Bi Bombs in New York

[mikey]

Now, I will confess that I am not being much of a Bi fan. Though I was never, ever, particularly impressed with his acting ability, I had to concede that he surely must put on a pretty good song-and-dance show, given his indisputable popularity in Asia.

So (my thanks to KoreanWiz for the link) I was amazed to see that Bi didn’t exactly bowl them over at Madison Square Garden the other day:

times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200602/kt2006021517215511690.htm

[CaptainVideo]

Hey Mikey, thanks for the link, it was an interesting article. I just read another item this morning about KBS putting up a disclaimer when a performer is lip synching on one of their shows. I'm an honest musician and I resent the barrage of aerobics videos which pass as musical entertainment these days. I had to endure the '80s as a guitarist (during the day when "guitar" was a dirty word; the initial heyday of the synthesizer) and certainly disapprove of the current trend of Madonna wannabes and the like. I'm not surprised that Bi (Rain) lacked the mass appeal he sought, although I give him big kudos for having the guts to break into totally untested waters. If the promoters in Korea think that they'll be able to make "the wave" come onto the shores of America and elsewhere, try pushing people that can actually perform. I have just ordered several discs of Park Ki Young based upon her singing on the soundtrack to Wedded Bliss (turns out she got a cameo as the singer in the club that Sunwoo's buddy owned). Confirming my initial curiosity, my friend from eclickkorea highly recommended Ms. Park's works and I have seen many favorable reviews of the albums. How soon we forget that music is a vibration of "air waves" organized by melody (which is a parameter of music almost completely ignored these days. Can you recall the last new tune you hummed?) and rhythm which are perceived without visual aid. That's why the visually impaired can even tell you when music is good, regardless of the fashion or dance moves displayed by a particular artist. I don't care for Elton John, but I cheered loudly when I heard he totally blasted Madonna for being a dancer instead of a musician! Hey, Elton has the guts to acknowledge his diminished vocal range as a result of age, and has changed the keys of some of the songs rather than playing a tape of the song in the original key and lip synching. Hopefully, the music listening public is getting wiser, as well.

[Ducky]

Who does he think he is to come to America and sell out MSG. It holds less than 20,000 people, but Billy Joel has a concert there tommorrow and he still isn't close to selling out all the tickets.

[Lucy]

ducky said:

Who does he think he is to come to America and sell out MSG. It holds less than 20,000 people, but Billy Joel has a concert there tommorrow and he still isn't close to selling out all the tickets.

You're kidding, right, about "blaming" Bi for selling out the Garden? I say good for him, but too bad he couldn't satisfy all those concertgoers. It's a shame to waste all that money (the ticketholders', I mean, as well as the promoter's).

[Ducky]

I wasn't trying to "blame" him -- I was trying to point out the fact that an unknown sold out all his tickets and Billy Joel didn't.

I don't make sence goodly allways?!?!

Maybe Bi sold his tickets on the Home Shopping show (847) 470 - pal goo-pal goo

[Lucy]

Ducky, I just thought it sounded funny for you to say "who does he think he is to sell out MSG," as if his self-image were overinflated and somehow caused him to sell out the MSG undeservedly. I wasn't quite sure what you meant.

[Ducky]

He doesn't have to over-inflate his self image there are plenty of people to do it for him. The other day while I was looking for something on KO'd by love, I ran across a thread dedicated to him on Soompi....In less than 5 months it's 895 pages and 17,866 posts long...Come on you Hello Kitty people you're slacking.....

[Lucy]

Oh my gosh, that's a whole lotta Bi! But whereas our Kitty posts take a lot of thought, probably what they've got over there is mostly, "OMG, I LUUUUUUVVV Bi! He is so cute! Do you think he has a girlfriend?" LOL.

From the stuff I've read on this board, it looks as though Bi has the same problems everywhere he goes: very poor knowledge of the host country's language, not-so-great singing, and derivative dance moves. Sounds like he needs to go back to the drawing board, or the studio, and work on fundamentals.

My question is, if he's a singer first, why does it sound so bad when he sings on the show? Is he doing it deliberately? The only time he's sounded good was in that karaoke scene the other day.

[CaptainVideo]

Yeah, well, I think that the main problem here might be the actual definition of the word music (thus spawning the misuse of the word singer). I felt just a little bit bad about knocking the guy in my previous post, but now I feel totally justified in my comments after watching a news report on his successful concert in Bangkok over the weekend. First of all, top ticket price was reported to be $165, more than one month's pay for the average Bangkok resident. But I feel my point was proven by the reporter stating that all of the concert goers were glued to his every move and when they showed clips, he was never singing! Actually, I have a feeling that the clips were in fact the co-headliner; it didn't even look like Bi (his hair was a bit curled on the ends, but who knows?). Regardless, they never showed the singer singing. But in reference to my opening statement, I was trying to introduce my teenage neighbor to some music and I asked him if he liked it and he said, "The music's kind of weird, are they ever going to sing? I like music where they tell a story, but I don't like the music so much; it tends to get in the way. I like Weird Al Yankovic." I didn't have the heart to tell him that he should probably take up poetry or O. Henry short stories, but he obviously is a bit off in his definition of music.

[CaptainVideo]

I thought I might offer this clarification on the actual venue in which the concert took place. I happened to re-read the article describing the show and noticed that it gave the attendance figure as "more than 5,000". I've never been there, but I have reason to believe that MSG holds at least 20K which would be a dismal turnout. I thought for a moment that the figure could have been a typo, but 50K sounded a bit large for the venue. I happened to come across a site that had a copy of the concert poster which states that the show was presented at the "Theater at Madison Square Garden". Therefore, I don't think Billy Joel or the Grateful Dead have to worry about their attendance records at the Garden being smashed by Bi.