Le Sserafim critisized for coachella performance

[RussianRoulette]

I haven't seen anyone talk about Le Sserafim at coachella yet? So I thought I would bite the bullet and let the cat out of the bag.

4th and 5th gen Kpop groups have been facing the heat recently due to artists no longer singing live, or delivering very poor vocals when having to sing live. 2nd and 3rd gen kpop groups fought hard fight the stereotype that kpop idols can't sing strongly and a lot of older kpop fans feel like a lot of groups in 4th and 5th gen pretty much threw out everything the older gen's worked hard for.

One group in particular who has been getting a lot of heat has been Le Sserafim.

Le Sserafim has been getting a lot of heat for their live vocals recently.

It started when they had an encore stage for easy and had to sing live with no background vocals. A lot of fans were disappointed in their live singing:



Then emerged this video of MAX singing Stupid In Love with a filipino singer and actress named Alexa Ilacad. Alexa's performance of the song was heavily praised, which lead to a lot of critisism towards Yunjin due to people feeling her singing and live vocals were pretty lackluster compared to Alexa.

Here is a fan recorded video of Yunjin singing the song:



And I couldn't find an official video of this on youtube, but here is a tweet someone posted with Alexa's performance.


Then came Le Sserafim's Coachella stage.
The entire internet pretty much blew up in flames over how terrible everyone thought their live singing was.

Here is a few different videos of their performances in case you haven't seen them yet. I tried to include few different one's so you all can kind of get a more rounded perspective of how things were. I know you can't hear their singing the best in all of them, but I tried to find the best ones I could on youtube since Twitter and TT was a bit biased and I felt youtube was a bit more neutral...












Yunjin faced most of the heat followed by Kazuha and Eunchae. Sakura got some praise for having the most stable vocals out of everyone, and Chaewon got mixed reviews.

Some popular arguments people are making are:
- The song was not in their normal octave, throwing them off (can someone confirm this?...)
- Some people directed their anger towards Hybe since they feel like its their fault for not properly training their singers in live singing
- Some people argued it shouldn't be hybe's fault since singing live should have already been taught to them during their idol training
- Their singing might be bad, but the energy was still good which is all that matters.
- Since the audience was too loud, they had no choice but to scream the lyrics rather than sing them or else they would have not been heard.

I read the reviews people left on Panchoa and Korean netizens seem divided on their performance as well. Although most people seem to agree the vocals were not the best, Korean netizens overall seem to think that their dancing was still good and since the audience still received their performance positively their lack of vocals shouldn't be stressed over that much.

Did you see Le Sserafim's performance yet? What are your thoughts?

---

My two cents:

I think there is a difference between thinking someone can't sing and still enjoying a performance. You can think someone's vocals are not the best but still enjoy their dancing and performances, saying their singing was bad doesn't mean their stage was ruined. I think for the most part they were able to make up for their vocals in their dancing and energy which is really important, though I do agree with the internet's point that if you are being invited to a music festival you are expected to sing live well.

I sort of agree with Eunchae and Kazuha sounding a bit off, though I don't believe either are main vocalists? Of what I know they both seem to be sub vocalists and dancers.

Yunjin was the only one who really threw me off. Her voice seemed lower, almost like she had a cold? I know nothing about music so I can't tell if they did lower the song's octave for Coachella, but of what I observed Yunjin did seem to struggle singing so low so maybe that was the case?

 

[Seriously]

At the end of the day, big companies don't seem to want performers anymore, they want instant celebrities. You COULD go with the girls who are strong vocally, maybe exceptionally good dancers? Or, you could go with girls who will score brand deals, sell their image, get yourself some 'it' girls.

There's also the problem of "live" kpop content regularly being far from it. Fans develop this very warped view of live vocals. So when a group is thrown up with no assistance, it's an ugly awakening.

There are new gen girls who are great, for sure, but they aren't particularly common. Can't speak for the men, never listen to them.

 

[hatmixx]

Lsf is one of the bigger artists that lipsyncs the most on broadcast. Not a huge shocker. There are a lot of things that can be factored in, but overall you have to be a better singer than what their collective whole is.

 

[Mina]

Good singers seems to be rare these days ngl. Groups back then always had a “standout” singer (Taeyeon, Hyolyn, Wendy, Yuju, Jihyo, Seunghee to name a few) who you just knew were the best singers of their respective groups but I just cannot determine this with a lot of newer groups - like who’s supposed to be the best singer in Illit for example?

Companies just see a pretty person who seem marketable and chooses to debut them. Talent comes in second. As for Le Sserafim, singing were never their strongest asset so I’m not sure why people expected Mariah Carey-like vocals from them. This isn’t news. They were always amazing performers and that’s what we saw at Coachella. The issue seems to be more about what type of songs that they’re given, I think in some songs they sound better compared to others. The crowd seemed to have fun and enjoy the show at least

 

[Seriously]

Companies just see a pretty person who seem marketable and chooses to debut them. Talent comes in second.

I do sometimes wonder how many super talented kids eventually realise they're wasting their time. Because they're just not what the company wants...

 

[frostpuddle]

I do sometimes wonder how many super talented kids eventually realise they're wasting their time. Because they're just not what the company wants...

It's not just company, it's also fandom and public/casuals. look at purple kiss... or spica, purfles and numerous other talented nugus. f(x) Luna, who cares if she's the best vocalist from SM, where she now



Singing don't make money, brand ambassador/sponsorship is the key, so visual and marketing are more important within the idol industry. LSF would still be successful regardless of their coachella performance.

