Secondhand Setlists

Last month, a friend invited me to a songwriters panel featuring a few heavy-hitters of today (and regarding two of them, for some time now): Dan Nigro, Blake Slatkin, Theron Thomas, and Amy Allen. We arrived early on account of my broken heel, and our preparation paid off in the form of front row seats, literally 20 feet from stardom all crammed into a 200-person theater. To think I’ve been listening to Thomas’s and Nigro’s work since high school, while Slatkin and Allen in a few years have already bonafide hits to their resumes. In total, these songwriters’ recorded catalogs consist of hundreds of songs.

Those songs make up a tiny fraction of their total creative output. A common agreement shared among the panel was the sheer number of songs they create that the world never sees. Between those official recordings are the trenches, the unseen territory each songwriter much explore in order to bring forth a tune. You could say with each lightbulb moment like “Man Down” or “Good Luck Babe” a songwriter also learns 9,999 ways not to keep the lights on. Allen in particular referred to what she called her “low-batting average” when it comes to hit-making, quite the statement to make with multiple top 10 hits as well as writing credits on two Album of the Year-nominated records. My mind began to bug when I thought about all we don’t hear from an artist, about how many songs, finished or unfinished, Allen has left to hard drives, dusty notebooks, or the mere memory of a songwriting session. It demonstrates how most of the artistic process never reveals itself to the general public, who instead hear the finely tuned fruits of that labor.

Spending over half a day with Kumi Koda’s videography makes it hard to believe she’s ever kept any song, or anything at all really, from the public. Between 2015 and 2019, Koda released 27 more music videos to her 120+ existing reel. Just looking at studio albums, she released 73 songs in that same period. Those 73 songs don’t even take into account the three remix albums, two compilations, and eight live albums. Taking Allen’s batting average analogy into account, it’s hard to fathom that this as just a fraction of her total output. Honestly the lack of discernment with Koda’s releases up to this point makes my dramatic, conspiratorial self believe we might actually see everything: the good, the bad, and the unlistenable.

This project becomes a little more interesting with Kumi Koda if you imagine her creative process as open to the public. To hammer a tired point home – there are over half-a-day’s worth of her music videos, and there are even more visuals to enjoy with the dance versions, concert performances, etc. It’s exhausting and exciting in the way I, a proponent of gay guy video night, can truly appreciate. Who has the time for all of this, yet why should we stop her? In her way, Koda lets us in on the artistic process, intentionally or not (probably not), in a way other artists don’t. To put a positive spin on it, Koda’s kitchen-sink approach has led to an artistic run of hits and misses, whereas most artists do their best to obfuscate the latter. Remember, when asked about which of her looks were her favorite, her answer was “They’re all my favorite at the time.” Which means at one point she genuinely liked how those purple braids looked in “Haircut.”

That said, I’m being generous with my line of thinking. Koda put out 27 music videos in five years not to let us in but to let herself stay in the public eye. She felt she must do so in order to remain relevant, which can be a genuine concern when much of your career involves chasing trends, relentless output, and a deep feeling of debt towards your audience.

That last aspect, an obligation towards fans, is something Koda mentions in many interviews. While it’s normal an artist cares about how they please or are perceived by their fans, she seems to care quite a bit. Naturally, if you desire to as big as Kumi Koda, you must pay some level of attention to your fandom, and she never hid her desire to be huge. In one chat, she revealed three different times where she considered retiring, the first of which happened during the five years of her career . Despite being signed to a huge label and making music with other superstars, she lamented at the size of her audiences: “I didn’t think that I wanted to sing even if nobody buys my music, rather I wanted to give courage to people, so since I wanted to see this world, I do not need to sing if I can not see it.” Oof, quite a statement to make, with pros and cons to be weighed.

For one, it’s a shame Koda felt her career amounted to nothing without commercial success. Some of those early singles are highlights of her catalog in my opinion, and her dismissing them as failures because they never cracked the Oricon Top 10 is a shame. Furthermore, choosing to be an artist solely for the purpose of capitalist success defies the notion of artistry itself, that is expression for the sake of it, not success.

On the flip side, I can see where Koda is coming from for two reasons. First, she clearly loves performing and reaching as many people as possible. She looks elated when on stage, and if you want to perform for thousands, you need to appeal to thousands. Every interview she does with a big smile and an evident love of the game, and I think a large portion of her pleasure derives from viewing charts and sales not just as data but as fungible connections with listeners. Wanting your music to resonate with more people is very human, and Koda’s never shied away from wanting to be embraced. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, her focus on her fandom and their opinions can be seen as a form of survival. I need not explain that women in music already have it tough, and in Japan it can be especially rough. As mentioned briefly in part 2 of this series, Koda saw her ascent derailed over an ignorant comment. It stands to reason she might worry about her public persona even a decade later into her career.

