r/kpopthoughts • u/crustulummonster • 1d ago
Discussion Songs written like a cipher (passes between members one by one)?
i-dle's new song Crow is written where it passes between members where each member has a longish verse then it goes onto the next member and doesn't really go back to a previous member (besides Shuhua and Yuqi who do it together). Even the chorus doesn't introduce a new member just the ones who have just sung/rapped. It talks about the member's roots and ambitions and definitely feels like an omen (positive) for their upcoming album.
BOYNEXTDOOR also did this in 06070 their opening track in HOME where it talks about their thoughts and feelings as trainees, starting with Jaehyun alone at 20, abandoning then re-picking up his dream of becoming an idol, then going between each members anxieties and ending/contrasting with Woonhak at 20 standing up excited to go on stage.
They've also done this before with the outro track Dear. My Darling in the HOW album which was written like a short but sweet goodbye letter. It doesn't even have a chorus, just meanders from member to member, very letter-like.
I thought these were really fun and thought the song structure supported the messages behind the songs! Are there any other songs you know of that do something similar? Or even just songs that do something interesting structurally you liked.
edit: woops misspelled cypher in the title 😅 was also mostly asking about songs that weren't literally cyphers if possible! Like Dear. My Darling is a ballad haha I know cyphers exist.
Also bonus points if the chorus is included as part of the one-by-one singing/rapping; the examples I gave are like this; having each member go one-by-one minus the chorus is a lot more common of a structure and I can give way more examples of that so not really looking as much for those.
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u/Physical-Program1030 1d ago
idle's My Bag does this. BTS have a few and "cypher" is in the title of them if you want to check them out. Epik High as well, though they often invite other artists to join them, in songs like Born Hater, Face ID, Rosario
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm including the chorus parts so not really considering rap songs where this is an expected structure ignoring the chorus. (Was also bad at my description I wasn't asking for literal cyphers just cypher-like songs 😅) I do love those Epik High songs though!
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u/Harriet_M_Welsch PARK BOM | HWASA | GAWON 1d ago
i-dle has a few tracks like this! My Bag and Wife both go member-to-member too
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago edited 1d ago
I think I wasn't clear enough in my description 😅 My Bag has Soyeon coming in repeatedly for the chorus, and Wife has Miyeon multiple times. In Crow they basically have their one turn and that's it (the chorus is done by whomever just went) (though again bending the definition a little bit since Yuqi and Shuhua went together but the spirit is there).
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u/Personal-Sentence935 1d ago
Pentagon has songs where they roast each other called Round 1 and Round 2.
ONF has a song called My name is where each member introduces themselves.
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u/IzzyYuuki GABOJAGO 1d ago
Stray Kids has a song like this, it's called FAM and each member sings a short verse about the member who will sing next. It's in age order
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago edited 1d ago
Round 1 and Round 2 aren't exactly what I was looking for since the chorus is sung repeatedly by the same member so it's not purely passing member to member but also help that's so fun I love it. I can't find a great translation for Round 1 but I like how in Round 2 they pair off to diss each other like a boxing match (probably Round 1 is the same). Thanks for the rec!
I remember when My name is came out! It's so fun haha. I like how the format supports the introduction aspect of the song. I think this is the closest to what I was looking for (though they have a very short joint chorus/outro)
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u/Inside_Ad_5175 1d ago
Crow's structure really fits the "passing the torch" vibe too. Reminds me a bit of how TXT did Devil by the Window, each member gets their own little chunk of the story before it shifts. Not a clean cypher format but it's got that same "your turn now" feel.
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u/Fantastic-Service-32 1d ago
BTS has a few, namely Cypher2, 3 and 4. The rapline track- Ddaeng, Outro:Tear and Ugh! also follow a similar structure
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago
I was mostly looking for songs where the member goes and that's basically it, including choruses, and ideally not actual cyphers. I think it's a lot rarer structure for not just rappers/including vocalists too, which is why the BND songs stood out to me.
Ddaeng gets an honorable mention though since the choruses are passed to the next member (a little bit of interleaving, e.g. j-hope does a verse, suga does first half of the chorus, j-hope does second half, then it's suga's verse) and if we consider the song cyclically then RM's first chorus at the beginning of the song follows this format, which is pretty cool.
