GENRE CONVENTIONS ( p1 )

 

MUSIC CONVENTION : 

Following the song’s genre, the genres that I have chosen are R&B and Alternative Dance. These two genres have been popular recently and it gives the audience a chill yet melancholy vibe. These kinds of songs were actually quite common in terms of mental health aspects, which give the audience a sense of reflection and also can make them immersed into the world where the story that the song gives occurs. 

R&B : 

R&B is a type of music that combines rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music. It features distinctive record production, smooth vocal arrangement, electronic influences, hip-hop, dance-inspired beats, melisma, and a blend of hip-hop and pop culture since the mid-1980s. It has a tranquil, melancholy yet soft and comforting melody since it’s often in the form of a ballad song. 

→ KR&B : 

The type of R&B that I focus on is KR&B, which is Korean R&B music. Following the mainstreaming of K-Pop, KR&B is also no exception. KR&B have caught attention from the audience nowadays, especially on Tik Tok since there where short videos that recommends KR&B artists and their songs.  Due to the fact that they are largely independent labels or underground musicians, K-R&B artists have total creative control. This gives them the freedom to experiment with other kinds of music, combining them with underappreciated orchestrations, jazzy chords, trap beats, multitrack, synth instrumentals, unpredictable key leaps, and back-of-the-beat singing. 

Usually, KR&B songs always comes with a specific message or meaning. Mostly they talk about being broken or obsessed with love, or other things such as depression, emotional detachment and more.

CASE STUDY :  DEAN - @deantrbl

DEAN is a Korean R&B artist that has been well - known in the K- pop community. He has many original pieces and others that featured him. The reason why DEAN has received so much love is because of his unique vocal and the melody from his songs are also quite unusual as well, which can be considered as his own traits. For instance, his song D ( Half Moon ) ft. Gaeko is a hit of his from 7 years ago, which is all about heartbreak. His smooth vocals are accompanied with an underappreciated bass and a funky syncopated drum. A distinctive faded piano music and TV static sound samples open and close the tune. It could sound like you're floating on a cloud, listening to the artist's foggy recurrent ideas.

HOW KR&B UNIQUE FROM WESTERN R&B :

K-R&B is distinct from its western cousin due to its wordplay and multilingual fluidity. Singers change languages with ease. When compared to other K-music genres, they have more creative freedom to be open and honest in their songs. Raps frequently include asymmetrical freestyling instead of a hip-hop beat. These elements are skillfully used in BIBI's song "BINU" to protest body objectification, whereas Lee Hi's heartfelt song "HOLO" speaks of loving oneself and conquering self-destructive ideas.

With their powerful vocals and use of light beats, musicians like DEAN, Yerin Baek, Zion.T, Lee Hi, Crush, Jay Park, Sam Kim, and Samuel Seo have earned their status as K-R&B icons. eaJ hits various octaves and crafts distinctive harmonies on his solo recordings and collaborative works, which promote the inarticulate, laid-back, lo-fi R&B vibes.

K-POP AND ITS APPLICATION FOR SIDE TRACKS :

Many K-pop groups use KR&B as one of their genres that they will include in their B-side tracks. It’s a quite common genre to use whenever they want to have a much more soft and melancholy vibe, in order to fuse with the energy that they want to bring in their comeback releases. They can even fuse it into one of their songs, along with other genres such as Pop or Dance. One example we could mention here is Dreamer by TXT, from their newest album - The Name Chapter : Freefall. Most of their songs consist of rock and punk, leading to a kind of heavy and somber vibe. However, with Dreamer, the vibe of it is much more nostalgic and dreamier, which neutralizes the vibe as it becomes less extreme. 

K-R&B serves as a shifting path for many K-pop idols as they pursue solo careers. They've brought new life to the genre while retaining K-Pop components, resulting in what has been called "K-Pop R&B" music. Significant examples are "Bambi" by Baekhyun, "Before We Begin" by Eric Nam, or more notable, “Slow Dancing” by V ( BTS ). 

