“Already a Crossover”: a Pop-Gugak-Rock Rendition to Charlie Puth’s “Dangerously”
On a Saturday morning, I stumbled upon news on a Korean website covering the highlight of the 3rd episode of Phantom Singer 4. The title can be roughly translated to “The Birth of a Legendary Performance by an Unconventional Crossover between Gugak (Korean traditional music) vs Pop vs Rock on Phantom Singer 4”. The news itself wasn’t exclusively talking about this performance, but the journalist must have seen that this performance is so unique they made this a news highlight.
Those who happen to know the show because of Jo Jinho, PENTAGON’s (a K-pop group that debuted in 2016) main vocalist, may not understand what Phantom Singer 4 is about since it’s totally different from typical survival shows in Korea. To explain it simply, Phantom Singer is an audition show that invites singers, mostly from classical or musical theatre backgrounds, to compete against each other. Although this show uses a survival concept, the elimination process doesn’t involve ranking or public voting system. Instead, it is determined fully by the producer’s (equivalent to a judge’s) decision, up to the final stage. In the final stage, the finalists are arranged into several “crossover quartets” before these groups compete to be the winner.
As of 2022, there were already 3 seasons aired and the 4th season started airing in March 2023. In the first 3 seasons, the first round began when the contestants were paired randomly to have a 1:1 battle. Afterward, the round continued to duet battles and trio competitions, followed by some quartet rounds. Ultimately, 12 finalists were chosen, and 3 quartets were formed by the producers with the contestants’ wishes and preferences in mind. Finally, they competed in a final round to determine the winning team. The winners from these seasons were Forte di Quattro, Forestella, and La Poem, respectively.
However, the concept of the show changes a bit for the 4th season. Instead of a 1:1 battle, they called the first round a “Position Battle”. In this round, the contestants of the same vocal type are grouped to compete against each other, e.g., tenor vs tenor. Out of the 34 contestants that made it to the first round, there are only 3 contestants with non-classical or musical theatre backgrounds: Jo Jinho, a pop singer; Kim Suin, a gugak theatre actor; and Kim Kwangjin, a tax accountant who has a rock vocal tone. This means that they had to compete against each other as a unit called “traditional and popular music”. This lineup is rare in the crossover music genre since this genre is most well-known through classical crossover, popularized as “popera”.
During the time given to choose a song for their performance, Suin stated that he didn’t want to perform a Korean song, which surprised everyone since he’s the one with Korean traditional music background. Instead, the three of them decided that they would perform a Western pop song. After several hours (or maybe even days, the show didn’t really state explicitly how long they took their time) of listening to several song choices, they finally were settled on a song, “Dangerously” by Charlie Puth.
Against all odds, their performance was one of the most awaited for both Phantom Singer enthusiasts and Universe (PENTAGON’s fandom) alike. You can watch the performance here (you must use VPN if you don’t live in South Korea), but if you have a condition that won’t allow VPN usage, try this link.
A lot of people are praising this performance as “already a crossover”, which in my opinion is spot on. Jinho, who was also involved in producing this performance, made the arrangement to feature the strong points of each member of the trio with their respective genres. In his arrangement, he split the stage into roughly 4 parts: pop, gugak, fusion, and rock climax. Except for the climax, the song follows the original beat of 6/8, but slower than the original song. Even with the arrangement made, all three members tried to challenge themselves by singing in different genres. For example, Suin tried to fuse his singing style with the pop and rock parts while showcasing his own interpretation during the gugak part. This is the main reason I also consider this a good example of a crossover stage.
First part: Pop arrangement
The first part was arranged closest to the original song, despite having a slower tempo. Jinho used this part to showcase his vocal ability, as someone who had been in the music industry for years prior to Phantom Singer.
The stage might seem like a grand ballad stage at first with Jinho’s emotional performance, but then the vocal shifted to Suin and the mood changed. Still emotional, but a different type of emotional. This is because of his traditional singing approach, which makes him sound different from Jinho. By combining gugak singing style with the pop arrangement, Suin literally fused both genres.