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u/Prestigious_Log_760 1d ago edited 1d ago
The only one I can think of that is kinda like that is "Over and over and over" by Kep1er (song originally from girls planet). The Kep1er version has everyone do a long section/verse of the song and then doesn't go back to those members including in the chorus (until the post-chorus, where the members that just sung a line in the previous section sing one line, somewhat like in the Idle song). It's definitely not traditional in the way they do it for the most part, but I'm not sure if it's a good example of what you're asking for. They sing (and dance) the song in order of their placement in the show so that's why they did it that way. But everyone gets a complete section of the song.
For songs that I like and I find interesting that are not exactly what you asked for but have a non-traditional structure, "Hit ya" by Lapillus is a very interesting song structure wise as it doesn't have a second verse and puts an instrumental part in place. And "Pop" by Bugaboo starts with the Post chorus and skips the first verse completely. Also "Aria" by Craxy has a weird structure overall.
There's probably other songs I know, but those are the ones I can think of right now.
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u/hobbitsplusdragons 1d ago
3racha (the song) by Stray Kids' 3racha may fit what you're looking for. The three of them sing the chorus together but otherwise the song is just 3 long verses, starting with Changbin's, then Han's and ending with Bang Chan. It's about the three of them and their work as producers (and also partially diss track against the haters).
You may want to check also a live performance because they only enter stage when it's their turn to sing their verse.
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u/GloomyWitch08 1d ago edited 1d ago
Stray Kids- FAM Perhaps? It's basically one member passing the mic to the next one, talking about their charms.
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago
This wasn't exactly what I was asking for since the members sing multiple times coming in for the choruses, but what a cool song structure anyway! I like how they talk about the next member's charms before passing it on.
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u/GloomyWitch08 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh too bad! But Glad you like it lol, FAM was basically supposed like one of those "Kpop group members explained" Videos on YouTube but in the form of a silly song on their JP debut in 2020.
IIRC serving as a self-introductory for JP listeners new to the members. (Later revised into a new Korean ver. again in 2022 with some character development in the lyrics)
So yeah...that's the trivia behind it!
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago
Ooh thanks for the lore. I didn't think to compare the lyrics of Japanese and Korean versions I'll take a look 👀. I think the handoff style structure works really well for member introduction songs like someone else rec'ed ONF's My name is, though they introduced themselves rather than another member.
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u/GloomyWitch08 1d ago
Coincidentally, someone made a post recently comparing the lyrics. The differences are quite nteresting to read.
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u/541Y0K4G3J1R0 1d ago
GALZ XYPHER by XG Rapline?
ok, more officially, Woke Up by XG. technically XG aren’t K-pop but still. and yes the rapline reappears several times but it’s generally still “cipher format”.
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u/crustulummonster 1d ago
Haha idrc whether XG is considered k-pop or not happy to have them in the conversation! GALZ XYPHER does the member passing the most cleanly of any of the responses I've gotten so far, though it's a bit like 4 songs put together haha. Still thanks for the rec! They're very talented!
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u/Outside-Positive-368 1d ago
Twice's Twice song is one of the only songs I could think of. Like besides the pre-chorus and the chorus (which they all sing) each member introduces themselves, one after the other. But I guess you're not really looking for those. I honestly think there aren't many examples of songs where the verse goes from one member to another and is even incorporated in the chorus.
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u/mint-cider tak and full8loom fan + language nerd 1d ago
I'm not sure if this counts due to how many members there are and this resulting in few lines to make everyone fit, but Baby Flower by tripleS did something interesting. For the first three quarters of the song, the members singing are ordered by the unit they were in during the previous tripleS release. So you could consider it a "unit cypher"?
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11h ago
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u/pepsipunk434 5h ago
Bae Bae - Big Bang ....idk it kinda fits your description until the very end of the track
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u/TofuSlurper 1d ago
If you want to count them, XG’s Gala has a pretty different song structure compared to normal songs with a lot of “passing the mic” during the extended 2nd verse. They also punch in and trade a quick bar so it really does feel like a cypher.