Performance Review : Winner - "But"

I originally did a guest review of Winner's album 2014 S/S in the "Prober's Thread" on OneHallyu.  I really liked the album overall, but immediately loved (I mean LOVED) the song "But", listening to it over and over again.  Much to my disappointment, the performance flaws started to appear.

I can hear so much potential and am sad the finished product did not meet my unrealistically high expectations.  Now, this song falls under the category of "I really like it, but it could be performed better."  After writing a glowing commentary about Kim Jaejoong, I thought it would be good to show how I believe a song could reach its musical potential with a little twerking.  (LOL autocorrect).

I have scientific (musictific?) reasons for this which I will now discuss.  If you read my spiel about Kim Jaejoong read here  then you'll get an idea of some of the ways a singer can shape musical phrases (and ruined me for other singers).

I didn't sniff out an official video for it, so here's a sample of "But" on Amazon.com
that starts out just before the rap section.  (no, it's not an affiliate link, just for example)

I grieve some because there are very nice musical phrases that could have been given more attention and with a more deft hand, could have made it heartbreaking for me.  Listen to the opening verse, second phrase "maltudo heomhaegajigo".  There is a note that repeats 3 times in a row and he sings them all the same.  "neo badajul namja" there is a two note phrase that repeats 2 1/2 times (up, down, up, down, up) that are sung the same way.  The end of the phrase has two repeated notes that are sung the same.  *banging my head on the wall*

There are so many opportunities to enter a little musicality.  Any time you have a repeated note, each note should have a different importance, maybe it echoes softer, becomes louder as if leading into another phrase, or chop it with some staccato...ness.  Plunking out the notes is just blah.

The same goes for the two note phrase - it was repeated and the second iteration of the two-note phrase should be different (see above).  When you think about phrasing, think about the flow of the music and meaning of what you are singing.  Not knowing the meaning of the words, the musical line could be shaped like this instead:  jigo neo badajul namja  (where larger letters are louder and smaller letters are softer.)

One redeeming feature of the performance is the rap section.  He uses the rhythm of the words along with some energetic pronunciation.  You can feel him singing from his gut (I don't know how else to describe the singer's total involvement).

OK, another redeeming feature - the group members had a hand in writing the album, and I think it's a pretty strong album.


LOL I just realized there might not be that many people who are as stuck up as I am about musicality.  But come ON!!!  They are with one of the big 3 in Korea!!!!  You'd think their idols would be better prepared than the average Joe's idols.

I don't want to see companies churn out good songs just for profit and no musicality.  It's me against the music industry. 





for more info:  The romanized lyrics are from https://kpopgod.wordpress.com/2014/12/09/but-winner-lyrics-romanized-english-hangul  I have no idea if this is correct but I could follow along with the song well enough.