jrockfantasia

I'm not too worried about Irene's singing because she's obviously the designated "rapper" of the group. My only beef is with a song like Automatic or Be Natural where there's no rap ( or they feature a rapper instead for some dumb reason ). If she was put in for her rapping then the company isn't going to be too concerned for her singing so that's why I suppose she's not the best. As for Yeri, yeah I think she's probably not that strong either but my issue is that she doesn't have a clear cut role in the group. I understand about not giving her too much spotlight to not detract from the original members but at the same time they should have thought about making her addition seem like it was worth it, and as much as I welcome her addition to the group, I don't think she's performing a vital role right now.

Joy and Seulgi slaying me with the visuals and Irene sounded so good rapping im dead rn

K so im officially coming back to this thread. The song blew me away. I'd already heard the preview so I knew what to expect but this actually kinda surpassed them. More of my thoughts below: Overall I'm really happy and really really really digging the song. This is a very good step forward and even if the song doesn't do well I'm happy that SM has finally perfected the sort of atypical sound they've been trying to do for a while. EDIT: there's also so much happening in the instrumental of the chorus. Someone posted an audio preview of it a few days ago so here's what the chorus sounds like without the vocals in case you're like me and like to try and figure out whats happening in the instrumental lol:

i don't even know how to feel at this point. Like I hate Sica feeling betrayed by the other 8 members and i don't want to take sides so i feel like im just going to have to walk away from this group for like a month until i can handle all this :/

some yall dumb as fuck. when he said " don't make us return to korea," he obviously meant that if they don't stop harassing them they're going to have to call off their vacation early and leave china.

if they can't sing then they really have no business being in a music group. they don't even need to be able to sing high but if they have no vocal skill then why are they in music? If they can rap and actually rap then ok. I'm not here for pretty people singing only 3 seconds a song.

I dunno I feel like with Block B they often mention stuff like that in passing and as a joke, and don't really take it to be indicative of anything ( besides the possibly problematic notion of homosexuality being just a joke and not vaild but we're lightyears away from that being something to discuss when it comes to Korea lbr ). Like there was that one show where they made that comment about P.O. or Taeil ( i for the love of me can't tell them apart ) having a crush on Zico. Either there's some truth to it or they're the type of completely empty statements straight guys like to toss around as some sort of weird, inside-out no homo. Y'know the kind like "by bringing this up as a joke it clearly means it's not a real possibility." kind of thing.

Two idols of differing gender do so much as look at each other for 4 seconds and people think they're dating, what's new?

This! I mean, I don't really think Kai and Tae are dating and genuinely do think they're good friends but it just burns me how if one of them were female then the media would totally portray them as in love because as we all know, guys and girls can't be just friends. But on a side note I totally enjoy seeing them interacting together so idc what their relationship is, I'm just glad they have one lol.

So I guess we can erase all debates about whether or not the name was about red velvet cake or actual red velvet cloth lol.

He's given me the vibe of being bisexual for some reason, although I don't have much reason to think so. it's more of just a feeling I get from him tbh.

It could be for many reasons. I'm not sure how much pull DIMA has but it literally could have been a race thing or that there were other companies who took all the available slots and they weren't able to buy any airtime for her. It also might have been like a JYJ scenario only rather than being banned by SM it could be that she's facing some other sort of censorship keeping her off the shows.

Live was really good. I overslept my nap but I saw a vid on YT and I'm really pleased. Their voices were there enough for it to not sound like they were just singing to the MR. I didn't hear any unstableness or shakiness though so however they did it, it was a good performance. Dance was tight and cohesive and overall I'm just really pleased with the group. So glad that even the one with the least amount of vocal lines, Irene, still gets to sing and rap in the song as well as Seulgi. Joy surprised me by being able to sing so I'm happy she's just not the visual but also probably their lead singer, with Wendy of course being the main.

wait so has their debut stage already happened?

First listen: Meh, not sure how I feel about it. Then Wendy came in and slayed and shot up to the top of my bias list. Second and subsequent listens: damn this is catchy. I still think the song has some shortcomings that i'll detail later but it's really catchy and the chorus is simple so people will remember it at least. It's quite the earworm. I'm glad to see everyone having some singing parts and that the group is balanced. There's no one who only gets 4 seconds and then is silent the rest of the song. I see that Irene is probably gonna be getting the least vocal lines here on out but at least she's prevalent in the song. What I'm not pleased with in the song is at least compensated by everyone being actively involved in it. I'm ready to stan more so because of what I've seen them do predebut. This'll hopefully be their worst song and they'll go up from here. But, it's not as non-cohesive as I feared. Chorus is a bit anticlimactic to be honest. But damn Wendy's solo though. I'm so glad it was in there. Of course I would have loved it to be some sort of OT4 harmony group ass kicking but oh well. I'm not sure if I'm pleased, but I'll be sticking around them for a while.

I love seeing all these creative ideas being thrown around. You guys should tutor these poor little companies who don't know what they're doing with their nugu groups. I wonder how this groups unofficial fan name will come to be solidified. Any word on an official international forum?

