My Criticism of K-pop Groups
Recently, Korean pop music, otherwise known as K-pop, has been taking over the world by song and dance. Typically, in the K-pop industry, Korean entertainment companies scout for and develop aspiring K-pop talents to form the next sensational K-pop group. Hence, the groups are not organically established, but rather assembled and controlled by the industry. For instance, the K-pop global sensation Blackpink is under YG entertainment, Twice under JYP entertainment and BTS under Big Hit Entertainment. I might be terribly mistaken, but my impression of K-pop groups is that they generally sing the song and dance the choreography which these companies provide for them. Friends of mine, who are huge BTS fans, have defended their favourite septet by saying that they do produce their own music, but I’m still not thoroughly convinced. Most of the time, K-pop groups, no matter how popular, act as the mere images of the companies, or to put it more sinisterly, are the puppets of their puppeteers.
However, that seemingly nasty paragraph of flame is not the focus of this article. In fact, I have nothing to complain about regarding the K-pop industry and its system as a whole. Instead, I truly think that it really is a good idea! After all, it’s like utilising the specialisation of labour to your advantage, right? The companies produce the song and create the choreography, and they do it splendidly. The songs are generally upbeat, catchy, and have English words and phrases incorporated into them to appeal to the global population, of which 1.5 billion people speak English. Kudos to those choreographers as well, who have designed dance moves which complement the songs, give each member a chance to shine, and usually have those one or two signature moves which define the song, letting people easily remember that particular dance sequence when hearing the song. One of my favourites is Blackpink’s characteristic finger gun sequence for the song “DDU-DU DDU-DU”.
And so that leaves the performance for the performers, or our beloved K-pop idols in their group dynamic. Since they specialise in only this one aspect, they should be exceptionally good at it, right? WRONG!
So here my criticisms of K-pop groups officially begin, not for their music, but for their performances. K-pop group performances are commonly a mixture of singing and dancing, so let’s break the performances into their separate components:
Singing
Of the two components in the performances, the K-pop groups’ ability to sing is arguably the worse one, by quite a big margin. It is so mediocre that it seems like the idols’ auditions disregarded the singing portion entirely, focusing on just about everything else. That being said, I cannot provide any numbers to quantify their lack of singing talent, but evidence is plenty nonetheless.
To start off, just look at the live performances themselves. For the typical K-pop group performance in South Korea’s music program, including shows such as Inkigayo, Music Bank, M Countdown and many more, where the groups promote their new songs, the background music played isn’t really background music. Instead, it is the song in its entirety being played as background music. In case you still cannot comprehend that because you are too used to watching Coldplay or Maroon 5 perform, unlike English pop/rock music, there is no band playing in that performance. There are speakers, blasting out the song (and I remind you, in its entirety), which includes both the vocals and the background music, masking the inaudible live singing. If you are still unfamiliar with K-pop, I suggest that you watch a few performances yourself to fully understand the performances. However, if you don’t want to waste your precious time, I fully understand. Simply imagine yourself attending a concert, where the performers sing in an enlarged karaoke room, in which the vocals in the music are purposefully left on, and the microphone volumes turned down to the point of silence, with respect to the music. Resultingly, the ‘audio’ portion of the performance is EXACTLY the same as the music video. So, why attend a concert when plugging in earpieces and listening to your favourite K-pop song via Spotify yields the same experience?
Some would argue that it is an extremely difficult task to sing and dance at the same time in front of a live audience. I cannot claim that I can sing properly when exercising vigorously, so I have to admit that it most definitely is not easy. But then again, it is not impossible. After all, English pop artist Halsey painted a live-sized picture when singing her hit song ‘Eastside’ during a live performance in Saturday Night Live. Besides, they have trained for this task and this task only throughout their career. Simply blasting the vocals from the music video and lowering their own mic volume, effectively lip-syncing with the music, is essentially giving up without even trying. It is like them already acknowledging their lack of talent and using this method to avoid being shamed.
So, instead of aiming to beat a level 100 boss when you are only at level 10, why not start off with something easier? Instead of having difficult and tiring choreographies, dance to a slower and easier one instead, focusing on mastering the singing first. Alternatively, do away with the dancing completely, and give an amazing acapella performance, or invite a band to provide the background music for you. K-pop fans might assert that this diverges from K-pop tradition, moving towards the more English pop performance style, but I see nothing wrong with it. After all, is it really a concert if the singing is nonexistent?
