Little Pink Starfish

As Sedalbaekil made their rounds at the year-end music shows, they generated plenty of buzz.

Of course, the buzz wasn’t about awards.

Sedalbaekil received hastily-created, vague awards from the three major broadcast networks.

The reason for these new awards was simple: if they gave Sedalbaekil the same award that had gone to someone else the previous year, people would criticize them for being “not on the same level.”

But by inventing a new award and attaching fancy language like “an award for the team that led this year’s trends,” they could avoid direct comparisons.

Still, they didn’t walk away completely empty-handed.

They won Rookie of the Year and Best Performance on M-Show’s music program Mix Down.

The grand prize, however, went to Drop Out.

NOP fans were upset by this, but honestly, it was a fair result.

While Sedalbaekil had dominated the second half of 2017 overall, in terms of individual song performance, Drop Out’s Selfish had stronger numbers.

Drop Out had a large domestic and international fanbase, and Selfish was simply an excellent song.

“Looking back now, it’s kind of a shame.”

Han Si-on had thought that at one point.

Back when he offered Selfish to Drop Out, he had assumed he’d debut quickly via Coming Up Next, enjoy some moderate success, and then reset and loop back after 3-4 years at most.

But life, even for a regressor, doesn’t always follow the plan.

Now that he had ended up deeply invested in this life, he sometimes thought it would have been nice if they had kept Selfish for themselves.

But regardless of the awards, Sedalbaekil wasn’t particularly concerned.

At first, Titi were disappointed and angry on their behalf, but quickly calmed down.

-Wow these guys are insane;

-Feels like they’re using a different audio setup every time Sedalbaekil goes on stage LOL

-Seriously brutal. Poor FFBA had to go on right before Sedalbaekil LOL

-It makes sense though. FFBA debuted early this year and blew up, Sedalbaekil debuted later and blew up.

-Make sense my ass LOL Their skill levels are on totally different planes LOL

-Why do Titi always have to pick fights with other fandoms?

-I’m not even a Titi? Why would I join a fanclub?

-Don’t underestimate us “muggles.” We’ve got ears too.

-FFBA rode on a major label while Sedalbaekil are independent musicians.

-I’m starting to get confused about what “indie” even means.

-Actually, maybe Sedalbaekil has the biggest label of all.

-Why?

-Top-level planning = Just Han Si-on.

-True. “Should we try getting an Apple commercial?” — snap — “Got it.”

-LOL LOL LOL

-I hate year-end shows. When’s Self-Made Season 2 airing?

-Boring. Can’t believe they skipped a week after the special episode.

Their stages had generated massive buzz.

Amazingly, Sedalbaekil performed completely different sets for all four year-end music shows.

At MBN, they wore masks to conceal who was who. At SBN, they mixed their songs together.

It’s common for idols to medley hit songs at year-end shows, but Sedalbaekil’s approach was special.

They didn’t just string songs together in order.

They fully restructured them.

Summer Cream opened into Colorful Struggle, whose chorus seamlessly blended into State Of Mind’s hook.

They had previously gained fame for their full-set university festival performances, but this wasn’t the same.

The festival performance had been about cutting songs short for time; this was about fusing multiple songs into one entirely new track.

It just happened to be nine minutes long, with easily recognizable references.

Then at KBN, they went fully traditional.

No rearrangements, no stage gimmicks—just pure choreography and live vocals.

-This is what’s truly rare LOL

-It’s been ages since Sedalbaekil did the full original tracks cleanly like this.

-This is precious. Seriously precious.

-LOL LOL LOL

At this point, even straightforward performances became rare.

But regardless of the format, what drew the most applause was that Sedalbaekil performed entirely without AR (backing track with pre-recorded vocals).

-AR isn’t bad per se, but it buries the singer’s real voice.

-Then why don’t other groups just sing without AR?

-You think that’s easy? At this level of live singing, even one flat note sticks out like a sore thumb.

For instrumentalists, being worse than virtual instruments makes you third-rate. Sounding similar makes you second-rate. Only by clearly surpassing the virtual version do you become first-rate.

Han Si-on believed vocalists were no different.

With all the vocal tuning tools out there—Auto-Tune being the most famous—the standards had shifted.

The public associates Auto-Tune with robotic effects, but it’s simply a vocal correction tool.

You can use it to create various effects (telephone voice, underwater sound, etc.), but only the electronic effect became famous.

However, a true first-rate vocalist needs a quality that no machine can replicate.

A singer who stands on stage must be able to demonstrate that quality live.

