Isaac: (Sings along)
Kevin: You know, that chord progression is like very common in Romantic - Romantic music, classical music.
K: But I never hear it in pop.
K: Cause the idea of modulation is not the same in pop.
[Rossini's Semiramide]
Umu: Alright, we are rolling, ladies and gentlemen.
U: This is 9MUSES, they actually debuted back in 2010 with 9 members.
U: However, they've had a lot of lineup change-ups since then.
U: We're reacting to their song called Drama, which was released in 2015, and it was composed by Jung Chanwook.
U: It's filled with references to Hollywood's Golden Age including Marilyn Monroe's iconic subway dress scene from the 1955* The Seven Year Itch.
James: 3, 2, 1.
Hugo: Brass. J: ooo that vinyl sound.
H: Jazz flute, yeah.
Jarod: I like the filter that they kinda put over, this sound, the track.
J: To give it that vintage vibe.
Lindsey: This is groovy.
Nikki: It's like old school American jazz. L: Yeah.
Charlotte: Oh.
Peyton: Okay! C: Okay.
Elizabeth: Yes.
E: That's very aggressive singing.
Henry: Major seventh chord though.
E: I love those.
E: Yeah, they are a fan of seventh chords, holy cow..
Jarod: They've got like a very brassy voice that's very much in your face.
J: Pretty intense.
J: I dig.
Peyton: Also their voices are deeper than I thought they'd be.
P: Kinda like it. Charlotte: Mm hmm.
P: Nothing quite like some mezzo vibes.
James: What kind of organ is that in the background? Hugo: Jazz organ.
J: It's a jazz organ, but what kind of jazz organ?
H: I couldn't tell you off the top of my head.
H: I like her controlled breathy (vocals).
Isaac: Oh! Marilyn Monroe!
I: Oh my goodness! Kevin: What movie is that from guys? (i named it in my script smh Kevin)
Lindsey: This is more what I would've an(ticipated) - what I've expected. Like, a more melodic light singing. Nikki: Right, this one's - they like load me in with like -
N: Like, this is gonna be like, very Americana, like -
L: But it's still got the light [sound effects]
L: But it's like - N: Oh yeah, good call. L: Yeah, and it's still got like the , the cymbal, the jazz little thingy.
Kevin: Like as far as funky songs go, this one sounds a little dead.
K: Like, the mixing sounds a little flat and inorganic.
Lindsey: It's like a combination between like, old-timey jazz and very poppy pop.
Nikki: Yeah.
L: But they're not really combining them that much.
L: It's more like sectioned off. K: Right.
L: And the only thing that really stays is that drum.
N: Yeah.
Hugo: I like the bass hits on every beat offset by the snare.
James: Yeah.
Peyton: And I love how like, light and floaty their voices are. Like the light voices just like - Charlotte: Yeah, on top of this like funk beat. P: Yeah.
Henry: This is really just like, the everyman's pop song.
H: Cause it's just a lot of II-V-I-VI's.
H: Over and over again. Without fail.
Elizabeth: Oh you know, but they jazzed it up with the sevenths.
H: You're right, they do have Major chords and some extensions
E: But you know.
H: I think I have a Flat 9 in there, that's pretty nice.
H: It's pretty edgy.
Lindsey: That one girl has a very deep voice.
L: That's kind of cool. Nikki: It is.
L: It's - it's like unusual for K-Pop groups, I feel like.
N: [DEEP VOICE] Oh really?
N: Sorry. L: Hey, my voice is pretty deep too, like.
L: It's just for like, for the K-Pop girl groups, most of them have voices more like this, like [High]. N: Yeah.
L: There's a lot of body in this.
N: Yeah, this feels very risque for a K-Pop video.
N: Or maybe I just haven't seen enough of them. L: [HA] Yeah.
L: I think you just haven't seen enough of them. N: Alright. Hey, everyone.
N: This is my second time doing this.