On a side note, if you really want to know how good K-pop idols are at singing, I’ll let you be the judge to that yourself. Just go on to YouTube, type in ‘<your favourite K-pop group> encore performance’ in the search bar, and click on the song of your preference. After the Korean music shows mentioned above, overall winners will be given a chance to sing live during the encore, without the vocals in the music, which lets the K-pop groups show off their vocal prowess. When I say ‘show off’, I really mean show off how poorly they sing, because most of the time, my ears bleed from watching these videos. It really makes me think, “how did they win in the first place?”
On an additional side note building up from the last one, it seems as if many K-pop fans have really low standards when it comes to their beloved idols’ singing ability. If you take a look at the comments for the K-pop groups’ performances on YouTube, many of them commend the idols for being ‘vocally stable’ or having ‘ate CDs’, which implies that they sound exactly like the music video. For me, that’s setting the bar way too low. When I go for a concert, I would like to see my favourite artists put their heart and soul into the songs which they sing, giving it a unique twist which makes the concert different and worth paying for. In fact, the last thing I want them to do is to eat CDs or be vocally stable, because then I would rather listen to their songs on Spotify from the comfort of my home.
Dancing
I don’t really know how to judge people’s dancing, but I must admit that the K-pop groups’ dances are pretty impressive. Their moves are generally sharp, their coordination fantastic and they make little mistakes, if any at all. They have really practiced their choreography to the point of perfection.
But just as practice makes perfect, practice makes permanence as well. I’m sure most if not all K-pop fans have noticed that the K-pop groups perform the exact same choreography for every show when performing the same song. Of course, there are a few exceptions present, such as when the group MAMAMOO performed a remix of their song ‘hip’, which deviates from the usual choreography quite drastically. However, such refreshing variations are few and far between.
If the performances delivered are identical to one another, I again question why people attend these performances. Will people truly be excited to see what they already expect will happen? Why do people sacrifice an arm and a leg, as well as their precious time to attend a concert, when they can watch an exact replica online? How can people appreciate a ‘talent’ which is repeating the same perfect performance over and over again? I really do not understand.
And then, it hit me.
Looks
Sike! So you thought that there were only two components in a performance. Well, K-pop has an additional one: Looks. Looks usually have little to contribute to a performance, but something has to compensate the nonexistent singing and predictable choreography.
Broadly speaking, K-pop idols look amazing. Perhaps it is their superior genes, an amazing upbringing with disciplined skin care routines, or other more *cough cough* plastic methods which make them look gorgeous, cute, beautiful, or whatever they are going for, I’m not entirely sure. Keep in mind, this does not only apply to the females. The guys too look really sharp, and have great complexion. (Although, I want to say that a lot of the guys look very similar, making it difficult to tell them apart, which is quite an unfair opinion since I don’t follow guy groups as much.) I assume that because they look so good, their physical appearance really plays a pivotal role in their popularity as a group or even as an individual. Usually, K-pop fans have particular ‘biases’, which refers to their favourite idol in a K-pop group. They usually claim that they decide on their bias based partly on personality, performance etc. but who are you fooling? Admit it or not, looks play a huge part in that decision making matrix.
The thing is, looks change as well! The costumes which the idols wear, the makeup design, even the hairstyle and hair colour vary for different performances. And every time there’s a change, hardcore fans would go crazy and discuss all about it. Comments like “She looks so good in red!” or “The yellow hair is so cute” or “With or without fringe” would be abundant in the YouTube or Instagram comment sections. To me, it’s frankly quite sad that K-pop fans have stooped down to fangirling/fanboying over every little change in appearance, when they should expect more variety in dancing and adequate proficiency in singing. In my mind, paying money to admire your idol’s face and how he/she looks in a new costume live is not a very good use of money, especially if that sum goes up to the hundreds.
Conclusion
Ultimately, everyone is entitled to their own perspectives and preferences. If you really like K-pop groups and your biases, then no one is stopping you from spending your life savings to get a good look at their face. But on the other hand, suggesting that my singing is better than Whitney Houston is a bit of a long shot. What I’m getting at is that if you say that K-pop group performances are amazing and require serious talent to pull off, I’m sorry but I have to heavily disagree with that opinion, based on the arguments listed above.
Pulling off a stage spectacular with both singing and dancing is definitely challenging and demanding, but that should not be used as an excuse to execute either of the components dreadfully. If you so choose to go for that ambitious performance, you should have the confidence to pull it off well, compromising on nothing. If you choose to forgo one of the components entirely, no one will put it against you. Design a different choreography, just slightly, to wow your audience, or simply sit down on high chairs with microphone stands and sing your heart out. I personally would prefer either of these options to giving a mediocre performance with both components.
I’m going to end off my criticisms with one bold statement: Most K-pop fans like their idols not because of their performances or talent, but for their looks. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but when you claim that your favourite idol or group has talent, do think Twice about it.