9/22 – “No Concept” by MC Jin

The melody of the song is extremely simple and is only one layer. The melody of the song is essentially the wind instrument sample the repeats from the beginning to the end of the song. The contour of the song is pretty diverse. The wind instrument sample has very smooth transition in its switch from its lower notes to high notes. The melody begins low for two beats of the duple meter, and then even lower for another two beats. Then, the melody switches to a short beat for one beat of the meter with a much higher pitch before it goes right back to the lower note for another two, then back to the higher pitch for one, followed by the two beats of the lower, ending with one beat of the higher pitch followed by an even higher pitch on two beats. The character of the song has both its conjunct and disjunct parts. The conjunct melodic character is during the first two sections of the melodic contour with the low and lower extended notes. The rest of the melodic character can be labeled as disjunct as it sharply switches between the high pitches and the lower pitch. The range of the melody is very great as the difference between the lowest note and the highest note is very large. The contrast between the highest pitch and the lowest pitch are on two different ends of the melodic spectrum. The phrasing of the song is eclectic to say the least. The melodic phrases come in many different lengths. Some are longer, some are shorter. The repeating phrases in the beginning of the song share the same length, but after that, the phrases vary in different length, tending to be more on the longer side than short. In terms of melodic motives, the song’s entire melody is a motive. The melody repeats from the opening of the song to the very end.

For texture, the song has 4 distinct layers: the wind instrument layer, the woodblock-like sound, the drum sample, and MC Jin’s rhymes. The drum sample layer helps set the tempo and beat of the song. It sets the parameters of MC Jin’s rhymes. The wind instrument layer gives the song some melody and more of an aesthetically-pleasing sound to the song for the audience to listen to. The woodblock-like sound accents the melody and drum beat. MC Jin’s rhymes serve as the main focus of the song. The layers of the song have different speeds because of their different functions. The melodic wind instrument layer has a slower speed than the drum beat. The drum beat gives the song a more up-beat tempo and the melody accents that at a slower speed. Each layer has its own distinct timbre as well. The wind instrument layer has a sound reminiscent of East Asia. The instrument sounds like some kind of reed flute that is commonly used in traditional east Asian music, as does the wood-block/clave sound. The drum sample layer has a more short, concise sound reminiscent of urban hip-hop. There is an instance of call-and-response in the song. MC Jin plays both the leader and the group roles in the call-and-response. MC Jin says “You on point, man?” and then responds to himself saying “All the time, man”.

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