Self-Produced Mission
After they had watched all the video letters full of encouragement, the contestants were given a short lunch break to rest for a while.
Then it was time for the real filming for the third round stage to begin. The contestants gathered in a hall-like space and sat on the floor, waiting for the cameras to roll.
MC Jeong Ondo stepped up onto the stage. After receiving Seok PD’s signal, he opened his mouth in a grave voice.
“The theme of the third competition is self-produced.”
Huh....
Self-produced?
From where to where?
The contestants buzzed among themselves. Self-produced in an idol debut survival show...? Among the faces of contestants shocked and flustered by the unexpected theme, the camera singled out Neoul, who was listening with serious attention.
“I said that Idol Travel was a journey to find the best idol, didn’t I? We conducted a survey asking what abilities are necessary to become the best idol, and the top answer, with 41 percent, was that members should be able to take an active role in producing their own album.”
The screen mounted on the wall behind MC Jeong Ondo lit up. A pie chart that appeared to show the survey results was centered on the display.
First place: participation in album production
Second place: skill and appearance
Third place: character
Fourth place: love for fans
Fifth place: strong mentality
.
.
.
Second place was skill and appearance, third place was character, fourth was love for fans, fifth was strong mentality, and so on. Ten categories were color-coded inside the circle as if they were fighting for territory.
Neoul was watching with an expression that said, so that’s how it is, when Ha On-ha muttered from behind him in a suspicious tone.
“Does that even make sense?”
“...? Does it not make sense?”
“The other categories seem way more important. Skill, appearance, character, love for fans. Aren’t those much more essential? No matter how good a song is, if it hits the society page the next day, it’s useless.”
Fans would scatter like fallen leaves. No one would gladly listen to or stream the song of a criminal. It would become a forbidden song, something only a handful of people listened to in secret while swallowing their tears and curses.
And even if the members actively participated in the album, what good would it do if they couldn’t sing or dance? Love for fans being ranked fourth was questionable too. Without fans, they couldn’t even hold a performance.
There were people who criticized artists for not directly making the songs they sang. But actively participating and actually producing a good song were two different things.
What if they worked hard and the song still came out awful and flopped? Do they know how much money and manpower it took to put out one album?
If someone else’s song was better than his own, it would be wiser to pay for a good, commercially appealing song and record that. And mentality was obviously important too, since there were so many things that could break it.
Even a passing village school dog would know that result was hard to accept logically~
“So from what I can tell, that survey was probably rigged.”
It turned out Ha On-ha also had a talent for rap. His sentences, fired off in a low voice, stabbed neatly into Neoul’s ears.
According to Ha On-ha, the production team had not devised the self-produced mission based on the survey results at all. They had fabricated the survey results in the first place just to bring in a self-produced mission.
Woo Cheong, who had been listening with his ears pricked beside them, asked, “Brother Ha On-ha, why is the village school dog wandering around instead of being tied up at the village school?”
“It’s a dog that recites classical poetry, isn’t it? It’d probably untie its own leash and go for a walk.”
“Ah!”
Neoul turned his head only halfway back and asked, “May one say such things while wearing a microphone?”
By now, Neoul had learned that no matter how loudly or softly he spoke, everything was being recorded through the fluffy furry microphone clipped to his clothes.
“It doesn’t matter. This kind of thing will get edited out anyway.”
Ha On-ha shrugged.
Neoul had thought Ha On-ha only understood how his own face appeared on camera, but it seemed he also had a rough sense of what would be edited and what would make it to broadcast.
His confident attitude came from the certainty that this line would be cut.
Back on stage, Jeong Ondo continued speaking.
“For that reason, when we selected the trainee contestants in the preliminary round, we chose fifteen participants who could both compose and arrange. We also received one unreleased demo song from each of them.”
The screen changed, and six music files appeared. They had no titles, only numbers.
“Unfortunately, nine of those contestants were eliminated, and now only six remain. The songs submitted by these six contestants are this third round’s mission tracks.”
Six signboards were placed in front of the contestants.
“First, we’ll listen to all the songs in order, and then I’ll explain.”
