Wednesday 30 January 2013

KPOP STAR WATCH: Part 1 of the Battle Auditions!

PART ONE OF THE KPOP STAR BATTLE AUDITIONS IS HERE!
In this stage of the competition, the judges are to narrow the group from 18 acts to the Top 10 acts that will compete on the live stage. This is a crazy stressful round for everyone because the number of contestants is basically cut in half.




The first part of the episode focused primarily on showing what was going on during the 2-week preparation period for the contestants at their respective companies. YG, after a laughable result in the last episode put in a ton of effort this round; he even called in Teddy (YG producer, 1TYM member) and Tablo (producer, solo artist, and Epik High member) to help evaluate the contestants he had picked. He even joked about how much more compatible Teddy and Tablo were than JYP and BoA on the show. Papa YG was noticeably tougher on the girl group he had put together, because of how SM had made them into such an impressive group the week before. He was stricter on them and even made them change their song and choreography with only a week to prepare.

Over at SM... What I noticed about SM is that they're all pretty people. It was kind of odd. Anyways, they seemed to be having some great acts coming through again with Bang YeDam and the Raccoon Boys. However, BoA seemed to be worried about 2000 Won. JYP mentioned that he was most anticipating how the Raccoon Boys would do after some pointers and work with SM.

At JYP, Choi YeGeun walked into JYP offices and commented on how different it felt, as if it was as though she should only practice while she was there. That would how the producing team made JYP look as well, only putting in clips of him hardcore training and evaluating the contestants.

The premise of the Battle Audition is that the contestants are put into groups of three to compete directly against each other. Each group consists of one act from each company, so there are 6 groups in total. Whoever is placed first from each group moves up to the TOP 10 (this decides the first 6 of the 10) and the second placers are put into another group to be decided at the end. Those who place third are eliminated from the competition.

**I have decided to recap any pre-performance highlights and put the judges' notes worth mentioning in very brief lines. Please note I am paraphrasing their comments, not directly translating what they've said.

Group 1

 
SM: Kim DoYeon
JYP - She lacked energy. She needed to focus on delivering the lyrics and emotions but she lacked the energy to be able to do so
YG - What more do you have to prove than the singers out in the real world?

JYP: Yang Joo Yi JooEun x Yi JooEun
BoA - It wasn't bad... she had low expectations to begin with.
YG - Maybe they're TOO similar. They didn't seem to be able to produce something outstanding together - they didn't seem any different from real life when they were on stage.
JYP - A good singer has something plus "alpha" that they bring on to the stage. You lacked the alpha.

YG "Girl Group" (YouU?) Park SoYeon & Yi Mirim & Song HaYe & Jeon MinJu & Song YuJi
The girls didn't have a name for the group, so they joked about it in their intro and said "you you" as in the Korean letters ㅠㅠ which is the sadface emoticon in Korean. That name stuck because of their situation with their health and injuries. Yi Mirim and Park SoYeon both limped onto stage because of stress injuries to Mirim's ankle and SoYeon's hip. They had previous health problems with them but the intense practice had made it worse.
Song HaYe also mentioned in the pre-performance interview that this competition would be her last efforts for this career, and because people kept questioning her because after all of the auditions she had done she wasn't ever contracted.
After the performance when the girls wouldn't get off the floor MinJu jumped up, grabbed the mic and said this happened because of how tired they were from the training and practice. Then all the girls semi-got up and said "you you!"
JYP - Wasn't like a group called YouU, it was more like MinJu and the Girls. The only person that seemed to know how to pull off this style was MinJu.
YG - He only had proud words of encouragement.

Results for Group 1
1st: NOBODY
2nd: DoYeon and YouU
3rd: Yang Joo (Yi JooEun)
Because of the lack of punch the girls seemed to deliver from this group, the judges deemed that nobody from the group would be guaranteed a spot in the Top 10. Both Yi JooEuns were eliminated.

Group 2


JYP: Kim MinJung
It was the first time for MinJung to learn choreography, and it became so difficult for her that she admitted to thinking of giving up.
YG - She seemed to be trying too hard to focus on both singing and dancing at the same time, when really you should be alternating throughout the performance.
BoA - She was surprised that MinJung could adapt to do a choreographed performance. It was nice to see how she tried so hard to do it while staying pleasant.

YG: Akdong Musicians
ONE OF A KIND?! They rearranged GD's hit and added their own lyrics to the song. It wasn't much of a rap song but an acoustic song. They got a lot of the lyrics and the theme for piece by comments their fans had left on their videos and posts.
BoA - When she read the lyrics (given to the judges prior to the performance) she was excited for them to perform it, but was a little disappointed with the lack of personality on the stage.
JYP - SooHyun seemed well fit in the styles, ChanHyuk seemed awkward still. They lacked chemistry in this one. ChanHyuk doesn't seem to be comfortable to fully sing while playing the guitar just yet.

SM: Bang YeDam MOONWALKED ONTO STAGE
What an adorable kid!! He wrote the Korean lyrics himself, which was basically him talking about how BoA was the only girl in his heart. He also asked her in the lyrics what she thought of his new hairstyle, which was something she wanted to change. They also found it hilarious that he put in the JYP reference that he and the Akdong Musicians had performed before.
YG - his potential for the future seemed to open another 360 degrees

Results for Group 2
1st: Bang YeDam
2nd: Akdong Musicians
3rd: Kim MinJung
YeDam is the youngest kid to make it to the Top 10 (which is saying something since Park Jimin was 15 when she made it in last season). JYP also commented here that he was the first contestant to really show consistent improvement every week of the show. Little MinJung was eliminated.

Part 2 of the Battle Auditions

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