Rule No. 1: Don't Cry Be Rich
July 17, 2024 4:15 PM Subscribe
Well, “Modhaus has created a fan-participatory governance system using blockchain technology in order to bring fans into the decision-making process.”
Oh hell no. The last thing K-Pop needs is crypto.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:50 PM on July 17 [11 favorites]
Oh hell no. The last thing K-Pop needs is crypto.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:50 PM on July 17 [11 favorites]
And I hate coming in negative at the beginning, but… this is End Times stuff.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:51 PM on July 17 [3 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:51 PM on July 17 [3 favorites]
a member sings lyrics like, “For me to shine / more than a dazzling filter / capitalism’s my charm” and “I am my own standard.” The song title is, naturally, “Girls’ Capitalism.”
[yells at digital clouds]
posted by CynicalKnight at 5:30 PM on July 17 [8 favorites]
[yells at digital clouds]
posted by CynicalKnight at 5:30 PM on July 17 [8 favorites]
And I hate coming in negative at the beginning, but… this is End Times stuff.
No worries, I posted this because I expected the reaction to be a mix of jokes and doom.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:01 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
No worries, I posted this because I expected the reaction to be a mix of jokes and doom.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:01 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
This is kinda cute, but I'm increasingly convinced celebrity and capitalism are both cancerous boils on modern society.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:15 PM on July 17 [8 favorites]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:15 PM on July 17 [8 favorites]
I love K-Pop, I’ve seen BlackPink live and I’ve got tickets to Dreamcatcher.
I don’t want crypto in my K-Pop.
The first paragraph of that article gave me a headache, I think.
posted by teece303 at 6:42 PM on July 17
I don’t want crypto in my K-Pop.
The first paragraph of that article gave me a headache, I think.
posted by teece303 at 6:42 PM on July 17
I ran out of brain juice trying to read that.
I need a nap.
posted by neonamber at 7:12 PM on July 17
I need a nap.
posted by neonamber at 7:12 PM on July 17
Because someone had to do it - MetaFilter: A mix of jokes and doom.
posted by skyscraper at 7:51 PM on July 17 [3 favorites]
posted by skyscraper at 7:51 PM on July 17 [3 favorites]
During the summer weekend music variety shows they do here in Japan over the past weekends they showcased a 4-'girl' group that were all brand ambassadors for different high-end luxury, LVMH-type 'let them eat cake' fashion outlets and I thought to myself 'why are we cheering them on for being wed to brands/late-stage capitalism? How is this of note?'. As this article states, what is being produced is less about music/acts, the industry has long been a image/performance/dance/event-focused collection of 'talents' under a brand that gives them marketing and promotion cache. Now in grift-scented flavors? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The word-soup across 3 languages of e.g. NewJeans actual music is still catchy ear-worms that I cannot escape and have made peace with, but one of them being Gucci-partnered doesn't make me less than my regular level of concerned with their obvious image manipulation (physical/mental) - the literal price of fame. If it's just music it's fine, music is like sports, it doesn't matter and can be fun arguing over/rooting for groups/teams. There's worse uses of your attention/money than throwing it at 'idols', I guess, lossy systems can still give people positive emotions.
posted by allisterb at 8:31 PM on July 17 [1 favorite]
The word-soup across 3 languages of e.g. NewJeans actual music is still catchy ear-worms that I cannot escape and have made peace with, but one of them being Gucci-partnered doesn't make me less than my regular level of concerned with their obvious image manipulation (physical/mental) - the literal price of fame. If it's just music it's fine, music is like sports, it doesn't matter and can be fun arguing over/rooting for groups/teams. There's worse uses of your attention/money than throwing it at 'idols', I guess, lossy systems can still give people positive emotions.
posted by allisterb at 8:31 PM on July 17 [1 favorite]
Too bad about the crypto, which is a deal-killer, because otherwise having a big, layered, shifting/rotating membership like that sounds like the pop version of the X-Men.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:06 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:06 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
At its peak, NCT could field half a football team with its 23 members
I feel like I'm not understanding something
posted by trig at 10:01 PM on July 17 [1 favorite]
I feel like I'm not understanding something
posted by trig at 10:01 PM on July 17 [1 favorite]
The first paragraph of that article gave me a headache, I think.