Unfortunately, this obligation towards the fans feels like it keeps Koda held back from doing something more interesting. By this stage in her videography, she’s running out of ideas. The old motifs of shattered glass, butterflies, and fur vests pop up here like old friends, and we get a few new plot devices like birds in this era. Koda also appeared content to fall back on tried-and-true visuals from her past as well as those of others. Below I see videos that seem to directly pull from some of the most famous vids of this time (“That’s What I Like,” “Cellophane”) while also drawing from K-Pop phenoms like Hyuna and CL. The results are very few videos worth remembering. To be honest, it was hard to assemble a top 10 from this list as there were just so few I cared about. But, I set out to do this series the same way Koda approaches her career, which involves putting your whole pussy into it. So without further ado…

127. “Like It”

• That bike rider has a tent over her head?
• This might be our first “athleisure” look we’ve gotten from her. The suggestion that she works out in heels is very Mariah
• I really want to believe she did that aerial
• 1:45 A bit unexpected to have her not centered but off to the side and in a more muted color. She still manages to surprise me 7 hours into this viewing
• “The way he zoom zoom in on it“
• A very meta ending

128. “WALK OF MY LIFE” (YKBX)

• Another vaguely European apartment
• Is she in Boston..? LMAO, never mind, it’s Brooklyn
• This beat with this wistful piano, I enjoyed that. This chorus lumbers though, where it needs to gallop
• Need to know who these women in the black face masks are. It looks like they just rolled up a pillowcase and put it over their heads
• I can’t believe they just have visuals of her floating over the city from a distance, that is hilarious! Before you can register its her the scene changes
• The floating outfit is cute, again very Mariah
• I am finally free… from gravity
• Bold to call it “Walk of My Life” when you spend the video flying. Again, she keeps guessing as viewers

129. “Hurricane”

• If you’re gonna blow them away, Kumi, they how is their love the hurricane?
• They look like they’ve taken over the lab portion of a high school science classroom
• The “hurricane” choreo where she puts her hands out to the sides and rolls her shoulders forward is comically done in a way that feels nearly pantomimed
• Long-haired backup dancer is serving face, gotta respect it. The other one is just making me think of what Miley Cyrus looked like at this time
• What did this have to do with the song?

130. “Ex Tape” (YKBX)

• She looked like she was recording some type of tape in the last video. Is that what’s playing in this one?
• I think these are the same backup dancers from the last video too
• Another chess match, but lower stakes than “Escalate”
• 2:00 Kumi Koda: “Actually I hate lemons.” But this girl does love a kitchen
• That deep army green lip just resurfaced here again. These parallels feel like fever dreams because they’re barely there but also barely acknowledged

131. “Lippy“

• This purple lip is sharp and fun
• The mostly deadpan delivery works for this visual
• “Lippy like a rude girl“
• This is part dnb, early ’00s R&B, and 2010s EDM

132. “NO ME WITHOUT YOU”

• Gaggy opening shot. A bit witchy, all black with the wide-brimmed hat.
• This little girl?
• I don’t remember this beauty mark on her neck being so easy to notice
• Oh the little breath effects in the “cold” weather – that’s cinema!
• I think the little girl is her inner child and this child is here to free her somehow. This is something JLo would use almost a decade later, a bit inspiring to know they operate on similar frequencies
• Did we ever learn what the bird was? Was it a crow?

133. “On and On”

• These first few outfits are giving tradwife
• Sleeveless vest alert
• She’s such an asshole standing in the middle of the walkway with her phone. People need to get to work, ma’am!
• 1:40 I’m convinced that shopfront on the far right is in Perfume’s “Love Me Naturally” video
• The split camera between the director’s camera and her iPhone. She is Sean Baker, pioneering new things with new tools
• Broken glass alert!
• Her Insta feed being just her own posts >>>>> That is very Scorpio of her

134. “W Face”

• “Yes bitch, yes bitch, yes bitch, slay”
• Very Season 3 of Sabrina the Teenage Witch opening sequence
• She’s going Aeon Flux
• Butterfly motif!
• She’s underwater, she’s in a bubble, there’s pyramid floating over a city, she’s befriending butterflies – what isn’t she doing here?
• The splash that came from the pyramid tells me that the ocean is somehow in the pyramid… I think…
• That face card still goes through a decade-and-a-half later

135. “Promise You”

