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An article claimed* that an online community board ran a "Ranking of girl group idols with the best vocal talent" (phrase in quotes in the article), the board claiming (but this not in quotes) that "three professional experts in the music field personally participated."**
Miffed at being excluded, I compiled my own top five:
1. CL
2. Hyomin
3. Melanie
4. Whoever I decide is the most crucial vocalist in 4minute, once I figure out who is who
5. Same for LPG
I wouldn't be surprised if the people who pick Taeyeon for her work with SNSD are right, but I haven't yet figured out who's doing what with them, either.
Note that I decided the instructions meant current Korean girl groups. Otherwise my number one would be Mary Weiss.
My status as an expert is based on my being expert at putting people on lists whom no one else puts on lists. In my expert opinion, the girl group idol with the best vocal talent is the one who provides the best vocals; to say it another way, she is best at using her vocals (or having her vocals used) to create good music. I suppose if someone's in a group that's always doing shitty songs, that's a disadvantage. Life isn't fair.
Anyhow, CL's delighted yawp immediately identifies that we're hearing a 2NE1 song, whether she's singing or rapping, and 2NE1's sound is my favorite sound. Hyomin's role in her group is not as crucial, but she is most representative of T-ara's cuteness-that-sounds-like-strength. I'll have more to say about her soon, and Melanie too and maybe some of the others once I figure out what's what.
The rankings decided on at the online community board were (1) Hyorin of Sistar, (2) Lee Hae Ri of Davichi, (3) JeA of Brown Eyed Girls, (4) IU [proving either that other experts are even worse at following instructions than I am or that something got lost in translation], (5) Taeyeon of SNSD. "The ranking was based on television and radio appearances, stage presence such as ability to express the lyrics, pitch, voice stability, breathing, and groove."
*without providing a name or a link
**On behalf of the community? Were the experts some among many participating in the ranking? Were they the only three doing the ranking? To confuse things further, the article said (still not quoting directly) that the experts were "ranking the female idols with the best vocal talent"; to my mind "female idol" and "girl group idol" are not synonymous. For instance, if you've never been in a group, you're not a girl group idol.
Miffed at being excluded, I compiled my own top five:
1. CL
2. Hyomin
3. Melanie
4. Whoever I decide is the most crucial vocalist in 4minute, once I figure out who is who
5. Same for LPG
I wouldn't be surprised if the people who pick Taeyeon for her work with SNSD are right, but I haven't yet figured out who's doing what with them, either.
Note that I decided the instructions meant current Korean girl groups. Otherwise my number one would be Mary Weiss.
My status as an expert is based on my being expert at putting people on lists whom no one else puts on lists. In my expert opinion, the girl group idol with the best vocal talent is the one who provides the best vocals; to say it another way, she is best at using her vocals (or having her vocals used) to create good music. I suppose if someone's in a group that's always doing shitty songs, that's a disadvantage. Life isn't fair.
Anyhow, CL's delighted yawp immediately identifies that we're hearing a 2NE1 song, whether she's singing or rapping, and 2NE1's sound is my favorite sound. Hyomin's role in her group is not as crucial, but she is most representative of T-ara's cuteness-that-sounds-like-strength. I'll have more to say about her soon, and Melanie too and maybe some of the others once I figure out what's what.
The rankings decided on at the online community board were (1) Hyorin of Sistar, (2) Lee Hae Ri of Davichi, (3) JeA of Brown Eyed Girls, (4) IU [proving either that other experts are even worse at following instructions than I am or that something got lost in translation], (5) Taeyeon of SNSD. "The ranking was based on television and radio appearances, stage presence such as ability to express the lyrics, pitch, voice stability, breathing, and groove."
*without providing a name or a link
**On behalf of the community? Were the experts some among many participating in the ranking? Were they the only three doing the ranking? To confuse things further, the article said (still not quoting directly) that the experts were "ranking the female idols with the best vocal talent"; to my mind "female idol" and "girl group idol" are not synonymous. For instance, if you've never been in a group, you're not a girl group idol.
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Date: 2012-02-27 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 12:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 09:21 pm (UTC)Dance cover (to studio version of "Roly-Poly"): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDISnAo1uLo
Lyrics to "Roly-Poly": http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/t_ara/roly_poly.html
T-ara live performance of "Roly-Poly" (Hyomin's in dark blue with white dots, the second one singing, and it's that part that really starts the song proper, after Qri's intro): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-AOFG1f_AY
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Date: 2012-03-02 08:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 09:41 am (UTC)And the parts that are designated Hyomin's seem more defining of the group, at least of their nonballads, than are Soyeon's, not that they're all that different.
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Date: 2012-03-02 07:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 07:51 pm (UTC)http://youtu.be/0s4NP-yRQ_I?t=7m25s
[Though in an odd sort of accidental commentary, YouTube is inconsistent as to whether or not to give me sound on this link.]
How did I give this song only a 7 on the Jukebox? Is an easy 9.
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Date: 2012-03-03 09:34 pm (UTC)Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jW8G9Ceyms
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Date: 2012-04-13 04:08 pm (UTC)http://youtu.be/l_f454Tvj5U?t=4m19s
UPDATE
Date: 2013-05-19 08:48 pm (UTC)(1) All the T-ara women are singing their own parts on the recordings, and I can sometimes tell who is who. But they're not trying to develop individual vocal signifiers à la 2NE1. This doesn't mean they lack distinctive characteristics. But they often subordinate them.
(2) The three experts, whoever they are, know something, in that Hyorin turns out to be as good as advertised, utterly exquisite on "Alone," for instance. (Though if the experts are basing their judgment on her bravura turns during Immortal Song 2, those are actually some of her least moving performances. A discussion of such stuff is occurring right now on Koganbot.)
(3) I underestimated how much Soyeon contributes to the T-araness of the T-ara songs. The high-pitched cute-but-not-cutesy emotions are hers as much as Hyomin's, though Hyomin's wavering, which I suppose is vocal weakness, does seem more emblematically T-aratic. But Soyeon is the workhorse. Eunjung seems to have the most emotive talent, and she's strangely underused. On side projects and guest appearances, though, her singing doesn't come across as being full of personality. But there haven't been a lot of them, and in T-ara she's excellent at, e.g., delivering the yank of feeling of the "kiss me babies" of "Day By Day." (The vid is funny, though, in that at moments everyone's lip-syncing each other's parts. Oh yeah, and Hwayoung raps real well on that song. Sigh.) Jiyeon's restraint and lack of affect always has force, I'm not good at explaining why. Don't know if it's her, or if she's just lucky in her settings. Consistently.
Re: UPDATE
Date: 2013-06-11 11:25 am (UTC)But in the context of T-ara, it isn't aesthetic weakness. Which means it's not weakness period — though it might turn out to be, if she doesn't continue to use it as well as it's used so far in T-ara; Hyomin is not yet a master of the high-pitched quaver in the way that e.g. Taylor Swift is. (Okay, competing meanings of "weakness": (1) not aesthetically effective, (2) not loud. The songs and arrangements are making her aesthetically effective, and for all I know she herself is doing so as well, since I don't know who chooses or decides what when it comes to the details of the actual sound. But anyway, she's not as loud and steady as many other singers, and given her role in T-ara, this sort of "weakness" is an advantage.)