Following the other singers, Kwangjin sang the chorus with a hint of soft rock singing style to fit the soft arrangement, instead of the hard rock style he is used to. In the end, Jinho closed the first part leaning more towards pop-rock compared to the pure pop he used in the beginning.
Second part: Gugak add-on
The second part is marked right after the end of the first verse with the sound of the percussion that mimics the Korean traditional percussion set, and Suin’s traditional vocalization. As someone who is the most experienced with gugak, he added the spice to this performance with a “traditional add-on”, singing in Korean instead of English. This unexpected change may shock any audience who listens to it for the first time. I bet that is exactly what the trio intended to do when they realized that they could utilize their vocal variety.
This is just my hunch, maybe the trio decided to add a gugak part not only to highlight Suin but also to show the potential of incorporating Eastern traditional music into Western modern music. Furthermore, this song has a 6/8 beat, which is the same as most Korean traditional songs that I’ve heard, making this combination sound natural.
In addition, if you are curious about the lyrics he sang, it’s the Korean free translation version of the second verse of the original song.
Third part: A Sweet Spot
The gugak part might seem to end when Jinho entered the second chorus because of his pop style and a hint of blues. Nevertheless, you may notice that the arrangement didn’t change much from the previous part, indicating that this part still has the traditional influence. After his pop and blues part, Suin emphasized the gugak influence of this part, but with a hint of rock-textured vocal.
Following the chorus, the bridge was dominated by Kwangjin’s coarse vocal texture, contrasting the calm piano accompaniment beautifully. Afterward, we can also hear that the trio started to harmonize, starting with Jinho during Kwangjin’s final part. The third part ended with the trio singing in unison before they harmonize again.
Final part: Rock climax
After the harmonization, Kwangjin sang a three-level high note, showcasing his forte in rock. For your information, the highest note was an A5 in a rock-style mixed head register. In reference to the human vocal range, it’s in the higher range of a soprano’s (the highest female vocal type) vocal range. He seemed to not exert his vocal cord because he didn’t force his full chest register that far. Personally, I’m glad that’s the only time in this performance that he sang that high because even though a person belts in a proper way, it will exhaust the vocal cord faster compared to when they sing in their natural range.
The second and final shocking part happened when the beat suddenly changed from 6/8 to 4/4, the typical beat used for rock songs. Kwangjin’s vocal tone totally shone through this part even more when he sang in a full-on rock style, followed by Suin’s traditional vocal tone that fused with the rock arrangement, and Jinho’s ad-libs that gradually became the main melody. The performance ended with the trio singing together, once again in unison before splitting the melody and a climactic ending.
Final thoughts
When I first watched the performance, I’m not going to lie, all three of them amazed me. Initially, I didn’t catch the conversation when they mentioned that Jinho was involved in producing this performance, so I focused more on how they adapted and blended with the other members’ vocal types. As someone who is already familiar with crossover music, I think they brought a fresh perspective on how this music type can be arranged. Suin’s gugak part shocked me the most because it was not something that I expected to show up in this performance.
With respect to the concept of “Position Battle”, I don’t think this performance created competition among the three members. Rather, this performance helped all of them to shine in their own way. That’s why I personally would give more credit to Jo Jinho for taking part in producing this performance.
If we look back at the previous seasons, the 1:1 round resulted in someone becoming a candidate for elimination, and this is no different for this season’s Position Battle. However, I think there might be chances for the elimination candidates to survive the round because they delivered an impactful performance. This happened in Season 1 when Yoo Seulgi got an instant pass despite losing the 1:1 battle against his partner Paek Intae because the producers esteemed their stage as the best in that round.
Being able to deliver a stage with more than one genre is a great challenge. Kim Suin, Jo Jinho, and Kim Kwangjin have delivered an amazing crossover stage between gugak, pop, and rock. This performance has shown that crossover music is more than just “popera”. Furthermore, it will inspire crossover artists to experiment with more genres in their discography.