Isaac: [PPSHEW] Kevin: Wait a minute.
I: the neon lights K: Is this -
K: WHAAAT???
K: That's not the end of he song?
Henry: See, that's like, real, good like, organ. Elizabeth: That was an interesting little interlude in there.
E: I though it was over.
H: Yeah, that was. E: The curtains closed, and I'm like, [OVER].
H: [Curtains closed] Scene One.
Hugo: Nice. James: Aw, and the nice "The End".
J: Yeah.
Umu: Yeah, so thoughts on that overall musically, and how it maybe matched with their concept?
Jarod: I thought it was cool, because it had like a consistent beat, but at the same time, it's like the vocals kind of dances the line between like,
J: This really like kind of cute, at the same time it's over-the-top in-your-face.
J: Which, I mean, that is drama, reflecting the theme of the song.
J: Cause just like, you get the extremes, the highs and lows.
J: And like the beat is fairly constant, which I like in this setting, because it kind of provides the blank canvas for the highs and lows of the voice.
J: So if like, if there's too much going on, it'll seem too much.
J: And it'll take from that, I think, that drama aspect. so it's like, almost like -
J: The beat is like a black box, and the vocalists are the show.
Hugo: I thought it was good. I really enjoyed their orchestration, like the instruments that they used.
H: A lot of brass in the offbeats, particularly in the first verse.
H: Where they come, like, in just a second late.
H: I would've liked to see them do a little more with the orchestration.
H: Like the instruments were good, but I would've liked to see a little bit more complex usage of them, if that makes sense.
H: I thought their vocal line was good, the rapping was really good. Breathy when it needed to be and when it fit the style.
H: But overall, I liked particularly how they did the descending arpeggios at the end of the line.
H: Instead of just going [Smooth sliding descent], cause I just, I'm not a fan of that. (James: Huh?)
H: To me it feels a little lazy. (What)
H: But they didn't do that. And then they just actually went down an arpeggio and I thought that sounded really good.
James: Hugo, I don't think those are arpeggios, man.
H: Well, they weren't arpeggios, but they were like - they, they did step-wise motion down, or with - as opposed to like -
H: Just sliding off the end of the phrase.
J: I really liked what they did with the orchestration at the very beginning and the very end.
J: Paying homage to um, that 70's groovy kind of movie theatre, film kind of theme.
J: And I wished they put more of those sounds and the instruments inside the actual song itself.
Kevin: You know, like every section sounds very - same, except for you know, those who actually recognize the Spiderman tune.
K: But um, it still, it just - the mixing's always the same.
K: And then when it doesn't have a strong ending. Isaac: Mm.
K: And the intro is stronger than the actual song.
K: I'm sorry, man.
K: They're not my muses.
Yet.
I: It - A lot of stuff is very repetitive.
I: What I do appreciate is the different types of voices that they offer.
I: Like each one of the voices, they have really high and soft voices, high and just very projecting; and then there's really rough voices, which is like -
I: So nice.
I: It's very refreshing to hear that.
I: But it's just - the lack of variation really killed it, because it was just like, continuously just hitting with [Constant beat]
I: The really heavy synthetic bass.
I: It was - throughout the whole thing, and the only time they took it away was like, was in that really soft section.
I: Which usually, most of the time, you take away everything, and it's just, certain harmonies are just thrown in, kind of like the sprinkles.
I: There's a lot of sprinkling harmonies there.
I: It wasn't too prominent so that we could actually -
K: Yeah, none of the instruments stood out. Like usually even with -
K: I'm sorry (for interrupting).
I: No no no no - yeah yeah. K: Okay.
K: With some of these, you know, relatively blander songs, you still have like, the little [Sound effect], the little bells, or something.
K: Something that pops out. Like a little 8-bit synth.
K: Or like something in the bass.
K: Or the percussion that pops out.
K: For this, it really - it literally does feel like, they - everything got normalized, before they added the voice.
Henry: Yeahhh, uhh.
