Preface: Over the last year, largely due to the pandemic, many people have turned to streams and (into) streamers to get through the pandemic lockdown. In particular, VTubers (a portmanteau of “virtual YouTubers,” though they stream on various platforms) have gained a significant following. These VTubers use various apps and programs to create a live 2D model of themselves, which is then grafted onto an animated (and often anime) character. The Hololive agency manages some of—if not the most—popular VTubers in the world, with many of their talents having over a million followers, and some making hundreds of thousands of dollars… a month. What’s interesting about Hololive, at least in part, is that they originally branded themselves as an idol agency. While they have since rebranded to an “entertainment company,” many of their talents still put out music. Recently, one of their members (Houshou Marine 宝鐘マリン, who is supposedly a “pirate”), released a song in collaboration with Yunomi entitled "Union." This song is, to put it mildly, not traditional idol music. But I find the song absolutely fascinating and almost hypnotic. It’s been a while since I’ve obsessed over a song to this degree. A large part of this comes from its off-kilter opening. So, being the music theorist that I am, I decided to do a mini casual analysis of it. I wrote this analysis out and left my small essay as a comment on the official music video. Much to my surprise, a number of people have read and liked my comment! Earlier today, I hit over 1000 likes on the comment, so I decided to honor it by reposting it here [EDIT, March 22, 2023: 1.7K likes!]. What follows here is the music video (maybe slightly NSFW? the song on its own can be accessed here) as well as a direct transcription of the comment-essay. #publicscholarshipftw amirite?
CW: slightly NSFW and a Flashing Light warning!
Alright. This song has been stuck in my head since it came out. What makes it especially interesting is the metrical dissonance used from the beginning until the chorus starts. In short, there are competing meters until it's relatively stable at ~1:25. Though it begins with 4 bars of an unproblematic 4/4 four-on-the-floor kick, the next four bars add a counter-rhythm that plays against (though is still within) the framework of common time. But the rhythm of Marine's singing doesn't adhere to this structure. Not only are the phrases irregular (I count her opening as 11+9+8+(5+1) against the four-on-the-floor kick, for instance), they're also syncopated (off the beat [not unusual in pop songs, but this is moreso than is common]), as well as frequently elided--overlapping--so there isn't a rhythmic cadence that clearly ends on a strong beat on a consistent measure until about 1:01 which I hear as a repeated 3-4-1-- on 交代だ (the repeated "koutai da"). But this is shown to be "wrong" when "Please Mr. Silence" (プリーズ、ミスターサイレンス) comes in (1:11) as a pickup 3-4&-1 with Silence falling on beat 1 and starting the "true" measure (but which contradicts my perceived 3-4-1 of koutai da). But the point of the opening of this song is literally to disorient the listener so that there isn't a consistent and obvious meter. I.e., there are layered meters which make it difficult to say if there's a "right" answer. That's what makes this song so hypnotizing! There are even sections of the opening that adhere to some sense of 4/4 for a bit, but they're inevitably disrupted. Anyways, if you want to bob your head along, this is the counting structure I came up with for the beginning: (intro) 8+8, 8+8, (Marine comes in:) 11+9+8+(5+1), 3+4+4+4+5+(8+3), (lots of normal 4s!) 4+4+4+4+4+4+8, 3+4+6+4+7+(4+3), etc. Parentheses indicate elisions where (to my ear) the end of one section overlaps with the start of another. Might be some typos, and again, a lot of it isn't exact based on the kick, but this should help you internalize it if you're interested in this.
Also, I've seen a lot of talk about the genre of the piece based on Hololive's tweet. I wouldn't say this is totally new genre per se, though it's obviously not mainstream idol music. I would say it's somewhere between hyperpop and art pop, though genre is as much based on what things are as what they're not.
Anyways, hope this is interesting to some people!
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So that’s the essay-comment. The Tweet in question is here:
And apparently a number of the other Hololive members had pretty strong reactions to the song as well. Also, this trifecta came from a previous (I think unrelated?) stream of Marine’s a while back, but they seem relatively on-brand. For now, here are the images which I screenshotted because they amused me out of context. If I can find the actual clip, I’ll post it here as well!
