'breaking down j-hope's daydream'

daydream; j-hope

[song analysis]

why am i writing this?

well, i realised one rainy day that the musical progression of daydream follows the lyrical/emotional progression of the song. i believe the technical term is text painting. text painting occurs when the music mirrors the lyrics. for example, in LOONA's hi high, the hook "take me high high high high", also reflects the music because it's higher and the vocals are also high. wheew, too many high's in one sentence.

now that we understand text painting, let's get back to the topic at hand, j-hope's daydream.

in the first section, j-hope is explaining his heart's desires. in the middle, he feels rebellious and towards the end, reality sinks in as he realises that he cant have everything he wants; it's only a dream. at the start his voice is soft and calm, but towards the middle his flow becomes more aggressive and desperate. however, at the end of daydream, his tone is sombre.

section 1

"for once, i want to try to draw

a different painting of my life, a canvas dream"

section 2

"no need to tread on eggshells errday

doing what i want however i feel like errday"

section 3

"if i want something...

thats a daydream...

wake up"

99% of us do not understand korean. as listeners who can't immediately grasp the lyrics, we can feel the changes in emotion. not everyone does this. it's what separates good music from great music. for example, the bridge (section 3; the realisation) comes in suddenly, as if the realisation of his situation hit harder than expected. another example is in the outro. that part is saddening which is the direct opposite of what the whole song presented musically prior to it. it represents his reality.

i also wanted to comment a little more on the lyrics. in each section (beginning, middle, end), he has the words "sleep", "deep sleep" and "wake up". the first "sleep" could be a reference to daydreaming since it's only light. "deep sleep" might mean REM sleep where people go through vivid and intense emotions - the rebel of j-hope. "wake up" is naturally going to be j-hope accepting his reality in his position as "j-hope".

you may have already experienced these feelings whilst listening to the song without realising. this is why the lyrics are important. however, there is a something special about being able to feel an artist's emotions without actually knowing what is being said. that is the true essence of the saying "music has no boundaries".