The Three “Musketeers” Of Song Production
“All for one, one for all”. Apparently those are the big three heroes who complement each other. Doesn’t say much when I’m referring this to Klassic Note, but I’ll get to it in a moment.
As you see, song production comprises of three main participants, if you flip through the jackets of all the CDs you (ever) bought (I know I own a lot) you will notice that they are the lyricist, the composer, and the arrangement. Now you may say that they may be just three different people involved in the production of the song, but bear in mind like any other big event, release production is actually a very large scale project, as I’m only going to talk about the song itself.
The question here is: Why do I talk about them? Why do I need to show differences in their roles when they supposedly complement each other? In reality, it doesn’t. There is no need to question intentions, neither is there a need to investigate the truth (because truth hurts), but I can give you a good idea of it, just by listening to the songs produced.
[NOTE: Bear in mind I’m only referring to the Japanese music industry, sometimes specifically on Anime music companies.]
THE LYRICIST
As a couple of artists have proven (recently from SCANDAL too), normally the song starts from its own words, which means it needs lyrics to sing to, and creates the general meaning of the song. This normally isn’t a big problem in Klassic Note because my proficiency of Japanese is… do I even have any proficiency? まあ良いか。Anyways, there are people who know how to write the words, and some who don’t. As we all know, lyrics in songs behave like poems and recitals, normally rhythmic in form. But then that is not always true. Pertaining to a certain topic, the lyrics may make a serious turn, causing the song to sound like as if it doesn’t have a topic. This is normally noticed with songs in Anime-centric songs, like their own theme songs or specific character songs, which just sound more entertaining in nature instead of pairing itself with the melody. Hey, the melody’s next!
THE COMPOSER
This is probably where things start to kick in. Lyrics may not mean much and can be generic in meaning and mood, but this place is where it makes everything sound unique. Words can be repeated, but if melodies repeat very often it is noticeable, even on to the extent that a song this year can sound like one I’ve heard years ago. A good example of this fault is own long term mainstream artists, less obvious in Anime groups though, like sphere. Artists like Ikimonogakari and Aqua Timez do have the tendency to write songs with similar melodies yet very different lyrics, and call it as another song, normally taken to credit of a recent production, like a movie, for example.
This in turn may make song creativity come to a halt, as with respect to reviews in Klassic Note that means lesser songs in my list. Often this isn’t an issue, as I can always search for other artists or new ones like indie artists in order to satisfy my own music desires. It takes a lot to get an experienced group to form a new style or evolve in styles, but then if it happens I will be able to “give chance” to them as well.
This is also evident for giving new artists a chance to create a portfolio in Klassic Note so that I can have subsequent impressions of the artists in due time. A good example is nano.RIPE from last year which its latest single is on my shelf after three months of “giving chance” and within that time I reviewed their latest album. Not so latest anymore once their new album comes in on April this year, but oh well. Another example in progress is moumoon, in which I’ve just joined a recent live stream performance yesterday, their new single with credit to Anime “Assassination Classroom” is going to be my first pre-order on my shelf this year, and I’m already giving their previous songs a chance, from a single and a mini-album, which is still under review.
Despite the discrepancies, composition is not an easy task, so I always “give chance”, as much as I can, so I can open myself to new melodies and possibly forgive them for their shortcomings. I’m very picky when it comes to new melodies, you know. It has been seven years already, you see…
THE ARRANGEMENT
This? This is the person who decides on everything else of the song. In which case “everything else” means everything besides the words and melody in the song. Yes, which means this person supervises on what instruments to use for recording (if not a mainstream artist, and even so there is a degree of control), how it sounds like before it even gets to our ears (which means what you hear is given the thumbs up by this producer) and many more details like background vocals and additional styles where necessary. Normally done by a music producer in various music label companies, singer-songwriters or bands themselves can also independently supervise their own production, as seen in many examples including YUI, QUATTRO (YouTube video as evidence online), miwa and more. Some depend on producers like Ikimonogakari and SCANDAL (less of it last year as they start writing their own songs) and others who generally do not write songs and/or lyrics (like Anime artists) of course will not expect to be deciding how it sounds like anyway.
The downside is not doing it yourself, but for someone else to decide how it sounds like on a record, especially if it is your song. This will probably explain why it sounds so vastly different in many cases where the live performance of a band or artist sounds unlike their studio release. In Klassic Note, I generally only consider studio versions of the songs (unlike my dad who likes to listen to lives) so if they aren’t good, especially when they’re done long ago, like in the case of Kuso Iinkai before their major debut last year, I won’t give them. They did well in COUNTDOWN JAPAN over the end of last year, but I didn’t give another song this year.
THE EXCEPTIONS
Of course, with many of these people comes many exceptions where, in Klassic Note, I take no attention to when I listen to the songs. Really, sometimes just listening to a song may already make me know about the general style of production, which will make me remember them when I hear a new song related to the artist, whether the lyrics or melody or arrangement is done by a specific person. General exceptions include regular artists (Ikimonogakari, Aqua Timez, Rie fu and so on) as I tend to give more chances to them within a release, and what I refer to as idol artists (Toyosaki Aki, Kotobuki Minako, Tomatsu Haruka and many more) where they are devoid of all judgement here unless I really think it’s so out of the court to be in my list. Specifically Aki-chan has a record-breaking set of releases on myself, definitely is me being more lenient in judgement as now I normally give the pre-order just listening to 90-second previews in favour of the special gifts that come with the purchase. Like in 2013 I pre-ordered her single “CHEEKY” and that probably is one of the most controversial releases I have under her name, as I question many times after listening to the full songs why I made the decision so haphazardly in the first place.
In conclusion, the judgement in Klassic Note is pretty strict in itself as I’m stuck on only a few styles of music, and things like bridges in song format and inappropriately arranged songs deter me from giving more songs, even if they don’t sound that bad. That is why every year I try to list down from time to time a list of songs that “did not make the cut”, because although they do not deserve the thumbs up from me, they deserve a mention. Come to think of it, I never showed them to you guys, isn’t it? Hmm…
So that is pretty much it. It’s long, but hope that addresses the many bias for my opinion in song reviews and why I’m still stuck in my circle of artists, even till now. See you guys soon then, and until next time… Twitter. The best place for me to post anything related to Klassic Note when I want to. Yeah.
- Kaineng, on the Klassic Note: The Three “Musketeers”
(They still work together though, though so much not all for one…)