Wow! There's A Cell Phone You Can Eat!
Wow! I'd never heard this before! Writer Kenzie* and producers Bloodshy & Avant take a dramatic "Reach Out I'll Be There"-type melody, throw it into waltz time, and make it a funny, bumpy promenade. [EDIT: I meant to say they throw it into SWING time. My brain went herky-jerky there for a second. In any event, this most certainly isn't a waltz; it'
( Read more... )
So, of course, mashups were made. This one has cleaner mixing (with f(x) and Rachel's arrangement mixed with SNSD's vocals), but I rather like this one for featuring some Rachel vocals,(it also includes Amber's "rap") especially because it plays the last choruses of the two songs over each other, and I'm a a sucker for that kind of thing.
The Anycall CF seems to be a long tradition.
Anyband with BoA, DBSK's Junsu, Epik High's Tablo and Jin Bora.
4Tomorrow composed of Brown Eyed Girl's GaIn, Kara's Seungyeon, Hyuna, and After School's UEE.
Hyori again, with Anyclub, featuring Teddy, and Anymotion.
Rain's Anydream
But yeah, Kpop groups doing endorsement MVs seems pretty common. We all had a laugh when we realized this is the American equivalent commercial to "Chocolate Love." I think conversation devolved after that from imagining if SNSD did a similar style CF until "SNSD pole-dancing in a subway train." Yeah ( ... )
Reply
Not really apropos of Rachel Stevens, or of much of anything except that, because of the way my mind free associates, I never fail to think of this when I hear "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex": there was a Mya record I quite liked back in 2000, a mesh of barbed-wire synths, the radio DJ's identifying the track as "K City X," or so it seemed, anyway. I liked the title for (I assumed) Kansas City's casual nickname and for the intrigue of simply referring to a mystery paramour as "X": "the K City X." (I suppose I could have listened to the lyrics more carefully.)
Where I hear "Reach Out I'll Be There" in "Chocolate Love" is the vocal descent on "neol gamchugo isseo" and "nan ppajyeo beoryeotjyo," the melody reminding me of Levi Stubbs and crew singing "With a love that will shelter you" and "With a love that will ( ... )
Reply
The storyline for "Kiss" resonated with me in thinking about how there are different types of fans, and how two of the same fandom may not even be able to connect because being different types reflects on their respective personalities. Hence why although there was that initial connection at the concert, as concert energy tends to sweep differences away, they wouldn't necessarily carry that connection over to the rest of their lives, possibly even within fandom.
Of course, the epilogue thoroughly debunks this and makes it clear that the boy being arrogant was his own false front that he needed to outgrow, rather than his problem being that he assumed Dara to be a fashion kind of girl despite her attitudes being made clear at the club, but without dubious intent.
Reply
Reply
Approximately, though, I thought the arrangement for "Negotiate With Love" was great, and noted that it's also a Norwegian-written song. Then I asked for the mental association between "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" and "K City X."
Frank's response:
In any event, the association between "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" and "K City X" ("Case Of The Ex") is merely that they're each about an ex.
I had no name recognition prior today for the Nervo Twins. I'd seen their credits on Ke$ha's excellent "Boots & Boys" and had no idea who they were, and subsequently forgot.
I'm disappointed they never wrote for or with the Veronicas.
I see that our Swedish Negotiators also wrote "Chu," for f(x).
In response to the "Reach Out I'll Be There" connection, I think I wrote a long tangent about the different kinds of triplet songs: the sexy swing beat dance track a la "Right Round" and "Womanizer," and the reggaeton?-ish beat found here, questioned the difference between the two, (tempo ( ... )
Reply
Swedish, actually.
I'm not sure where you're hearing triplets in "Cinderella/Complex"; the quarter notes are definitely, you know, quarter notes, and if you break them down further, you get eight or sixteen beats to the measure, not the twelve beats you get in "Womanizer" and "L.A. Ex." But I guess you're saying there's some sort of triple/triplet emphasis? As I said, I'm not able to put my finger on that one. Not sure what I'm hearing in the rhythm in "C/C," actually, but it's great.
Not sure how I'd categorize the beat of "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" anyway. It seems pretty rock 'n' roll, to tell you the truth, more pushed than the boogies and swings of the late '40s, but still with a looseness that hard rock etc. tends to lack. What's grabbing me most, though, is the melody, which, while not sounding retro, is totally steeped in the between-wars American Deep South. I'd call it a "blues" melody except to do so would confuse people. In any event, it's neither major nor minor but uses the tones of ( ... )
Reply
Reply
Reply
As for the impact this has on the sound, I don't have a good idea. SNSD's "Bad Girl" doesn't feel particularly K-pop to me, but "Tell Me Your Wish (Genie)" does, though both have Scandinavian input, the latter actually being Norwegian. (The same crew, Dsign Music, had a hand in ChoColat's "I Like It," the best of ChoColat's three singles.)
It may take a few days before I can concentrate on the music theory stuff.
Reply
Reply
And I really have no idea what it is that makes something "sound K-pop" to me. I made a K-pop mix, and Jewelry's "One More Time" fit right in, despite its arrangement having been lifted substantially from the Italian Eurodance original (the Jewelry version does flow better rhythmically, and the accordion hook takes an upturn that the it doesn't in In-Grid's; but I'm not really hearing the rhythm containing different beats so much as using different timbre; however, I haven't sat down to do an in-depth comparison yet).
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
I've been whistling "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex" for two days now, so I withdraw anything derogatory I said about the melody. In fact I may even prefer its melody to "Chocolate Love"'s. But I still prefer "Chocolate Love" overall, and I probably can't figure out why. Warmer overall with the group vocals, perhaps.
Reply
Leave a comment