The Genius Han Gyeowool - END
In the icy, frozen atmosphere of the evaluation panel, the actor-turned-MC Dohyun tensed up before stepping forward with a sense of duty to respond to Han Gyeowool.
“Yes, nice to meet you, Gyeowool. Your super-cropped top and street fashion are absolutely stunning.”
“…Hic, thank you.”
From every angle, she looked like a complete rookie making her first broadcast appearance and falling into a full-blown panic.
MC Dohyun continued, hoping even a little to help her relax.
“Unlike the two teams before you, you’ve come out alone, Gyeowool?”
“…Y-yes. So I’m extremely, incredibly nervous.”
“Do you already belong to a debuted team?”
“No, no, I don’t!”
“….”
Dohyun felt increasingly awkward as Gyeowool seemed to grow more tense the more they talked. Though called a rising star as an actor, as an MC he was practically a newcomer himself. This felt like a major hurdle. He even began to blame himself, wondering if a truly excellent MC should be able to draw out smooth back-and-forth banter even with someone like her.
As if to help him, Canola from Girls Sensation asked a question.
“Then how many years have you been dancing and singing?”
Gyeowool spread her fingers to count before answering.
“…I think it’s been about thirteen months.”
“Thirteen months? Then how long have you been a trainee?”
“…About three months, I think.”
“….”
Canola, who had asked the question, made her judgment.
Canola’s internal verdict
As the evaluators’ expressions grew darker, James Oh continued with a coldly frozen face.
“I think we’ve heard enough of the conversation. Please show us the stage you’ve prepared right away.”
“Yes! Two Bear Entertainment’s Han Gyeowool. I will perform Triple X seniors’ ‘Dress Up’!”
What is KPOP?
At first, we simply called it Korean pop. But now, the word KPOP carries far more context than that. It is a format, a system that gives birth to songs and artists, and a culture that encompasses a unique fandom.
Then what genre is K-pop? Pop? R&B? Trap? Intense synchronized dance performances? There would be many other answers. It could be called one branch of the teen pop that swept the world, or dance music, or even ballad. After all, even the OSTs of Korean dramas are given the name KPOP.
It has been attempted by too many people in too many ways to be defined by any single thing.
Then is KPOP merely a label guaranteeing Korean origin, without any genre characteristics? Is it nothing more than a fleeting trend that cannot escape being the exclusive property of a niche fanbase because it has no roots?
No. Genre characteristics do exist. The ambiguous and versatile line of genres, the aggressive mixing between different genres that exploits that line to the extreme without drawing boundaries. Melting that into the word “trendiness.” That is the genre characteristic of K-pop.
The song Gyeowool was handling now, ‘Dress Up,’ was a masterpiece that utilized such genre-blending characteristics of K-pop to the extreme.
"The light called you reached even the dark me in the corner of the classroom."
‘Dress Up’ was considered an extremely experimental and problematic track even within the scene at the time, receiving polarized reviews. A total of thirteen composers participated, centered around the multinational composer team Revolution. It was a heavy song that exceeded four minutes and used more than three different loops.
It took the exact opposite path of today’s trend, which uses repetitive hooks and short rhythms to approach the two-minute mark. The difficulty level went without saying.
"Can my heart flutter like this? Can I show you how I feel?"
"Am I too dark to sit next to you?"
The typical high-teen pop rhythm completely shifts. And Gyeowool’s girlish, casual dance also changes. It becomes more delicate and precise.
"You know that person, right?"
"A bit of a prankster, but someone with a solid heart."
Ban Seongcheol, who had been watching the monitor beside me, unconsciously opened his mouth.
“…What the hell is that?”
In the high-teen pop part of the early intro, he had held a conservative view. Something like, ‘She’s a bit stiff.’ But as the song began to reveal its soulful side based on R&B rhythm, his perspective changed.
"You know that person, right?"
"Someone who drags me along like an oppa but thinks of me."
"Someone too good for me."
While maximizing emotional techniques to the extreme, the song never forgets the essence of a dance track. Fast and cheerful, passionate. Even with a slight tempo drop, it continues with choreography that could easily be called high difficulty.
If you separated each of those elements, they might simply be called excellent. Wonderful R&B soul, lively high-teen vocals, flexible girlish dance. But Gyeowool was doing all of them simultaneously, in succession. She instantly switched her body’s sense of rhythm to match the rapidly changing tracks of the song.
