[#49] X-5 - "쇼 하지마"

From: "Xenos" (Mini Album)
Released: April 2011, South Korea
Rating: 2.20

I've made it very clear from the beginning that in terms of talent, I choose X-5 over B1A4, and I think I proved my point when B1A4's second single came out. From the makers of the brilliance that is DGNA/The Boss, X-5 are being pushed as the young(er), more performance-heavy boyband. So basically if you put The Boss and X-5 together you have something like DB5K.


But that's beside the point. Anyway.

"쇼 하지마" is a strong enough song to debut with - it has a slightly dark, heavy sound with very packed vocals and probably the strongest production their agency can afford, but over-all it's a strong effort. Catchy yet melodic hook, actual, pretty good, singing, and a very clear direction. They know what they are, I just hope they know what they want to be.

Another thing I really appreciate with this song is that you see they're really trying. Hard. From the performances earlier this year, and even just the song, they're doing things that are probably beyond them (not just financially), and they're coming out pretty okay.

It's a song that makes you *want* to look to the future. It's not TOO good that you worry about how their next release might not live up to it, but it's not a complete disaster that makes you want to completely erase them from the industry.

[May 6, 2011] KBS Music Bank Highlights + Commentary

Words cannot express how happy I am that A Pink and Girls' Day didn't perform today. Now all we need to do is get rid of Dal Shabet and my life will be complete. Jay Park is back! Yay! I'm used to calling him Jaebeom though, so this Jay Park will take some getting used to. Other than him and 1/2 of SISTAR, it's the usual line-up.


Video credit goes to UnknownCarrot170@YT. Brilliant as always.

X-5 - "The Show Is Over"
Their live vocals remind me a lot of Miss A, actually. You know they're good - they have nice voices and they know how to deliver them - but because of the demands of the performance, they always sound out of breath. Now, I say time and time again that if you're a good singer you will sound good even if you're dancing your ass off, and that should be the case - always. However, doing that requires half talent, and half practice - they need to not only get used to the stage, but its demands, and that's something they haven't done yet. In this case, practice makes perfect. In their defense though, not a lot of idol groups these days debut with such a vocally and physically-demanding song - they got used to the stage with a much easier song. I'll give it to them though - they're pretty damn good.

Rania - "Dr. Feel Good"
This is one of these highly-orchestrated performances - everything about them on stage was planned ahead - and it really is a sight. And the fact that they have the vocals to do justice to the very tight performance just makes everything so much better. Of course there are glitches in the performance, but do you expect them to be robots? Of course not. Regardless, I'll be watching - very closely.

Dal Shabet - "Pink Rocket"
No. Just.. no. NEXT.

SISTAR 19 - "My boy"
I was watching their performance on yesterday's M!Countdown this morning, and my observations on that performance are identical to the ones for this. The song itself if very laid-back, and so when it's performed there should be some kind of gimmick to make people want to watch you. In this case, it's the chair dance and the choreography, and all the winking and acting cute. Not working. At all. They're trying too hard. When MBLAQ tries too hard it looks painful, when SISTAR, or at least half of them, try too hard it lacks grace. Hyorin has a GORGEOUS voice, I have never denied her that - if you remember my complaints about SISTAR it's that only one of them can actually sing, and that's Hyorin. No matter how gorgeous her voice is though, the rest of the performance is an absolute bore. I close my eyes to just listen and it sounds amazing, my ears are in heaven, but I open them and all I want to do is close them again - nothing about what they're doing makes me want to watch them. I might as well listen to the recording at the rate things are going. It's boring, it lacks grace, the chair dancing looked so contrived - the entire performance is dry.

Rainbow - "To Me"
The more I hear this song, the better it gets. And their improving vocals are a big help too. That's more like it Rainbow - you're singing like how a band from the 4th biggest agency in Korea should. And a lot better than Kara too, may I add. Well, some of you.

f(x) - "Danger"
This is an SME performance through and through - the song, the choreography, the vocals, the stage presence - everything about this is contrived in the most contrived way possible, and yet that's what sucks you in. The performance is far from perfect, and the autotune on the recording is still a tad bit annoying for me, partially because it really affects the live performance, but they are at the level that they should be at for an SM group of their stature - using handsfree or handheld mics don't matter anymore because they're practically the same. FINALLY. Luna sounds amazing as usual, Krystal's getting a lot less annoying, Victoria's vocals are getting stronger, and SULLI. THOSE VOCALS. OH MY GOD. GORGEOUS. KILL ME NOW.