I definitely see Joy being their It Girl for that. I mean she even kinda looks like Suzy sometimes too. Even though the MV teaser reminds me of an opening to like some kids TV show, if the performances are good I'm gonna be ready to stan like crazy. I think it's really awesome how artists are doing it now so the first time you hear the song is during their live performances. (Or should I say "live" performances). I'mma definitely make sure to watch and I'm excited about the song possibly being a bit like IGAB but hopefully a bit more coherent transitions. (even though it wasn't that jarring as some people were complaining about in my opinion). On an unrelated note I'm gonna be having some red velvet cake soon since my mom's making some~

Alright so this is my first time posting in this thread and I apologize if I'm breaking any rules or anything. I'm pretty sure I'm just bad tbh lol. I can go from E2 ~ E4 until I start mixing. Plus I'm really bad at mixing so yeah. G4 is pretty much the point where I have to go into head voice and C#5 is the last note I'll say is actually usable for me. Also, and I don't know why but my tone just sounds really horrible. Like at best I sound listenable but I've come to terms with the fact that I'll only ever at best have an average sounding voice. I'm still working on getting proper placement so I'm not too throaty sounding but am also not horribly nasal. Vibrato is not even something I can worry about since I'm severely lacking in fundamentals still. If I do anything right I'll say that I have a really dramatic voice but cause it's so deep it's not really commercially usable. Plus my more lighter sound isn't anything remarkable. I did get compliments from my choir teacher saying that my head voice sounds nice but I think she's lying tbh. I've a lot of work to do. But this thread has taught me more about singing technique than my 1 year of lessons did. But right now I have no voice at all. 5 weeks ago I had to get one of my parathyroids removed and the surgery has currently ruined my voice and I don't think I'll be able to sing ever again TT__TT. If I do, I'll probably have even smaller of a range than I have now. Ok now for something actually contributing to this thread: If someone has the time I'd like to hear some opinions on Ken Hirai since he's a very head voice-y singer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLKOZi7Lw94 @1:43 onwards really. I've seen him regarded a lot as a good singer in Japan although I don't particularly like how his voice doesn't really sound full and has that falsetto-y air to it. My question specifically is if his technique is considered good or not and if it's just my dislike of his falsetto or is he actually not as good of a singer as others say. Even though I don't like the sound to his voice, it might not actually mean he's not a good singer, which is why I'm asking for a bit of verification.

Incubating System is basically the term used to describe how korean companies take potential idols and soloists and train them. Graduation concept in kpop is not really going to go over well. I feel like AKB and Morning Musume are more exceptions rather than rules and I think After School is a good example of why it's good in theory but doesn't bode well for the group. It'd be interesting if Red Velvet was only a subgroup but I really doubt it, although it is interesting that there are more girls in the teaser than just the four RV members. I think that if SM were doing that they would have said something? But I dunno it's interesting to think about. I'm so happy that all 4 of them have singing in their skill set. I'm ready to stan some harmonizing lovelies. KPop really does need to get onto the harmonizing concept though because not every girl is a soprano and can sing D5 and E5 in full voice. I was happy to hear one voice staying within the G4 range because that means even if they can't sing high everyone will at least be singing in the song.

I agree so much with this. And honestly in an industry where your looks matter so much I don't know why people get so worked up over it. For me it isn't about natural or not but about if they have talent. I have to admit, I was impressed by the 3 part harmony i heard in the teaser. I really hope they'll do it live ( and i really want at least 3 singers in the group and would prefer all 4 of them to sing but every member singing would be a miracle in kpop tbh. )

Maybe it's just me but it really didn't seem like that. Like I dunno, we see him looking at him and licking his lips but I don't think it's in that sort of way. It could have been just out of nervousness or from feeling awkward since he's around a lot of people he doesn't know. I know that when I get nervous my mouth and lips get really dry so that could have been it? But yeah it happened so fast and it doesn't really look like one of those sorts of things to me.

oops double post sorry.

I honestly think 4 member groups are the best. There's just enough to give each member a decent part in the song/no one left with no lines. Easy to learn all the names ( especially since we now know 3/4 of them). And if the choreography is simple then they can always get a multitude of back up dancers like SISTAR and 2NE1 do. I feel with 5 or 6 members there'd be some who don't contribute as much as the others and I'm already worried that this group might fall into the SISTAR trap of having 1 (maybe 2 if we're lucky) talented vocalists. One person who is only there to dance and "rap" and one person only there to be the face and get the CF and acting deals. :( I mean all of that is swell but at the foundation I want all the members to be competent vocalists and the only group relevant to me that I've seen do that besides CSJH is Mamamoo. The three of them are pretty and competent in dance and singing so I'd be sad to see other members in the group solely to be pretty or riding off idol status to become an actress.

I feel that Sulli is just in a bad position mentally/physically and told them she can't go on and the other 4 members have decided to also not keep performing. Or maybe SM decided it's better that they don't go on without her and get more flack for not caring? Or maybe this is hinting at something worse ( I know people hate disbandment being brought up but hiatuses really worry me because it makes it even that much more of an unfortunate possibility ). I'd like to think that they just decided that they didn't want to perform without her rather than there being a lot more messy crap to this story. I hope Sulli can get better and also take the time to really think about whether or not she wants to continue with the group. They have good team work and like SNSD I feel they've sort of an "all or nothing" mentality. So yeah, it sucks that promotions are being cut short but I feel there are probably just a lot of non super dark horrible reasons that SM thought it best to end promotions here ( like how so many people were calling it their worst concept and song, all the stuff with sulli, them just being tired and also not wanting to continue without her, SM not being a piece of shit and letting them stop, etc. )

So confused at what's going on but I'm happy for Sulli getting compliments from the director. Since as long as I can remember it's always been apparent to me that Sulli was more there for acting and more interested in it than the idol stuff so I'm glad she's giving her best and getting credit for it!