THREAD— Analysis of Jungkook’s vocals in “ON”

While I had originally planned to cover all his parts - including chorus, etc, I’ve decided that instead I’ll be focusing on his bridge and the adlibs under the final chorus at the end. Basically, I have too much to say already lol.

When ON was released, Jungkook got a lot of buzz for his bridge part, which includes high notes all the way up to an F5. He has since displayed this part in live performances and even in the carpool karaoke, making him known as “high note guy.”

Today I’d like to discuss how he uses his voice in this bridge in both the studio recording and live performances. I want to talk a lot about his head voice, mixing, and his transitions into other parts of his voice.

I’ll also discuss how crazy he goes in the adlibs under the final chorus, because good lord. He really went crazy in the studio and when/if he does those adlibs live, it’s over for me.

So let’s take a listen to that bridge. This bridge is extra special because it’s just his voice over some simple organ chords, bringing the frenetic song to a slow moment.

In the first part of this bridge, he uses a really light tone and incorporates a bit of breath on key words, but doesn’t move to full falsetto. This placement leaves him mostly in his head voice, which is the best place for him to be moving into the F5.

Moving into those higher notes, he’s in a mixed head tone. This allows him to reach the notes easily without hurting his voice and also incorporates a more r&b type head voice into the song.

The producer that worked on My Time recently noticed that Jungkook can sing in “full voice” really high - here, he’s using his head voice to do that, and because his head voice is so strong, projected, and supported, he can make the notes really powerful without using full chest.

He does a great job transitioning into the F5 by already using his head voice from the start of the bridge, allowing him to move to that high note easily and flawlessly. He stays in that mixed head tone until the descending run on “oh” at the end of the bridge.

He also goes back to that tone for the high “oh I’m taking over”, but switches to chest for the descending run on “ver.”

His ability to transition easily from head voice to chest is really impressive, and it’s a good way to end the higher parts. It also shows how connected his voice is, because he never seems to encounter any “breaks.”