You don't need me or anybody else to tell you that Michael Jackson's influence spread across the entire world, and had a major impact on music PERIOD. So it comes as no surprise that tributes got held to him not long after he passed, and homages and tributes continue to get paid to him now. Japan has seen the likes of Crystal Kay and Ayaka cover his classic "Human nature", and Kumi Koda give a nod to his "Thriller" dance in her "Can we go back" music video. And now Korea's popular idols have paid their dues to the late pop star, with popular stages of some of Michael's most memorable hits and routines.
KARA's Nicole & Super Junior's Ryeowook - Ben
"Ben" is a song in dedication to Michael Jackson's dead mouse, and Nicole sounded like one during this performance. I'm surprised Ryeowook was chosen to sing this song. Out of all the SuJu boys, I think Kyuhyun is the only member who could have nailed this song to the floor. But Ryeowook sounded pretty good. His English was near perfect. Poor Nicole seemed redundant. Her notes were as flat as pancakes. She should've just turned her back to the audience, stood in the background and done the "Mister" booty sway whilst Ryeowook handled Michael's business.
2PM - Dangerous
This was the best tribute out of the lot. Rather than f**k up a Michael classic and go half arsed with the dance steps - the 2PM boys donned some MJ gear and just worked the moves. And boy did they work them! They weren't in perfect time with one another. But they were channelling every piece of MJ swagger they could muster. Wooyoung was getting right into that shit. Wierd Michael facial expressions and all. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but I liked the inclusion of Janet Jackson's "Let's dance!" interlude from her Rhythm Nation 1814 album.
4 minute - Billie Jean
4 minute have got that swagger. Especially Hyuna. But they must have left it in their dorm, because I saw none of it here. The girls looked great in their outfits. And watching them crotch grab made me chuckle. But the whole performance just felt empty. I got the feeling the girls' weren't entirely comfortable with this performance, and that their hearts weren't in it. If you're going to perform "Billie Jean", you have to swag it right out, and these girls didn't. Fail.
Some of Girls' generation, Brown eyed girls & Davichi - I'll be there
The girls' voices were not that strong. Some of the notes could not have been flatter if Uncle Phil from The Fresh prince had done the running man all over them. Things weren't helped by the shoddy microphones neither. I couldn't hear a damn note that Brown eyed girls sang, and poor Taeyeon got caught off guard when her mic went to shit during her section. I think an anti-fan sedated the audio engineer and decided to f**k up this performance. I truly do. My love for "I'll be there" went to shreds after Mariah Carey raped it seven new arse holes at Michael Jackson's memorial service, and it continues to get raped now. The Jackson 5 songs are often harder to sing than Michael's solo ones because Michael had such a ridiculously soulful voice as a kid, and he had incredible range and amazing control over it. Plus, he was singing real soul records back then. And a lot of these new cats in the pop game aren't up on how to really sing. It's a shame that Jea's mic messed up on her and that she wasn't given "I'll be there" as a solo, because she's one of the few chicks in the K-Pop game who can actually sang. She easily could have handled this song on her lonesome with some black church choir behind her. Is there even a black church choir in Korea!?
SHINee's Jonghyun, Kim Taewoon & TRAX's Kim Jung Mo - Beat it
Kim Taewoo sounded really good, save for some iffy Engrish here or there. And SHINee's Jonghyun did a much better job singing this song than I thought he would. Props to the kid! But that electricity and energy that "Beat it" has was absent from this performance. A complete shame, because the vocals were pretty on point. I think it was one of the better vocal performances out of the lot. Some dance steps wouldn't have hurt though. And at least one dude with a red leather jacket and a snooker cue wouldn't have gone amiss neither.
The only SNSD-bots who can dance & SHINee - Smooth criminal
Blatant miming. I don't know why they didn't just do what 2PM did and kept it all about the dancing. The SNSD-bots still seem to have problems actually keeping in complete time and synchronicity with one another, but they did well and looked hot. The SHINee boys did a great job. I was really impressed. But because the girls' white suits stood out so much and their dancing was so much more animated than that of the boys', they attracted more of my attention. Overall, this was really good. As with 2PM's performance, I feel this captured Michael well. I took note of how the lean was omitted. I guess nobody was brave enough to don the magnetic shoes and attempt it.
K. Will, Onew, Yesung & Kara - Heal the world
What the hell was up with Kara? How can four girls sound so flat and dead pan together!? Where was the power, the harmonizing, the volume!? I know this is a K-pop group in a landscape of barely singing and auto-tune, but DAMN! They sounded really, really bad. Yesung may as well have not even been there. I don't know if he had a cold, or he couldn't be bothered. But a dude with his vocal chops should have been outsinging the hell out of everybody on that stage. This performance was doo-doo. It was corny and a slap in a face to Michael. You best believe that he is turning 1080 in his grave right now. I really am dissapointed that Yesung didn't go to town with the vocals.
