Thinking in webs and not chains
Writing replies tends to take me on wiki walks, and I rarely resist being pulled in each new direction, as they tend to unearth clips I had previously not seen, and sometimes result in large shifts in my perspectives/impressions of things. (usually idol personalities and/or ability) Then all of these things stew around in my mind and make idea-babies that always catch me off guard.
An aspect of idolling specific to Kpop is "Jack of all trades, master of none." They sing! They dance! They look pretty! They're funny! But because they can sing AND dance AND look pretty AND be funny, they're no longer obligated to be the best. As a matter of fact, an idol's popularity seems to be often tied to the quantity of "talents" they are kind of good at, or at least are entertaining while doing. There have been many cases of idols that are the best at only singing or dancing that have become their group's underdog.
In terms of music, this means that idols are expected to tackle a wide variety of music styles, regardless of whether their voices could ever fit that style. Albums are a grab-bag of genres, with fans often complaining if a release doesn't contain enough variety, especially if the newest single resembles the last one too much. The number of styles or concepts a group has done are like notches in their belt and taken as a sign of quality, regardless of the execution. Perhaps this is why groups with large member rosters are preferred, as it increases their personality variety and thus their ability to kind of adapt to any particular style.
Note: There is still some of this kind of sentiment in the West,("Look, they're good enough to be on the new Tony Bennett duets album!") but it's much more unforgiving. ("Eh, they can't really pull this style off, they should go back to what they're good at.")
I bring this "Chameleon Idol is the best!" standard up because of some of the comments I've seen on a video of BoA covering Adele:
Of the comments not in complete adoration, the general consensus seems to be that BoA's nasal-sounding voice just doesn't fit the genre of music Adele works in. There were even some from apologetic fans that were along the lines of, "Yeah, she's nowhere near Adele in this cover...but it's a tribute it doesn't have to be! :D"
I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. Should artists be allowed to cover songs that they want to if they can't possibly "do it justice?" Should BoA have rearranged the song to better fit her own vocal style?
One thing's for sure, though: the comments about her lack of vocal control and intonations are definitely wrong:
Yes, that is BoA's coaching of the girl whose later rendition of "Rolling in the Deep" became somewhat viral.
So that train of thought took me to Frank Kogan's opinion on BoA's voice:
"I've never gotten her as a singer, though haven't heard much of her voluminous repertoire. I borrowed her American album from the Denver Public Library last month. A lot of the material is excellent, especially the stuff from Jonback/Bloodshy & Avant, a track called "Touched" in particular. There was this dance gorgeousness, a desire ready to saturate the atmosphere. But I got the feeling I sometimes get from Keri Hilson of an absence in the middle. The tracks seemed to be waiting for their Cassie, or Britney, or someone, a missing ache or neediness that needed to seep into the music. She was singing well, but not injecting enough character."
My first instinct was to disagree, and point out her emoting here:
(Off topic: given its melodic structure, and BoA's impeccable vocal control, it's no wonder that this song takes me to the same place as Sinatra's "I Fall in Love Too Easily"
Or here:
But upon further thought, I don't get a particular BoA-specific character to her expressions. Rather, she changes her voice inflections to fit the song. Before, I was going to also link her R&B Japanese ballads as counter-examples as well, but upon my listening to check, it's the production that gives the song its character, and BoA's voice just does what it needs to, without that "it" factor giving it a real personality unique to her and setting the songs apart from other R&B artists. So she'd be perfect as a classical musician, then, where it's more about bringing out the composer's intent and the piece's potential rather than the performer's personal interpretation. BoA is the perfect chameleon idol: She may not appear to have a strong personality to make her into a star in Western terms, but her strength lies in how seamlessly she can go from nightclub jazz to R&B to dance music, from 00s to 2010s.
Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. "Winter Story," this, and this provide a very definite character: BoA is here to fly you over a land of wistful wonder.
Wait, that would be a waste of her talents, because that's not all she can do. And maybe that's why she doesn't have a "real" personality. Thank goodness.
But the thing is, BoA doesn't have to have a personality in her voice, because all you have to do is look at her to see what she brings to the table that only she can offer: visual charisma.
