Photo from Online Community
No doubt, many of our readers have seen performances held at the MGAs earlier this month.
It may not be as simple as you think...
From Jimin's vocal mishap to Momoland's reaction, there has been quite the controversy surrounding that night, which even led a certain fan to investigate other instances of BTS's live performances.
This fan gathered live performance data of clips and videos, many taken by fans, throughout BTS's career and pointed out the many vocal mishaps. They had much to point out, including the following.
Oftentimes, you can tell that the vocals in the MR (Music Recorded- instrumental accompaniment like used in karaoke, but in K-pop, MR contains singers' voices at a lower volume as well) are turned up loud enough that it covers for someone skipping their part or even a missing member altogether. Some examples can be seen in the clips below.
In the video below you can slightly hear the MR behind their actual voices.
Or other times, the MR is just audible enough where you can tell that the MR is the voice of one member, while the member actually holding the microphone and singing is a different member.
In the video below, they pointed out 2:11 and 3:02 where you can hear Jungkook as the background vocal even though Jimin is the one holding the microphone, as well as 2:13 and 5:42.
In another example, Jimin was unable to make an appearance in the Norton Show performance below, but his part is still left in the MR due to it being a last minute ordeal. The author points out 1:01 where you can hear the back vocals, 2:20, 2:28, 2:36, etc. where there is no singing at all and they totally rely on the MR, and 2:53 where the MR of Jimin's voice is too loud, but Jungkook is holding the mic and singing.
Their point in the post, in a nutshell, was to point out that if BTS is going to lip-sync on stage, they should at least fix their MR recordings to match who is singing so that it's not as obvious, or simply give more parts to members who sing best, instead of just trying to make each member have equal parts.
The claim of this fan was going viral in Korea starting from a couple of days ago, and it provoked a huge controversy among the fans in the country.
Reactions to this fan's post, however, took different sides.
Some agreed with the author, saying they were glad someone finally pointed it out, while other fans begged to differ, exposing out faults in their reasoning, summarized as follows.
There are also plenty of perfectly fine performances from all the members, but this so-called "fan" just chose all the worst examples to make their point seem true.
And, they continued, the point of MR is to make live performances better for audiences, because even if one can sing well while simply standing up or sitting still, it is significantly harder to sing well while also performing complicated dances on stage.
Or, the person who wrote the post is just an extreme one-sided single-member fan(A.K.A. Akgae), bashing other members for the sake of giving more limelight to their favorite.
Other fans defend the attacks made mostly on Jimin, saying mistakes happen, and with all the touring, singing, overall fatigue, and the fact that BTS is human too and may catch a cold or have a sore throat some days, instances like this are bound to happen more than once.
Even adding to the Momoland reaction video, some spectators say that it may have been a completely coincidental, unrelated comment made within the group members. After all, nobody can ever know exactly what they said or why they laughed. It may have just been bad timing.
In conclusion, fans differ on the issue, and with live performances being such a key point in any performer's career, it may be an important issue to raise. Will there be any changes in BTS's future performances? Or will BTS continue on the same path they have taken thus far? What do you Voomies think? Let us know in the comments!
Photo from Joongang Photo
By Bongbong and Malina Fairchild voomvoomk@gmail.com
