Journal atlas
Rookie
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2021
- Messages
- 72
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.
