k-pop

헤이즈 (Heize) | And July

“Heize is a talented rapper and singer-songwriter from South Korea,” (IMDB). “She’s become one of South Korea’s most successful female solo musicians because of her distinctive sound. She has worked with numerous other musicians; her songs have been well-received both domestically and abroad. Jang Da-hye (her off-stage name) … rose to fame after making her debut in 2014 with the EP Heize and showing up on the second season of the South Korean reality show.

Heize won the 2017 Korean Music Awards for Best Female R&B/Soul Artist. She also won Best OST at the 2017 Melon Music Awards for her song “Round and Round” from the Goblin soundtrack, which she co-wrote with Punch. Her music has also been featured on US television shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and Empire. She received a 2018 BET Award nomination for Best International Act.”

Heize’s 2017 track “And July,” featuring a combination of rap and sung melody, is a mix of R+B, funk, and hiphop elements. The track is written in D minor overall, but shifts to Eb major for its noticeably smoother and more lyrical bridge (2:27 – 2:46), featuring lead vocals by collaborator Kwon Hyuk (stage name: Dean) before returning to the original key.

Many thanks to Sri, a longtime MotD reader and first time contributor, for this distinctive submission!

Snuper | Platonic Love

It would be understandable to think that all KPop bands hit it big immediately, given the huge promotional machines backing them. But some develop only limited cult followings before fading away. One such band is Snuper 스누퍼, meaning “Higher than Super.” The group was a South Korean sextet formed by Widmay Entertainment in 2015, the first Korean pop group from that label.

The band debuted on November 16, 2015, with the EP Shall We, which included the single “Shall We Dance,” (KPopN). The group consisted of six members, many of whom had to go on hiatus to fulfill their mandatory national military service; the group’s resulting reduction in numbers slowed its momentum and it disbanded in 2023.

“Platonic Love” (2016), a showcase for the group’s dance chops, features multiple hook-driven instrumental breaks. After a rap break and a sudden grand pause, a key change from Eb major to E major hits at 2:27.

Many thanks to our multi-tune contributor Ziyad for this submission!

Tomorrow x Together (TXT) | Ito

“Tomorrow x Together, aka TXT, is … a boy band known for seamlessly switching between genre influences,” (Billboard). “The group first debuted in 2019 with EP The Dream Chapter: Star, which reached #140 on the Billboard 200 and became the fastest K-pop album to top the World Albums chart at the time. (The group) earned their first #1 on the Billboard 200 in 2023 with The Name Chapter: Temptation.“

“Ito” is a track from the 2021 album Chaotic Wonderland, the South Korean vocal quintet’s first release featuring Japanese language material. At 2:17, the bridge drops a key-of-the-moment passage, but it’s just a bait-and-switch anticipating a surprise half-step modulation which takes effect mid-phrase at 2:57 with next to no fanfare.

Many thanks to our frequent contributor Ziyad for this submission!

Stray Kids | Gone Away

“Gone Away” is featured 2021 album Noeasy, the second studio release by the South Korean boy band Stray Kids. Explaning the meaning of the title, band leader Bang Chen, who serves as a vocalist, rapper, dancer, and producer, said, “it [Noeasy] means that we want to leave a loud impact on the world with our music.” The album was widely recognized as one of the best K-pop releases of 2021. Writing for The Lantern, a student-run newspaper at Ohio State University, Chloe McGowan said,”Stray Kids fully utilizes the individual talent of each member on this album as they continue to push boundaries and expectations for K-pop while testing the limits and creative devices of their own sound.”

“Gone Away” begins in Db and dramatically shifts up a half step to D at 3:15

Lee Jieun (이지은) | Winter Sleep

“Lee Jieun (이지은), popularly known as IU, is a highly-acclaimed South Korean singer, songwriter, philanthropist, and actress … She is also known in South Korea as ‘The Nation’s Little Sister.'” (KPopping.com) “For years, she attended singing and acting lessons … She also auditioned for more than 20 companies, failing most of them. However, her hard work eventually lead to her debut on September 18, 2008 when she performed the digital single ‘Lost Child.'”

KoreaTimes reports: “According to IU, 2021’s ‘Winter Sleep’ is a piano-driven song in which she talks about the feeling of loss that hits people when a loved one passes away. ‘I was hit by a wave of loss after having a farewell with people around me … but I realized that flowers still bloom and stars rise in the sky regardless of how I feel… Now, my heart does not break when I sing this song.'”

