SMFH,
fricking Tsunku… You are making me seem like I have no variety and I
just cover your songs!!!!!!!!! It kinda pisses me off. Egami Kotaro
arranged the song. I personally remember him the most fondly from his
work on Berryz Koubou’s 1 roku 3 zen man sou diet song. It was the same
combination of him and Tsunku. His wiki entry says his styles are
R&B and Hip-hop, which explains the trap hi-hats sprinkled
deliciously throughout the song. I think he did a great job on the song.
I guess at times, even if I try really hard, I still can not seperate
the music from the idols… @ around 1:30 of the video Kishimon looks into
my soul. She rendered me bare of every defense I could have had
mustered against her… I am bewitched!gushing>
Anyways idol
music, when not “Pure” Idol music borrows from other music, but does not
fully become that music, so its psudo that type. Psudo rock, Psudo
R&B, Psudo Indian. In this case, it uses a Psudo Counterpoint.
Tsunku has taken us all the way back to Baroque Era music just for the
music nerds… Here is a video explaining counterpoint, and an example of a piece of counterpoint the Fugue of Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D minor. There is a song that sounds just like this (at least it does to me), but its VideoGame Music.
Song format
Intro 1 Solo Verse 1 Counterpoint Verse 1 Prechorus 1 Chorus 1 intro 2 Solo verse 2 (solo) Counterpoint verse 2 Prechorus 2 chorus 2 intro 3 bridge Chorus 1 intro 4
Lyrics
Once
again Tsunku writes these wonderfully realistic portrayals of young
girls and their insecurities. This whole song about body odor destroying
her love interest’s desire for her. Its so perfect, such an innocent,
naive thought a young lady surely has… not knowing of course that men
couldn’t care in the least. I swear we men function on like 25% of our
brain… I think men smell in broad ranges… Smells good, smells normal,
smells like something is off, smells better than me, and it stinks… 97%
of things are in the smells better than me and up range.
Anyways
the protagonist said that if she is going on a date with the guy, she
wants to shower about 2 times before she leaves, which is ridiculous and
so relatable at the same time. I think this is the charm of Tsunku’s
lyrics, you are laughing because its lame, but you relate because you
think the same way about something. Once again we have an insecure
protagonist who is like, “you say I’m beautiful, but what about me is
beautiful?” in fact, “I know that I have no confidence, I’m basic, I’m
not fashionable.” (I want to imagine that the question he asked that
made her say “ you think so” is “I like you, we should go on a date.”)
In fact “if I was to go on a date with you, I would need to shower about
twice before I left the house.” She said that if she would be
embarrassed if she met him after school, likely because of her body
odor. She is so hyper aware of her smell that she notices how her hair
smells after going into a convenience store. Which by the way in Japan
serves food and stuff, like fried chicken and warms up refrigerated food
like yakisobapan or bentous, but she would likely only be in there for a
few minutes, so its just describing how ridiculous she is.
In the
second verse she is saying that she likes the silence when they are
together or on the phone because she ca hear his heartbeat… but likely
she is just too nervous to talk and is rationalizing it. She said she
would love to be on this date all day, buuuuut her hair and makeup and
stuff is in disarray. So now she wants to go back home. He literally
says out of his mouth, “The way things naturally are, are good” but she
still believes that she needs to “do something” to be worthy of his
love. But in actuality, she does not love herself so she can not
understand how someone else can love her. Its these sort of nuances
about complex topics and situations that Tsunku puts in these short
songs that is masterful.
The love interest is freaking running his
fingers through the protagonist’s hair and she is still worrying that
her body odor might botch the whole operation. I think this song really
is attributable to the girls who sabotage themselves.
Composition
CIRCLE
OF FIFTHS! I love this progression too much and its so common in
baroque music for sections to have a happy spiral of fifths.
Anyhow,
So only (sadly) the verses have the counterpoint-esque melody, the
pre-chorus has a call and response thing going on. But both ultimately
are call and response, the verses have a different rhythmic response and
the pre-chorus has a similar rhythmic response. Like in verse 2 the
first verse sets the melodic them that the second verse builds on. I
will refer to them as voice A (establishing melody) and voice B (the
answer to melody A). So in the verses, voice A goes up as it descends,
and voice B goes down as it descend. This gives this wonderful motion to
the melodies, its contrasts make them seem like they are arguing back
and forth, or crossing each others paths.
This time our song is in
the key of E flat major (e- f g a- b- c d e-) and my comments about the
bass and melody use the scale degrees from this scale.
Melody, so delightful, even apart from the verses. verse 1 - 3, 4, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 5 (flat)
verse 2 - 3, 4, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 6 (Voice A) verse 2 - 3 to 4, 2 to 3, 1 to 2, 7, 6 (voice B)
pre-chorus - 6, 5, 4, 2, 4 3 (voice A) pre-chorus - 4, 3 (voice B)
Bass
line is particularly important here, as its the luscious circle of
fifths and harmonizes with the melody is a significant way. verse 1 - 6, 2, 5, 1, 4, 2, 3, 3 verse 2 - 6, 2, 5, 1, 4, 2, 3, 6 pre-chorus - 2, 5, 1, 6, 7(flat), 3 chorus - 6, 2, 5, 1 to 3, 6, 2, 5, 1 to 7
They are using a bit of trap cymbols in
the song (linked for the hi-hats). The song has a trap feel to it. Its
trap-baroque-edm-idol musics. The guitar is quickly picking all of the
chord notes, its such and interesting effect. There is this cool synth
sound in there that sounds like an alien singing opera or something in
the background of the intros, verses, and bridge, which is so wtf.
Honestly
its a simple song, but it just ticks a lot of the boxes for stuffs I
like. So in exchage for ticking a couple boxes, I spend a couple days
obsessively listening to the song.
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