Expert Ranks Girl Group Idols Who Have The Best Vocal Talent

[koganbot]

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.

Watch on YouTube

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.

Comments

[koganbot]

Actually, watching the "Fire"/"Let's Go Party" vid, I'm thinking that somewhere in my top five vocalists I should simply put "the audience."

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Is Melanie one of the Chocolat members?

[koganbot]

Shhh! I was cleverly trying to ramp up interest among my readers by keeping this a mysterious secret until I found the time to make my ChoColat post. But yeah.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Well! What she sounds like is still a mystery to me, though.

[koganbot]

One thing I've not yet elaborated on when it comes to T-ara (see what I wrote about Hyomin in the post) is that I truly wonder, if we were to sit anyone down, Korean or not, who was new to "Roly-Poly" and have that person listen with the intent of distinguishing seven different vocalists singing solo parts, that she would be able to pick out seven different voices. I haven't brought up this point yet because I'm afraid of embarrassing myself — maybe it's a cinch for someone to pick out each voice, and I'm just too culturally distant or obtuse to differentiate them — but I invite you to try it. The first link below is a dance cover, so T-ara are not the ones mouthing the words in the video. Listen to that and hear where you might be picking out separate voices. Then listen to that one again, while looking at the lyrics (second link) with who's singing what detailed. Then (third) look at the video of this live performance, where you can see who's who, and probably all seven are really singing. Then go back to the first. Are there seven different singers? If someone involved in the song said, "On the studio version, only three," I wouldn't fall over in dead surprise. If that person added, "Yeah, and one was a studio singer" I wouldn't then fall down in dead surprise either. But if that person had instead told me, "No, all seven sang on the studio version, each told to sound like the others (not counting Hwayoung's rap)," I'd be willing to believe that too, I'm just not hearing it.

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

[(Anonymous)]

I am a Tiara fan but even I would admit that Soyeon is the only one that could accurately be described as a singer. Search youtube for 'tiara mr removed'' to see just how good the remainder of the group sounds live. To your point, if most of them sound the same it is because their voices are equally weak, again with the exception of soyeon.

[koganbot]

I don't trust the accuracy of MR removed, to tell you the truth. But still, whether the singers are weak or strong, the question I'm wondering about is whether they're singing with the same timbre and style as each other. There are small-voiced singers in the world — e.g., Robyn, Hilary Duff, Dara of 2NE1, Amy Diamond — who don't sound like Hyomin.

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.

[askbask.livejournal.com]

Don't agree. Hyomin can belt. MR means jack shit.

[koganbot]

Hyomin belting (a moment that clearly isn't lip synced):

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.

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I believe Hyomin was a part of her university's production of "Chicago." There was a clip of her "All that Jazz" in IY, but I can't find it. Here's her "Roxie", with bonus singing by Eunjung: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYVR0CG35Vg

Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jW8G9Ceyms

[koganbot]

More Roxie Hart here:

http://youtu.be/l_f454Tvj5U?t=4m19s

UPDATE

[koganbot]

Okay, a year and much tumult later, I've decided:

(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

[koganbot]

"which I suppose is vocal weakness"

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.)