• I love a good lights, mirrors, and glam situation. Think “SOS” by Rihanna or “Thicc” by Shygirl.
• 0:37 she sounded exactly like the bridge in After School’s “Shampoo,” I had to pause and sing it to myself to place it and did so instantly
• This look, with the updo, covered sleeves, and modest bosom, is very matronly. Let your hair down, mama
• I like that she goes up rather than down melodically when she goes from “my” to “heart” in the chorus. Keeps you juiced into the next verse
• 4:15 What are you pretending to hold there, girlie?
• This whole video literally was just that mirror stage. Which you can totally do, but then the song should be a bit livelier as a distraction

136. “Wicked Girls”

• “Little cut” sounded like something else…
• Chromatic moment
• I like this hot wench crossed with a Siberian trapper hat outfit
• This is a stellar beat and fun song. That coupled with a simple green screen and a few dancers, and we have a real moment

137. “Ultraviolet” (Xiao Zhang Taiyang)

• Reminds me of Dawn Richard’s “Titans”
• This hair… someone lied to her several times
• Oh surprise thermal-vision switch-up!
• This song improves exponentially during the last third, but only for about one third of that third. Then it nosedives again

138. “Bassline”

• She’s really been feeling a wide-brimmed hat recently
• Something about these lyrics reminds me of what another kooky pop star also said once: “I know what I don’t know“
• I appreciate the little fakeout in the second chorus, introducing an unexpected buildup
• She’s rapping like BLACKPINK<<<<<<

139. “Insane”

• If she takes off the little red scarf, her head falls off. It’s canon
• Black, white, and red – Sin City strikes again
• “Drink on the rug, party like a thug” whatever you say, madame
• 2:33 Cringing at this
• Avril Lavigne made music like this like three years prior

140. “BRIDGET SONG” (Taiyang)

• White top, skinny jeans, unshowy hair – she’s ready to take her Covergirl ‘real beauty’ ad.
• From 2:05 for like a second or two, she glances away from the camera and looks more detached than I’ve ever seen her in a video maybe ever. I suppose it makes sense for this video because nothing whatsoever happens.
• Do we believe she can whistle?

141. “LIT” (Shuhei Shibue)

• Woah this hair – this Zara looking suit doesn’t help either
• Why so bright and saturated, nothing has a defined shape in this video
• Still got her dance moves though, you could never take those away from her
• Everyone’s looking “Bad and bougie,” “snatched,” and of course, “LIT”
• *there’s a dance version of this video. Arguably a better watch, but then you get drawn to the strange transitions where the number of dancers goes from three to four without explanation.

142. “Hush”

• The song is a bit corny, but this “That’s What I Like” concept is effective with someone as animated as her. She gives you plenty of movements, emotions, and general material to work with; she’s an animator’s dream
• The extra bright color scheme also works. The magenta bob is bobbin’
• 2:09 the tires, that’s funny
• “BITCH!”????? And she just said “Hell yeah” for the first time one video earlier
• I slay in my Calvins

143. “Never Enough”

• This opening silhouette – sorry but that looked a bit JLo too. The black turtleneck and medium blonde hair just pair well with a nude lip. The whole outfit with the slacks is a bit more Diane Keaton.
• Second video in a row where she’s by her lonesome
• For a ballad that felt awfully short. Streaming syndrome already seeping into the big pop stars.

144. “PARTY” (MAIKO / Yuki Tsujimoto)

• Passing out your party fliers at TGI Friday’s. How the might have fallen
• Her face superimposed over the timelapsed visuals is somewhat unsettling
• 1:43 I, too, love, and would say I’m influenced, by Hyuna
• The pre-chorus rumbling during the buildup just gives the song needed motion. Then it loses it to become this unwieldy thing in the chorus
• 2:30 Imagine you’re at the club and all of a sudden a Sims cursor appears over your head that says “SINGLE.” That’s what would happen if we allowed Mark Zuckerberg to bring Metaverse to life
• Alright, by the last part of the song we get a great rise to a wonderful release, makes the rest of the song worth it

145. “Chances All”

• I was really hoping this wouldn’t be midtempo :/
• More blue butterflies
• “(Just get back up) when it knocks you down, knocks you down“
• The Kirkland bodysuit >>>>>. My friend would devour that given the chance
• Pics of you and pics of nature – yes this video is deep

146. “Watch Out!! DNA“

• She really loved neon for a minute
• “Kumi Koda, you’re an outfit repeater!”
• This beat is relentless, it doesn’t really need anyone, but she’s dynamic enough to ride it and make it look easy

147. “Haircut” (YKBX)

