SALIMA
Chad Future’s got a new MNET show, a new music video with Ravi, and he’s pretty much shitting on all his haters, including yours truly. Do you think it’s time for people to stop hating on Chad and embrace his future contributions to K-pop?
NANA
I can’t bring myself to watch the videos. I know I should have an open mind, but everything he has done up to now has been terrible. Just because you throw in an idol doesn’t mean it’s authentic or that I am going to like it.
SALIMA
His sound isn’t authentic? What does that mean anyway? K-pop is like the least authentic thing on Earth.
NANA
It seems like he likes the sound of K-pop but then wanted to know how he could tweak it to further his own fame.
As a fan of all things Hallyu, I have let certain aspects of K-pop influence my life (music, learning the language, studying the culture as a whole, allowing myself to be a complete and utter fangirl, etc.) but I am not running around trying to act like I am a native Korean. I just get turned off by how hard he tries. I am not saying the same doesn’t go for American artists (I can’t stand Taylor Swift for being such a sad, heartbroken human that feels the need to make people feel bad for her through her non-stop diary leaks, I mean, lyrics).
CHRISTINA
Him saying “I’m doing American K-pop” to me is a joke. But also good for him for following his dream and not giving two shits.
DANICE
Chad Future who? I vehemently refuse to acknowledge his existence and give him airtime based on what I’ve seen him do so far (like, his English version of “Wolf“… Or was that “Growl“? It’s so bad I’ve blacked it out of my memory).
NICOLE
Does no one remember when he was part of The Myspace Movie? That’s how I recognized him right away actually because my friends and I used to parody his little video that went viral back in the Myspace days. I also watched his MNET show and it was weird how he was taking his musical parodies into something super serious. Like his joke hip-hop groups were serious pieces of art. That made me annoyed: there are people literally dying for hip-hop and he’s likening his parody groups to the likes of Biggie. He also mentioned Limp Bizkit as his hip-hop inspiration or something… definitely side-eyeing.
LEILA
That’s fascinating that he started out making parodies. I haven’t seen the Myspace movie but what I have seen of Chad Future truly resembles parody to me, and that’s why I can’t take him seriously. It’s like an SNL version of K-pop. Sort of like that Anna Kendrick skit where she joined F(x).
CHRISTINA
I didn’t like how he ruined GD’s “Crayon.” I wonder if he met him at KCON last year, and what GD’s thoughts were.
SALIMA
GD to Chad Future: “From one try-hard to another, please give it a rest.”
CHRISTINA
GD to Chad Future: There’s one thing that I have that you definitely don’t: I’m Korean and I own this bitch, therefore I win. *winks and walks away*
SALIMA
So then you can’t do K-pop if you’re not Korean?
CHRISTINA
Can he speak Korean? If he weren’t Korean he has to at least know the language in order to do the genre, right?
And no you don’t have to be Korean. Take Nichkhun, Victoria, Amber, etc. They’re not Korean. BUT they know how to at least communicate. Like know the language at least?
SALIMA
Nichkhun couldn’t speak the language even a little bit when he started. But everyone adored him. So the issue people have is not that Chad can’t speak the language but that he’s white.
NANA
I am not going to put race into the equation. You can have a plethora of musical influences that cross the globe, but if you’re going to pay homage to them, pay it well.
CHRISTINA
One thing I admire about him is that amidst all the hate and negativity he gets, he smiles and goes forward. During the MNET show he had a whole stage set and it was changed last minute. He didn’t even fret and he was so cool about it. That was pretty cool because I would have been super pissed. Kudos to him for that.
DANICE
What, honestly is Chad contributing to K-pop? When he sings in English, is he interpreting the material or merely putting his own words to the songs? Is he bringing in a new audience to discover his source material or is he co-opting Hallyu for his own fame and notoriety? Something about his whole persona strikes me as posturing and cosplay for the sake of cosplay and not necessarily for fandom. I might be unfairly judging him, so please hip me to some clips that might make me think otherwise.
VAL
I have a question: is he popular in Korea or is this a flash-in-the-pan type deal where it’s like, “Look! He’s not Asian! OMG!” for a while and then he inevitably gets lost in the crowd?
I’ve seen this type of stuff happen in Japan where non-Asian acts get famous for singing in Japanese, they go on to collab with people or end up on major television programs… and then they all but vanish because it was a novelty until the next new thing came around.
