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8 months ago I said some things the K-pop group Red Velvet, and now I need to say some more things about the K-pop group Red Velvet. Last time I talked about how innovative they are, how nice Wendy seems to be, and how mysterious and paranormal Irene seems to be after I've watched funny compilation clips that try to convince you that she is, and this time I'm gonna repeat some of the same things with more confidence, and say some new things.
Turns out, Wendy is still nice! I've been in a lot of sweaty rehearsal rooms and studios, so I speak with confidence when I say that Wendy has some kind of superpower for keeping up such good energy in the vocal booth (see video above). I don't know how she does it, but I guess she truly loves what she does, and when I watch her perform on stage I'm fully convinced that she does. All Red Velvet members have great charisma, but when Wendy smiles on stage it feels like she means it in another way, like she actually wants to be there and make us happy, and not only because it's her job. Or she's just that good at tricking us.
I appreciate Wendy's genuinity, and I also appreciate Yeri's genuiniy. For example, in her personal Youtube vlog she doesn't behave like a perfect artist created by an industry but like an actual person (I said something similar about Grimes, and I will continue to say it). And if you've watched Red Velvet's "vlive" livestreams, you may notice how fun they are when they forget they're being filmed and just hang out as normal friends, but then they always have to read from some pre-written script to give the stream structure, and it always feels less spontaneous. So: Less structure and more REAL Red Velvet, please!
Last time I mentioned how good Red Velvet's instrumentals are, and since then I've listened to some interviews with Moonshine, a Swedish producer duo that has made a lot of them. And one thing that struck me is that producers at this level talk WAY less about technical bullshit than the half-good producers hanging out in internet forums. They don't seem to care that much about decibel levels, audio quality and "LUFS values". They care more about what just feels good when you listen to it. Learn from this, internet forum music producers!
The instrumentals are one thing, but have you ever turned them off and only listened to the girls' voices? Somehow, Red Velvet is one of the world's best acapella groups, wihtout ever advertising it! They just sing in incredible harmonies like it was nothing. Harmonies aren't occasional additions to spice up a song, it's more their constant vocal style. If you saw Red Velvet as a normal pop group with normal pop songs before, listen to the acapella versions of their songs, and watch the video above of them working in the studio and you'll understand why they're special.
I've also thought more about how Red Velvet have been able to continue releasing good music for so long (yes, 8 years is long in K-pop). Last time I said that people find their songs weird at first, and then understand they're classics, maybe after a few years. Even I, who claim to appreciate their weird stuff, don't always understand their new songs. When they release a new song, I see it as a NEW song, which is something totally different from their OLD songs. And comparing their new song to their old undisputable classics stops me from understanding how great the new song really is. The thing is that: If Red Velvet had this mindset they never make an actual classic song. If they always compared themselves to their old songs they would always try to copy themselves, and through that lose what was actually great about them. This makes me realize how many steps ahead Red Velvet is of the rest of us, of most other groups, of the music reviewers and of their listeners. If we "normies" call their song a classic after a month, a year, or a couple of years, Red Velvet has already decided it's a classic long ago. Maybe even before they made the song.
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