Inner Child by Kim Taehyung (BTS' V) - Live Vocals Quick Analysis

#MapOfTheSoulOne_D1 #MapOfTheSoulOne_D2
#V #TAEHYUNG #김태형 #뷔 #BTS #방탄소년단

The majority of Inner Child for Map of the Soul One is sung in Taehyung's mix. Adlibs aside, the main difference from the studio version is how he sings the chorus, as he uses more head voice there. In the live chorus, it's on the freedom of his falsetto which +

makes his high notes less straining and freer - very wise for endurance and overall gig fitness-consistency purposes. We mentioned before, Taehyung's mixed voice is very enhanced and has been very reliable for him to connect with his other registers smoothly - especially if more+

strenuous dancing and performing will come after, as witnessed in the setlist.

There's a bit of a difference (very subtle really) with his projection and tone with Day 1 vs Day 2. In Day 1 Taehyung uses more chest voice - more powerful and richer.+

In Day 2 it's lighter, a bit more relaxed than Day 1, using more of the blend bet. chest and head - a more balanced mix. You can hear these differences with the choruses especially. Note these are quite minor changes and missable for casual listeners.+

Now for my favourites from Inner Child live!! One would be how Taehyung sang one of my favourite lines "eojeui neo, ijen da boyeo" with really subtle vocal fry at 1:24 on the clip for Day1 above. I think failed to point this out in the studio version analysis. There's also a bit+

of fry from him at 1:32-1:33, very subtle - also in Day 1. I also love the dynamics when he's singing around his chest and mix - like the crescendo at 1:41 with the diminuendo on the next line. +

How he also sings the 2nd chorus in Day 1 has more obvious contrasts of dynamics and highlight his fuller, intenser projection even on falsetto when he starts to sing the chorus at 1:52. He also maintains the projection when transitioning between his falsetto and mix +

which everyone must be reminded of that falsetto is disconnected from the vocal cords - so for him to be able to smoothly go down requires agility and precision.+

And reiterating that in Day 2 he has a more tempered projection. Check out how Taehyung sings this part on the chorus at 2:14:

The bridge is also in Taehyung's mix. We already talked about this and our point still stands how he beautifully sustained this phrasing starting from "ni ka". Quick rests, precise breath intake to deliver the suspenseful, emotive climax. Below we link the part for both days:

Day 1 https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1314895838204682246?s=20

Day 2 https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1315209058442412032?s=20

Now let's talk about Taehyung's adlibs which we got vague previews of this during rehearsal. The adlibs around 1:00 (Day 1 clip) mixes the movement of pitch of the melody and harmony - the ascending notes are from the harmony of a more piercing vocal tone found in the recording+

We can say this is another version of an adlib, shows off more of his dynamics and projection on his natural tone. Very powerful and intense.

As for Taehyung's 2nd adlibs at 1:34 (still Day 1 clip), on falsetto, these seem completely improvised, on-the-spot embellishments +

that if ever we get more IC performances, he'd have kept playing around with it. Someone was really on his element during IC +

I think the difference bet. the 2 performances lie in the character & feeling Taehyung wants to focus on for Inner Child. In Day1 he sounds more powerful (his vibrato was more evident too) to the point of goose-bumping dynamics, just like the intense and in-depth emotions +

he wants to convey. For Day 2, the lighter weight of his vocals and relaxed use of his dynamics imply a more playful performance - heck Taehyung even plays around more with the falsetto adlibs at the near end since he adds another - showing off the 'inner child' side more. +

Honestly if we ever had more performances of Inner Child we'd see more variations of the second adlibs 'til he's entirely satisfied with his embellishments. Personally, I liked his Day 2 adlibs more, but Day 1 adlibs really punched our guts +

I also want to address the back vocals that are persistent all throughout the entire concert for every member (wc doesn't even sound like back vocals it's just the song track itself). I won't understand why BH doesn't just get them the instrumental or different arrangements, so+

I'll just point out Taehyung's breathing and vocalisation with his "hh"s and "f/p"s on the mic. As much as this sound production arrangement confounds me I also am amused how Taehyung's live projection that overpowers the record. Taehyung and his vocal strength, y'all. +

And lastly, ARMYs chanting I think Taehyung would have had a harder time executing his adlibs if not for his musicality and ability to dissociate his hearing! https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1315210329178230784

To recap, in Inner Child we got Taehyung's gig fitness and how he uses his versatile range not only for style but also for vocal health; his stability and endurance for long phrasing; his use of tones for varying emotional deliveries & experimenting with musicality.

And that's it for now! The next agenda is to write an outline of a general review of his performance for #MapOfTheSoulOne concerts for our Medium blog. We don't know when we'll finish it since we've been busy, but we will work on it!+

In the meantime, read our songwriting analysis for Taehyung's baby while 5treaming on YouTube (we have timestamps on for this analysis) https://medium.com/@nvwrites/how-bts-v-wrote-a-coming-of-age-story-in-inner-child-analysis-200a163ebbf4

CORRECTION: Failed to embed the clip for the adlibs part! Here is the Day 1 clip for the adlibs section:



https://twitter.com/taefolio/status/1315259257227407361