The production staff immediately played the first track.
♪♩♬♩—
“Uh.... This is... ”
The contestants couldn’t hide their bewilderment and looked around. Everyone tilted their heads as if wondering whether their own ears were broken, then exchanged glances with the same expression and looked even more lost.
Nobody knew what reaction they were supposed to have, so they struggled to manage their expressions. Even Baek Yuri, who was usually meticulous about his facial expressions in front of cameras, looked as if he were listening seriously, though the corners of his eyes wavered just slightly.
An experimental beat with an unexpected feel, a melody that demanded an extremely difficult vocal range, and an incomprehensible hook.
It was the kind of song that felt like a modern art piece, so original it had crossed the line into being too profound for anyone to understand.
It was as if a composer, torn between mass appeal and artistry, had decided to throw mass appeal into the trash and march forward with no brakes, determined to walk his own path no matter who listened.
“Oh... wow.... It’s, uh, cool...!”
Hahaha....
The contestants forced out reactions and clapped along, but most of them, except for the owner of the song, were thinking the same thing.
If you get that song, you’re screwed.
Perhaps because the first song was so bizarre, the second one sounded much better. The bubbly atmosphere created by the synthesizer and vocal chops had a charm of its own.
The third song was a melodic hip-hop track built on the stable money-chord progression 2-5-1, and that, too, was well received. Its defining feature was a flow that stuck to the ear.
Then came the fourth and fifth songs, each leaving a slightly disappointing impression, and finally the sixth track started to play.
♬♪♩—
“Whoa. The melody’s good.”
Someone muttered reflexively.
I thought that no matter how good songs made by trainees were, they’d only be rough drafts....
Even Ha On-ha, who had been listening without much expectation, widened his eyes and leaned in to listen. It was that well put together.
What’s more, in contrast to the first track, which seemed to have completely abandoned accessibility, the sixth one hit mainstream appeal head-on.
A good melody that everyone could happily sing along to. Easy on the ears, yet the sort of social-media pop you’d want to add to your playlist and listen to again.
It was a lively song with the bright energy of a noon-time party, the kind that seemed ready for any lyrics you might attach to it.
After listening to all six songs, the contestants began to murmur among themselves. Since the guides had all been recorded by the same person, they couldn’t tell whose song was whose.
MC Jeong Ondo called out the six surviving contestants with composing skills. The six participants, including Yeo Do-bin, Myeong I-dam, and Baek Gi-yeom, went up on stage.
“Number 6 is probably a song made by I-dam hyung.”
At one contestant’s remark, Neoul lifted his head and looked at Myeong I-dam.
Myeong I-dam. Doryeong I-dam. He was the contestant Dongdong Gyeomsa-bok was cheering for so fervently.
Myeong I-dam had been a candidate for the signal song center as well, and he had held steady in the upper ranks by placing fifth in both the first and second ranking announcements.
Throughout the survival show, he had been the kind of contestant who kept a low profile without any incidents or accidents, only revealing his presence when it mattered, on stage.
He didn’t have any striking gimmick and wasn’t especially good at variety, but he was solid across dance, song, and rap. The only slightly unusual thing was that throughout filming he had worn a green frog character ring and liked to wear a green hat.
“I-dam hyung studied composition directly under Producer Wildwood at his previous agency, right?”
“Huh...! Wildwood? That WW? Seriously?”
Because Myeong I-dam had come from a major company and had trained under a famous producer, the contestants guessed that the highest-quality sixth track had to be his.
“The rest of the contestants, except for the six who submitted songs, should stand in front of the signboard with the number of the song they want.”
Jeong Ondo said, pointing at the signboards.
“The order in which you choose songs starts with Wang Huiying, who survived by parachute placement, then Kim Ji-rok, who survived through the loser revival round, and then proceeds from thirtieth place to first place, from lower ranks to higher.”
Wang Huiying, who had been crouching down, looked around in surprise and asked, “Me first?” Her face brightened, as if she was thrilled that she got to choose first.
But then.
“Each song has a limit of six people, including the composing contestant. The composing contestant will compete with their own song. So the maximum number of people who can line up in front of a signboard is five.”
