Elysium

It is common to judge a person based on their looks on a superficial level. I have come to notice that many audience members watching live shows on the computer are easily supplanting the opinions that they have onto the things they watch. I acknowledge that this is normal but it is not normal to the extent that these people want to claim expertise in an area where they are obviously unfamiliar with.

For example, in Korea, there has been an influx of new girl groups and boy bands; spawning intense criticisms from these entertainment companies that debuted the singers on a superficial level-based on their looks that would appeal to the general public. It is widely known that SM Entertainment has been debuting singers who have “pleasing” features. What I have noticed is that people judge the abilities of these singers based on the current show they are watching, without taking into consideration other factors. In Wonder Girls, a girl group, debuting under the JYP Entertainment label in Korea has been under criticism for their youngest member, So Hee (14 years old). People say that she is untalented but because she has pretty features, and thus she was allowed to join the Wonder Girls group. These people claim that So Hee possesses no ability for singing because her voice does not seem “mature” or deemed “fitting” for the singing.

Let me just point out a couple of flaws here. One: These people who criticize her do not and are under no circumstances to claim that she is not a good singer. Why? Simply because they are not experts in fields of music. They are common everyday people who listen to music for fun. Sure, it would be easily detectable if one of the members singing suddenly sang off-key or her voice cracked. However, this is not what I am talking about. I am talking about people who form an opinion that she is not fit for singing because her voice is not mature enough and then automatically linking that statement to a supposition that she passed the auditions based on her looks. Two, they need to define the term “mature” and they need to know the background details to her position in the girl group. It goes without saying, without evidence, they simply do not have the right to condemn these singers.

If evidence is what people want I will show you:

The first performance is that of Wonder Girls performing their contagious “Tell Me”dance. *Note: So Hee is the girl all the way to the left dancing in the beginning.

So you guys can clearly hear that her voice sounds a bit childish here. Now the fact that people don’t take into consideration is that that is not the way she sounds singing their title song, “Irony” or performing other songs.

The first song is a live show of their “Irony” title song while the second is one of them singing at the MKMF Awards 2007 (similar to the MTV Awards in the U.S) to their producer JYP’s hit song from the 90’s “Honey”.

As you can clearly see, So Hee sings right after Sun Mi when they get on the stage. But then again, I do have to say that I am not entirely a big fan of Wonder Girls but I will  not be so ignorant as to dismiss this one song where So Hee sings in what seems be a childish voice and make the generalization that she is not a good singer.

So the final question is, where’s the childish voice?

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