Rhythmic Music Generation (RMG)

With the hype of TVXQ's 4th album, "Mirotic" going on, I'm going to talk about the shift of music from melodic songs to SMP style songs to strong rhythmic songs in TVXQ songs. The reason is TVXQ songs are always catered for mainstream. So, by listening to TVXQ songs we can roughly gauge what is going on in the Korean music industry:)

I've done a bit of data collecting and research^^

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Using catchy tunes and exciting lyrics to produce a title song is already an outdated method. The Korean music industry (‘gayo’) now uses strong rhythm to manifest the variety of trend tendency. Since last year, electro-pop introduces the revival of strong rhythmic songs in the Korean ‘gayo’. In the second half year of 2008, Seo Taiji, BoA and other artistes lead the trend by releasing rhythmic music one after another.

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BoA has entered the American music industry by releasing her debut song “Eat You Up”, which is also a hip-hop dance song with strong rhythm beat. "Eat You Up" is a song composed by Remee & Troelsen, who also composed TVXQ’s 4th album title song "Mirotic". Both songs are similar in being a Reverse Beat dance track.

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According to song composer, Park Goon Tae, “Songs were determined by its melody to give the song a complete feeling. Now, repetitive rhythms are used in song arrangements to achieve a strong effect.”

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Seo Taiji insists on using Nature Pound singing style in his comeback title song after 4 years 7 months, “Outmost Part Moai”. Wonder Girls, Big Bang and other groups also uses repetitive melody with strong rhythm in their songs.

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The “Rhythmic Music Generation” emphasizes on using the body to feel the music, instead of using the ears to listen to the music. To feel the song, one must use the body to feel it instead of using the brain to remember it. Therefore, if melody is to touch our emotions, then rhythmic music will be to stimulate our feelings.

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Editor of a music magazine “Rhythm On”, Kang Il-Jeon, says “Good Rhythm is easily accepted by public, at the same time is easy to be forgotten. There are very little people who appreciate music that features strong rhythm. However, one will get addicted to RMG easily, once fall into it. Songs of today do not concern only on music played through CD player and radio, but also music that is used for ringtones, blog music, etc. Thus, there is a tendency that music is moving towards instrumentals or music as accessories.

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The reason to recompose the song in RMG style is to improvise the depletion of the melody by comparing its essential beat with the music rhythm. It is quite easy to compose all sorts of rhythm by using the sound synthesizer to mix a variety of musical instruments with the composing style of experienced composers. This shift of music style is most probably caused by the method of composing where machines are used to compose music, instead of using the brain to visualise the music.

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Regardless what types of rhythm are used to revive music style, it influences music lovers vastly, especially those who are familiar with the Club culture and RMG style of using rhythm as a main feature in music.

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Music commentator, Bae Soon, analyses the popularity of RMG style music and says “1990 onwards started with Hongdae club as centre for RMG lovers where the group of RMG lovers consists of youngsters from age 10s to 20s. Now, RMG songs slowly becoming mainstream music show that this music genre is receiving attention from general music lovers.  

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Biblio:Xinky+Mickyhome+DNBN+daum

PS: I've listened to the 4th album!! Will come up with reviews soon<3