BRIE
It’s simple:
I don’t like his voice. It annoys me. I think it’s ok for a white person to be a K-idol but they have to do it right. I mean…look at Brad from Busker Busker. He’s talented. He didn’t force himself into it.
LEILA
I think, NaNa, you likened it to Snow’s Informer back in the day. At the time Informer was a top hit, then later it was funny because it was so dated.
SALIMA
LOLOLOL Snow. For the young’ns:
DANICE
Hahaha “Informer” XD. Is he saying “AHLIKIBOOMBOOMNOW”? I’ve been wondering this for 20+ years.
SALIMA
The world will never know.
MELISSA
I first heard him when he did a cover of JJ Project’s “Bounce” and I thought it was awful – but I heard “One Shot” and I didn’t think it was too bad. Then I heard one of HIS songs about the suburbs – literally did not know it was his song playing (I was in a store (what kind of a store plays random Chad Future?!?! (I stopped shopping there)) and thought “Oh God what is this?? What am I listening to?” Lo and behold it’s Chad Future’s song. Other songs have sounded not too bad because he has good people featured - but overall I’m not having his music.
KADEEM
So Melissa you are going to hate me for the entirety of this comment, but I actually discovered him through his rendition of JJ Project’s “Bounce.” And I thought it was amazing! I didn’t really like the original song by JJ Project. Then I discovered his “The Burbs” song and loved it…somehow it got added to my iPod.
So yeah, me and Chad have this love/hate relationship going on. I don’t blame him for his hustle. He is living my dream, kinda. Did I mention that we follow each other on Instagram and Twitter?…And we have talked to each other back and forth on Twitter? Yeah, so I have nothing more to say about his amazingness. (That’s right. I’m kissing ass).
MELISSA
This is literally me right now
KADEEM I AM QUESTIONING YOUR TASTES!!!! YOU ARE BANNED.
KADEEM
I can’t say anything else about this topic. Chad may unfriend me from Twitter and Instagram like a similar K-Pop artist did recently with his fans.
DEANNA
He seems like an upstanding human (he hasn’t done anything douchey). But here’s the thing. You can’t do K-pop and not sing in Korean. If you do pop songs in Chinese (EXO-M) that’s C-pop. If you do songs in American English that is American Pop. Therefore there is no such thing as American K-pop. K-pop’s “sound” borrows from European, American, Japanese etc. No one owns a particular sound unless it is rooted in their culture. If Chad Future was sitting there playing the Gayageum, while singing in English, then ok, he’s playing Korean music, but he’s not.
Chad Future is the “Friday, Friday” girl. He has zero talent. You can argue that a lot of K-pop stars have zero talent too, but that’s the case in any country’s entertainment world. The ones that become famous (more than one-hit wonders) but have less than stellar dance and vocal skills (ex: Seungri) have something that is needed in the entertainment world – stage presence. Seungri is the king of stage presence and he turned me into a huge fan of his, when I was being all snotty about him not having “talent.” I was wrong. Also, I saw Chad at KCON; he has NO stage presence and is awkward, coupled with the fact that he is just very bad at singing, dancing and whatever that is he is trying to pass as rapping.
I don’t hate him, I just don’t think he realizes he is not good at American pop, K-pop, or [insert-country here]-pop.
This is what I think of when I think of him:
DANICE
At some point, even Rebecca Black realized that “Friday” was horrendous. Chad has no shame.
GEORGIA
Is he actually signed to a company or is he just “Chad Future,” all lost on his own with no guidance or direction?
NICOLE
He’s actually a producer/director. He has his own production company and that’s how he releases music under Chad Future. He’s not signed to any label but his own. He’s produced a lot of viral “funny” videos before becoming Chad Future. Like I mentioned before, I’m wary he’s doing this all as a parody like his previous attempts at “hip-hop”.
THERESA
We all know that the only reason Chad Future’s K-pop venture has lasted this long is because he is financially supported by his parents.
He’s not particularly talented at dancing or singing. He doesn’t sing in Korean, and so far has made no attempt to display any interest in the Korean language or culture (outside of K-pop). He also doesn’t seem inclined to work hard to improve – he seems content being mediocre. And it’s okay for him to be mediocre, because his investors (read: parents) don’t mind. Maybe they don’t expect to get a return on their money, maybe they just see it as an expensive hobby.
But when I think of K-pop’s other rich boys, like Suho and Tao, you know that they went through the appropriate channels and have something about them that is marketable to a wide audience. I can’t think of anything marketable about Chad Future.
