This song was written and composed by Hoshibe Sho and it was arranged by hasiejaneiro, with the brass arranged by Takegami Yoshinari. Here
is the instrumental. I can not find any info on hasiejaneiro or
Takegami, I guess they just helped on this song, or is an alias.
Song History
This
song was released on July 27, 2016. It was released as a song dedicated
to the Summer Olympics of that year in Brasil. Here are two previous
reviews of the song when it came out, read them here and
here. Up-front Link wrote a little bio regarding the song and the
origins of Samba for people who may not understand, but love
Hello!Project, you can read it here. This was Kobushi’s 3rd major single.
General Thoughts
As
I always say, idol music is often like psudo-genres. This song is
inspired by samba, but its not samba. This is psudo-samba. Its really
really facinating to me. To listen to something that is “like but not” a
genre I like. Then notice how the song writers made it still idol
music. This song is certainly idol music, its not quite samba for a
variety of reasons, but its dern good samba idol music. Man the closer I
look, the more I see these guys are professionals… They understand
music so well…
Anyways Japan has this long standing relation with Brasil.
I don’t truly understand it, but I have come to love Brasil through
Japan and its love of Brasil. So almost everything I know about Japan I
first learned through Japan. Bossa Nova and Samba are two of those
things. For example my first real experiences with Bossa Nova was via Naomi & Goro and Lisa Ono,
before I heard any Brasilians sing it. My absolute first Bossa Nova
song I ever remember hearing was MANHA DE CARNAVAL as sung by Shiina
Ringo… Anyways, I say that to say that Japan can do quite authentic
Samba and Bossa Nova if they want to.
An article on Samba can be found here.
But Samba, like most African influenced genres is heavily dependent on
rhythm. Specific rhythms. Samba itself has a lot of different genres,
but this song is based off the party carnaval samba. Here is an example
of the Samba batucada rhythm.
I
generally won’t talk about the videos, but I will here. I think this
video shows a great comparision of little girls and women. Idols are are
cute and fresh faced, but this video has them with grown ass women in
the background. It shows grown full figured women that are alive with
womaness and sexuality in a way that idols are not allowed to express,
even if they have had experiences that make them women in real life.
When you see the samba dancers in the background showing everyone
watching “I am having fun, I am a woman, I am attractive, watch me
dance,” its so refreshing. I wish I could see the idols act that way
more often. Naturally, Sakura, Mizuki, and at times Tomoko gives those
types of vibes, but its not a common style of idol. And while I’m
talking about those women, the dance they are doing is called Samba no
Pé, you can watch and read about it here. And while I’m talking about the dance, you can see the Japanese dancing it here. And while I’m talking about the dancers if you want to see a pro, you can watch Nayara Justino, here.
Whew…
after all that stuff, lets get to the music. This song is an excellent
upbeat little number that is so fun. I wish there was more party music
in the H!P catalogue, but I digress. Its the kind of song you just want
to dance to.
Aural asthethics (instruments, key, tone, etc…) So
the song instrumentally is very layered, even if there aren’t that many
parts. We have percussion, bass, synth, and the horns. There are a lot
of different authentic percussion samples being used and it gives it a
legit samba feel. The bass just does its job… But the horns are their
own little part that really adds to the song. They are quite jazzy, I
don’t think there is ever more than 2 parts for brass, but combined with
the other parts of the song (often harmonizing with the melody for
example) they really give the song a great deal of color. The synth in
the background is so stealthy you may miss it the first couple of times
yo hear the song, but its steady laying down chord changes to make this
song even jazzier.
Compositional notes (harmony, chords, and the like)
So
I think its important to note that while the music is 100% samba, the
most of the melody is very much an idol melody. When you hear Samba
melodies, they usually sound nothing like this, which I think gives this
song its unique appeal. However, some parts of the melody are very
brasilian, like the post chorus ya ya ya part. It was likely inspired by
the Bellini song “ Samba De Janeiro” (best know to nerds as being VGM).
Listen to this part of the song,
particularly the rhythm and the lyrics. She says “samba de janiero”,
they say “samba… samba kobushi de janiero.” Idol melodies have these
rhythms and spaces that make it perfect for the crowd shouting between
them. Most other music is not really like that so consistantly. Anyhow,
its such a great melody. It has minimal harmonization throughout it. Its
mostly just flourishes, but the harmony in the “ya ya ya"part sets my
heart a flutter. Its my favorite part of the song. Despite it having an
“idol melody” there are a lot of great great rhythms in this. It would
make Tsunku smile. Especially when they throw that last syncopated
“samba” in after the cha cha cha part, it gets me every time.
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