. I’ll think about it.”

I understood what the counselor was trying to say, so I spent the next few days thinking about new hobbies.

Should I learn to dance? But I shook my head.

I knew that even though the me in my memories had put in a lot of effort, dancing had always betrayed him.

Since he and I share the same foundation, I didn’t think my dancing would improve even if I tried my best.

“It’s a relief that I can at least share my inspiration with others.”

I didn’t have the age or the motivation to aim for anything more.

I looked into learning a new instrument, but I couldn’t last more than three days before lying in bed, scrolling through my phone.

As I was browsing SNS [Social Networking Services] like YC Revolution and YouTube, I muttered while watching a girl group video.

“Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I’ve done this.”

When I worked at the factory, this was the only time I felt like I had my own time.

Looking at SNS related to my favorite girl groups after lunch was my only hobby back then.

“…Girl groups, huh.”

Even amidst the struggling entertainment companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, idols were still being produced.

Even though the opportunities to earn money decreased as performances became impossible, there was a reason for this.

The K-pop market had grown tremendously compared to when I first started doing music.

You could see it just from the album sales.

Unlike the dark ages when even the most popular top-tier idols struggled to sell over 50,000 copies, the atmosphere was completely different now.

Even well-known idols in the second tier were selling over 100,000 copies in the first week of their debut.

Of course, the album sales of top-tier idols were enormous.

Even girl groups, which were considered less profitable than boy groups regardless of their popularity, were selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

Boy groups, of course, were easily selling over a million copies.

A million copies is close to 30 billion won [approximately $25 million USD] in monetary value.

And it wasn’t just album sales that were making money.

Music streaming revenue was coming in from all over the world, including Japan, China, and other countries, not just Korea.

In particular, K-pop’s influence in the American market had grown beyond comparison to the past.

Idol music was still not quite mainstream, but it was getting close.

It was like a supporting role with a significant presence in a movie.

That’s why they were also making huge profits from merchandise.

And once the COVID-19 pandemic ended and they started performing in earnest, the profits would only increase.

So they had no choice but to jump in.

Even if they couldn’t become top-tier idols, they thought they could make a lot of money if they could just reach the second tier.

Some entertainment companies even saw the current situation, where the number of competitors was decreasing, as an advantage.

In fact, YC Entertainment, as well as the major entertainment companies, had already finished preparing to launch new idols based on this judgment.

YC Entertainment in particular was planning to launch two teams, a girl group and a boy group, within this year, and was also creating a new idol team in Japan.

Because of this situation, even small and medium-sized entertainment companies were either holding on or launching new idols.

It costs a lot of money to properly raise an idol, like 10 billion won [approximately $8.3 million USD] for large entertainment companies.

Even just to put together a basic team costs billions of won, so many investors and CEOs who came in thinking it was easy ended up broke.

This was because there were so many scammers in this industry.

Even those who had been in the industry for a long time were scammed and lost everything, so it was easy for them to empty the pockets of those who jumped in out of curiosity.

In any case, the idol business was a business that cost a lot of money.

Above all, it was difficult to find talent these days, so even if you had a lot of money, you couldn’t create a proper idol group.

Unlike in the past, idol trainees are well aware that the agency’s capabilities are important because they have learned know-how and information from past idol seniors.

In particular, if they don’t meet the expectations of K-pop, which is going global, their choices are not wrong.

In fact, there are idols who can’t become popular due to the lack of capabilities of their agencies.

The reason I’m talking about the current idol market in such detail is because I found a team on SNS that can be said to be representative of such idols.

“They’re… still doing it.”

There’s a girl group that’s more famous for not becoming popular, considering the individual skills of its members.

Some of them, who are already in their sixth year, had participated in fairly famous star discovery auditions in the past and achieved high scores.

Jae-hee, who can be said to be the center, showed her skills not only in the preliminaries but also in the top 10.

She was a talent who might have even won if she had been a little luckier.

The girl group created with such talented people was ‘Happiness’.

This girl group, named after the desire to bring joy and satisfaction, initially caught people’s attention.

This was especially true because Jae-hee, the center of Happiness, had the skills to debut in a large entertainment company.

Moreover, there wasn’t a single member who could be called a weak link, so people couldn’t help but be interested.

However, when they actually debuted, people’s interest disappeared like a lie.

This was because the concept and songs they brought out were too outdated.

The trendy concept at the time was girl crush.

They basically adopted this concept to attract female fans, who can be said to be big spenders in this market.

However, the concept that Happiness came up with was a cutesy concept that was out of date, whether they were aiming for differentiation or not.

If they had mixed in something like sexy with the cutesy, they might have been able to attract male fans, but Happiness brought out a concept that would have been popular 10 years ago.

It wasn’t just the concept.

The songs also brought out cutesy music that would have been good if they had been released 10 years ago. The songs themselves were bad, and the producer’s skills were highly questionable.

With such a bad start, there was no way Happiness could become popular.

However, Happiness’s company was a big player in the industry, so they didn’t falter after one failure.

But after failing three times in a row, they must have had to change their minds.

Hundreds of billions of won [hundreds of millions of USD] had disappeared without meaning.

In that situation, they disappeared for over a year, but two years ago, they reappeared with a new concept.

However, the company had changed, and this time it was a company famous for its actors.

It was smaller than the previous company, but it wasn’t as clueless as the previous company.

They contracted with an external consulting team to produce the concept, adding girl crush and sexy.

“The problem is… why did they keep the same name?”

They should have changed their name with the idea of re-debuting.

It would have been better than keeping the name to bring in the few loyal fans and recognition they had.

In fact, the existing fans who liked the cutesy and fairy-tale concept were very angry with the changed concept and started moving with anti-fans from the beginning.

“Usually, things go according to the name. But Happiness is…”

Not happy at all.

Above all, the problem with Happiness is that, although it has improved compared to before, the music and concept are still generally awkward.

In addition, the image of a failed third-tier idol group is attached to them because they kept the same name, so it’s hard for them to succeed even if they try.

So, if they change their name and reorganize the team by adding young members, they might have a chance, but looking at the situation, it seems that the company is no longer willing to invest in that.

They have failed twice here as well.

“…If that miraculous thing hadn’t happened to me, I might have been cheering them on.”

That’s probably why I became interested in Happiness.

I couldn’t easily take my eyes off a girl group that was failing despite having the ability because the situation wasn’t good.

After watching the videos of Happiness’s members for a while, I quietly muttered.

“…Can I do it?”

6 years since debut. An idol with a solid image of a failed idol group that has changed companies once.

Is it possible to make them successful?

It would be possible if YC Entertainment were to move. The talent gathered at YC Entertainment was not only aspiring entertainers with outstanding potential, but also the talent to support and lead them.

In addition, if they were to use the infrastructure that they had built up with a lot of money, there would be no difficulty in promoting or image making.

However, it was clear that it would not be easy to move individually without moving YC Entertainment.

“…It wouldn’t be bad to try.”

It would be a hobby that could be called a hobby.

Above all, it was a challenge worth trying just because I was motivated by a difficult challenge.