4Minute - "Heart to Heart"
Oh, they did this song today. Hyun A annoys me beyond belief, maknae girl too, the leader's fine, Jiyoon goes in and makes everything better, and Gayoon makes the chorus a lot cheaper than it could be. Pretty much the entire performance, and song, explained in one sentence. Yup, that's about right.

After School - "Shampoo"
For After School standards, this was a strong performance - you can actually hear everyone actually singing. And they're getting used to performing the song at a much faster rate than they usually do, which is good. I find it hard to believe that there are 9 of them now, actually - it just hit me when I saw the shot at the beginning with all of them. Can I nominate Jooyeon and UEE for graduation? PLEASE?!?!?

U-Kiss - "0330"
The song's starting to bore me already, but I'm happy that their fanchants are getting louder and louder! And their vocals are now at the beginning stages of being above average. The U-Kiss performance style has always been edgy - they're a fun version of highly-orchestrated performances, and that's something they've perfected with this single. If their vocals don't make you watch, the performance itself will.

Jay Park - "Tonight" + "Abandoned"(WINNER)
He's come a long way, gone through a lot of crap (partly because of indecisive fans), but my god would this have been an incredible talent wasted had he given up on music altogether. How he moves, how he holds the audience in the palm of his hands like it's nothing, how one second he's prancing around stage and the next he's dancing like there's no tomorrow, reminds me a lot of a young Rain. Actually, his story is similar in ways to a condensed version of the Rain story. There are been truckloads of comparisons to Taeyang, and I do see them vocally, but to be honest with you I like Jay a lot better, because unlike Taeyang, who's focused on the nasal-ness of his voice, Jay is focused more on the smoothness, and you all know I like a smooth voice that knows how to deliver. And he delivers. Of course the not singing during the chorus, apart from those adlibs, is something I'm not particularly fond of, but it's not like he can't sing. I like the song, I've liked it since the first time I heard it (when it came out), and the live performance did more than justice to it. Partially because he's a talented performer, and partially because the audience screaming and the fanchants send chills down my spine. Brilliance. And he deserves that win.

[May 1, 2011] SBS Inkigayo Highlights + Commentary

I'm going to rush this out because there's an emergency here at home (nothing big, but I gotta go), so no really long whiny intro today about how their sound sucks. Just read the recap LOL.


Video credit goes to CrazyCarrot370@YT.

X-5 - "The Show Is Over"
Can I say it? OK I'll say it. X-5 are, officially, the most outstanding debuting act of the year. Without a doubt. The fact that they're doing considerably well on Inki means a lot, and it means that they're really damn good. Watching this performance made me realize something though. B1A4 and X-5 are a lot like DBSK and Big Bang in terms of performance. (And don't give me that "don't compare them" speech because I'm comparing them for the sole purpose of making YOU understand how the two groups perform) X-5 have strong vocals live, and very polished performances - every move they make on stage, from which foot to step with, how many steps to take, to where to stand and even when to smile, has been orchestrated, practiced and perfected - it's the epitome of manufactured, but it's a sight to your senses and it really glues your eyes to the screen. B1A4, on the other hand, can do dancing and can do singing live, but the entire point of their performance is make it look like they're having so much fun that you want to buy their album and have fun too like them. There is no superior method, and I personally think that both of them take a lot of talent and work to actually pull off, but I'm personally leaning more towards the X-5/DBSK style. Of course there's still a lot to iron out (especially all the moaning towards the end - the eff?) and they're not the strongest band ever, but as rookies in k-pop, they're exceptionally good.

A Pink - "Don't Know"
I don't want to waste any more of my energy on you so call me when you get your act together, A Pink. Then I'll think of talking about you.

B1A4 - "OK"
Like I said on the X-5 commentary thingy above, B1A4 are the "screw everything we're having fun" band. OK maybe not "everything", but you get the point. They're so fun to watch on stage and it makes you want to prance around with them. Of course not as sophisticated and convincing as Big Bang yet, but for a rookie they're pretty damn good. Second only to X-5, who, as I said a while ago, are outstanding. Strong vocals, captivating presence (to say the least) and a catchy song make for a pretty good performance. I like.

Dal Shabet - "Pink Rocket"
We'll talk when you get a decent song, Dal Shabet. I don't even know if any of you can actually sing because it's so crap!

