#i was thinking about doing some retrospective analysis on some rtk stages but i am an adult and im trying to finish my degree show work

[sanstropfremir]

definitionofcasualstan submitted:

Hey, I just saw your review on ep. 3 and goddamn, I am so happy I finally get to read a review from someone who sounds like they actually know what they are talking about. Idk if you watched road to kingdom, but the overall feel I got, was the groups trying to outscream each other with loud performances and every time someone tried something different, they were literally booed off. For eg. Golden child or even the boyz when they did that colab. And kingdom is boarding the same train. Take sf9 in ep. 3. It’s not that I understand performing that well, but them not getting a single vote was really a bit too much. I found their performance easier to follow. They had a clear story, there weren’t too many distractions and the song arrangement was actually pleasent on the ears, not just epic. I think they should have been at least fourth. Does mnet think loud and flashy performances are the only kind people like? I just can’t understand.

Not gonna lie, i was scared for ep 3 too, because in the preview jongho sounded so off key it made me cringe. I don’t how that happened, since the actual performance was great.

Anyway, my rant is over. If you read all the way here, thank you 😅 btw, I watched the s*ju performance and I really liked it. It was simple and well executed.

—

i know you submitted this but i’m just gonna respond to this like an ask lol. don’t worry this isnt even remotely close to the longest rant ive received, thank you for sharing! i did watch rtk but just the stages and not while it was airing, so i have no idea what any of the drama was. i thought there was a fairly good variety of stage themes i’d have to go back and watch them all through again to actually pick out the details and who did what because my memory is a sieve. i do remember that all of those collab stages were really strong so i’m not surprised that the oneus tbz stage ranked last even though it was probably one of my favourite stages. 

i also think that to some extent we’re all kind of projecting a bit: there’s only been one full stage so far and there’s already been a fair amount of variety in theme, but not so much variety in aesthetic. also, i just finished watching the full episode and people are really skimming over what i think is the more bombshell ranking: the fucking experts panel! where in the FUCK do they think they can get off putting btob LAST?!? the experts ranking was:

1. ateez 2. skz 3. tbz 4. sf9 5. ikon 6. btob

which i actually think is like, partially close: ateez did deserve first and i think sf9’s stage was worth a 3rd or 4th like i said in my review; it’s a really good stage, just ateez and btob were slighly more polished. but btob last?!?! i’m going to have an aneurysm none of these people are experts i dont care what mnet says. because these performance style stages are stll somewhat of a novelty within the kpop scene it makes sense that the spectacle sells so that’s what mnet is trying to optimize. it sucks, because it really narrows people’s perceptions of what a spectacular (as in spectacle, not as in cool) stage can be. like i said in the replies of hanya’s post here, the ateez stage looks that good not because it was over budget (it definitely wasn’t), it was because they hired a designer that knew what they were doing and likely either had theatre training or is a theatre designer. i’ve been saying this the whole time, but these kpop stages are trying to reinvent the wheel when korea has literally a MASSIVE musical industry they could be tapping for ideas and production staff. also, you can do beautiful and spectacular stages for ballad songs, it happens super frequently in musical theatre. a good example is on s'aimera quand même from cléopatre la dernière reine d'egypte, because even though i dont respect france in the slightest their spectacle musical industry in the 2010s was ANOTHER LEVEL. a love ballad where the dude just flings his partner around the stage attached to a fly harness? incredible. but ballads do actually require the performers to be able to sing and have good stage presence, which is lacking in some of these kingdom groups. also thank you for trusting me burn the floor is excellent and i wish kpop would do more experimental stuff like it, but that might require idols to look unattractive or not show their face so i guess we can’t have that…