Baka Mitai Actually Slaps Though

[Music] i may be in my 20s but in my true heart of hearts i'm an old fogey and by that i mean that i didn't know that bakami tai was a meme until like a week ago for you other old fogies out there bakami tai which translates roughly to like a fool is a song from recent installments of the yakuza game series found as one of the songs that you can sing as part of the karaoke mini game the heartfelt melodramatic feel of the song has spawned tons of jokes online and watching japanese gangster cure you belting the chorus out while sitting at the bar it's clear why you'll probably watch it and laugh then a little later you'll think of it and pull it up again to chuckle at the hammy video game karaoke but it won't stop there before long you'll find yourself pulling up the song again and again but this time there's no laughter only tears that's right buckamietai is a bona fide bear why is it so good what is it about this song that sinks its hooks into you and doesn't let go well underneath the sappy goofy exterior it is actually a very well written piece of music first of all while it's structurally a pretty straightforward song there are several one-off musical events sprinkled throughout the track that are designed to surprise the listener and grab their attention these events are spaced out expertly to hit you right when you think you have the song pegged a four bar introduction with lush strings and a grandiose melodica melody starts us off big ending with rhythmically memorable c over d to d7 flat five shots in the strings setting up the verse in the song's home key of g minor [Music] the verse sets a melancholy mood with the melody giving us a winding eight bar phrase that ends off with a somber walk down to a low g you may be aware that minor keys generally sound sad but besides that melodies that walk down really low like this can also create a darker mood having this low male voice dropping down to the low tonic g of our g minor key really lays the depressing mood on thick [Music] foreign [Music] and here's where our first musical event happens after this eight bar phrase right when you're thinking okay yeah i get it you're sad we're all of a sudden hit with full band shots in the 16th note rhythm over the always attention grabbing phrase i love you [Music] i love you is one of those phrases that makes people perk up but especially given that this is a japanese song the english phrase stands out even more this phrase is supported with the flat 6 major 7 chord in this key an e flat major 7 used here for the first time in the song besides the very first bar of the intro i think that the flat 6 chord in a minor key carries a really special beauty with it particularly with the major seventh in the chord and this provides the perfect emotional context for the phrase i love you all of this combined with a sudden boost in volume that drops away just as suddenly ensures that any listener who had started to check out is startled into seeing what's going on this is what i mean when i say a musical event eight bars later comes the musical event of the piece as we transition into the song's hook this section ends with a c over d to d7 idea setting up our expectations for a resolution to our tonic g minor to follow as the band swells into its climax the song grabs a motorcycle and smashes it into your head by making a sudden modulation to g major with the melody launching up to the major third of the key b natural to make the shift hit even harder modulating from a minor key to a parallel major key feels super dramatic but what makes this hook feel even more huge and colorful is the harmony instead of starting on a g major chord we land on a c major seven chord giving this b natural melody note a beautiful major seventh sound [Music] i cannot overstate how common this chord progression is in j-pop in a major key you start on the 4 major 7 chord then move to the 5 chord while keeping the 4th in the bass then the bass dips down to the 3rd to make a 3 minor 7 chord before finally resolving up to the minor 6 chord in this case that makes c major 7 to d over c to b minor 7 to e minor 7 and you can see this progression used in a ton of video game music written by japanese composers [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh but back to bakamitai long before we've had enough time to get bored with the new ki and super hype harmony the song throws another attention grabbing event at us the chorus is split into four bar phrases and at the end of the first four bar phrase a g7 chord sets up a return back to the same c major seven that kicked off the section in the context of this being the chorus of a pop song it makes sense to expect this chord progression and melody to repeat for the next four bar phrase and that's almost what it does this time however the song takes an electric sign and smashes it on our head by reharmonizing the c major to d over c part of the progression with a c sharp half diminished to c minor major [Music] 7. [Music] the c-sharp bass note comes completely out of nowhere and totally catches us off guard and while the move down to c brings us back into the key of g the chord on top of this bass note gives a minor major 7 sound these are two dissonant types of chords on their own and using out of key notes to build these chords gives a very intense sense of tragic beauty that contrasts the bright optimism of the c major 7 and d over c chords that we expected i love how the c minor major 7 chord transitions so smoothly back into our old progression by sliding down by a half step to b minor 7 easing us back into our diatonic g major sound just in time for the tune to end with a big colorful 2-5-1-g the song ends the way it started with a big lush walk down in the strings from e flat to c minor before this c over d to d7 flat five figure hits us again finally resolving to a nice g major finish [Music] [Music] [Applause] okay now that you're familiar with the form of the tune let's talk about the depth of the writing in my mind the main idea of baka mitai is all about exploring the relationship between major and minor the most obvious example of this is the climax where the shift from the key of g minor to the parallel key of g major causes an explosion of color but the harmony in each section also demonstrates a subtle interplay between major and minor sounds by weaving in and out of the relative major and minors of each key any key signature can represent one of two keys one major and one minor two keys like this