Frank also came to this conclusion when askbask linked him a dance video:
"Watching that BoA rehearsal increased my respect for BoA 100%. [...] Looking at the rehearsal for "Look Who's Talking," I see immediately that BoA's got something: her whole demeanor, a completely flexible confidence, a casual command of space and an elastic joy that's capable of owning every cubic centimeter in the room, should she find her way to it. Maybe the trouble with the album is that the music doesn't reflect this ease, this motion. Maybe she needed more hip-hop, more disco, I'm not sure.
From there, I checked on several songs of hers that I remembered having character. But from "Bump Bump" and "Love Bug" to "Kimochi wa Tsutawaru," and even "Sweet Impact," again, it's the production/composition that defines the song and not necessarily BoA's voice. Ironically, SNSD's cover of "No. 1" might have a more interesting character to the audio simply because it offers several voices of differing timbre.
There's a glimmer of something in "GAME," but I could not define it, and ultimately I believe that it's simply BoA unlocking the full potential of the song that is moving me. It also pales in comparison to the sheer force exuded by Fat Cat, or even Lee Hyori. The BoA in "GAME" is an identity BoA has constructed and put on, like a costume, which only further reinforces how perfect she is as a chameleon idol. This doesn't bother me, though. Personality in singing was never something I consciously sought out, except perhaps in the context of showtunes, and there it was a matter of a specific character bringing out relevance to the lyrical content, which is not so much an issue for music in a foreign language. Or is it?
In her classic Korean repertoire, such as "Valenti," "My Name," and "ID: Peace B," I hear a kind of uniquely seductive sassiness stemming from a complete control of the lyrics. It's a sound that has defined much of Kpop as "the next BoA" was a title thrown around to hype up various SNSD members, showing how much they emulated their own idolling style after hers.(She even made her mark on Jpop idols.) SNSD's cover of "My Name" explicitly aims at replicating BoA's inflections instead of making their own interpretation because it is so definitive.
But when I listen to "Eat You Up," I definitely feel that absence Frank talks about. How should she fix that?
The answer may be found in Wonder Girls's newest video.
(Quick review of the song: Holy crap, this is the JYP-ified and then Nickelodeon-ified version of Ookii Hitomi, down to the autotuning of their weakest singers. That's hilarious.)
The Wonder Girls do a great job. They've got the attitude, with Sohee and Lim's less strong voices serving their purpose of building in strength to ensure that the belted chorus takes center stage and is never overshadowed by other parts of the song. I'm ready to call this one a winner, but then their American counterparts, the School Gurls, show up. Suddenly, the Wonder Girls seem lacking. They have the attitude, and even the stronger-sung chorus, but the School Gurls still better reflect the sass of the song, and even though Yubin manages to match in swagga for one glorious moment during the rap break, being forced to rap slowly, forcefully, and to this swinging triplet beat undercuts all of her strengths as a rapper that excels in smooth fast-ish flow.
What happened? Why did WG fall short to the School Gurls despite Sun Ye and Ye Eun's tour de force of a chorus? Why does BoA's "Eat You Up" sound empty, even while both BoA and WG look every bit the part they're supposed to play?
Also, why don't I feel this paucity in Super Junior M's "Perfection," which shares its Remee and Troelsen parents with "Eat You Up?"
Ah-ha. Perhaps because fudging any Chinese word could turn it into another word completely, Suju-M over-enunciate the lyrics, spitting them out with a vengeance and drawing out hanging vowel sounds over two beats, and into dipthongs. "mei" is not pronounced pat like "may," but more like "maay-yi."
Normally, this warping of the language only works when someone is comfortable enough to play with it, in the same way a good writer can break grammar rules without sounding like someone who doesn't know how to write. You know, the way Fat Cat, Tasha, and Miryo rap in Korean. One of the things that defines Britney Spears's voice is how she bends and slides into every word.(Of course, this can go too far, as Ke$ha as demonstrated)
WG and BoA's pronounciation is spot on. It's too spot on. They were careful to make sure that it was spot on, but a native with the attitude they wish to portray doesn't show that caution. That's why even though the School Gurls' chorus is sung shorter and less powerful, it feels like they mean the lyrics more. And, of course, all of the word-warping going on for the School Gurls rapper. WG come closer than BoA because of their extended time spent in America working on their english. They make sure to lengthen the vowels in "thuuh Deeeeee-jaaay is miine!" where some of BoA's long e's still sound like short i's, long a's sound like short e's, and "you" gets cut off like a consonant was supposed to be at the end. From what I can tell, most of the Korean phonetic syllables do end in consonant sounds, and Wikipedia tells me that said consonants are characterized by "stiff voice." This is in contrast to Japanese, where all syllables end in vowel sounds(although sometimes they get truncated, like with "desu") and for the most part flow together nicely.
