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!
Tag: k-pop
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.
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