arhur12
Star
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2021
- Messages
- 2,945
Sorry I can't make any assumptions about their ethnicities based on their features alone because we don't know these people and I don't think it's fair to make judgements based on someone's appearance alone. Is Kai black? I don't know and I am going to judge him for cultural appropriation until I know better about his intention but for that he will have to speak which sadly SM doesn't allow it's artists.Understood, I just always felt some type of way at the babying. I can't speak too much on bts, as a unit they are probably the strongest group but individually they are weak. Even though I always preferred Kai's music and style but, I don't pull any punches or typically defend him cause he is an sm product. He is.
Lmao, to explain myself better, the reason why I never mentioned him specifically when speaking about the cultural appropriation(despite him using black culture in his work a lot) is because his natural facial features pre-plastic surgery look very indigenous looking. Its the same reason why I don't fault Lisa for doing a blaccent and leaning into black/latino culture more, because she looks like a multiracial person anyway. It doesn't make it right but I'm a bit more forgiving because I'm aware of the mis-understandings of history in Asia. There are small populations of people within southeast asia that genetically and phenotypically have a lot in common genetically with austrailoid and black subgroups of people. So honestly if they had curly hair you wouldn't be able to tell their appearance apart from the average afro-latino person or any other mulatto. Most asians genetically are the product of this but some don't look like it as much or at all. Many may have more of a russian background. Hence all the colorism and featurism.
It may not be fair, but someone of the yayoi phenotype in asia appropriating black culture takes on a very different vibe than someone who probably has more pre-yayoi features and dna running through their veins. It's the reason why I don't speak on it at all because honestly, it's a very nuanced debate to have. I wonder how many people have actually seen Kai predebut without makeup and plastic surgery? He literally looked like a black person, and that's not even including skintone. Korean fans had rumors he was african american, and many genuinely thought he was a mixed person. So do many ethnic dark skinned thai people and I'm not exaggerating, you just won't see them much in the media. Every country has a mixed population to a certain degree. Taemin was a tanner kid but his features are normal for a far east asian person, his looks were very much so the standard in Korea 100 percent. So him occasionally pretending to be micheal jackson and constantly expressing his distain for darker skin and then using black females to hype himself up. There's a lot of nuance in my opinions on the topic.
I do think Taemin's marketing was better than his and also Kai didn't do himself any favors in terms of taking care of himself. So I don't say nothing in his defense cause it's lowkey deserved everything you're saying. I actually bought more shinee albums than exo and Kai album, just to make that clear. So I feel like I'm a pretty balanced person to say these things. Lmao all these groups could disappear tomorrow and I wouldn't care, so I have no dog in the fight at all.
Taemin had no talent at all when he auditioned. In singing and barely dancing, singing lessons and consistent practice has helped him a lot, I still don't think it's all to great but there's an audience for it. In an industry of plants he is the kpop standard of a plant. Kai is actually a naturally talented person, but puts forth little to no effort at times and fell into the industry hard, he's in super deep. An s.m casting coach even said he was 'a natural'. This means he basically was allowed to debut off merit alone, which is incredibly rare.
S.m doesn't allow artists to sing below their accepted standards, the reason why Kai doesn't sing live is because his voice dropped around his early 20s and he literally cannot sustain above a certain pitch live he even has to pitch his voice up to talk which strains it even more. His voice is too low to sing at s.m standards which is more like a female range. This is why the more feminine males in s.m are the 'best singers'. But none have a very wide range. It's not a biased thing to say that Kai is a very good singer but his voice doesn't fit S.m or kpop standards. Which personally I don't like at all, but it's what the korean gen public like...they want something attainable and kind of boring.
A very jb/mj type case, good heart but he's still very deep in everything. That being said any criticism he has he earned. I just feel like Taemin protects himself from any criticism by embracing the innocent act, especially by using his religion when pressed too hard about anything. It's a clear defense mechanism.
but yes I do think we agree on most points, it's just the little wittle details in between.
