🚨BLOCKED ON Youtube🙅🏻‍♂️- Kingdom: Legendary War Episode 1 ATEEZ, BTOB, SF9 DEEPER Performance Analysis

can't wait for btob killing voice!

Love it when someone finds BTOB (B to B - Born to Beat) for the first time. They are the vocal kings and nicest Sunbaes of KPOP. Tubi has this whole show on for free and I return to it often to watch all the interaction. It was nice to add songs from the other 5 groups to my playlists.

Fantasy (SF9 fandom) here! This performance is definitely not the best showcase of their vocals, although later kingdom performances show more. At this point, they were a dance group first and a vocal group second, but their vocals have always been great in my opinion. Their later albums, beginning with the one they released after Kingdom, start to show more vocal maturity. The latest album, About Love, is all vocal driven. It’s all ballads and mid-tempo tracks and even their rappers are singing.

I believe you are correct that this show (and also Immortal Songs) require live main vocals but allow background vocals on the track. You'd be surprised how big the demographic is for KPOP! ATEEZ especially are known for having a fandom of mostly adults. I am 55 and when I go to their concerts or events I do NOT stand out. I've seen plenty of fans online older than me. Every age, gender, and background is there... Their audience is very diverse. BTW MNET is not reactor friendly on YouTube. Sometimes people can get around it by placing an overlay on the video but I've seen others that can't even get through with that.

1) The HAKUNA MATATA reaction was on your ATEEZ Killing Voice Video about minute 3:28 when they are singing a small part of WAVE which is the song where that line comes from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-C-4_vskyU 2) The ship and all that is because, if you remember when you did the introduction to ATEEZ, they don't have a leader, they have a captain, cause they debuted with a pirate theme and also a lot of their songs continue that line. 3) You NEED to check out BTOB's Killing Voice. There you got 6 members, two of their vocalists who are not here will drive you insane. I think is right in your alley, if you want voices, harmony and vibrato, well you are up for a treat. 4) SF9 is a dance crew, they competed as a dance crew vs a Band when they got into their company, the company that has them, FNC. Entertainment. A couple of members like Dawon or Chani (Extremely known actor) are average height, but they have several members close to 1.90CM (6'2" to 6'3"), that would be Rowoon, Inseong, Zuho, Jaeyoon and Taeyang. As a group they are notoriously taller than the others (Stray Kids are known to be shorter than the average KPOP Group idol so you can imagine in comparison with SF9 it is really obvious. (Felix for example is 5'7") and he's not the shortest in Stray Kids. SF9 are known to have some of the hardest and most creative choreos there are. I would love to be an ambassador for them but they are not the biggest group out there and I have no clue if they would be followed that much. It surprised me when you said you thought they were not as sharp in choreo, Taeyang is considered one of the best idol dancers, Youngbin and Chani close. But you are comparing to ATEEZ which also has insane dancers, Yunho is just crazy just to name one. But you will see if you start going the SF9 path, they are clones, their choreo and tightness level in dance is out of the charts. Let me know if you at any time have an entry on your highest tier to recommend a song per month, that would help SF9. Watch the first 30 seconds of this and you will understand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGoBDdW9Z14

I don’t think you’ll be able to find full versions of all the songs in the competition. At least, not ones that look good like these. You can generally find ‘fixed camera’ versions, but you’ll see other cameramen etc. BtoB are 2nd gen K-pop. They are incredible vocalists, and their singing style is different from almost every other group in the competition. K-pop really does undergo generational changes. (BTS and Blackpink are both 3rd Gen, SKZ and Ateez are 4th gen). We are now moving into 5th gen. Not all changes tend to be popular. The more athletic or heavily choreographed a group’s performance gets, the harder it is to hold steady vocals live. And there are some groups (none of whom are in this competition) who get away with weak vocals (and I’m talking in the studio, not just live) because of visuals / dancing.

