The music entertainment scene has been kind of boring form me in Nigeria because Wizkid has been killing it and Drake has been murdering it. But let us give a second and compare or rather talk about the two songs released some time back by two DJ/music producers who know how to make the dance floor rock. I am talking about one Kiss and No brainer. I am not a big fan of DJs claiming to be artist because they don’t sing which makes me wonder why claim it but I love the songs they release though. Dua lipa brought the dance hall pop beat made by Calvin to life with some real English vocals. She makes me miss Adele because people in the Uk know how to make sounds like this. The song in my opinion will do well for high school DJ because it has this Techno Rock and roll feel to it even though it is related to RnB. It is not a bad song, topping the charts in UK is something real achievements for Calvin and Dua lipa.
DJ Khaled on the other hand knows what they call promotion. I am not surprised he got the only short African America man in Hollywood to voice Ashad in an ad for the song no brainer. This song appeals more to the street because it is HipHop and the trio of Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Quavo did some real justice to the beat. Khaled tried his best to recreate the feel we had when he released his album last year with this three guys working the mic on “I’m the one” and he got it right. The problem is I can’t be comparing this songs based on the lyrical content or arrangements of vocal because the song owners don’t sing. What I am going to do is compare them using beat for beat.
THE BEAT
The first thing I heard in the song “no brainer” is the baseline and the kick which for me makes anyone any day to want to dance. The time they took in the creation of a suiting baseline was time well spent. On the part of Calvin he opted for a resonance approach taking the volume from zero to hundred before releasing the kick. For me this is a song which DJ will only use to wake up a sleeping dance floor but can’t be the song to begin a spin with. No brainer can be played in any mood because the intro is the dance part. Calvin keeps all his listeners in suspense with his resonance approach. From experiences I have had going to bars and dance floors, I can tell that everyone will prefers to get into the dancing immediately.
Another evident thing in the songs is the interlude that Calvin made into the beat arrangement. This makes songs boring. I know he likes showcasing his gifted skills in production but dancing songs needs no brake. There are too many interlude, long length bridges in his songs that it bores someone. In Khalid’s song the only time a beat went without a vocal is the four bars which was the intro before Justin came in on the chorus. Vocal have a way of not making people get tired of the music you playing. Every song is Jazz when you play only instrumentals and Jazz music is boring for people who only know Hiphop and RnB. Calvin’s song sound boring with time than Khalid’s song because of the excessive interludes and vocal brakes in his songs.
I know many people might have different opinions about the songs but I believe where Calvin Harris lost this battle of songs is his arrangements. He made the song lengthy with his showcase of production dept. I believe exacting your authority in a song is good but remembering that vocals are what makes beats songs is the golden rule in music production. He made the repetitions of lyrics like in the chorus too evident with the way he put in those interlude. Like I said, it will be a blazing song for high school prom parties but not for guys in the street who want to boogie to some real sound.
