[theqoo] Netizens are disappointed with Aespa’s ‘Next Level’ comeback stage on Music Bank

[Shinki]

5 minutes ago, Oriane said:

You’re right but they don’t have a stand out vocalist, I agree Wayv/Dream are weaker than Aespa but here comes 127 and you aren’t going to tell me they’re stronger than them (the main vocals are Ningning/Winter right ? They’re not any better than Taeil/Doyoung for now). But you have a point. They’re miles away from other 4th gen ggs that’s why I said they were pretty good.

But they are? Ningning is basically on the same level of Doyoung and Winter more or less above Taeil. That solely makes them better vocally than NCT overall, they're 4 and two are like either average or better than. Now I'm not saying that wow NCT is not a good vocal group, they're just too many and not many of them have a vocal skill to make a good average, they're 23 and... 7? Have a somewhat a knowledge of their instruments...

While aespa has all 4 of them knowing it... That's odd even for SM... I don't think even TVXQ had it... Certainly not SHINee either

Edit: i forgot to say they don't have a fixed position but we just assume winter and ningning to be the main vocals. They like to say they're all mains.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Shinki

[Ori]

1 minute ago, Shinki said:

But they are? Ningning is basically on the same level of Doyoung and Winter more or less above Taeil. That solely makes them better vocally than NCT overall, they're 4 and two are like either average or better than. Now I'm not saying that wow NCT is not a good vocal group, they're just too many and not many of them have a vocal skill to make a good average, they're 23 and... 7? Have a somewhat a knowledge of their instruments...

While aespa has all 4 of them knowing it... That's odd even for SM... I don't think even TVXQ had it... Certainly not SHINee either

 

They’re not tho. Ningning has B4/C5 in the mixed register if I remember well (she supported C5 in that radio show) and Winter has Bb4/B4. Ningning has nice lows I think she has G#3 or so. Winter not so much. I think Ningning with more material is average to above average and Winter average which is good 99,9% of current ggs can’t relate.

Taeil and Doyoung are significantly stronger lol. Taeil supports higher than anyone in Aespa (he has G4/G#4), even with his issues with tightness and nasality he has better mixing than the girls and his lows are pretty decent. He’s a safe above average vocalist. Doyoung can support up to A4, which I believe is the equivalent of C#5 or D5 idk he’s better too. Saying they are on the same level isn’t true Ningning isn’t on Taeil level and he’s not the strongest.

Yeah they’re on pretty similar level as groups and Aespa all support which is good but I do think NCT has a boost having the two.

[Gerimolda]

People that say that it's okay if the dance is not hard... in kpop the vocal talent is rare to find so that's why they have to compensate with strong dance skills and flashy stages

"But they are good vocalists"

Why aren't they singing live then 👁👁

If the dance is not entertaining and they aren't singing live why are they performing?

[HRH Ayyu]

i just watched it a few times.

you get a sense there is something missing, the choreography isnt bad.

i think its charisma/ presence. the singing and dancing was not bad at all,  but we are used to other girl group with the crush concept that have a stronger performance. 

[felidae]

I can see why the "boring" comments. I don't think it has anything to do with "the choreo and song aren't exciting". You don't have to be jumping around the stages smiling on anything to be not boring. Eye contact and vibe are some of the keys.

(Or probably it depends on camera works? I found this one not favorable for the group)

[iKnife BurnCat]

OR MAYBE they just had worse day, yall juding them by this one particular performance 

[hynapia]

I love the song tbh but it's true their performances are a bit boring/dry. I prefer just listening to the song or watch the MV instead of watching their performances aside from 1-2 stages. But I think it has to be with the choreo this time too, because Black Mamba stages were pretty good since the choreo was much more interesting.

[MinnieMax]

They will get better and hopefully their stage presence will improve. Choreo is ok. It's just that they are clearly not ready for a concept like this

I do want to hear their live performance. Idk why with the choreo like this they are not singing live. 

[sinnfb]

I don't think it's that bad but it also proves to me they could use adding more members to the group

[campfire]

14 hours ago, bzz said:

Look at this video

The 'Kick It' cover was tragic. Karina was the only who could work it. I was shocked at this level from S.M. It was already shocking to see this level from K-pop idol in the first place.

Boy group hard dance is not essential to girl group still, it showed they lacked versatility and the skill needed.

This was just disastrous 

[minhoe]

they have little charisma and honestly i thought the video glitched and was playing at 0.50% speed at first 

[lighterxx]

18 hours ago, spopo said:

Honestly, there are so many girl groups with charismatic concepts right now, even who performed with them this mubank episode, and the aespa members just... aren't that charismatic.  The concept isn't right for these girls at all.  I think that was obvious from the getgo, but it's especially apparent with the half dozen other girl groups who showed them up last night.  I think aespa is SM's attempt to do ITZY, and it just doesn't make sense.  ITZY members can perform their asses off, so they can and should do these concepts.  The aespa members have a lot of talent (like proper-ish vocalists), so it makes no sense they would do a song that doesn't highlight that, and instead try to do these loud boring hook songs that only ever work because the artists have the stuff to pull it off.