Very astute observation about lip synch, Tim -- most of kpop (especially boy groups where dancing is intense) is performed via lip synch and that has been the industry standard from the early days of kpop, and certainly carried through the 3rd gen and most 4th gen bands... with one notable exception whom you've already met -- ATEEZ, who are renowned for their live vocals in addition to their high-level and intense dancing! Some vocal-specialist bands exist, like BTOB and MAMAMOO, who do sing mostly (I believe?) live, and rappers also generally sing live even in the lip synch groups, since they usually don't have to dance hard while rapping. That's why you sometimes do see a few kpop idol bands compete on the tv show Immortal Songs, which is a singing contest show that specifically requires zero lip synching (that's why only a very few kpop bands dare to go on it). ATEEZ currently holds the record as the kpop band with the most wins on that show, with MAMAMOO coming in a close second. Btw Tim, to learn "Why are ATEEZ pirates?" you've got to check out their epic, long-form storytelling/lore! ATEEZ debuted with the concept of "the pirates of kpop" (that's why their band leader Hongjoong is called "Captain" by the members rather than "leader," which is the norm in kpop) because they knew they were underdogs and free agents coming from a small agency, and also leaned into that theme as a way to differentiate themselves from other, more mainstream kpop idols. Their captain/center Hongjoong and most of the members also have a natural tendency toward theatricality/performance, so they leaned into that fantastical element to their identity, which centers on the pirate theme. Each of their music videos reveals more and more of their epic, long-form storyline (8 years of continuous story at this point!), in which ATEEZ are dimension-hopping pirates who meet alter ego versions of themselves in other dimensions and get into various adventures. There are two main ATEEZ's we know of, who directly interact with each other: 1) regular ATEEZ from World A (our world), who later seem to evolve into PirateTEEZ (or so we theorize?). They're in the MVs for "INCEPTION," "Turbulence," and "DREAMERS" as themselves, and then in their PirateTEEZ incarnation in "Treasure," "Pirate King," "Don't Stop" and maybe "Adrenaline." They also appear in several MVs set in HALATEEZ's dimension: "Guerrilla," "BOUNCY," and "Crazy Form" 2) HALATEEZ aka The Black Pirates (the black fedora-wearing rebels from a dystopian dimension called "World Z," where music, art, and emotion are banned by the authoritarian government). They appear in the MVs "HALA HALA" and "SAY MY NAME" (and they'll even make an appearance or three during KINGDOM! ;-D) BTW, you mentioned that it's harder for taller dancers to dance tightly and that's one of the great marvels of ATEEZ -- you've probably noticed that all eight of them are extremely strong dancers (all are at "main dancer" level in a normal kpop band), but ATEEZ's official main dancers/dance line consist of both of the 6-foot-tall members, Yunho and Mingi, and the shortest member, Wooyoung. (although that said, San who was originally marked as the lead vocalist after Jongho has absolutely blossomed as a master of performance and dance and is considered top-tier among the band too!). Lastly, to solve the mystery of where you've reacted to ATEEZ's cheerful, breezy, piratical/sea shanty-like summer anthem "WAVE" before is in the ATEEZ Killing Voice video! :-D It was incredibly cool to hear how Hongjoong and ATEEZ's small, in-house songwriting team "EDENARY" transformed "WAVE" into this epic, dramatic, orchestral pirate anthem for KINGDOM!

Melody (BTOB fandom) here. It has been years since Kingdom was released but I always welcome any kingdom reaction. Eunkwang, Minhyuk, Changsub and Peniel are easily remembered compared to the other big groups. BTOB doesn't sell CDs, they sell emotion, is their main trademark. Many Kpop groups have best vocalists, but not many has insane harmonization skill like BTOB. Even Changmin recently revealed that BTOB dressing room was super loud because they won't stop singing to warm up before performance.

I like this format; doing the full show, and then doing the songs after. :) With BtoB, Seo Eun-Kwang, who is their leader, had the vibrato that you were mentioning. He's done some musical theater too. (He also did a Golden cover, if you ever want to check that out.) While BTOB has taken a step back on group things, I did hear that BtoB released a song called "We Together" on March 21st, to celebrate their 14th debut anniversary, but I have not checked it out yet. As for SF9, it's been a while since I've seen their stuff, but I remember liking a song called K.O. - the opening dance sequence was pretty incredible. My impression of SF9 is that they seem to be a group where certain songs have popped off (and they got some attention for covers and other activities like acting), but did not get the same amount of group hype that other generation-mates did.

Looking forward to the Kingdom analyses! You definitely heard the Hakuna Matata in the Killing Voice. Ateez opened it with Wave. If you allow me to be so bold, I think the issue with things that seem uncommon to you in KPop, is based on the fact that the majority of KPop you checked out so far, is from groups who, and now I bet ARMY, Stays and Atiny will disagree, have kind of a similar concept. In general I would say all three are known for a somewhat rebellious, rap heavy concept. To be fair a concept many groups today are going for, since it has proven to be successful. KPop groups usually do have a group concept that can change over time. And in addition groups can vary the concept for their comebacks (That's what music releases are called in KPop). That brings me to the ship shown in the Ateez stage. Bennett explained that in the guide to Ateez. They debuted with a pirate concept. So the pirate symbolism is pretty much always present in their works. In one way or the other. BTOB (Born to Beat, so the pronounciation is 'B to B') have a 'healing' concept and are best known for their ballads. They are famous for their vocals, but yet are pretty rap heavy, too, having three rappers in the group. Two of them participated in the Kingdom series. And in K:LW I somehow had the feeling they wanted to make sure Peniel, who had the first rap part in their stage, doesn't sing. Or at least limit it to a minimum. 😄 Minhyuk has definitely more singing parts. Also Peniel probably could also do a backflip on stage. He used to be a trainee with JYPE, the company Stray Kids are under, before he left and joined CUBE, where he debuted with BTOB. And SF9 has a more mature and sexy concept in general. So their stage presence or 'attitude' and 'swagger', as you called it, is an essential part of their concept. If you watch the MV to Good Guy, they play all kinds of sports wearing suits. Which is contradicting in a way. Also, if you want to know, who is singing, the lyrics on the bottom left of the screen show, who is singing. The Korean lyrics and the names are written in Hangeul, but when everybody is singing, it shows 'ALL' in Roman letters. So, your analyses are getting longer, and I left an essay! 🙈 Though I just gave some scarce information about BTOB and SF9. Melody and Fantasy could probably give a more thorough and acurate backstory than I.