Girls' Day - "Twinkle Twinkle"
You too Girls' Day, I'll get back to you when you stop acting like a bunch of 3 year-olds, especially you, Min Ah. It's not amusing. At all. It's annoying.

Infinite - "Nothing's Over"
I can't believe this is their last stage. I know it's not for long (too long at least), but my god have they grown over these past few months. As long as they keep up the strong material and do what they're good at, which is basically this, it's all good. I don't quite remember exactly what I said when they debuted, but I do know that I've always had a soft spot for them. For the right reasons.

Rainbow - "To Me"
I like their outfits today. :D Vocals are fine for their standards, and the performance was OK. Not much different from yesterday. Of course the crap sound hinders any kind of improvement from showing, but if they can sustain this next week I won't complain.

f(x) - "Danger"
It's like there's a trend between SM maknaes from SuJu onwards - they all have the most gorgeous, smooth vocals (Changmin DBSK not included because he's more on the high yet deep side). And from SHINee to f(x) it took some time for those vocals to show. 'Danger' works like 'Genie' for me - the more I hear it, the more I like it. Still against bastardizing Luna's vocals, but the song as a whole is getting better and better. And their strong live performances only make me like it more. The performance itself has never been a problem - with SM slave-driving I expect no less - but the vocals are FINALLY very near to where they should be. Just a little more, f(x).

4Minute - "Miror Mirror"
Aaaand Hyun A's back to sounding like crap. What's new. Jiyoon sounds a bit tired today, but that's about it. Oh, and leader girl's vocals are getting a lot better. Yay. The presence is there, obviously, and to be honest with you I'm slowly liking this song even more than I already did (I didn't like it that much, but you get the point), which is good.

After School - "Let's Step Up" & "Shampoo"
You know SBS, a pretty stage for After School most definitely doesn't make up for your lack of a decent sound system, and a decent sound guy. Once again, the backing track was turned up way too high, and yes, they have hand mics, but SBS still managed to make them sound like crap. Of course part of it is After School's fault because they're not exactly the best live singers, but they sounded decent yesterday! And actually if you listen closely they kinda do today too, it's just that the crappy sound is in the way. Lizzy was hiding behind the backing track today, because you hear an almost perfect line, then there's a mess right on top of it - either the backing track was too loud, or she's really hiding behind it.

U-Kiss - "0330"
Vocals today are just OK, and I'm starting to not like the song to be honest with you. It's like the more I hear it the more stale it gets. I mean it's a pretty song and they can really pull it off live, but it's just not my taste anymore. They're very suave performers - there's a mixture of orchestration and practiced movements and "let's prance around stage" to the entire thing, and not just in the dancing. It's polished.

Big Bang - "Love Song" (WINNER)
I've said this many times before, but in terms of really putting on a show, YG rules. In terms of making thing different but retaining familiarity, they also rule. And because Big Bang is obviously YG's flagship boyband, they also rule what YG rules at. That first minute or so was so cool. Not the biggest fan of "Love Song", but it works for me like a lot of their material - don't like it recorded, if I just listen I probably won't like it live either, but you watch them and you don't want it to stop. That and their vocals (of the 3 singers) are near-perfect - DAESUNG CAN I MARRY YOUR VOICE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEE. GD is a sight, but I close my eyes and meh - can he please shut up and stop singing already? But, based on this performance alone they are more than worthy of status, and all the awards they've gotten, for this.

[April 30, 2011] MBC Music Core Highlights+Commentary

Sorry for being MIA yesterday, I had still to take care of and I wasn't feeling very well. Even now I have this horrid horrid migraine that even extra strength, "fast-acting" Advil can't remedy and any second now I'm gonna cry out in pain LOL. But enough about me. Today's MuCore was pretty bare, but that's mainly because a lot of the acts have already said goodbye, and some are just missing LOL.


Video credit goes to CrazyCarrot270@YT.

X-5 - "The Show Is Over"
You know, for rookies like them they're outstanding. Not just kinda good, outstanding - one of the best new bands I've seen in a while. What made me say that? Their consistently strong vocals on all three music shows - this is MuCore, which dooesn't have the best sound in the world, and they're using handsfree mics. To sing live. While running around stage and dancing their asses off. I mean they slip up sometimes, but a lot less than your regular rookie. The song is strong for a group of their stature as well. I mean they can definitely do better, but for their debut this is really good. Good to know the truckloads of money spent on them went to a good cause.