I read the whole thing and I'm just really lost. I think it's a combination of the article and crypto word salad, which is kind of a bummer, because I think there's an interesting article to be written, but this one's kind of leaning into "K-pop is so wacky, let me confuse you".
posted by hoyland at 10:35 PM on July 17
I read the whole thing and I'm just really lost. I think it's a combination of the article and crypto word salad, which is kind of a bummer, because I think there's an interesting article to be written, but this one's kind of leaning into "K-pop is so wacky, let me confuse you".
posted by hoyland at 10:35 PM on July 17
I feel like I'm not understanding something
It's got a lot of large boulder the size of a small boulder energy. Or maybe the American need to measure sizes of things in anything other than actual units of measurement. But yes, an American football team (which I assume they are thinking of) consists of 53 players, of which 23 is less than half. Weirdly, it seems like a World Cup soccer team has 23 members (oops, just looked more and it is 26), which would have been a better comparison but for whatever reason wasn't used.
posted by Literaryhero at 11:16 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
It's got a lot of large boulder the size of a small boulder energy. Or maybe the American need to measure sizes of things in anything other than actual units of measurement. But yes, an American football team (which I assume they are thinking of) consists of 53 players, of which 23 is less than half. Weirdly, it seems like a World Cup soccer team has 23 members (oops, just looked more and it is 26), which would have been a better comparison but for whatever reason wasn't used.
posted by Literaryhero at 11:16 PM on July 17 [2 favorites]
Gift link.
Edited to add: If you're not familiar with Defector, take a look around while you're there. It's some of the crew from the old Deadspin site, but Defector's evolving into so much more than sports.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 1:08 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
Edited to add: If you're not familiar with Defector, take a look around while you're there. It's some of the crew from the old Deadspin site, but Defector's evolving into so much more than sports.
posted by Doofus Magoo at 1:08 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
I assumed American too, but was thinking 11...
The article was kind of strange in that it didn't really explain how crypto actually comes into it. Sounds like there are NFTs to buy like other merch, and also a cryptocurrency that (absent further details) sounds just like any closed token system, where you buy it from the company and then pay it back to the company for voting privileges - so it's just a roundabout way of paying to vote. In which case it's just another example of wrapping something basic up in fancy crypto clothes to make it seem cool, but without adding any functionality. Is there more to it? How are fans reacting to the crypto angle?
The trendiness of crypto is probably also why it was chosen as the hook for this article, instead of the less sexy things it vaguely touched on like exploitation of Korean pop stars, extreme materialism in Korean society, debt in Korean society, extreme entitlement in/influence of Korean fan culture, the history of K-pop and Hallyu as planned vehicles for economic growth and cultural diplomacy, etc.
posted by trig at 1:28 AM on July 18 [5 favorites]
The article was kind of strange in that it didn't really explain how crypto actually comes into it. Sounds like there are NFTs to buy like other merch, and also a cryptocurrency that (absent further details) sounds just like any closed token system, where you buy it from the company and then pay it back to the company for voting privileges - so it's just a roundabout way of paying to vote. In which case it's just another example of wrapping something basic up in fancy crypto clothes to make it seem cool, but without adding any functionality. Is there more to it? How are fans reacting to the crypto angle?
The trendiness of crypto is probably also why it was chosen as the hook for this article, instead of the less sexy things it vaguely touched on like exploitation of Korean pop stars, extreme materialism in Korean society, debt in Korean society, extreme entitlement in/influence of Korean fan culture, the history of K-pop and Hallyu as planned vehicles for economic growth and cultural diplomacy, etc.
posted by trig at 1:28 AM on July 18 [5 favorites]
And I hate coming in negative at the beginning, but… this is End Times stuff.
Just the dumbest of all dystopias.
posted by non canadian guy at 4:45 AM on July 18 [1 favorite]
Just the dumbest of all dystopias.
posted by non canadian guy at 4:45 AM on July 18 [1 favorite]
I haven't been paying attention, but has this really not been a thing already? Surely someone has been trying this play before.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:38 AM on July 18
posted by 2N2222 at 5:38 AM on July 18
I've made it a matter of personal pride to never igonore a band's concept and history, but there are two exceptions to this rule: TripleS and aespa. Their music is sooo goood, but their concepts are sooo baaad. Thankfully aespa seem to have chucked their æ concept the minute SM chucked Lee Soo-man (who's probably responsible for more cringe concepts than any other human in modern history), so now I'm just waiting for TripleS/Modhaus to come to their senses. This whole crypto nonsense is just so convoluted and unnecessary. Focus on releasing insanely good POP singles like Cherry Talk and Generation instead.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 6:02 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
posted by soundofsuburbia at 6:02 AM on July 18 [2 favorites]
We've plenty of end times signals slowly worsening, GenjiandProustm, but no afaik k-pop, crypto, and AI are not important enough.