• So it picks up where “WATCH OUT!!” left off but for no reason at all
• 0:06 GA31 masked guards, into it. This haircut is sooooooo CL coded
• I need a plastic, bedazzled smock
• She’s had three different wigs within the first minute. See, when I was 18-years-old, I totally would have believed it if you told me that was all her real hair
• Butterfly motif again
• Wait, many these looks were in the “Never Enough” vid. She’s big enough that she’s dropping references from video to video. Or she has no budget anymore. Both could be true
• 2:14 Wig reveal!
• Some of these are her worst outfits ever
• *rewatched this very high with the sound off while listening to Gagarin, it was way more enjoyable that I would have expected

148. “GOLDFINGER 2019 (Sudo)

• Great entrance, when did this come out in relation to “Cellophane?” *after, of course
• She saw the “Hold Up” video and was inspired by the color yellow.
• Idk what Versace “looks like” but that dress is what I imagine it to be, and she looks fire in it
• The fake car-riding in the club
• Random dance break
• A choice to sing “Dancing in the sun” while dancing underneath the sprinkler system in your video. That said, she looks wonderful under the rain
• The one neon sign saying “But,” we love a throwback

149. “Livin’ La Vida Loca”

• Amazed that they mirrored the video from the last one – that’s one way to differentiate
• I didn’t notice it before, but the DnB elements really work for this cover
• I couldn’t do that dance break again

150. “Strip“

• The big kimono number is a callback to her opulent fits from years prior – things are much more casual now
• “Boom Boom Pow” reference (the song, not the video
• 1:00 The little, multicolored square that she’s in is giving Impossible Princess
• That bird from the other video is back
• Did you hear her? She’s gonna “bounce on it“
• This ending might be the first full nude shot of her that isn’t shadowy, obscured in some way

151. “Get Naked“

• The web of multicolored cords – reminds me of another video from that year, “Cyber Sex”
• She’s singing about Black Cherry, one of her albums from 11, 12 years prior
• This little scene with her lightsaber is well styled – her clothes are cute, the saber is the right color, she looks good whenever the camera’s on her

152. “Again” (Seki)

• 5 minutes, we’re getting a ballad
• Sleeveless fur vest and little knit hat – the Kumi of old is back
• Those little teardrop terrariums are back too
• Shoutout to the Yokohama skyline – iconic skyline

153. “k,” (Seki)

• The “love” suspenders – parachute aparatus?
• k.

154. “Shutout“

• She’s back in that little cube again from “Strip”
• Look out, she’s got a gun
• The gun, the hat, the brocade jacket – it’s giving scalawag
• Butterfly motif spotted. Monarch this time though
• 2:46 And then something glass shatters – she’s checking all the boxes in terms of recurring themes
• And those birds are back again

In Conclusion

Really just fine, right? Suffice to say, nothing in this grouping felt special or unique, though certain moments reminded us of the J-pop icon who gave us “Color of Soul” and “Pop Diva.” At this point, the most interesting thing about Koda is the relentlessness, which again brings me back to Amy Allen’s analogy about batting averages. In the age of Facetuning and a prohibition on flopping, Koda always keeps us fed. Sure the food tastes derivative and sometime downright nasty, but she keeps things rolling in ways that would probably kill Sky Ferreira, SZA, or Frank Ocean.

My 10 Favorites

1. “Lippy” (reminds me of “Tender Green Life” by Dumblonde, another colorful, simple, and effective video)
2. “Wicked Girls” (the song is good, which is rare enough at this with Koda, so it gets a spot here. Also further proof Koda excels in front of a green screen)
3. “Haircut” (the song is fine and there is that questionable braid moment, but the video presents a clever, cost-effective way of visualizing the song)
4. “Hush” (proof that the primary reason Kumi Koda can get away with so many videos is that she herself is a stellar subject for the camera)
5. “Again” (the water droplet decor, the furry vest in the snow – a return to her roots)
6. “W Face” (couldn’t tell you what’s happening here, but I have to respect it for at least trying something different. Once again, nothing in this bunch was especially good)
7. “Goldfinger” / “Livin’ La Vida Loca” (so nice she had to do it twice… it was actually nice to see a video with a budget, and I guess the dance break does show us that she’s still delivering on dancing nearly 20 years in)
8. “Bassline” (shot pretty well for a video with no budget whatsoever. Like Grace Jones said of the “I’ve Seen That Face Before,” just give yourself some cool lighting and shadows and bam, you have drama)
9. “Bridget Song” (I have a new appreciation knowing the translation, which tells of finding joy in spit e of, and even within, our mistakes: Even if I think about things, It never goes well, So even full of failures, I’m sure that it’s my own way of life. It just feels like what I was getting at before, that Kumi Koda is as eager to share her losses with us as much as she’ll share her wins. And again, the 2:06 moment where she pulls away from the camera is just so out of character, once you see it it can’t be unseen)
10. “No Me Without You” (it looks pretty. I had to round it out to 10)