THREAD— An Analysis of Jungkook’s Vocals in “Life Goes On”

Life Goes On has this really chill acoustic vibe that very much suits Jungkook’s vocal tone. In analyzing this title track, I’ll touch on his approach to breath and his harmonies. His voice is really everywhere in this song, filling it out.

First let’s take a look his opening verse. He’s in chest voice here but he’s keeping his voice extremely light. He uses some extra breath at the ends of the lines to help give the song that calm feeling.

I read somewhere that this song makes use of breath lyrically and vocally. It’s like we’re taking a little breath with them, so Jungkook’s softer approach really fits this vibe.

By the end of his opening verse, he gets so breathy that the words sort of fall away. I’ve talked about this before, but that kind of breath coordination is very difficult. He still makes the words clear, but the tone is full of breath.

When a singer makes use of a breathier vocal tone, it means that their keeping their vocal cords more open to allow that breath in. But they still have to have enough closure to sing without letting the breath take over.

The way Jungkook is able to add so much breath to his voice and yet make the lyrics and notes clear is very very impressive. It takes a lot of breath control.

I’m between his lines, you can also hear him taking breaths more obviously - this kind of thing can be edited out of records, but I believe it was left in purposefully here.

Now let’s move to the prechorus and first chorus. Throughout, you can hear Jungkook clearly taking the middle line as well as various harmonies and layerings.

Jungkook was credited for background vocals and he often takes care of them for BTS songs. This means he spends extra time in the studio filling out the songs and adding the complexity that makes them more fun to listen to.

To my ear, it seems like he added background layers pretty much on the entire song. In the prechorus, Tae takes the first half’s melody line, but I believe they’ve layered Jungkook’s voice on the same notes and then on a slightly higher harmony.

That higher harmony is mixed really well as it blends perfectly into the main melody and doesn’t take attention away from it, which is usually the point of harmony in pop singing.

I believe Jungkook often takes care of harmonies and background vocals because he’s able to match and blend his voice so well with the other members. He uses his voice so soft here as to not overwhelm Tae; instead his voice is just a beautiful accent and ornament to the melody.

In the second half of the pre-chorus, Jungkook takes the melody line and then a more obvious higher harmony. This higher harmony helps the song’s momentum build, but it’s not so high as to completely change the vibe.

For the melody line he’s in chest voice. In the harmony, he uses his head voice and more of that breath to make it light. Again, he’s just filling out the song and adding complexity to the melody with those layers.

The two parts of the prechorus flow into each other perfectly, I think, because Jungkook’s voice is a through line - it’s like a seamless transition. This seamless-ness then continues into the chorus, which begins with Jungkook again on the middle line.

Here, Jungkook takes the Melody for the chorus and Jimin adds a higher part in his head voice. The combination is really lovely. They’ve also put some kind of echo-y effect on Jungkook, almost like his voice is coming from an old fashioned speaker.

For the chorus mid-line, Jungkook is firmly in chest voice but again it’s pretty light. It has this swinging, bouncy sound. For the “yeah life goes on”, he definitely belts a bit more on the top “yeah” for a little extra power.

That little bit of stronger belting is really meaningful, especially since it’s on the title line. It really emphasizes the point of the song and also gives the song some dynamics.

Next, let’s take a look at the 2nd verse, where Jungkook harmonizes with Hobi. This is always an amazing combination for the ear.

On top of Hobi’s rap, Jungkook adds a higher harmony line and keeps tempo with him. I believe he’s in a light chest voice here and he adds some breath at the end of the lines. He also sings that little “oh” run in between the rap verses, which includes at least 1 higher line.

Personally, I love when Jungkook harmonizes with Hobi because I think their voices go extremely well together. Jungkook’s ability to match the vibe and pace of the rap is very impressive to me as well.

In the second prechorus, the layers intensify and you can really hear that slightly higher harmony line. Jungkook also adds accenting adlibs, repeating the ends of lines and adding small runs in his chest voice.

His voice again blends beautifully with both Tae and Jin on the melody line. I especially love the higher adlib he adds right at the end of Jin’s part - very strong chest voice there.

Lastly, the final chorus. There’s a LOT of layering here of all the vocalists, most notably Jin and Jimin. However I think you can definitely still hear the layer of Jungkook fortifying the sound, especially at the end of lines.

In both choruses, Jungkook adds his signature trill to the end of words, which is just the tiniest bit of vibrato to add texture. Again, he’s blending perfectly with the other vocals.

To finish this out, I’d like to add a bit about the background vocals so we can hear those harmonies even better. https://twitter.com/jeonfolders/status/1329699943523643394

In the beginning of that video, his higher line is sung is such a lovely head voice. He does a great job of keeping all his ranges light to help the harmony lines blend. In the next part he has a melody line and then a lower harmony.

In the part where he’s harmonizing with Jimin, he has a really interesting harmony to match the higher melody line. He does that in a light chest voice.

And then at around 00:47, I’m so grateful to @jeonfolders for revealing those amazing layered “ahs” that build up and then the oohs and vocals underneath the chorus that basically sound like a part of the instrumental. He uses such a gorgeous head voice for that.

Overall, Life Goes On really suits Jungkook and shows his many strengths - his breath control, chest voice, head voice. It also shows his amazing capability for harmony and layering.

It displays how he has such control over all his registers that he can blend with anyone and fill out a song perfectly. Our main vocalist works so hard on those background vocals and it really really shows.

For me, I can hear him all over the song and I’m so proud of him. He continues to grow and show off the most beautiful parts of his voice.