that share the same group of notes are called relative major or relative minor to one another since the same group of notes can represent either key say for example either g minor or b flat major which key a song is in depends on where the emphasis is placed on certain notes in that key there are a lot of subtle ways that a song can imply one key over another and they all interact with each other in ways that can be hard to quantify for example in the verse of the song we start off with a very clear feeling of being in g minor due to this being the first chord of the verse as well as the big d7 chord that set it up this points to g minor so strongly that the verse can quickly move to tonicize the relative major b flat with the c minor to f7 to b-flat progression in bars three and four a two-five-one progression like this very strongly implies the key of b-flat major our home key of g minor was so strongly established that we don't feel like we've made a full modulation or anything but this is certainly an attack on the idea that we're in a minor key pushing the music in a brighter more major direction [Music] [Music] the following bars retain this bright feeling with the melody emphasizing b-flat notes and notes in the b-flat major triad over notes that would sound more like g minor such as g or d or f-sharp or what have you the end of the phrase sees the walk down to a g that i mentioned earlier harmonized with a d7 to g sus to g minor definitively putting us in the key of g minor but all of the music sandwiched between the first and the last bar of this verse plays with the space between the minor and major let me put it this way if the key of g minor is black and the key of b-flat major is white then these eight bars paint a picture using a variety of shades of grey [Music] [Music] a very similar harmonic approach comes in after the big shift to g major for the chorus the harmony contrasts the initial g major sound evoked in the first two bars with another 2 5 1 to the relative minor key in bars 3 and 4. in this case we're playing with the space between the keys of g major and e minor [Music] the balancing act between these keys is even more precarious here we don't actually see a g major chord until the very end of the chorus and the song pulls notes from outside the key to resolve strongly to e minor but the way the melody is structured as well as the use of a common chord trope associated with the major key keeps the chorus tipping more towards g major sound than an e minor one when talking about the i love you section earlier i mentioned that i think the flat 6 major 7 chord in a minor key has a special kind of feeling around it and i think that plays into this exploration into how major and minor sounds interact say you have your minor tonic triad ooh dark dark dark oh so dark but then with just one note the flat sixth of the key in the bass this same triad is totally transformed into a lush pretty major seven chord to me it feels like this chord in this key retains some shades of darkness from the use of the tonic minor triad and this darkness adds a depth to the bright sound of the chord now i know i'm talking about very subtle musical flavors here but i think they're a huge part of what makes a great song just like in life nothing is ever black or white in every sorrow there's hope and in every joy there is vulnerability nothing we experience emotionally is ever just one solid thing and adding these subtleties to the music that undercut the face value of the keys and chords we're using mimics all the subtleties of our emotional perceptions but if we're talking about how music explores the human psyche there's no better example than the interplay between the lyrics and the music as we move into the hook of the tune right as we shift to our big colorful c major seven chord the lyrics are dame dane damayo damai which basically translates to something like it's hopeless hopeless hopeless or there's no use no use at all or it's no good no good no good at all the lyrics then move on to i love you i love you far too much no matter how strong the drink the memories never fade such a fool the lyrics on their own depict a palpable sense of regret which is depressing though undoubtedly a relatable feeling so why pair these heartbroken lyrics with such a colorful burst of major key energy why not stick with the dark minor key sounds of the verse to better suit the lyrical content having the lyrics mismatch the emotional tone of the music beneath represents the singer's internal conflict he's filled with feelings of affection more than he knows what to do with even though judging by the verse lyrics he knows that these feelings will stay unrequited or maybe he's already had his heart broken either way his rational mind is telling him it's hopeless but at the same time he can't help but still be madly in love with the subject of the song and this rush of emotion is demonstrated by the music underneath the lyrics hearing the words i love you too much right as the music shifts to the relative minor e minor drives home that this is a painful sentiment rather than a caring one the whole head versus heart dynamic is portrayed beautifully with lyrics filling the role of the protagonist's conscious thought and the music portraying his uncontrollable surge of emotions so honestly this is a great song disguised as a goofy meme i mean i'm glad it was disguised as a goofy meme otherwise i probably wouldn't have ever heard it so do with that info what you will i guess thanks for sticking around to the end and let me know if you liked this kind of deep dive analysis into one tune or if you prefer my broader looks at full soundtracks or game series or what have you i'll probably try and balance both kinds of videos going forward but i'd like to know what people prefer check out my patreon here if you feel so led or check out my twitter here instead have a good one thanks so much for watching and i'll see you all in the next one [Music] you

Channel: 8-bit Music Theory

Views: 359,789

Rating: 4.9802222 out of 5

Keywords: baka mitai, yakuza song, yakuza meme, dame da ne, dame dame, jpop music, video game music theory, tik tok meme song, yakuza 0, 8-bit Music Theory

Id: SdDeufxfJeE

Length: 15min 16sec (916 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 19 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BRINGit34]

Bro! 8bit music theory actually slaps tho

[u/Secatus]

That was technical well beyond my understanding, and yet I still enjoyed and watched to the end.