I don't care about Kai or Taemin. I did at one point when I was an SM Stan but ever since I learned SM buys songs from western producers and then only adds Korean lyrics for their group and solo comebacks I lost any sense of respect I had for that company and their idols. The only real idol with a soul and passion for music to come out of that company is Jonghyun and they killed him.
There is a lyricist who works for SM and makes vlogs she said SM idols aren't allowed to communicate their thoughts to lyricists so the lyricists have to make the songs according to their understanding of the comeback which means most SM concepts lack any depth.
About Kai he is naturally gifted in dance and the only one with charisma in Exo. He has raw talent but he needs to learn how to sing his songs live for me to take him seriously or he will become Britney Spears 2.0 and no matter how good of a performer he is he will not be taken seriously as a musician.
I didn't praise Taemin because I am a fan or something. The man has admitted himself he only sang songs given by his company until now and his music and image was heavily commercialised while in SM so at least he is better than Taeyeon, Key, Minho in my eyes who are still Pinkshit employees. He gets overpraised for doing the most basic shit but the problem is 99% idols aren't even doing the bare minimum which makes him stand out. Like, he doesn't have much competition when most dancers can't sing and vocalists don't dance and now he is making his own music and working with international dancers so even more praises are going to come his way with him building the narrative with his latest comeback that it was him all along and not SM behind his solo even if he didn't do jack shit for his previous solo albums and that is one thing I can give him credit for. He was never a natural talent like Kai, JM,Jhope, but the ONLY right thing he has ever done is PRACTICE to improve his skills which is nothing to be praised for but most idols lack 2 braincells to even understand that they need to work hard for their careers and that is one thing I will give him credit for. Like him or hate him you have to admit he is clever and knows how to market himself. He stays away from controversies and was self-aware enough to know he needed how to sing before debuting solo and realized he needed to leave Pinkshit and have the title of "Self-Produced" to be taken seriously as a musician.
But, let me just rant about Taeyeon here because I f***ING hate her. You said Taemin is the standard of the perfect idol but I disagree Taeyeon is the perfect idol. That woman is worshipped in Korea just because she has good vocals but she hasn't entered the music studio even once in her decade long entire career. All she does is release glorified covers of songs created by western artists. In all her 9-10 years as a soloist she has written maybe 1-2 songs. But she gets no criticism and Kpop fans are always saying she should leave SM because they are holding her back but the truth is Taeyeon probably won't survive without the SM machine behind her albums. One of her biggest songs is "Fine" and it is literally a cover of a song released by a black woman because SM did not change even one note on the song. But so called Queen Taeyeon is immune to criticism and always ends up topping charts in Korea. Her latest album To X was the most laziest derivative shit but it's in melon's top 10 hits of the entire 2023-24 period. At least with idols like Kai, Taemin, even Jkay they are criticized by Koreans for not creating their own songs but Taeyeon doesn't even get called manufactured like them. For me SNSD and Taeyeon are the poster girls of SM's idol system. These girls were nothing more than beautiful models and the fact Taeyeon is considered the most talented out of the bunch despite being a manufactured puppet tells you so much about Koreans and their mindset.
And the thing about SM giving songs to them is not exclusive to Taemin and Taeyeon. All SM idols except the ones who have actual songwriting and composing credits are puppets of the company. I am sorry if you like Kai but SM gave Kai the Taemin rejects for his solo albums and his concepts were already done by Taemin in the past. Which I am not going to blame him for because that's how Pinkshit works. I will blame him for not learning how to sing well and if he doesn't leave Pinkshit as soon as his contract expires. I know he has a lower range but in SM there is Key who is a baritone and even though he strains a lot in his live performances his technique is good enough that he can sing his own songs live in his concerts. I am not asking for idols to be belting high notes.I am just saying they should be able to sing their OWN songs live which they themselves recorded in the studio because these people get paid for being singers and if they can't do that don't debut as a soloist and maybe try being a choreographer or something
You know the bar is on the floor when Bang PD comes out and says "He thinks skills can be taught and star factor is more important" and fans make millions of excuses when the rare times their favs have to hold a real mic.
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