H: So many good things could have happened and didn't. Elizabeth: Yeah.
H: It wasn't a bad song. E: I feel like - I feel like that's pop music in general though.
E: Like, you hear one Flat 9 and you're like, "Maybe? Maybe this time? Maybe this time?" (H: "Oh? Ooh? Uh?") E: And then - and then it just doesn't happen.
E: I feel like that's a big gripe musicians have with pop music is like, it could be great.
H: Well, that's why the greatest pop music of all time typically comes from jazz harmony influence or chromatic harmony influence.
H: Chroma(ticism) is colour.
H: And it creates this awesome harmonic landscape.
H: And the less you have of it, the less you can do with the emotion of music
H: And so, I just really feel like the way that a lot of people, especially in this age of like incredible electronic music, and when you an create any -
H: You can physically alter any sound that you want,
H: It's so easy for people to focus on that as opposed to interesting harmony.
H: Cool sound does not make up for colour.
H: And that's just like, that's just like the way that I feel like this song happened. It's like - E: Preeeaach! (Round of applause for Greatest Quotes of Henry, Reacttothek, 2018)
H: Nnngh it was so close, and then just like, it focused too much on very elemental specifics.
E: No it feels like, they were like down the YouTube rabbit hole and they stumbled across some 70's music and were like,
E: "Ay! You know where that would fit in this song that I'm writing? In the very beginning!" H: Yeah.
E: And then they were like, "We add a seventh (chord), it's time we get a pop song. Ay~"
H: Major 7th. That means that there's like 1% dissonance.
(Good enough)
H: Done.
Nikki: Well, I felt like they were trying to reference -
N: The way that they started was the like American, old school American jazz. Lindsey: Like big band. N: Yeah, big band jazz.
N: And I think if they hadn't started with that, it would've been ahrder for me to pick up the American elements like - or the "American big band jazz" elements later.
N: But because they started with that, it actually made it a little easier to hear the high hat that you were talking about. L: Yeah.
L: Yeah, I kind of like how they kept that like, the consistent high hat or ????? or whatever - I think it was synthesized.
L: But the cymbal they kept it consistent throughout even as the styles kinda change, so like it was in that original big-bandy kinda section,
L: And then when they moved into the pop, like rap, like what section, it was still there.
L: And it like, unified all the different sections.
Umu: Okay, the second 9MUSES song, released in 2017, it's called Love City.
U: It was composed by Maria Marcus and Rohan Heath, and arranged by a songwriting duo called e.one.
Kevin: Man, I love it when composers of different races, or different origins, just come together and write songs. Isaac: Different cultures.
K: Yeah, it's - people should talk about that, cause that's really cool.
Hugo: Un, deux, trois!
H: Oh I'm already down.
Elizabeth: I like that. Henry: Cool.
H: Very edited, but very cool.
E: They really do like those breathy voices, don't they?
James: That was so cool!
J: I love when they do that with paning.
Elizabeth: Ooh.
E: That's interesting.
Henry: That was an interesting move.
E: Suddenly it's Major.
Isaac: This bass! Kevin: This can - this can go somewhere.
Peyton: I love like the super low, like electric bass.
P: Like, the electro-synth sound, like [Synth sound].
Isaac: This is very edgy. With the static
Kevin: I like the bass though. That's what the last song needed.
K: Not this bass per se.
K: But like something that pops out.
Nikki: I like the melody in this little a little more. Lindsey: Yeah.
L: It's like, there's some mixture kind of elements in there.
Elizabeth: Woah. It's a chromatic ascending sequence.
Kevin: Alright. That's pretty good.
K: [Sings sequence]
K: The section with the soft rapping. Isaac: I love, I love -
I: Ugh. K: And her voice. It's so good.
K: And the distortion.
K: Except then. (When they disrespect the rules of chess) I: That's not how chess works.
I: Oh. (Now they're just blatantly ignoring the rules.) K: That's definitely not how chess works.