It’s almost like he knows he’s not going to make it as a regular American pop stars, and trying to appeal to the niche K-pop fandom thinking that he’ll have novel appeal, when he doesn’t.
SALIMA
Idk guys. Sounds like everyone is being a K-pop snob. Are you forgetting how much utter CRAP comes out of K-pop? Then this kid comes along, he’s a nice kid, positive, not hurting anybody, and most importantly he’s following his dreams. If he was a Korean soloist people would not be so quick to hate on him. And please, people need to stop talking about Chad like he’s “ruining” K-pop or ruining Ravi as if Ravi is a fucking prodigy. As if he’s a young Michael Jackson or something. All I’m saying is Chad is doing exactly what you would do, if given the opportunity. What is the problem with that?
GEORGIA
Most of my initial “anger” definitely, was because I felt as though he was almost trying to take the mickey out of K-Pop in a sense, especially in ‘HELLO.”
SALIMA
What is a mickey? #UKslang
GEORGIA
It’s like taking the piss. Making fun of but not doing it so directly. Like, “OK, here’s something I find weird – let’s make a copy of it so people watch it not because it’s interesting and good but because it’s funny.”
#UKslangMakesNoSenseItsOk
SALIMA
So you’re saying his videos look like parodies so if he’s going to do MVs they shouldn’t look like a joke?
GEORGIA
Yes. I mean seriously, what is this:
He could actually do very well if he didn’t try to be so ‘gangsta’ all the time. The same goes for most groups anywhere in the world: if you want people to take you seriously as musicians, in the wise words of my mum: “Please pull your pants up” (YES, TAEYANG, THAT INCLUDES YOU). Loads of artists could do so well if they just let go of their swag for 3 minutes and just sang. However, that being said, I don’t wanna be that person who’s always like “Ugh this is not MUSIC,” because I respect that groups want to be stylish and that’s definitely important.
And if he sang more in KOREAN then that would help, you know, his K-Pop career.
DEANNA
I don’t feel like he is ruining K-pop at - K-pop will be its own demise. The problem is I can’t even compare them because HE ISN’T K-POP! If he were a Korean guy singing in English and doing the exact same thing, I’d still say it’s not K-pop. Take that guy from American Idol, the one we met at KCON. What is his name?
SALIMA
HeeJun.
DEANNA
Yeah, he tried to do American sort of K-pop and it sucked. I thought that sucked and I think Chad sucks. I still don’t hate on the guy, if you have the luxury, might as well do what you want. Be a boss, but don’t expect me to start a fan club for you.
THERESA
We probably are being K-pop snobs. There are plenty of other K-Idols that are just as talentless as he is, but they have market value. Be it their personality or face, they have some marketable quality that a company deems good enough to invest a lot of money in.
Chad doesn’t have that. He’s playing make believe. I mean, if he really wants to do the kooky pop thing, he could do it in America, or in the EU, like the Scissor Sisters. Nothing is stopping him. So why is he jumping onto the Hallyu wave? Is it just because of its recent success/fame?
All his promotions for his K-pop career are marketed in the US, towards the international K-pop fandom. I don’t see him doing anything to appeal to the Korean fans in Korea. It seems like he’s just trying to get the money from us delulu international fans.
GEORGIA
Exactly!
THERESA
Which would be worse – a collab between your bias and Chad Future, or a collab with Justin Bieber? 
DEANNA
Worse? Chad Future. JB’s song will most likely be good.
GEORGIA
Yes, I’d rather have a Justin collab because then my friends might ACTUALLY listen to something K-Pop related.
WIDNEY
I don’t care about his obvious non-talents. He doesn’t know how to sing? Well half of K-pop doesn’t. But my beef is with MNET. I hate the fact that MNET is using this guy to be the face of international K-pop. It’s not a random pick. He is not the only YouTube K-pop “superstar” neither is he the most talented. They chose him because he embodies the image of western foreigners that we’ve seen portrayed many times in K-pop either on variety shows or music videos. From Sam Hammington to Nichkhun to Henry, we are portrayed as a bunch of tongue-tied, clumsy, featherbrained people.
Like when Henry went to Happy together. He kept taking his shoes off over and over again, which by the way was obviously scripted. The whole affair made him look so foreign and dumb. Like how many times do they have to tell you not to take your shoes off?
You could say it was funny, and it was. But you could also see that they made a point to put an emphasis on his “foreignness.” A perception of foreignness which is being falsely portrayed in the Korean media is not something that I will ever promote. And Chad Future is the poster-child of that perception. Everything he is and does as a “K-pop” artist perpetrates that stereotype. Does he know what he represents and still goes along with it or is he that oblivious? Either way, he is not a good look.
