First, let me explain that when I first thought of this idea, I was pleased. I mean, I think it's a super smart move for America to start doing their music like Korea. At least, business-wise, if they're interested in making money, everything about the way Korea does it is incredibly smart. The way their artists are marketed is genius; their albums aren't just CDs, they invest a lot into merchandise so fans feel more invested into the artists they like. Not to mention, the concept of teaser images and videos, variety shows, music shows, and reality shows makes everything a more personal experience rather than it just being about the music they make. So, originally I thought Chad Future's attempt to bridge the gap between the two industries was kind of smart on his part; if he was able to impress fans of kpop, it'd be an easy way to success.
However, that's not really what I've realized he's doing. First of all, he sings in English, but tries to do it "k-pop" style. The problem is that the only way he has done this has been through borrowing from other artists' concepts. He makes English versions of songs, but what Kpop fan would listen to some American guy's cover of their kpop group unless it was extremely good? In his "Rock the World" video, it was a clear stolen concept from BAP's Warrior music video. I was not impressed at all at the lack of originality. On top of that, to be honest, the guy isn't good. The lyrics were mediocre and just awkward, such as the line that is for me cringe-worthy, "you gon' shake your damn butts," and he doesn't have a good voice or presence, he doesn't dance very well and there's really nothing about him that is impressive.
The only thing about Rock the World that was actually good was Ravi's rap, and that's because Ravi kills everything he does. So honestly I was not impressed at all by the video or song. I thought maybe Chad's personality would make up for it, but I watched a couple videos of him and Ravi and was still not impressed.
The guy is just laughable. He doesn't seem to take it very seriously; Ravi looked incredibly uncomfortable around him, and commented that he was "just doing this for his fans" and that he "really missed the VIXX members." Honestly I'm a little disappointed that Ravi even let himself collaborate with this guy, because he just doesn't deserve it. I don't like the idea of Ravi being used to help get some untalented guy famous. On top of that, his Korean isn't very good. You can tell he knows some, but the accent is terrible. I'm almost embarrassed by it; he's a white guy who is speaking Korean terribly and that's not the kind of person I want my race to be associated with. I take the Korean culture very seriously, and want to learn it and respect it seriously, and I know how hard it is for Korean people to accept non-Koreans to their world. So for me, someone who wants to be respected and accepted because I've learned the correct way to do so, it's annoying that some dude's first attempt is through a song about partying that uses very disrespectful words like 'damn butts' and 'fucking,' things that aren't very characteristic of kpop, and are honestly more like the American music industry. Just because you throw a Korean rapper and a couple Korean lines in your song doesn't mean you're a kpop star.
At the end of the day, if you're going to try and break the barrier between the two industries, you have to be good. You have to deserve it. I'm pretty sure Chad Future is just a rich kid who used his money to get what he wanted. I want to see someone work hard and be talented and do well and impress people, rather than someone sing mediocre un-catchy songs with terrible videos and become famous for it. So I'm hoping that he will kind of die down within the industry and not become big unless he proves to us that he deserves it, and isn't relying on other artists to make people watch his videos.
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