A Pink - "Don't Know"
K so I'm writing this now with one of the worse migraines I've had in months and the stage is hurting my eyes - I had to invert the colors of my screen just to watch it without crying out in pain. Today's performance was mimed, thankfully for my ears, but not for them. They need the practice, and they need to be able to prove themselves in the near future - miming is like the worse thing to do at this point. A big no, A Pink.

Infinite - "Nothing's Over"
Awww, I can't believe they're already doing their last round of live performances this weekend - I actually liked this song! And thankfully, everyone's singing it pretty consistently now - the vocals are pretty much as strong as they can get for a song as melodic as this. And you have to hand it to them - the chorus is pretty tricky. It sounds easy, but it's not that easy to sing. The way they cut the song into like 2+ minutes was kinda sloppy and awkward too.

Rainbow - "To Me"
Their vocals are kinda soft today, I blame it on the handsfree mics, but they're actually pretty consistent and not half bad. They're getting used to the song (it's about time) and they're getting used to performing it - all of them.

CN Blue -"Love Girl"
The stage today was.. interesting. The cinematography was.. more like for a commercial. The vocals were.. Yonghwa. And once again, the guitars weren't plugged in. You know MuCore, it's bad to zoom in on the drummer, and his sticks, when someone like me is watching. I'll leave it at that LOL.

f(x) - "Danger"
After winning MuBank yesterday (Yay! Happy for them. :D), it's like everyone's vocals suddenly went up really close to the 6-member (and less) SM band standard, which is incredibly high. And considering that this is a song you can't really sing, that's really good. Luna's high note got hella strong, and Sulli's voice is starting to shine. Ooooh I can't wait for the day they get a song that'll turn non-fans into fans and fans into rabid fans - they're pretty close!

4Minute - "Mirror Mirror"
Outdoor performance, eh? Hyun A's improved A LOT, Jiyoon is still brilliant, I still hate the maknae, and Gayoon sounds the same. They're a lot more comfortable singing the song now, but that's about the only change. The attitude is there, the presence, the grace (one way or another).

After School - "Let's Step Up" + "Shampoo"
Yay! They're back! The intro was cool, even if I liked their outfits better yesterday. It was oozing with After School presence, and everything about it makes you wanna stop what you're doing and just watch. The vocals on 'Shampoo' today were definitely a lot better than yesterday - UEE sounds like less of a mess (but still is one), there is in fact a voice hidden under new girl's still-weak live vocals, Nana has actually held a melody, Bekah has gotten a grip on herself and delivered, Raina sounds a lot stronger and you can actually hear Jooyeon now! Looks like I'll have to do a lot less begging to Pledis now that their vocals aren't a complete mess anymore. Yayyy.

Big Bang -"Stupid Liar"
Well, it looks like this chapter of k-pop is coming to a close - HoMin are gone, and Big Bang/Infinite are at their goodbye stages already. It was a good phase, if I may say so. Like I always say when they do this song, it's literally like Big Bang just dropped everything, ran to the stage, and had a blast. You just wanna have fun after watching this. The vocal parts, minus GD's pseudo-vocals, were strong again, as they should be.

[April 22, 2011] KBS Music Bank Highlights + Commentary

Can't believe your eyes? Well, believe them because YES, my music show recaps are back! This is one of numerous attempts to get me back in the zone and writing, so if I do anything crazy or out of the ordinary on this, forgive me - it's been months since I last wrote one of these, and almost a year since my first recap!

A number of things sparked my comeback, but the main thing was MuBank's setlist today. It's their 600th episode (O.O), so everyone promoting was out in full-force. The performances I was holding my breath for all day? 3 members of G.O.D. doing "Lie" after a gazillion years, and HOMIN DOING "RISING SUN", as well as X-5's debut.

You ready? Well, whether or not you are, read on for a recap of today's MuBank episode!


Video credits go to DBSKgirl1994 for the U-Kiss performance, and UnknownCarrot170 for everything else.

X-5 - "Fantasy" & "The Show Is Over"

"Fantasy" is a pretty good song, but they shouldn't have mimed it, for heaven's sake - it's too obvious and it's their debut performance of all things! However, I believe they redeemed themselves with "The Show Is Over". Shaky start, but things just got better from there - for their first performance, that wasn't half bad. The chorus was spot-on, the verses a lot better when I watched it on TV (now I understand what McRoth was telling me the other day about how the amazing will sound stunning, but the bad will sound horrid on amazing headphones), but the entire package well-done and thought of. You can see they made an effort, but you can also see that they're actually really good, so the natural just creeps up on you. I'll be watching them.

