A DDR Essay

This essay was given to me by someone who may wish to remain anonymous, so I won't mention his name unless he asks it. It was written by a "Ryusuke (Jimbo)" for an 8th Grade English class Music Lyric Analysis Project at an international school in Yokohama. The song "B4U Glorious Style" was played for the class as well. I hear he got a "C" for this. Enjoy (I have written this as is, with punctuation and grammar errors).



Lyrical Analysis

B4U by NAOKI

This song, which is commonly known as a Speed Rave, is called B4U and this is performed by NAOKI. NAOKI is the main producer of game music of KONAMI Entertainment. Aaron G. is singing in this song. The title of this song comes from acronym for Brilliant For You. This title indicates that the dance floor is so brilliant and it is waiting for you. NAOKI make a song called B2U, which is also an acronym for brilliant to you and it had become very famous and proved his skill as a DDR producer. B4U had slightly changed to more aggressive and speedy way compared to B2U. Some people are misunderstanding that the euro beat and speed rave are the same sort of music, but they are not. So please keep this in your mind and listen.

In first stanza there are repeated rhymes in the end of phrases. "Now" and "down", "dissed" and "this". Since this song belongs to the group of speed rave, has four-beats and has a crazy, aggressive synthesized melody line as you heard. As you heard, it is rap. However, these rhymes aren't easy to hear because this rap is too rapid. Rhyme also makes peculiar flow. Throughout the first stanza, lyric shows the beginning of rave as "Let's get on don't stop us now... These phrases are telling us the beginning of the dance party. As Aaron G is saying "Ain't 2 many that can flow like this" and "Check the moves you know they can't be dissed" his way of singing is too fast. Poet shows that there are no any rappers besides Aaron G who can flow like him or let the people make exciting. Phrases before the main part are most important in the first stanza because it is a part where the sound and singing get most excited. You can hear some scratch sounds between the end of the first stanza and the main part. This is the sign of beginning of main part of the song. The way Aaron G sings out also be aggressive and becomes faster at this point, and then it flows into the main part.

In main part of the poem the word DDR is repeated. It is the name of a game. This song is made for this game. Therefore this belongs to the genre of game music. This is quite famous and popular for some maniac people, I think. This stanza drew out the central theme of this song. Through out the song, lyric is appealing for dance. This stanza directly tells us to dance, as "Jump jump jump", "Yo everybody feel the beat", and "Everybody dance let's get down". The poet asks listeners to rave.

In the second stanza there is also particular rhyme patterns as in the first stanza. "Now", "out" and "around", "soul" and "go", and "down" and "sound. Actually, these don't rhyme at all, but when Aaron G sings rapidly in his way, you can hear it as a rhyme even it's not. The producer uses those rhyme patterns to give a rapid flow. There is a word year 2G's in beginning of the second stanza. Year 2G's probably could meant to be year 2000, but I'm not sure. NAOKI wants to bring a strong, deep impact of rave music for year 2 thousands. Last message he sung out is "Wanna see your move we you hear that sound". Aaron G wants to see listeners dancing with him.

It is considered that the main theme of this song was to enjoy the game. In this game, DDR, is a dance game. You have to step four panels as the sequences appear on the screen. And if you can step following the direction, you can make it and choose other songs. NAOKI is making enormous numbers of songs. Even I don't know how many songs he made. However, they aren't only speed rave or euro beats. He composes a ballad, summer song, ethnic song, love song, trance, hardcore, happy hardcore, techno, and sometimes even an orchestral. This song proved that he is a best dance music producer.


Wow, I hope your brain didn't break after reading that. And, as crazy as this was, at least it will never be as crazy as this guy (who follows people around Yokohama and watches them play games while singing and/or mirroring the player behind them):


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