Live Broadcasting Issues: Hwayoung’s Wardrobe Malfunction and B.A.P's Stage Collapse on “Inkigayo”

Live broadcasts are a fickle thing. It requires that a great deal of energy be expended doing rehearsals and going through every possible failure point to ensure that nothing out of the ordinary occurs during a live broadcast. This is because the nature of a live broadcast means that once it’s out, it’s out in the open for good. We’ve had several incidents occurring on these live broadcast music programs in recent months and we’ve yet again had another incident. Isn’t it perhaps time to rethink the necessity of a live broadcast music show?

Rookie Boy Group B.A.P

We’ve had 2 more incidents this weekend on “Inkigayo,” both of which were quite serious. First of all we’ve had an incident where new boy group B.A.P were pre-recording their section. During their dance, there was a section that involved stomping down on the ground. During this section, leader Bang Yong Kook stomped on the ground, only to have the set collapse underneath him. He was luckily unhurt as the set floor was double layered and he only collapsed the first floor layer. However it did cause the pre-recording to be delayed by 30mins, but they were able to go back up after repairs were done and finish their recording.

T-ara

The 2^nd incident during the same episode was unfortunately during their live broadcast portion and went out on air. During T-ara’s performance of “Lovey-Dovey,” their powerful dance caused Hwayoung’s clothing to become slightly dislodged, causing a portion of her breasts to become exposed underneath her see-through top for the last minute of T-ara’s performance. As of time of writing, the production staff of “Inkigayo” has yet to make a statement but most fans are insisting that fans should cover up this incident and quickly forget about it as a matter of respect for Hwayoung, so we will also end this here, but there is one last thing I want to discuss.

There is no need to have this show on live

Here we have 2 examples of incidents, one was during a pre-recording and one was during a live broadcast. The incident that occurred during pre-recording would have been completely invisible to viewers had they decided to not reveal the fact later. The flexibility of recording before going on air allows singers and staff members alike to look over footage, address any issues and re-record certain sections if necessary. It means only the best takes go out on stage, and any incidents that occur are viewed by the absolute minimal amount of people. The issue with live broadcasts is obvious in this example as well. If T-ara’s stage was pre-recorded, that kind of incident would been plainly obvious on editing and would have been quickly edited out and erased. However the current live format of the show meant that such embarrassments were allowed to go out on air without a way to stop its propagation, thus resulting in a situation that is an embarrassment to everyone involved. This needs to stop.

An incident last year on “Music Core,” which should have been avoidable.

There has yet to be any firm arguments as to why these music shows must be run live. The only argument for it so far seems to be because they need to accommodate the voting system they have in place to decide who comes first for that week. However this argument doesn’t make sense for “Music Core,” which doesn’t have an award system, nor does it stop any of the other shows running their votes online during their recording dates and airing the results afterwards. The concept of a live broadcast music show just causes undue pressure and stresses for everyone involved, singers and staff members alike while also vastly increasing the likelihood of unforseen accidents happening and being shown on air. We as viewers should expect to see an interesting and trouble free music show every time we watch these shows but what we’ve seen over the last couple months is a series of mishaps and accidents that wouldn’t have occurred had the format of the music shows reverted back to being all pre-recorded. It’s about time we reconsider the necessity of a live music show quite seriously.