Legendary singer berates the K-pop industry
During the live broadcast of The Grammy Awards in South Korea, legend Bae Chul Soo criticized the frequency of lip-syncing among performers in the country and expressed an urge to ban lip-syncing.
The 57th Annual Grammy Awards was held on February 8th and broadcasted live in Korea through Mnet where Bae Chul Soo, a legendary Korean singer and music critique, was the MC for the live broadcast along with Lim Jin Mo, an acclaimed music critique.
During the show, both critiques applauded the live stages and the singers’ performances which brought up the topic of Milli Vanili, a 90s pop-duo whose awards were rescinded when it was revealed that they lip-synced to another singer’s voice on the track.
Bae Chul Soo stated, “In Korea, there are too many performers who simply lip-sync, or just go on stage with voice recordings included in the background music.” In response, Lim Jin Mo quickly reasoned, “This is due to the fact that flashy performances are prioritized in comparison to live singing.”
Though Bae Chul Soo understands the logic, he emphasizes his point saying, “I wish lip-syncing would be prohibited by law. It’s a shame that I’m not a governor and I can’t issue such a law. I understand and admit that lip-syncing is a form of performance, but such performers shouldn’t be dubbed ‘singers’ but rather ‘lip-syncers’.”
Additionally, it seems that Bae Chul Soo is not alone in his thoughts as many people have voiced their agreements to his statement, commenting, “They are just dancing parrots,” or jokingly, “They’re not singers but soonguh (a type of fish) just opening and closing their mouth.”
Some even mention names of groups and agencies as one netizen writes, “Are you watching this, SM Entertainment?”
Source: My Daily