The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 23

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Former Idol Life, Hardcore Carry for an Indie Band
Episode 23
Shortly after, Moon Ga-young’s performance ended, and the school festival naturally wound down as well.
Through the camera positioned at the main gate, students who’d enjoyed the festival filtered out, and one by one, the school’s lights went dark.
Standing against that darkened backdrop, Moon Ga-young looked both pleased and lonely.
Over the image, Moon Ga-young’s voice comes through.
-To others, it’s just an ordinary, perhaps unremarkable high school festival…
-But to me, it’s like a treasure I’ve never properly possessed before.
Moon Ga-young, laughing brightly, walks away with the darkened Jeong-un High School as her backdrop, and the Star Observation Cam ends.
<We cheer on the dreams and challenges of all young people!>
Along with an unmistakably broadcast-style closing caption.
Was there really any need to put that caption in?
The visuals were good—should’ve left it as a lingering impression.
“My granddaughter, you see…”
Watching the grandmother pick up her phone and call someone the moment the broadcast ended, I fell into thought.
This episode was unofficial, but it was structured as a twin-lead episode featuring Moon Ga-young and Okdap.
Of course, in terms of actual broadcast time, there’s no comparison.
Moon Ga-young appeared for about seventy percent, and we appeared for about twenty.
The remaining ten percent was made up of students from the Practical Music Academy, Yoo Young-eun, our homeroom teacher, Jeong-un High School students—outside figures.
But more important than broadcast time is narrative weight.
That’s why audition programs sometimes see unknowns catapult to stardom in just two or three minutes of screen time.
So it’s fair to say this broadcast was a twin-lead structure of Moon Ga-young and Okdap.
This isn’t just something I see.
Even though the actual broadcast was only about fifteen minutes, viewers will have the impression that Okdap was on the entire time.
Honestly, this is a fairly complicated issue.
Genius marketing and bundled marketing need to be handled carefully.
Zzzzz—
Kim Ji-hoo.
Seeing the phone call that came the moment the broadcast ended, I smirked.
The sharp-minded Kim Ji-hoo, unlike the thoughtless Heo Jun-sung, had probably already felt that this variety show wasn’t entirely in our favor.
But it didn’t matter.
“Yeah, Kim Ji-hoo.”
All of this was ultimately just the first step in making Okdap a nationwide band.
* * *
The Moon Ga-young episode of Star Observation Cam was planned as a three-part series, and what aired yesterday was part two.
Part one had gotten no particular reaction.
Both average and peak ratings were low, and it didn’t generate any significant buzz.
It was watchable enough while on, but the kind of episode that left viewers with nothing lingering in their minds.
But part two’s reaction was hot.
Very positive.
-Watching it, I remembered my high school days when I had so many dreams.
-I watched it with my daughter, and afterward I asked her: is there something you genuinely want to do? I found out my daughter’s dream for the first time yesterday!
└What’s your daughter’s dream?
└To be a carefree chaebol heir who does nothing but plays and eats.
└Your daughter’s wise.
└But if the parent isn’t a chaebol, how can the third generation be?
└I’m just asking in the spirit of romance, you know?
The fundamental weakness of most observation variety shows is that when viewers see a star’s glamorous life, they experience relative deprivation.
But in Moon Ga-young’s part two, the protagonist wasn’t actress Moon Ga-young—it was eighteen-year-old girl Moon Ga-young.
Thanks to that, viewers immersed themselves comfortably in the program and felt quite engaged.
Of course.
-Look at her doing the poverty cosplay lol
-Obviously the agency paid for all the composition and training costs anyway.
-So don’t you feel sorry for the Practical Music Academy kids? They’re the ones throwing themselves into real dead-end youth with no way out.
There were always people voicing discomfort somewhere, but their numbers weren’t significant.
Compared to the overall reaction, they were just a handful.
But Okdap was different.
-Okdap? These kids really do seem like natural-born musicians ^^
-I found myself rooting for them while watching.
-The younger kids sang so well; it just hit me right here.
-The future of Korean bands is bright!
-I looked them up and found they do busking every week at Banwol Park. I made time on the weekend and went with my husband to watch. There were so many people!
-How long were there that many?
-I think around a hundred people. Apparently usually only about fifty come.
Clearly, looking at the overall public sentiment, there were plenty of positive comments about Okdap.
Especially strong approval from middle-aged and older viewers, the fixed audience of broadcast variety shows.
But when you looked deeper, it was different.
-Why does Okdap or whatever get so much screen time?
└They’re good-looking, that’s why
└Looks like they gathered up celebrities or something
-They’re just aspiring celebrities grouped together, you idiots lol
-Season whatever genius claim has arrived. I’ll bet money these aren’t even their own songs.
-lololol I do music and I burst out laughing watching them direct. I spit water everywhere.
└Why?
└lol It’s just so obviously a broadcast concept, you know? Who’s out here directing, modifying recordings, and playing guitar all at once?
└Wouldn’t it be possible if you’re good enough?
└That’s impossible from the start. To do it for real, you’d need to pull all-nighters in the studio for two days.
└So it’s all directed, then?
└Yeah, I’d bet they shot that ten times over to get this.
-Hundred percent they’re from the same agency as Moon Ga-young.
└Yep
-Now that I look at it, the festival footage seems to have post-production too? The guitar playing and melody don’t quite match?