Is it a language thing, then? Even though one of the main reasons I listen to foreign pop music is so that I don't have to worry about whether they're treating the language "right," I've listened to Jpop long enough to where I can hear instances where it sounds awkward, akin to the entire first set of lines in Lady Gaga's Telephone. Most of them are Kpop crossover offerings. And even when the words themselves seem to be in the right place, the phonetic singing can serve as a disturbance to the flow of the sound.
But also, idols like BoA, WG, and SNSD were never meant to pull off swagga or sexy in the sense of down and dirty, aggressive and in your face.(They're too busy going twinkle twinkle up in the sky.) As Maddie put it"
"SNSD really have only two modes: “adorable” and “arrogant”, the latter of which covers what other groups would interpret as “sexy”, “bad”, “I Am The Best”, etc. They can’t be real “bad girls”, so instead the song lets them be haughty, which they can do (and well). I think in this context, when you stop looking for 2NE1-type baseball bat-carrying sneering, the song is a lot stronger."
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the comparison of SNSD's "Tell Me Your Wish" to its English counterpart, Nathalie Makoma's "I Just Wanna Dance."
Long story short: "I just wanna dance" is meant to seem more beats-heavy and rhythmic to match the dance floor setting of the lyrics, as opposed to SNSD's version, which is ethereal to match the Genie theme.
But speaking of SNSD, their Japan album proves to be the exception to my perception of how Japanese should sound. They sing them just like their Hitchhiker songs,(Visual Dreams, Telepathy, Showx3, Wake Up) bouncing the syllables off of each other instead of flowing them together. But somehow it doesn't it bother me. I'll chalk it up here to STY and HIRO expertly writing and arranging the songs to call for such separated syllabic singing. Of course, I feel like I don't recognize the songs on their Japan album as Japanese either. Rather, their voices just become another layer of rhythm in the tapestry of electronic music.
So yeah, visual swagga is universal, but audio swagga is somewhat language dependent. Except when it isn't. Or something.
An aspect of idolling specific to Kpop is "Jack of all trades, master of none." They sing! They dance! They look pretty! They're funny! But because they can sing AND dance AND look pretty AND be funny, they're no longer obligated to be the best. As a matter of fact, an idol's popularity seems to be often tied to the quantity of "talents" they are kind of good at, or at least are entertaining while doing. There have been many cases of idols that are the best at only singing or dancing that have become their group's underdog.
In terms of music, this means that idols are expected to tackle a wide variety of music styles, regardless of whether their voices could ever fit that style. Albums are a grab-bag of genres, with fans often complaining if a release doesn't contain enough variety, especially if the newest single resembles the last one too much. The number of styles or concepts a group has done are like notches in their belt and taken as a sign of quality, regardless of the execution. Perhaps this is why groups with large member rosters are preferred, as it increases their personality variety and thus their ability to kind of adapt to any particular style.
Note: There is still some of this kind of sentiment in the West,("Look, they're good enough to be on the new Tony Bennett duets album!") but it's much more unforgiving. ("Eh, they can't really pull this style off, they should go back to what they're good at.")
I bring this "Chameleon Idol is the best!" standard up because of some of the comments I've seen on a video of BoA covering Adele:
Click to viewOf the comments not in complete adoration, the general consensus seems to be that BoA's nasal-sounding voice just doesn't fit the genre of music Adele works in. There were even some from apologetic fans that were along the lines of, "Yeah, she's nowhere near Adele in this cover...but it's a tribute it doesn't have to be! :D"
I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. Should artists be allowed to cover songs that they want to if they can't possibly "do it justice?" Should BoA have rearranged the song to better fit her own vocal style?
One thing's for sure, though: the comments about her lack of vocal control and intonations are definitely wrong:
Yes, that is BoA's coaching of the girl whose later rendition of "Rolling in the Deep" became somewhat viral.
