How long until live singing is completely going to die? (1 Viewer)

[Magician]

I do understand that groups use autotune, loud backtracks or even lip sync when they also need to dance. Otherwise the performance would probably consist only of really breathy singing and panting, bc the choreo is so exhausting lol
But nowadays it’s even the norm to lip sync or use autotune on radio shows or during encore stages, when Idols don’t dance.
Even shows or youtube channels that are popular for their 'live performances', like Sketchbook or Masked Singer, edit the Idols voices, so they sound smoother
I feel like it gives fans a wrong illusion, especially when an Idol is actually singing live and their voice might crack and people start to bash them, because they are used to Idols sounding always flawless
But nope, your faves usually don’t sound like that, their voices are just heavily edited

 

[Yelena_Belova]

To answer the question in the title, not until after Stray Kids disband, as they sing live, so we’ve got a little bit of time at least.

 

[Magician]

To answer the question in the title, not until after Stray Kids disband, as they sing live, so we’ve got a little bit of time at least.

Well, even Stray Kids have their fair share of pre-recorded stages, but they indeed have quite a lot of live stages as well

 

[eclipsoul]

yeah this shit is honestly terrible for me and #1 reason why i barely watch kpop performances these days. i'd rather hear slightly flawed live vocals than not hear them at all. these kpop idols do not have to be the 21st century version of freddie mercury but for the love of god let them sing. why make them train vocals for YEARS if they never sing???

 

[Yelena_Belova]

Well, even Stray Kids have their fair share of pre-recorded stages, but they indeed have quite a lot of live stages as well

That’s true, you have a good point. I don’t actively binge watch their stages (it’s not my type of thing to do), so I’m not sure what their exact ratio of live to pre-recorded stages is (I just heard from other Stays and some K-Pop YouTubers that they tend to have a lot of live ones) but it makes complete sense for them to have some not live ones as well. Sometimes they might not be allowed to sing live, or sometimes they just might be too tired to.

 

[princesita]

It will never die

 

[RandAlThor]

I blame the fans for not demanding more. Especially post pandemic.
I get that during the pandemic they were hyper controlling time in buildings and all so prerecording and rolling the tape made things smoother.
and since there were really no ppl there might as well pre record.

Companies and acts will cheat as much as they can get away with.
At least its not quite Milli Vanilli level yet.

 

[Kumquat]

It's not a required skill to be successful in pop music.

There are a lot of idols that really can sing, but kpop in general with all these crazy cool dances leads toward pre-recorded performances + it's been proven multiple times that goupd can be extremely successful without amazing vocalists, so companies probably think why to bother?

I like live or half-live stages; but if idols weak in singing, i would probably watch autotuned performances from them.

 

[The_LastRomeo]

Well the Exo members still sing live but I think it depends on the situation, for BoA and Taeyeon I feel like they're preserving their vocals because they are vocal goddess's and SM doesn't want to lose that title
As for 4th gen, I'm on the opinion Kpop is now an aesthetic, not a genre

 

[TikiTiki]

As long as they sing live at least in festivals and concerts..if they don't even there then we're fxxxed

 

[RandAlThor]

I think she needs to adjust for music shows with no audience.

The production teams may have mandated pre recording to cut down on staff ect.

 

[cle]

In my opinion there's just not a huge demand for live singing anymore.

The landscape of kpop has changed and these days it appears more important—at least for a lot of people—that doesn't visibly suck at something rather than that the idol actually doesn't suck at the thing in question. (I guess the reason for this are changes in popular ideas and ideals in online fan spaces combined with the global explosion of kpop combined with the Korean situation of kpop changing too combined with Tiktok's rise in popularity where toxicity spreads twice as fast as anywhere else.) A dance hole is harder to hide, so most 4th gen idols are at least above average dancers even if they lipsync all the time. Not being able to rap isn't an issue, it never has been... "Bad" visuals—which imo don't really exist and the insane standards idols are being held to are often rooted in rather problematic ideas—are also more difficult to hide, because highly invasive procedures such as jaw shaves are easier to expose these days thanks to social media and most people want idols to be more or less natural beauties.

Not being able to sing live is the easiest skill hole to hide to create the appearance of a perfectly polished idol, and therefore it's the one companies compromise on.

LAR became ridiculously widespread in the last 2 years, and it has evolved a lot since. I remember a few weeks ago or so I was watching some year-end/award show(?) and there was a gg, who really shocked me, because they weren't just using LAR, their LAR track had a compression effect added to it so it would sound like those distinct compressors on mics that normally aid actual live singing. Crazy. And it was odd cause—like normally with LAR—you could tell it was fake when the breathing didn't change between intense and less intense parts of the dance...but most people don't bother to look into those things anymore. So they have their flawless all-rounders whom other kpop stans can't drag for sucking.

It sucks because imo lipsyncing always impacts the group's stage presence negatively...and it's just so much less interesting (for instance, I like that SKZ often deliver the same lines differently and that they sometimes sing the backing vocals or change their rap flow a bit to suit live performances).

Well, even Stray Kids have their fair share of pre-recorded stages, but they indeed have quite a lot of live stages as well

To be fair stages with pre-recorded vocals are basically negligible next to the amount of live stages, they usually only pre-record if they absolutely must, Chan even explained that on a live once. Such as their performance on the wet helipad that should've never been allowed in the first place, or the time they had a special performance video for an award show where they had to do several takes throughout the day.

 

[Magician]

Well the Exo members still sing live but I think it depends on the situation, for BoA and Taeyeon I feel like they're preserving their vocals because they are vocal goddess's and SM doesn't want to lose that title
As for 4th gen, I'm on the opinion Kpop is now an aesthetic, not a genre

invented vocals

 

[catonkatonk]

K-pop's identity has become tied to perfection, uniformity and tight choreography, all of which are at odds with live singing. I don't see the trend reversing, to be honest.

 

[Kataphract]

I'm just holding onto the fact that StayC and AleXa both seem to live sing on their stages.

 

[VillageIdiot]

People want difficult, strenuous, needlessly complicated choreos more than they want vocals

It's the fancam generation now, not the performance one

 

[ThePhantomThief]

At least its not quite Milli Vanilli level yet.

YET

I really wouldn't be surprised if that starts happening sometime soon in kpop though

The thing with lip syncing is that it in itself is a skill. It's selling an illusion to the audience that the artist IS singing, even when they aren't, and it's actually really difficult to do convincingly. It takes practice. You really need to look convincing with your mouth movements, energy, timing etc and if you are good at it the audience will usually buy into the illusion and accept (or, if you are REALLY good, actually believe you're singing).

The problem with some kpop groups is they are just not good at lip syncing at all. No energy to it, barely moving their mouth, syncing really badly, missing lines or, imo, the worst, just stopping altogether and doing something else when their lines are playing. These things break the illusion and break the audiences immersion. It almost just becomes the group "singing along" when they feel like it.

It seems, in kpop, theres more groups bad at lip syncing than there are groups that are good.

 

[The_LastRomeo]

invented vocals

That gave me goosebumps all over again