└Lip-sync?
└lol Yeah idol bands always do that
The first point of contention was the audacity of claiming to be geniuses.
Anyone could see that the variety show was pushing Okdap up.
And even if it had nothing to do with Okdap’s intentions, the public wasn’t the kind of group that cared about such nuances.
-The bundled marketing with Moon Ga-young was so gross. If you’re gonna bundle, at least do it openly. It’s obvious you’re all in the same boat, but acting like it’s real lol
-Wait, did the PD get paid? Wasn’t this supposed to be Star Observation Cam? Did the show change to Indie Observation Cam or something?
└The entertainment company probably slipped the PD some cash.
-I felt bad for Moon Ga-young. She had every spotlight stolen by Okdap. She was really trying.
-I got so mad watching that I couldn’t help myself. I was guarding the live broadcast because they said Ga-young would appear, but I feel like I got scammed…
The second issue was the bundled marketing controversy.
To be precise, the public isn’t usually that sensitive to bundled marketing.
It’s not uncommon for ordinary people to appear on Star Observation Cam.
But when Moon Ga-young’s fans stepped forward and drove the narrative, the public started thinking, oh, I guess so.
And the last one was…
-Anyone who watched the observation cam? Some shitty idol band showed up.
-First they were doing hip-hop whatever girl groups, now they’re doing band boy groups?
└There’ve always been idol bands, they all just flopped
└Why do they keep stealing the band concept when they can’t even manage it properly?
-Ugh, seriously, zero authenticity
It was the band scene’s resistance.
Superficially, it might seem a bit odd.
2017 was the era when the band scene died.
The artists who’d surfaced were extinct, and the money flowing through the industry had dried up.
So you’d think band players going viral would make fans happy no matter what, but it wasn’t.
It was because of a trait that hardcore fans of niche cultures share.
The more niche a culture, the more hot-tempered its fans tend to be, and the more unspoken rules they guard with severity and solemnity.
Because pride is the only pillar holding up the scene.
A similar phenomenon had played out in hip-hop in the past.
Before hip-hop became mainstream through Show Me The Money, rappers who made sweet love songs faced constant criticism.
To ordinary people, this behavior was incomprehensible, but to the handful of people who’d sustained the scene, it was crucial.
This was also the focus of criticism that Okdap faced.
Their love of band music came from the authenticity embedded in it, and their pride came from loving that authenticity.
So what they wanted was the scene to flourish through “genuine music,” not fake music leeching the image of their scene.
-Watched it, they were straight-up going viral?
-Viral, okay, I’ll make a hundred concessions—they stole band culture whatever. It’s just fakes making money in their own space. But why is Kang Min mixed up in this?
└I seriously thought I was watching wrong
└And there goes another talented player lost to the idol industry
└I didn’t think Kang Min would do this
└This is why the band scene is completely falling apart
-Things that haven’t even tested the indie scene now jump straight to broadcast calling themselves a band lol
└But isn’t the music good though?
└If the agency is having them debut, the music quality would be good—how much money do you think went into this? Otherwise they wouldn’t bother.
└Huh? Right
-When they debut, they’ll totally act like they’re some real band thing, talking about rock and all that bullshit?
└Ugh, I hate it
└lollllll ugh makes me want to puke
└’From the ground up’
└Ugh ground up lol
And so the name Okdap began to spread quietly here and there.
* * *
“Is this what you had in mind all along?”
“Roughly. But I didn’t think it would blow up this hard.”
“I lost the bet.”
Kim Ji-hoo nodded without hesitation.
It was about a wager we’d made a few months ago.
Whether Okdap would face backlash from the nationwide band scene within two months, staking a Wish Coupon on it.
“What’s your wish?”
“I’ll use it slowly. It’ll come in handy soon enough.”
“That’s ominous, Seo Ha. Sounds like a villain’s line.”
I casually brushed off Kang Min’s comment, and Lee Do-young spoke up.
“But is it really such a good thing to get criticized?”
We’d already discussed the marketing direction before.
“Every indie scene fan could be made to hate us.”
“Hate? Why would they hate us?”
“Because we’re an inauthentic idol band. But when that noise comes my way, I won’t explain—I’ll use it welcome-armed.”
“Why?”
“Because even if they hate us, they’ll listen to our music more. No matter what we do, if the music is good, that’s what matters.”
Lee Do-young seemed to have doubts about whether this method was necessary.
Honestly, I hadn’t explained this part in detail.
“First of all, this is backlash we were going to get anyway.”
“Huh?”
“When we show up in the band scene, this was always going to happen. Maybe on a smaller scale, but it was inevitable.”
“How do you know that?”
In the original timeline, Okdap’s music was far worse than it is now, but one thing never changed.
Our looks and our age.
In my past life, brief as it was when we showed up in the scene, the existing bands spread rumors like they’d been watching us the whole time—that we were trainees for an entertainment company.
Obviously building some indie credibility through a variety show and then leaving for the company—a foregone conclusion.
The criticism about why Kang Min was mixed up with us wasn’t rare back then either.
And when I became an entertainer, some people even said the other friends failed at their debut while I succeeded.
Back then I hated it enough to shudder, but my thinking is different now.
The people who hate us will hate us no matter what we do.
So shouldn’t we use that to our advantage instead?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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