this just occurred to mesub_dividedMay 2 2012, 21:42:29 UTC
The Doylist take on Volume Up: Shinsadong Tiger always co-writes with a producer who takes his melodies and/or arrangements and adds, you know, pop tricks like the sharp percussive drum sound that feels like all your synapses firing at once, or those airplanes-flying-overheard washy noises that feel like you going off to another world, or those tweaked bass/guitar/synth lines that feel like your nerves are humming. (Sorry for my poor description.) It makes sense to have a song that hits hard immediately when you assume the production is gonna be backing you up like that.
But following maddielovekpop's observation that 4minute are always weather vanes for the kpop industry, the trend right now - for girl bands - is the "Alone" trend of being sexy and adult instead of euphoric and wound-up. So they did the production that way, with restraint, and even a sexy saxophone, despite the song assuming you'll be keyed up right away (it's even called "Volume Up"): and that's why it sounds that way.
I really really don't know much about music production, so this is all wild theorizing XD.
Re: this just occurred to mepetroniaMay 3 2012, 18:50:38 UTC
You could be right about the trend aspect -- it does create a noticeable tension in the song, between the "smooth/sexy" aspect and the "euphoric disco" aspect (I'm not willing to call it a disconnect because I think it isn't; it works better here than in that Little Boots track that's also up for review on TSJ, which you may or may not have heard, but it's the obvious comparison right now on this point, in my head. XD;)
Re: this just occurred to mekoganbotMay 3 2012, 21:37:12 UTC
Among other things, "Volume Up"'s got a dance track's build and release. But I think Shinsadong Tiger wants the various moods and attitudes of the song to both coexist and to shape one another. So the sax and the ohs, ahs, and ehs reappear in the chorus but in somewhat different roles; and in the verse part, the second time through, when HyunA is interjecting ohs, ehs, and ahs, even though her delivery is the same as in verse one, they and she now have a third of a song's extra history to accrue to them. So - what I said in another comment - they now contain invitations and sassiness and demands, all of which remain every new time I hear the song.
Re: this just occurred to mekoganbotMay 3 2012, 19:20:29 UTC
I think that for HyunA, being euphoric and wound-up is identical to being sexy and adult. After all, she's the crescendo here, and the ahs and the ehs and most of the ohs.
Re: this just occurred to mesub_dividedMay 3 2012, 22:46:27 UTC
Yeah, they're not opposites, I just think of them that way because of my "government censors ban sex and drugs so mania is the only kind of euphoria left to Korean pop music" theory.
If there is a "sexy and relaxed" (or in 4minutes' case, sexy but still wound-up) trend going on now, is it because a) the groups are growing up with their (middle-school) audience, b) the groups are following up on the success of Miss A "Bad Girl Good Girl" and Brown Eyed Girls "Sixth Sense" etc, c) the censors are taking a break and allowing stuff through that would have been banned before, or d) a combination?
I think SNSD want to grow up too, but their fanbase might be mostly... young girls, actually, at this point. So they might be stuck.
Re: this just occurred to mekoganbotMay 3 2012, 20:32:16 UTC
And Iain's and Katherine's negative blurbs at the Jukebox helped me figure out more reasons that this is so great. E.g., we start with the maturely sensitive and atmospheric sax, then the track stomps and boshes the hell out of everything, and in the chorus the sax sample gets to splash around the puddles like everyone else.
What for Katherine is six voices (incl. sax) vying for attention sounds to me like a clear division of labor: the sax is our maître d, decked out in tux (but little balls of bass are tugging at its feet), HyunA enters first as our warm-hearted hostess, the witty ohs and ehs and ahs spilling out of her as tasty offerings, GaYoon takes over, not loud yet but with need and heat in her voice, HyunA's back but this time as the crescendo, the hot rapper, assertive and demanding and bringing us to JiYoon, who's the stomp and the volume and the wail, her voice spilling over our returning sax like a fountain. Then (as we're gasping from having been drawn into the dance) SoHyun comes over in a pleasantly accommodating voice to start us over, dispense more morsels, asking, Is there anything we want at the moment?, with HyunA nearby interjecting ohs and ahs and ehs, though this time we're more attuned to the sassy little invitations and demands embedded within those syllables. And on as before, with JiHyun in the interlude to remind us of flowers and lace and a hint of emotional ache.
(I don't really know who's who in 4minute - that'll be my next project once I manage a passing grade in my current course, which is SNSD Advanced Name-To-Face Correlation - so I'm relying on the K-pop color code site to connect voice and name for me. Without having had a moniker for her, I did recognize JiYoon as the crucial voice in "Mirror Mirror," and GaYoon as the one whose boy-attracting role in the "Mirror Mirror" routine was a precursor to the HyunA spread-leg dance. If any of you have a better feel for each vocalist's previous roles in 4minute songs, you probably have a richer sense of what's happening in this one.)
But following maddielovekpop's observation that 4minute are always weather vanes for the kpop industry, the trend right now - for girl bands - is the "Alone" trend of being sexy and adult instead of euphoric and wound-up. So they did the production that way, with restraint, and even a sexy saxophone, despite the song assuming you'll be keyed up right away (it's even called "Volume Up"): and that's why it sounds that way.
I really really don't know much about music production, so this is all wild theorizing XD.
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If there is a "sexy and relaxed" (or in 4minutes' case, sexy but still wound-up) trend going on now, is it because a) the groups are growing up with their (middle-school) audience, b) the groups are following up on the success of Miss A "Bad Girl Good Girl" and Brown Eyed Girls "Sixth Sense" etc, c) the censors are taking a break and allowing stuff through that would have been banned before, or d) a combination?
I think SNSD want to grow up too, but their fanbase might be mostly... young girls, actually, at this point. So they might be stuck.
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What for Katherine is six voices (incl. sax) vying for attention sounds to me like a clear division of labor: the sax is our maître d, decked out in tux (but little balls of bass are tugging at its feet), HyunA enters first as our warm-hearted hostess, the witty ohs and ehs and ahs spilling out of her as tasty offerings, GaYoon takes over, not loud yet but with need and heat in her voice, HyunA's back but this time as the crescendo, the hot rapper, assertive and demanding and bringing us to JiYoon, who's the stomp and the volume and the wail, her voice spilling over our returning sax like a fountain. Then (as we're gasping from having been drawn into the dance) SoHyun comes over in a pleasantly accommodating voice to start us over, dispense more morsels, asking, Is there anything we want at the moment?, with HyunA nearby interjecting ohs and ahs and ehs, though this time we're more attuned to the sassy little invitations and demands embedded within those syllables. And on as before, with JiHyun in the interlude to remind us of flowers and lace and a hint of emotional ache.
(I don't really know who's who in 4minute - that'll be my next project once I manage a passing grade in my current course, which is SNSD Advanced Name-To-Face Correlation - so I'm relying on the K-pop color code site to connect voice and name for me. Without having had a moniker for her, I did recognize JiYoon as the crucial voice in "Mirror Mirror," and GaYoon as the one whose boy-attracting role in the "Mirror Mirror" routine was a precursor to the HyunA spread-leg dance. If any of you have a better feel for each vocalist's previous roles in 4minute songs, you probably have a richer sense of what's happening in this one.)
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