I: Oh, Pinocchio.
K: What? I: Are they saying that they lie?
Henry: I like the reduction of texture right here.
Charlotte: I wonder if they listen to Madonna, cause I still here her so much in this.
Peyton: Yeah.
C: in at least this little break that they have.
Hugo: This is a perfect example of the correct usage - Oh, fuck. Wow. James: Such a weird music video. What the hell. H: Little bit.
H: But this is the perfect example of using effects on voices. James: Yup. H: Like autotune, and -
J: And sampling as well. H: Exactly, yeah.
H: Oh, that overdrive synth, fuck. J: Yeah.
H: oh.
Isaac: [Sings along]
Kevin: You know, that chord progression is like very common in Romantic - Romantic music, classical music.
K: But I never hear it in pop.
K: Cause the idea of modulation is not the same in pop.
Nikki: It's interesting that they do a lot of the really musically interesting things in the chorus. (Lindsey: Bridge)
N: Cause normally, songs'll just put those things in the verse. L: Yeah, the chorus is very boring.
N: Yeah.
L: Yeah.
Isaac: Bop, bop. Ahhh!
Kevin: Yup.
I: When they popped the balloons with the beat. K: Except the last two weren't in beat. I: Aw the last three weren't - K: Yeah.
I: Scandal pop.
I: [Sings along] Pretty~
I: [Sings along]
K: Never heard anything like that before.
Henry: Cool vocal harmony. Elizabeth: I like the "L-O-V-E" theme.
H: Yeah. Cool vocals.
E: Yeah. That's really good use of close-harmony singing.
Isaac: [Singing along] Kevin: I like this outro.
Peyton: Ooh.
P: [Imitates sound]
P: It's like one of my favourite outros, just like going to piano.
Kevin: NO! Isaac: Arghhh! K: Why do they do this!? I: WHYYYY
I: It's so GOOD! K: Like they go to the last chorus, always something unexpected, and then they just don't resolve it.
K: Yeah, they went Dorian in the last one.
K: They went Major IV.
K: In a minor key.
K: Better song than the last one.
K: The verse seems a little underwhelming. Like you get the intro, which is like -
I: [Imitates heavy bass] K: With the low rapping, which I -I haven't heard a voice like that.
K: You know, it sets you up for something different, so when the more pppy aesthetic comes in, I'm like [Meh], you know?
K; You know, I prefer that first mood.
Hugo: I dig.
H: I dig a lot. James: It was cool. Yeah. H: That was a blast.
H: I loved the synths. I loved the sampling. J: Mm hmm. H: i loved the vocal effects.
H: Especially that overdrive, which was, uh [so good].
Henry: I like that they kind of had the neon vibe in that one too, it did - it wasn't super prominent, but like, with the "Love City" thing"
H: And having the vocals in whole steps brings out like, that colour. That dissonance sort of feels like a neon thing
H: But again, I really just felt like, there was like, almost no interesting harmony with the exception of the low sequence that happened a couple times.
Elizabeth: I loved that one. H: Which was your favourite thing in the whole world. E: Yeah.
E: I love ascending sequences.
E: They're more interesting than descending sequences.
Umu: I guess you kind of already said it, but do you have anything comparing Love City with Drama musically or style-wise?
E: They seem to like to adopt genres of music in their pieces.
E: Like obviously the first one was like the 70's big band vibe. H: 70's-esque.
E: And then this one was, I guess you were saying neon vibe.
H: It felt a little bit more like 80's pop.
H: Everything about the imagery was like homage 80's pop. But like, none of it sounded like it. E: Yeah.
Kevin: They just make pop music that's their style.
K: Yeah, they definitely have their own style, which is good.
Hugo: I love their musical style. I love it. Particularly the second one as opposed to the first one, as opposed to, um, Drama.
H: I really like this - Love City - better.
H: Not that the first one was bad, but it felt like it was more their style.
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