"So I won’t feel ashamed standing next to that person."
"So I can be confident when that person sees me."
The song’s atmosphere shifts once again, transforming into an electronic dance track mixed with retro rhythm and urban soul sensibility.
"Holding your hand isn’t enough."
"I want to hold your hand."
Compared to Yoo Gaeul, the witch-like vocalist who could enchant the entire audience with a single voice, Gyeowool was lacking in appeal. That was because she sang the entirety of the rhythm straight, rather than singing beyond the limits of the given song. She was also lacking in expressiveness compared to Jin Yeoreum, the national team-level dancer who couldn’t hide her talent even in rhythmic gymnastics. That was because she expressed the entirety of the dance straight, rather than expressing beyond the limits of the given choreography.
However, that was also a talent the two of them could never possess. If given a song, she expressed it completely, honestly, and without addition or subtraction, without misunderstanding, exaggerating, or editing its intention—in other words, without the act of ‘making it her own.’
That was truly an incredible talent.
A complex genre song like this ‘Dress Up’ best showcased that talent of Gyeowool’s. Because she could perfectly express every single one of the mixed tracks that others would struggle to express even one of properly.
“…How is a girl like that only a first-year?”
“She’s not even a real first-year. The proper training she’s received is at most three months.”
“…Does that even make sense?”
“It does. If she’s an overwhelming genius.”
“….”
All I had done was make that genius of Gyeowool’s shine just a little brighter.
The usage time for ‘Drop the Beat’ has ended. The effect is lost.
The ‘Drop the Beat’ reward I received when recruiting Jin Yeoreum granted overwhelming proficiency in arranging, mixing, and composing. It was an incredibly fitting reward. While hiring a proper arranger with a large sum of money wouldn’t have been bad, having the reward made it far more effective for me to do it myself.
After all, the way I had arranged it was to take the complex genre hybrid that thirteen composers had painstakingly carved and forced together and make the raw elements even more distinctly separated. There probably wasn’t an arranger who could effectively handle such insane demands. But it was necessary work. Only then could the ceiling of what she could express rise even higher.
Of course, from the perspective of the idol who had to perform it, it had undoubtedly become even more difficult. Still, I wasn’t worried.
"This is a transformation just for you. Dress-up!"
See? She was handling it all as if it were natural.
I smiled lightly at Ban Seongcheol and said,
“Watch closely. She’s a kid who will stand at the top someday.”
Even after the stage ended, no one offered any commentary. Gyeowool, flustered, glanced around nervously and spoke carefully.
“…Um, I’m finished.”
“….”
Yet not a single evaluator opened their mouth. No, they couldn’t. The stage Gyeowool had shown was that shocking.
In that silence, the first to speak was James Oh, who had been deeply lost in thought.
“Vocal Master James Oh. I will evaluate trainee Han Gyeowool as Class A. What do the rest of you think?”
Only after hearing those words did the evaluators, who had been completely immersed, finally speak.
“Vocal Master Lee Eunji. I evaluate her as Class A.”
“K-pop Master May will also go with A.”
“Seo Woobaek, A.”
“Me too, A.”
“K-pop Master Canola thinks there is no room for disagreement. Definitely A.”
“…Th-thank you!”
James Oh looked at Han Gyeowool, who was bowing her head as if ready to prostrate herself, and said,
“Please head to the Class A seats. If there aren’t enough, feel free to kick anyone out.”
“Uwaa… I-I’ll try.”
Watching Gyeowool walk toward the Class A seats as if climbing, clutching her trembling legs, James Oh smiled with a face full of delight and said,
“As I mentioned earlier, from now on let’s apply proper standards to the evaluation. Let’s throw away the mindset of filling exactly eleven people just because it’s a broadcast. …After seeing a child like that, I don’t think anyone here will have any objections.”
Dance trainer Seo Woobaek, who had been savoring the lingering emotion from Gyeowool’s performance, came back to reality at those words.
“…The broadcast is fucked.”
Just as he predicted, the broadcast was indeed fucked.
On this day’s first impression test, out of one hundred girls, thirty-one received an F-class evaluation, while only three received an A-class evaluation. Considering the previous episode’s gentle outcome of sixteen F-class and eleven A-class, the current situation was closer to a tragedy.
It was all a disaster brought by Han Gyeowool and Seon Taeyang.