A short thread on Kim Taehyung’s vocals in his cover of Someone Like You (by Adele)

https://soundcloud.com/bangtan/someone-like-you-cover-by-v-of-bts

#OurSingerV #뷔  #V #BTSV #Taehyung #방탄소년단뷔

Note: I won’t be putting clips for this! Instead, please watch and refer to the gorgeous black & white video of young Taehyung walking down the street while reading this

What makes this cover so special? I’ll start by mentioning his neutral tone in this cover which uses his unadulterated, younger tone. This cover is also special because at the time, this encapsulated a wide portion of Taehyung’s incredible range. +

..And the reason for this is because of how Someone Like You’s melody is shaped - the pitch rising and falling. +

This can already be heard in the first verse with Taehyung’s glides and portamento - (it’s like glides [glissandos] but they’re supported, the pitch quavering as it goes down) - a good example of this is how he carries the o vowel in “married now”. +

How Taehyung maintains consistent with the dynamics on his lower range in the verses is impeccable since he also has to quickly change pitch in a single breath - the connected, unbroken airflow in the prechorus. +

How he supported the phrases proves that at this time he was already developing a good control of breath. He has to hold air in for the quick pauses to keep up with the movement of the notes & be on pitch. Even before, Taehyung has already shown us his building vocal stability.

Also in spite of singing on chest, Taehyung’s sounds quite lighter as he adds the right amount fo breathiness to thin down the thickness of his chest tone. But mind that he is already singing on a neutral tone.

The first chorus has Taehyung singing on his second passage - up on his mix in a head tone. He also moves ABOVE it at some point, showing his transition. And by god he sounds gorgeous with the bright formants - that brightness on some of his vowels. +

Taehyung was already showing how flexible he can be too as we’ve heard his grace notes (those small, extra additional notes on the vowels) from his riffs - even on his upper range when he sings the part “don’t forget me...” and it’s so impressive how you hear his vibrato still. +

Listen up. Vibrato on the upper range can be hard to produce ok This also shows he’s already been developing that thin head voice quality. Taehyung also already has fair control of his upper range, which can only be developed through continuous practice. +

Someone Like You is a difficult pop song to cover - a singer would see to it that they meet the bare minimum requirement to give justice to the song as a cover. An artist will do that as well, but won’t exactly replicate put some of their musicality. Because why not? +

So that’s exactly what Taehyung did in the second chorus with his own contouring of the melody when he sings it on descent; his low staccato also reshaping it to his own. His short ad libs just after the final verse of the chorus was also a sweet, warm and modest imprint of his.

Also, looking back to this song makes me very melancholic with how far Taehyung has come with his voice. His technique today’s about pushing and breaking his limits +

- but 2014 Taehyung’s vocals, had that kind of raw ringing quality and the purity of his earlier technique that we only get to hear for a fleeting moment as he grows, improves and polishes his technique over the years - +

[if you check out his vocals from 2013 to 2014/early 2015 for that you might hear that “raw ringing” I’m talking about, bec. I feel 2015 was when he started polishing his tone production and resonance manipulation with melodies] - +

This is noticeable with how past-Taehyung would change tone quality when he moves across his breaks and registers. It’s very pure

In this cover, he used almost all of his registers: very free, flexible, satisfyingly using the unadulterated resonance that each register makes.+

I could be wrong. Maturity may have influenced his tone and I’m just guessing from the present. But thinking about this now, if Taehyung’s to sing this today he may likely stick to a register per part of the song,his mixing being the most used, and then manipulate his resonance.+

Because it’s just natural for someone like Taehyung - who keeps developing his technique, learning genres & styles - to make sure that his vocal instrument will tunefully adapt to whatever song he wants to sing. The freedom & creative control.

Versatile Vocal King #OurSingerV

Now let’s support our artist by giving him results! #OurSingerV #뷔  #BTSV #Taehyung #방탄소년단뷔
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/v-union/sets/vunion-for-taehyung
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2cLfcxNtoaqrmGhF7mGWNp?si=hHFyFTGYStqaYSysYgfOSQ