Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A controversy about Korean idol singers

Since 2009, young Korean idol singers and groups have been flooding the Korean music industry.
When people first listen to some of their songs before seeing their actual performance on stage, they think like 'Is this a song? Can this kind of 'stuff' be called a song?' and they also conclude that they will fail this time.
Surprisingly, however, with their gripping dancing, cute and pretty faces and dizzing stage manners, the song that was called 'terrible' before, ranks first after only one week of their come-back stage or even on that day of their come-back stage thanks to a great number of their existing fans.

This phenomenon is causing a serious problem that it's good to WATCH them, but not LISTEN to them. I am not saying all idol singers are like this, so please don't get me wrong. Of course they are great and well-trained idol singers, but generally most of idol singers have some issues with their skills and I think they should face up to the reality and must do something.

The current Korean music industry is obviously in a crisis that people don't open their wallets to spend money on low quality albums which have only clonish songs that make you bored after 20times of listening or 10times(some might say they are not worth listening at all without watching their performing). Many music makers complain that people don't buy albums and just download them, so sales have been seriously down.  It's true that as MP3 players has been popular and the economy has been still down, people prefer to download music, but this is not the only reason I guess. It's also because they are just not good enough. Doesn't it sound true? If songs are great, we will buy them.  Young would-be singers are increasing, so to earn money, people in the music industry make them debut as soon as possible with low quality songs. This is why people don't buy their music. But because of a previous failure or low income, they again make low quality songs trying to spend less money. It's a vicious cycle!!

A current fashion among normal people like us is listening idol singer's live performance without the background instrumental music so that we can hear their pure singing. Some are more hilarious than comic sitcoms! Some people doubt the truth of thier shocking singing skills and some people just sigh and say 'Whatever, they are dancers' or some take the idols side and cry 'You anti-fans try to sing and dance at the same time and see if you can do as good as them!!' But the last one doesn't make any sense to me. We are just normal people and they are singers which means that we don't need to be good at singing, but they have to, cause it's their job.

I am unhappy to see where the Korean music industry is going now, and frustrated by the reality that there are not many songs that touch me, inspire me or excite me and most of boring love songs are dominating our ears and eyes.

Here is one more problem I want to point out.
I am a type of person who enjoy a melody of a song and especially enjoy lyrics. But the recent music seems to be made in less than no time. Most of the latest songs are very catchy and easy to learn, but if you only read the lyrics, you will find some that are just nonsense.  If I am allowed to exagggerate a little bit, I will say that I can write better than them.. :'(

The debut age of idol singers is getting younger and younger.  Only sixteen or seventeen years old girls wear gaudy clothes and shake their hips and they are just too busy to sing, so they can't help but lip-sync. Is dancing or showing a flashy performance putting less effort on their singing what singers are supposed to to? I hope to hear your opinions!

9 comments:

  1. Oh my god...I wrote too much......:'( I must have been too serious about this matter..... T-T But I highlighted some important sentences, so I hope it won't be too boring to read ^^;;

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  3. Wow, Korean idol singers, it's very interesting! These days, here is a lot of idol.
    Especilly, undoubtedly, Korea is dreamland for teen idol stars. Many young people are using clothes, accessories because they see their idols use it. It's trend.
    I like 2NE1. They are great! They are not only an exceptionally good-looking girls, but they're also an outstanding singers.
    They are enjoy on the stage. I like this best:)

    #Yang So-hyun

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  4. Wow ~ ^^ your wiriting isn't boring. just exciting and interisting :D To some extent, I agree with you to a certain degree. These days, I think about most of Korean Idols who is too much performance and poor at singing. I'm not Anti-fan.also I don't blame them. their job is singer who have to sing better than normal people like us. I also like 2NE1 from among Korean idol singers. They have ability about singing and dancing and performance.. I think they are well qualified as a singer.
    Being able to sing well is the most important quality that a singer should have!!!
    [HyeMi Gwon]

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  5. Yap! I have also similar mind like you about most of Korean Idols. Above all, I think these days; many idols don't seem to have remarkable singing skills compared to last past. When I was teenager, I admired all the pioneers of hip-hop who blazed a path early on including Seo Tea-ji,HOT and GOD etc.~♥ Any way, I only am missing them!!Especially, I know many idols are not good enough to become a singer. I just think that too many singers have become famous for their looks and not their singing ability. Only a few groups are judged solely by their vocal talents alone and I think Superstar k (hugak, John park...Etc) is definitely one of them. Many Idols have so many talents, such as singing, acting and dancing. I don’t blame Korean Idols. Of course, I believe they are a pretty good singer. But To be better music market in Korea, if Idols have efforts to make quality albums together, I believe this could be a great album and many Koreans maybe spend lot money to buy album instead of downloading music!!

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  6. Hmm.. Yes that's a really serious phenomenon in our society now. I remember an article that I have read before. It was about Korean teenagers' music preference. On that article said one of the reasons of this phenomenon is because of MP3 players. You know, we can change music fastly with MP3 player than Walkman. If a boring melody comes out, people tend to easily change it. So singers and writers have to more concentrate on addictive melodies than lyrics of songs.
    These days many idols are popular with these songs, but sometimes I worry that it is just a 'bubble'. Singers who have a gift for music and do their best should be more acknowledged.

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  7. Jihye/ Oh... I was a big big fan of GOD!! and I like Seotaeji :) He is so creative and enthusiastic... Especially Seo is very mysterious so people don't know where he is, what he is doing, how he is doing these days.. I heard he was a perfectionist when it comes to his music. So I guess he doesn't come out because he is not ready to show people what he has done so far and satisfy himself.. Why is it so hard to see new singers like him? :/

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  8. Hum.. I agree that people do not spend their money buying albums nowadays. Actually, we can download in internet. That's why we do not open our wallet. These days there are many idol stars. However some singers performance really well on the other hands they are poor at singing. Anyway we need to help and encourage them not blame.

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  9. Jiwon! You DO rock! :)

    I agree with your post. I think music executives these days think that image is all that is necessary, and they don't want to waste time on talent. Jiye mentioned that the new idol singers are judged more on ability, so maybe the trend will change.

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