Musical actress and former girl group Fin.K.L member Ok Joo Hyun is facing public backlash for her fierce criticism of colleagues in the entertainment industry.
Ok Joo Hyun made pointed remarks about "autotune" early on the 7th through the fan communication platform Bubble. He said "These days, no matter how bad someone sings, they do brutal post-production with autotune, so people who perform completely live feel bad. Performing completely live gives vividness and (skill + lack = realization) requires study and development. Using autotune makes recordings where you think 'there's no way that can be aired' all become oddly leveled by tuning. Honestly, it pisses me off. I don't want to sit at the same table with them," she targeted.
She continued, "It may come across as a very rude remark. But it's the truth. Seeing people do so much post-production with autotune these days makes me feel like anyone and everyone is out there singing," she confessed, and despite a fan's concern that "'anyone and everyone' might sound harsh," she strongly said, "It's because if you let these strange hopefuls who think 'even if I'm bad at singing I can still have a singing job' grow, it's wrong. You have to cut off the sprouts."
In response to the question "Do singers other than idols also use tuning?" she said, "Yes, a lot. Musical actors also come on broadcasts and are sent out sounding heavily tuned. If you touch it moderately you might not be noticed, but they touch it so obviously and too much. Someone like me who has been on broadcasts for a long time can tell. When general singers see such cases they say 'actors are worse than expected.' They are surprised while recording together. And since I'm half singer and half musical actor, I think I say such things easily," adding, "But the funny thing is there are many such singers. These days, broadcasts like removing MR don't mean anything. Nowadays, when kids dreaming of becoming musical actors do recordings for academy recitals or special events, they tune them so much that it's a problem. Parents are mistaken, and kids are mistaken too."
When asked "Isn't post-production meant for that?" she said, "If it passes appropriate and goes too far, that's fraud," and added, "At least I have never performed any work as lip-synced. Someone did lip-sync and still remained legendary. That even happened in the most ticketed works in Korea. There are pieces that openly say they lip-sync. The original company says that's the rule. In 'The Phantom of the Opera' when the phantom sings 'Sing for me' and Christine sings 'Ah~~ Ah~~~' and it gets higher and they end up completely lip-syncing, there's nothing you can do about that. The stage blocking and microphone speaker sound conditions differ," she mentioned, referring to actual musical productions.
Faced with intense criticism, fans expressed concern saying, "This seems dangerous. It's scary," but Ok Joo Hyun continued the revelations, saying, "Why are you scared. Everyone who needs to know will know even if I don't say it," and "You're turning the topic well because you're afraid I'll say something scary. I'll still say it."
In addition, criticism continued toward Kim Ho Young, who had posted a targeted post calling her 'Ok jangpan' during the time of bullying and casting connection allegations. Ok Joo Hyun said, "Ah, it makes me laugh. I had forgotten. 'Ok jangpan' was said to have been posted to promote a friend's father's floor mat," and she vented, "Why is it dangerous? It's not a lie and not a crime. I have never received an apology. I heard those words along with 'Thank you for dropping the lawsuit.' He explained, 'Thank you for withdrawing the lawsuit. But I never targeted nuna,' and gave that explanation to me."
She said, "At that time, the diet probiotic commercial was taken down five days after that incident. After 'Mata Hari' performances I had to go to the Gwanghwamun headquarters every day for meetings, and if I didn't prove I was innocent I would have had to pay triple the penalty. The fact that I could only handle the guilty claim by suing hurt me the most. But if I hadn't sued, that friend who was a mattress home shopping host at the time would have had a hard time. Seniors stepped in to quickly resolve the incident. So I withdrew the suit and avoided paying the penalty, but the ad was taken down after five days and the diet product heavily advertised in June; that headquarters lost that money," she complained.
She went on, "Honestly, for years this part has been suffocating me (they even gifted me article headlines starting with 'Ok jangpan' whenever anything happened), so I thought many times—really hundreds of times—about officially organizing that on my channel and posting it, and I talked it over, but the person I thought cared most about me advised against it. The reason was, 'Wouldn't you be annoyed if your name, which has long been eager to be famous, appeared side by side in articles?' Since that nickname became my fixed modifier for so long and lasted, I debated whether to casually say 'I'm not the mattress model' but after long consideration concluded there's no need for me to think deeply alone, so now I'm speaking very casually. Without lying," she explained.
She added, "If I had not withdrawn that lawsuit, it would have been a dispute involving large sums for defamation, advertising damage compensation, triple penalties plus alpha, so I might have learned a big lesson. What I regret most after that thing is withdrawing the lawsuit. I was greatly harmed by the advertising company and my nickname being switched to 'mattress.' It's sad," she said, expressing her grievance.
The messages were captured and spread across various online communities, and debates continued. As a first-generation idol and a veteran who has worked in the musical field for 20 years, expressing disappointment with excessive autotune or lip-syncing is entirely possible. However, the criticism is that sweeping, wide-ranging targeting by saying "anyone and everyone sings," aimed at younger pop artists, musical actors, and even musical producers and productions, only insults industry professionals who are dutifully performing their jobs and their fans.
While she is angry about the criticism calling her 'Ok jangpan,' her careless act of supplying fodder to criticize someone else through 'finding the subject' makes it hard to avoid accusations of hypocrisy. Added to this, as the remark "I don't want to do the next work" spread, responses blaming a "lack of professionalism" poured in.
[Photo] OSEN DB
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