I've been musing over composition a lot recently, trying to pin down just why Tsumetai Kaze to Kataomoi's composition is such a waste of its arrangement.
Primarily, the issue seems to be more rhythm than composition. The hook's sample is a riff that calls for more of 2/4 phrasing, the way most Kpop and western pop is structured now, whereas traditional Jpop goes the full 16-beat 4 measures of 4/4 for verse melodies. (Which result in longer song runtimes) Compare Uptown Funk to Yah! Aishitai, and how despite sharing similar brass hooks, the rhythm scheme is different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hAbao4gseE The Matenrou Show and Sukatto My Heart are in the same 2/4 groove as Uptown Funk, and feel more "authentically" funky than Yah! Aishitai. But Uptown Funk's chorus is 16 beat phrase, repeated, (32 beat total) and there's internal repetition of the same 8-beat two-chord progression, whereas all of the Jpop examples have many more chords, and two phases to their melodies. Yah! Aishitai's verse and prechorus are in 4/4, while the chorus is kinda 2/4. Inspiration! is the other way around, with funky 2/4 verse and prechorus opening up into 4/4 chorus. And that's why they, as well as Tokyo Girls Style's Let's Get Together, more resemble early Jackson Five than James Brown. Consider also these two Morning Musume vs. Earth Wind & Fire mashups, and how the MM melodies are basically twice as long as EW&F's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjK-BVXtrGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO2LoAhxlbA
And then consider fun.'s "We Are Young." The piano plunks are eighth-note tempo, but they treat them as individual beats, so that the "Tonight, we are young" first phrase of the chorus is actually over the course of 32 beats, two chords. And then they mix up the phrase length for the rest of the chorus, which keeps it interesting. Start with a long-duration chord, and then get shorter. Considering Tsunku's rock background, (heavily influenced by the Beatles and Queen) it makes sense fun. would more match Jpop structures.
Amazingly, Tokyo Girls Style's Liar's chorus doesn't repeat its melody even once. Partition Love's melody is 32 beats, so it repeating results in PL's chorus being super long. On the other hand, Aitakatta and Hebirote hammer in the melody repetitions shamelessly.
Let's not forget how Marty Friedman demonstrated the longer travelling Jpop melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtPx6WdNM30 The chorus does include the standard partial repeat most all pop does, but but Don't Stop Believin's melody phrase is 32 beats, but there's an internal repeat of the Pop Chords of Doom. Arigato's 32 beat phrase doesn't have that internal repeat, which makes the difference.
As for the every-present Royal Road, I think it's telling that most Jpop uses can be dubbed with the more extended Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, rather than the compact version of the progression in Never Gonna Give You Up.
Yeah Friedman explains it quite succinctly there. It was interesting to hear this composer quote Western industry people specifically voicing opinions against 'many chords', though. Like, not only is it not usual, industry people think it would be detrimental to a song's success. Not so sure, myself, but obviously a far travelling melody is not exactly what's defined Billboard hits of the past few years.
Your MM observations are very interesting, I wouldn't have been able to put it in those person-who-actually-knows-this-stuff terms.
I've been reading interviews with SCANDAL for their new album and they explicitly state that for this album they wanted to get away from the royal road progression.
Consider Majer Lazer/DJ Snake/MØ's Somebody to Lean On (2:59 runtime, vs. Jpop more commonly get closer to 5 mins) The chord progression is something like X-Y-X-Z(sometimes W) And the ENTIRE SONG is that, so it feels like just a two-chord song, always returning to chord X. The chorus melody is a version of the chord progression, (A-Bflat G/A-Bflat D) repeated over each chord, the "All we need is somebody to lean on" sung over the fourth chord. (Plus some percussion flourishes) Even the verse and pre-chorus compositions are all just variations on those intervals.
The DJ Snake solo is such an outlier to the minimal unity of the rest of the piece, that it had to be saved for the bridge.
Drake's Hotline Bling is only two chords. The. Entire. Song. (Okay, there's two variant chords right at the end of the prechorus, which is what helps give the chorus a little kick. Subtle control of tension)
And for a music market so influenced by rap and hip hop, minimal chord changes make sense. Not just from a sampling perspective, but because when you're coming up with rap/lyrics, it's like doing a jazz improv, where the base measures should hold steady and repetitive. The shorter the base excerpt, the better, because you can riff more rhythmic variations on it, whereas for some longer phrases, you have to wait until the end measure to add those flourishes. Or freewheel off into modern jazz endless solos land that few in the regular populace can make sense of.