The straightforward arrangement keeps its focus on the melody, which takes a few unexpected steps from time to time. At 2:12, an early half-step modulation brings a shift which lasts for the balance of the tune — all the way to the non-resolving ending. Many thanks to our frequent contributor Ziyad for this submission!

BoA 보아 | Milky Way

“BoA (보아) is a South Korean singer, songwriter, record producer and actress,” (KPopping). She’s been “recognized as one of the most successful and influential Korean entertainers throughout her career, and is therefore commonly credited as the ‘Queen of K-pop.'”

The giant Korean music conglomerate SM Entertainment discovered BoA, then partnered with her in releasing 20 studio albums since her debut in 2000, including ten in Korean, nine in Japanese, and one in English. “BoA’s multilingual skills (she speaks Japanese and English along with native Korean and has recorded songs in Mandarin) have contributed to her commercial success throughout Asia outside of South Korea, such as China, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.”

Her 2003 release “Milky Way” starts in Eb major, knocks us off balance a little with some fast-moving harmonic magic during the bridge (2:22 – 2:31), and lands in E major at 2:32.

Many thanks to our regular contributor Ziyad for this submission!

BTS (방탄소년단) | Dynamite

1960s British blues artists such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton, John Mayall, etc. took a quintessentially American style of music and mirrored it back across the pond with a new twist. In the 21st century, the US boy band pop formula which peaked in the late 90s and early 2000s is alive and well: it’s now served to us from the deep inside the corporate fortresses of South Korean K-Pop.

K-Pop royalty BTS (also known as Bangtan Boys) has won a nearly universal planetary fanbase. Perhaps fueled by the novelty of its English lyrics, the video for the August 2020 single “Dynamite” has amassed a staggering 1.26 billion views on YouTube, certainly a record for any tune we’ve featured to date! Vox reports: “In 2018, they became the first South Korean band in history to debut an album at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200 chart, as well as the first to have a single land at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.” They have collaborated with the likes of the Chainsmokers, Nicki Minaj, Ed Sheeran, and Halsey.

K-Pop is big business, and BTS is at the apex of the genre’s multiple groups (both male and female). SBS News reports that in 2019, BTS was worth more than $4.65 billion US dollars to South Korea’s economy each year, or 0.3% percent of the country’s GDP.

The modulation is at 3:04.

Infinite (인피니트) | The Chaser

Infinite (인피니트) is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010. According to Billboard.com, the band’s single “The Chaser” (2012) made its list of “20 Best K-Pop Songs of 2012”, taking listeners “on a ride the second they start the track…proving risk and innovation in K-pop can trump all.”

The frenetic dance track’s accompaniment shifts throughout, cycling through varying patterns of syncopation in the sung and rapped verses before reaching the sing-along choruses. 2:34 brings an unexpectedly spiky modulation amid all of the glossy production and multiple hooks: the vocal line shifts keys a full beat earlier than the accompaniment!

Girls’ Generation | Mr. Mr.

“Mr. Mr.” by K-Pop group Girls’ Generation (2014) charted at #3 on the Korea K-Pop Hot 100 and #4 Billboard World Digital Songs chart. AllMusic’s review states that the track mixes “a hip-hop beat and EDM-inspired buildups and drops.”

After being introduced to verses, choruses, a spare breakdown at 2:40, and a bridge at 3:02, we’re hit with a big half-step key change at 3:19, only to run smack into another monster upward half-step shift at 3:35.

Red Velvet | One of These Nights

Rising K-Pop stars 레드벨벳 (Red Velvet) are best known for up-tempo dance tracks, but their 2016 R&B-style ballad release “One of These Nights” shows an entirely different side of the vocal quintet. A persistent theory among the group’s fans is that the video’s somber mood and multiple references to water, small life boats, flickering lighting, etc. symbolize a memorial to the victims of the South Korean Sewol ferry tragedy of 2014. The Sewol sank suddenly, killing hundreds of passengers, most of whom were high school students.

The tune is full of modulations, further enhanced by a huge harmonic vocabulary. After the string intro, the verse begins at 0:14, loosely based around G minor; at 1:05, the chorus begins with a devastating downwards modulation to F# minor. The pattern holds for verse 2 and chorus 2. Finally, a bridge shifts briefly to a sunny G major at 3:06, but at 3:20, just where we’d expect a cliche upwards modulation by half-step, we instead get a 4-second pause before falling back down into the plaintive F# minor chorus. The group’s occasional mixing of English with Korean lyrics only adds to the affecting intrigue.