Wow! There's A Cell Phone You Can Eat!

[koganbot]

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's 4/4, but each of those beats then subdivides further into triplets.]

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The dance is terrific too, each of SNSD coming in from the side or down the aisle and then out onto the runway.

So Lazy Reblog Week continues here on Koganbot, hat-tip this time to just_keep_on. "Chocolate Love" was part of the promo campaign for LG Electronics' Cyon division's Chocolate BL-40 phone, back in '09. Also in on the campaign, the group f(x) did an even dancier, bumpier version; not quite as good, though, owing to their singing not being as warm as SNSD's. Also, being the Electronic Pop version, it lacks SNSD's tubas and honky-tonk.

(Phone commercials seem to have an important role in K-pop: especially there's the epic Lee Hyori video for Samsung's Anystar, the third of three major video productions she did for Samsung. This video also served as trainee Park Bom's debut, Bom going on to fame in 2NE1. And according to Wikip, Miss A's early public performances pre-Min, in China, included appearances on behalf of Samsung China's Anycall campaign.)

*EDIT: See comment thread. Checking the Korean Copyright Association writers' credits, Kenzie isn't listed at all for this song, whereas Bloodshy & Avant (Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg) are, as well as Henrik Jonback, so that's three of the four writers of "Sweet Dreams My L.A. Ex." But when we get to the fourth credit, Cathy Dennis is missing and Karen Poole is in her place. Checking Wikip's page for Karen Poole, though, and it doesn't include "L.A. Ex" among her compositions, so I don't know, except I think I've done all the research I want to do for today.

Comments

Re: Link dump

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I was treating "Norwegian" like it was a region encompassing multiple countries. I'll have to remember to use "European" from now on, or find out exactly what nation they hail from.

The rhythm of the arrangement in "Cinderella\Complex" is quarter-notes and sixteenths/eighths,(the reggaton rhythm is, using the one-e-and-a sixteenths speaking notation, "one-a-two-and") but the vocal melody is almost entirely triplets.
The exceptions are the "nanananana" hook, which using the one-la-li triplet speaking notation, is "one-and-two-la-li-three," and various parts where if the melody is crossing between beats using pick-up notes, or using only the first two notes of the triplet, (or both, as in the last pre-chorus line) sometimes the rhythm is crushed from triplets to sixteenths.
I've never heard this songwriter do a fully-triplets song. He always ends up juxtaposing them against sixteenths or eighths,(especially in the arrangement) using the triplets as a source of syncopation, where the likes of "Womanizer" are fully committed to only triplets.

"Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" is fully triplets, but isn't as tied to the down beat as "Chocolate Love." "Chocolate Love" also has some pick-up notes, but has more emphasis on the long notes starting on the down beat.

Re: Link dump

[arbitrary-greay.livejournal.com]

Dammit, did it again, posted instead of switch tabs.

[...] long notes starting on the down beat. "Run Devil Run" is the same way. Even for the "li-one-la-li-two-la-li-three-li-four-li" runs there's a sense of resolution on the down beats. "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" has lots of long notes starting on the up beat or pick up note. That initial "Heeeeey" is actually starting on an eighth note up beat. The song also prominently makes use of quarter note triplets (which are actually "one-li-la-three-li-la") surrounded by regular quarter notes, the half time equivalent of juxtaposing eighth notes and triplets. The swing time rhythm is a two-beat measure, and "Sweet Dreams My LA Ex" and "St. James Infirmary" are treating that pattern like it's one beat. Almost cut time style? (Hence juxtaposing triplet quarters-quarters-eighth notes like triplets-eighths
-sixteenths)
Can't speak for the melody/progression, haven't studied it enough, although that blues pattern you mentioned jumped out at me once I played "St. James Infirmary." I think the pre-chorus might be doing a relative key change to the progession's key, though. Both things are absent from "Chocolate Love," as well, but they wouldn't necessarily fit the sultry theme "Chocolate Love" was going for, anyways. Don't want syncopation or deviance from the progression distracting from the seduction, after all.

Re: Link dump

[koganbot]

Well, "Scandinavian" encompasses Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, and from my casual, unsystematic observation, I have the impression that whenever Europeans are involved in K-pop, at least one will be Scandinavian. Brits have a presence as well, though not as strong. (I'll reiterate, I haven't looked at this systematically.)

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.

Re: Link dump

[koganbot]

But three Brits and no Scandinavians are on the credits for ChoColat's followup, "Same Thing To Her."

Re: Link dump

[koganbot]

Of course, the person who produced "Bad Girl" was Japanese, whereas the producers of the K-pop version of "Genie" (as opposed to the Uzbek or the Dutch) were Korean, at least according to Wikip.

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).