When the guitar is on screen, its sound drops out: 7 things you missed in D.O.'s 'Guitarist' music video

'Guitarist', the title track of D.O.'s 4th mini album 'DOPAMINE', released September 8, was still number 6 on the Bugs weekly chart for the last week of September, more than a month after release. The agency introduced it as an R&B and soul song in which the guitar goes beyond being an instrument and becomes the narrator, speaking feelings for the singer. The lyrics were written by PENOMECO and others, who worked with D.O. again after 'Fit' and 'DUMB', and they're full of words guitar players use among themselves. Rewatching the music video, we marked where those words come in, in both the sound and the picture. Times follow the official music video (2:43).

0:01 · An empty hangar and a guitar leaning on a chair

The music video opens in a wide hangar lit only by ceiling lights. At 0:01, on one side of the empty floor, there's a single chair with an acoustic guitar leaning on it. The voice comes first, with 'Melody on your lips' the moment the picture opens, and D.O. only walks in from the right at 0:09. At 0:13 D.O. picks up the guitar and sits down on the chair at 0:14. The song's title character is on screen before the singer.

0:11 · 'riff' and 'Sweep'

At the end of the first line come 'We make another riff' at 0:11 and '천천히 Sweep' ("slowly, sweep") at 0:13. A riff is a short guitar phrase repeated through a song, and a sweep is a technique of brushing across several strings in one stroke. Right after, the title 'Guitarist' arrives at 0:16; at 0:17 the drums stop completely for a second, then come in properly at 0:18. At that point the picture moves inside a red-lit car, and the part where the guitar line is hummed out loud, 'Da-ra-da da-da ra-da-ra', begins.

0:27 · When the guitar is on screen, the guitar drops out of the sound

For 7 seconds, from 0:27 to 0:34, the instruments other than drums, bass and voice, meaning the guitar and keys, almost disappear from the track. They're 25 to 30dB quieter than before and after. Decibels (dB) measure loudness, and a 10dB difference sounds roughly twice as loud to the ear, so they're effectively switched off. The lyric in between is '귓가에 조금씩 들려오는 순간, 이 공기는 Bittersweet' ("the moment it reaches my ears little by little, this air is bittersweet"). Yet at 0:31 the picture shows D.O. playing an acoustic guitar. The first time we see the guitar being played, its sound is missing. The guitar returns at 0:34 with '난 노코멘트' ("no comment from me").

0:40 · 'We gon' pick the note'

After '손에 감긴 채로' ("wrapped around my hand") at 0:37 comes 'We gon' pick the note' at 0:40. A pick is the small plate you pluck strings with, and "pick" also means choosing a single note to pluck. At 0:42, on 'Ring around, ring around, I'll play all these lines', the picture goes back to the hangar, where dancers climb on and around a gray SUV and dance together.

1:09 · On a car roof in the middle of a field

Around the second chorus, the scene heads out onto an open road through the fields. At 1:09 D.O. stands on the roof of a gray SUV, and at 1:12 spreads both arms wide up there. As the second chorus goes on, the camera moves between the driver's seat and the roof.

1:34 · A bridge that stops four times, every 2 seconds

In the bridge, guitar terms pile up within 12 seconds: 'No howling' at 1:33, '가끔씩' ("sometimes") at 1:36, '서로를 Bending' ("bending each other") at 1:37, 'But harmonic' at 1:39, '소리 나 Wah Wah' ("it sounds, wah wah") at 1:41 and '볼 때마다 내게 딱 맞는 코드' ("a chord that fits me every time I see you") at 1:43. Howling is the "eee" squeal when a speaker's sound feeds back into a microphone or guitar; bending is pushing a string up to raise a note slightly; a harmonic is the clear, bell-like note you get by lightly touching a string as you pluck it; and wah-wah is an effect where a foot pedal makes a "wow" sound. In this stretch, at 1:34, 1:36, 1:38 and 1:40, every 2 seconds, the bass and guitar stop dead four times for a little over 0.7 seconds each, leaving only the voice. The backing drops right after the words about going without howling. The picture also switches at 1:34 to a road sign with an arrow splitting in two.

2:06 · A pink stage in a night field, and 'We tune all day'

At 2:06, a stage appears in a pitch-dark field at night, set with pink curtains, standing lamps and chairs, and two people dance on it. At 2:18, the two stand on a car roof at dusk. Near the end, 'I'll pick you up' comes at 2:21 and 2:31, and here too "pick" overlaps the guitar pick and the sense of coming to get someone. In between, at 2:26, comes '말 한 줄까지 We tune all day' ("down to every line we say, we tune all day"), about tuning to each other all day the way you tune strings. The sound cuts off at 2:40, and the car drives off down a night road. Apple Music

The song also appeared in our October 4 list as one where the singing starts the moment the track begins.