Wonyoung and Leeseo under fire for abusing lip-syncing, and IVE’s performance at Kouhaku
is said to be the worst of the worst.
Le Sserafim is also in trouble when getting criticized by both Knetizens and Jnetizens.
Why is it always these two girl groups?
Before you decide to jump in and defend them, hold your horses because it seems like this
time, netizens have legit reasons to criticize IVE and Lesserafim.
So from the 4th generation, Kpop is no longer too strict about idols having to sing live
all the time, because nowadays, the choreographies are exhausting and idols also have a lot more
activities than just dancing and singing.
However, instead of feeling grateful, Starship has taken advantage of that and let Wonyoung
and Leeseo lip-sync even while just sitting still on a chair.
To make things worse, they didn’t even bother to record a new backtrack for the performance,
but reused the audio in one of their youtube videos uploaded 5 months ago.
Many fans were extremely disappointed as they came to support the girls but ended up receiving
a recording full of nasal vocals and the girls’ half-hearted efforts.
Wonyoung and Leeseo are accused of seriously looking down on the audience as well as being
incredibly lazy and untalented.
Some savage netizens even mocked Wonyoung that she was singing Lemon Sun, not Strawberry
Moon because her voice was sour like lemon and jangling like the sun, not sweet and calm
like strawberry and moon.
People also described that all Wonyoung did on the stage was squeezing her face muscles
into cute expressions, and cringing the hell out of people with her half-closing eyes and
pouty lips.
Even when the song reaches high notes, Wonyoung didn’t even bother to move her mouth a bit
wider, making the scene just too awkward to look at:
Well, looks like this time IVE has crossed the line, their two videos of the performance
have received far more dislikes than likes.
And as international fans had to give up defending the girls, the situation within South Korea
must be much worse.
The most confusing thing is, why is it that Starship wanted to do a live stage but instead
of sending Liz and Yujin, who can actually sing, they gave the slots to Wonyoung and
Leeseo, whose vocals are said to be the weakest in IVE.
Obviously, this company was trying to push Wonyoung on all fronts, from being the center
and visual of the group, to being MCs at literally every award show, and now they’re letting
her steal the roles of other members?
IVE is like a group created for Wonyoung’s sake and if so, Starship should have let her
debut solo from the start.
In fact, there’s a theory that this is the image Starship designed for Wonyoung - being
a pretty doll and getting advertisement contracts.
The female idol just changed 180 degrees ever since joining Starship and people miss the
old Wonyoung, but they think if she keeps disrespecting the audience like this, she
should change her job and be a model rather than being a Kpop idol.
Some mature Kpop fans express that they don’t hate Wonyoung and Leeseo, but look at the
way fans only comment on how pretty these girls are, they realize that the standards
of Kpop idols are dropping alarmingly low.
Some also wonder how these manufactured dolls can ever hold a live concert like their seniors
back in the good old days of gen2 and gen3, when idols were counted for their real talent,
and everyone was able to sing live smoothly even while performing powerful choreography:
Another reason to believe IVE totally deserve the criticism is their gen4 peer, Aespa, who
was also being bashed for abusing lipsync in the past, but recently, this girl group
has been seriously working on their live-singing skills, especially Ningning and Winter.
Compared to other girl groups of the same generation like NMIXX or NewJeans, IVE was
said to be far more inferior, because just look at how Lily and Haewon conquering highnotes
in their Dice stage:
All members of NewJeans also sing live throughout their performance.
From the second phase of gen4, entertainment agencies have started to realize the importance
of vocal ability.
If Starship keeps their old strategy of solely relying on Wonyoung’s popularity, chances
are IVE won’t survive in the industry for long.
Before this Strawberry Moon fuss, IVE’s ELEVEN performance at the 2022 Kouhaku was
also said to be a disgrace to the Korean entertainment industry.
Kouhaku is a Japanese special event held annually on New Year's Eve.
This is the entertainment program with the largest scale and highest investment in Japan,
gathering many famous Japanese artists and groups.
Thus, it’s a privilege for foreign acts to be able to perform on Kouhaku.
Yet out of everyone’s expectation, IVE brought to the show a surprisingly superficial and
lifeless performance, and of course, lipsyncing, and everyone knows Japanese HATE lip-syncing.
