Kim, a fervent fan of star K-pop group IVE, cheered with exuberance as his angelic idols Wonyoung and Leeseo walked onto the stage with mics in their perfectly manicured hands. But after the concert, he stomped off the set and crushed the lightstick that was once his pride and joy.
Turns out, the two ‘“singers” didn’t sing at all. Instead, they sat in their chairs, smiled for the camera, and lip-synched the entire performance.
Dance seems to serve as the keystone of fourth-generation K-Pop over vocals. Compared to earlier generations with all-round artists, “fourth-gen idols usually focus on dancing and the performance aspect nowadays, not the actual singing,” said Luisa Silva, a fan of BTS and Seventeen.
On most stages, groups lip-synch entire songs. In fact, fans only hear their voices live on so-called “encore stages” when they perform without a backing track. However, even these forms undergo heavy pitch corrections before public release on TV and YouTube.
IVE, a top girl group in Korea, brings the lip-synching controversy to the spotlight every time it release a new album. Although the singers improve with each comeback, many still consider their vocals subpar. Trainers Pu-rum Lee, Dong-Hyun Kim, and In-Ku Yoon of Tone Knob, a vocal academy, reviewed IVE’s live singing for their debut track “Eleven.” All three coaches pointed out the instability throughout the performance.
“The members seem to struggle to switch their vocal registers, Lee said.
Despite mega-hit tracks like “Love Dive,” the group’s poor live singing made many fans tune out. For instance, at the M Countdown encore live for its recent track “I AM,” Wonyoung went off pitch for most of the bridge to the point where people turned off the video.
Fans often defend their favorite artists with excuses like, “They were emotional from the win,” or “They were tired because of their busy schedules.” But on a fundamental level, K-pop idols are professional singers, not entertainers or dancers. Fans don’t expect divas like Ariana Grande, but they are expected to at least try to stay in tune.
Many K-pop stans agree with this view.
“Of course, they need to be good singers,” said Michelle Doh, an Army (BTS fan) and NCTzen (NCT fan). “Idols are supposed to be good at singing, dancing, rapping, and everything.”
Despite this popular opinion, management companies continue to emphasize dance over everything else. Starship, the group’s management company, refused to respond to IVE’s lip-synch controversy at the 2022 MBC Music Festival even when the incident went live on the national news. Netizens commented that the company should have retrained the girls, especially when better vocals could be the cherry on top of their catchy discography and help them garner a skill-based fandom.
Fourth-gen dance and K-pop stages continue the decade-long Hallyu Wave. But many fans also want to hear their performers sing even more. If the K-pop industry creates artists who strike a golden balance between vocals and dance, fans will be able to wave their lightsticks in joy instead of trashing them in anger.
–Sept. 4, 2023–