So that train of thought took me to Frank Kogan's opinion on BoA's voice:
"I've never gotten her as a singer, though haven't heard much of her voluminous repertoire. I borrowed her American album from the Denver Public Library last month. A lot of the material is excellent, especially the stuff from Jonback/Bloodshy & Avant, a track called "Touched" in particular. There was this dance gorgeousness, a desire ready to saturate the atmosphere. But I got the feeling I sometimes get from Keri Hilson of an absence in the middle. The tracks seemed to be waiting for their Cassie, or Britney, or someone, a missing ache or neediness that needed to seep into the music. She was singing well, but not injecting enough character."
My first instinct was to disagree, and point out her emoting here:
(Off topic: given its melodic structure, and BoA's impeccable vocal control, it's no wonder that this song takes me to the same place as Sinatra's "I Fall in Love Too Easily"
Or here:
But upon further thought, I don't get a particular BoA-specific character to her expressions. Rather, she changes her voice inflections to fit the song. Before, I was going to also link her R&B Japanese ballads as counter-examples as well, but upon my listening to check, it's the production that gives the song its character, and BoA's voice just does what it needs to, without that "it" factor giving it a real personality unique to her and setting the songs apart from other R&B artists. So she'd be perfect as a classical musician, then, where it's more about bringing out the composer's intent and the piece's potential rather than the performer's personal interpretation. BoA is the perfect chameleon idol: She may not appear to have a strong personality to make her into a star in Western terms, but her strength lies in how seamlessly she can go from nightclub jazz to R&B to dance music, from 00s to 2010s.
Or maybe I'm just talking out of my ass. "Winter Story," this, and this provide a very definite character: BoA is here to fly you over a land of wistful wonder.
Wait, that would be a waste of her talents, because that's not all she can do. And maybe that's why she doesn't have a "real" personality. Thank goodness.
But the thing is, BoA doesn't have to have a personality in her voice, because all you have to do is look at her to see what she brings to the table that only she can offer: visual charisma.
Frank also came to this conclusion when askbask linked him a dance video:
"Watching that BoA rehearsal increased my respect for BoA 100%. [...] Looking at the rehearsal for "Look Who's Talking," I see immediately that BoA's got something: her whole demeanor, a completely flexible confidence, a casual command of space and an elastic joy that's capable of owning every cubic centimeter in the room, should she find her way to it. Maybe the trouble with the album is that the music doesn't reflect this ease, this motion. Maybe she needed more hip-hop, more disco, I'm not sure.
From there, I checked on several songs of hers that I remembered having character. But from "Bump Bump" and "Love Bug" to "Kimochi wa Tsutawaru," and even "Sweet Impact," again, it's the production/composition that defines the song and not necessarily BoA's voice. Ironically, SNSD's cover of "No. 1" might have a more interesting character to the audio simply because it offers several voices of differing timbre.
There's a glimmer of something in "GAME," but I could not define it, and ultimately I believe that it's simply BoA unlocking the full potential of the song that is moving me. It also pales in comparison to the sheer force exuded by Fat Cat, or even Lee Hyori. The BoA in "GAME" is an identity BoA has constructed and put on, like a costume, which only further reinforces how perfect she is as a chameleon idol. This doesn't bother me, though. Personality in singing was never something I consciously sought out, except perhaps in the context of showtunes, and there it was a matter of a specific character bringing out relevance to the lyrical content, which is not so much an issue for music in a foreign language. Or is it?
In her classic Korean repertoire, such as "Valenti," "My Name," and "ID: Peace B," I hear a kind of uniquely seductive sassiness stemming from a complete control of the lyrics. It's a sound that has defined much of Kpop as "the next BoA" was a title thrown around to hype up various SNSD members, showing how much they emulated their own idolling style after hers.(She even made her mark on Jpop idols.) SNSD's cover of "My Name" explicitly aims at replicating BoA's inflections instead of making their own interpretation because it is so definitive.
But when I listen to "Eat You Up," I definitely feel that absence Frank talks about. How should she fix that?
The answer may be found in Wonder Girls's newest video.
(Quick review of the song: Holy crap, this is the JYP-ified and then Nickelodeon-ified version of Ookii Hitomi, down to the autotuning of their weakest singers. That's hilarious.)