It's a shame Rain didn't make an appearance. If any body in K-Pop could give one heck of a stage tribute to Michael where moves are concerned, it's that guy.
KARA's Nicole & Super Junior's Ryeowook - Ben
"Ben" is a song in dedication to Michael Jackson's dead mouse, and Nicole sounded like one during this performance. I'm surprised Ryeowook was chosen to sing this song. Out of all the SuJu boys, I think Kyuhyun is the only member who could have nailed this song to the floor. But Ryeowook sounded pretty good. His English was near perfect. Poor Nicole seemed redundant. Her notes were as flat as pancakes. She should've just turned her back to the audience, stood in the background and done the "Mister" booty sway whilst Ryeowook handled Michael's business.
2PM - Dangerous
This was the best tribute out of the lot. Rather than f**k up a Michael classic and go half arsed with the dance steps - the 2PM boys donned some MJ gear and just worked the moves. And boy did they work them! They weren't in perfect time with one another. But they were channelling every piece of MJ swagger they could muster. Wooyoung was getting right into that shit. Wierd Michael facial expressions and all. I'm not sure whether it was intentional or not, but I liked the inclusion of Janet Jackson's "Let's dance!" interlude from her Rhythm Nation 1814 album.
4 minute - Billie Jean
4 minute have got that swagger. Especially Hyuna. But they must have left it in their dorm, because I saw none of it here. The girls looked great in their outfits. And watching them crotch grab made me chuckle. But the whole performance just felt empty. I got the feeling the girls' weren't entirely comfortable with this performance, and that their hearts weren't in it. If you're going to perform "Billie Jean", you have to swag it right out, and these girls didn't. Fail.
Some of Girls' generation, Brown eyed girls & Davichi - I'll be there
The girls' voices were not that strong. Some of the notes could not have been flatter if Uncle Phil from The Fresh prince had done the running man all over them. Things weren't helped by the shoddy microphones neither. I couldn't hear a damn note that Brown eyed girls sang, and poor Taeyeon got caught off guard when her mic went to shit during her section. I think an anti-fan sedated the audio engineer and decided to f**k up this performance. I truly do. My love for "I'll be there" went to shreds after Mariah Carey raped it seven new arse holes at Michael Jackson's memorial service, and it continues to get raped now. The Jackson 5 songs are often harder to sing than Michael's solo ones because Michael had such a ridiculously soulful voice as a kid, and he had incredible range and amazing control over it. Plus, he was singing real soul records back then. And a lot of these new cats in the pop game aren't up on how to really sing. It's a shame that Jea's mic messed up on her and that she wasn't given "I'll be there" as a solo, because she's one of the few chicks in the K-Pop game who can actually sang. She easily could have handled this song on her lonesome with some black church choir behind her. Is there even a black church choir in Korea!?
SHINee's Jonghyun, Kim Taewoon & TRAX's Kim Jung Mo - Beat it
Kim Taewoo sounded really good, save for some iffy Engrish here or there. And SHINee's Jonghyun did a much better job singing this song than I thought he would. Props to the kid! But that electricity and energy that "Beat it" has was absent from this performance. A complete shame, because the vocals were pretty on point. I think it was one of the better vocal performances out of the lot. Some dance steps wouldn't have hurt though. And at least one dude with a red leather jacket and a snooker cue wouldn't have gone amiss neither.
The only SNSD-bots who can dance & SHINee - Smooth criminal
Blatant miming. I don't know why they didn't just do what 2PM did and kept it all about the dancing. The SNSD-bots still seem to have problems actually keeping in complete time and synchronicity with one another, but they did well and looked hot. The SHINee boys did a great job. I was really impressed. But because the girls' white suits stood out so much and their dancing was so much more animated than that of the boys', they attracted more of my attention. Overall, this was really good. As with 2PM's performance, I feel this captured Michael well. I took note of how the lean was omitted. I guess nobody was brave enough to don the magnetic shoes and attempt it.
K. Will, Onew, Yesung & Kara - Heal the world
What the hell was up with Kara? How can four girls sound so flat and dead pan together!? Where was the power, the harmonizing, the volume!? I know this is a K-pop group in a landscape of barely singing and auto-tune, but DAMN! They sounded really, really bad. Yesung may as well have not even been there. I don't know if he had a cold, or he couldn't be bothered. But a dude with his vocal chops should have been outsinging the hell out of everybody on that stage. This performance was doo-doo. It was corny and a slap in a face to Michael. You best believe that he is turning 1080 in his grave right now. I really am dissapointed that Yesung didn't go to town with the vocals.
It's a shame Rain didn't make an appearance. If any body in K-Pop could give one heck of a stage tribute to Michael where moves are concerned, it's that guy.
And here I thought Mariah was the worst at miming. Then I saw that "Smooth Criminal" performance, lol.
ReplyDeleteThe "Dangerous" one wasn't that bad, but I usually hate watching others try and imitate MJ. But it was still a nice tribute.
i do not know why they even do tributes if there gonna be like these!!!
ReplyDelete