A Pink - "Wishlist" & "Don't Know"

These girls don't know how to sing as a group. They're not bad on their own (albeit not really that good), but you can see that individually they want the stage to themselves and it's as if when they have solos the other members don't exist. They want to be noticed when it's not they're time to shine - they're all trying to out sing and out dance each other. It's not a bad thing to try to be noticed, but they have to remember that they're not solo singers right now - they're a group, and a group sings, dances and performs together. They have to have a spark - a dynamic as a group. They have to work together. Their vocals are fine, bar the first 2 girls who sang on "I Don't Know" because they're trying to sound like 6 year-olds when they're all 15 and up (and that pisses me off), the song isn't that bad and individually they can perform, but their lack of group dynamic turns me off.

Block B - "Freeze"

Block B? I don't see the hype - their vocals aren't that hot. I mean they're there and they can sing, but over-all they're weak - there's no power to their vocals, no matter how punchy and edgy the song is. They're performers, it's obvious with how they move on stage, so all they have to do is get a less generic song, and work on making their vocals stronger and more consistent. Will I be watching? Maybe.

Brave Girls - "Do You know"

One of the best new girl groups I've seen in a long time, and my god does this song show that. Long-haired girl in the middle is obviously the one being pushed as the good one, and she's pretty good too, but personally girl in the pony tail (not the bun) is better (even if she doesn't know how to hold a mic). But long-haired girl is definitely consistent, and that counts a lot. Compared to the two, short-haired girl and blonde girl are average, but comparisons aside they're good too. Short-haired girl wasn't that good at the beginning, but she got better towards the end. The performance as a whole was ever to slightly breath-taking - you can see that they know what they're doing. It's one of those performances I'd gladly watch again.

Infinite - "Nothing's Over" & "T.O.P"

Infinite are getting a lot of attention from Cassies lately, because Jaejoong tweeted a few days ago that he likes "Nothing's Over". And why wouldn't he? In all honesty, not just because Jaejoong likes it (I believe I gave them a good review!), it's a well-developed song. It has its flaws, but they can easily be cleaned up in their next release. And the song is catchy without being annoying. Their performance today was a lot better than the last one I saw (a good few weeks ago), and everyone seemed a lot more confident singing the song, especially the guys belting out high notes. Which is good. Their Shinhwa cover? Strong. I didn't think they'd do as good as they have, but they've proven me wrong. See, this is why I liked Infinite from the very beginning - they weren't that good, but the potential was there, and look at them now, pulling off Shinhwa pretty well. And it's not easy to pull Shinhwa off. Live.

Rainbow - "To Me" & "Sweety"

That wasn't half bad (even if they mimed that S#arp cover). I mean a good third of them still can't sing, but I can point out at least 4 good voices now that are actually pretty strong live. And they can perform a lot better now - they may not be 100% in sync with each other, that's extremely hard, but there's unity to the performance. Give me a song with a better hook, Rainbow, then we'll talk. For now, you're on my "to watch" list. We'll see what happens after this.

CN Blue - "Promise" & "Intuition"

They remixed "Intuition" today. Or rather, piled on extra electric guitar lines and this and that then made Yonghwa wear shades. Guitars not plugged in, check. Excessive Yonghwa close-ups, check. The drummer still not close enough to the other 3, check. Yonghwa's vocals strong, check. Jonghyun sounding amazing, check. Just another CN Blue performance, then. Their Jo Sung Mo cover was a bit shaky at the beginning because it seemed like Yonghwa couldn't catch up to the tempo on his first line, but Jonghyun came in and saved it yay.

f(x) - "Gangster Boy" & "Danger"

I liked "Gangster Boy" for a while, but Amber talking just made me cringe. The verses are perfectly fine - everyone's vocals are strong as hell - the chorus is cutesy but not nauseating thank god, Luna's middle 8 was epic, and the hook really hits you over the head without being obvious. It's a strong performance though. And "Danger" was done well, considering that the song isn't really something you can sing live. VICTORIA'S VOICE IS GETTING LOUDERRRR! Krystal sounds like herself, keep it up and Sulli is finally slowly getting over the cutesy phase. But WHO the hell decided that Luna needed to sound like a little girl from majority of the song? SHE DOESN'T. SHE'S BETTER THAN THAT. Krystal isn't the amazing singer in f(x) - LUNA IS. But if I didn't know that and I only heard their verses, I'd say Krystal was the better one, when in reality it's Luna. Just when SME got everyone else right, they just HAD to go and ruin Luna. Her high note, even if it was pretty short (wouldn't have it any other way though), was well-done though. The performance was strong, the vocals worked with that they had, and over-all it was strong. Still not completely sold on the song though.