SALIMA
Just a side note on Widney’s point: Dumbfoundead also plays the “dumb American” stereotype on DFLA. Possibly a character he’s supposed to play since he’s not actually that clueless.
I love your point about what K-pop thinks foreigners look like. I just watched an episode of Running Man last night that kept cutting away to a blond girl in the crowd. Variety shows do that shit all the time to show, “Oh, our stuff is soooooo international because a blond person is watching it.”
DEANNA
Don’t whore out us blonde people! We are people too ya’know! However I do disagree, Widney, that him being talentless is not important. There are talentless people in K-pop but they either are one-hit wonders or they serve another purpose, like they have great stage presence. Even Britney Spears had some sort of talent in her bones to make it as big as she did. Chad has no marketability. Except for the fact that he is foreign. That I do agree with. They are trying to market him as the foreign Bieber all-American, blond type.
WIDNEY
Had MNET taken two hours of the day to actually do research and see what I-fans like, they would have known that Chad Future is just bad money not a brilliant idea. Same goes with Dumbfoundead. Dumb is the LEAST appropriate K-pop host that they could ever find. It’s something that is obvious to everybody but them. Why? Because they don’t care to take the time to know us as a market. I don’t know if it’s because they’re undermining us or they don’t give a shit and we’ll eat up everything they throw at us.
DEANNA
I don’t know if it’s that calculated. I think it’s the opposite. They thought they had a brilliant idea – threw money at it – it failed – they can’t admit to it and think – let’s just throw more money at it and see what happens. It’s just a bad idea that they won’t let go of. That’s all.
Technically, we are supposed to be impressionable pre-teens. But I don’t think they realize a lot of I-fans are in their 20′s.
SALIMA
But MNET America doesn’t speak for all of K-pop. They’re just MNET.
LEILA
You guys keep in mind MNET America is VERYYYYYY different from MNET in Korea. And they’re looked upon by the CJ folk in Korea as this tiny little project and sometimes a throwaway so the producers here have to work with what they got…and what they got is a white dude from Michigan with pink hair who does K-pop covers on YT. Easiest reality show ever. Done.
BRIE
I think we hate his stuff because Chad’s videos are to us what regular K-pop videos are to the friends/family we force into watching our favorite K-pop videos. Now we know what non K-pop fans feel like when they’re forced to watch K-pop.
It’s just a sense of, “WTF.”
NICOLE
We cringe when we hear his work because we understand English. But we’re more forgiving of Korean artists because we don’t technically understand them. Like if Chad Future’s song was done in Korean, I feel like people would love it. It’s the same way in Korea. K-pop groups only do well with girls between the ages of 12 – 17. Most Koreans who are around our ages don’t listen to K-pop or particularly like it. My good friend has spent most of her life in Korea and this is something she talks about all the time, how it’s weird to her people in their 20s here like K-pop when it’s a pre-teen/teenager phenomenon in Korea. So I see similarities there between Chad Future and us vs. K-pop groups and the Korean audience.
WIDNEY
I don’t want to be the one to bring white male privilege in this but I must. Would it have been the same had this kid been another Asian American kid or had he been a girl or black? Do you see where I’m going with this?
Why are they giving him so much shine when there are some very talented Asian American kids on YouTube who could serve a better purpose? Like Salima pointed out, is this another instance of “Hey look at us, K-pop is so cool, even the blonde white kid wants to be one of us”? If so that’s a big ol’ fail. Of all people that could make K-pop look cool on the international market, Chad Future is definitely not one of them.
THERESA
I find his swiggity swag attitude to be a major turn off as well. It’s cringe-inducing and painful to watch. Would even 13 year olds be impressed by it?
SALIMA
Haha. Georgia is 13. She seems to hate him more than all of us.
DEANNA
We’ve insulted 13 year olds and blondes already!
GEORGIA
I’m 13. And blonde.
LEILA
As much as I dislike the songs or think they’re all a big joke, after watching that Ask Me Anything YouTube video Georgia sent over I have to admit I felt a lot warmer towards him. He seems like a sweet guy, and like Kadeem said, he’s living his (or Kadeem’s) dream, so I can’t hate on him. I just wish he had better music.
–
What do you guys think? Are you over Chad Future, or are some people being K-pop elitists by not accepting him?
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