Pedro left behind his colleagues, who were happily mingling with the idol Lee Do-hui, sat back down, and waited for the greetings to end.
"Cello major? I absolutely love the cello! I've actually been mostly listening to cello pieces again lately. So could you play with me later? Something like Brahms or Rachmaninoff's sonata for cello and piano. It's not that I particularly like those pieces, but I've always had a bit of a romantic dream about performing that kind of ensemble."
"Sure, let's do it. I had a feeling you'd say that, Do-hui. I mean, if you look yourself up, piano always follows as the top keyword."
"But you really knew about me... I thought you were just saying that out of courtesy."
"Come on, how could I not know? Setting aside that you're famous among K-pop fans, most people here have probably heard the piano pieces you composed too? Personally, I really liked them."
"Oh..."
"Ah, but to be exact, I'm more on the jazz side, so I might not be as good as you'd think at classical performance like the ensemble piece you mentioned."
"Ah..."
"But I should be able to play along well enough on famous pieces, right?"
"Oh...!"
And finally, Lee Do-hui—who had finished exchanging introductions—stood before him and extended her hand.
"Nice to meet—"
But Pedro roughly nodded and rose from his seat.
"My name is Pedro. I'm Brazilian, a singer-songwriter. I'm the team leader."
"Don't mind him. Pedro's just in a bad mood today."
"Huh? Ah, I'm fine, though."
'This bearded bastard, acting all kind just because she's pretty. Have some artistic pride.'
No matter what the Dutch bearded guy, Erhan, said from beside him, Pedro walked into the room where everyone's instruments were placed.
"I'm going to warm up before work. Hurry up and come in."
Pedro sat Lee Do-hui down in front of the acoustic piano as well and finished preparing for active listening.
The song he was about to play now was the latest track by !3(ExMark3)—undeniably top-tier after NND, an eighth-year boy group counted among the top three.
A song released last fall. It hadn't been a mainstream hit, but it had definitely received favorable reviews from experts, found great success among devoted K-pop listeners, and even taken home a grand prize.
It was a valuable song, filled with many sophisticated elements worth analyzing.
'...And the composers here aren't the kind of top-liners who simply got picked for humming good melodies.'
Pedro nodded and gazed at Lee Do-hui sitting in front of him.
* * *
'Ah, this song.'
I realized what song it was immediately.
There was no way I wouldn't know—as a music show MC, I even did the challenge with them last year.
ExMark3's
Honestly, it wasn't to the taste of my more public-friendly ears, but it was definitely a song packed with genre-wide novelty.
It was the type of song I probably couldn't have come up with if I'd been told to create one.
'Trying to follow trends yet paradoxically moving five, even ten years ahead—should I put it that way.'
This very style, this characteristic of their songs, was what had played the biggest role in ZY becoming one of the Big Four entertainment companies.
ZY had especially been a trendsetter for a long time.
As soon as the first introductory verse began, the composers around me—who had been nodding along—started their own reactions.
Perplexed, yet—
─This isn't the start I expected... but it's not bad.
Liking it intensely.
─These composers seem to like removing the bass a bit. But that's kind of cool.
Even clapping.
─Loose, loose, this is insane. Quantum-like, that is, discontinuous and laid-back.
And their choice of words was clearly, qualitatively different from the reactions typically seen on YouTube.
They showed distinct professionalism.
For now, my thought is...
It's fun just listening to it.
* * *
Pedro watched Lee Do-hui listening silently without saying a word while he and his colleagues chatted impromptu, and thought, 'I knew it.'
─There's a lot of vocal fry, right? The way they catch trends is definitely...
─Did you hear that just now? Triplets on top of it.
─Ah, I felt it.
Unlike random wannabes who called themselves producers just because they could fiddle with composing programs, this team was an elite unit even among composers.
─Look at this, the song was swinging the whole time, but it changed to duple.
─In the back, do you hear a spoon sound? A small one.
─Spoon? No. This sounds like a clave.