4Minute - "No. 1" & "Mirror Mirror"

Lesson learned, never let 4 out of 5 of 4Minute sing a BoA song. Ever. Hyun A, Jihyun, Sohyun and even Gayoon, should never be let near a BoA song. Jiyoon can do all the singing for all I care, because she actually sounds decent, just not the other 4. Please. I beg you. That said, 4Minute sound best doing what they really do - and that comes in the form of "Mirror Mirror". I'm not saying that they're suited to inferior songs, I'm saying that they've found what suits them, so they should stick with that - who they really are. Today's performance was strong, and my god Jiyoon those vocals were amazing. Can Jiyoon be lead instead of Gayoon, pretty pretty please? I have a Filipino term for Gayoon's vocals again - "bukaka". If you know what it means in this context yay, but it's hard to explain and it translates to something else literally, so yeah.

U-Kiss - "0330"

Strong performance today, even if the first guy who sang sounded really tired and strained. High note guy sounded strained today too, come to think of it. This is one of the songs that sounds better recorded, and I think it'll stay like that no matter how consistently strong their vocals get, and they're improving at a much faster rate than I expected. We'll see. Prove me otherwise, U-Kiss.

DBSK/HoMin - "Rising Sun" & "Keep Your Head Down"

Let me begin this by saying HOLY MOTHER OF HEAVEN AND HELL AND EARTH AND EVERYTHING ELSE THERE IS, THAT WAS AMAZING I HAVEN'T SEEN RISING SUN PERFORMED IN AGES. AND OH MY GOD MIN PUSHED HO SO HARD THEN HE WAS SMIRKING AFTER I APPROVE OF VOLDEMIN (and I was hung over from the jaw-dropping G.O.D. performance when I watched this so that explains a lot) Okay. Fangirling out of the way.

KYHD was done spot-on, as always. They sound a bit tired, but nothing too obvious. Now, RISING SUN, on the other hand, was amazing. I was expecting them to do the whole song, but to be honest with you I'm thankful they didn't. It's not that HoMin can't sing good enough, it's not that they can't dance good enough - for crap's sake they can sing their heads off while dancing their feet to oblivion without batting an eyelash, they just did with KYHD - it's that the song is so damn tiring to perform, whoever's performing it, with all the jumping through hoops and fire (LITERALLY! YAY! lol). Did you see the SHINee performance? They were sweating by the end of it, and they only did the chorus. Like I said on Twitter this morning, the song is hard enough to do with 5 members, and was a pain to do with 4 (when Jaejoong was injured in 2005, and when Yunho was injured in 2006), what more with 2 or 3? I would like HoMin to survive this performance, thank you very much. That said, the vocals were strong, Yunho changed Yoochun's rap verse a bit (just a rephrasing, nothing big) and sang Jaejoong's lines (YunJaeeeeee!!), Changmin sang Junsu's part but didn't scream, and the performance was over in the blink of an eye. The simple fact that they got through it is worthy of praise, and they did it - they pulled it off, damn well. It made my heart race and flutter and whatnot - it should make yours too.

G.O.D. (3 members) - "Lie"

If you don't know who G.O.D. are I will personally hunt you down and MAKE SURE you die a slow and painful death, because you deserve it. They, along with the likes of H.O.T. and Shinhwa, are the epitome of the word "LEGEND" - you cannot NOT know them because they made the industry the way it is today, and it took much, much more than just a pretty voice or a nice face to do that. Even 1 member short, the performance today was EPIC - the vocals were perfect. Not just stunning, not just amazing - perfect. The timbres of their voices have gone from gorgeous to stunning, and the technique they've learned over the years has given their vocals dimension and emotion. They didn't have to command the audience or hold them in the palms of their hands - the audience willingly let themselves be mesmerized and the sight of it was almost surreal to be honest. The screaming, the chanting, the singing, the performing - perfection. I hope the newer idol groups, and their fans, understand that you have to have more than a catchy hook and a few members who can sing to make your music as immortal as G.O.D.'s.