Han Si-on still wasn’t 100% satisfied with Sedalbaekil’s performances.

They were at about 70 points, in his mind.

But even at 70, they were thrilling audiences.

Once the broadcast networks’ year-end shows wrapped up, other award shows followed.

The Gaon Chart Music Awards.

The Korean Music Awards (KMA).

Depending on who you ask, network award shows are “major” while shows like KMA are “minor.”

Others say network shows are capitalist exercises, while Gaon and KMA hold greater prestige.

Regardless, Sedalbaekil racked up awards.

At the Gaon Chart Music Awards, they swept the Monthly Song Awards for July, August, September, and October, and shared the Album of the Year honor.

At the Korean Music Awards, they nearly swept the major categories.

The KMA has four Grand Prizes, similar to the Grammys: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.

Sedalbaekil took three of the four.

Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.

As expected.

The First Day had sold more copies than any other domestic release this year, and was widely praised as a masterpiece.

Sedalbaekil had proven themselves internationally through Color Show and the Billboard charts.

Rookie of the Year was a given.

Song of the Year went to Drop Out’s Selfish, just like at the network shows.

But there was a major distinction.

The networks gave Drop Out the award because of their massive popularity.

They had a great song, satisfied both domestic and international fans, put on amazing performances, and achieved excellent numbers.

But the KMA’s reason was singular:

Because it was the best song of the year.

This made the award as much a recognition for the composer as the performer— and Selfish was composed by Han Si-on.

[……and we also want to thank our idol junior and talented composer Han Si-on for giving us such a great song.]

At the Grammys, when Song of the Year is announced, the award goes to the songwriter first, not the performer.

So Drop Out’s leader Sido thanking Han Si-on in his acceptance speech wasn’t unusual.

Though it was rare for an active idol to be writing songs for senior groups.

Sedalbaekil’s acceptance speeches also made headlines.

For both Gaon and KMA, the members other than Han Si-on delivered the remarks.

[We’ll work hard to receive this award again next year.]

Onsaemiro said this at Gaon.

[2 + 2 + 1 = 2]

At KMA, they didn’t speak directly but briefly held up a long towel with this cryptic formula printed on it.

Theories once again started swirling about the meaning behind the phrase.

-Someone said before: 2 singles, 2 mini albums, 1 full album?

-Then what does the last 2 mean?

-Year 2 of Sedalbaekil? Their second year’s achievement?

-Wow, that’s plausible.

-Are they really planning to release all that?

-Did you not watch Self-Made? With Han Si-on’s pace, it’s not impossible.

-If they release that much, their 2nd full album probably won’t be full-length though.

-Yeah, highly likely.

Meanwhile, as the year-end special programming wrapped up, the TV schedule resumed regular programming.

[Self-Made Season 2!]

The first episode of Self-Made Season 2 aired.

---

The content of Season 2 Episode 1 wasn’t much.

Sedalbaekil calculated the earnings from Season 1, secured essentially unlimited budget, and headed to America…

[PD-nim? Do we really have to do the haunted house?]

[Well, we have content prepared…]

[Hmm, then can we upgrade the hotel?]

[Even more…?]

[If you let us choose the easiest haunted house level, we won’t mind skipping it.]

[Let’s upgrade!]

They easily flustered PD Kang Seok-woo.

Of course, it wasn’t in a negative or uncomfortable way.

Sedalbaekil members still completed all the network-prepared schedules while happily pressuring Kang PD.

They simply secured more leisure during free time, and inserted one personal schedule each day.

-Season 2 feels a bit chill.

-Yeah, no music talk so far?

-LOL wake up, variety shows usually don’t get into that stuff.

-But I kinda want to see them try earning money as no-name artists in America.

-22222222

-Is Kang PD losing his touch?

Around then, they booked a lounge pub in LA for a small show.

They rented a pub near Santa Monica Beach and promoted by busking around the area.

Whether due to the cheap entry or the quality of their busking—

-Oh, what is this?

-Seriously? They really gathered this audience naturally? Not staged?

-Looks like about a hundred people?

Quite a few people gathered.

The opening act was Han Si-on’s jazz guitar.

Though he had shown many sides of himself, this was his first time appearing as a jazz player, surprising viewers yet again.

At this point, people genuinely wondered if there was anything Han Si-on couldn’t do.

Then Apple arrived, and the contract was signed.

Despite all the effort leading up to it, the deal itself was portrayed very simply.

This was at Apple’s request—they were wary of excessive exposure of their advertising content.

And then—

[Wow!]

Chris Edwards appeared on screen.

Together with four white men.