Yes 2N2222, we've long had coupons and video game items and securities like stocks, so you'd think merging them under crypto would've taken off, but..
Actually few people really likes stocks or coupons or video game items, or any other form of accounting, so nobody likes wierd hybrids of them either. As a consequence, this sort of play does not really "work", as much as the NFT grifter crowd promotes. If it worked then the porn industry would've gone hardcore crypto.
It'll likely work enough to circumvent label bullshit though: If your label locks you into some exploitive 360° bullshit or whatever, then yeah hire very good lawyers, hire some geeks to make a blockchain, break your contracts, raise funds from market junkies, sell all the funny money they gave you, and spend your real cash starting your own pseudo-label free of your old exploitive label.
As a bonus, you're maybe legally required that your tokens not represent some share of your future profits, so you've no obligation to repay anything, and the junkies can entertain themselves trading your token.
Anyways TripleS sounds like a label being launched by artists escaping their old labels, so I hope they have good lawyers.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:19 AM on July 18
Yes 2N2222, we've long had coupons and video game items and securities like stocks, so you'd think merging them under crypto would've taken off, but..
Actually few people really likes stocks or coupons or video game items, or any other form of accounting, so nobody likes wierd hybrids of them either. As a consequence, this sort of play does not really "work", as much as the NFT grifter crowd promotes. If it worked then the porn industry would've gone hardcore crypto.
It'll likely work enough to circumvent label bullshit though: If your label locks you into some exploitive 360° bullshit or whatever, then yeah hire very good lawyers, hire some geeks to make a blockchain, break your contracts, raise funds from market junkies, sell all the funny money they gave you, and spend your real cash starting your own pseudo-label free of your old exploitive label.
As a bonus, you're maybe legally required that your tokens not represent some share of your future profits, so you've no obligation to repay anything, and the junkies can entertain themselves trading your token.
Anyways TripleS sounds like a label being launched by artists escaping their old labels, so I hope they have good lawyers.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:19 AM on July 18
(I accidentally hit post instead of preview, mods please delete this 💖)
posted by egypturnash at 7:50 AM on July 18
posted by egypturnash at 7:50 AM on July 18
So, you buy trading cards (digital or physical) - these are called Objekts. Each such Objekt also earns you 1 COMO. These COMO cannot be traded. You can earn additional special Objekts through non-buying means ("collect them all" and other similar actions).
You spend COMO to vote in Gravity elections; it is blatant pay-to-win elections. It isn't even "pay to buy voting weight", it is "pay for each vote".
The use of a blockchain to record ownership and voting actions just means you have an open ledger (as in, anyone can view it) I think? You can't allowed to transfer COMO/Objekts to other people, just vote (once?) with each COMO.
This, roughly, is why you have newspapers that seriously cover the financial woes of those poor 500,000$/year single parents.
posted by NotAYakk at 7:52 AM on July 18
You spend COMO to vote in Gravity elections; it is blatant pay-to-win elections. It isn't even "pay to buy voting weight", it is "pay for each vote".
The use of a blockchain to record ownership and voting actions just means you have an open ledger (as in, anyone can view it) I think? You can't allowed to transfer COMO/Objekts to other people, just vote (once?) with each COMO.
This, roughly, is why you have newspapers that seriously cover the financial woes of those poor 500,000$/year single parents.
posted by NotAYakk at 7:52 AM on July 18
This whole convoluted “subunit” setup makes a lot more sense if you stop calling tripleS a “band” and look at it as a stable of pretty young entertainers all working for the same music label. Contract them for a few years, throw them together in random groupings until a couple take off, the others maybe leave or maybe end up in other parts of the business like turning into session musicians who can add an amazing part to any album across the whole label. Some will probably burn out, some may completely fuck up their lives in the process, that’s show biz baby.
