Featured Artist - The Song Stylings of Kim Jaejoong

These are my personal thoughts and opinions appreciating the song styling of Kim Jaejoong. 

Having studied vocal technique, I really really really appreciate singers who can be thoughtful and sensitively expressive when they sing.  Too often, you hear people who just robotically sing notes + rhythm, and not often enough do you hear someone who actually gives the meaning of the song to you.  This is where Kim Jaejoong comes in to save the day and breathe life into pop music.

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It is blissful when a singer takes the time to explore sound and express the musical phrase.  I was so impressed with his musicality in the song "My Only Comfort" from his solo EP, Mine, which is a slow and lyrical song about heartbreak.  (Just as an aside, I read that he wrote these lyrics.  What's with all the K-pop men singing about heartbreak and despair??  It makes me sad...So many gals out there need to stop breaking hearts!)


What's interesting to me about his singing here is that this song seems to be carefully planned and choreographed.  For example, at the ends of phrases, it's kind of a natural reaction that if the notes go up, people sing louder and vice versa if the notes go down.  I noticed the notes go up at the end of 2nd phrase of the first verse "It is only left on my finger, and so sorrow cries."  This is not a place to be singing obnoxiously louder, but a place he expresses sorrow very well by pulling back off the higher note at the end of the phrase.  That takes thought and awareness of how you want it to sound and good musicianship.  (Thank you for doing this!)  This is the kind of singing that immediately gets my attention. 

In voice lessons, we are taught that a long note should change so that it's not boring - either it should grow louder, softer, or the quality should change, such as from a straight tone to vibrato. Though he's singing softly, I can hear the shape of the long notes - sometimes softer, sometimes adds vibrato, sometimes he cuts the end of the phrase with a glottal stop (a throaty end to the sound).

Listen to "Cry, cry, cry again" at the end of the first stanza of the first verse and you can hear the way he stretches the last word very scrumptiously.  The second time he sings "Cry, cry, cry again", he adds an audible breathy "H" sound at the end of the word, making it a different phrase from the one he just sang.  For me, it means he's not satisfied with being a parrot, but wants to make the same phrase subtly different each time. 

Kim Jaejoong

In the chorus, the hissy "S" and inhalation sounds are placed and exaggerated.  Some people might think he's overdoing it and he might be, since the hissy sounds can be distracting.  But I can forgive it because the exaggerated diction emphasizes the word meaning "love", which is an important centerpiece of this song.

Also in the chorus, the phrase, "You are already my soul", well, I'm not sure exactly how to describe this...there is a breathy sound that he adds to the phrase, which kind of sounds like a sigh to me.  A sigh would say a lot about the meaning he's trying to convey. 

"How to live, without you" is sung very softly and is given more meaning by a crescendo (becoming louder) in the middle of the phrase.  Really, I'm impressed because it means his technique has to be very flexible in order to add that degree of shading while still singing quietly.  Like, wow.  My experience in choirs is that most people are rather brutish with crescendos and can't crescendo quietly.  Another (+) mark for Kim Jaejoong.

The second verse is sung a bit more passionately with a bit more vibrato and the addition of more orchestration.  It's nice that the tone of the song changes in the second verse.  The contrast suggests the first verse is holding back, but the second verse is letting out the tears and emotions previously locked within.  The love that abandoned him is dramatically more painful this time around.  The notes are also different on "You are already my soul" and "How to live, without you", maybe because he's not reflecting now, and almost yelling/crying out the experience of loss.  Ending so sadly in "you are my love forever."

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One more thing.  I enjoy that this song doesn't follow the typical formula found in soooooo mmaaaaannnnyy songs (yawn): 

Verse 1 + Chorus + Verse 2 + Chorus + Bridge + Chorus/Finale.  

It is more like this:

Introspective Verse 1 + Introspective Chorus 1 + Passionate Verse 2 + Passionate Chorus/Finale

Having a different structure kind of spices things up and helps you understand what the singer is going through.  I think ending abruptly like this adds to the drama of the song.  So kudos from me to the songwriter. 

I never read the lyrics before writing this entry.  Although the lyrics made this song more poignant, the flexibility of his voice and technique means you don't have to understand the words to just enjoy his interpretation of the song.  Now that I've read the lyrics, I appreciate even more the musicianship and he got my attention for singing so artistically.

I trust his abilities and can just lean back, give myself over to the song and let him take me on a journey.  LOL is that too sappy?  Squinchee is just gonna lean back now.  Take me away Kim Jaejoong.

For more info:
The lyrics I used are here "My Only Comfort" lyrics  (follow outside links at your own risk.)  If you don't have this song, iTunes has a healthy sample (1:30 min) to help while you're reading this.  (No, I'm not being paid to advertise this.)  (Yes, I do try to be a good citizen on the net.) 



Join us next for "When Will the Men of K-pop Ever Be Happy?"  
(Just kidding)