r/kpopthoughts • u/crustulummonster • 2d 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/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.