Throw some crypto bullshit in the mix and you’re attracting people who made stupid huge piles of money off of that and are looking for similar projects. Really that’s just a way of getting more investor money to pour into marketing and production. With some nice bonuses like the fact that it’s also a way to get fans to *pay* to be market research, it’s a *privilege* to be part of the survey to find out which members of the stable are the most popular! That’s a great wrinkle.
posted by egypturnash at 8:14 AM on July 18
Throw some crypto bullshit in the mix and you’re attracting people who made stupid huge piles of money off of that and are looking for similar projects. Really that’s just a way of getting more investor money to pour into marketing and production. With some nice bonuses like the fact that it’s also a way to get fans to *pay* to be market research, it’s a *privilege* to be part of the survey to find out which members of the stable are the most popular! That’s a great wrinkle.
posted by egypturnash at 8:14 AM on July 18
This whole convoluted “subunit” setup makes a lot more sense if you stop calling tripleS a “band” and look at it as a stable of pretty young entertainers all working for the same music label.
It kind of sounds like what K Records, with Calvin Johnson, was doing back in the 1990s, except their stuff was not commercially successful. I know people have considered doing this kind of thing before, but it generally just doesn't work in music because music is dominated by 'personalities', and people don't consider the parts interchangeable, and worse, the biggest personalities take the largest share of income, so they are not interested in stepping away (generally) so the collective can succeed.
Bands do try this - Iron Maiden (I think got a new singer), Fleetwood Mac basically became a different band, Chicago too, INXS also tried (with typical, moderately embarassing results) and big classic bands travel the nostalgia circuit with maybe one remaining member. But a band doing this while remaining famous across iterations? That's probably a good trivia question.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:40 AM on July 18
It kind of sounds like what K Records, with Calvin Johnson, was doing back in the 1990s, except their stuff was not commercially successful. I know people have considered doing this kind of thing before, but it generally just doesn't work in music because music is dominated by 'personalities', and people don't consider the parts interchangeable, and worse, the biggest personalities take the largest share of income, so they are not interested in stepping away (generally) so the collective can succeed.
Bands do try this - Iron Maiden (I think got a new singer), Fleetwood Mac basically became a different band, Chicago too, INXS also tried (with typical, moderately embarassing results) and big classic bands travel the nostalgia circuit with maybe one remaining member. But a band doing this while remaining famous across iterations? That's probably a good trivia question.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:40 AM on July 18
This was super interesting. But I'm also intrigued that they got at least one (super unimportant) thing wrong. Intrigued because I'm relying heavily on the article for the overall kpop context, so it does make me wonder a little.
The offending item : Over the next couple of years, slews of girl groups debuted containing a few former Produce and/or I.O.I members, Gugudan, Pristin, (G)I-DLE, and Weki Meki to name a few. If you can’t retain all of those names, that’s perfectly all right—few of those post-Produce 101 groups are still active, much less successful.
Even as a casual listener, I hear (G)I-dle EVERYWHERE and on a ton of "best of" compilations, and they're touring the US in the fall with new music. I was so surprised by seeing their name in that comment, I looked at their wikipedia page, and there's plenty of accolades and awards, including a nod from MTV.
Again, totally unimportant. But not the kind of slip it feels a knowledgeable kpop person would make.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 9:57 AM on July 18
The offending item : Over the next couple of years, slews of girl groups debuted containing a few former Produce and/or I.O.I members, Gugudan, Pristin, (G)I-DLE, and Weki Meki to name a few. If you can’t retain all of those names, that’s perfectly all right—few of those post-Produce 101 groups are still active, much less successful.
Even as a casual listener, I hear (G)I-dle EVERYWHERE and on a ton of "best of" compilations, and they're touring the US in the fall with new music. I was so surprised by seeing their name in that comment, I looked at their wikipedia page, and there's plenty of accolades and awards, including a nod from MTV.
Again, totally unimportant. But not the kind of slip it feels a knowledgeable kpop person would make.
posted by BlueBlueElectricBlue at 9:57 AM on July 18
There's K-Pop, and there's BTS ...
"... the reason the whole HYBE NFT project failed is because RM [Kim Namjoon, leader of BTS] asked HYBE to not include BTS ... I always found it weird and suspicious that every hybe group was a part of the project except BTS." -- 2022 Reddit discussion
posted by Surfurrus at 10:56 PM on July 20
"... the reason the whole HYBE NFT project failed is because RM [Kim Namjoon, leader of BTS] asked HYBE to not include BTS ... I always found it weird and suspicious that every hybe group was a part of the project except BTS." -- 2022 Reddit discussion
posted by Surfurrus at 10:56 PM on July 20
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posted by clavdivs at 4:25 PM on July 17 [1 favorite]