Have you ever listened to a song or watched a songs video and thought it was great. Have you also seen a live version of this songin which you thought that the hearing it live was even better. Was it to do with the natural un-touched voices of the performer....or was it to do with the extra energy that was pumped into the performance by the chanting the performers got while singing. In all forms of music there will be people shouting and chanting to their music stars but lets compare the all too overly compared Jpop and Kpop music scenes in terms of chants.

Now before I begin, believe me I know they are 2 totally different types of music and cultures etc but for the sake of arguement lets just move on. Anyway the 2 groups I shall be comparing in terms of chants will be to "Oh!" by "Girls Generation" and a "Renai Revolution 21/Love Machine" medley by "Morning Musume". Not a perfect comparrison but it shall do.



As soon as the girls start to sing, the chants begin. The chants shouted after each line are the names of the girls in the group, shouted out in a particular order ending in a mass "So Nyu shi dae". Where the girls have solo lines however, usually people only scream rather than shouting the members name like the wota do. Also throughout the song, the fans can be heart chanting along with the "Ha!" and "Oh!" parts. Another round of name shouting begins in the chorus. At the end of the song however we hear a long chant that the fans have made up to coincide with the instrumental, this is an aspect of korean pop chants which is superior to jpop chants. The chant also has some meaning aswell which makes it even cooler, for example, the long chant at the end of this song is "xxx".

Pros: Members names chanted while group sings, Unique chants created for each individual song usually working with the instrumental
Cons: No chanting of indivdual members names during solo lines with only screams to be heard, not much chantng during chorus besides name shouting.



In this medley, the chanting begins when the instrumental starts as opposed to the kpop fans which dive right in as the singing starts. The chaning here is the old faithful "Oi!" of the wota which when chanted seriously escalates the energy in the room. This chanting is also times to fit around certain areas of the instrumental and is not just shouted throughout the whole thing. When the singing does start the wota join in with the "Fu Fu" and similiar noises, however when the group sings together, there is no chanting. Chanting resumes again however when the girls solo lines kick in. Here the audience chant the members names until thier line is up, the wota will then chant the next singers name. However this is not a constant, where the chanting can stop at a certain point even if a solo singer has a line which can sometimes seem like they are shunning that person, even though eveone knows there not. The chanting of the 'Ooowah', 'Yeah!', 'wow's' 'Oh' etc continue throughout where appropriate like that of the kpop songs.

Pros: Chanting Members names during solo parts, Use of 'Oi' to increase energy is extremely effective
Cons: No chanting during group singing, Use of the cyber, fiber, driver, tiger mix thing seems very random and non sensical

Conclusion: Both types of chants have their por's and Con's and both are effective when they are used. Both are very different, the kpop going for unique and thoughout chants where as the jpop group go for instand energy boosting chants. The chants obviously change for each song and no 2 are the same, also the types of music are a bit different too which will affect the chants. But I do think that both groups could take a leaf out of each others hymn chant books to make some epic chants. And personally I would come up with something a bit more creative than the H!P cyber tiger mix thing....but I havent been to a live concert so I can't appreciate its full affectiveness, but as a very distant observer those are my views.