Netizens are talking about the change in the meaning of the "lead vocal" role in K-Pop.
On May 13th, a post explaining the change in K-Pop caught netizens' attention with over 134K views. The post explained that originally among the first-generation idols, "lead vocal" was interchangeably used with "main vocal", meaning the same thing. With the second-generation idols, the "lead vocal" role disappeared and groups simply used "main vocal" across the board.
But interestingly, when the third-generation idols emerged, the "lead vocal" role was re-introduced to denote a position below the "main vocal" but above the "sub-vocal" position. For instance, BTS's Jimin, Red Velvet's Seulgi, EXO's Suho, and TWICE's Nayeon are "lead vocals" of the group. The post then concluded by saying music critics still use the word "lead vocal" to mean the same thing as the "main vocal" and this phenomenon of differentiating the lead vocal from the main vocal is only prevalent in the K-Pop idol scene.
Netizens commented: "Yeah so IMO anything other than 'main vocal' are 'sub vocals.'"
"I think the lead vocal role disappeared again because there isn't a main vocal position."
"I just want the companies to get rid of the 'lead vocal' role altogether. If there are two good singers, make them both 'main vocals.' Simple as that."
"Yeah, this is true. Back then 'lead vocal' meant the same thing as the 'main vocal.'"
"I feel like as K-Pop idol groups become to have many members in the group, the labels just wanted to create extra positions. Originally the best singer was the lead vocalist."
"I used to get confused with this term when I first got into K-Pop."
What do you think?
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2GEN Kpop fan here. The list for us was like this.
Main Vocal: mostly the best singer of the group, does most highnotes and adlibs.
Lead Vocal: besides main vocal get lot of parts in songs (fits the song or ability), sometimes highnotes or adlibs as well.
Sub Vocal: who is compared to the others in ability not that good, parts according to the song and ability, sometimes even none.
Similiar it goes to the other categories like Rapper and Dancer. Most Subvocalist are either Lead Rapper and/or Lead Dancer or Center/Visual.
Main Rapper: Mostly rap parts and difficult raps.
Lead Rapper: some rap and some/less singing parts
Main Dancer: Gets the center Dancebreak in the bridge, none as best dancer in a group
Lead Dancer: are important for diificult dance parts like Main dancer and are mostly doing dance covers/performances in concerts together.
in the early days 😂 there was a center and a visual in a group.
Visual: Changes according to songs and mostly consist of 2-4 members(dependent on the number of members)
Center: this person gets the most center positions in dances, picture or other.
Example on a 2 GEN Group:
Girls Generation (I will go with OT9)
Main Vocal: Taeyeon, Jessica (best ability of the group and sound good together)
Lead Vocal: Seohyun, Tiffany, Sunny (sometimes adlibs and highnotes as well, After Jessicas departure her parts where splitted to the Lead Vocalists)
Sub Vocalist: Yuri, Sooyoung, Hyoyeon, Yoona (besides that Yuri and Sooyoung still got more parts then the others, because Hyoyeon is the main dancer and yoona is the center and visual.)
Main Dancer/Main Rapper: Hyoyeon got most dancebreaks and difficult dance parts, known as best dancer in her group, does the most rap parts.
Lead Dancer: Yuri, Sooyoung, Yoona, Seohyun known as great dancer dance often together for performances.
Lead Rapper: Tiffany and Yoona do some rap besides Hyoyeon as well.
Visual: Yoona, Jessica, Taeyeon, Seohyun. it was mostly them 4 but most of all Yoona. A visual is most Importanf for music videos or pictures.
Center: Yoona, starts and ends a lot of songs in the center.
Every group member has their strenghts and if a company is clever, they will try fit every member in a categorie, so everyone can be good at something.
Why should a member just because she is the most famous get a lot of parts? the risk is to high for the member to ef up on stage! still I think it should be fair and give everyone the amount of lines who are fair.
This was a lot!
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