Josephine Swan never thought she would be drawn into the world of K-Pop during her stay in South Korea. Every day she faces challenges that fate has in store for her and her four members.
"𝙇𝙚𝙩'𝙨 𝙬𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬...
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Blow a kiss, fire a gun
We need someone to lean on
Blow a kiss, fire a gun
All we need is somebody to lean on
Blow a kiss, fire a gun
We need someone to lean on
Blow a kiss, fire a gun
A-A-All we need is somebody to lean on
Attentively, I marked with different colours the individual lines of the last part and final chorus of the song "Lean On", each sung in pairs. The colours mixed and were reminiscent of an image of the colourful rainbow in the sky. A colour legend on the side arranged the members.
Choi pressed the computer keyboard and the song stopped.
She ran her hand over her black hair, the paper with the lyrics of the song placed in front of her. Her dark eyes kept darting over the individual lines and sections whose assignments and notes resembled ours.
"I think we have divided the lyrics sufficiently fairly for all members. We can make additional changes at tomorrow's rehearsals," she said finally, as we nodded in agreement.
Sighing, I put the pens aside and began to stretch my upper body, as well as my legs and arms. Burning pain resulted from the stiffness in my joints from sitting on the floor for so long and ran through much of my body. The other members did the same to me, loosening up and sipping water.
"All right..." said Choi after a while, setting her water bottle aside.
"The choreography is the next crucial point we need to discuss," she said, clicking on the music video of Major Lazer and DJ Snake, as well as the singer MØ. Women and men, traditional and modern united to the different dance elements and steps.
"The song is a bit of a challenge because it's very contrasting lyrically and in its execution," I said alertly, feeling the curious eyes of my members on me in the next moment.
Choi lowered the volume of the song.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her brown eyes alternating between the dancing figures and me.
Kim Gyeong's voice echoed in my mind.
"The moment you acknowledged your talent for singing and dancing...at the same time your potential began to grow and develop! It allowed you to be more confident in your work and appearance!"
I nodded mentally and swallowed softly.
"Well...usually and in most cases the choreography is based on the content of the lyrics, their melody...their messages. In gymnastics, as well as in many other artistic sports, the jumps and figures are not only based on the rhythm but also on the content and sound of the music." I hinted and moved closer to the laptop. My fingers trembled as I pointed to the various people dancing.
The girls followed my movements with their eyes.
"In itself, the lyrics describe the love of two people and their ambivalence about this development in the future. The music video, on the other hand, shows little of this uncertainty and, according to the statements, rather embodies the essence of Major Lazer. According to the information I was able to gather, the dance sequences were inspired by one of his previous tours with the positive mood and attitude of the Indian fan base." I summarised briefly and finally looked at the girls, who looked at me partly stunned, but also surprised.
A breath of relief flooded my body and I smiled slightly.
"How did...?" asked Jennie, her eyes wide.
With a glance over the girls, I reached for my training bag on the floor and pulled out my notebook. Sheets of brightly marked text and lines lay loosely between the ones bound together. Many were badly creased from continuous use and the writing was already fading in certain places.
"Wait...one second..." I muttered softly, flicking through the crowded pages before finally coming to my written notes on "Lean On", which took up most of the page.
"I had some things written down about the song," I said and the girls moved closer, their curious eyes darting over the colourful page.
"Wow..." commented Ji-soo beside me, gingerly reaching for the book.
"Indeed..." added Rosè, running her fingers over the letters before Ji-soo began to leisurely flip through the pages.
"You researched and annotated each of your songs?" asked Jennie in amazement, glancing at me.
I just nodded with a smile and watched as Ji-soo felt his way from song to song, either group songs or solo songs.
"It's a habit I picked up from rhythmic gymnastics," I said.
"In the beginning, I mostly just used it for notes, instructions or for advice from my singing teachers. After all, I didn't have much experience in this field..." I explained quietly and flipped to the front pages of the book. Pages and pages of explanations on voice pitch, vocal range, breathing, posture and other important points covered more than half of the book.
Much was explained by the teachers, but others recorded and looked up to me for better understanding.
When I joined the debut group, at the beginning of the training, the notes increased, went into more depth with their contents and built more specifically on what I had learned before.
"I started writing down and labelling our selected group songs on paper right from the beginning...because I still had some difficulties with the Korean language and its pronunciation at that time. I later put them in between the notes. " I said, pointing to the first pages where many Korean words were underlined and marked. The first page was the most noticeable, as the lettering and bright colours covered much of the original song, but diminished as the number went on.
The last few pages were almost devoid of pronunciation clues and unfamiliar Korean words that still needed to be translated.
Turning my hand again to the page for our group song, "Lean On".
"Anyway...over time I've been doing more and more research on the different songs and their backgrounds, so I usually always get a rough idea of the choreography or the mood of the song and go by that," I explained further and I saw the girls nod before they started to move closer to me again.