Except for Erhan, the beatmaker, they were basically all veterans who had completed their bachelor's degrees and had long careers.
─Wow, this modulation is insane.
─The boldness of changing the key like that here...
─The advantage of changing keys is usually to show off the singer's voice, but... this is crazy in its own right just where it is?
Their basic vocabulary, experience, and foundation were different.
And.
"Now that the song is over..."
Time to organize.
If earlier they had simply reacted, now was the stage to dig deeper.
"Who should speak first..."
'Don't tell me she organized it all in her head.'
"...You speak first."
"Ah, I was asking what a clave is."
He had been right.
"A clave is what's used in Cuban music. It refers to two rhythmically opposing cells."
"Vocal fry?"
While Jayda answered, Pedro nodded.
Yeah, how much could an idol possibly know?
"It's a way of speaking in a low vocal tone, a divisive vocal technique. It's something like a trend popular among young Americans these days. Especially young women. Because celebrities like the Kardashians mainly use this vocalization method."
"Ah, like this? How is it?"
"Oh, Do-hui, that low register suits you incredibly well? It's totally charming."
"Really? I've always been good at low-pitched vocalization. I've mimicked male voices well since I was young. Should I talk like this from now on..."
"Are the questions done?"
"Ah. What about duple? Is it duple, like you said? Dividing the measure into duple beats?"
"Uh, yeah, that's right."
He felt nothing but ashamed of himself for pointlessly getting irritated.
It seemed he had unconsciously developed animosity because Jeon Yosep had sent a text saying Lee Do-hui was his substitute, causing him to view himself as the producer overseeing this session and breeding resentment.
Common sense dictated that aside from being an idol, she was only eighteen years old.
As his colleagues said, he may have acted rather petty.
Seeing how hard she was trying to learn...
Jeon Yosep had probably just sent her to observe a bit.
Once he thought of her as a student, his mind felt much lighter.
Pedro decided to analyze a few more songs with her, let her observe a bit, and then send her back.
"Yeah, if you have more questions, keep asking."
"Okay."
Now that he looked at it, her passionate answer was rather cute too...
She's disgustingly pretty.
"Alright, everyone share what you felt or the points you noticed, and let's wrap up."
Pedro forgot his displeasure and began talking passionately with his team members as usual.
"Fundamentally, this isn't an easy-listening song that sounds good the moment you hear it. But for those who want to feel overwhelmed, it could be an unparalleled masterpiece."
"Right, the texture changes from the start. The overtones shift strangely."
"Yeah, actually I think the song's title is the key—you can feel it pulling you down from the drop part right before the chorus."
"Exactly, Loo-se Loo-se Loo-se, like the word 'loose,' the unstandardized laid-back feel embodies the theme of the song itself."
"I wonder if anyone else felt this~"
"Just say it, Lucas."
"If you listen closely to the chorus, doesn't it feel like 3/2?"
"Isn't it?"
"No. It's 3/4. Erhan, can you hit four beats with the stick? I'll play three beats."
"Sure."
─Tap-tap-tap─
Tap-tap-tap-tap
"Oh, you're right. Loo-se is divided into four beats, while the accompaniment is three beats."
"Was it a polyrhythm?"
"That's why it was confusing. Polyrhythm usually creates tension or a grating feeling. This song somehow still maintains a loose groove."
"If I had to pick an answer... I think it's partly because of swing sixteenths."
"That too, but especially in the final chorus, isn't there a feeling of going crazy and loosening up intoxicated by the song? Both the accompaniment and lyrics are aggressively at the front lines without yielding."
"Yeah, if the whole song were like that it would've been a bit of a mess, but it was well-made technically. The use of stops and consonantal rhythm too."
As they discussed and debated, analyzing the song through collective intelligence, Jayda—who had liked Lee Do-hui with fan-like enthusiasm even in daily life—looked at her and asked.
"Do-hui, don't you feel anything? I mean, you're the only idol here. Or perhaps a classical artist vibe?"