At that, the quick-witted contestants had already foreseen their future and lost all ability to smile.
“If the quota is full....”
Oh no.
No way....
We’re doomed. What do we do.
Before Jeong Ondo had even finished speaking, an uproar broke out.
“You can take the spot of a contestant ranked below you.”
It was true after all. The contestants’ prediction had been right on the mark. The lower-ranked contestants were already on the verge of tears, not only because their ranks were low but because they might lose the song they wanted too.
Wang Huiying glanced at the number 6 signboard, then moved toward number 2. She judged that the sixth song was hopeless, since even if she chose it, she’d get pushed out immediately.
Even though many contestants made a similar choice to Wang Huiying, the area in front of number 6 was quickly filled to the maximum of six people.
From that point on, the lower-ranked contestants were repeatedly pushed out of the way by higher-ranked ones. Those who got shoved aside settled for number 2 or number 3 instead.
In the end, the lower-ranked contestants, including Wang Huiying, were pushed back two and three times over.
“Sorry! I’m really sorry!”
“It’s okay.... We knew this would happen anyway.”
Even then, no one had chosen song number 1, and it stood empty. Among the contestants who had been shoved down to numbers 4 and 5, a gloomy mood settled in.
The upper ranks would naturally pick song number 6, and then they themselves would get pushed and pushed again like falling dominoes until, in the end, they ended up standing before signboard number 1.
Wang Huiying’s situation was especially hopeless.
I really hate song number 1! I’m supposed to make a stage out of that difficult, strange, and somewhat underdeveloped song?
He had barely survived, only to feel like he would be crushed before he even had a chance to do a real stage. And since the lower-ranked contestants who got pushed down would all flock to song number 1, it seemed impossible to win no matter how hard he tried.
Kim Ji-rok’s situation was no different. Sensing that he was definitely going to be pushed to song number 1, Kim Ji-rok clenched his fists and cursed inwardly.
Fucking hell, who the hell submits a song like that for a competition?
Kim Ji-rok, who had been aiming for a dramatic leap in the third round, wanted to tear apart the bastard who composed song number 1.
Whether the contestants were panicking or not, the song selection continued.
Soon it was Logan’s turn at seventh place. The contestants lined up in front of song number 6 kept chanting in their heads, Please don’t come, please don’t come.
When Logan stepped forward without hesitation, the contestants despaired. But then.
“Okay. I choose this.”
The signboard in front of which Logan stopped was number 1.
“I think. This very interesting.”
Every contestant’s eyes widened. Had Logan lost his mind? Or was that kind of bizarre song just what Americans liked?
But the surprises were not over yet.
“Yeeah! Texas brother! Me too, me too!”
Woo Cheong, who was sixth place, approached Logan in his usual friendly way, bumped fists with him, exchanged greetings, and took his place in line.
The fifth-place contestant was composer Myeong I-dam, so the order moved on to fourth. Lee Gal-chae, in fourth place, chose song number 6 as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Right. That’s more like it. Lee Gal-chae is the sane one.
The contestants nodded along, even though they were supposed to be feeling sorry as they were pushed aside. Now it was Neoul’s turn, in third place, to choose a song.
Neoul lifted his head and looked up at the composing contestants lined up on stage. Then he smiled and headed for signboard number 1.
No one was particularly surprised by Neoul’s strange behavior.
He was always a little strange anyway.
He was talented, yes, but hadn’t he always done things that went beyond common sense? This was hardly out of character.
But...
“......Huh?”
The six composers who had been standing there quietly watching for openings.
“What the hell?”
The six contestants in line for number 6, who had been hanging their heads in resignation.
“Eh?”
And MC Jeong Ondo, who had been following the situation with interest.
All of them stared with their mouths hanging open at the scene before them.
“Yay! On-ha hyung! Yuri hyung! Hi!”
“Yo!”
“Cheong-ie, hi.”
Even second-place Ha On-ha and first-place Baek Yuri, who had hesitated for a long time, chose song number 1, and the studio was thrown into chaos.