[Critics Review] 100 beats, a review by Kim Bong Hyun

EDIT: Kim Bong Hyun, himself tweeted ATY’s entry of his review on his Twitter and not only that linked back to us on his personal blog. Check it out! He writes, if he knew his review was going to be passed around and translated, he would’ve made a more professional graph of the R&B “Trinity.”  Funny man.  (Well at least that’s what I think he’s saying. lol) ATY is going places. 🙂

Sorry, I know this is translated elsewhere, but Myokoon had this done a while ago, it’s only right I post her interpretation of this article. Enjoy, its fantastic!

Original Aricle on KBH’s blog.

Based on the premise, that this is only my personal opinion, as a person of the committee, when Taeyang won the double prize of the best R&B/Soul category, at the 6th Korean music awards (even though I wrote a comment about the album as a “selector” for the album), I thought it was a ‘a bit much’. I totally agree that “Look Only at Me” deserved the best song field. But I thought, HOT, was not the best representation that year of R&B music. The result, I thought, was made by ‘the circumstances’ and was used to for ‘supporting and encouraging’ the artist.

It doesn’t mean I was dissatisfied. Because to a certain extent, circumstances and conditions vary each year. I was just worried a little. It may be groundless, but I was worried if the results would give Taeyang the wrong signal and make him almost conceited. After listening to SOLAR though, I was confirmed in his growth through this album.

I will say my attitude about this album like this, “throw away unsubstantial overexpectations”. Its not that I look down on him. I mean, we should look back at the reasons why we have expectations for him. Have we had expectations because Taeyang has this master-artisan experience or because he already is pursuing this deep R&B soul? No. Having expectations was because of this “potential” he had. We’re sorry that for him, that his good voice has been overshadowed during the group activities and we can see his own musical greed that’s distinct from the group and his talents that made us believe in this “greed” that is realizable. These have formed our expectations for Taeyang. That is, we’ve seen his chances and expect a result from them.

Seeing this context, SOLAR is a fairly outstanding result. Instead of basing it on the idea that there are a lot of master-artisans, let’s gaze at a solo musician which Taeyang has started out at and processed as at the same level. If you can do that, then you would find that this album is cheerful and he has step foot again in the direction of your expectation.

In many respects, Taeyang is enough to be called an American R&B musician, almost the Korean version of “Trey Songs”. As Taeyang sometimes shouts out the phrase “Yup” that Trey Songz commonly does, Taeyang is certainly his perfect  imitations. I’m only joking, but Taeyang has many things similar to this American artist. To be accurate, Taeyang is Trey Songz, but a clean version, or a under 15 edition. Because Taeyang can’t sing songs like ‘Neighbours Know my Name’ for reasons we all understand.

Trey Songz has a talent for assimilating from sensual slow jam to obvious pop. Let’s look into his last work [Ready]. An intense and sloppy slow jam ‘Neighbors Know My Name’, glossy danceable maintream R&B ‘I Invented Sex’ and ‘Say Aah’, it’s more near pop rather than R&B – ‘I need a girl’, can be grouped with these.

Taeyang’s album is the same. Teddy’s neat mainstream uptempo R&B ‘Move’ that reminds us of the producing duo. The Runners’ sound, ‘You’re my’ and ‘Take is slow’ which are slow jams, a pop track ‘Just a feeling’ that have a scent of producing team Stargate, and so on, are all contained in here. Different from Trey Songz, who rattles off sloppy stories on bed. ‘I Need A Girl’ is an urban R&B, like bubble gum that as an honest boy, Dong youngbae, who has never gone out, could have to sing for  his fangirls, of course.

So, two of the above albums are a kind of assorted gift set. Of course, this characteristic is not only of two of them. But we should take notice of that the two vocalists are free to cross the boundary between R&B/soul and pop. In other words, even though their vocals have clear tones and straight styles, they are good at R&B/soul which requires deep & steeped voice (like Trey songz), or not awkward at least (unlike Taeyang).

Putting this into the ‘local’, Korea, Taeyang secures his own identity. The meaning becomes clear when we think of how many vocalists there are in Korea, who can assimilate both R&B/soul and pop ‘well’ and fit each atmosphere, keeping his own individuality. I don’t know it will come to gains or losses in the future, but it’s Taeyang’s competitiveness and the world is a blue ocean.

[Solar] proves many things. It proves YG’s producers are still making high quality ‘R&B/Soul music’, and Taeyang has continually practiced singing, and what charm and advantages Taeyang has as a musician. But above all, in this album, Taeyang proves he is ‘growing up’. Taeyang is not the best, but trying to be the best. I hope watching his growth to be pleasing now and forever.

PS1. But nevertheless, ‘After you fall asleep’ should not be in here, and ‘You’re my”s falsetto is shocking in a negative meaning. I was very shocked when listening first.

PS2. Jeon Goon who composed ‘I Need a Girl’ is a well-known person among R&B enthusiasts. He’s from a ‘R&B/Soul music’, creation society, SNP. Listening to ‘I Need a Girl’ and seeing the lyrics as well as the music, I knew that Jeon Goon has been listening to native R&B consistently. These are not childish lyrics scribbled without knowing much, these are lyrics written with controlled intentional expressions and limits.

PS. In addition to Jinbo and Deez, is the Korean R&B trinity completed like this? Of course, Taeyang’s capability didn’t reach two of them that is, but it’s a positive omen, that as many as three compacted R&B albums which have each different position were released in the first half of this year. I cheer for Boni and Soulman, too (let me listen to your full album, please).

Kim Bonghyun made this graph lol

2010 상반기 한국 알앤비 분석 : the first half of 2010 Korean R&B analysis

내공 : experienced, seasoned

대중성: popular

진보 : Jinbo

디즈 : Deez

태양 : Taeyang

Translations by MYOKOON@ALWAYSTAEYANG (do not remove credit)
Original article HERE