Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
SBS‘s “K-Pop Star” has come under fire recently for being too much like SBS’s “Pop Star”, inferring that the show is swaying towards Western music and away from Korean music.
As we reported earlier, for the final mission of the last episode of “SBS K-Pop Star” the two finalist contestants will do something interesting. The mission is for the final contestants Park Jimin and Lee Hai to sing songs that made each other famous. Park Jimin will sing Duffy’s “Mercy” while Lee Hai will sing Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.”
However, the Korean public and also the Korean music industry have issue with the fact that “SBS K-Pop Star” is closer to “SBS Pop Star.” Besides
Note: I have no idea why Soompi cut off what I’m guessing was supposed to be a new sentence at “Besides”. You tell me.
“Korean Ilbo” criticized the final mission because the contestant Park Jimin has basically continued to sing pop songs throughout the show. A reporter stated that “It is a shame that they are ending the show with Pop, when the show itself has gained so much momentum. Did they really have to end the show with the record of having the youngest winner of an audition show, with pop songs?”
Honestly? This is hilarious.
It’s not just about this individual situation, but the general thought process.
The Korean media spends every waking moment comparing their pop stars to the best the Western world has to offer, Korean companies hype their artists up as world stars and tinker with their music/image to appeal to the Western world, and the Korean government backs the industry as a way of spreading Korean culture to the Western world. Yet when aspiring singers, who can see those trends unfold, start to incorporate more and more English language and Western music into their brand, as a way of demonstrating their skills, it’s a shame? Please.
All she did was take the recipe for a successful K-pop star that she got from the media, companies, and government, and apply it successfully in order to win a competition and a shot at K-pop stardom. Genius, if you ask me.
Sorry, but this is the bed K-pop pined after, created, and made. So any criticism of the show on those grounds is not only asinine but laughably so, as the program and its contestants are only following the lead of what everybody else has already been doing for years.
Mad because they are doing pop songs? Isnt that what k “POP” is?
The inference is that they want them singing in Korean.
Cant really comment cos the stupid fucks at soompi never source their fucking stories…FUCK THEM
Some of the songs the contestants sung are not even pop music. Whatever, I guess. I think they want them to sing more Korean songs since that makes more sense. I don’t see problem either. Western music is everywhere and Kpop is based a lot from it.
My music is known worldwide and I top charts, I blow down walls, who wouldn’t want to sing any of my songs? Not saying they can sing it like me, but it is flattering…
…B-but, it’s called K-POP star, not K-Indie star…
BESIDES
The Korean media’s ego is ruining everything. Maybe they’ll be happier if they sing real “Korean” music like trot and shit.
-___-
Fuck them. I want to hear Lee Hayi sing “Rolling in the Deep”.
But if one of their idols gets praised for covering an American song, they will go apeshit over it.
Also, their own idols sing American songs as a way of proving their talent on radio.
It’s hilarious for them to comment on this as if it’s negative.
Agreed..
i think the only people who might have room to complain would be the creators of the show….coming from the angle of it now being true to the original vision of the show…
but those people would have been involved in the process of creating the show anyway..so if they didnt like it, they could have told the singers to sing korean shit..
weird.
Guarantee the creators don’t care. They hand out the contracts as well, so they are fully aware of what they want.
If that was an issue, they would tell them, I’m sure.
I understand Americans for criticizing k-pop as being Americanized cuz hell we listen to other countries music just to get away from it but Koreans criticizing their own? aren’t they enforcing Americanization on themselves?
Maybe they should sing salsa or something…. singing pop in a KPOP contest will turn everybody gay, I totally get their point
I don’t know – I sort-of agree with them.
You’d think that a show where people are trying to become K-pop stars would be singing Korean pop music, not Western pop music.
I know they are very similar, but why not have them sing mainly Korean pop songs on K-pop idol instead of the American and British pop songs that they were mostly singing?
To avoid stepping on anyone’s toes, maybe…
There are a sizable amount of fans out there in various fandoms who have a problem with people covering idol songs. No matter what, whether the cover is a really good one or a really terrible one, they’ll be criticized for every tiny thing. Just looking at the Youtube comments on Su Pearls’ performance of “The Boys” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xMp8x_hqy8) makes me immediately understand why they’d choose a non-offensive-but-popular English song.
See, but that’s the thing though, even when they do covers of K-pop, they have to change it for vocal competitions.
A lot of people from the audience, especially the young ones who are essentially the demographic who vote, wouldn’t recognize indie Korean songs I think. And older songs wouldn’t be considered “hip” either. SO really the only choice left is popular songs by relevant idol groups. But THEN the fangirls wouldn’t be able to deal with a talented contestant possibly doing better than the idols because the majority of idols don’t have a lot of talent and the songs also lack good vocal arrangement (since they rely on dance, image, etc. so much rather than the music itself).
I agree though, many of the contestants can’t even pronounce the English words correctly, and most of them don’t hold a candle to the originals. I’d rather the contestants do an OUTSTANDING cover of a crappy piece of idol music and show that there’s a place for good pop vocalists out there in the Kpop industry.
Most of them are soloists too, so who are their contemporary options?
IU and …
Well I honestly think a lot of girl group songs can be reworked pretty well for a soloist. For a lot of female idol songs, maybe it’s just me but I can’t tell which singer is singing which part because they all sound the same. There are times I’ve thought that there could just be one singer and for the chorus they just layer multiple tracks. So I don’t think it would be a huge deal to sing girl group songs for a soloist, just cut out the worthless rap parts and it’s good to go.
Which is sort of my point though, why completely change the composition of a song that’s not made to be SUNG when you can just sing a song that IS made to be sung?
Because singing “Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby” doesn’t exactly give room for vocals.
Good point.
If these kids want to be K-pop stars, they should really just focus on getting plastic surgery and dancing.
I dont watch any of the shows because im not a faggot…but it would seem to me that perhaps kpop perfomances would have more of a dance element included whereas singing western songs tends to involve them just standing there cranking it out…
but as i said, aint watched any of it so could be talking shit.
I thought that is what K-Pop all about…