prod suga appreciation of the day: burn it ft. max (a fairly technical thread)

this is a collaboration piece with @myg_bgm in celebration of the upcoming release of blueberry eyes. she analyzed the cadence of yoongi’s second verse to determine exactly why it’s so iconic! this thread references some ideas she had, so def give hers a read when you have time!!

to start out, burn it has a clear connection to fire. it’s present in both the lyrics and the production - the idea of burning his past self and starting anew in its ashes. (trans. credit: @/BTS_Trans)

a lot of this feeling has to do with automation (the manipulation of volume), distortion/low frequency sounds, the offset of beats and ad libs in relation to each other, and specific line transitions throughout the song!

the intro of this song sets up a good atmosphere for the idea of burning. there’s a lot going on in terms of percussion - lots of metallic sounds and white noise to mimic the sound of fire without being extremely on the nose by using samples of actual flames.

a lot of the percussion emphasizes higher frequencies in the sound - doing this creates a sort of static that also contributes to this idea of burning. when additional percussion is introduced at 0:09, it haphazardly moves between left and right headphones.

the thing that was most interesting to me was the variation in volume here. it’s louder on the first and third beats and on an off beat between the last beat and the first of the next bar. to me, this sounds like the flickering of a flame as it grows and wanes.

in the pre-chorus, he uses a similar technique when he transitions to using closed hi hats. this can also be compared to how he goes about structuring the last half of his second verse - @myg_bgm has a part in her thread that discusses how this reflects the idea of text painting!

how the percussion interacts w each other is also rly neat - they occur mostly on-beat, but they’re offset so that some occur on the same beat and some occur on others. bc he uses both high freq + low freq percussive sounds, it makes it sound inconsistent and kind of chaotic.

and then ofc is the iconic sound of a lighter flicking on and burning to transition into the pre-chorus. the percussion directly before transitions into a diff hi hat sound. it’s more consistent-sounding, but there are rolls in random places that keep the disorganized feel going.

what i also noticed throughout the song is the beat transitions. typically in music, these are loud and clear to rly prep the listener for a switch in structure, but in burn it, they’re rly quiet/muted. to me, this emphasizes the idea of the fire burning quietly.

although there ARE clear beat changes, they’re rly subtle/nuanced. there’s different feels between verses, but yoongi mostly uses one-off sounds for these instead of clearly marked shifts in the beat. what this does is makes the sudden change to the chorus even more powerful.

the transition to chorus feels like a climax - although there IS a transition, the switch from quiet to loud is VERY abrupt. this is exactly how catching fire is. verses feel like a calm flickering; the chorus sounds like dropping the match and watching everything explode.

yoongi uses a lot of low frequency melodic sounds as well. this is why it sounds a lot like his other darker tracks (think tony montana, honsool, the last, the last half of shadow). it’s also worth noting he originally had it even LOWER and changed it to accommodate max’s vocals.

the most notable low frequency sound is obv the guitar in the chorus, but he uses a low 808 to add to the verses as well. even sounds like the pad sound he uses at 1:08 is lower pitched. the primary high freq melodic sounds are string sounds beginning at 2:19 and max’s vocals.

this contrasts songs like people, which uses mostly high frequencies, and eight, which uses a balance of both. it’s definitely a cool technique to show the darker, more destructive side of a fire.

a lot of his ad libs are also made deeper by adding a heavy amount of distortion and placing them directly behind his vocals, more to add that distinct bass than to serve as actual ad libs. he consistently uses a lower harmony with max’s vocals as well to bring it back down.

the last thing i have goes back to something i mentioned in the beginning - there is a lot going on with offsetting percussion and vocals. the best example is the intro, but you can hear a lot of voices in max’s second and third pre-chorus specifically.

the instrumental focuses on the unstable, uncontrollable nature of fire, so it makes sense to use an irregular beat structure. thinking of horror games/movies, overlapping spoken vocals is also associated frequently w creepier/darker vibes, like a prerequisite to disaster.

the song ends abruptly w the last note fading out in a delay - this also parallels songs like the last and shadow. it keeps from detracting from the momentum and sustains the power he wants you to feel while listening. def a strong technique he’s fond of w these types of tracks.

with that, ill go ahead and end this thread! tl;dr yoongi’s production techniques know no bounds and burn it is just as much a work of art as honsool. pls give it a listen and appreciate his giant brain https://open.spotify.com/track/0x25VdiFOIBl1epNer9L3w?si=qgsTO7oASim6OXHWqb6VMw

my notes for anyone interested in the pain i go through to make these

here is the collab thread!! https://twitter.com/myg_bgm/status/1305168074765750273

if y’all are interested in what burn it would have sounded like in the original key! https://twitter.com/notesy25/status/1288790533280735233