Sean: 'Senorita', by (G)I-DLE,
features such attractions as a tuba falling from the sky, unsafe use of electrical devices, and a metrically disorienting rap by Soyeon.
Let's discuss these in reverse order in this first episode of Classical Composer Breaks Down the K.
So if you're like me, the first few times you listen to Soyeon's rap in 'Senorita',
you might have become confused as to where the beats were. To understand this, let's take a look at meter.
Most pop songs are in 4/4. Each measure has four beats
called quarter notes, because they're each a quarter of a whole note, which is the length of a full 4/4 bar
These quarter notes can be divided into two subdivisions, and those can be further subdivided in another two, forming four subdivisions
of the quarter notes. 4/4 tends to be the most stable meter. Four times two makes four eight initial subdivisions,
but those eight - helpfully called eighth notes - do not have to be grouped equally as 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2.
For example, they can be grouped into three groups of three,
three, and two eighth notes. So, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2,
1-2-3-, 1-2-3, 1-2 (repeats)
Other divisions of eight into three unequal groups exist,
but the 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2 pattern is used most frequently, and is particularly common in Latin-influenced songs.
And just as eighth notes can be grouped unequally,
so can the 16 subdivisions one level down. You'll never guess what those are called...
unless you guessed that they're called sixteenth notes, because that's what they're called. With 16 subdivisions, many groupings are available,
but a particularly common one is groups of 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, and 2.
Now, you might remember that the aforementioned
grouping of 8 was 3, 3, and 2 ,and this is 3- 3, 3-3, 2 and 2, so it's really just splitting the previous
groups down the middle.
So, rather than 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, it's (faster) 1-2-3-1-2-3, 1-2-3-1-2-3-,1-2,1-2, (repeats)
As in CLC's song, 'I Need You':
1-2-3-1-2-3, 1-2-3-1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2 (repeats)
And this is what Soyeon sounds like she's starting to do--a rhythm emphasizing groups of 3/16ths.
(reciting Korean lyrics) Or to slow it down,
(reciting Korean lyrics) And you expect her wrap-up the measure with 4 16ths or two groups of 2 16ths,
so that they all add up to sixteen--four groups of three, and then four,
and then the next measure starts on one. Something like (reciting Korean lyirics)
But Soyeon says, no. She just keeps going with these groups. She does 22 of them
Well, sort of; over the course of doing this rap, Soyeon slows down by about 10 percent.
'Senorita' is at 120 bpm. That is 120 quarter notes per minute.
But by the end of her rap, Soyeon has slowed to about 108 bpm.
But the drums, sparse during the rap and coming in with a full pattern four measures later, never leave 120 bpm,
so the song stays in 4/4 at
120 BPM throughout, and most of the rap happens over the course of four measures--a standard length of phrase.
But Soyeon is, throughout the rap, in a different implied meter (technically 12/16
but that's just terminology), and in an increasingly different tempo from everything else.
There is precedent for having different parts simultaneously in different tempi:
Charles Ives, in his piece 'The Unanswered Question', composed roughly a century ago, had the trumpets and winds
playing in a different tempo from the strings. And more recently,
Martin Lohse's accordion concerto titled 'In Liquid' has the accordion at times
speeding up independent of the orchestra's tempo. Links to both are in the description. But when people write pop songs,
the parts are normally, you know, in the same tempo and meter as each other.
But while other people were putting their parts in the same tempo,
Soyeon, an intellectual, went,
"What if no?
What if I put them in different tempi? What then?" Had she kept the 4/4 beats clear throughout the rap,
everyone would have heard the underlying 4/4 pattern.
But the drum part is thinned out to only an occasional kick drum and a few metrically ambiguous clusters of hi-hats.
After a few beats, with so little to reinforce the previous 4/4 and such a clear repeating pattern in Soyeon's rap
emphasizing beats that are 3/16 notes long,
her beats start to sound like the main beats, not those of the preceding 4/4.
Also supporting this, Soyeon's rapping is particularly incisive. This also explains why the rhythms she used for the rap are so repetitive.
With both the meter and tempo pulling out of alignment with those of the song overall,
if Soyeon had used more complicated or varied patterns,
it would have risked sounding like she was just placing syllables arbitrarily.
As it is, she's unambiguously rapping just to her own beat, and thus when the old 4/4 is reasserted at the end of the rap, that also feels like
a destabilization,
because the first beat of the 4/4 measure falls in what feels like the middle of a beat of Soyeon's rap.
We generally talk about consonance and dissonance in terms of harmony, with dissonant or less stable harmonies
implying a resolution to consonant or more stable ones. In this case, the principle applies to rhythm.
The instability of meter and tempo during Soyeon's rap
resolves after a moment to the comparative
stability of the 4/4 groove, And this is why music must be thought of as a listener, not just on paper.
I can explain these ways that her patterns relate to the prevailing 120 BPM 4/4 meter of the song
But it feels when listening to it like the patterns in Soyeon's rap rather than those of the song overall
are the real meter. As she says, (speaking Korean),
"Just focus on me". As for proper handling of electrical devices,
don't drop them in a puddle of water while they're powered.
Experiencing an electric shock won't make FX come back. As for proper handling of brass instruments, don't launch them to high altitudes.
I'm looking at you, Dewey. You have to be careful with catapults.
You should know Momoland is close to Neverland.
That's property damage. It's probably not that significant compared to what they did with burning the building down and all that,
but still, that tuba's going to drop almost as hard as the chorus of pop stars.