The Wonder Girls do a great job. They've got the attitude, with Sohee and Lim's less strong voices serving their purpose of building in strength to ensure that the belted chorus takes center stage and is never overshadowed by other parts of the song. I'm ready to call this one a winner, but then their American counterparts, the School Gurls, show up. Suddenly, the Wonder Girls seem lacking. They have the attitude, and even the stronger-sung chorus, but the School Gurls still better reflect the sass of the song, and even though Yubin manages to match in swagga for one glorious moment during the rap break, being forced to rap slowly, forcefully, and to this swinging triplet beat undercuts all of her strengths as a rapper that excels in smooth fast-ish flow.
What happened? Why did WG fall short to the School Gurls despite Sun Ye and Ye Eun's tour de force of a chorus? Why does BoA's "Eat You Up" sound empty, even while both BoA and WG look every bit the part they're supposed to play?
Also, why don't I feel this paucity in Super Junior M's "Perfection," which shares its Remee and Troelsen parents with "Eat You Up?"
Ah-ha. Perhaps because fudging any Chinese word could turn it into another word completely, Suju-M over-enunciate the lyrics, spitting them out with a vengeance and drawing out hanging vowel sounds over two beats, and into dipthongs. "mei" is not pronounced pat like "may," but more like "maay-yi."
Normally, this warping of the language only works when someone is comfortable enough to play with it, in the same way a good writer can break grammar rules without sounding like someone who doesn't know how to write. You know, the way Fat Cat, Tasha, and Miryo rap in Korean. One of the things that defines Britney Spears's voice is how she bends and slides into every word.(Of course, this can go too far, as Ke$ha as demonstrated)
WG and BoA's pronounciation is spot on. It's too spot on. They were careful to make sure that it was spot on, but a native with the attitude they wish to portray doesn't show that caution. That's why even though the School Gurls' chorus is sung shorter and less powerful, it feels like they mean the lyrics more. And, of course, all of the word-warping going on for the School Gurls rapper. WG come closer than BoA because of their extended time spent in America working on their english. They make sure to lengthen the vowels in "thuuh Deeeeee-jaaay is miine!" where some of BoA's long e's still sound like short i's, long a's sound like short e's, and "you" gets cut off like a consonant was supposed to be at the end. From what I can tell, most of the Korean phonetic syllables do end in consonant sounds, and Wikipedia tells me that said consonants are characterized by "stiff voice." This is in contrast to Japanese, where all syllables end in vowel sounds(although sometimes they get truncated, like with "desu") and for the most part flow together nicely.
Is it a language thing, then? Even though one of the main reasons I listen to foreign pop music is so that I don't have to worry about whether they're treating the language "right," I've listened to Jpop long enough to where I can hear instances where it sounds awkward, akin to the entire first set of lines in Lady Gaga's Telephone. Most of them are Kpop crossover offerings. And even when the words themselves seem to be in the right place, the phonetic singing can serve as a disturbance to the flow of the sound.
But also, idols like BoA, WG, and SNSD were never meant to pull off swagga or sexy in the sense of down and dirty, aggressive and in your face.(They're too busy going twinkle twinkle up in the sky.) As Maddie put it"
"SNSD really have only two modes: “adorable” and “arrogant”, the latter of which covers what other groups would interpret as “sexy”, “bad”, “I Am The Best”, etc. They can’t be real “bad girls”, so instead the song lets them be haughty, which they can do (and well). I think in this context, when you stop looking for 2NE1-type baseball bat-carrying sneering, the song is a lot stronger."
Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the comparison of SNSD's "Tell Me Your Wish" to its English counterpart, Nathalie Makoma's "I Just Wanna Dance."
Long story short: "I just wanna dance" is meant to seem more beats-heavy and rhythmic to match the dance floor setting of the lyrics, as opposed to SNSD's version, which is ethereal to match the Genie theme.
But speaking of SNSD, their Japan album proves to be the exception to my perception of how Japanese should sound. They sing them just like their Hitchhiker songs,(Visual Dreams, Telepathy, Showx3, Wake Up) bouncing the syllables off of each other instead of flowing them together. But somehow it doesn't it bother me. I'll chalk it up here to STY and HIRO expertly writing and arranging the songs to call for such separated syllabic singing. Of course, I feel like I don't recognize the songs on their Japan album as Japanese either. Rather, their voices just become another layer of rhythm in the tapestry of electronic music.
So yeah, visual swagga is universal, but audio swagga is somewhat language dependent. Except when it isn't. Or something.