As netizens start to ask for more from an idol and management agencies themselves also raise the
bar of the artists, for example NMIXX is an act where all members have outstanding visual, vocals,
and dancing capabilities, it is proven that having the mere visual can’t help a group
make it big so easily like before. However, there are still idols that are said to not even bother
about how bad their vocal capabilities are and although years have passed since their debut,
people still find them stuck with the same below-average vocal and showed no improvement.
1. IVE
While being highly regarded as the next leading act of gen4 girl groups
and having one of the most, if not the most, famous idols of gen4 Jang Wonyoung,
IVE is still said to disappoint many people because of their seriously vocally lacking.
Things all started after IVE got their trophy on Inkigayo, continuing the winning streak
despite being a several-week-old rookie from a mid-range entertainment company.
Apparently this huge achievement was enough to keep mouths talking but when their encore
stage was published, the attention was quick to shift to their poor singing capabilities.
Initially, Rei was the sole target because when it came to her high notes during the re-chorus,
Rei always found one way or another to dodge singing. At the first encore stage,
she was in tears and cut off her high notes. People were of course sympathetic
but after seeing her constantly stop singing and shout out the group’s fandom name DIVE,
many said Rei was trying to sweep her weak vocal under the rug.
Especially because IVE was embroiled in the scandal of debuting to keep Jang Wonyoung relevant
rather than to bring something new to the table, the criticism toward Rei became even fiercer
as most believed she wasn’t competent enough to stand on the stage.
Then, the criticism quickly spread out to the whole group. On many K-community
forums and outlets, it wasn’t hard to find something calling out their weak vocal like
“IVE’s messy encore singing,” “K-netizens list out groups with poor living singing”
with IVE topping the list and “Is IVE’s obvious lack of skills affecting them?”
When Starship Entertainment released the recording session of ELEVEN,
the backlash toward IVE hit even harder as according to netizens,
they didn’t have the skills to be called “the next leading act of gen 4” when being compared aespa.
As many pointed out, all the vocals of IVE’s members were flat and breathless.
Even Yujin, the member said to be the most stable singing-wise,
also failed people as she was seen struggling with a grimacing face. When it came to Wonyoung,
the hate got even worse as people said she didn’t understand the job of an idol in the recording
room was to deliver a good song rather than non-stop looking at the camera and striking poses.
However, many DIVEs defended that as IVE was just a rookie, people should have given them a chance
to mature their skills rather than imposing on them the standard set by many professional
artists. This justification apparently made sense so the hate started to cool down.
2. LE SSERAFIM
Debuting amid one of the biggest, if not the biggest, scandals of the year, LE SSERAFIM had
been strictly scrutinized for literally whatever they did when Kim Garam was still active.
As many believed HYBE was leveraging media play to push the reputation of LE SSERAFIM,
netizens paid even more attention to the girls’ skills to see if they deserved the push
and after seeing their live singing on Music Bank,
most agreed their vocals were just as lacking as the personalities of Kim Garam.
The whole performance was so bad that some thought they were watching an MR
Removed version of FEARLESS and even worse, a broadcast accident because
there was no way a company extendedly using auto-tune to perfect their artists’ vocals
like HYBE would let their girl group sing so terribly like that on the national broadcast.
However, many fans justified that because FEARLESS was an extremely low song,
which was technically even harder to sing than high-pitched songs, and LE SSERAFIM was even
dancing while hitting those hard notes, the public should have never judged them that bad.
Yet, netizens just found those reasons hilarious as not only on this stage but on many previous
performances, which were mostly encore stages where the girls could just stand still and sing,
they still said to show the terribly lacking vocal capabilities
that were never allowed to be seen at an idol.
For example on the encore stage of THE SHOW, many found it ridiculous for LE SSEARFIM
to sing with a loud backtrack although this was the time for them to sing live.
Considering how Sakura and Chaewon had been in the industry for over three years, some said it
was even more disappointing to watch as they both sing off-tune with bad breath control.
Netizens had also lost count of the times LE SSERAFIM cracked
and claimed that the group should have trained more to compensate for the lack of techniques.
Their encore stage on Music Bank the following day was also criticized. Throughout the whole song,
netizens noticed that not a single member managed to hit a single note right and
considering how this was their very debut song, it was even more annoying to watch [chèn clip
ko ai hit the right note - âm thanh gốc]. Some said HYBE had become a tone-deaf company for
debuting such a girl group and their unsavable bad live vocals made netizens regret G-Friend,
a top-notch girl group heartlessly replaced by a lacking act like LE SSERAFIM.
3. STAYC
Surprised?
Well, actually I was also taken aback to see netizens accusing STAYC of having bad
vocal capabilities because one of the reasons helping the group get to where
they are today comes down greatly to their live vocals but still, it is what it is.
In one post where the singing skills of IVE was stoned,
some also dragged STAYC in and said that the girls’ vocals were just on the same par with IVE.
Not long after that, there was even a whole long thread dedicated to judging the singing of STAYC,
saying that the only reason people praised them was that they had the balls to sing
live while most other acts didn’t. Others also believed as STAYC didn’t
stand out in anything else, from dancing, rapping, stage presence to producing music,
the only thing fans could hang onto to compliment them was the average vocal.
Particularly, Sieun was said to always sound the same, strained and non-supported,
Yoon often tried hard to sing in a higher range than her reach, Sumin and J are below average,
and Seeun and Isa were just decent enough to debut.
Looking at the way STAYC was being complimented on all fronts for their vocal,
many said they only found it ridiculous how the bar for idols gen4 was set so low
that everyone could easily go wild over some most average acts.
Upon this, STAYC's fans claim that since when did people become so strict about vocals.
They just can’t understand why Sieun, the member who is considered to have the most impressive
and powerful vocals in STAYC as she was often assigned some hardest parts of the group's songs,
was tragically bashed and even confusingly called "the worst main vocalist of gen 4”.
4. TXT
Being under the same roof with LE SSERAFIM,
TXT was also criticized for their lacking of vocal capabilities and to netizens, this coincidence
meant nothing but implicitly confirming HYBE was a tone-deaf company debuting tone-deaf artists.
Things all started after TXT did their encore stage for I KNOW I LOVE YOU on THE SHOW
and while people were looking forward to seeing a vocally pleasant performance at
a boy group heavily invested by HYBE, all they got was a disappointing stage
where none of the members could hold up the bare minimum standard.
Many pointed out that all TXT members had sung off-key and the encore performance
reminded them of the embarrassing situation where people think they could sing with a
song on but painfully realized they sounded horrible without the music.
That was not to mention how TXT was branded as an all-rounded boygroup
that would continue the success of BTS. Some also ironically blamed themselves for thinking
TXT was talented while in fact, they weren’t much different from a random highschool band.
Earlier this year, TXT was still named as one of the worst vocal groups of gen4
and on big forums, it wasn’t hard to find posts calling out TXT for the “generic” vocal,
which was voted to be too popular on Reddit,
and expressing how people couldn’t stan the group for their singing capabilities.
So, do you think netizens were being too harsh on these idols
or it’s true that they need to brush up their singing?