The girls were said to look as if they were pre-programmed robots because there was zero
energy, and none of the head swinging moves were done properly cause they’re all afraid
of damaging their beautiful hair.
Compared to the vibrant and bustling performances of other groups from Japan, IVE is said to
be inferior in every way and looks extremely out of place.
Some netizens straight-up stated that IVE is shaming the K-pop industry, because their
performance at Kouhaku made J-netizens think that Kpop groups are nugus from South Korea
who want to try their luck in Japan.
However, fairly speaking, Kouhaku is a big stage, not an ordinary music show.
Even some Japanese artists felt nervous and pressured when performing, let alone foreign
acts like IVE.
Therefore, the fact that IVE’s performance seemed underwhelming and had to rely on lip-syncing
is understandable.
Also on Kouhaku stage, Le Sserafim is the next girl group to get criticism for the same
reason as IVE - lip-syncing.
Firstly, netizens couldn’t understand why Le Sserafim has Sakura, a former J-pop idol
who knows the rules of the industry, but still decided to lip-sync at such an important event.
Secondly, aren’t Yunjin and Chaewon said to be having the most powerful vocals in the
group?
Why didn’t HYBE let them sing?
To be fair, Le Sserafim isn't bad at singing at all, but the fact that the group lip-sync
too often has made netizens gradually believe they really couldn't sing.
Accordingly, many Japanese artists had to give up the opportunity to appear in Kouhaku
to make room for K-pop groups like Le Sserafim.
Those Japanese groups who lost their slots to Le Sserafim and other Kpop acts were very
disappointed as they were even seen apologizing to their fans.
It seems that getting the chance to perform on the Kouhaku stage is extremely important
to them.
However, HYBE didn't seem to appreciate that and had everything done so superficially.
This is the reason a lot of Jpop fans formed an unfriendly view towards Kpop acts and equated
them with nugus, calling them "nuguseyo".
To make things worse, Knetizens are also not on Lesserafim’s side.
They criticized the group for bringing shame to Kpop, and accusing the girls of trying
to lick Japanese fans’ boots and disrespect Korean history.
While many of you are confused as to whether you misheard, netizens have already proven
their point.
Specifically, while the girls were performing, the lighting behind them suddenly formed a
sun symbol similar to the one on the rising sun flag:
Yes, it is because of this detail that many Knetizens got triggered, they believe that
Le Sserafim was deliberately trying to please Japanese fans despite their morality and image
back in their home country.
South Koreans have always held a grudge against the Japanese, because they couldn’t forget
the great pain and loss that the Japanese colonists brought to innocent Koreans back
in the years before World War II.
Therefore, many Koreans are extremely sensitive to any symbol related to Japan, especially
the rising sun flag because they consider it a symbol of domination and invasion.
And as a result, when that sun symbol appeared in Le Sserafim's performance, the group immediately
got under fire for bringing back Korea's painful nation's history.
However, to Lesserafim's fans, the criticism is totally ridiculous.
They explained that the sun symbol is just a coincidence because stage lighting comes
in many shapes, and one of the most common shapes is usually a bright spot in the middle
with a halo surrounding it like the sun.
Still, some netizens were quick to disprove that, saying it was definitely intentional
because first, the symbol appeared right in the center of the stage where it was most
noticeable and second, it remained there for quite a while, about 10 seconds instead of
just 0.5 seconds like other shapes.
Furthermore, it can be seen that the bulbs were intentionally arranged in a circle to
create the most perfect sun.
Outside of the arguments, neutral Kpop fans noticed a very funny thing that not a single
Knetizen ever showed any displeasure toward Lesserafim’s 2 Japanese members, Sakura
and Kazuha, but suddenly made a fuss when the group performed under a sun symbol?
If they hate Japan so much, why support and stan the group when the lineup already includes
Japanese from the start?
Because of that, they believe this is just another controversy that Lesserafim’s haters
created to bring the group down.
So, that is all for today’s discussion.
Do you think IVE should really improve their work morale?
Is the sun symbol in Lesserafim’s performance just a coincidence or is it actually the intention
of HYBE?