Last night o.o?

[lighterxx]

Honestly, cameraman at times really tried hard to make it interesting. I noticed there was missed steps and multiple times they checked their steps, especially Karina, did they shift too much accidentally at the start? 

To me, ugh honestly stage was boring, I assumed it's me being too picky flaring up again, but I guess it was not. Otherwise I assume too much position change choreos are not suitable for them in general SM might want a different choreographer then. Tho if they are lacking on stage without background dancers, I wonder how will they pull off long concerts, they can't always have background dancers I assume? 

I also don't understand how main dancer position is reduced to person who dances well, in K-pop main dancer position is given to those that especially studies and focuses on choreography itself, therefore often it makes their execution truly beautiful to look, check any big group, you can see this. If that feels not suitable, group doesn't have to have a main dancer position, not everyone's passion is going to be dance, no need to force for it. 

Edited May 29, 2021 by lighterxx
Typo

[spopo]

12 minutes ago, lighterxx said:

Last night o.o?

erm.. yep.  Music Bank happens Friday evening in Korea.  I commented Saturday KST.  Hence, last night.

[lighterxx]

Just now, spopo said:

erm.. yep.  Music Bank happens Friday evening in Korea.  I commented Saturday KST.  Hence, last night.

Oh I didn't understand if you were talking about actual night or just you know talking poetic lol thanks for explaining!

[No1]

Honestly? This group is wasted with this concept and these kinds of songs.

I get they want to build some sort of lore to keep fans hooked in, but when the song is one whole inside thing, then it fails to pull new ones in, and it gets even worse when the song is as bad as Next Level is; I feel like it's boring even to the girls. They are a well rounded group: Visuals, especially Karina and Ning Ning, vocals from NN and winter, and they're all decent dancers., and SM is not banking on any of that, choosing to do so on their half assed concept.

[RIPHaldir]

They lack energy and don't seem that good of dancers by 4th gen standards tbh

[alcyone]

Aespa is lacklustre, completely. They're not performers yet. This kind of flashy cyber concept only works if the performers are larger-than-life, charismatic, and mature. These girls are just that- girls. They don't know what they're doing and also this song is awful, cringe and everything in between. 

 

Tl;dr: they don't fit this concept, this concept sucks in the first place, and they're all too young and inexperienced for this concept

[alcyone]

2 hours ago, sinnfb said:

I don't think it's that bad but it also proves to me they could use adding more members to the group

That's a good point. This concept might be better if there were many of these members and they all had their own AI doll thing (aes, are they called?). It could be an interesting "collectible" sort of concept. And maybe the other members can cover up these 4's ineptitude. 

[alcyone]

16 hours ago, jay94 said:

The members look like they were forced to perform and wanted to leave the stage asap. Honesty I think I've never seen a group from BIG3 with so little excitement to perform. Lip synching makes everything worse.

oh man, you're right. this doesn't even look like a big 3 performance.

[Baby Pickle]

to me all of this comments confirms that aespa is going to be one of the top 3 grps of the 4th generation if not the top 1

[Your Biggest Fan]

The only time I could see any spark of excitement in their eyes was when they performed the "beat drop" portion of the song. Other than that the girls look like they were going through the motions/ on auto-pilot. It was like something you'd might see at a school talent show. They have all the charisma and personality of a Y/N main character in a fanfiction.

From Girls Generation to F(x) to Red Velvet to this? Aespa so far has been a serious drop in quality for an SM girl group. I hope they gain confidence or add some new members with confidence soon, 'cause this isn't working.

Is there any news of a when their full album is dropping? I'm hoping that would be a positive turning point for them performance wise.

[AstroBaby]

To be fair in terms of the lack of excitement on stage all their SM peers have had live audiences on debut whereas these girls have never seen their fans once, it's probably hard to be psyched when it's just you and the camera guy. Also I think there might be an element of being "over-practiced" as they were supposed to debut in the first quarter of 2020 and all the songs that they've released so far were made at the same time (why SM didn't just give them a debut mini album is beyond me). So it's the same song they've been performing everyday for more than a year already and without any fans to distinguish this from all those times, I imagine a lot of them just went into autopilot mode the way a lot of groups do when performing an old hit.  

[loozzer]

1 hour ago, Baby Pickle said:

to me all of this comments confirms that aespa is going to be one of the top 3 grps of the 4th generation if not the top 1

they're already outcharting other 4th gen groups so you're probably right lol

[Tania]

37 minutes ago, loozzer said:

they're already outcharting other 4th gen groups so you're probably right lol