Categorical Choruses / Momo's Chorus Pet Peeves

Everything written in this post is purely my opinion. Don't like it? To bad. Welcome to blogging. I'm entitled to my opinion, and I'm fully justified in sharing it. I'm always welcome to an constructive argument that will strengthen the opinions of all parties involved, but please take any bullshit, whining, or straight up stupidity elsewhere. kthxbai.

I've probably mentioned my pet peeve about choruses that aren't choruses on here, and I know I've mentioned it to other people. Most responses to statements like these are under the lines of "._." "?" or "what". I'd like to first start off by explaining that when I use the phrase "choruses that aren't choruses" I'm using two different definitions of the word "chorus" as I know them. The first "chorus" is referring to what most people probably are understanding them both as - the part of a song. However the second "chorus" I'm referring to is the definition that's rather synonymous to "choir". That is, when all singers present sing in unison.

So I decided, oh, about 5 minutes ago that I was going to make a blog post about the different types of "choruses" and which ones I like and dislike (and which ones just annoy the shit outta me). I'll be making up random names for them just to separate them out. So yeah, here we go.

The ALL FOR ONE Chorus

Probably the best example of this I can give is the Kenshuusei version of Ten Made Nobore! as that whole song is a chorus, however, I'm only referring to the chorus part, so even Berryz Koubou's WANT! would classify under this category. This is a rather straightforward category. It simply requires that all members be singing the entire chorus together in unison. These types of choruses aren't by any means my favorite, but they're far from my least favorite, so I'm usually pretty happy with songs that have choruses as such.

The ALL vs ONE Chorus

This type of chorus is when, if it's the chorus, then either everyone is singing, or it's a solo. This is my personal favorite kind of chorus, especially when it's chorus-dominant. The first example that comes to mind is the 50:50 chorus/solo song, Morning Musume's Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game. I say it's 50:50 because first you have a chorus line, then a solo, then a chorus line, then a solo, and between the choruses and solos, the chorus is split about 50:50. An example of a chorus-dominant one, as I mentioned above, would be S/mileage's Shortcut. In that song, only the last word of the chorus is a solo. Though even Berryz Koubou's Golden China Town would fall under a chorus-dominant one to me, so it doesn't have to be that extreme. On the flip-side, a solo-dominant chorus for this category would be something like, for a more extreme example, Berryz Koubou's Ai no Dangan. Where, like Shortcut, only one word is chorus. While a less extreme example would me something like Juice=Juice's Ijiwaru Shinaide Dakishimete yo.

The ONE FOR ALL Chorus

This category is for when the entire chorus is a solo. Maybe not all by the same person, but every line in the chorus is 100% solo anyway. This is my absolute least favorite type of choruses, and chances are, it's the type that cause me to mention my pet peeve about choruses in the first place. One example of this category is Morning Musume's Only You. The fact that choruses were like this is one of the main reasons I initially hated this song. It eventually grew on me, but I still hate how the chorus is all solos. Another example of this type of chorus is Morning Musume's Aishite Aishite Atto Ippun (discluding the last chorus).

The BIT BY BIT Chorus.

This would be referring to when the chorus is 100% duos or small groups. In other words, between 2 and n-1 people, where n is how many people are in the group :3. One example of this is C-ute's Kimi wa Jitensha Watashi wa Densha de Kitaku. The whole chorus is basically rotating duets. Another good example, which is more common to see I think, is Morning Musume's Mikan. Of course, you gotta ignore the end we're Reina goes on strike and leads everyone into an ALL FOR ONE Chorus type >.>

The BITS 'n PIECES Chorus.

This is when it's all 2 to n-1 groups, as mentioned above, plus solos. But no full group parts. These are, as far as I see, the most common "BIT BY BIT" form you'll see. A great example of this is Morning Musume's Kanashiki Twilight. Morning Musume's Kimi Sae Ireba Nanimo Iranai is also a more recent version of this category.

The MORE THAN ONE Chorus

As the name probably implies, as long as more than one person is singing throughout the chorus, it's okay :D. But in all seriousness, this is when the chorus has both small group lines (2 to n-1 singers) and chorus lines (n singers ;3) together. A good example of this is HI-FIN's Kaigan Seisou Danshi. You get mostly chorus, but then for one part you have bits. Another example that's more bit-heavy is Berryz Koubou's MADAYADE. In that, you have all bits until the final "BIYOOOOOOON" at the end of each chorus. And yes, this means that Berryz Koubou's Piriri to Yukou would also fall under this category as well.

The EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK Chorus

The last type of chorus is the kind where there's a little of everything. For example, in Morning Musume's Help Me!! you get a bunch of bits, followed by a solo, topped off with a chorus line. Or in Morning Musume's Ren'ai Hunter, you get a chorus part, followed by a bit, followed by a solo and then repeated again. These can oftentimes be some of the more fun choruses to listen to, as you can hear a variety, not only of voices, but of mixtures of different types and numbers of voices.

So let's review, shall we? If we refer to each of the parts as choruses (n members singing), bits (2 to n-1 members singing), and solos (1 member singing), then we get 7 possible combinations (technically 8, but if we didn't have any of them, there wouldn't be a chorus, now would there?)

1. Choruses (ALL FOR ONE)

2. Choruses&Solos (ALL vs ONE)

3. Solos (ONE FOR ALL)

4. Bits (BIT BY BIT)

5. Bits&Solos (BITS 'n PIECES)

6. Bits&Choruses (MORE THAN ONE)

7. Bits&Choruses&Solos (EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK)

Unless I'm forgetting something, or you want to go into even more detail, any song should be able to be classified under one of these 7 categories. Songs like Mikan, though, where the last chorus gets trippy in comparison to the category of the first ones, may be harder to place, as you might not know whether or not to count the last chorus when classifying the song. But whatever, who really cares about that weird stuff? 8D

This has been Random Facts With Momo, featuring Momo and her random facts. Have a nice life guys~ See you next time I come up with some crappy idea for something to go on about :3 Thanks for reading <3