"I'm still not good at the terminology or expressing myself..."
She trailed off, but whether it was her cute smile, her face, or perhaps both, the atmosphere of a beauty made everyone stare without rushing her, simply waiting.
Even Pedro was thinking that if she didn't know, he would just tell her.
"Since I'm an idol, I focused a bit on the music video performance, and the dance break especially caught my eye. Especially when Lucas said earlier that it goes from swing to duple."
"Uh, yeah, I did say that."
But the answer that came back was a concept he had never expected.
"I'm sure that made the song better too, but I think it was the most important element for the performance."
"Why?"
"The way it changes during the dance break sounds somewhat industrial. Like a machine advancing. So the focus goes to the members' machine-like synchronization, their perfectly synced group dance."
"...Now that you put it that way. The added thirty-second note ornaments in the dance break too."
Was there really something to learn from the perspective of an idol who stood on stage?
And then Lee Do-hui presented another opinion.
"And like everyone said, I think the song keeps showing you that there's something going on from the very beginning. Intentionality. Like a retro concept."
An opinion completely opposite to the composers' thoughts here.
"Retro? This song?"
"Yeah, I don't get that either? It doesn't look retro for a ZY song. Rather, it feels ten years ahead, doesn't it?"
"Hmm... I'm not entirely sure either, but actually since male idol songs often contain deep intentionality or lore, I listened while concentrating. Here."
Lee Do-hui placed her hands on the piano.
"In the first verse, there's a 5-1-5 progression... this feels similar to a siren sound, and my previous group's debut song had this progression before. With a retro feel."
"Ah, right. There is that feeling."
"Yeah, because of that I paid attention, and when I listened to that part intentionally... in the second verse, the same section goes like this: 5-1-5-2-4."
"Right, it's slightly different? The progression is 1-4, not that."
"So I think that's why it feels less retro. You might think they're the same at a glance, but the progression in verse one and two is slightly altered like this, making the arrangement more sophisticated."
And then Lee Do-hui showed them an image of low-waist pants she had searched on her phone.
"To begin with, 'loose,' being loose, can also symbolize this kind of retro fashion. So maybe the planning concept of this song was to symbolically contain retro and refine it into sophistication."
"Right, I get it. Idols don't simply record a song and call it done..."
A team like Pedro's, which made music impromptu while enjoying it and waited for an agency that suited their palate to buy it, had forgotten.
Yes, K-pop was fundamentally performance.
A genre encompassing everything: fashion, dance, concept.
Therefore, composing teams at an entertainment company like ZY had to be conscious of their affiliated idols' concepts.
They had to prepare meticulously from the very stage of writing the song.
And perhaps he had made music while forgetting that obvious fact.
'I've been a freelancer for so long...'
Pedro, satisfied with the new opinion, unknowingly forgot his plan to send her back soon, treated Do-hui like the colleagues around him, and began listening to various recent tracks passionately.
"Great, then let's analyze the next track too!"
Until Do-hui was on the verge of tears.
* * *
[Me: Director, but tomorrow's my birthday... February 4th...]
[Sohyeon Director: Yeah, of course I remember.]
[Sohyeon Director: Come to the company building tomorrow afternoon and let's have a birthday party together.]
[Sohyeon Director: We'll do a live broadcast too. I prepared in advance.]
[Me: Yay! Then is the night off? (expectant expectant rabbit emoji)]
[Sohyeon Director: ?? No. You have to return.]
[Me: Excuse me?]
[Sohyeon Director: There are still five days left in the song camp.]
[Sohyeon Director: Those composers are quite famous people.]
[Sohyeon Director: Learn as much as you can while you're there, and write some songs too.]
T-that can't be.
Doa said she'd make me a cake because it's my birthday...
Of course I know it's a ploy to get allowance.
But still.
But still...
It's Doa's handmade cake...
"Hey, Pedro! Do-hui's crying because of you. Because you keep pestering her with questions."
"H-huh? Should we take a short break?"