ALTERNATIVE : 

Alternative is a type of music whose simple concept can get really messy and confusing. More specifically, alternative music is a type of music that is made by artists that are outside the musical mainstream. Their music is more unique, eclectic and original, which can be hard to find an alternative of theirs. It’s usually distributed by independent labels, therefore making it more challenging than the popular ones. 

Alternative has been described as a more extreme form of pop and a less intense version of rock, according to Urban Dictionary. Alternative music frequently deviates from the genre's standard lyrics and sometimes incorporates elements of other musical genres. Usually it has extremely few creative restrictions, and their music defies easy classification.

→ Korean Alternative : 

Korean alternative will also be the type of music that I will focus on. Korean alternative - also known as Korean indie, is a type of music that often deals with more reflective subjects than K-pop, and the music's beauty and emotion are usually translatable beyond linguistic boundaries. While some K-indie artists would rather operate independently of record labels, others want to collaborate with independent labels that provide greater creative and production freedom. However, K-pop lovers ought to be thrilled to hear that a large number of K-indie musicians also work with K-pop celebrities, demonstrating the immense power of the K-indie scene.

CASE STUDY :  WAVE TO EARTH - @wave_to_earth

Wave to earth is a Korean Indie/ Alternative band that has been really popular nowadays. Their reputation started to rise as their song “seasons” became beloved on Tik Tok, then people started to discover more about this band and found that they also have many songs that quite resembled the vibe that they give from “seasons”. Some examples mentioned here are “bad”, “love”, “peach eyes”, “sunny days”, “homesick” and more.  Although it is well recognized that several types of auditory responses may be elicited by music, Wave to Earth's members - Daniel Kim, John Cha, and Dong Q's distinct style of music smoothly spans a wide range of emotions, from playful and gentle to fervently jazzy.

In an interview with Bandwagon, they had stated that their type of music is a fusion of jazz and lo-fi. Their motto for making music is that they want to give the audience a sense of relaxation and pleasantness. The 2019 debut group have been successful in doing that, since their music has given the soothing vibe, therefore, they have somehow created their own aesthetic. Even though the majority of their songs are in English, despite the fact that all the members are Korean, it didn’t matter much since it’s universal and gives the opportunity to every person around the world to feel and understand what they want to deliver. 

K-POP AND ITS APPLICATION FOR SIDE TRACKS :

The same with R&B, Alternative is also a popular genre that many K-pop groups incorporate into their B-side tracks. Whenever they want to blend with the energy that can reflect in their comeback releases, they frequently turn to these genres for a much more subdued and melancholic vibe. They can even incorporate it—along with other genres like dance or pop—into one of their songs. A suitable example for this is my chosen song itself, Butterfly. Butterfly is a Dance song that fuses Indie and R&B together, which makes it upbeat yet melancholy, tranquil and often leads us to fall into contemplation.

SIMILARITY AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN R&B AND ALTERNATIVE : 

The common thing that I found with Korean R&B and Korean Indie/ Alternative music is that they both giving a soothing and tranquil vibe, which makes a person either feel satisfied, relief, comfortable, or even miserable, heartbroken with what they have gone through a day, a week or a month. The power that these two types of music have is that it can make a person feel related and immersed themselves into it. Maybe it can put a person into sleep to let all the problems go away, or allow a drop of tears from their eyes to fall down on their face, to help them wash away all the concerns and worries. Furthermore, these two types of music can fuse with various genres such as jazz, dance, pop, rock and more. 

However, one difference that I found with Korean Alternative is the uniqueness, the way that it delivers both the melody and the lyrics are significant enough to leave an impression into a person's mind, therefore creating a distinguished memory which can be challenging for the audience in order to find an alternative to it. Meanwhile, R&B also has its uniqueness, however, it can be distorted or stolen as there are many interpolations of it, either the sample, messages or melody, therefore, it leads to a consequence that a song can lose its originality.