*This content was translated by AI.
I attended an international academic conference held last week in Bali.
In the morning, I performed three songs as part of the opening celebration concert, and in the afternoon, I presented research on virtual idols. Singing before researchers from multiple countries was not a common experience for me, but the burden of having to deliver an academic presentation without fluent English was also significant. Experiencing both the performance and the presentation back-to-back made it clearer than ever how songs create connections with audiences.
The songs I performed in the morning were "Inyeon," BTS's "Dynamite," and "You've Got a Friend." Looking back after the concert, each of these three songs created points of connection with the audience in different ways. There were overseas participants who greeted me warmly upon recognizing "Inyeon," while "You've Got a Friend" was a pop song familiar to people of various nationalities.
The most immediate reaction came from "Dynamite." As soon as I announced in the middle, "The next song is BTS's 'Dynamite'," gasps erupted from the audience before the music even started. This was a scene unlike anything seen when encountering K-POP's overseas popularity through statistics or news articles. People from different countries simultaneously recognized the name BTS and the single song, reacting together. The cultural code of K-POP was already shared among the audience.
While performing "Dynamite," I made a small mistake. I misremembered the lyrics in the intro section, which contained many English lines. After finishing the song, I admitted my error to the audience. Coincidentally, this academic conference was focusing on AI and humans as its main themes, so I added, "I made a mistake because I am human, not an AI." Laughter erupted from the audience.
There is no need to attach special meaning to simply making a lyric error. It is generally better not to make mistakes during live performances. However, there are moments in live shows where even what has already happened becomes part of the stage itself. On this day, the brief words I spoke after the song ended helped ease a moment that could have felt awkward. The commentary on stage is not time separate from the song but rather a process of building rapport (Rapport) with the audience.
In vocal training, the focus is mainly on elements that constitute the song itself, such as pitch, rhythm, breathing, and vocal production. However, once on stage, several additional factors come into play: who you are singing in front of, which songs to perform, how to transition from one song to the next, and how to respond to audience reactions.
The relationship with the audience on stage is not created only after the song begins. The very choice of songs creates the first point of connection, and the relationship continues through the way you introduce each song and respond to unexpected situations. If song selection creates a point of contact with the audience, then commentary and real-time responses serve to turn that contact into an actual relationship.
After finishing the morning performance, I gave a research presentation in the afternoon before the same group of people. In fact, for me, the academic presentation conducted in English was far more burdensome than the performance itself. Yet, once I stood in front of them, the people sitting in the audience did not feel like complete strangers. They were individuals who had listened to my singing just a few hours earlier, shared laughter with me, and even exchanged stories about the performance during breaks.
I cannot say exactly how this influenced the content or reception of the afternoon presentation. Ultimately, academic presentations must be evaluated based on their research content. However, from my perspective as the presenter, there was clearly a difference. The points of connection and rapport established in the morning served as a small buffer when I began speaking before people who were otherwise unfamiliar to me.
Looking back, there was no particularly new technique I learned on stage that day. Rather, things I had previously considered separately came together in one place. Song selection offered points of connection with the audience, and commentary between songs served the function of turning those connections into relationships. And those relationships did not vanish immediately after the song ended.
Improving vocal perfection is not the same as building a relationship with the audience. However, on an actual stage, both move together. Which songs to sing and to whom to deliver them. On this stage in Bali, these two aspects were closer than I had expected.
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*This content was translated by AI.
