Aloha~ everybody how are you today? for me I feel a little bit of exhausted about the weather of my country T_T It is super hot right now! I can’t even walk in the afternoon because it sun will melt me like an ice-cream. Since I stay inside the building a lot in this week then I have a chance to watch my favorite TV program on TV not the re-run in a YouTube. After I watch this program, I was wondering about how they become successful like this. If you were in Thailand right now you will see the trending topic about ‘The Mask Singer’. Yes, it is not grammatically correct but this TV program is hot as hell in Thailand.
‘The Mask Singer (Thai: หน้ากากนักร้อง) is a Thai singing competition program presented by Kan Kantathavorn. It airs on Workpoint TV on Thursday at 20:00, starting from October 6, 2016’
The Mask Singer or in Thai is ‘หน้ากากนักร้อง’ is the Thai’s TV Program but the original version is from Korea ‘The King of Mask Singer by MBC channel’ It is very successful from the first season and now they are in the season 2 and still keep their top rank of TV program trend. The show is about the player (singer, actor, or celebrities) have to wear a mask to be an anonymous singer on the show and they have to sing to compete the other player to be the winner. The loser of each round has to take off their mask to reveal their face to the public.
This version of The Mask Singer is different from the Korean version because the rule in Korean version is that they have no group in competing then the winner have to sing every week until someone overcome their standard but in Thai we have 4 groups and the winner will compete again when they have the other winner in their group. To find the victorious of the group and compete again and again until they have only one winner.
In Thai version, we are more into the costuming because I care and we want to look fabulous on the show. There is one interview that one costume of the mask singer Thailand used around 6 months to create but for Korean version is more simple.
The style of this program, in my opinion, is that they motivate and challenge the audience to stay curious about the people behind the mask like you watch a police instigation’s TV program. They give a chance for the audience to think not like an instant TV program that just for satisfied you passively but the mask singer allows you to be the ‘Produsage’, producer and the user(usage) of the information. The audience can consume to show and then create (produce) the guess of the anonymous under the mask by using many tools like a comparison video on YouTube or a tweet attaching with the hashtag of the show or tag the person that they predict that he or she is that mask singer.
Even though the show did not ask the audience to guess the answer but nowadays in the social world audience have more curiosity that could motivate them for doing somethings, one condition is that the show have to be attractive enough at the first place and the mask singer did it! Since the mysteries always sell !!!!! Letting the audience engaging by letting them predict the mask and also make the show went viral and reach more audience.
From the word that I have said that mysteries always sell because normally we are not wearing a mask(touchable) to each other everyday. This show using the things that we never see it in real life. Mysteries(prediction) is always challenging to the audience curiosity that is the part media tools to gain our attention and part of the reason why it is attractive, then how can the audience ignore this show.
Pop Culture is another factor that makes this show interesting. Costume, pop music, mask, and show, it the new way of entertainment that make the majority of the society gone wild. Not only Thais crazy about this show but foreigner also attracted to our TV program too. Many of YouTuber upload the video of them listening and commenting about the mask singer. The trending now is many Korean YouTuber talks about ‘The Sa-Ra-Pao Mask’ who sing a Korean song perfectly. We all know that Korean Pop culture is very powerful and happen very corner of the world, If a foreigner sing a Korean song it will become a news or a hot topic. There are many comments about that mask from the foreigner on YouTube and on many social media. It confirms that this show is become the trend and use pop culture to gain attention.
The Mask Singer is not only broadcasting on television, they also have a broadcast by using Facebook live because it is convenient for an audience who do not have or cannot access to a television at that particular time. Another point that it saw it as the advantage of the Facebook live broadcasting is the audience can immediately share their idea on the comment section or like button. It is easy for them to produce the content of their idea like comments or sent the emoticon. Sometimes they share the idea and fact together right away during the live like some comment said the ‘Golden Pig Mask’ is Mr.x and someone supports the idea like sent a comparison picture of the golden pig mask with some singer.
This show also has such an active Facebook fan pages. The admin of the page mostly answers any comment that the audience sent to him and he also gives us a clue of the anonymous mask with gain a lot of attention of the audience. It is the good side of the Page that not only give an information but also building a relationship in the comment section. Another trick that the Page use is they are keeping contact with other social media influencers like ‘E’Jeab’, a Thai’s social media influencers on Facebook. Once, the admin of the mask singer replies E’ Jeab post on Jeab’s page.
Twitter is also the social media tools that the show use to gain the audience. We can participate by using #themasksinger to tweet or retweet the opinion. The final round of the mask singer is really gain a lot of attention because they are live broadcasting of the performance to let the whole Thailand and Worldwide know the 1st the mask singer of Thailand together. Their hashtag becomes number 1 in Thailand trending because the audience is really exciting of the winner and a lot of surprises happen on the show on that day and it increases the excitement more than usual.
Other points of the uses of twitter that benefit the show is ‘Yoshiki, the singer of X-Japan’ tweet a video about the performance of ‘The Crow Mask’ singing his song ‘Endless Rain’ after many people tweet a video to him and it make the show went viral, even the crow mask said he really thanks to the show for make his favourite band get to know him and appreciate his performance.
This is the popular Thai TV show right now, you should watch it, it is really amazing or you can watch the original Korean version too. The Mask Singer also happens in Chinese and Vietnamese version, if you are interested, watch it 🙂 I hope the blog for this week will help you to understand more about the TV Program nowadays or understand how media make it went viral. I wish that we see each other soon, please stay tuned and feel free to ask or comment on my blog. So now we have to say goodbye but don’t forget that…
‘The things that entertain you can educate you too.’
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Toey-tankkanang 
I’m a big fan of this show, but I think sometimes it tries to make drama story on singer that is a point audiences want to watch it.
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All of the element of pop culture that they use in this program to try to attract people to wacth but I am not really a fan of this show…. I guess I must be boring and old..
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