Any American Top 40 exceptions to this recently have been explicitly throwback songs. (Which, admittedly, there are a good amount of. Lots of mining the past these days)
Primarily, the issue seems to be more rhythm than composition. The hook's sample is a riff that calls for more of 2/4 phrasing, the way most Kpop and western pop is structured now, whereas traditional Jpop goes the full 16-beat 4 measures of 4/4 for verse melodies. (Which result in longer song runtimes)
Compare Uptown Funk to Yah! Aishitai, and how despite sharing similar brass hooks, the rhythm scheme is different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hAbao4gseE
The Matenrou Show and Sukatto My Heart are in the same 2/4 groove as Uptown Funk, and feel more "authentically" funky than Yah! Aishitai. But Uptown Funk's chorus is 16 beat phrase, repeated, (32 beat total) and there's internal repetition of the same 8-beat two-chord progression, whereas all of the Jpop examples have many more chords, and two phases to their melodies.
Yah! Aishitai's verse and prechorus are in 4/4, while the chorus is kinda 2/4. Inspiration! is the other way around, with funky 2/4 verse and prechorus opening up into 4/4 chorus. And that's why they, as well as Tokyo Girls Style's Let's Get Together, more resemble early Jackson Five than James Brown.
Consider also these two Morning Musume vs. Earth Wind & Fire mashups, and how the MM melodies are basically twice as long as EW&F's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjK-BVXtrGw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO2LoAhxlbA
And then consider fun.'s "We Are Young." The piano plunks are eighth-note tempo, but they treat them as individual beats, so that the "Tonight, we are young" first phrase of the chorus is actually over the course of 32 beats, two chords. And then they mix up the phrase length for the rest of the chorus, which keeps it interesting. Start with a long-duration chord, and then get shorter.
Considering Tsunku's rock background, (heavily influenced by the Beatles and Queen) it makes sense fun. would more match Jpop structures.
Amazingly, Tokyo Girls Style's Liar's chorus doesn't repeat its melody even once. Partition Love's melody is 32 beats, so it repeating results in PL's chorus being super long. On the other hand, Aitakatta and Hebirote hammer in the melody repetitions shamelessly.
Let's not forget how Marty Friedman demonstrated the longer travelling Jpop melody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtPx6WdNM30
The chorus does include the standard partial repeat most all pop does, but but Don't Stop Believin's melody phrase is 32 beats, but there's an internal repeat of the Pop Chords of Doom. Arigato's 32 beat phrase doesn't have that internal repeat, which makes the difference.
As for the every-present Royal Road, I think it's telling that most Jpop uses can be dubbed with the more extended Can't Take My Eyes Off of You, rather than the compact version of the progression in Never Gonna Give You Up.
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Your MM observations are very interesting, I wouldn't have been able to put it in those person-who-actually-knows-this-stuff terms.
I've been reading interviews with SCANDAL for their new album and they explicitly state that for this album they wanted to get away from the royal road progression.
Reply
The chord progression is something like X-Y-X-Z(sometimes W) And the ENTIRE SONG is that, so it feels like just a two-chord song, always returning to chord X.
The chorus melody is a version of the chord progression, (A-Bflat G/A-Bflat D) repeated over each chord, the "All we need is somebody to lean on" sung over the fourth chord. (Plus some percussion flourishes)
Even the verse and pre-chorus compositions are all just variations on those intervals.
The DJ Snake solo is such an outlier to the minimal unity of the rest of the piece, that it had to be saved for the bridge.
Drake's Hotline Bling is only two chords. The. Entire. Song. (Okay, there's two variant chords right at the end of the prechorus, which is what helps give the chorus a little kick. Subtle control of tension)
And for a music market so influenced by rap and hip hop, minimal chord changes make sense. Not just from a sampling perspective, but because when you're coming up with rap/lyrics, it's like doing a jazz improv, where the base measures should hold steady and repetitive. The shorter the base excerpt, the better, because you can riff more rhythmic variations on it, whereas for some longer phrases, you have to wait until the end measure to add those flourishes. Or freewheel off into modern jazz endless solos land that few in the regular populace can make sense of.
Any American Top 40 exceptions to this recently have been explicitly throwback songs. (Which, admittedly, there are a good amount of. Lots of mining the past these days)
Reply
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