 

[fromisJelly]

Let me just say that I have the same view as Sakura

 

[Seriously]

It's not just company, it's also fandom and public/casuals. look at purple kiss... or spica, purfles and numerous other talented nugus. f(x) Luna, who cares if she's the best vocalist from SM, where she now

Forever sad that Pink Fantasy's Yechan and SeeA never got a big chance. They were FANTASTIC. But nobody cared.

LSF would still be successful regardless of their coachella performance.

And they will continue to be so. They have the luxury of it not really mattering in the end.

 

[Lilac]

Constructive criticism is fine but it looks like they are getting hate online mostly from other groups' fans. Overall, media has reported positively and the crowd loved them.

They put on a great performance. They did well in vocals for the songs that required less choreography. There is ofc a room for improvement in vocals. They are only a two year group and I already see Eunchae, Sakura, and Kazuha have improved since debut.

'Easy' is a song that has a lower register compared to other songs so i could see how they struggled with this one

This generation seems to focus on performance aspects more than the vocal aspects. 2nd gen had the best when it comes to vocals department.

 

[hatmixx]

Let me just say that I have the same view as Sakura

Everyone should have the same view. BUT, let's not pretend like the vocals were on point for the most part. It's ok for people to be disappointed. Anyway, this is why basically every kpop group just lipsyncs.

 

[Seriously]

It's ok for people to be disappointed.

I dunno if other people are like me, but in my head, I hold bigger companies to a much higher standard. All the money and resources my faves could only dream of, years of training...

 

[frostpuddle]

Forever sad that Pink Fantasy's Yechan and SeeA never got a big chance. They were FANTASTIC. But nobody cared.


And they will continue to be so. They have the luxury of it not really mattering in the end.

they should hire yechan to be their vocal coach

 

[BianTwo]

• About the Coachella stage

+ Great energy, they had fun
+ Audience seems to have appreciate it
- They tried too hard so at the end they lacked stamina, probably too excited, or they didn't manage well to handle 40 min
- If Sakura was the most stable among them, good for her but there's a problem

It wasn't as horrible but it wasn't that great, however they gave everything on stage and likely sacrified their vocal

Regardless that stage felt like the final straw about the newer groups lacking in vocal, starting debates about the topic, etc.

• About HYBE groups

As a huge company with so many resources, I expect more from them than from smaller labels
At the end marketing, money and visual are probably the most important but if you lack in singing get ready to be criticized

Even if NewJeans aren't known for their vocal and if their choreo aren't as intense as LS, they somehow manage to do better on stage. So there's some issue from above. Min Heejin seems to know what to do and ADOR is training well the members. But Source ?

ILL-IT also got criticized for their vocal. For those who followed the survival show R U Next, vocal skill was one of the things to worry about. Only a few of them were decent vocalists and none made it into the final group.
But that's also on fans since they were the one who voted even if before the final Belift already had their lineup.

• About the new Gen lacking compared to previous Gens and K-pop as a whole

Overrall most fans have the same impression : 4th gen is more focus on performance, part of why vocals are lacking and why songs got shorter. They seems more "all rounder", for most it means they are decent in every aspect but aren't good at anything. "We don't have position" can also be a similar excuse.

While 2nd-3rd gen might have been less skill overrall but they were good, great, at the position they were given or trained. But at their time they were also criticized for anything : vocal, danse, visual, it wasn't had visible as today. So careful for the nostalgia bias.

The parasocial side made difficult to criticize any idol or any groups without being labelled as a anti or hater. On one side they are protected and babying by their fans, on the other side you can't give any feedback, criticism or even make fun of them without having the fandom reporting your account or harassing.

 

[Your Biggest Fan]

Really trying to be Unforgiven Girls irl.

Edit:

But to mirror what a few have said before, I find the lack to be HYBE's fault and not the girls'. If HYBE wanted good vocalists, they'd train them to be vocalists. Obviously, this isn't a priority for them.
And fans are partly to blame as well. You can admit that your faves suck in certain areas talent-wise. Be realistic. Gassing them up is not going to encourage them to improve.

 

[Gyujin]

Good luck to New Jeans with their comeback.

People are going to be ready to scrutinize their performances after all this Le Sserafim/Illit drama.

 

[roseychu]

Vocals aside, they got shit just for yunjin saying "are you ready to shake some fucking ass" and i find that hilarious

 

[babyv004]

I am gonna be really harsh here: frankly this is all fault of kpop stans as a whole (but mostly HYBE and YG stans).

You guys always make groups with shitty vocals become the most popular ones instead of let them flop.
If you guys really cared about vocals then groups like MAMAMOO would be the most popular ones

It's not that hard to admit that the vocals of the new generation groups are really bad bc kpop companies learned they can cut corners since their stupid stans (aka company stans) will make any group with really poor vocals popular anyway.
So there is no point for them to training the idols to sing properly or even to find idols with good vocal in the 1st place. all they care now is about aesthetics over talent

Now about the response i have seen given by 2 members about this, i am really disappointed by the way they handle it.
Instead of being all pissed and clapping back, they should be asking HYBE to spend money into give them vocal lessons and train them properly.
if they have time to be online to post stuff like that, pretty sure the members also have time to learn more to improve themselves.

if nothing this criticism (which in my opinion is not equal to hate) would only make them want to work harder to prove themselves and shut up the haters.
if this is the response they wanna give, then it's pretty clear why they dont improve and never will. The girls probably are so full of themselves that think they don't need to.

 

[Seriously]

The girls probably are so full of themselves that think they don't need to.

Being thrown show win after show win, while getting every work opportunity under sun, will almost certainly make you at least a little big headed.